“Hu, hu, hu…”
Wan Dong and the other two had already thrown away their sabres, shields and other weapons, and were running desperately. The rat tide behind them kept closing in, the distance shrinking from twenty metres to fifteen, fourteen, thirteen…
“Damn it!”
“Why is the army still not here!”
“If they do not come soon, we are really going to die this time.”
Wan Dong and the others cursed in their hearts. They gritted their teeth and suddenly accelerated, briefly widening the gap from the rat tide again to over thirty metres. Only then did the three of them slightly slow down.
“I cannot run anymore.”
“Me neither.”
Wan Dong and the other two exchanged looks, all feeling helpless and in great pain. Their maximum sprint speed could be much faster than these rat beasts, but since it was their limit speed, it could not be sustained. It was like humans before the Great Nirvana period, when running 100 metres in 10 seconds was considered top speed.
A hundred metres takes nearly ten seconds.
But what about one thousand metres, could it be 100 seconds?
Ten thousand metres, would 1000 seconds be enough? In reality, before the Great Nirvana period, the men’s 10,000 metre record was about 1580 seconds.
These warriors were the same. Wan Dong and the others could instantly reach 60 metres per second, but they had already been fleeing for nearly half an hour. At this point, they could only barely maintain 40 metres per second. Once the rat tide closed in, they would desperately squeeze out more strength and run faster again.
By now, Wan Dong and the others had already run nearly 300 li. One could imagine how exhausted they were.
“The army, hurry up!”
“This is very close to the military district, why is the army still not here?” Wan Dong and the others felt their legs were almost numb. Extreme muscle fatigue made it impossible for them to keep their speed up.
Meanwhile, Luo Feng, carrying his sabre and shield, maintained an astonishing speed of 60 metres per second as he moved forward. After all, while Wan Dong and the others had greatly depleted their stamina, Luo Feng was still in peak condition.
Originally, Luo Feng had already been far ahead of the rat tide, and soon he left it far behind.
“Hm?” Luo Feng suddenly saw a dark blue shadow in the distant sky. At first glance, it looked like some flying beast, but as it got closer, he could see it clearly. It was a flat, disc-shaped flying combat aircraft.
Modern military aircraft were mostly this kind of flattened circular shape. In the air, if they encountered flying beasts, this shape was better for both defence and attack.
“The army!”
“It is a military aircraft!” Wan Dong and the other two, exhausted to the extreme, actually let out excited shouts, and their speed burst again.
Luo Feng, while running, also stopped and looked up. He saw the aircraft dive towards the beast horde. When it was about a hundred metres above the ground, it hovered directly above the rat tide. With Luo Feng’s eyesight, he could clearly see a huge cannon opening beneath the aircraft.
“Boom rumble…”
A terrifying stream of scorching flames erupted from the cannon and directly covered the rat tide below. Under such extreme heat, likely several thousand degrees, large numbers of rat beasts were instantly burned alive. The orderly rat tide immediately collapsed, screams of fear spreading as they scattered.
But under the flame coverage, most of the rat beasts were burned to death. A portion fled into the wild fields beside the highway and disappeared underground.
“Four warriors, a level three rat tide has broken out within a radius of nearly a thousand li. Please return immediately to the supply base. Enter the wilderness again after the rat tide alert is lifted.”
A voice came from the aircraft. After that, it quickly flew away through the sky to rescue other warriors.
Wan Dong and the others finally let out a long breath.
“We survived.”
“We were just one step away from death.” The three of them were extremely exhausted.
“Luo Feng.” Wan Dong could not help but shout from a distance, “Got any food? Give us something to eat, something to drink?”
Luo Feng walked over with a smile. The Wan Dong in front of him no longer had his usual cold and gloomy expression, only exhaustion and relief after surviving disaster. Running nearly 300 li in a life and death escape was an enormous drain on stamina.
Luo Feng took out a bag from his backpack and pulled out three energy pills. “These are high energy pills. And here is a water bag.”
As soon as Luo Feng handed them over, Wan Dong and the others immediately swallowed one each. The water was quickly divided and drunk.
“Luo Feng, thank you.” Wan Dong said gratefully. “Let me introduce them. This one next to me is Wang Ke. The other is Jiang Tu.”
“I have long heard of the name Luo Feng the Madman,” the handsome Wang Ke said with a smile.
