Chapter 6: A Frenzied Charge and Slaughter

“Go… go crazy?”

The members of the search team looked utterly bewildered.

“Yes, go crazy!” Xia Lixing said very seriously. “There’s no other way right now anyway, so we might as well burn our boats and give it a shot.”

“…Specifically… how do we give it a shot?”

Xia Lixing casually picked up a stone, squatted down beside a relatively flat piece of ground, and explained as he drew, “Come over and look.
Based on my visual estimation, there are a total of five A-rank Aberrant Beasts in this super A-rank beast tide.
Two of them are very close to each other, and the other three are on the other side.”

“Lord Xia Lixing, do you mean…”

The stone drew a decisive straight line on the simple layout map. “We’ll cut straight through the middle!”

“This… is this really feasible…” The members of the search team all looked hesitant.
This wasn’t an ordinary horde of beasts; this was a super A-rank beast tide.
Would charging straight through like this really work?

“Of course, charging in recklessly definitely won’t work.”
Xia Lixing tossed the stone aside and stood up.
“What I’m about to say next, you must remember firmly.
This will be the key to whether you can survive this time.”

At this moment in the central city, everything was as orderly as usual.
People were completely unaware that at least two super A-rank beast tides were approaching from a distant place.

In the center of the central city stood an extremely eye-catching building.
Its pyramid-like shape, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, and its height of over a hundred meters, all set it apart from the surrounding buildings.

This building was precisely the “Guardian” branch in this central city.

This branch was a building that integrated accommodation, training, research, and reconnaissance.
It had 50 floors above ground, while most of the underground space was used to house “Kadra”—a huge reconnaissance machine.

Since it was currently the Aberrant Beasts’ rest period, “Kadra” was shut down for maintenance.
Around the huge diamond-shaped main component, dozens of researchers were busy carrying out detailed inspections.

On the edge of this huge space, on a suspended corridor clinging to the wall, a person dressed entirely in black was watching the maintenance of “Kadra” below with rapt attention.
After a while, as if sensing something, he turned to look at the person walking towards him from the entrance.

“Oh my, Shun’s senses are still as sharp as ever. As expected, it’s impossible to hide one’s tracks from a spatial ability user.”

The approaching girl was wearing a white dress, like a nun’s habit.
The plain clothes did not diminish her charm in the slightest, but rather added a different kind of beauty to her.
Her long, light golden hair was naturally draped, seeming to reflect the lights of the underground space.
Or rather, her whole person gave off a dazzling illusion of glowing.

“Lady Oracle, what brings you here?”

Although the man in black had a perpetually expressionless face and a flat tone, his actions were filled with respect for the girl.
It seemed that this girl, referred to as “Lady Oracle,” held an extremely high status.

“It’s nothing, I just feel a little uneasy, so I came to have a look.”

The girl was still smiling.
She tidied a lock of hair by her ear, seemingly very casually.

“Kadra can usually detect distant beast tides, but it’s currently undergoing maintenance, and without it, our central city is like a blind man, unable to discover anything.
Shun, do you think we’ve become too dependent on it?”

The man was stunned for a moment, seeming a little confused.
But when he looked up and saw the girl’s eyes had turned a light gold, he immediately bowed to her and disappeared on the spot with a strange ripple in the air.

“Spatial abilities are really nice, so convenient and simple.
Unlike me, I vaguely see something but can’t say it outright.
Good thing little Shun’s comprehension is strong enough.”

Tossing out a casual complaint, the girl also left the underground space.

Xia Lixing held the giant blade in his hand and asked one last time, “Are you ready?”

“Ready!”

The members of the search team all replied.
They all had their weapons in hand, their faces tense but resolute.

After confirming that he was facing the right direction, Xia Lixing took a deep breath. “Then, charge!”

With this command, Xia Lixing was the first to charge out.
Behind him, the members of the search team formed a simple breakthrough formation: three people formed a cone-like triangle, surrounding the healer in the center, while the captain, with the strongest combat power, was responsible for bringing up the rear.

Originally, in this kind of breakthrough formation, the captain, being the strongest in the search team, should have been at the front to clear the way.
But now that they had Xia Lixing, such a powerful combatant, the captain could only stay at the back to cover their retreat.

“We will form a simple breakthrough formation. I am the strongest, so I will be at the very front to clear a path for you. As for the captain, you will be responsible for bringing up the rear. We’re leaving our backs to you.”

This six-person team quickly attracted the attention of the beasts on the edge, but before they could decide whether to attack, Xia Lixing’s giant blade had already swung over, accompanied by “Ethereal Flame.”

Not a single Aberrant Beast could stop Xia Lixing’s advance.
The giant blade in his hand perfectly illustrated what was meant by “instant kill.”
Any beast touched by the giant blade would be devoured by the “Ethereal Flame” within seconds.

