"Lia, prepare to receive them. The first batch of civilians will begin evacuating in seventeen minutes."
Lia's voice came through the communicator, equally low.
"Received. The medical team is in position."
Seventeen minutes later, it was time for the shift change.
All fifty guards turned to look toward the incoming replacement team.
Thirty seconds.
Karen and her team moved.
Thirty dark figures charged into the civilian zone from different directions, swift as the wind.
Each of them gripped a short blade. The civilians' hands and feet were bound by energy chains connected to the ground; any movement would trigger an alarm.
Their speed had long surpassed the limits of the human body several times over. Within ten seconds, the chains binding more than a hundred civilians had been cut.
The team hoisted the civilians up and rushed toward the edge of the shield.
By the time the guards turned around, those people had already vanished into the darkness.
One guard froze for a moment, then the alarm blared across the night sky.
"Enemy attack! The civilians have been taken!"
All fifty guards charged out at once, but Karen's team had already withdrawn. They knew this terrain too well, every escape route etched into their minds.
After chasing them for several hundred meters, the guards were thrown off by the complex terrain.
The first batch of civilians—one hundred and twenty-three people—was delivered to a temporary medical station two kilometers outside the shield.
Lia was already waiting. Her ability was healing.
Angel energy flowed through her body, transforming into soft pale-gold light that covered the wounded. Wounds healed, broken bones reset, and internal bleeding stopped.
Some were on the verge of death from prolonged starvation. She sent energy into their bodies, where it became temporary nourishment to keep them alive.
"Quick, carry