“Luo Feng the Madman, this high energy pill tastes better than any delicacy. I was starving. I feel much better now,” said Jiang Tu with a big beard, laughing.
Luo Feng and Wan Dong and the others chatted while walking.
“How did you encounter the rat tide? That aircraft said it was a level three rat tide?” Luo Feng’s hometown was too close to the military district, so he had never personally experienced a rat tide.
“I have really seen how terrifying a rat tide is,” Wan Dong said with lingering fear. “We were resting on the rooftop of a residential building in a county town. Suddenly, countless rat beasts emerged from the ground across the entire county. It was truly endless. We immediately used steel cables to move from one rooftop to another. We did not dare go to the ground at all.”
Luo Feng was shocked, already imagining the scene of countless rat beasts covering an entire county.
“Luckily, our team was on the outskirts of the county. We gritted our teeth and ran along a path where there were fewer rat beasts.”
“On the way, we encountered the rat tide. We had no choice but to split up to divide the pursuit. We were lucky and made it to the highway. Only a small wave of rat beasts chased us. During the escape, Wang Ke and I also met Jiang Tu. His situation was similar to ours.”
Wan Dong then gave a bitter smile. “I wonder how the captain and the others are doing now.”
In alleys and streets they could split up to divert the rat tide, but on the highway they could not. Because beside the highway were wild fields, and in those terrains human running speed would decrease, while the terrain did not affect the rat beasts much.
That was why they only ran on the highway and did not enter the wilderness.
Luo Feng and the other three arrived at the warrior supply base of the military district, where a large group of warriors had already gathered.
“Madman, I knew you would not die.”
“Madman, in county 0231, did you see Old Liu and the others?”
As they entered the base, many warriors who knew Luo Feng came over to greet and ask him. A rat tide outbreak was extremely dangerous. Fortunately, this time it was only a level three rat tide, not too destructive. If it had been the legendary level one rat tide, it could have been a disaster for the entire Jiangnan Base City.
“Old Wang, has my team captain returned?” Wan Dong quickly asked people.
“No sign.”
“Your captain has not returned. There is no record here.”
…
Today was destined to be a rather sorrowful day at the supply base. Many warriors outside had lost their lives. Even among the three war god level warriors who entered the wilderness today, one was trapped and surrounded by the rat tide and plunged into a sea of beasts.
The rat tide attacked madly without regard for cost, and actually killed a war god.
Yes, today, a human war god had fallen.
“Rumble…”
Dark clouds rolled in, strong winds swept across the land, thunder rumbled from time to time, and then heavy rain poured down.
On the rooftop of a row villa in the supply base, Luo Feng sat under the corridor.
“Captain, I am fine, I was lucky. I was not surrounded by the rat tide.”
“Brother Chen, I am fine.”
“Brother Tie, haha, you heard my voice. Of course I am alive and well.”
Luo Feng made several phone calls. It was clear that news of the level three rat tide had already spread even within Jiangnan Base City. Every time a rat tide, or even more terrifying ant tide, broke out, it was a time of heavy casualties for human warriors. This time, even a war god had fallen, which was a huge loss for the entire Jiangnan City.
“One level three rat tide, and so many deaths.”
“What about the legendary level one rat tide?”
“And the even more terrifying war between humans and monsters?”
The war between monsters and humans is a war between two civilisations, a war between two races. Once it begins, countless beast tides of all kinds appear, land beasts, flying beasts, fast ones, brute strength ones, burrowing ones, poisonous ones, aerial ones, sonic attackers…
It is everywhere. The sky is filled with flying beasts, the ground with countless monsters, and even underground and in lakes there are monsters.
Rat tides, ant tides, and others are only part of it.
This is the most terrifying war.
“Monsters are humanity’s true enemy. Right now the oceans belong to monsters. On land, humans have a slight advantage. In the air, monsters dominate. Humans are forced into base cities, fighting a defensive counterattack.”
Luo Feng had never truly realised this before. He always thought monsters were simply being hunted by warriors. But today he finally understood…
Monsters could very well destroy humanity from the Earth.
If humanity is destroyed, what is there left of parents, family, culture, morality?
“My strength is still not enough, far from enough.”
Luo Feng looked towards the endless sky in the distance.
Boom!
Crack!
Thunder roared, and from time to time lightning struck down from the sky.
“Lightning…”
Luo Feng looked at the lightning in the distant sky, and faintly seemed to grasp something.