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Using the fleeing exosuits below me as a springboard, I reached the scorpion-tailed monsters in no time at all.

Perhaps it was because I had just slain one of their numbers, but upon noticing my presence, a fair number of them immediately abandoned their current prey, instead electing to rush at me, even going so far as to ignore the survivors running past them…

Speaking of survivors, the cruel irony of this whole tragedy wasn’t lost on me at all. Amongst all the survivors right now, the ones who joined us the latest had to be the most unfortunate. We had no exosuits for them, so I had them arranged right in the center of the contingent. Yet what looked like the safest place ended up being the opposite when the monsters suddenly ambushed us. I wasn’t even talking about the monsters killing them either…

Weighing in at one and a half tonnes, the entertainment exosuits easily had the impact of a hover car when they sprinted. In other words, amidst the mass panic of the ambush, the ten or so survivors without exosuits were crushed or smashed to pieces by the ones who were supposed to be guarding them… A veritable hell on Gaia for them…

Seeing the field of mangled corpses laid out before me, a wave of anger immediately consumed me. My body shook with fury, and my eyes turned red with blood…

I hated those monsters. I wanted them dead, every last one of them. At the same time, I hated those cowards, even armed with an exosuit, they still fled like mice. Above all, I hated myself for not noticing the monsters, and for not being able to protect those trampled people…

As more survivors fell, my heart only beat that much faster.

“RAWWWRR!” I let forth a guttural roar, born from my inner helplessness. I took one last leap off an exosuit, then took to the air like a bird!

At the same time, one of the canine/scorpion skeletons leapt as well. With its massive body more akin to a bull, it naturally radiated an oppressive pall. In terms of strength alone, it was leagues above me.

However, I had Icy Inferno with me! Knuckles white from gripping, I swung the mighty sword at the mid-air monster, slicing it apart with the force of my upward ascent. A clean victory. Unfortunately, that also meant that I was now on a descent straight into a pile of waiting monsters.

The bones of my fallen enemy still falling with a clang around me, I immediately kicked off the ground the moment my feet came into contact with the ground, twisting my body at the same, and narrowly avoiding a leaping skeleton. But that wasn’t the end either. The monster was now exposed at his flank, and I swiftly followed up with a spinning swing of Icy Inferno.

The impossible mix of fire and ice on its blade cut easily through its ribs. Then with another swing in the reverse direction, I cut its head! By the time it landed on the ground, it crumbled into a pile of harmless bones.

Revolution Slice was a counter move used during a dodge. Thanks to my superhuman reflexes, I was able to further master its intricacies. In fact, it almost felt like this technique was made for me! Like really made for me!

All right! It’s time for you monsters to become my stepping stones!

As the battle raged on, I only got more and more aggressive. Every slice of Icy Inferno left behind an inextinguishable flame on their bodies. Armed with Revolution Slice, I was able to safely avoid their attacks while launching an attack of my own. In barely a minute, I had sliced apart another four more scorpion-tailed skeletons. Even when they tried to surround me, I could easily cut through them when I dodged.

Even though these monsters were a lot smarter and faster than those zombies, they still weren’t a match for me in reflexes and sheer destructive power. Their tactics were swift but predictable – not a threat at all to me.

While I battled the monsters, I threw a glance in the direction of the girls from time to time. Roughly half of the monsters had been attracted by my actions, that left another half attacking the survivors, of which one unfortunate monster ended up attacking the girls.

Like a well-oiled machine, the girls backed away in unison. Bitong commanded the three unmanned exosuits to act as shields for them, forcefully grabbing onto the tail of that monster and locking down the monster in the process.

The force of three exosuits was more than enough to suppress that skeleton, especially when those three were all acting under one will. The first exosuit locked down the monster’s tail. The second jumped onto the monster’s back. The third locked the monster’s neck in a chokehold, completing the seal on its movements.

From the sides, Lixiang and Jiaojiao both wielded their hammers and began smashing its head, cracking open its skull in no time at all…

Hah… who would have thought that the girls would come through like that… and Jiaojiao was even crying just moments ago too… look at her swing that hammer now… In fact, she seems strangely practised in slamming that hammer down onto round objects… yikes…

Now that we had taken care of a portion of the monsters, the fleeing survivors began to realise that these monsters weren’t as undefeatable as they first thought. Especially after how they saw the girls gang up on that lone skeleton.

If even those young girls can do it, why can’t we? The older men amongst them were probably thinking. That’s right! In fact, some of them even voiced this thought out.

Soon after, a number of survivors began banding up into teams of four and five to take on the monsters. Lest one forgot, these exosuits still had weapons on them, though not very efficient ones. Emboldened, they began overwhelming the monsters with sheer numbers. A shield-wielding exosuit would first block the tail, while the others would then take the opportunity to dogpile on the monster. Following that, another exosuit would crack open the monster’s skull.

With a successful example to learn from, the entire morale of the contingent began to soar! Never would I have thought that these potatoes would mount a counterattack like that! Was this what it means to lead by example? The difference between “CHARGE!” and “WITH ME!”.

Thanks to the overwhelming numbers and inherently sturdy defenses of the survivors, the majority of our casualties ended up only being the initial few and those who were trampled to death…

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE