Weak Void Spawn were dumb as rocks, inexperienced, and driven by bloodlust. Uya and Xun were the opposite: well-trained, experienced, and cold-blooded.
The monsters all headed toward the two because they were the closest targets. The Lieutenants avoided all attacks while moving fast and wide in front of every battalion, testing every Void Spawn within their Law's reach. To Shen's vision, they were little more than blurs.
Although Captain Abbav had increased the Expeditionary Training's difficulty to test the newcomers, Uya and Xun would do the bulk of the work for the foreseeable future.
The two mostly ignored all Void Spawn. Their potential targets, the big C-B-rank Void Warriors, were concentrated in the middle of the pack, still far from the brigade. Anything else was for the others to kill.
Still, although weak Void Spawn rarely insisted on a target if there was seemingly easier prey nearby, it happened. Uya and Xun dodged attacks, but some creatures pressed, and the two made an example out of those E-D Scouts, G-E Seedlings, and G-F Hatchlings.
They accomplished it by striking with extreme prejudice.
Each Lieutenant's attack killed dozens of Void Spawn. After a few such occurrences, no matter how stupid the creatures were, they learned better than to attack the two. They all did. Some instinctive knowledge was automatically shared among all Void Spawn from the same Breach, including which foe should be avoided.
Zyn and Karlov were also forced to make some examples but otherwise stood still. Zyn wasn't even looking at the tide of monsters. He watched over his subordinates, assessing and preparing to command them.
The military's arrow formation was called so because it created a reverse V as each unit stood before its multiple subordinate units. The battalions moved accordingly, and some ended up closer to the wave as a neighboring team moved further to keep the reverse V form.
Each battalion's Acting Staff Lieutenant also had to stay on the move, testing every Void Spawn for strength. They covered a significantly smaller distance than Uya and Xun, who covered the length of 301 battalions, each with 18 companies. A battalion had at least four Staff Lieutenants, and they only had to care for the 18 companies under their care.
It was still a lot, though. Shen's battalion was in the very center of all others, the closest to the incoming mob of liquid darkness. It was also right behind Zyn and his people, who were the most obvious target before they disabused thee Void. So, most enemies concentrated there at first.
The first creatures reached Shen's Acting Staff Lieutenants, who had at least one mastered Law in their Path. They tested the Void Spawn like Uya and Xun. While their ability was considerably lower than the two, they were nothing to scoff at.
The white-robed Jin Qiuyue wielded a big bastard sword. She used her Laws of the Sword, Earth, and Darkness to bring forth pure power. She gave up speed but made for it with ample defense and a Darkness trick that made it hard to tell exactly where her body started or ended. When forced to make an example of weak Void Spawn, she swing wide, killing a few on each strike.
The blood-red-robed Fu Wenqian was the opposite. She wielded a thin double-edged one-handed sword, similar to a Chinese jian, and used her Laws of the Sword, Lightning, and Light for speed and finesse. She seemed to dance in between the monsters, her every move filled with grace and precise lethality.
Fu Wenqian was almost as fast as Uya, though her attacks couldn't encompass a large area. When forced to make an example of Void Spawn, she opted for an impressive technique that let her move faster than Shen could see, almost as if she was teleporting. Although she killed one creature per sword strike, the ability let her kill a dozen within a few instants.
The dark-blue-robed Mao Shun, Shi Yanlin, and Wu Bai cultivated the same Laws of Fire and Ice and wielded no weapon but their fists. However, they specialized in different things.
Mao Shun, the short one, focused his Fire on short bursts of speed and his Ice on slowing his enemies. His fighting style was about dodging and waiting for the right time to attack. He covered his limbs with Ice for maximum blunt damage when striking and didn't shy away from using every part of his body as a weapon.
Shi Yanlin, the tall one, used Fire for pure attacking power and Ice for pure defense. He covered his body with a thin layer of qi that took the most out of the Law of Ice, only caring to use it to protect himself. However, he could change it to Fire instantly, covering his limbs with flames to strike an enemy down. Unlike Mao Shun, he didn't use his legs to fight.
Lastly, the large Wu Bai used Fire internally, focusing on speed and explosive physical might, and Ice externally, giving his strikes weight and improving his defense. In Shen's opinion, he was the most balanced, almost like a more refined, better Mao Shun. Each Law had a clear purpose and supported the other better than in Mao Shun's Path.
When Shen was forced to kill Void Spawn, he sent a message by swinging his spear wide, with an added qi edge to extend his reach. He killed a hundred monsters per strike.
That was more than Uya and Xun had done, but they weren't supposed to care much about it. Shen was. After him were the ones who would actually fight, and there was nothing wrong with thinning the numbers a little more right now. It would give his companies a little extra time to get used to the flow of battle.
