Stopping and starting like this, they dragged what should have been a ten-minute trek into half an hour.
Finally, they drew near to Area C's core rescue point.
Ahead lay a sunken quarry pit.
A faint scent of blood drifted through the air.
Jiang Wangzhi had still been smiling.
The moment she caught the scent of blood, her smile vanished instantly.
Something had gone wrong.
Pei Linchuan also sensed that something was amiss.
He immediately flashed a hand sign.
"All units, on guard! There's a scent of blood!"
Tang Li shoved the bearing into her pack and drew her heavy blade.
Zhou Ye also raised his shield, stepping forward to shield the group.
Xie Zhi, forcibly shaken awake by Zhou Ye, yawned as he turned on his terminal's radar.
"Beep, beep, beep—"
On the radar screen, three massive red dots instantly lit up.
Xie Zhi's gaze cleared slightly.
"Bottom of the pit ahead."
"Three Star Beasts. Massive builds, extremely strong vital signs."
Pei Linchuan dropped prone at the edge of the pit immediately, looking down through the high-powered scope on his sniper rifle.
Once he saw the situation below clearly, his face fell.
At the bottom of the pit.
Four or five freshmen were huddled back-to-back inside an abandoned iron cage.
Every single one was wounded and drenched in blood.
And outside the iron cage...
...furiously ramming into it were three mountain-sized behemoths covered in black scales.
Armored Rhinoceroses.
These weren't Soldier-rank Star Beasts at all!
These were General-class Star Beasts!
Han Zheng's intel had been completely wrong.
This wasn't some low-value rescue zone—it was a deadly trap!
"Listen to me."
Pei Linchuan's voice was grim as never before.
He turned his head to look at the four people behind him.
"Down below are General-class Armored Rhinoceroses."
"Their defense is astonishing. Their weak point is the white patch beneath the neck."
"We cannot take them head-on."
Pei Linchuan began laying out tactics in rapid succession.
This was the field where he excelled most.
"I'll set up my rifle."
"I'll fire to draw the one on the left."
"Zhou Ye, rush down with your shield. Defend only; you are not permitted to attack. Stall the one in the middle."
"Tang Li..."
Before Pei Linchuan could finish his sentence, a bloodcurdling shriek suddenly came from the pit.
An Armored Rhinoceros's massive horn slammed violently into the iron cage.
The iron bars snapped.
A deep gash was ripped across a girl's arm, blood gushing freely.
Zhou Ye caught sight of the scene.
His eyes instantly went bloodshot.
"Get away from our classmates!"
Zhou Ye let out a thunderous roar.
Ignoring Pei Linchuan's tactical instructions entirely, he held up his shield and leaped straight down from the edge of the ten-meter pit like an artillery shell!
"Boom!"
Zhou Ye slammed heavily onto the floor of the pit.
Instead, he swung his thick metal shield, smashing it viciously toward the head of the middle Armored Rhinoceros!
The corner of Pei Linchuan's eye twitched frantically.
"Zhou Ye! Fall back! You can't hold out alone!"
Tang Li stood at the pit's edge, her eyes glued onto the three Armored Rhinoceroses.
She hadn't even looked at the injured students.
Her mind was completely occupied by the entries from the Star Beast Illustrated Compendium.
Armored Rhinoceros scales.
Market price: ten thousand Star Coins a pound!
A fortune!
"Zhou Ye! Save me the horn on that one's head! That's the most valuable part!"
Tang Li let out a loud shout, hefted her heavy blade, and leaped right down after him!
Caring nothing about left or right flanks, she slashed straight at the nearest Armored Rhinoceros.
In the blink of an eye, the pit descended into utter chaos.
Zhou Ye was barging around wildly at the front.
Tang Li was hacking blindly from behind.
The Star Beasts roared frantically.
Tactics?
Coordination?
All of it had been tossed straight out the window.
Pei Linchuan lay prone on the rim of the pit.
The sniper rifle remained held in his hands, but inside his scope, there was nothing but Zhou Ye and Tang Li bounding and flitting about.
Several times he wanted to fire, only to nearly shoot his own teammates.
Pei Linchuan drew a deep breath.
