“Captain, I can’t hold on!”
Leaning against one side of the vehicle, a soldier who had suffered a severe abdominal wound and was bleeding incessantly spoke weakly.
Not far in front of him, Lin Mo was struggling to resist the siege of several Aberrations.
For a time, the situation was at a stalemate.
Squelch!
Lin Mo caught a fleeting opening.
His shoulder took the brunt of a claw from a nearby Aberration, the skin tearing open.
The sharp, agonizing pain made him groan, but it also bought him precious room to counterattack.
His right hand was like lightning as he suddenly drew the triangular military bayonet from his waist.
With a surge of resolute ruthlessness, he drove it with incomparable precision into the temple of the Aberration in front of him!
Pshhh!
The bayonet pierced through the hard skull without resistance.
Dark red blood and grayish-white brain matter instantly spurted from the blood grooves.
The Aberration’s body stiffened, its hideous expression frozen on its face as it fell straight backward.
Lin Mo didn’t even have time to pull out the bayonet.
He gripped the handle with his backhand and twisted, using the momentum to kick another Aberration pouncing from the side!
The cold Oracle power wrapped around his foot exploded, carrying a sharp force that accurately hit the Aberration’s chest.
Amidst the crisp sound of freezing, the creature’s chest instantly caved in.
This all happened in the blink of an eye.
The continuous high-intensity exertion left Lin Mo breathing heavily, his chest heaving violently.
He finally managed to force back the circle of monsters around him, gaining a moment’s reprieve.
He turned his head abruptly to look at the soldier with the abdominal wound, his voice urgent and carrying a trace of imperceptible hope.
“Hold on just a bit longer, I —”
Halfway through, he stopped abruptly.
The soldier had already slumped to the ground, a large pool of dark red blood gathering beneath him.
His eyes were open, staring at the gray sky, but the light had long since vanished from his gaze.
He was silent.
Lin Mo pursed his lips tightly, his jawline tense like a hard rock.
Although his reason told him clearly that these soldiers’ lives had been fixed in history 284 years ago during that tragic event, seeing a living being who had been speaking just a moment ago perish so realistically before his eyes to cover for him still made a complex mixture of powerlessness, anger, and sorrow gnaw at his heart like a venomous snake.
“Captain, don’t hesitate anymore!”
Just then, the only remaining soldier on the other side suddenly shouted hoarsely.
The rifle in his hand was still spitting fire, but the magazine was quickly emptied.
“Xiao Bin’s injuries are the lightest. Take him and go! Hurry, Captain!”
Lin Mo looked around.
Smoke filled the air, and severed limbs were visible everywhere.
Almost all the soldiers who could still fight had fallen into pools of blood.
His fists clenched tightly, his nails nearly digging into his palms, sending a piercing pain through him.
Click.
The soldier who had just shouted pulled the trigger again, but he was met only with the crisp sound of the firing pin hitting an empty chamber.
He was out of ammunition.
Without the slightest hesitation, he tossed the heavy rifle aside like trash and suddenly turned his head to look at Lin Mo.
That gaze was incredibly complex.
There was determination, urgency, and perhaps a trace of attachment to life, but there was no fear.
He said nothing.
He only raised his right hand, covered in blood and soot, and used his last bit of strength to give Lin Mo an incomparably standard, heavy military salute!
Immediately, he turned his gaze away, no longer looking at Lin Mo, as if afraid that one more look would waver his resolve.
With the fastest speed possible, he removed the last remaining high-explosive grenade from his waist.
His thumb flicked the safety ring, letting out a soft ping.
Then, letting out a beast-like roar, he stumbled yet lunged with extraordinary determination toward the swarm of Aberrations surging forward again!
Boom — !!!!
An ear-splitting roar suddenly exploded.
Scorching flames and a violent shockwave expanded instantly, swallowing the soldier’s resolute silhouette and temporarily drowning out the hisses of several Aberrations in front.
Splattering dirt and fragmented flesh pattered against the vehicle and Lin Mo.
Lin Mo gritted his teeth so hard that the taste of blood seeped from his gums.
He no longer looked at the still-burning flames.
He turned abruptly and rushed to the off-road vehicle, yanking open the slightly deformed rear door.
“Let’s go!” He looked at the young soldier named Xiao Bin sitting in the back seat, whose face still bore a hint of youth and innocence.
Lin Mo spoke in a low voice, his tone raspy from suppressed emotion.
“I’m getting you out of here!”
The young soldier, Xiao Bin, was as pale as paper.
His left arm was unnaturally twisted, clearly a serious injury.
Looking at the tragic scene outside the car, his eyes were filled with fear and sorrow, but after hearing Lin Mo’s words, he still nodded forcefully, almost instinctively.
Lin Mo did not hesitate further.
He leaned into the car, scooped the young soldier from the seat, and hoisted him onto his still broad back.
He took a deep breath, squeezing the last remains of his Oracle power to create a faint cold glow on the surface of his body.
He spotted the brief gap and chaos in the encirclement caused by the grenade explosion.
With a low growl and the young soldier on his back, he charged toward that direction!
Lin Mo’s figure moved rapidly through the ruins and smoke.
Behind him were the burning vehicles, the remains of his comrades, and a heavy, tragic history that had long been submerged in the tides of time.
“Company Commander, Brother Yang and the others…”
On Lin Mo’s back, the young soldier spoke weakly.
