The team set out once more.
The formation had changed noticeably.
Fiona personally led ten of the most elite Thorn Guard soldiers, like an unsheathed sword cutting a path at the front of the group. Her commands were delivered with precision to every combat unit through concise Command Gestures and Transmission Runes.
Lin En, Elaine, and the scholar Ella were protected at the center of the formation.
This was precisely the arrangement Lin En approved of—let professionals do professional work.
He and Master Elaine were the brains, while Fiona was the kingdom’s sword.
They hadn’t gone far before trouble found them.
“Awwoo–!”
Three unusually large gray wolves lunged out from the twisted underbrush.
They were utterly different from ordinary wild wolves. Faded, fungal armor similar to that of a Fungus-armored Bear grew along their backs, ghostly green flames burned in their eye sockets, and saliva dripped from their jaws, hissing and corroding the dead leaves where it fell.
“They’re Dewolves! Shield Formation!”
Fiona’s command was crisp and without hesitation.
The Thorn Guard soldiers reacted instantly, tower shields locking together. The glow of Combat Aura shimmered along the shield edges, forming a solid defensive line.
Battle erupted in a flash. Fiona charged at the forefront, every swing of her longsword slicing with a piercing shriek of wind, targeting the monsters’ joints and vital points with deadly precision.
However, the Dewolves’ fighting style was bizarre.
They were fearless, fighting not for instant kills, but to inflict wounds at any cost, aiming for the gaps in the soldiers’ armor.
A soldier, a moment’s lapse while parrying, had his arm slashed by a wolf’s claw.
“Ah!”
He cried out in pain, but his sword was even faster, stabbing through the Dewolf’s eye in an instant.
The battle ended quickly under Fiona’s efficient command, but a heavy silence weighed on everyone.
The wounded soldier’s arm didn’t bleed red. Instead, the wound swiftly turned a ghastly gray-white.
The color spread up his arm at a speed visible to the naked eye. Blood drained from his face as he trembled violently, as if his Vitality was being sucked away by an invisible black hole!
“Quick! Isolate him!”
Fiona’s expression changed drastically as she issued the order.
“No need to panic.”
Master Elaine’s voice rang out calmly.
He leaned on his staff and walked unhurriedly to the wounded soldier.
“It’s the same source of Infection. Life Force Stripping…”
He glanced at the wound, brows furrowing, then took a crystal vial filled with emerald green liquid from his robe and poured the potion into the soldier’s mouth.
A miraculous scene unfolded.
The gray decay spreading up the soldier’s arm halted instantly. Healthy color bloomed beneath his skin, driving back the ghastly pallor like dawn dispersing the night.
Lin En stood silently at the center of the group, watching. He said nothing, but his gaze lingered on Master Elaine and the vial of Life Elixir for a moment longer.
The rest of the journey that day saw them encountering more and more similar mutant creatures.
Wild boars covered in decayed fungal growth, giant pythons capable of spraying withering venom, swarms of Fungal Armored Rats—they came in waves, organized like a disciplined army, probing and wearing down the group with relentless assaults.
Thanks to Fiona’s outstanding leadership, the team repelled several attacks without disaster, but the number of wounded continued to rise.
Each time, Master Elaine and his Alchemist Team intervened swiftly. All the wounded were saved by the effects of the Life Elixir.
Night fell. The group chose to camp in a relatively open valley.
Bonfires were lit, pushing back the cold but unable to dispel the oppressive atmosphere.
Soldiers wearily cleaned their weapons. Fiona moved around the perimeter, setting up defensive lines and magical traps.
Lin En approached Master Elaine, who was by the fire supervising apprentices as they restocked Life Elixir.
“Master Elaine.”
Lin En’s voice was calm.
“Advisor Lin En.”
Elaine looked up.
“Is something wrong?”
“Your Life Elixir is astonishingly effective.”
Lin En’s gaze fell on the emerald potions, like a scholar discussing a technical marvel.
“It doesn’t simply replenish Vitality—it precisely neutralizes the force that strips life away. Creating alchemical potions of this level usually requires exhaustive research into the disease source, with countless failures before achieving success.”
Hearing such a professional evaluation, a hint of pride flickered across Elaine’s aged face.
He stroked his beard.
“Advisor, your insight is impressive. My Alchemical Workshop indeed poured enormous effort into these potions—just the failed samples could fill a warehouse.”
Lin En nodded, as if accepting the explanation completely. Then his tone shifted, becoming more casual, almost conversational.
“Also, I’ve noticed you and your team demonstrate remarkable professionalism in dealing with this Infection.”
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the efficient, organized alchemy apprentices.
“Wound cleaning, potion administration, monitoring life signs… The entire process is as standardized as a textbook. It doesn’t feel like you’re handling a newly encountered plague, but rather… executing a Standardized Medical Procedure for a common disease.”
