The valley held its breath.
Hundreds of massive shadows swallowed the crimson sky.
They plummeted toward the earth with a deafening shriek.
“Impact!” Lucy’s command cut across the valley.
BOOM.
The first Mawback slammed into the angled shield wall.
The barrier shuddered.
Shield-bearers dug their boots into the mud.
Veins bulged against their necks as they braced against the crushing weight.
Another monster hit.
The valley exploded into a storm of deafening impacts.
Three-meter beasts rained from the clouds.
Massive claws shrieked across steel before the monsters tumbled helplessly down the sloped barriers.
“They’re sliding!” “Hold the angle!” The moment the first Mawback hit the mud, the defensive line shifted.
“Melee!” Hunters burst through the narrow gaps.
A shield-bearer bashed forward, catching the creature’s attention.
His partner slipped beneath a swinging scythe-claw.
One thrust.
One twist.
The Mawback collapsed.
“Back!” Both Hunters slipped behind the wall.
Another monster crashed into their place.
BOOM.
Steel flashed.
Black blood sprayed across the dirt.
Lucy tracked the rhythm across the vanguard.
Strike.
Withdraw.
Next pair in.
A veteran met a falling beast head-on.
He threw his entire weight against his shield.
“Now!” His partner drove a blade straight through its throat.
They cut down a second monster a heartbeat later.
The veteran barked a gritty laugh.
He drove his shield into a third descending Mawback.
“If you make it home today, buy me the first round!” The Hunter beside him flashed a fierce grin.
“You’re buying for the whole damn squad!” Lucy swept the field, searching the wall for cracks.
To her left, two shield-bearers stumbled backward under a double-impact.
“Third Pair!
Seal it!” “Yes, Commander!” The waiting pair rushed forward.
They slammed their shields into place a fraction of a second before a Mawback forced its way through.
A deafening crash echoed near the center line.
THOOM.
Kellan’s massive hammer smashed into the dirt.
One Mawback flew backward.
Another leapt directly at him.
He met it in midair.
Violet Resonance flared around the hammer’s heavy head.
Bone shattered.
Black blood rained across the ground.
“Come on!” Kellan grinned through a mask of sweat and gore.
“You ugly bastards can jump higher than that!” The battlefield exploded into chaotic motion.
Lucy slipped between two descending Mawbacks.
Her spear traced a lethal silver arc.
One thrust pierced a throat.
She twisted the shaft, tore it free, and let the falling body crash into the beast behind it.
Before the second recovered, her spear swept across its neck.
Even the rookies found their rhythm.
A young Hunter stared at the twitching Mawback lying at his feet.
His chest heaved.
“I… I got one.” The veteran beside him didn’t even look down.
He raised his shield toward another falling shadow.
“Good.
Now get ready for the next bastard.” The battlefield settled into a brutal, grinding rhythm.
A sniper raised his rifle toward another descending Mawback.
“I’ve got it!” The shot cracked.
A bolt of violet Resonance pierced straight through the creature’s skull.
It died instantly.
But its massive body didn’t stop falling.
Lucy’s eyes widened.
“Move!” Too late.
Three tons of dead meat and chitin plowed directly into the Hunter formation.
CRUNCH.
The shockwave threw the nearest line off their feet.
When the spray of mud cleared, a single flattened shield protruded from beneath the monster’s belly.
The sniper stared at his trembling hands.
His friends were gone.
Another Mawback leapt into the air.
He raised his rifle, but froze.
The horrific realization rippled down the line.
One rifle lowered.
Then another.
One by one, the ranged units fell completely silent.
Without sniper support, the pressure on the frontline doubled.
Lucy drove her spear through another Mawback and wrenched it free.
A shadow swept over her.
She rolled beneath descending claws, came up on one knee, and thrust upward.
The creature’s jaw burst.
“Commander!
We’re running out of serum!” “Barrier Seven needs another shield!” “The right flank’s losing ground!” Every cry pulled at her.
She opened her mouth to issue an order.
A horrific scream drowned her out.
The battlefield fragmented into a chaotic smear of gray armor and black blood.
Without the snipers, shield teams failed.
Barriers collapsed, forcing Hunters to fight in scattered, desperate pockets.
A rookie pulled at the body of his partner.
“Come on…
get up…” The body didn’t move.
Another Mawback landed directly on them.
The rookie never even saw it.
BOOM.
The impact swallowed them both into the mud.
Lucy squeezed her spear.
“Commander!” Kellan shouted over the din.
She didn’t answer.
Another crash.
Another scream.
Her chest rose and fell in rapid, shallow gasps.
She shut her eyes.
Left flank.
No…the center.
No…the right.
Too many.
She lunged toward the left flank, driving her spear through a creature’s neck to save a struggling rookie.
“Medic!” a voice cried out behind her.
She spun.
A shield-bearer had fallen.
Before she could move, a fresh Mawback crashed onto his position.
Dust swallowed the impact.
When it cleared, the Hunter was gone.
Her breath caught in her throat.
She froze.
