The Viscount’s face instantly turned extremely ugly. He keenly realized that the severity of the situation before him was far beyond his imagination.
Colk’s troops—those were nine hundred fully armed guards, plus seven Barons and two Viscounts accompanying them. Such an enormous formation sent chills down anyone’s spine.
“This guy… he wouldn’t really be planning to massacre the entire city, would he?”
A strong sense of unease surged in the Viscount’s heart.
“I’m going to inform the gang.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, the Viscount turned and hurried away without another word, leaving Renith alone, standing on that small mound of dirt.
Just then, a sound of metal being struck came from inside the burning train. The noise echoed continuously through the silent sea of flames, sounding exceptionally piercing.
Before long, soldiers in neat uniforms, gripping their rifles tightly, crawled out of the train cars one by one. Their movements were very slow, and they seemed completely unaware of the flames licking at them.
Seeing this, Renith felt something was off and immediately used Refraction without hesitation, hiding her figure.
These soldiers followed someone’s orders and quickly gathered on an open patch of ground that the flames hadn’t reached.
In no time, all the soldiers had assembled.
Eight people stood before their respective teams, backs straight, with expressions of superiority in their eyes. Each team looked to be about a hundred strong, arranged in neat rows.
And there was one more person standing at the very front, facing everyone. He wore a special trench coat with wide, sweeping hems, and his eyes were full of frivolity.
Renith carefully confirmed—these nine people were exactly the seven Barons and two Viscounts she had sensed earlier. Barring any surprises, the man at the very front was undoubtedly Colk.
“If it weren’t for you worthless lot, I wouldn’t have bothered bringing you along! Now hurry up and get Mobis City back for me!”
Colk yelled at the top of his lungs. The eight leaders in front immediately dispersed with their respective teams, while Colk swaggered off toward the streets of Mobis City.
Colk’s army began to move. They quickly filled the gaps left by the guards on the front lines, while some soldiers requisitioned bars and inns as their camps.
Vista and his group, who were rushing toward Boran’s Gun Factory, happened to run right into a team led by one of the Barons.
The two sides immediately engaged in a fierce gunfight on the narrow street.
The gang, along with over a hundred workers led by Vista, were forced to exchange fire with Colk’s army.
Colk’s troops were equipped with the most advanced rifles and carried grenades on their belts. Their gear was so impressive it made your jaw drop.
Facing such an overwhelming disparity in firepower, Vista and his men simply couldn’t hold their ground. They had no choice but to retreat into the alleys.
“We’re done for!”
Vista’s heart sank. In just the first encounter, they had already lost over a dozen workers. Because of this defeat, the morale of the workers behind him was low, and fear was plastered all over every single face.
“Could these guys have crawled right out of that explosion?”
Facing such an overwhelming gap in firepower, Vista knew that continuing to fight head-on would only lead to death, so he prepared to retreat. But the leading Baron didn’t seem willing to give Vista any chance. Seeing Vista directing the overall situation, he decided to take him out directly.
The Baron charged into the alley like a fierce beast. Leo Luo, standing beside Vista, immediately raised his gun to shoot, but the Baron was extremely agile. He kicked off the wall, easily predicting and dodging the bullet.
The Baron quickly gathered Qi into the palm of his hand, preparing to launch an attack.
But the next second, Vista tore open the scroll in his hand. Invisible moisture instantly condensed into ice crystals, sharp as daggers, and shot toward the Baron.
The narrow alley left the Baron with nowhere to dodge. The sharp ice crystals scraped across his arm, leaving streaks of blood.
The Baron looked down at the bloody scratches left by the ice crystals, and a flash of annoyance appeared in his eyes.
But he knew full well that in this cramped alley, one wrong move and he could be hurt again by such a sudden attack. Besides, the intelligence reports said these guys had quite a few magic scrolls!
If he blindly charged in and took a few hits, he could easily end up incapacitated.
“All of you, attack! Wipe out these reckless fools!”
The Baron roared, issuing his command to the soldiers behind him.
Hearing the order, the soldiers surged into the alley like a tidal wave, advancing cautiously, their footsteps echoing through the silent passage.