The air seemed to chill with Lin En’s words.
Master Elaine’s hand on his beard froze.
At last, Lin En revealed his true intent. He stepped closer, lowering his voice, eyes sharp as blades stabbing into Elaine’s heart.
“So, Master. The warehouse full of failed products you mentioned, and your team’s standardized treatment protocols—just how many actual battles did it take to accumulate all this?”
“This war we only encountered today… How long has the kingdom truly been fighting it in secret?”
The entire camp fell silent, save for the crackling of the fire.
Master Elaine trembled. He looked up, his clouded eyes meeting Lin En’s gaze—a gaze that seemed to see through everything.
He did not panic or deny. He only sighed—a long breath full of unspoken heaviness and resignation.
“Advisor Lin En… Your insight is even more terrifying than I imagined.”
He was about to speak further.
Suddenly—
A suffocating, absolute silence descended.
Every sound in the forest—the chirping of insects, the wind, the hoot of night owls—was snuffed out in an instant, as if by an invisible hand.
“Alert!!”
Fiona’s sharp command shattered the deathly hush. Her Combat Aura flared as she tensed like a drawn bow.
The next moment, the ground began to tremble.
Not an earthquake, but something far more terrifying—a deep, resonant rumble created by countless small footsteps pounding as one.
It was as if the entire forest floor had become a giant drum struck by ten thousand hammers.
“T-that… What is that?!”
A guard on lookout cried out, his voice cracking with terror.
Everyone followed his pointing finger.
Beyond the firelight at the camp’s edge, in the moonlit and starlit darkness of the forest, countless pairs of ghostly green eyes lit up, forming a suffocating wall of green light stretching from the earth to the sky.
As the wall of light advanced, all could see what kind of hellish sight it was.
On the ground, leading the charge, were thousands of Dewolves and a never-before-seen species of Fungal Clawed Feline, bodies as lithe as leopards. They streaked through the woods like gray lightning, leaving only afterimages in their wake.
Behind them came the true main force.
Fungus-armored Bears the size of small hills, swinging massive arms. Corrupted Savage Apes with crimson eyes, each step shaking the ground.
Further back, several Corrupted Long-Tusk Elephants, towering stories tall, lumbered forward. Black venom dripped from their decayed tusks, and every swing of their trunks could snap a giant tree.
Even the skies weren’t spared. Swarms of Corrupted Winged Birds and nameless carapaced insects formed a black cloud, their shrill cries piercing the eardrums.
Mixed in the clouds were countless giant mutant flying insects with scythe-like limbs, their beating wings creating a ‘buzz’ that formed a symphony of death.
Land and sky, large and small, near and far, fast and slow—all types of creatures wove together into a three-dimensional, all-encompassing matrix of death without a single blind spot.
In this dual hell of sight and sound, several roars of overwhelming power erupted from the depths of the Beast Tide!
One was a brutal howl of violence and strength that echoed through the valley.
Another was cold and cunning, a shriek that seemed to freeze souls and thicken the air.
The last was high-pitched and commanding, carrying the authority of a sovereign—a clear declaration that this army had its own king.
Despair, like icy seawater, flooded through everyone.
The soldiers’ faces were ashen. Their hands trembled uncontrollably around their weapons.
Even the battle-hardened Fiona showed a trace of hopelessness for the first time.
This wasn’t a battle—it was a massacre.
With their mere dozens, how could they stand against a Beast Tide capable of swallowing a city?
Not even enough to fill a tooth gap.
Ella and Barret were even more stricken, faces pale, bodies rigid, minds blank.
The pressure and despair radiating from this horde of corrupted lifeforms far surpassed even the day the Golden Armored Devouring Locusts blotted out the sky.
In that terror, enough to freeze the soul, the two of them almost instinctively clung to the only pillar of hope—they both looked to Lin En.
And what they saw was a figure so familiar it brought calm.
Lin En stood quietly at the front of the group, facing the surging green sea. His profile, illuminated by firelight, showed not a trace of fear—only a calmness bordering on indifference, almost as if he was observing.
That impossible composure was like a shot of adrenaline, instantly suppressing the rampant despair in their hearts.
A ridiculous yet unshakable thought rose in their minds at the same time: Maybe… Master Lin En really does have a way.
“It’s over…”
Master Elaine murmured numbly.
“It’s a Beast Tide… They’re… they’re going to erase this entire region…”
***
Amid the horrified stares, Lin En slowly walked to the very front of the formation, standing alone before the tidal wave of death.
He gazed at the surging green light, not a hint of fear on his face—only a trace of contemplation.
“A systematized army…”
He muttered quietly, as if confirming his own deduction.
“As expected, as we go deeper, they’re sending forces to match us…”
And then—
A spiritual pressure far more overwhelming than the Beast Tide itself, vast enough to make space tremble, descended explosively, centered on him.