Chapter 147: Rushing to the Battlefield

Seeing that every student had obediently fallen silent, the commander of the Shadow Legion continued through his megaphone. “I will say this only one last time. If any student dares to do anything unrelated to the mission during its execution, they will be expelled immediately. Now, let us discuss today’s mission!

“Our target is a guild called the Monroe Guild. Before the Evolution Sphere descended, it was an organization devoted to lucid dreaming and the study of dreams. After the Evolution Sphere descended, its members—having spent years researching lucid dreams—possessed mental strength several times greater than that of ordinary people. Many of them became powerful mages and later joined the Sophon Legion. In just one month, this guild has established a base and occupied an entire stretch of woodland. Our mission today is to destroy that base.

“I will lead the Shadow Legion in a frontal assault on the Monroe Guild. The students from the other four schools will guard the east, south, west, and north. Any enemy who manages to escape is to be killed on sight. Is that understood?”

“Understood!”

More than a thousand soldiers of the Shadow Legion and the students from the four schools responded in unison.

The commander of this mission was Jiang Ye, deputy to General Lin Feng, supreme commander of Star City’s Shadow Legion. A minor guild such as this was hardly worth General Lin Feng’s personal attention.

Jiang Ye led the Shadow Legion through the dense forest. The students and instructors from the four schools followed behind. Most of the students could not match the elite soldiers of the Shadow Legion in stamina, and several times Jiang Ye was forced to order the soldiers to halt and wait for those bringing up the rear.

Jiang Ye shook his head helplessly. If this had not been a compulsory order from above—to bring the students into real combat and train them—he would have driven these weaklings away himself.

The army hurried onward for nearly three hours beneath the blazing sun. It was nearly noon.

At last, the Shadow Legion came to a halt.

Jiang Ye’s low voice came through Chen Mo’s radio. “The target of today’s attack—the Monroe Guild—is not far ahead. From this moment on, everyone must remain completely silent and advance slowly. Anyone who deliberately makes a sound will be dealt with under military law!”

Chen Mo signaled to his team not to make a sound, and they moved forward at a cautious pace.

Everyone crept along gingerly, stepping on the fallen leaves one careful step at a time.

Huff… huff…

The tension in the air was so intense that everyone could hear his own breathing.

Jiang Ye made a hand signal, and the soldiers of the Shadow Legion dropped flat onto the ground with practiced precision.

The students behind them imitated their movements.

Looking ahead, they could vaguely make out a wooden stronghold about a thousand meters away. It was square in shape, enclosed by ten-meter-high wooden palisades. A twenty-meter-high wooden watchtower rose above the walls, with someone stationed at the top to monitor the surroundings.

At that moment, the stronghold’s gates opened. Dozens of villagers carrying baskets on shoulder poles entered the stronghold, sweat pouring from their heads as they struggled beneath their heavy loads.

Jiang Ye lowered his voice and relayed the order. “They’re villagers from the surrounding area, here to supply the Monroe Guild. Do not attack yet. Wait until all the villagers have come out. Then we strike!”

They waited nearly half an hour. The villagers emerged from the stronghold carrying empty baskets. They chatted and laughed among themselves, each holding several hundred-yuan notes. Judging by their expressions, they had earned quite a bit of money.

Once the villagers had gone far enough, Jiang Ye raised his hand and gave the signal to attack.

In an instant, more than a thousand Shadow Legion soldiers surged forward in perfect formation.

At the Monroe Stronghold, the guards atop the watchtower saw the dark mass charging toward them and shouted at the top of their lungs, “Enemy attack! Enemy attack! All members, prepare for battle!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Dozens of rockets streaked through the air, blasting the watchtower and the wooden gates into splinters.

Jiang Ye switched forms. Clad in a C-grade Blazing Sun warrior suit and wielding a three-meter-long Blazing Sun greatsword, he cried out in a ringing voice, “Kill!”

All one thousand Shadow soldiers switched forms as well, each wearing a D-grade suit. Four hundred heavily armored shield-bearers advanced at the front, carrying thick shields. Their heavy footsteps thundered against the earth as though the ground itself were trembling.

