How Fast Can You Run? Run as Fast as You Can

Ivanov's eyelid twitched violently.

W-what was going on here? Who was surrounding whom? Who was the prey?

Were they demons?!

"General! General! We have to retreat!"

The driver's tearful shout pulled Ivanov back from his shock.

"If we don't leave now, we'll all die here!"

Ivanov gave a bitter smile.

Retreat?

Where to?

He watched the icons representing their tanks go dark one by one on the holographic battlefield map.

The tide had turned.

"Orders to all units."

His voice was frighteningly calm.

"Abandon all unnecessary supplies. Run as fast as you can, and return home."

"Tell the survivors to go back and tell those fools at General Headquarters..."

Ivanov clenched his fists until they crackled, every word dripping with blood.

"Never, ever provoke China again!"

"Especially... the Feng Army in the northeast!"

After speaking, he slowly drew his sidearm from his waist and pressed the cold muzzle to his temple.

As an imperial soldier, he could not be taken prisoner.

Just as his command tank had dodged a fatal blow, Zhang Xueming's roar came over the Feng Army's command channel.

"Damn it! You think you can run?"

Zhang Xueming glared at the White Bear Army command tank, its cannon broken but still backing away in a panic, and his anger shot straight to his head.

"Load a High-Explosive Armor-Piercing Round!"

"That one?" The gunner hesitated. "Brigade Commander, those are precious..."

"Precious my ass! I want to send him sky-high, tank and all!" Zhang Xueming smacked the gunner's helmet. "Aim carefully and fire! If you miss, you're getting out to push my tank!"

"Yes, sir!"

The gunner jolted, then immediately loaded the round, took aim, and locked on!

"Fire!"

Whoosh!

A Saboted Fin-Stabilized Armor-Piercing Round, trailing a long fiery tail, tore through the air and struck the White Bear Army command tank as it was turning.

There was no violent explosion.

Only a dull boom.

The next second, the tank, weighing more than ten tons, was flipped upside down by an irresistible force. Its turret went flying, tumbling through the air several times before slamming heavily into the ground.

The sight shattered the morale of every White Bear Army armored soldier still resisting.

"Run!"

The remaining White Bear Army tanks no longer cared about their formation. They turned around and fled desperately, abandoning the ammunition and supplies inside—anything to get away faster.

The battlefield was littered with abandoned equipment and White Bear Army soldiers fleeing for their lives.

"You think you can run? Not without asking me!"

Zhang Xueming picked up the radio, his voice icy.

"Ma Xiufeng!"

"Here, Brigade Commander!"

"Leave ten tanks behind to clear the battlefield and guard the prisoners!"

"Every other tank, chase them down!"

A terrifying glint flashed in Zhang Xueming's eyes.

"Tell the men not to spare a drop of fuel! Chase them! Even if you have to follow them all the way to that damned Winter Palace, keep after them!"

"Don't stop until you're out of fuel!"

"Yes, Brigade Commander!" Ma Xiufeng's voice brimmed with excitement. "Mission guaranteed!"

Soon, dozens of Feng Army tanks formed an iron pursuit column. Their engines roared as they kicked up clouds of dust and rolled after the fleeing White Bear Army.

Seventy kilometers.

Eighty kilometers.

The Feng Army tanks chased the White Bear Army until they were wailing for their mothers, with nowhere to flee in heaven or earth.

The Feng Army soldiers had been simmering with anger for a long time.

The horrors reported from Wulan City, the Imperial Capital's people waiting eagerly for them—old and new grudges mingled until only one thought remained.

Kill!

Kill every last one of those beasts!

Leave none alive!

Just as the Feng Army tanks launched their frenzied pursuit, the White Bear Army infantry commander, far away beneath Kulun City, received word that the Armored Legion had been wiped out.

He sat motionless in the command post for a long time.

He knew it was over.

Their armored spearhead, the pillar holding everything up, had been smashed to pieces. The infantry at his disposal could never hold this fragile line on their own.

"Order..."

He struggled to speak, his throat dry as a desert.

"The whole army... withdraw from Kulun."

"Retreat... retreat toward Xingxing Gorge."

Xingxing Gorge.

The narrow canyon had become Hell on Earth.

The fleeing White Bear Army soldiers poured in like headless flies, knowing only that the map marked it as their sole path to survival.

But this path to survival was more terrifying than hell.

People pressed against people, shoving one another.

Panic spread like a plague, and the instinct to survive crushed everything else.

Those in front were knocked down, and those behind trampled over their comrades without hesitation.

"Stop pushing! My leg!"

"Help! Somebody, help me!"

Their shrill screams were drowned out by the footsteps and gasps of the crowd.

Before they had even seen a Feng Army soldier, more than a hundred of them had been trampled to death by their own men.

When they finally reached the canyon's far exit, they discovered in despair that it was blocked by a permanent defensive fortification built of concrete and sandbags.

Light and Heavy Machine Guns were mounted behind the dark firing slits.

"Open fire!"

Dai Xiansheng personally gripped a Heavy Machine Gun, his shirtless, muscular arms trembling under its recoil.