Rrrrrumble!
A tremendous roar, followed by vibrations traveling through the ground.
Twenty-year-old Shao Shen stared toward the horizon, unable to believe what he was seeing.
How can monsters that should be thousands of kilometers away be here…?
He was not the only one asking that question.
More than a thousand Hunters from the Public Security Armed Forces and five thousand soldiers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, dispatched to maintain public order, were stationed at Chengdu International Airport. Every one of them wondered the same thing as they stared in horror at the reality bearing down on them.
-
Squeeeal!
-
Grrrrr!
From low-level monsters like goblins and orcs to higher monsters like trolls, ogres, and lycanthropes, a vast army of monsters filled the horizon and charged forward with hideous roars.
The one-kilometer distance was shrinking by the second. Shouts like screams erupted across the airport.
“Form ranks by unit! Assemble! Assembllllle—!”
“Fire! Fire! I said fire!”
Rat-a-tat-tat! Boom!
The People’s Liberation Army hurriedly formed ranks and poured on the firepower at their commanders’ orders, but the effect was pitifully small.
They had been caught off guard by the monster army’s sudden attack.
The soldiers, who were merely ordinary people without any abilities, froze as fear locked their bodies. Their firearms were at best only effective against the low-level monsters.
“There are too many monsters! There are too many!”
“Pilots!”
“Get the fighter jets into the air! Bomb them from above—!”
The desperate shouts of the commanders were drowned out the next moment by a savage roar that rang across the sky.
- Kyaaaauuu!
“W-What is that?”
“A wyvern! It’s a wyvern!”
A massive body came flying with the setting sun behind it.
A wyvern, known as the terror of the skies, led dozens of griffons and gargoyles behind it.
The A-rank monsters descended with their several-meter wings angled, swooping down upon the fighter jets that had not yet managed to take off.
Krrrunch! Boom!
Powerful wingbeats rocked the several-ton masses of metal, while claws infused with magic tore through their fuselages like paper.
The metal fragments hurled away by the explosions crashed into the pilots running frantically across the tarmac.
Bang-bang! Crunch!
Instant death. They did not even have time to scream.
Once the commander regained his senses, the guns spat fire at his orders, but even hundreds or thousands of bullets could do little more than scratch the flesh and hide saturated with powerful magic.
- Kikikikit.
The monsters laughed at the helpless humans.
Everyone felt a shock and terror that made the hair all over their bodies stand on end.
“H-How can this be?”
A monster army filled both the ground and the sky. Creatures that could barely be harmed by firearms were monsters in the truest sense of the word.
“M-Monsters…”
“I-I have to live. I don’t want to die like a dog in a place like this!”
Fear of death spread faster than any epidemic.
As the soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army began backing away one by one, one person instead moved forward.
“Don’t retreat!”
Shao Shen, a young man whose boyishness had not yet faded, shouted with blazing eyes.
The Five-Star Red Flag of the People’s Republic of China was emblazoned on the chest of his armor.
“Who are we?”
At the young man’s question, those about to flee stopped in their tracks.
Shao Shen glared at the monster army charging from several hundred meters away. From beneath his helmet pulled low, his thunderous voice erupted once more.
“Who are we?”
The shout set their blood boiling.
With everyone’s eyes upon him, Shao Shen raised his spear point straight into the air.
“We are the descendants of Zhonghua! We are brothers of the People’s Liberation Army and the Public Security Armed Forces!”
An aura resembling the light of the setting sun surged from the spear point that rose as if to pierce the sky.
Ssssss!
“Let’s go! Let’s sweep away every last one of those monsters!”
“Waaaaah!”
A deafening roar shook the earth.
Led by Shao Shen, the Hunters of the Public Security Armed Forces gripped their weapons and charged into the monster army like fierce tigers.
“Don’t retreat! Show them the power of Zhonghua!”
“Uraaaaaah!”
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Grrrrr!
-
Awooooo!
