*Badump*
In the battlefront that was aiming to subjugate Yumi, no one had the time to think of the strange heartbeat sound being heard all over the battlefield.
This was because of a series of extremely high pitched screeching was being heard all over them.
*Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak**Squeak* *Squeak**Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak*
The legion of Large Monstrous Rats were already clashing with the army wave after wave! Their sizes and numbers was terrifying to say the least.
*Rumble*
The ground was rumbling unceasingly every time a wave, numbering a hundred to two hundred Large Monstrous Rats, crashes to the defensive lines of the army.
This part of the purging army was struggling to hold up the line due to this.
"Those damn Large Monstrous Rats are a problem!"
"We've been trying to push forward but to no avail, they're preventing us from advancing by doing this wave-like strategy."
The two-meter tall Large Monstrous Rats keep bashing their bodies at full speed which is pushing back the army every time they try to advance.
"AAAAH! HELP!"
"Its gonna eat me!"
"I don't want to die yet!"
Some Rats that manage to break through is able to kill a handful of soldiers and the other Monstrous Rats would enter that momentary gap and decimate that portion of the army.
"Its breaking through!"
"Another one managed to infiltrate the line! AAARGH!"
"Help us!"
Among them was the newly conscripted soldier, Samuel, he was also assigned in this army that will subjugate Yumi. But the terrifying undead monsters were already killing his colleagues left and right.
He was already panicking as everything seemed overwhelming.
Monsters that can't be killed despite numerous swords and spears being struck in their bodies, deaths of his fellow soldiers everywhere, the nauseous smell of rotting corpses and fresh blood everywhere..
"I.. I can't handle this..." Samuel was trembling as he witnessed the cruelty of war.
"Kiiiihk!" A Large Monstrous Rat pounced at him!
"Aaargh! I'm gonna die!" Samuel panicked and he could not even react properly!
"Die!" The old man that he was talking before this jumped in and used Innate Energy to reinforce his spear to pierce through the neck of the Large Monstrous Rat. He then kicked it away knowing that it would still move despite that deadly attack.
The head of that Large Monstrous Rat was still dangling and had no way to hold itself up since the neck bone was destroyed by the thrust earlier. Its neck muscles were already showing and yet the monster was still moving towards them.
The other nearby soldier also helped and then used attacks simultaneously to completely destroy the body.
"Senior!" Samuel cried out as he thanked him, "Thank you very much!"
"On your feet, soldier! Don't get fucking scared now otherwise, you will only be a liability to everyone, here!" The old man scolded the new cadet.
"I'm sorry sir. I will do bette-"
*Bang*
There was another break through near them and this time it blew everyone away!
Samuel was hit by someone who was blown back by the force of the Large Monstrous Rat. He hit his head as he momentarily blacked out.
"Ugh..." He regained consciousness from a pain he felt in his legs.
"Argh!" He groaned in pain and he saw that the blast actually broke his right leg and his left foot was pierced by a sword. Now, he was struggling to stand up.
Then, he noticed that around him there were four Large Monstrous Rats and they were already devouring his fellow soldiers with their mouths or wounding them with their claws and tails.
"Where did everything go wrong..." Samuel said as tears of despair were already flooding his eyes. He really felt like his end was coming
Not too far away from him, it was the old man that he talked to before the war and the one that just saved him just now. He was already dead...
His entire right side was bitten off and his torso was concaved from being stepped on by those large Monstrous Rats.
"Senior..."
Then, he heard a thumping sound and as he looked towards his left. It was a Large Monstrous Rat! It glared at him with those red glowing eyes with a face that was already decaying. It could be said that was the most horrifying thing that Samuel saw in his life.
"Aaaarrghh!! Get away from me!" Samuel tried his best to crawl away using his hands to drag his body from the dirt.
But to no avail...
*Chomp*
His entire waist was bitten off cleanly by the Large Monstrous Rat.
"Ah- I'm dying..." Samuel could not even scream from the pain. He was slowly losing consciousness due to the shock from the pain.
His last thoughts were, 'At least my family can get the insurance from my death...'
===
Similar incidents happened all around the battlefield. These caused panic all around the defensive line of the Purging Army. A few groups Large Monstrous Rats were able to invade them in numerous places by killing the warriors in the line of defense.
The numbers of casualties have already reached the hundreds and it was continuing to rise each second that passes by.
The inexperience of this Purging Army was showing which then caused unease and anxiety across the entire army.