Xia Lixing didn’t unleash a burst of “Ethereal Flame” to clear the surrounding beasts, because firstly, there were too many beasts around now, and if he unleashed it to devour them, the feedback of energy would be enough to make him explode; secondly, if he cleared out all the surrounding beasts, the situation might become even worse.

“When we charge, I will only kill the beasts in front of me and to my sides. What you need to pay attention to are the beasts that close in afterwards. My attention will not be on the areas I have already passed through. A super A-rank beast tide looks terrifying, but at the same time, with countless beasts crowded together, the only ones that can pose a threat to us as we charge are those that can get close to us!”

The cries of flying beasts finally came from the sky.
They had also spotted the few humans charging into the horde below.
These ferocious “big birds” swooped down one after another, attempting to attack the humans who were recklessly slaughtering the beasts below.

Xia Lixing didn’t even raise his head, only letting out a loud shout just as the flying beasts were about to dive onto them.
The invisible “Ethereal Flame” burst out with this shout, but it was directed towards the sky.

The diving flying beasts were caught off guard and were all devoured completely.
Only a portion of them abruptly climbed, dodging the fatal “Ethereal Flame.”

“The flying beasts in the sky definitely won’t just watch, but you don’t need to worry about them. If they dare to charge down, my Ethereal Flame is no joke.”

After temporarily repelling the flying beasts, the Ethereal Flame that Xia Lixing had released was not withdrawn.
Instead, under his control, it formed a huge sphere, completely enveloping the six of them.
At the same time, Xia Lixing no longer paid attention to the beasts to his left and right, but focused all his attention on the front.

“After the flying beasts attack, I will not retract the Ethereal Flame, but will have it form a shield. With this protection, we almost only need to charge forward. But precisely controlling the Ethereal Flame will consume a lot of my mental energy, so at that time, in order to last as long as possible, we still need to kill the beasts as much as possible before they are killed by the Ethereal Flame shield. At the same time, the beasts to my left and right will be left to you.”

Five or six beasts charged at Xia Lixing from the left and right.
What greeted them was no longer the giant blade wrapped in Ethereal Flame, but the slashes of the search team members.

After deploying the “Ethereal Flame Shield,” the six of them advanced even faster.
In the massive horde of beasts, the six of them were not stopped, and they had been charging and killing until now.

Every member of the search team felt a sense of unreality.
None of them were very strong; who would have thought that they could one day carve a bloody path through a super A-rank beast tide?
At this moment, looking at the beasts charging from all directions, these five people all had a feeling of “not having lived in vain.”

Xia Lixing, charging at the very front, was undoubtedly under the most pressure.
He had to use his strength to carve out a path, to turn himself into a sharp blade that could not pause for a single moment.
The reason they could charge so seemingly easily through the super A-rank beast tide now was because they were taking advantage of the fact that the beasts were too numerous and too crowded.
As long as they could kill without stopping, they would only have to deal with the pursuit of beasts from the left and right at most.
Xia Lixing would clear the way in front, and as for the back, the beasts would have to catch up to them first.

Of course, this also meant that the captain, who was second in strength, had had very few opportunities to act so far.

But Xia Lixing knew that they were actually like walking on a tightrope a thousand meters in the air.
The slightest misstep would lead to their annihilation.
If he were stopped for even a moment, the beasts swarming from all directions would grind them to death.

So no matter what happened, he could not stop!

A roar, clearly different from that of ordinary beasts, came from the distance.
Upon hearing this roar, the beasts around the six-person team, as if on stimulants, pounced on them one after another.
The sudden increase in pressure almost stopped Xia Lixing.
Fortunately, the shield formed by the Ethereal Flame instantly killed all the beasts it touched.
Even so, Xia Lixing was scared into a cold sweat.
That was truly a stroll on the line between life and death.

However, that distinctive roar also excited Xia Lixing.
He knew that it was the roar of an A-rank beast in the horde.
They had finally attracted the attention of the A-rank beasts.
And that roar was not the end.
It was followed by the roars of four other beasts from different directions.
Five A-rank beasts, all of them had discovered their tracks.

But listening to the roars from these five directions, Xia Lixing suddenly smiled.
Not just him, the five members of the search team also smiled.
The reason was simple: the direction from which these five roars came, and the meaning within them, let them know that their crazy gamble this time had succeeded.

None of the five A-rank beasts were in front of them.
Given the current density and chaos of the beast horde, as long as they didn’t stop, those five A-rank beasts would not be able to catch up to them!

Didn’t you see them telling their “little brothers” to block the way as much as possible?

If nothing else unusual happened, the six of them would create a miracle, the miracle of forcibly charging through a super A-rank beast tide.