Human cries filled with the resolve to face death mingled with the monsters’ roars.
The two groups became one mass as they crashed into each other.
Kra-kra-kra-boom!
A clash that shook the heavens and earth.
And death raining down from every direction.
“Gaaaaah!”
- Kweeeek!
Thud! Crunch!
Screams and thunderous impacts rang out across the battlefield.
The aura-coated blade of an A-rank Hunter cleaved through a lycanthrope’s neck, while an ogre’s iron club sent three or four Hunters flying as bloody pulp.
Two Hunters worked together to bring down a monster and were about to swing their weapons at the next enemy.
A massive shadow fell over their heads.
- Kiiiiit!
Slash!
The talons of a diving griffon shredded their bodies along with their armor.
A large ball of fire flew toward the griffon as it searched for its next prey.
“Fireball!”
Bang!
The griffon’s body, gliding through the sky, staggered amid a cloud of acrid smoke.
The ranged units waiting on the ground for their chance did not miss the opening.
“Now!”
Boom! Bang-bang-bang!
Spells of every kind and arrows brimming with mana pierced the griffon.
As it plummeted with a final shriek, the other flying monsters let out savage cries.
- Kyaaaauuu!
The modern weapons made of lead and iron blocked the flying monsters diving toward the ranged units.
“Commence mass fire!”
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Boom!
Countless rifles and heavy weapons fired at once. Dozens of tanks spewed fire simultaneously.
Though modern weapons were no match for mana—the natural counter to monsters’ magic—concentrating all that firepower at once still forced even the flying monsters to falter.
- Kiiit!
“It works!”
“It’s useless anywhere else! Aim for their eyes!”
Monsters were born steeped in magic, and their flesh shrugged off most physical force.
Their eyes, however, were the sole exception.
Their eyeballs, covered only by a thin membrane, were vulnerable enough to damage if heavy weapons were brought to bear.
At the sight of the monsters hesitating, the division commander watching everything unfold waved his baton excitedly.
“More! Pour it on! Don’t let those monsters move an inch—”
Whoooooom!
His voice cut off.
Poison Breath fired by a green wyvern covered a radius of more than a hundred meters. The division commander and the command staff were drenched in potent acidic poison and melted away.
“D-Division Commander!”
“The command staff…!”
The People’s Liberation Army descended into panic after losing hundreds of soldiers and senior commanders in the blink of an eye.
Officers, noncommissioned officers, and soldiers alike stared at the horrific scene unfolding before them, crying out in shock.
“This can’t be happening…”
“N-No. This isn’t right. This can’t be happening! This isn’t my mission!”
Someone’s scream spoke for everyone.
They had brought their forces as a precaution, but their primary mission was to join up with and escort the foreign Hunters who would soon arrive at Chengdu International Airport, then follow orders from above.
They had never heard anything about a monster army that should have been thousands of kilometers away invading the airport.
“What the hell is going on…?”
“We’re going to die. We’re all going to die.”
The fear they had briefly forgotten settled over the heads of the People’s Liberation Army once more.
Unlike the Hunters of the Public Security Armed Forces fighting on the front lines, they were merely ordinary people carrying modern firearms.
And their ominous premonition soon became reality.
A nightmare far worse than they had imagined.
- Om. Ne. Ha. So. Yu.
A voice broken into disconnected syllables.
An eerie noise resembling the static of a radio with an unstable signal echoed across the battlefield.
Black fog that had rolled in from somewhere spread over the people’s heads.
- Yen. Wi. Ga. Ji. Ke!
That was when the horrifying change occurred.
Swoooooosh!
Dark magic as black as storm clouds spread like a web through the blood and corpses.
It breathed new strength and souls into bodies that were growing cold, then bound them in chains and enslaved them.
Snap. Snap-snap.
An army of skeletons rose slowly from the pools of death, granted new life.
Those beings had woven countless dead together with invisible chains and made them their slaves.
