Death… And Me

Chapter 4315: Kill Count

Wurshan returned to Roan roughly twenty minutes later, bringing surprisingly good news with him.

”It is done,” he said while approaching the twins’ group. ”Fushio will still remain the battalion commander officially, but he agreed to only manage my platoon directly instead. Like I told you before, he believes I’m the one trying to direct the battalion, so you’ll need to tell me everything in advance so I can relay the orders forward.”

Roan had no problems with that arrangement at all.

”That’s already more than enough.”

Immediately afterward, he checked the newest information flowing through the communication network. According to the latest patrol reports, the first waves were now less than two hours away from reaching the frontline.

At this point, there was no more time left for major preparations.

”Let’s move into position.”

Soon afterward, all eight hundred members of Roan’s battalion began organizing themselves across the frontline.

However, it didn’t take long before the cultivators noticed that something about their formation looked extremely strange.

Unlike the surrounding battalions, which spread their members evenly throughout the defensive area assigned to them, Roan’s battalion formed an unusually compact defensive front.

There were almost no cultivators stationed farther behind.

Instead, the entire battalion compressed itself into three tightly packed defensive lines separated by no more than ten meters each.

Behind those lines, slightly farther back, all cultivators capable of natural flight waited in reserve. Most of them were Demon Beasts, Spirits, or members of races capable of flying without relying on energy expenditure.

Naturally, the odd formation immediately attracted attention.

Fushio, the official commander of the battalion, quickly began receiving questions from nearby battalion leaders asking what exactly he was trying to accomplish.

Unfortunately for him, he had already accepted Wurshan’s proposal and received the corresponding compensation. Backing down now would only create even more problems.

In the end, he simply reassured the surrounding battalions. ”Don’t worry about our side. We already have a plan prepared.”

Of course, even Fushio himself couldn’t help but privately question Wurshan afterward. ”What exactly are you trying to do with this formation?”

Wurshan’s smile immediately turned bitter after hearing that. How the hell was he supposed to know? He was just blindly following Roan’s instructions himself.

’Roan... are you absolutely sure about this formation?’ Wurshan asked through his RC. ’No matter how I look at it, this setup should only increase casualties once the horde crashes into us.’

Roan naturally already knew that.

’Exactly,’ he calmly answered. ’That’s precisely how it needs to look.’

Wurshan became even more uneasy after hearing that answer.

’Don’t worry, though,’ Roan continued. ’You’re still missing one critical factor that completely changes the situation. There is something working in our favor that will make this formation stand out and reduce our casualties to the minimum possible.’

Wurshan immediately pressed further. ’Then why don’t you just explain it already?’

A cold smile appeared on Roan’s face. ’Where would the fun be in that?’

Wurshan felt a chill run down his spine after seeing that smile. That expression looked nothing like someone having fun. ’Sigh... I was supposed to be dead already anyway,’ Wurshan eventually gave up. ’Let’s just hope you really know what you’re doing.’

Time slowly passed.

Then...

...the ground began to shake.

A deep vibration spread through the earth beneath everyone’s feet as massive clouds of dust rose far away in the distance.

At the same time, the skies gradually darkened.

However, it wasn’t nightfall approaching. It was a gigantic swarm of flying Godly Creatures covering the sky itself.

Even so, compared to the hordes advancing from the ground, the aerial swarm still looked insignificant.

Every battalion across the frontline immediately prepared for impact.

Farther behind the defensive lines, the commander overseeing this entire section of the battlefield observed everything through countless screens and streams of information flowing directly into his mind through his RC.

One of the displays beside him specifically showed the locations of every support array hidden throughout the battlefield.

At the moment, all of them remained inactive.

It still wasn’t time to activate them.

*ROOOOOOAR!!!*

Finally, the horde emerged from the forests ahead.

Countless Godly Creatures burst out from between the trees like an unstoppable tidal wave of flesh and claws. They charged forward nonstop in a gigantic army, lacking organization yet compensating for it entirely through sheer numbers.

