Town-Ending Crisis

"Get ready!" Tan Jie raised his left hand, about to give the order.

"Wait." Bai Ye suddenly spoke up to stop him.

Tan Jie grew even angrier. He thought Bai Ye was trying to seize command from him and immediately glared at him, only to find that Bai Ye was not looking at him at all, but frowning at the Hyena Pack.

"Put all the guns away." Bai Ye put away [Breath of Bones] and spoke calmly to the crowd.

Everyone froze, somewhat confused.

Tan Jie angrily demanded, "Deputy Commander Bai, what exactly are you trying to..."

"Our enemy isn't the hyenas. There's no need to waste bullets." Bai Ye's gaze passed over the Hyena Pack and fixed tightly on the sandstorm behind them.

Not the Hyena Pack?

Tan Jie thought Bai Ye had gone crazy again, and anger surged within him. But before he could erupt, one of the men beside him suddenly cried out.

"The hyenas turned!"

"What!?"

Tan Jie hurriedly looked over. The fierce Hyena Pack had actually changed direction, bypassing Gray Soil Town and running into the distance.

"Why did the Hyena Pack run away?"

"Could they have been scared off by us last time?"

Quite a few of the town defenders said this in delight. They had no desire to fight the Hyena Pack.

Unlike their simplistic thoughts, King Snake and Tan Jie both sensed that something was wrong.

"Deputy Commander Bai, what is going on?" King Snake asked gravely. He knew Bai Ye was a wasteland hunter. Though only an ordinary person, he had rich experience surviving in the wild.

"The hyenas aren't attacking the town. They're running away," Bai Ye said calmly.

The moment those words came out, everyone's expressions changed drastically. Running away? Could something even more terrifying be coming?

The savage Hyena Pack had already put Gray Soil Town on high alert, yet now they were fleeing like beaten dogs. What kind of powerful creature could be chasing them?

Panic and unease instantly spread through the crowd. They all turned to look at their respective commanders as though searching for something to hold onto.

Yet the commanders in whom they had placed such high hopes were panicking too. Tan Jie and King Snake exchanged a frantic glance, not knowing what to do.

Tan Jie gave a dry laugh. "Could the army from Dawn City be nearby? Maybe the Hyena Pack was scared away by them?"

"The army? They're worse than Mutated Beasts." King Snake's expression darkened.

"Don't talk. It's here." Bai Ye abruptly raised his head toward the distant sky.

Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz!!

A faint buzzing came from the horizon, high-pitched enough to seem to pierce their eardrums and reach straight into their souls, making their hearts tremble for no reason.

"What's that sound!?" someone asked in panic.

The buzzing grew louder and louder.

"It sounds a little like electricity..."

"No! They're birds! Look!"

The crowd looked up in horror. A dense mass of black dots had suddenly appeared on the distant horizon, overlapping with the white clouds. The sea of clouds looked as though it had been riddled with holes.

They drew closer and closer, a vast black swarm. Bird cries and beating wings rang out endlessly until they became deafening!

"Gray sparrows!!"

"Mutated Beast gray sparrows! There are so many... they're everywhere... Run! Gray Soil Town can't hold them off!"

The terrified screams erupting from the crowd were like a signal flare. The pale-faced people snapped out of their daze and fled in panic, no longer even listening to their commanders' orders.

Bai Ye narrowed his eyes as he watched the rapidly approaching gray sparrows. They were also a type of Mutated Beast, originally the most common kind of sparrow, and they liked appearing in flocks.

There were at least a thousand gray sparrows in this incoming swarm. A thousand sparrows might not sound like much, perhaps only frightening to look at, but the reality was nothing like that.

The mutated gray sparrows were covered in gray skin, their eyes a lifeless pale white. They were as large as eagles, with claws as sharp as steel.

A thousand eagles flying above the town were enough to blot out the sky, their shadows slicing the sunlight into countless slivers.

"This is troublesome." Bai Ye's expression darkened slightly. In terms of individual combat strength, gray sparrows were no match for hyenas. But there were far too many of them, and they were extremely mobile.

He could use Time Stop, but he could not fly. If all the gray sparrows were on the ground, he could activate Time Stop and slaughter them freely. The problem was that they were in the sky, far beyond his reach.

It was not as though he had not considered using a Spear, but his marksmanship was poor. If he aimed and fired at them one by one, even after his four minutes and ten seconds ran out, he might not have killed all the gray sparrows.

He could only retreat into a building first and take things one step at a time.

Bai Ye jumped down from the town wall and sprinted at full speed. His enhanced physique made him incredibly fast, and he quickly overtook the first group of people who had fled. However, there were still people ahead of him.

They were King Snake and Tan Jie!

The instant those two saw the gray sparrows, they fled. They knew perfectly well that Gray Soil Town's walls could not stop attacks from the sky.

However, no matter how fast people ran, they could not outrun birds—especially mutated birds.

"Ah!!" A piercing scream rang out from the crowd.

A gray sparrow dove from the sky. Its beak gleamed with a metallic chill as it pierced straight through a person's skull like an arrow, then began greedily sucking up blood and brain matter.

More and more gray sparrows swooped down from the sky, hunting people like insects—vicious and swift!

Bang! Bang! Bang...

Chaotic gunfire erupted as some fought back desperately.

"I'll fight you to the death! Aahhh!!"

Some people rushed into houses in panic. "Get inside!"

Pedestrians on the streets wailed as they fled, running home like mad.

But how could houses made of rotten wood withstand gray sparrows? Even brick houses could barely hold them back, but what about the windows?

After all, Mutated Beasts did not mutate only in body. Their minds changed too.

Chaos! Complete chaos!

All of Gray Soil Town fell into extreme chaos. Bai Ye kept accelerating through the panicked crowd. Unlike Tan Jie, King Snake, and the others, he did not hide in a house at the first opportunity. Instead, he headed straight for the Tire Tavern.

That was Tan Jie's base, where they had stockpiled water, food, guns, and ammunition!

Bullets were Bai Ye's target. [Breath of Bones] drained its user's Blood Qi, so Tan Jie had not given him many bullets, believing Bai Ye could not possibly use that many.

Whoosh!

A sound like an arrow tearing through the air rapidly descended from above Bai Ye's head.

A fierce glint flashed in the youth's eyes. He knew a gray sparrow had targeted him. There were fewer and fewer residents on the streets; they had either died or hidden in houses. Only he was still sprinting, so being targeted was inevitable.

He did not choose to dodge. Instead...

Time Stop!