Humanoid Artillery Platform

Beyond the walls, Outpost 14 was in the midst of a fierce battle.

"Fuck! How many waves is this now? This is... never-ending..."

A blood-soaked brute braced himself at the outpost gate and spat.

Then he tossed aside the rifle in his hand, which had just clicked empty, and reached behind the nearby door for a massive battle-axe.

The moment it landed in his hands, his muscles tensed. It was clearly no lightweight.

"This thing's useless. Looks like I'll have to get out there and chop these damn things up myself."

Before him stood a vast horde of twisted, humanoid creatures that looked as if they had been skinned alive.

Sequence 340, [Slaughter] Path, Sprinters.

They were incredibly fast, but their defenses were paper-thin. Normally, ordinary firearms could take care of them.

The problem was that, for some reason, they were in a frenzy today, charging toward the outpost all at once.

Their numbers were overwhelming, and they were fast runners. They seemed endless, coming wave after wave.

After several rounds of attacks, the outpost's already meager ammunition had run dry. They had no choice but to resort to hand-to-hand combat.

"Has the backup still not arrived? It's been ages!"

Another team member looked toward the Base City, where there was nothing but the usual dense Mist.

All electronic devices malfunctioned in the Mist. The only way to transmit information was through Awakeners on the [Radiance] Path.

Their abilities varied, but their defining trait was the ability to pierce through the Mist. With enough training, they could master special methods of communication.

As the Base City's outermost warning outpost, it was usually manned by a five-person Awakened team and one low-tier [Radiance] Awakener.

But before this, their team's [Radiance] Awakener had been badly wounded by an unknown Calamity on the [Nightmare] Path. His mind had been injured, and he had fallen unconscious.

Before losing consciousness, he had still managed to force out a distress signal.

They could abandon the outpost. The Base City wasn't far, and they knew the direction. But without the protection of [Radiance], they were bound to lose their way in the Mist.

That was the most troublesome thing about the Mist. To this day, no one had figured out how it worked.

The brute roared, swung his battle-axe with both hands, and charged into the enemy ranks like a whirlwind.

The blade carved an arc through the air, cleaving several Sprinters in two. But more Sprinters pounced on him without fear of death, nearly burying him beneath them.

"Hyah!"

The brute gave a mighty shake, then swung his axe again, clearing a patch of open ground.

As a Second-tier Awakener with enhanced physical abilities, he wasn't about to be beaten so quickly by a horde of First Order Calamities.

His teammates, however, couldn't hold out.

"Captain Xiong! Right side! The right side's about to give!"

Xiong Yu turned around. The side wall couldn't withstand the crimson-sea assault. It had been smashed open, forcing the two team members there to retreat again and again.

He felt their defenses crumbling. He wanted to turn and help, but enemies surged in from the front, leaving him no chance to fall back.

A trace of despair rose in his heart. They couldn't hold the line...

Just as his thoughts began to falter, a muffled boom came from deep within the Mist.

"Boom!"

A roar split the air and came rushing closer, striking the open ground directly in front of the breach with pinpoint accuracy.

Before Xiong Yu could see what had happened, a wild, chaotic Wind Field swept up Orange-golden flame and erupted in the middle of the Calamity horde.

More than a dozen Sprinters, packed tightly together, had no time to react before the flames swallowed them and burned them to ash, leaving behind only a shocking swath of charred black.

"What is that... Some kind of new Incendiary Bullet?"

A team member stared blankly and murmured.

His teammate quickly caught on.

"Reinforcements are here!"

Xiong Yu was stunned for only a moment. If he hadn't been prepared, that blast just now would probably have left him gravely injured, if not dead.

He had no idea what kind of team could bring out heavy artillery, let alone a kind he'd never seen before. But there was no time to think about that now. As long as they were reinforcements, that was enough.

"Don't get distracted!"

He shoved down his feelings and bellowed:

"Reinforcements are here! Hold the line, damn it! Don't embarrass yourselves in front of our allies!"

In the Mist, a modified off-road vehicle glimmering with a faint golden light tore through the fog, speeding toward Outpost 14.

Jiang Mian leaned halfway out of the sunroof, the "cannon" in her hands trailing faint wisps of white smoke.

Clearly, that last shot had been her handiwork.

The result was just as she'd expected. The Fire Seed had come through, swallowing those dozen or so Sprinters in an instant.

But because their Sequence and level were too low, the feedback wasn't nearly as much as she'd imagined.

By her estimate, Calamities of such a low Sequence were worth about one normal Second-tier Calamity for every twenty of them. That still left her far short of her target of twenty-five.

"She really hit them?"

In the back seat, Qin Wu narrowed his eyes as he peered into the Mist ahead.

At first, he'd only half-believed Jiang Mian when she said she could hit wherever she aimed. He'd asked Gu An to call out a target, and Jiang Mian had fired with hardly any adjustment. Now it seemed...

"She hit them!" Gu An confirmed.

As his title suggested, Gu An's basic ability as an Explorer was to see through the Mist within a certain range.

Outpost 14 was already close. He could make out its general position, so he'd called out a target for Jiang Mian. It was some distance from the outpost wall, so as long as she wasn't too far off, she wouldn't hit any allies.

Of course, the real reason was that Jiang Mian could still use Flowing Wind to sense her target through the Mist.

Only then did Qin Wu relax at Gu An's reply.

He'd been worried that, with the vehicle jolting along and Jiang Mian seeing combat for the first time, she'd be likely to make a mistake.

It seemed his concern had been misplaced. The girl really was a good shot, and her nerves were far steadier than those of others her age.

He'd unconsciously dismissed Jiang Mian's glasses—or rather, her eyesight—as a concern.

Talent and a feel for guns were mysterious things to begin with. Besides, as her abilities grew stronger, problems like that would naturally disappear.

"Good! Li Huan, Gu An, get ready to dismount and engage the enemy head-on."

The outline of the outpost ahead was now clearly visible, and Qin Wu began issuing orders in a calm, orderly fashion.

"Got it!" they answered in unison.

"Su Wanning, take Jiang Mian and find a good position. Be ready to treat the wounded at any time. Once the battle's over, come meet up with us immediately."

"Understood."

At the wheel, Su Wanning nodded and quietly slowed down.

Jiang Mian ejected the scorching shell casing and loaded another Incendiary Bullet.

They were already so close that there was no need for her to keep pretending. She'd do whatever felt best.

Under Su Wanning's control, the vehicle swung into a neat drift and stopped behind a slightly elevated dirt mound.

Almost the instant it came to a halt, Li Huan shot out of the door like an arrow loosed from a bow.

Li Huan gave a low shout. An invisible Killing Intent swirled around him as he released the full force of his Second-tier aura.

He charged straight into a group of Sprinters. Blood-red patterns crawled across his long halberd, and with a light swing, he instantly dismembered several Sprinters nearby.

Gu An followed close behind, helping him clean up the stragglers.

At the top of the dirt mound, Jiang Mian raised her sniper rifle, took aim at the densest part of the Sprinter horde, and gently squeezed the trigger.