Four hundred lightly armored assault soldiers followed behind them, each armed with a longsword.

The remaining two hundred Shadow soldiers formed a modern weapons unit. Some carried RPGs, others sniper rifles, submachine guns, or assault rifles.

In other words, the Shadow Legion had no mages for the time being. Actual combat had shown that in large-scale warfare, mages were inferior to modern weapons: firearms provided ample firepower, had no cooldown, and delivered tremendous destructive power.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Before a single enemy could even be seen within the stronghold, hundreds of fireballs and blades of wind came hurtling toward them.

Jiang Ye did not so much as change expression. He roared, “Heavy shields, formation!”

The four hundred shield-bearers instantly arranged themselves into two rows, creating a double-layered wall of shields and, with their bodies, forming a ten-meter-high barrier.

Rumble! Rumble!

Fireballs, blades of wind, and every other kind of spell crashed against the shield barrier, vanishing without a trace. They could not break through the combined defense of the four hundred shield-bearers.

Jiang Ye spoke with the calm of long experience. “Don’t rush! Push forward one step at a time! Keep the rockets firing! Blast the inside of the stronghold and scatter their defensive formation!”

“Ho! Ho! Ho!”

With every step the four hundred shield-bearers took, they released a thunderous roar. Their pounding footsteps shook the earth and stirred the blood.

“Monroe immortality! The Heavenly Law of the Sophons! We’ll fight these tyrants who defy the Heavenly Law to the bitter end!”

The people of the Monroe Guild knew that remaining inside the stronghold would only leave them trapped like turtles in a jar. They threw caution to the wind and charged headlong into the Shadow Legion.

More than a hundred evolved fighters from the Monroe Guild, clad in battle armor and wielding weapons, burst forth with charging slashes and triple strikes.

Hundreds of mages unleashed spell after spell, bombarding the shield wall in a relentless barrage. Cracks began to spread across the barrier, and it was clear that it could no longer hold for much longer.

Jiang Ye raised his Blazing Sun greatsword and charged to the very front. “Shield-bearers, spread out! Assault unit, follow me! Kill!”

The Shadow’s Three Swords: Vanguard Sword! Fury Sword! Rampage Sword!

Weapons clashed, and light and shadow flickered chaotically.

Hundreds of compressed fireballs and bursts of explosive flame tore through the battlefield. No matter how high their health or how thick their armor, dozens of Shadow soldiers were blown to pieces.

Lightning spells, rolling boulders, blades of wind, and tornadoes followed one after another. As a guild centered primarily around magic, the Monroe Guild possessed every kind of high-level spell imaginable.

But the Shadow soldiers did not fear death. They braved the magic and unleashed their expertly trained Shadow’s Three Swords. In a single charge, each sword struck four times. Four hundred soldiers produced more than a thousand rampaging sword auras, instantly slaughtering a hundred defenseless mages of the Monroe Guild. Heads were severed from bodies, corpses were hacked apart, blood flowed like a river, and bodies piled into mountains.

This was war—a game built upon the sacrifice of lives.

Chen Mo and his squad, however, had no right to participate in the battle itself. They were stationed five hundred meters from the battlefield on the southern side. Under Jiang Ye’s orders, Pingli Middle School was responsible for guarding the south and stopping any enemies who attempted to flee.

The other three schools guarded the remaining three directions. Their missions were identical: interception only.

For many of the students, this was their first encounter with war. Watching the imposing Shadow soldiers turn into cold corpses in an instant, they felt their eyes redden, and tears began to fall despite themselves.

Many others grew sick at the sight of the mangled bodies on the ground and vomited.

That was the true purpose of sending the students into battle: to make them understand how brutal, bloody, and terrifying the battlefield was.

Yet while most of the students stood stunned by the slaughter before them, Chen Mo was grinning so broadly that his mouth nearly split in two.

[Sophon +1]

[Sophon +1]

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[Sophon +1]