Lord

At the words "Night Owl Squad," Gao Zhan's heart tightened.

He knew Zheng Yi was the squad's captain. If Zheng Yi deliberately caused trouble at a time like this, the consequences would be unthinkable.

"Everyone, pick up the pace and get out of the encirclement immediately!" Gao Zhan shouted over the All-Channel.

The Chasing Wind Squad opened fire with everything they had. Their dense barrage temporarily held back the Drill Bulls surging in from all sides.

But just then, alarms rang out one after another over the squad channel:

"Captain! My Mecha is out of energy!"

"I've got less than five percent left, too!"

"My energy warning light just came on!"

The prolonged, high-intensity fighting had left most of the Mechas nearly out of power. They urgently needed to return to the starship to refuel.

But the battlefield hadn't been cleared, so there was nowhere to establish a temporary landing site. The starship couldn't land and provide support.

Worse still, Zheng Yi's voice suddenly came over the All-Channel:

"Attention, all units of the 116th Legion. Our energy reserves are critically low. Withdraw from the battlefield immediately. I repeat, withdraw immediately!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Night Owl Squad turned around first and retreated without hesitation.

"That bastard!" Hong Kun cursed furiously.

Everyone knew that if the 116th Legion withdrew now, it would throw the remnants of the 115th Legion and the 121st Legion right back into an impossible situation. The two legions would likely be wiped out here.

"Zheng Yi! You're abandoning your comrades and fleeing in the middle of battle. I'll report you to the commander and make sure you're punished!" the captain of another squad from the 116th Legion rebuked him over the All-Channel.

Zheng Yi had originally belonged to the 113th Legion. He'd only joined the 116th Legion temporarily for Operation Spirit Slaughter with special authorization.

No one had expected him to do something like this.

"Go ahead and report me." Zheng Yi's voice was so calm it was almost cold. "Military Rules explicitly state that any unit whose Mecha is low on energy has the right to withdraw and preserve its lives."

"You..."

"Bastard..."

A chorus of furious curses immediately rang out over the channel.

Just then, Lu Feng, who had been fighting alongside the Chasing Wind Squad, suddenly felt a pang of alarm. A powerful sense of unease swept over him.

He immediately shouted over the All-Channel, "Scatter! Everyone, scatter now!"

"What's going on?" Gao Zhan turned to look at him as he directed the retreat.

"I sense... an incredibly powerful Exotic Beast about to emerge from underground!"

Before he could finish, the ground at the center of the battlefield began to shake violently.

Hundreds of Alloy Mechas swayed with the tremors, and dozens crashed to the ground after losing their balance.

Gao Zhan instantly realized how serious the situation was and shouted an order. "Everyone, scatter! Fall back immediately!"

But it was too late.

Dozens of Purple-eyed Earth-drilling Bulls, far larger than their kin, burst out of the ground. The one at their head stood over ten meters tall, rising from beneath the earth like a moving steel fortress.

Several nearby Mechas couldn't dodge in time and were swallowed by the collapsing ground.

"We're done for... It's an Exotic Beast leader and a Lord!"

A Military Region Warrior had barely shouted the warning over the channel when a Leader-Level Drill Bull slammed into him head-on.

The sturdy Alloy Mecha shattered like paper, exposing the pilot to the Alien Atmosphere.

He painfully clutched at his throat and struggled for a few seconds before falling silent.

The retreating Night Owl Squad looked back and saw what had happened. Every one of them was shaken to the core.

"Damn, good thing I got out fast." Zheng Yi smirked and glanced coldly at the distant Chasing Wind Squad.

With a Lord-Level Exotic Beast on the field, Gao Zhan and the others were doomed.

The All-Channel was immediately drowned out by desperate cries:

"We're finished! We're all going to die!"

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die..."

The Drill Bull Lord led dozens of leaders on a rampage through the Mecha ranks, while countless Tier 3 Drill Bulls surged in like a tide.

