The Battle Begins

Black mist billowed out, and all the workers quickly retreated, leaving only the security forces behind. The sirens blared continuously, and the shifts that had been going down to work got up one by one.

For this forest development project, the Cordila Group mobilized a total of five teams of supernatural response units. The other four teams each had about 7 to 10 people. Among them, A Team was the Cordila Group's ace team, consisting of 5 people, all of whom were A-level spirit envoys. There were even rumors that the captain of A Team was an S-level spirit envoy.

Human society has a clear hierarchy for spirit messengers, namely DS level, with a total of five levels.

Rank D is generally considered to be at the apprentice level; they have just obtained their spirit weapons and can only use them in a basic way.

Rank C are the true combat personnel. They spend every day with their spiritual weapons and have developed a basic resonance with them, allowing them to form a defensive aura on their bodies. Most spirit wielders are at this level.

Rank B Spirit Envoys have further enhanced their resonance with their weapons, enabling them to condense their spirit weapons into half-armor. They are already experts in the conventional sense, and wherever they go, they will receive excellent treatment, like nobles.

Rank A Spirit Envoys are the pinnacle in the eyes of ordinary Spirit Envoys. Their spirit weapons have been Integration their bodies, allowing them to fully armor themselves at any time. Each Rank A Spirit Envoy is a valuable talent, and even the Cordila Group doesn't have many. The fact that they sent Rank A Team this time is enough to show how much the Cordila Group values Dara Forest.

As for S-rank, many spirit envoys even believe that it is just a legend, and that their power is beyond comprehension. Some people also believe that S-rank is just a more powerful A-rank. In short, S-rank is a synonym for powerful and terrifying.

Correspondingly, the sources of supernatural events, which are what humans call the bizarre, also have different levels.

First is the Beast-level, which corresponds to the Apprentice-level. They possess some special abilities, and even some powerful wild beasts can be called Beast-level monsters. Although they are only the lowest level, they are much stronger than the D-level humans because these monsters act on instinct. Apprentice spirit users who have never seen blood may not necessarily be able to defeat Beast-level monsters.

Then there are the Hunter-class. They may have powerful bodies or strange abilities. Every time they appear, if the Spirit Master fails to respond in time, they can cause a lot of human casualties. As long as a C-class Spirit Master has a strong mentality, they can fight the Hunter-class to a standstill.

Next is the Berserk level. This level of anomaly is no longer a single individual, but a small-scale phenomenon. Their appearance is usually accompanied by many ferocious beasts.

Finally, there's the Terror level, which corresponds to Level A. These are often regional anomalies that bring panic every time they appear. Moreover, these anomalies have many subordinates, each of whom is extremely difficult to deal with.

As for the calamity level corresponding to S-level, it is rarely seen. Every time that level appears, it is a true natural disaster, enough to be recorded in human history.

The previous manifestation of the spirit of nature was considered a terrifying anomaly. It could turn trees into tree-people and, taking advantage of the forest's natural defenses, managed to hold off all of Cordila Group's personnel for almost a month, which was quite remarkable.

The captain of another team responding to supernatural events Torst, descended from the sky, his wings slowly folding back. His expression was grave as he said, "The black mist that has permeated almost the entire forest—this level of coverage is practically terrifying!"

The Cordila Group has deployed five response teams here. A Team does not participate in guard duty, while the other four teams take turns to ensure that there are two teams stationed at each work site. The two teams currently on guard duty are the Fred and Torst teams.

"Notify A Team. Our mission is simply to protect the workers' evacuation." Fred's previous flippancy was gone. He rubbed his stubble and said fiercely, "The other two teams will be here soon when the whistles sound. We just need to hold out for a while."

Fred squeezed the large iron ball in his hand, and a flash of steel-colored light appeared. Fred's right side was covered with a layer of iron armor. The iron ball spun and fell to the ground, transforming into a huge iron ball the size of a child, connected to Fred's half-body armor by an iron chain.

"All personnel, prepare for battle!" Fred shouted, and his five subordinates, along with the members of Torst's squad, all shimmered with light, completing their spirit weapon resonance.

Although there are two teams, Fred is the main force in combat and defense. He has long since achieved a high degree of resonance with his spirit weapon Kra Iron Ball, and can perform half-body armor transformation, which is a rare pure combat ability.

While Torst is also a B-rank spirit user, his armor is wing-shaped, giving him the ability to fly, but he is more inclined towards Reconnaissance.

The two teams, totaling thirteen spirit wielders, solemnly watched the forest gradually being shrouded in black mist, each holding a spirit weapon. Zack, standing to the side, also pulled out his controller with a displeased expression, achieving resonance, and a layer of green light flickered slightly around him.

He muttered with dissatisfaction, "This damn weird thing, my holiday tomorrow is definitely going to be canceled."

"Be careful when they come out," said the spirit envoy, who was holding a spirit weapon shaped like a sniper rifle. He saw two figures emerge from the black mist through the scope. "Are those two black dwarves?"

"Fire and test the waters," Fred said with a serious expression. He knew that one could never be careless when dealing with the supernatural.

The gun-wielding spirit master released the safety, indicating he understood. He was only a C-rank spirit master, but a relatively rare gun-type spirit weapon. He pulled the trigger, and a bullet carrying a blue aura flew out, hitting the little black dwarf.

Unexpectedly, the black dwarf's body parted to create a hole, allowing the bullet to fly through, before closing up again.

"Attack ineffective, it's a rare spirit-type anomaly." The spirit envoy said quickly when he saw the black dwarf dodge the gunshot. Then he saw the dwarf open its mouth, and a sound like gold coins jumping and colliding rang in everyone's ears. This sound seemed to have a demonic quality, arousing the spiritual light fluctuations on the spirit envoys.

"Use a deceptive sound attack to kill the source of the sound as soon as possible, otherwise our spiritual light won't be able to withstand this continuous harassment," Fred said with some distress. The spiritual light on a spirit servant is not something that lasts forever; once it is broken, the spirit servant needs to recuperate for a period of time before it can condense spiritual light again.

While the opponent's wide-area sound attack couldn't penetrate the aura, allowing it to continue its output would be quite troublesome. Therefore, Fred immediately began to devise tactics.

"Two melee fighters come with me to kill that shitty anomaly. Sniper, harass. Zack, if there are any problems, it's up to you to provide backup. The rest of you, stay alert and prevent other anomalies from getting close."

"Then let's go!" Fred raised his hand, the iron chains rattling, and dragged the large iron ball directly towards the two dwarfs.