Chapter 425 - Despair
With the fall of the level 35 soul evolver belonging to Baiquan Camp's side, the fall of the rest of the soul evolvers was only a matter of time. After all, even though Baiquan Camp had a First Order soul evolver more than the enemy, this was only because those two women who watched everything indifferently from the ice tree had not yet made their move.
Worse yet, the enemy leader and those two unknown people standing next to him were not even present.
The original idea was to defeat the enemy army by making use of numbers and weapons power, however, things did not always turn out as one had intended. Forget about defeating the enemy before their terrifying leader arrived, they would probably all be buried here today!
A First Order soul evolver named Shao Feng whose level had reached 27 and was currently facing Fu Xuefeng went into Invisibility mode taking advantage of the opportunity presented to him when everyone, including his enemy, was distracted for a moment. However, instead of fleeing, what Shao Feng did was to move a little away from the battlefield and whisper in a stiff voice into the intercom he was holding:
"Mayor Bai, I'm afraid I don't have good news."
In the command center, the faces of Commander Jin Shun and Mayor Bai Yong were pale as they watched the monitors before them.
There were previously more than two hundred cameras placed at different points in the ruined city. They had even sent a group of soul evolvers to hold back the beasts on the outer perimeter of the forest while placing cameras around the area as well. However, at this point, there were over 60 cameras that had been lost so all that could be seen on the monitors was a bunch of faded black, white, and gray streaks.
But with the 150 or so cameras left it was enough for hell to break loose in the eyes of the two top leaders of Baiquan Camp.
"Who is that person?" Shen Mei muttered in astonishment as she saw Chen He flashing like a ghost, appearing and disappearing.
When he appeared he would turn into the flames of chaos that destroyed everything in his path, and when he disappeared he was the bane of his enemies that wouldn't let them sleep in peace.
Such a powerful soul evolver should not be completely unknown! Shen Mei believed that with the power that the archer of the enemy side was showing, Jin Shun and Bai Yong should have gotten some information about him.
On camera number 5, an IFV who was desperately struggling in an attempt to hurt the enemy was turned into a huge burning fireball after receiving several magic arrows and exploding.
However, the enemy archer was not in good condition either. The talented archer's movements were becoming increasingly stiff, his movement speed had dropped by at least 20%, and the power of his attacks, as well as the speed at which he attacked, had dropped tremendously.
Bai Yong took a deep breath to calm himself and said in a deep voice, "That archer's name is Chen He. According to reports, he has been with Bai Zemin since the beginning of the apocalypse and is one of his closest subordinates, he was even conferred important titles and is in charge of a large army of armed men. Regarding his power, before this it was basically unknown as very rarely was he forced to unleash himself on an enemy so he mostly uses normal arrows or smaller caliber bullets to finish them off."
"... I see..." Shen Mei simply nodded and turned her gaze back to the monitors. "It looks like this person named Chen He won't be able to hold out much longer."
One didn't need to be a soul evolver to notice the clear drop in the enemy's demonstration of power. Even the two normal people inside the command center noticed it.
"This Chen He should be the third strongest soul evolver under Bai Zemin's command." Commander Jin Shun analyzed in a serious voice, "If we can take him down here it will be a big shock to the enemy morale."
"But what about Bai Zemin then?" This question was asked by Shen Mei, again.
"Bai Zemin disappeared after making that attack and even took that woman with him." Mayor Bai Yong replied with some relief, "Now that I remember, that woman seemed to be named Nangong Lingxin and her main skill is a magic barrier. Maybe she was the one who stopped the previous attack and received a backlash as a result."
Although it was not very reliable, Bai Yong's words greatly relaxed Jin Shun and the two soul evolvers who were protecting him at all times. As for Shen Mei, she remained indifferent about the winner or loser; as long as she wasn't too much prejudiced everything would be fine.
"However, there is something I don't understand." Shen Mei quietly inquired as she looked at the monitors in an attempt to locate the now missing archer, "If that young man named Chen He is the third strongest of the enemy faction, then who is the second?"
Chen He's power could be categorized as terrifying in a single word. With his current power he was literally capable of taking on a large battalion of soldiers or a small ironclad battalion, and he was proving it live and direct.
"That person would be a beautiful young lady named Shangguan Bing Xue." It was the commander of the military army who answered this time. His slightly excited voice sounded inside the command center, "That woman is not only beautiful like a heavenly fairy but also possesses a power capable of scaring ghosts."
Then, as if realizing something, he said with a hint of regret in his voice, "A pity. A young, beautiful, and talented woman falling to nothing more than a bandit's dog."
The same as Bai Yong, Jin Shun had sent some people to investigate the enemy camp so it could not be said that he was completely uninformed.
When Jin Shun saw the picture that one of his spies had secretly managed to take of Shangguan Bing Xue, he felt his whole body go soft. Never in his entire life had he ever seen a woman as beautiful as she was; beautiful to the point where there were no words to say but plenty to feel.
