The Governor Will Make a Move

Pobov felt a chill run through his heart.

He understood all too well what the consequences would be if these monsters truly broke through the wall of fire and reached their front lines.

The Abscess Sprayer, which he had previously considered a major threat among the enemies, was actually nothing at all. The most terrifying ones were the common Abscess Monsters.

It was primarily due to their sheer, overwhelming numbers.

Once forced into close-quarters combat, the soldiers—despite being equipped with bayonets—would naturally be unable to continue firing. As more and more of these nearly endless monsters surged in, how could his men possibly overcome the enemy with mere bayonets?

Even if a single soldier could kill three or five Abscess Monsters in melee, it would be useless; the enemy would simply use their vast numbers to completely drown them.

In fact, there were already signs of this happening.

Twice as many Zombie Dogs as before had already breached the soldiers' lines as the intensity of the gunfire began to wane.

This was the first step toward the collapse of the entire defensive line.

Every Zombie Dog that broke through required the soldiers to deal with it at close range, and the moment they spent dealing with these dogs would further weaken their overall firepower. This would likely lead to even more dogs breaking through, causing the situation to spiral into a vicious cycle and collapse rapidly.

Pobov could see this trend unfolding.

But he felt somewhat helpless to stop it.

He had already shouted until his throat was raw, demanding that his soldiers hold their ground and maintain their rate of fire.

But it was difficult.

The warriors under his command were no cowards, but the pain, the gale-force winds, and the white mist were objective difficulties that could not be overcome simply by willpower.

The white mist, in particular, severely impaired the soldiers' vision. Even if they managed to stay at their combat posts, all they could do was fire blindly into the surrounding fog. Only when the enemies were within a much closer range could they see any vague silhouettes.

The drop in shooting accuracy caused the effectiveness of their fire net to plummet.

The only truly effective thing he could do at this moment was to ensure that the most critical fire support units kept attacking.

The mortar positions, unified under the command of the battalion headquarters, could not stop, and Pobov ordered the mortar crews to bring their impact points closer.

Previously, most shells were dropped at the edge of the forest as a first wave of attrition and interception. They hadn't dropped them too close for fear of friendly fire, and because the enemy's formation would thin out due to casualties during the charge, reducing the lethality of the artillery.

But now, that didn't matter anymore.

Additionally, the machine gunners stationed at various points were also struggling to stay at their posts. Their situation was slightly better; the makeshift positions constructed from wooden planks and sandbags offered some protection against the wind. Enduring the pain, the machine gunners lay on the ground, fingers locked onto the triggers, ignoring whether their barrels would overheat and be ruined, pouring bullets madly into the mist.

At the same time, the firepower of the four Strider V units never ceased.

It was precisely because these three vital sources of firepower—mortars, machine guns, and autocannons—had not been silenced that the defensive line still maintained a certain level of security.

If not for this, the line would have already crumbled.

However, Pobov knew that if he relied solely on his own command, this was the best he could achieve.

This fragile balance could only slow the process of the line's collapse; it could not return them to the state where they could completely deny all monsters from entering their firing range.

He looked up bitterly, spotting one large and two small Storm Eagles vaguely visible in the sky amidst the mist.

He knew that was the root of the problem.

But against those three things in the sky... Pobov truly had no way to deal with them.

He had already ordered all the marksmen in the company to fire at the sky, but the effect was minimal; he had even drawn his own sidearm to fire upward, but that was more like venting his frustration—it was useless.

He had tried his best, but what happened next seemed to symbolize that his efforts were about to be destroyed.

The current stability of the position was due to the continued existence of the mortar positions and machine gun nests, a fact that the Storm Apostles flying above could clearly see.

They didn't bother the Strider V units; their Storm Sorcery lacked the means to penetrate the armor and harm the pilots inside.

And as for damaging the infantry fighting vehicles themselves...

Better to forget about it.

By comparison, the machine gunners and mortar crews were easier to deal with.

From the sky, Wind Bullets descended.

A Wind Bullet the size of a carriage wheel tore through the white mist from mid-air, plummeted down, and landed on a machine gun position, exploding with a roar.

It was like an artillery shell; the suddenly erupting wind pressure sent men flying, while the high-pressure wind blades, sharp as jagged shrapnel, shredded human bodies into a thousand holes.

The machine gunner and the two soldiers beside him, blown away by the Wind Bullet, were already lifeless when they hit the ground.

With one machine gun position wiped out, the impact was significant. In the area it had previously covered, several Zombie Dogs immediately surged in, followed by the Abscess Monsters behind them.

The pressure increased sharply.

Seeing two more Wind Bullets descending from the sky, Pobov was frantic.

He subconsciously moved toward the impact point of the Wind Bullets, attempting to block them with his own body.

But at that very moment, a familiar voice echoed in his mind: "Do not panic, lead your troops with your heart."

"Governor?!"

Pobov recognized the voice and looked left and right, but saw nothing.

Only then did he realize, belatedly, that the voice had sounded directly inside his mind.

He suddenly understood, recalling the battle by the river valley and those people who had died in such peculiar ways.

The Governor possesses a miraculous power known as psionic energy; he is by no means someone without the strength to truss a chicken.

If it is the Governor, then there will surely be no problem!

That was the deep-seated trust Pobov held for the Governor in his heart.

Gu Hang certainly did not disappoint him.

Those two Wind Bullets, which were about to land and made him wish he could use his own body to block them, suddenly dissipated in mid-air.

Immediately following that, the three Storm Giant Eagles flying in the sky also vanished.

Three figures plummeted from the air.

In an instant, the situation had undergone a massive change.

All of this, of course, stemmed from Gu Hang's intervention.

At this moment, he had already stepped down from the Strider.

Releasing spells by projecting psionic energy through the armor of the Strider would result in a certain amount of attenuation. To ensure success, he had left the vehicle and stepped outside.

Psionic Severance is truly a useful spell.

Gu Hang did not use this spell directly on the three cultists. The soul strength of those three fellows was quite high, as seen clearly through his Psionic Vision. If he went all out, he might not necessarily be able to sever their heads or kill their souls.

The target Gu Hang chose was the psionic connection they used to control the Storm Eagles.

Destroying the dark flight magic, causing the three to fall, and then annihilating them physically was a more convenient method.

Beside him, 11 soldiers from the Marine Assault Team dashed out, each targeting one of the three falling figures.

These assault team members raised their rifles and fired while sprinting at high speed, yet their accuracy was absurdly high; the metal spikes accurately found their targets as they free-fell through the air.

This was a level far beyond that of their peers.

And the reason these 11 special operations soldiers could perform at such a high level was that they had already transcended the level of T4 soldiers and reached the T3 rank.