“Father, we have to take action soon.” Malcolm looked at Mercer in his study. Mercer was reading the news with his eyebrows knit, a deadly look glittering in his eyes. Over the two weeks, the pressure on their family was increasing. Firstly, the Cross family got their hands on the Dual Elemental Orb, then the alien’s body, and the AI necklace. Other families were afraid of Cross getting ahead of them.

“I know. We will go to the battlefield in a week. Gather our men.” Mercer said silently.

“Who is gonna stay behind?” Malcolm asked, worried.

“Call Gordon to the mansion, Serzen will come with us. Kenway will protect the mansion, and we will take 4 teams to the battlefield in a single jet plane.” Mercer said in one breath.

“How about the kids?” Malcolm asked.

“All of them are coming, of course. Evelyn can stay behind.” Mercer gave his last order, thought for a second, and said, “Tell Miles to come as well. If he doesn’t want to, tell him I will not question him anymore, he is free to join as a warrior, not as my grandson.” Malcolm looked at Mercer with surprise, but excitement as well. His son finally showed his worth, and even this old stubborn goat accepted it. Malcolm left to gather everyone. Gordon was a precious asset with his healing element. His ultimate was even better, thus Mercer called him to the mansion so he would be safe while his guard, Serzen, was going with them.

***

A week later, in an army ground

Cross family’s five members were near a jet plane, standing in front of 45 men. Miles recognized most of them.

At the forefront, stood Kostas Anemone with his son and daughter in tow. Quinn had already leveled up to Form-Rank and her brother Demos was an Exto-Rank hunter. He was one of the most powerful of his peers and was the talk of Unity in his time.

Not far from there, stood Serzen. He was holding a sniper rifle that looked like a masterpiece of weaponry. On his belt, there were bullet magazines and two handguns. On his back was an automatic assault rifle. By himself, he was like an army.

Miles also saw people he encountered a few times. They were all soldiers under his grandfather or father, and Miles had seen them a few times when he visited them. Helez was there for example. Cale was also among the crowd, he smiled at Miles while putting on a serious face.

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“Today, we will march into the dead world to kill an awakened dead. You may have heard this name before. Awakened Deads are, walking dead gained sentience with unknown means. Sentience is not the only thing they have but also superhuman powers.

The first one appeared south of Unity. He had superhuman speed and power and killed a garrison on his own. When the army went there to kill him, we realized he was a former president of the country where he was dead. At first, we shrugged it off as a coincidence, but the awakened dead this time was also a leading figure of old times. The religious leader of millions of people has awakened scarier power than the previous one.

The Pope, as we named him, can boost others walking dead and command them. Although the first awakened dead could also gather other walking dead and order them, they were still weak and stupid at the time. But when boosted by the Pope, the walking dead become deadlier than monsters. Now, at the south of Unity, hundreds of thousands of walking dead are boosted by the Pope charging to the walls.

Everyone here is reputable and trustable, so I will skip the warnings. On the battlefield, I will vanquish the Pope, while you will clear the boosted walking dead as much as you can. As all of you know, the reason we never charge to kill the walking dead is that a portal appears whenever a D-Tier or higher person leaves the walls of Unity. And until today, we always avoided creating more pathways for monsters.

But we cannot wait any longer, as our enemies are getting stronger.” Malcolm looked at the people in front of him as he finished his speech. Mercer would go with them but he was mostly in charge of dealing with monsters when portals opened, while Malcolm would fight with the main target, the Pope.

Everyone entered the jet plane and started to fly towards the battlefield.

“How are you feeling?” Merlin asked Miles when they boarded the flight.

“Much better, thanks,” Miles answered with a smile. A week ago, when Malcolm called him, he agreed to go with them. Merlin suggested to Miles to use the fourth Mind Serum. Although not as potent as the fourth Strengthening Serum, the last Mind Serum was stronger than the three others combined. The sheer effects of the Serum made Miles squirm in pain. But after surviving, Miles felt that his mind had been liberated. His computational speed soared, and his mind could bring the information at the speed of light. He could calculate many things a lot faster.

This time Merlin let him learn weak points of the walking dead, and the structure of the city they would land with some army tactics while conducting the test. Miles was getting used to this feeling and information stored in his mind over the last week.

“Good, the battlefield will be dangerous. So stay close to me.” Merlin smiled and closed his eyes. Miles knew he was too weak to barge in, but he also knew Malcolm wouldn’t let him die on the battlefield easily. For the mission, Malcolm gave Miles a few orbs as a reward. He would act as an archer behind the lines. Malcolm gave him a fire elemental pinnacle-tier Bow orb and a same-tier spear with the darkness element. There were also thousands of alloy arrows in the jet plane for him to use.