Her grip around the spear trembled so violently the metal rattled.
No matter how fast she moved, everywhere she arrived, someone had already died.
BOOM.
Kellan’s hammer landed directly between Lucy and a descending Mawback.
The creature split apart beneath the crushing weight.
Black blood splashed across her silver armor.
He turned to her.
Sweat soaked his face.
“Snap out of it, damn it!” He didn’t wait for an answer.
His hammer crashed into another descending Mawback.
He stepped forward.
One swing.
Another shattered skull.
“Lucy!” She stared blindly at the battlefield.
Her eyes darted from corpse to corpse.
“I…
I can’t.
They’re dying…” Another Mawback lunged.
Kellan stepped into it.
His hammer erupted with violet Resonance, splitting the creature open.
“I know!” he roared over the shrieking metal.
“But if you…keep trying to save every one of them, you’ll save none of them!” Another scream echoed from the right flank.
Lucy twitched toward it.
Kellan grabbed her shoulder.
His grip locked her in place.
“No.” She stared at him in sheer disbelief.
“He needs—” “So does everyone else!” Sweat poured from beneath his helmet.
He pointed his blood-soaked hammer at the collapsing line.
“This isn’t your spear talking anymore.
It’s your rank.
You don’t get to fight like a Sentinel today.
You fight like a commander!” Another Mawback landed.
He crushed it before it could stand.
Lucy forced herself to look across the valley.
The static line was a death trap against a swarm that attacked from the sky.
Kellan squeezed her shoulder.
“We can’t save everyone.
We save what we still can.” She closed her eyes.
One slow, agonizingly deep breath dragged through her lungs.
When her eyes opened again, the trembling stopped.
Her gaze swept across the valley.
Cold.
Calculating.
The shield wall broke because it tried to hold too much ground.
The melee Hunters were isolated.
Lucy tightened her grip on her spear and raised it high into the sky.
Her voice tore across the valley, amplified by pure Resonance.
“Break formation!” Every Hunter flinched toward her.
She didn’t give them a second to question it.
“Shield units!
Pair with one melee!
Split into left and right flanks!” “Ranged units!
Scatter to the ridges!
Maintain your distance!
Kill every bastard before they leap!” Understanding spread like wildfire.
The riflemen broke away from the collapsing formation.
They sprinted desperately toward the shattered boulders overlooking the valley.
“Forget the line!” Lucy roared.
“Tanks!
Protect your partner!
Your only job is to keep each other alive!” The rigid wall dissolved.
Every melee Hunter found a shield.
Every shield found a blade.
The massive battlefield fractured into dozens of independent, highly mobile micro-battles.
She pointed her spear toward the center of the valley.
“The middle is mine!” Kellan’s fierce grin returned.
“About damn time.” He rested the massive hammer across his shoulder.
“Come on, we’ll take the middle.” Lucy shot him a sideways glance.
“Stay alive.” He laughed.
“No promises.” They both charged.
The entire dynamic of the battlefield flipped.
A Mawback landed.
Instead of meeting a static wall, it met two highly mobile Hunters.
A shield slammed into its chest before it could find its footing.
The second Hunter stepped out of the blind spot and drove a blade through its throat.
Down in the mud, a Mawback coiled its legs to leap.
A sniper rifle cracked from the high ridge.
The violet round punched through the beast’s knee.
It stumbled.
A nearby melee pair finished it in seconds.
The hive’s rhythm faltered.
For the first time since the Rift exploded, the Mawbacks weren’t dictating the fight.
The Hunters were.
A veteran drove his blade into a collapsing beast and barked out a triumphant laugh.
“That’s it!
Cut the bastards down!” The momentum violently shifted.
Hunters who had been pushed backward began advancing.
Step by step.
Kill by kill.
The last Mawback collapsed into the mud.
⋙ ──── ✦ ──── ⋘ For the first time since the battle began, the Mutated Forest fell quiet.
Heavy, ragged breaths replaced the clash of steel.
One Hunter dropped to his knees, letting out a long, exhausted laugh.
He pulled off his dented helmet.
“We did it.” Another raised his bloodstained blade into the air.
“We won!” The cry spread rapidly through the surviving ranks.
“We won!” A few Hunters laughed hysterically.
Others collapsed onto the blood-soaked ground.
The crushing weight of the battle finally left their shoulders.
Medics rushed to the wounded.
Survivors embraced the friends who made it through.
Almost everyone looked toward the crimson Rift with relieved smiles.
But not everyone.
Lucy never lowered her spear.
Kellan rested his hammer against his shoulder.
His chest heaved.
His eyes stayed fixed on the swirling energy of the Gate.
The veterans scattered across the valley remained exactly where they stood.
Weapons drawn.
Muscles tense.
No one cheered.
Lucy broke the eerie silence.
“Stay in formation.” The younger Hunters didn’t listen.
They were too exhausted.
Too relieved.
Kellan glanced at her.
“They think it’s over.” Lucy squeezed her spear.
“No.” Her eyes never left the Rift.
“This was only the first wave.”