Still, he didn't overdo it. He wasn't as hungry for qi as mana-wielding Guardians were for mana. They were already cut from the system and could only recover mana using mana potions and similar items. Yet, while cultivators had an easier time, it wasn't by much. His qi absorption rate from the environment had dropped 99% as soon as he stepped into the Void Farm's unique space.
At the Ethereal Realization realm, that would still let him fight for hours even if he constantly used his most qi-consuming techniques. However, the Expeditionary Training was supposed to take three Standard days, and only one had passed. Who knew what other surprises Zyn and in stock for them? Also, this was a front line, and the Void might have its own surprises.
He might even need qi to save someone in an emergency. His people were close, but not that much, considering his limited reach.
Each "node" in the chain of command was stationed one-hundred yards away from the one in front of it. Uya and Xun were one-hundred yards ahead of Zyn, who was another hundred ahead of Shen's Staff, and so on. The gap sideways depended on the weakest members in the chain. They were supposed to remain ten to fifty yards away from each other, depending on their rank. The stronger troops then adapted to remain equidistant from each other in a way that covered the weaker ones. In this case, the D-rank Acting Staff Sergeants stood thirty yards apart.
The arrangement made it more likely for communications to get disrupted, but it paid off in safety. It gave each unit a buffer area to prepare for what was coming or deal with unexpected situations before the enemy got to the weaker ones behind them. And people of similar strength could help each other.
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Unlike Zyn, Shen constantly alternated his sight between the Void Spawn ahead and his troops behind him. He had to be alert for new threats, worry about orders, and care for his people. Zyn seemed to trust his Staff or power, but Shen didn't.
As Company Commanders, Alicia and Williams were at the far back. Sai hadn't shown enough leadership skills to get promoted, and Alicia couldn't snatch him from Williams. She was forced to take two cultivators as her Staff.
The two were better than Earth's people. The man and woman looked to be in their mid-thirties and wielded jian like Fu Wenqian. The weapon was a favorite among the Republic's cultivators.
Alicia had changed her fighting style a little. She was clack in enchanted leather, but three pieces were metal: a helmet and her left arm's gauntlet and vambrace. Her other hand wielded a long sword.
The gauntlet's palm had an embedded red gem that helped with her Fire's Destruction magic. Her Life Concept was related to healing.
In the past weeks, she had shown herself to be a long-range mage, taking full advantage of the red gem. She only used the sword if the enemy got past her long-range bombardment. As for the vambrace and the back of the gauntlet, she had found she was much better at using them to protect herself than a shield.
Spell-wise, Alicia had a preference for fireballs. The thumb-sized spheres of angry white flames were cheap for her to create and packed a punch with her Concept of Destruction. They killed all creatures with ease.
Unfortunately, in a Voided Subnode, she had to vary her attacks. The mana concerns had her cutting down some enemies with the sword, then pushing only a little mana with her Concept through the injury. The first Void Spawn that got to the D-ranks were so weak they could be easily killed.
That said, she couldn't mindlessly swing her sword. She and all other mana-wielding Guardians also had to worry about their stamina. They had to balance physical attacks and long-range mana strikes.
Any Ethereal Harmonization realm cultivator or C-rank with a mastered Law could use their Path to control their bodies if they ran out of stamina. Shen had learned the trick under Liya. The Law Exclusion Zones and Voided Continuum spaces didn't affect physical objects, including himself.
D-ranks and mana-wielding C-ranks without a mastered Law had no such ability. Running out of mana was one thing, but running out of stamina would make them unable to move.
Turning into dead weight in this place was the same as turning into a dead body.
About half the troops managed their stamina well, but the tide of enemies was too vast. Void Spawn soon found themselves everywhere amid the ranks. Some started attacking the C-ranks just because they couldn't get to the D-ranks.
That did little to help the D-ranks. The Void Spawn soon relearned to avoid the C-ranks.
It soon became clear that the D-ranks would run out of mana and get overwhelmed. Thankfully, Zyn gave the command he was supposed to in such a situation.
"Commander's orders: filter four," Karlov said beside Shen.
The Lieutenant Specialist had moved so fast that it looked like he had teleported. He disappeared as suddenly as he appeared.
Shen forwarded the command. "Kill every fourth Void Spawn!" he bellowed over the screech and sound of battle.
Only Wu Bai heard him. He proceeded to inform the other four Acting Staff Lieutenants. There was no need to forward the order to the Companies, which were already supposed to kill whatever got to them anyway.
Shen noticed Uya and Xun also killed every fourth Void Spawn. Therefore, only half the Void Spawn who got to the brigade ever reached the D-ranks. It gave them some breathing room.
That didn't solve the situation, but Shen assumed Zyn would give other orders before things became too menacing.
