Sharper! Faster! And more... crushingly ominous!
"Level-three alert! Level-three alert!"
"All units! Maximum combat readiness!"
"A large group of Mutated Beasts is approaching! Confirmed Level-Three Beast Tide! Repeat, Level-Three Beast Tide!"
"All combat personnel at the Seventh Entrance, take your positions immediately! Hold out until reinforcements arrive!"
The voice over the broadcast carried an urgency no one had heard before—and a trace of fear.
The entire underground space fell silent, then erupted.
"A level-three alert?!"
"A Beast Tide?! You've got to be kidding!"
"We're finished... We're really finished this time..."
Despair swept over everyone like an icy tide.
A Level-Three Beast Tide meant at least one commander-class Mutated Beast of the Third Tier, equivalent to a human warrior of the Third Realm. Tier Two Mutated Beasts would come in packs, and First Realm beasts would number in the hundreds!
For the Seventh Entrance's regular garrison and cannon fodder like them, it would be a devastating blow!
Su Yunwan had reached the middle of the passage and was about to board the armored vehicle when she stopped dead. Her face turned cold.
"A Level-Three Beast Tide?" She spun toward the outside, her sharp gaze seeming to pierce the thick fortifications. "Why now..."
Without hesitation, she spoke into the military Communicator on her wrist.
"Cancel the return trip! Tell my guard squad to bring all their equipment and assemble at the Seventh Entrance fortifications immediately! Prepare for battle!"
"Major! It's too dangerous there! Your safety—"
"That's an order!" Su Yunwan cut her off, her voice firm. "I'm a major in the Guard Army. With a Beast Tide upon us, nowhere is safe!"
She ended the call and took a deep breath, suppressing her shock. Her eyes grew sharp as blades once more.
She reached to her waist. Silver flashed, and a spear nearly two meters long appeared in her hand. Its shaft was entirely silver-white, and its tip glinted like a cold star. A faint chill flowed along it; this was no ordinary weapon.
She moved, becoming a green blur as she rushed toward the emergency passage leading to the top of the fortifications.
As a warrior at the Tier Two Sixth Layer—the advanced Dragon Tendon Realm—with the A-Rank Talent Spearheart Clarity, she had both the duty and the ability to help at this critical moment.
She raced to the top as fast as she could, and the sight before her made her pupils contract.
Beyond the fortifications, far past the former buffer zone, dust rolled across the land, blotting out the sky!
Countless shapes, of every size and form, surged from deep within the Wilderness. Their howls, roars, and pounding footsteps merged into a wave of death that battered everyone's nerves.
The Beast Tide's vanguard had already reached the outermost observation posts and automated gun emplacements. Explosions and severed Mutated Beast limbs flashed through the dust.
Atop the fortifications, the Guard Army soldiers were pale, but their officers' furious shouts drove them to their battle stations. They manned machine guns, artillery, and energy weapons, though they knew such firepower would be a drop in the bucket against a Beast Tide of this scale.
Below, at the sortie gate, the Blade Camp's Death Squad was in chaos.
Many trembled or collapsed to the ground, unable even to hold their weapons steady. Faced with death on this scale, the instinct to survive overwhelmed everything else.
The order to sortie had already been given, but few responded. Some even cried out and shrank back.
Su Yunwan watched, her brows knitting. Deep disappointment and revulsion flashed through her eyes.
Cowards!
A warrior should press forward without fear! To die in battle and be carried home wrapped in a horsehide shroud was an honor. How could they cower before the fight had even begun?
Scum like them deserved to be cannon fodder!
She tightened her grip on her silver spear. Even if she had to stand alone, she would hold this stretch of the fortifications until reinforcements arrived!
As for those useless fools below, they could die for all she cared. At least they wouldn't disgrace the name of warrior!
Contempt and resolve churned within her. She was about to leap down and charge into the Beast Tide to buy every precious second the defenders needed to deploy when—
A figure parted the chaotic crowd of Death Squad members below and slowly stepped forward.
He still wore his torn, bloodstained training clothes. Bandages covered his body, and he held a dark spear stained with blood.
It was Lin Ming!
His face showed nothing. No fear, no excitement, not even the grim resolve of someone ready to die. Only a stillness too deep to fathom.
He walked to the front of the sortie gate and looked up. First, he glanced at the rolling cloud of death in the distance. Then he looked at the defenders atop the fortifications, standing ready but unable to hide their tension. Finally, his gaze seemed to brush over one spot above the wall.
There stood Su Yunwan, silver spear gripped tight, her face cold.
Then, before Su Yunwan's astonished eyes and the stunned gaze of countless Death Squad members—
Lin Ming, the young Death Squad member she had just judged too stubborn to listen and determined to get himself killed, the man she considered cannon fodder among cannon fodder, did not hesitate. He did not shout.
He merely drew a quiet breath, leveled his bloodstained spear toward the terrifying Beast Tide surging in—one that could swallow everything—
And took a step.
Then he charged.
One step, two... His pace quickened. A walk became a run, and a run became a sprint!
His slight, bloodstained figure was a moth flying into flame, a lone arrow shot into a towering wave!
Silence.
Then an uproar like a collapsing mountain burst from the Death Squad behind Lin Ming!
"Madman Lin! It's Madman Lin!"
"Shit! If that madman's going in, what the hell am I afraid of?!"
"Follow Madman Lin! Kill them!"
"Charge! Kill one and we break even! Kill two and we come out ahead!"
Old Wang leaned on his alloy pipe, his one eye bloodshot as he roared himself hoarse!
Old Black, Mute, Bitter Melon, and the other Death Squad members who had been inspired by Lin Ming's madness over the past three days—or whose lives he had saved—erupted like gunpowder touched by a spark. Howling and waving their battered weapons, they followed the bloodstained figure charging ahead, their eyes red as they launched a desperate countercharge!
One man and one charge had forcibly reversed their collapse, fear, and despair. Like a red-hot knife, he had pierced the ice that held them down!
Atop the fortifications, Su Yunwan stood frozen, her silver spear in one hand.
She stared at the lone yet resolute figure leading the charge into the wave of death, then at the Death Squad members roaring as they followed him, as if someone had injected them with new life.
The disappointment, contempt, and revulsion in her cold, beautiful eyes vanished like mist scattered by a gale.
In their place came utter disbelief, a jolt of emotion, and a faint stir she herself had yet to notice...
A quickening of her heart.
What...
What was happening?
Before you continue