Newcomer's First Battle

Outside the town.

Inside the military camp, Colonel Yuri walked up to the warning line.

As a veteran who had fought in multiple overseas wars, Colonel Yuri was rich in both experience and hardship.

He had fought in street battles and guerrilla warfare, facing many ruthless opponents.

But now, watching the two thousand-plus residents of the town—men, women, old, and young—charge out like madmen, the immense pressure nearly suffocated him.

He picked up the microphone and began to broadcast: "This is Colonel Yuri of The Boys. Residents of Silver Tree Town, I order you to stop."

"The military is here to help you."

"Please, stop."

Yet the frenzied residents showed no sign of halting.

Their skin was as dark as any black man's, but their eyes glowed red. Bald and hairless, they charged forward with a savage demeanor.

Colonel Yuri had no choice but to order: "Fire tear gas."

Immediately, the soldiers in the front line hurled tear gas canisters into the town, and smoke soon rose within it.

Colonel Yuri hoped this would disperse the crowd, but he found the residents completely ignoring the gas, bursting out of the smoke one after another.

They howled and roared like mad beasts.

Colonel Yuri shouted: "Fire! Non-lethal mode!"

The front line of soldiers released their rifles' safeties, aimed low, and shot at the residents' legs.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunfire rang out in succession. The mutated residents at the front took hits to their legs and, knocked off balance, fell to the ground in droves.

But those behind had no intention of stopping. They trampled over their companions' bodies, charging forward without a care.

The gunfire became a continuous roar. Within less than five hundred meters, a large number of the town's residents lay on the ground.

It seemed the situation might be under control, and Colonel Yuri breathed a sigh of relief.

But then, he saw those fallen, trampled residents rising again.

The muscles in their legs writhed, and the bullets were squeezed out of their wounds, clattering to the ground. The wounds closed instantly.

In moments, these residents were as good as new, howling and sprinting once more.

"How is this possible?" Colonel Yuri stared in bewilderment.

Behind the warning line, the soldiers' faces turned pale. At last, fear overwhelmed reason, and someone ignored orders, raising his rifle to fire at a resident's chest.

A mutated resident's chest burst with a spray of blood, but he only staggered before resuming his charge.

Colonel Yuri's eyes went wide. He hadn't expected a chest shot to be less effective than a leg shot.

What kind of monsters were these?!

"We're going in."

Princess Frost, seeing the military powerless to stop these mutated residents, conjured a path of ice beneath her feet and glided toward the warning line.

Her short skirt fluttered, revealing her peach-shaped rear. She thrust both hands forward.

A gust of freezing wind howled forth.

The residents at the front were covered in frost, starting from their toes.

The frost spread up to their thighs, freezing their legs and halting their movement instantly.

Some were frozen in place, others were knocked down by their own kind behind them.

But soon, those with frozen legs began pounding frantically at their icy limbs, shattering both the frost and their legs!

The legless residents turned around and crawled stubbornly across the ground toward the warning line, their speed not much slower.

Seeing this, Princess Frost's scalp went numb. She raised her hands, and the moisture in the air rapidly froze.

A wall of ice appeared ahead, rising swiftly to block the residents' path.

Princess Frost let the white wall climb to a height of ten meters before stopping.

The mutated residents, as if unaware of the ice wall in their way, charged at full speed and slammed into it one after another.

They smashed their heads, broke their bones, and tore their flesh.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Listening to the successive impacts from behind the ice wall, even the soldiers—and the Supers like Starlight—had fear flickering in their eyes.

They had never seen such madness.

But soon, the town's residents stopped this near-suicidal behavior.

They halted, but then piled up, forming a human mound.

One dark figure after another climbed over the others, making the "mound" rise rapidly. Soon, residents could be seen at the top of the ice wall.

"God."

Princess Frost let out a groan. She could no longer raise higher ice walls. If even this couldn't stop the residents, she was at a loss.

Colonel Yuri took a deep breath and crossed himself. "Lord, forgive me."

Then he roared, "Fire! Use Lethal mode!"

He had finally decided—no more attempts to intercept, but to kill.

Otherwise, if these two thousand-plus black fiends spread across the entire region, the consequences were something the colonel dared not imagine.

Colonel Yuri was now grateful that Homelander and The Seven had arrived. The situation had exceeded earlier expectations. Without the Supers' assistance, the military alone couldn't hold them back.

With that thought, the colonel looked toward Starlight and the others. "Everyone, please assist the military."

Starlight and the others nodded in unison.

Element Man glanced at the creek not far away. The next second, her irises turned silver-white.

The water in that distant creek suddenly trembled. The current shifted course, roaring as it swept toward the town.

In just moments, the creek water surged into the town, crashing between buildings and rushing toward the mutated residents, sweeping them into the current and hindering their movement.

Livewire saw this and released a surge of powerful electricity from his body. Then, with a flicker, he reappeared atop a utility pole in the town.

He shouted, pressing both hands downward, and blue arcs of lightning shot from his fingers.

The intense current struck the water, electrifying a vast area. The residents within that stretch trembled uncontrollably.

Princess Frost pressed her hands forward. A biting wind howled, and the river in the town froze rapidly, trapping many mutated residents in the ice.

But even with the Supers' involvement, Silver Tree Town had too many residents. Most of them broke through the Supers' blockade, crossed the ice walls, and surged toward the military like a black tide.

Bang bang bang bang!

At Colonel Yuri's command, the soldiers behind the cordon raised their guns and opened fire. Amid a rain of bullets, row after row of residents fell, but row after row surged forward.

The black tide churned, closing in on the cordon at breakneck speed. Just as the crest of this dark wave was about to crash against the line—

"Close your eyes!"

A voice rang out.

The soldiers suddenly felt a brightness behind them. Then, a blinding light erupted ahead, engulfing everything.

The soldiers shut their eyes, hearing only screams ringing in their ears.

Colonel Yuri quickly put on his sunglasses. When the light faded, he took them off and looked.

A large number of mutated residents seemed to have been struck by some force, flung outward in droves, collapsing across the ground.

The colonel shifted his gaze and landed on a blonde girl.

Starlight!