The already manageable situation became almost effortless when the Void Warriors stopped moving toward the brigade. The other monsters were forced to detour around the Warriors' sizeable bodies, which acted as natural barriers. Zyn ordered everyone to stop filtering the Void Spawn.
Shen calmed down—for a while.
The more time passed, the more Shen worried about the D-ranks and the three hundred mana-wielding C-ranks without a mastered Law. There were hundreds of thousands of Void Spawn. They didn't have enough stamina, mana, or qi to deal with this.
As if that wasn't enough, less than five minutes into the battle, he noticed people slowing down, looking around scaredly, or attacking empty spaces. That bastard Karlov was still going with his damn Stress Discipline test! Another few minutes later, at least a tenth of the D-ranks were fighting close to someone else, sharing their troubles at the top of their lungs as they began hearing voices.
Shen turned to Zyn.
The First Lieutenant was already looking at him. Shen had no trouble identifying the man's glare for what it was: a dare. He was challenging Shen to help the D-ranks before one of them was at least seriously injured.
The military forbade needless sacrifices but despised needless heroism almost as much. When deployed, every fighter was meant to deal with their own problems and only save someone else if there was no alternative. If Shen acted, he would use his focus and energy to kill weak enemies. It might change the entire battle's outcome once the powerful foes came. That was only allowed in unquestionable emergencies.
The worst part was that he and other leaders had been trained to identify the line that proved that the situation was too dire for his subordinates. Sure, there were enough signs that his troops weren't exhausted, and using the military martial arts they were supposed to know would see them survive for at least another half hour—if none of them turned into Void Spawn, at least. But having a tenth of his people hearing voices was well beyond the line. It was only a matter of time until the worst happened, and Zyn knew it.
But despite Shen being called a commander, he wasn't deployed as a leader. Not really. This wasn't his mission; it was Zyn's. Shen was just another cog in the chain of command.
Only the First Lieutenant could give most orders because only he knew what strategy and tactics he had in mind. If Shen acted without his permission, he might get in the way of a plan that, if it failed, might see a more significant number of deaths than people he could directly save.
Shen took his helmet off.
One of the few liberties during deployment was one's own equipment. The military didn't care what you wore or which weapons you used. Another was that no one was required to pretend they were fine or liked their superiors. Words and actions were punishable, not emotions or looks.
So, Shen stared firmly at Zyn with unhidden fury.
Zyn held his gaze for a few minutes, then suddenly frowned and yelled something that Shen couldn't hear. Karlov, beside him, disappeared to pass the command to Uya and Xun, then to the others.
The next moment, the screeches stopped.
That wasn't supposed to happen until the fight was over. Shen hadn't been briefed on it.
But he had been brief on what happened next: the Wild Shifts.
The Laws allowed or forbidden by the Void Continuum spaces and Law Exclusion Zones started changing countless times every second. The feedback was so terrible that Shen felt he had been punched straight in the mind.
He became dazed, and his legs grew soft; he barely kept himself standing. That was better than over ninety percent of the C-ranks, who all fell to their knees or fainted. All D-ranks fainted at once; although they couldn't feel Laws, the place became too unstable and hostile to life.
Whoever lost consciousness had it better than Shen. The Wild Shifts changed everything for him. His mental defenses were no longer enough to keep everything pressuring him at bay.
Overwhelming terror took hold of his whole existence.
He looked left and saw Void Spawn about to stab people to death. He looked right and witnessed a mouth with three rows of fanged teeth about to big a girl's face off. He looked at the unconscious Alicia and was sure, beyond any shred of doubt, beyond any questioning, that she would kill him somehow.
A tiny, tiny part of him told him—
He didn't know what it said because he had no time to hear it. He had to leave. He had to escape Alicia before—
Sabers materialized out of nowhere inside every Void Spawn that had gone past Uya and Xun, who were now killing every creature that got close. The sabers were filled with qi. Every monster died at once.
Shen turned to look at Zyn. How could he have forgotten?! That was the bigger threat! Zyn would kill Shen! Sheen had to escape—
"Commander's orders: retreat," Karlov whispered into Shen's ear.
Shen turned in panic, swinging his spear, only to strike empty air.
Karlov. Karlov could kill him, too. This had been a threat. If he ran, Karlov could get to him without his notice.
Shen had to stay. He had to play pretend. He had to act like everything was fine as he looked for the chance to leave.
He looked around, looking at everyone. He couldn't trust anyone. He wouldn't. If Reality's stability itself couldn't be trusted, no one was trustworthy.
From what he saw in all other conscious C-rank's eyes, they agreed with him.
But they were liars. Pretenders. They wanted him to feel connected to their plight.
He wouldn't. He knew better. Sympathy would be his downfall. He could only trust himself and his Path. The spear in his hands would be the key to his safety. Whoever got too close would get a taste of it.
Shen promised himself he would leave this place alive, no matter who he had to kill.