Unfortunately, Jin Shun was not an idiot. According to reports, Shangguan Bing Xue practically disdained almost all men to the point where she would not give them a single look, and as if that were not enough, her power could only be described as bellicose. A character like her who was arrogant and proud as well as extremely powerful would definitely not completely submit to any man.
It was impossible for Jin Shun to even dream of holding her captive for him. After all, soul evolvers possessed all sorts of mysterious skills, and as long as they were given enough time, they could recover their Mana and Stamina to 100% becoming killing machines once again.
"Shangguan Bing Xue?" Shen Mei blinked and muttered under her breath, "Where did I hear that name before...? Besides, also beautiful and arrogant..."
Just then, one of Bai Yong's intercom lights lit up and immediately afterwards a low, anxious voice reached everyone's ears.
"Mayor Bai, I'm afraid I don't have good news."
"Shao Feng? What's happenin'." Bai Yong's expression changed after recognizing the voice of one of his strongest men and for some reason he felt a bad premonition in his heart.
"The number of enemy soul evolvers greatly exceeds what we had estimated at the beginning. They numbered around 700 at the start of the battle!"
""What?!""
Bai Yong and Jin Shun shouted at the same time with their eyes wide open. Both men saw the disbelief in each other's eyes when they heard the news.
Shen Mei and the other two soul evolvers looked at each other as they gasped in shock.
Seven hundred soul evolvers? One had to know that Baiquan Camp had approximately 20,000 survivors of which approximately 7000 were part of the military troops or police forces; of course, of these 7000 only about 2000 of them were real experts with real training, the rest were just recruited survivors and the hit rate of these people did not exceed 20% at 100 meters distance with a rifle, in fact, some were even worse than that.
The high command of Baiquan Camp had tried to recruit as many as possible and although they also recruited and encouraged some soul evolvers, the truth was that they did not focus too much on this so they barely counted around 400 soul evolvers in total.
Four hundred was not a small number, however, compared to the seven hundred enemy soul evolvers the difference was more than noticeable. But this was not the main problem... The main problem was that the enemy camp didn't even have 10000 people!
How on earth did this Bai Zemin and his trusted subordinates manage to make those cowardly survivors dare to fight against zombies and beasts in melee? It was the question that everyone had in their hearts.
Although Bai Yong and Jin Shun knew perfectly well that the soul evolvers were the future of mankind and that the more they controlled the better their future would be, the truth was that both men were aware of the saying "if you try to bite off more than you can chew, you will choke". The mayor and the commander were cautious and rather smart people, they feared that they would not be able to properly control the soul evolvers; they feared that the faithful dog would one day notice that their teeth were sharp enough to make the master suffer and would turn around to bite them.
Therefore, even though both men knew that soul evolvers were the way to go, for fear of losing everything overnight they decided as if by prior agreement to close their eyes and focus mostly on training and fostering troops equipped with modern weaponry while maintaining a small troop of soul evolvers. The one who focused more on soul evolvers between Bai Yong and Jin Shun was naturally the mayor as he somehow needed to balance himself against the power of the commander's armored forces.
Shao Feng, the soul evolver who had started the communication, hurriedly continued, "Mayor Bai, Wang Yang was killed.... Our soul evolvers are being slaughtered one after another and for each enemy killed four or five of our own fall first. In addition, they have more First Order beings but there are two women who have not even moved or attacked even a single time. Even though these two women appear to be just normal humans, the look of confidence in their eyes as well as the slight disdain when my eyes met theirs for a moment suggests that these two women are anything but weak....Ugh.... What is this? Ice? From where...?-"
The more they hear Shao Feng's words, the more the people in the command room within the base's inner core were shocked and frightened. Before they realized it, Shao Feng's voice could no longer be heard.
"Commander Jin." Bai Yong looked at the fat man beside him with a deadly serious expression and said with slight despair, "I'm afraid we underestimated the enemy.... If we don't put aside our differences completely, then this very day next year really will be the anniversary date of our death."
The military army commander of Baiquan Camp remained silent for a moment as he heard this before finally gritting his teeth and as if there was quite a decision he looked at the two soul evolvers in charge of his personal security before ordering in a deep voice, "Huo Xiang, Xue Cai. Support the armed troops and take down the enemy archer no matter what it takes!"
The two soul evolvers whose level averaged 40 looked at each other. They both saw the hesitation in each other's eyes, which was understandable considering that things were far from good for the side they were fighting for. However, remembering that they had family and Jin Shun could use it to threaten them, they had no choice but to submit and nod obediently.
Just as this was happening, Shen Mei pointed to a particular monitor and said in surprise: "That lecherous dog Mo Zan is finally there! He's apparently eyeing the archer instead of Bai Zemin!"
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