By now, the two of them were getting further away from the ruins of the town.
Only a few pursuing Aberrations remained in the distance, letting out low growls.
“They…” Lin Mo’s voice was heavy, carrying a sadness he hadn’t even noticed himself.
“Xiao Bin, live well for Brother Yang and the others!”
“Company Commander…”
“Are we… going to lose?”
Xiao Bin’s voice grew weaker, even tinged with a bit of despair.
“We won’t lose,” Lin Mo said firmly.
“Xiao Bin, we will definitely win. We will!”
Although in history, this blocking action ended with the total annihilation of the 103rd Division, the Aberrations’ losses were equally heavy, leaving them unable to push the front line any further.
“Mhm.”
Xiao Bin replied softly.
He seemed too weak.
After that one response, he didn’t speak again.
Time ticked by. Lin Mo ran wildly with Xiao Bin on his back, his mind blank.
Aside from controlling his body to move forward, he thought of nothing else.
After an unknown amount of time, Xiao Bin suddenly sighed.
It was very, very light, but enough for Lin Mo to hear.
“Sigh…”
“Company Commander.”
“You… aren’t our Company Commander, are you?”
The moment the words fell, Lin Mo’s footsteps suddenly halted, and his body stiffened.
Xiao Bin’s words were like a clap of thunder exploding in Lin Mo’s mind, sending a shock through his spirit.
He stopped abruptly and stood there rigidly, for a moment not knowing how to respond.
‘Am I exposed? Since when? Was it some detail, or an unintentional word that gave me away?’
“Company Commander… I’ll still call you that for now,” seeing Lin Mo’s silence, Xiao Bin spoke again.
His voice was weak but exceptionally clear.
“Company Commander Zhu Yanqing… he was a very rational, one could even say cold, person.”
“When he needed to sacrifice himself to use his Oracle power to open a path for us, he did so without the slightest hesitation. That’s why he fell into a coma from exhaustion…”
He paused, gasping for air several times before continuing.
“If it required sacrificing a group of people to ensure the mission continued and allowed another group to live, Commander Zhu… wouldn’t have hesitated.”
“He would always choose the optimal solution.”
“But earlier, as you watched our brothers fall one by one, you hesitated.”
“And…” Xiao Bin took a deep breath, as if this simple action exhausted much of his strength.
“Commander Zhu never used that triangular military bayonet… It was a memento given to him by an old commander when he first joined the army. He always treasured it like a precious jewel, never willing to actually use it against an enemy…”
Lin Mo slowly lowered his head, looking at his hands covered in blood and dust.
He remained silent for a long, long time.
So there were that many flaws.
It turned out these seemingly rugged soldiers were actually so observant.
“Xiao Bin…” After a long time, Lin Mo finally spoke, his voice dry.
“Did you all… find something wrong?”
Hearing this, Xiao Bin gave a very slight nod on his back and replied with a voice as thin as silk, “Mhm.”
“Then why… didn’t you expose me?”
Lin Mo’s tone carried deep confusion and a trace of imperceptible emotion.
Xiao Bin seemed to smile faintly, a smile that carried a sense of relief and understanding beyond his years.
“Company Commander, we are all ordinary people. We don’t understand those… mysterious powers of you Oracles. We don’t know what happened.”
“Perhaps, when our Commander Zhu overextended his Oracle power, he already…”
“Then, you woke up,” his voice grew lower and lower.
“But we saw that our commander was still okay, still able to lead us in battle, still able to stand before us… To us, that was enough.”
At this point, Xiao Bin suddenly coughed violently, his body convulsing uncontrollably.
Lin Mo’s pupils suddenly contracted.
He clearly felt several drops of warm liquid splash onto his neck.
He reached up to touch it — on his fingertips was a shocking, brilliant red!
“Xiao Bin!” Lin Mo shouted anxiously.
He hurriedly but carefully lowered Xiao Bin from his back, letting him lean in the crook of his arm.
Xiao Bin’s face was already as pale as death.
His eyes were unfocused, and his chest showed only the faintest movement.
Lying in Lin Mo’s arms, he seemed to use his last bit of strength to ask intermittently, “Company Commander… you… tell me… will we… really… win…?”
Lin Mo nodded vigorously, his voice firm, as if trying to pour this conviction into Xiao Bin’s fading consciousness.
“We will! We definitely will!”
“Yeah…” The corners of Xiao Bin’s mouth twitched upward with great effort, forming a nearly invisible smile filled with hope.
“We’ll… definitely win…”
After saying those last words, the heavy weight of his eyelids finally exceeded his limit, and they slowly closed forever.
This young soldier, who had been protected by his comrades and placed in the relatively safe carriage after being injured — the youngest soldier in the entire company, battalion, and perhaps even the regiment — ultimately failed to resist the erosion of the pollution within him.
He fell into an eternal sleep in this barren, dead wilderness.
“Xiao Bin…”
Lin Mo held Xiao Bin’s still-warm body, his arms tightening unconsciously.
He clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white, his shoulders trembling uncontrollably.
A gust of wilderness wind wailed as it blew past, kicking up dry dust and sand.
It mistily obscured Lin Mo’s kneeling silhouette, leaving only a whisper that seemed light as air yet weighed a thousand pounds, scattering with the wind — whether he was telling Xiao Bin, himself, or this heavy earth .
“We will definitely win.”