Shen's Wavering

Bullets poured from Li Ke's muzzle like a flowing stream, turning the five or six soldiers who hadn't yet learned to scatter and take cover into sieves.

However, Li Ke, who had not yet accepted the memories of his role as a protector, had forgotten one thing.

The rate of fire for automatic weapons is quite formidable.

He felt as though he had only held the trigger for two seconds when a clicking sound came from his hands; clearly, he had run out of ammunition.

"So unreliable! Why didn't you give me an M60?!"

He was referring to the M60 from CrossFire, commonly known as the "Big Pineapple." That thing held a full hundred rounds, enough to let him pour out firepower to his heart's content.

But what he didn't know was that the M60's rate of fire was much faster than the M16; if he fired like that, he would only be left dumbfounded even faster.

After all, games are balanced for a reason...

And reality requires no balance.

Pouting, Li Ke holstered the gun and returned to using his Noxian longsword.

A shimmering white light appeared on the blade, causing the common-grade sword to tremble rapidly. With a backhanded slash, he cut a screaming, charging Noxian and his weapon in two.

Then, with another shot, he struck down another charging Noxian.

Shen's performance was equally remarkable; while Li Ke was killing enemies with his firearms, Shen had already taken down over a dozen men.

Compared to Li Ke, who relied on the power of his guns, Shen had killed fewer enemies, but it was more than enough to prove just how formidable his strength was.

"These people are not simple!"

Wielding his steel blade and claiming several more lives in the blink of an eye, Shen shouted out.

"Of course they aren't!"

Li Ke continued to swing his weapon. After severing a Noxian's blade, he heard a shattering sound from his own sword, so he threw the weapon away without a second thought.

The moment it was thrown, the sword exploded in mid-air. The broken shards slashed several Noxian soldiers, and one unlucky soul even had his eye pierced by a fragment.

This was the result of using Overdrive on common iron. These swords, with their inconsistent quality, often had internal cracks or fractures that weren't visible from the outside.

Overdrive caused these microscopic fissures to spread rapidly; even without existing cracks, the constant vibration and impact would quickly lead to breakage.

But Li Ke wasn't worried about that. He had five more swords on his back and could afford to be reckless. What worried him was something else.

"Casualties have already exceeded half!"

Looking at the corpses on the ground, Li Ke's understanding of Noxian power became increasingly clear.

The troops before him, whether in terms of weapons, armor, or training, were merely at the level of ordinary soldiers—or perhaps even just Ionian militia.

Their ages varied as well.

Yet, their will to fight remained high!

This was utterly impossible!

They had easily wiped out half of their force in less than a minute; even beasts should have felt fear by now. How could these people still show no signs of retreating?

Killing another soldier with a backhanded strike, Li Ke caught a glimpse of the calluses on the man's palms as he fell. He realized they weren't the calluses of someone who spent their life wielding swords, but the thick, heavy calluses of someone who had spent a long time using farm tools.

Farmers?

But...

Shen had discovered this as well, and he saw even more than Li Ke. He could be certain that these Noxian soldiers might have been nothing more than ordinary farmers just a month or two ago!

He couldn't help but ask.

"You are just farmers, aren't you?! Why fight like this?!"

If these people fled now, he would never pursue them. Not just because of the danger, but because these were merely farmers—farmers who had no business on a battlefield!

But no one answered him. The remaining men continued to roar as they charged at him.

Some were silent, others were filled with fanaticism, but those war cries made this highly skilled Balance Order senior disciple take an involuntary step back.

"Long live Noxus!!"

The remaining dozen or so Noxians charged toward the exposed Shen. They didn't understand why the enemy, who had been so decisive just moments ago, had become so shaken upon discovering their identity as farmers from a month or two prior, but they knew one thing.

The enemy was wavering! The opportunity had arrived!

Shen's blade slowed!

Li Ke noticed this. He quickly drew the longswords from his back, throwing one in each hand to pierce two soldiers who had reached the hesitant Shen. Then, he drew the two pistols from his waist and opened fire on the remaining soldiers.

The pistols barked repeatedly. While Li Ke's long-range marksmanship was nothing to write home about—one might even call it disastrous—Shen snapped out of it. As Li Ke charged forward to gun down other soldiers, Shen finished off those who had reached him.

"Why were you so shaken?"

Li Ke asked, slightly out of breath, because Shen's hesitation had cost him quite a few bullets.

He knew his shooting skills would never pass muster, so he had always stuck to close-range firing. Because of Shen's blunder, he had wasted at least eight rounds.

These things could only be produced through simulation. While he didn't have to worry about running out, Li Ke had no intention of spending all his time in the CrossFire world.

There were no supernatural powers there...

...right?

Thinking of weapons like the Fire Qilin, Li Ke felt a lack of confidence.

Shen remained silent; he did not know how to answer. Given the education he had received and the experiences he had endured, he truly should not have found himself in such a state.

The reason for his wavering was not a reluctance to kill these people, but rather the thought of something else entirely.

"People who were mere farmers just a few months ago are now fighting fearlessly under the orders of the Noxians. Even when it came down to the very last man, not a single one of them fled... Li Ke, can Ionia truly resist their invasion?"

Shen was utterly bewildered.

For a cold-weapon infantry unit, being able to avoid routing after suffering over fifty percent casualties would already mark them as the elite of the elite. Yet, the people before him were nothing more than farmers with a few months of training, lacking even decent weapons.

So why were they able to display the capabilities and attitude of death-defying warriors?

He did not understand.

Li Ke did not understand either. If such a ragtag force could run rampant across Ionia without any response from the Ionian authorities, were the rulers here eating dog shit?

But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, Li Ke suddenly remembered: Ionia had no centralized governing body; it was a tribal society.

Ah, that explains it.

Nevertheless, he gave Shen a firm answer.

"They can."