Suddenly, every Mecha received a chilling message—

"Damn you Aliens! You all deserve to die!"

Butler Luo Lin had translated the Drill Bull Lord's vocal frequencies into human language.

Lu Feng was horrified. This Exotic Beast had intelligence on par with humans!

Before the Expedition, he had absorbed the energy of many Tier 3 Exotic Beasts in the Beast Fighting Arena, but he had never encountered any of a higher tier.

He knew almost nothing about Leader-Level or Lord-Level Exotic Beasts.

At that moment, he had no time to ask Gao Zhan for details about High-Level Exotic Beasts.

As the Lord-Level Drill Bull led the Beast Tide into a charge, Lu Feng focused his gaze, fixing his eyes on the target.

In an instant, a vast surge of energy flooded into him, filling the Mark on his chest.

That familiar burning sensation returned, more than ten times stronger than before.

Lu Feng's muscles tensed inside the cockpit, his veins bulged, and sweat instantly covered his forehead. The pain was so intense he could barely control the Mecha.

His gaze also made the Drill Bull Lord pause for a moment.

It turned to look at a figure among the Mechas on the flank, a hint of suspicion flashing in its eyes.

"How can a Human Warrior possess an Ancient Aura?"

But the aura vanished in an instant, and it had no effect on the Drill Bull Lord.

"Roar—!"

It threw back its head and roared, opening its enormous, fang-filled maw.

The herd behind it grew even more frenzied at the sound.

Shamed by the Night Owl Squad's abandonment in the middle of battle, the 116th Legion was the first to charge forward, meeting the Beast Tide head-on.

But beneath the pounding hooves, the earth cracked apart inch by inch, and hundreds of Mechas were swallowed by the herd in the blink of an eye.

Even Gao Zhan, Fang Qing, Hong Kun, and the others froze at the sight, their hopes of survival all but gone.

"I can't... I can't hold on..."

Lu Feng gasped for breath inside the Mecha. He couldn't understand why merely looking at the Lord had brought him so close to fainting from the pain.

Perhaps his realm was too low.

The Exotic Beasts that Human Warriors called "Leader-Level" were actually Tier 4 Exotic Beasts, with strength equivalent to Innate Realm Warriors.

"Lord-Level" Exotic Beasts, by contrast, were Tier 5, on par with Martial Arts Grandmasters.

These High-Level Exotic Beasts contained an immense amount of energy, far beyond what a Meridian Condensing Realm Warrior like Lu Feng could withstand.

The tide of battle turned completely in an instant.

In just a few minutes, nearly the entire 116th Legion had been wiped out.

Then the shadow of destruction fell over the 115th Legion.

As the earth shook violently, endless waves of Purple-eyed Earth-drilling Bulls surged toward them.

Gao Zhan issued one final order over the All-Channel:

"Anyone with more than twenty percent energy left in their Mecha, activate flight mode and escape the battlefield. Save yourselves!"

Everyone knew that an Alloy Mecha could only activate flight mode if its energy reserves were at least twenty percent.

Yet after the order was given, only a dozen or so Mechas slowly rose into the air. Most of the Mechas could no longer take off.

Even more despairing, before the Mechas that had managed to lift off had reached twenty meters, countless Drill Bulls suddenly leapt into the air.

These Exotic Beasts could jump twenty or thirty meters with all their strength, easily knocking the airborne Mechas back to the ground.

Only one Mecha managed to climb to an altitude of fifty meters. Its pilot was secretly congratulating himself on escaping certain death.

Suddenly, the Lord-Level Drill Bull in the herd raised its head and spat out a violent blast of air. The impact, infused with terrifying energy, smashed the Mecha apart in midair.

Faced with this hopeless scene, the warriors of the 115th Legion had almost given up resisting.

But just then, five or six figures suddenly shot out of the Dawn, high above the battlefield.

Like falling stars, they streaked across the sky and appeared over the battlefield in an instant.