"Are we all gonna die here...?"
"Why did we have to face a "disaster" like this?!"
However, Army Commander Michael Paulson rallied them and kept them grounded in reality, "MEN, DO NOT FALTER"
"You have each slain numerous Large Monstrous Rats every time we set our for our beast-extermination missions or small-scales expeditions! You have been trained by the glorious Soaring Cloud Academy! Remember your training! The blood, sweat and tears that you've shed will not betray you! Move forward with the spirit of the Soaring Cloud!"
With that speech, he invigorated the army and allowed them to snap out of their confused states. He exuded his aura and displayed his strength of Early Mortal Severing Realm!
"Do not worry for I am Here!" Michael Paulson rode his horse as he maneuvered it to stride forwards! He aimed at an opening in the defensive line that a Large Monstrous Rat created!
"Hup!" He brandished his sword at the undead Large Monstrous Rat which got obliterated immediately! The sword slash's momentum also blew over a group of undead Monstrous Rats a few meters away.
In a single swift action, he was able to plug the opening in the defensive line. This was also so his horse could gallop without obstacles. His horse jumped over the bundle of corpses which formed from the strike that Michael did earlier.
"Strengthen the Defensive line!" Michael further commanded!
"Follow me! March forward, Purging Army!" The sight of the jet black horse jumping through the air with Michael Paulson raising his sword. It was a picturesque portrait of a true general leading his men to battle!
"WHOOOO!!"
"Amazing!!"
"Follow, Commander Michael!"
The soldier roared as their fighting spirits rose to the brim!
With such a brilliant showing of strength and leadership, the army quickly regained composure and rectified the blots in their formation.
The warriors of Soaring Clouds were already well-trained individually but they were even more so trained to act as a single unit!
Due to cultivating the same cultivation techniques and using the same weapons, their strengths and aura are extremely compatible and complimentary with one another!
Thus, part of their military training is using synchronized attacking and defensive techniques by groups of three, five, ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred and so on! This gave the Soaring Cloud Army's outstanding coordination and prowess.
The soldiers immediately performed as they do in training! They released their auras which seemed to be completely identical to one another. These auras coalesced with one another which created a more imposing and stronger power as they linked with each other physically as well!
"Cloud Gathering Formation - Might of the Torrent!" The soldiers screamed out as they thrust their swords and spears forward!
Multiple instance of this happening happened across the defensive line!
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
In one fell swoop, they are able to surround these Large Monstrous Rats that broke through and kill them with some difficulty.
Individually, the Large Monstrous Rats were still stronger and could still fight them despite their newfound strength.
However, it could not withstand getting attacked from multiple directions repeatedly. Thus, the Large Monstrous Rats that invaded the army eventually succumbed to the coordination and team work of the soldiers!
"Hurrah!"
With each individual opening being plugged one after the other, the defensive line regained its staunch solidarity!
"Hahaha, take that you damned rats!"
"How dare you kill my best friend?!"
"KILL!"
Seeing that their offensive prove to be effective, the army gained more morale and pushed back the waves of Large Monstrous Rats!
They then activated a defensive technique, the thousands of solders that have reinforced their defensive lines once again combined their auras. They held up their shields and focused their power there!
They shouted in unison, "Cloud Gathering Formation - Sea of Clouds!"
This time the aura became like thick cloud in the sky that overwhelms the sky! Each time the army marched, they were able to deflect the waves of Large Monstrous Rats that were ramming themselves into their shields!
It was as though they were clouds that were slowly encroaching in the entire battlefield.
"We're mowing them down!"
"Look at them struggle HAHAHA!"
"This is the power of the Surging Army!"
The soldiers rejoiced as they managed to finally beat the ones that were previously tormenting them.
"KIIIIIIIK!" There was a sudden long screech from the side of the Large Monstrous Rats.
Among them, there was a Large Monstrous Rat that was bigger than the rest and it was exuding the power of a Mortal Severing Beast. It was over five meters tall with a larger buck teeth than most of these rats, twice the size of regular Large Monstrous Rat. It has large spikes coming out of its back and a crown looking ornament on its head. This was their leader of pack, the Monstrous Rat King.
Originally, the Large Monstrous Rats were in lines of a hundred. They were sent in interval of a few minutes. But now, the over two thousand Monstrous Rat Legion has been unleashed and were charging towards the marching army.
*Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak**Squeak* *Squeak**Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak*
Without regards for the corpses in front of them, the Monstrous Rats kept on moving forward to the point they were even carrying debris and mangled up bodies of their own species.
"Oh no!" Michael Paulson seemed to realize what's going on. He waved his hand and screamed as he galloped back to the defensive lines, "Fortify the defensive line!"
"FORTIFY THE DEFENSIVE LINES!"
"FORTIFY THE DEFENSIVE LINES!"
"FORTIFY THE DEFENSIVE LINES!"
The line captains repeated almost instantaneously. The defensive line stopped their march, dropped their knees and raised their shields! Their auras once again congregated and exuded the presence of an impenetrable wall!
"Comulonimbus Formation - Impenetrable Clouds!"
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
The undead Monstrous Rats were relentless as they continued with their rampage. They kept on bashing their heads onto the shields of the defensive to break down the line and using their claws and teeth to try and tear down the shields.
"Fuck, they are even scarier than before!"
"These undead are disgusting! They are tearing apart there already decaying bodies..."
"I hope this stops..."
Patiently bidding his time for the final moment, Michael Paulson was trying to devise a plan to resolve their current predicament right now. He was the type of person who would review everything that happened and make rational deductions to counteract the opponents strategies.
Michael Paulson continued to recount, 'The Malevolent Magnate used a wave strategy to whittle down our numbers and buy enough time to finish whatever confrontation they may have with the Evil Cultivator. She did it with Large Monstrous Rats that are best suited for this. If the wave strategy fails, a beast wave happens.'
'She divided the bigger army into ten with her twenty undead beasts while keeping the smaller half with an army of Large Monstrous Rats.'
He started to recognize the brilliance of the plan seeing as how it cause so much chaos and problems to the purging army, 'I have to say that this is a very well-thought out strategy that maximizes the potential of the beasts she summoned. Did she know what dead beasts were in the area and plan to summon them beforehand or did she do it spontaneously when she saw the army composition that she has?'
'If it were the latter, then she really is a genius at warfare!'
But he was also able to notice some flaws, 'But it seems she can only give them simple commands and the rest is up to their combat capabilities and base instincts to execute the task. Otherwise, these undead would be able to do way more than just charge at us.'
"If there only order is to charge after the wave strategy failed then, we can easily turn this around." Michael concluded with a confident smile.
"AAAARGHHH!"
While Michael was thinking, the undead Monstrous Rats were finally able to break through.
"What? They broke through already?!" Michael did not expect it that the Impenetrable Cloud to be broken already.
He even initially thought that it was the Monstrous Rat King as it was the only who had the power to do so but it turns out that it was due to the bodies of the defeated undead Large Monstrous Rats that their kin was able to break through.
Once the Large Monstrous Rats got their foothold, they started killing the soldiers from above.
"AAAARGHHH!"
In just moments from this happening, tens of soldiers were already dying and the defensive line was once again struggling.
Seeing this, Michael quickly ordered, "Call forth secondary shield bearers and spearmen form the third line after the main and secondary shield bearers, anticipate the rats that will jump off from them and maintain distance!"
Michael also looked at his personal troops and said, "Spread out and kill the undead rats that are wreaking havoc. I also want you to relay my orders to them as well."
"Yes, sir!" His ten lieutenant generals quickly responded as they went over to the current weak points of the defensive line where the Large Monstrous Rats have infiltrated.
Responding to this, the line captains all issued the order, "Secondary Shield Bearers, onwards!"
The army was quick to reorganize after receiving the orders. The secondary shield bearers stepped forward and raised up their shields so they could defend the main shield bearers from the jumping attacks of the Large Monstrous Rats.
"Spearmen, line up!" Now with the spearmen anticipating the counterattacks, the Large Monstrous Rats were once again neutralized.
The ten lieutenant generals with their might steeds rushed through the entire defensive line and slaughtered one Large Monstrous Rat after the other.
In just a couple of minutes, the battlefield once again stabilized and the
"Whooo!"
Seeing that this strategy has worked, the soldier once again regained their lost morale
After the situation has once again, stabilized, Michael quickly decided to lay out his strategy.
"Men, We will now be crushing this beast wave!" Michael Paulson boldly declared.
"Really? Is that really possible?"
"But we were having so much trouble with defending them just now."
"Lord Michael managed to quickly resolve our situations immediately a couple of times already. I think we can do it!"
"He's right!"
"Yeah!"