The overwhelming majority consisted of Godly Spawns, although scattered among them were large numbers of Godly Beasts as well.

Still, no Godly Predators had appeared yet.

Naturally, the Zone Gods positioned farther behind also remained motionless.

Experts at that level couldn’t afford to waste energy on low-level creatures.

The distance between both sides rapidly disappeared.

Ten kilometers...

Five...

Three...

One...

The frontline battalions braced themselves.

At this point, it was already too late to flee.

Turning one’s back against such a horde would only guarantee death.

As one might expect, Roan’s battalion was among the most nervous of all.

Their compressed formation left very little room for movement between cultivators. Many members were already cursing Fushio internally for placing them in such an apparently suicidal position.

Then...

...the first waves finally arrived.

And at that exact same moment, the cold smile on Roan’s face deepened.

[Yin Yang Sanctuary]

[Activate?]

’Yes,’ both Roan and Rean answered simultaneously.

[Yin Yang Sanctuary Activated!]

[60...]

*BOOM!*

In an instant, every Godly Creature within a fifty-meter radius around Rean and Roan suddenly lost the Godly Pressure surrounding their bodies.

Not only that...

Even the Godly Pressure stored deep within their bodies vanished completely without warning.

It didn’t disappear permanently, of course.

As long as they escaped the Sanctuary’s range, their Godly Pressure would recover as if it had never left.

Unfortunately for them...

...escaping was impossible.

The endless horde charging from behind continued pushing everything forward relentlessly.

Then the first defensive line of Roan’s battalion finally collided against the incoming Godly Creatures.

And the result...

...was utterly unbelievable.

*Swish! Swish! Swish!*

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

*Crash! Bang! Ziuuu!*

Death exploded across the battlefield at an absurd rate.

However, the deaths were completely one-sided.

Godly Spawns and Godly Beasts fell nonstop like insects being crushed beneath a giant hammer.

They were dying so quickly that even the cultivators themselves became stunned.

[59... 58... 57...]

The countdown of the Yin Yang Sanctuary continued decreasing relentlessly.

Meanwhile, the terrified Anchor Gods from earlier were now completely dumbfounded.

The Godly Spawns inside the Sanctuary’s range had become so weak that slaughtering them almost felt like killing ordinary wild animals.

Their confidence immediately skyrocketed.

”Hahaha! We can actually do this!”

”Kill them all!”

”I’m going to earn a fortune in Godly Crystals this time!”

[56... 55... 54...]

’Red Death, Stellar Piercer!’

’Life Draining Roots!’

’Yin Yang Sky Feather Blades!’

Celis, Rean, and Kentucky focused entirely on targeting the Godly Beasts among the horde, bringing them down one after another without pause.

Every second mattered.

[Godly Beasts killed: 10... 23... 51...]

Still, even with the three of them fighting together, there was no way they alone could kill Godly Beasts at such a ridiculous pace.

So why was the kill counter increasing so quickly?

Roan observed the rapidly rising numbers and felt even more satisfied.

’Just as I thought.’

The answer was the Yin Yang Sanctuary itself!

The Orb System’s quest specifically stated that they would gain one Orb Point for every two hundred Godly Beasts killed within the Sacred Relic’s influence.

However, it never specified who needed to land the killing blow!

As long as the Sanctuary was the primary factor allowing those kills to happen, the Orb System still considered the results to belong mostly to the twins’ group.

In other words, by weakening the Godly Beasts enough for the entire battalion to slaughter them easily, the twins were still receiving credit.

[53... 52...]

Then, Roan finally issued his first command.

”Swap the first line with the second one. Pull the first line back into the empty rear space and prepare them to move.”

”Uh?!” Wurshan was caught completely off guard. ”Why now? The first line can still keep fighting without problems.”

”Just do it,” Roan ordered calmly. ”No explanations for now.”

In the end, Wurshan could only obey.

The first line quickly retreated while the second line advanced to replace them.

[51... 50... 49...]

And this was only the beginning.