But she kept slashing.
One strike. Two strikes. Three...
Each strike cleared a patch of ground. But the black tide immediately filled it again.
She panted heavily.
Voices poured through the command channel...
"Sector B's line has fallen! Repeat, Sector B has fallen!"
"Out of ammunition! Requesting resupply!"
"The Seventh Mech Platoon has been wiped out... They're all gone..."
"A hundred-meter-class High-Tier Gold-Eater has broken through in Sector D..."
They were losing ground everywhere.
Even with reinforcements, the line was still being pushed back. There were simply too many Gold-Eater Clan members.
Chen Siyao knocked a medium-sized Gold-Eater Clan member away with her sword and took a step back.
Before her, the black tide surged forward, stretching endlessly across her vision.
At that moment, she finally understood how her brother had felt at the Lunar Defense Line.
But she could not retreat.
Because Huaxia lay behind her.
Two transport ships crashed three kilometers behind the line.
Flames and black smoke billowed into the sky—reinforcement ships shot down by High-Tier Gold-Eaters. Of the thirty-odd soldiers aboard, fewer than half crawled out alive.
"Medical team! Ships down in the rear! Get over there and pick up the survivors!"
Calls rang out over the channel, one after another. Chen Siyao could not spare any attention for the rear, because three more hundred-meter-class High-Tier Gold-Eaters were charging at her from the front.
She raised her sword to block.
The first one's claws struck her blade, and the immense impact sent her manifestation sliding back more than ten meters. The second lunged from the side, its pointed jaws snapping at her waist—
Chen Siyao twisted aside and sheared off half its head with a backhand slash.
The third was already before her.
Instead of using its claws, it opened its enormous maw, packed with sharp