While there were some doubts among the ranks, the soldiers have already developed a sense of reliance and dependence.
"First, these undead vermin are simpleminded can only think of charging forward. We will take advantage of this! We will divide the defensive line into two halves and we we will slowly funnel them into the middle by moving these lines closer to the center.
"My men and I will hold the center and slaughter the beasts that may come our way! Have trust in us as we will be more than enough!"
"As we do so, the two lines will rush them and use the Impenetrable Cloud offensively to crush the entire legion of these undead Large Monstrous Rats in one fell swoop!"
"Sir, yes, sir!"
Hearing those words, the army quickly followed Michael Paulson's commands. They quickly broke off into two lines.
The space that was made in the middle was quickly covered by the ten lieutenant generals!
"KILL!"
The ten lieutenant generals immediately released their auras that materialized into humanoid spirit like beings that were equipped with armors and weapons. The quickly fought to their full power as they held their ground!
*Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak* *Squeak*
The undead legion quickly attacked the wide space as soon as it opened!
*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*
"Men, make sure to create and maintain a V-like shape so we could funnel in the Monstrous Rats so we would only have to have a handful of rats at a time! The outermost soldiers will be the ones leading the movement. Be mindful to keep it steady!" Michael Paulson further ordered.
It was as he instructed the outermost soldier lead the movement of the line so they created a large obtuse angle that eventually became the letter "V"
With the narrowing of the space in front of them, only four or five Large Monstrous Rats were able to get to the end of the funnel at a time.
The ten generals were awaiting them to slaughter the incoming beasts. This time they were slaughtering four or five at a time with the coordinated strength of ten Peak Origin Palace Realm experts.
The Monstrous Rat King was about to open its mouth to respond to the situation but before it could!
In the backline of the center line, Michael Paulson materialized a long bow with gold cloud engravings from his Innate Energy.
"Archer Warlord" Behind him, an avatar also materialized and it was holding bow and arrow ready to fire. He also assumed a bowman's stance as he gathered his energy to create an arrow made from concentrated spinning Innate energy!
"General Killing Arrow!" The arrow was shot!
*Swish*
It was so blindingly fast that it created several sonic booms and reached the Monstrous Rat King's Head and it exploded instantaneously!
*Boom*
In just one shot, he immediately killed a Mortal Severing Beast!
*BOOM*
"Without the Head, it cannot command the pack." Michael Paulson uttered.
"Men, let's crush them!" He shouted right after!
"Cumulonimbus Formation - Impenetrable Clouds!" The two lines said in unison and they proceeded to slowly crush the Large Monstrous Rats as planned!
The rat legion without their leader could not do anything but simply charge forwards like they were programmed as they got slaughtered!
===
*Badump*
Meanwhile, in the forest not too far from them, two figures could be seen running through the forest! These were the siblings, Kris and Leila Dawson.
"This day is filled with so many unwelcome surprises! Fucking Hell!" Kris cursed.
Kris had no idea what was happening. Earlier when they were in the flower field, he was urging Leila to evacuate but she started running towards something.
Leila's eyes started to focus only in one direction and she was also emitting a faint ethereal aura to her with the scent of a lotus...
"Something there is calling me..." Leila said.
By all means, Kris should be faster than Leila since he had a way higher cultivation than her. But for some reason, every time he comes close to her she either slips past his grip because he trips or they encounter a monster that Kris would have to defeat.
"LEILA, SNAP OUT OF IT!"
It was as though fate was not letting him stop Leila from going to where she needs....
"Of all the places she could choose to go, why is it where the most danger is at?!"
What's concerning him the most is the direction she was going because she was heading towards the place where Kris initially detected the two Mortal Severing cultivators and the Peak Origin Palace realm expert.
Leila, who was running in front of them, suddenly noticed a figure in front of him. It was Dylan, the young man she saw earlier in the flower field.
"Why is he also going in that direction?"
Dylan was also running at full speed while looking at the sky. He was currently looking for the kind looking noble lady and her knight. It seemed like the clashes he heard earlier could be the place they are at.
He then looked at the sky as he muttered something he noticed while running "Why are those Storm Clouds forming a vortex of sorts? Every cloud within the vicinity is gathering there... It's clearing up the night sky!"
It was as Dylan had said. The storm clouds that were covering the entire night sky and was the cause for the rainstorm earlier was now behaving supernaturally.
*Badump*
"It started ever since I heard that heartbeat started..."