They laughed in satisfaction.
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Kik, kikikik.
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Grrk. Kihihihi.
- Grrrrr.
With a bubbling sound, a man rose to his feet.
Clad in armor bearing the Five-Star Red Flag and carrying a massive ax, he looked exactly like the A-rank Hunter Shao Shen remembered.
…Mr. Yao Wei.
But Shao Shen could not call the man’s name aloud.
He could not bring himself to.
He knew the figure before him was no longer the person he had known.
Ah… ahhh.
If Shao Shen had not witnessed the man’s decapitation a little over ten minutes earlier, if he had not seen him rise with his severed head tucked beneath his arm, Shao Shen would have thought of him as a comrade and friend.
But Yao Wei no longer existed.
His new name slipped from Shao Shen’s lips.
“Dullahan…”
A headless knight.
A Dullahan.
Shao Shen bit his lip at the sight of his comrade reborn as a higher undead monster. Something hot ran down his cheek.
“I’m sorry. I really am.”
- Grrrrraaaah!
The Dullahan charged with a roar, and Shao Shen shot forward like the wind.
In the past, the two of them had often sparred like this.
Their bouts had begun with nothing more than competitive pride and continued day after day. Once each spar ended, Shao Shen had to put up with Yao Wei’s complaints.
You little brat. No manners, none at all. Would it kill you to let me win once?
Ha-ha. Let’s go get something to eat. The loser pays, so I guess you’re buying again today, Mr. Yao Wei.
Your family’s loaded, and you’re still so cheap. One day, I’ll make you buy me a meal.
But that had never happened before, and now it never would.
Shao Shen had always won.
Goodbye. Thank you for everything.
Whoosh! Slash!
The ax cut through empty air. Aura surged from Shao Shen’s spear point and cleaved through the Dullahan’s upper body.
A cut line appeared, starting at his waist. The headless knight’s body slowly crumpled.
Thud. Slump.
Shao Shen stared blankly down at the face of the fallen Dullahan—no, Yao Wei.
His eyes burned.
“How dare you… How dare you do this…”
Friends and comrades who had been laughing and joking with him only half a day ago had become undead monsters.
The Hunters of the Public Security Armed Forces were famous for their strict discipline, but they were not cold-blooded people without a drop of human feeling.
The Hunters who had entered the battle prepared to die now faced the fear of human attachment for the first time.
“Wake up! It’s me, Ryu Inchin! Ryu Inchin!”
“H-Hyung…!”
- Grrrrr!
Crunch! Boom!
Screams and death rained down from every direction.
Unlike the Public Security Armed Forces, which had suffered casualties approaching half its strength, the monster army had increased its numbers and continued to surge forward without end.
Am I going to die here, like this?
For the first time in his life, Shao Shen thought about death.
The situation was desperate enough to make even someone as bright and cheerful as him think that way.
We didn’t receive any warning signal, so communications must be down. There won’t be any reinforcements either… This really is the end.
Slash!
Shao Shen cut down one charging undead monster after another, then laughed hollowly and looked up at the sky.
The sunset was surprisingly beautiful.
When the sun went down and darkness arrived, he would never see a sight like this again.
Thankfully, it’s not so bad for the last sky I’ll ever see…
Huh?
Shao Shen blinked, unable to finish the thought.
Something unimaginably enormous was rapidly approaching the battlefield from high above.
An airplane?
Whoooooom!
A massive aircraft engulfed in flames.
And someone’s shout rang across the vast sky.
“Hey! Monsters!”
“…?”
- …?
Am I hearing things?
Shao Shen was not the only one looking up.
Everyone on the battlefield raised their eyes toward the sky.
A voice that seemed even to carry madness thundered across the battlefield.
“I’m going to ram it!”
Ram what?
Shao Shen soon realized what the voice meant.
Rrrrrumble!
The airplane’s massive fuselage swept straight across the battlefield.
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