He shut his eyes, trembling all over in fury.
Jiang Wangzhi crouched beside him.
Watching the chaotic pandemonium down below, she drew in a sharp breath of cold air.
It was over.
How was this fighting monsters?
They were basically rushing in to serve themselves up as snacks!
Xie Zhi leisurely suppressed a yawn.
Finding a clean rock nearby, he sat down.
Looking at the two who were on the verge of being trampled flat by the Armored Rhinoceroses below, he asked faintly,
"Jiang Wangzhi."
"Is it too late to quit the team now?"
"Too late."
Jiang Wangzhi glanced back at Xie Zhi, wanting to cry but having no tears.
"If we quit now, the system will rule that we died right here in the pit."
At the bottom of the pit, everything fell into a complete and total mess.
Zhou Ye was like an enraged bull, holding up that heavy half-body shield to brace desperately against the central Armored Rhinoceros.
Yet he had no rhythm whatsoever.
"Clang!"
The rhinoceros's horn slammed into the shield.
The jolt forced Zhou Ye back three steps, his boots plowing two deep ruts into the muddy ground.
Before he even stabilized his footing, he roared once more and threw himself forward.
Nearby,
Tang Li, carrying that nicked-up heavy blade, was trying to circle around to the left flank to find the rhino's weak point.
Yet just as she found the right spot,
Zhou Ye suddenly dodged to the left to deflect the impact.
The massive Armored Rhinoceros veered with the momentum, its immense bulk sweeping directly toward her.
"Fuck! Zhou Ye, are you blind?!"
Tang Li cursed furiously.
She was forced to pull back her blade and roll clumsily across the ground, barely dodging the trampling foot of the rhinoceros.
She ended up with a mouthful of dirt.
Not only was there zero coordination between the two, they were practically trying to murder each other.
To make matters worse, the other two Armored Rhinoceroses by the iron cage noticed the commotion over here as well.
Abandoning their assault on the cage, they turned, their bloodshot eyes locking onto Zhou Ye and Tang Li.
Three General-class Star Beasts.
They formed an inescapable encirclement.
Pei Linchuan lay prone on the rim of the pit, veins bulging across the back of the hands gripping his sniper rifle.
Through his high-magnification scope, he glared rigidly at the chaotic mess below.
He couldn't shoot.
There was simply no way to fire.
Zhou Ye's movement completely defied logic, and Tang Li was scurrying around like a madwoman.
Their silhouettes constantly overlapped with the Star Beasts.
If he forced a shot, there was an eighty percent chance he would blow Zhou Ye's head clean off.
"Xie Zhi! Call out coordinates!"
Pei Linchuan gritted his teeth and ordered coldly.
Xie Zhi sat on the rock, languidly watching his terminal screen.
"The one on the left is three meters from Tang Li, charging up."
"The one on the right is preparing to charge."
"The one in the middle... oh, the one in the middle is about to stomp Zhou Ye to death."
His tone was as nonchalant as if he were broadcasting the weather, without the slightest hint of urgency.
Pei Linchuan was so enraged he nearly crushed the rifle barrel.
What kind of bullshit team was this?!
The frontline charged blindly, the attacker hacked wildly, and the intel guy acted like a spectator enjoying a show!
Jiang Wangzhi crouched nearby, hands clasped tightly over her mouth.
Hold back.
She had to hold back.
As long as she kept quiet, this team was definitely finished.
Sustaining a few injuries was fine; the military academy had medical pods, so nobody would die.
As long as the assessment failed, she could be expelled naturally.
However...
Her eyes fell toward the bottom of the pit.
Zhou Ye's shield was already heavily warped, the webbing between his thumbs and forefingers torn open, blood soaking his entire arms.
In an attempt to save Zhou Ye, Tang Li had forcibly absorbed a tail whip from an Armored Rhinoceros, sending her flying into the rock face.
She hadn't been able to climb back up.
The Armored Rhinoceros on the far right had already raised its front hooves high, aiming straight for Tang Li's head.
If it stomped down, her brains would definitely be splattered on the spot.
This wasn't just getting injured.
People were actually going to die!
Jiang Wangzhi's pupils violently contracted.
Fuck the zero score!