The footsteps slowly closing in on Vista and his men sounded like a countdown to death.
Vista and the workers hid behind the buildings on both sides of the alley, gripping their weapons tightly, eyes fixed straight ahead. This was a fight for life and death—one slip, and they’d be dead for sure.
“Everyone stay calm, follow my orders!”
Vista said in a low voice.
“Wait until they get closer before firing. Save your bullets.”
Colk’s soldiers gradually approached, their faces relaxed, as if they didn’t take Vista and his men seriously at all.
When they stepped into firing range, Vista gave the order:
“Fire!”
In an instant, gunfire exploded through the alley, bullets raining down on the enemy like hailstones. Yet Colk’s army didn’t dodge. They just stood there, letting the bullets hit them.
Vista found it strange. Were these guys not afraid of death?
But when Vista took a closer look, his heart jolted violently, and his breathing became rapid. This was a feeling he had encountered many times before—fear.
The bullets had only torn through their clothes, not harming them in the slightest.
Seeing Vista and his men shooting, Colk’s army calmly pulled their bolts and aimed.
Appraisal popped up right on time.
“Get down!”
Vista shouted.
The workers panicked when they realized their attacks had done absolutely nothing. Following Vista’s command, some of them dropped to the ground and looked for cover, trying to escape the dense hail of gunfire.
But the alley was very narrow, and there weren’t many places to hide. Some workers were hit, screaming as they fell to the ground, their blood staining the pavement red.
But the remaining workers quickly steadied themselves. They retreated while using their guns to return fire. Bullets whistled through the alley, kicking up clouds of dust as they hit the walls.
Leo Luo hid behind a stack of wooden crates. He poked his head out, aimed at an enemy who was reloading, and pulled the trigger.
Bang! But the enemy acted as if nothing had happened, completely unharmed.
Seeing this, Leo Luo, who had landed a hit, couldn’t bring himself to feel happy at all.
He was just about to pull back when a bullet grazed past his face and left a deep hole in the wall behind him.
“Don’t act on your own. If we retreat, we retreat together.”
Vista reminded Leo Luo beside him.
Right now, Vista felt like his head was going to split in two. Colk’s army wasn’t afraid of bullets—they were truly monsters in human skin!
But just a few days ago, even those monsters could be killed by bullets. Yet Colk’s army ate bullets like they were nothing.
Still, there was one silver lining: their attacks weren’t completely useless.
Several enemies had fallen during the fight, clutching the spots where bullets had hit them, their faces deathly pale.
They hadn’t bled a single drop, so Vista made a bold guess: there was some unknown force coating the surface of their bodies. The bullets couldn’t penetrate, but the sheer impact was enough to shatter their internal organs!
But even if his guess was right, so what?
Looking at the situation before him, Vista felt desperate. He knew very well that dragging this out was extremely bad for them.
Colk’s army was huge and well-equipped.
On the other hand, to deal any real damage, his men had to land more shots. But their ammunition, already scarce, would eventually run out.
Even though they kept retreating, the enemy stuck to them like a stubborn plaster. No matter how far they ran, the soldiers soon caught up again.
After turning another corner, Vista and his men quickly crouched down to return fire.
“We have to stop them! Otherwise, we’re all dead!”
Vista gave a firm order: they had to find cover and slow down the enemy’s advance. Otherwise, at this pace, they’d be caught for sure.
Osaiku looked at the bodies of his fallen comrades beside him, then glanced around the empty alley. He shouted to the people behind him:
“Use the bodies as a wall!”
For a moment, everyone hesitated. After all, using the corpses of their own comrades as a shield was deeply disrespectful to the dead.
But surprisingly, Leo Luo didn’t argue with Osaiku. He turned to Vista beside him and spoke urgently:
“We don’t have time to think. There’s no cover nearby. We have to use our comrades’ bodies as our barricade. There’s no other choice.”
“I hate it too. But we can’t let their deaths be in vain… And Vista, you cannot die. You’re the one who can ignite the fire in people’s hearts. As long as you’re alive, we still have hope of seeing fairness and freedom!”
Leo Luo’s eyes were full of resolve.
Vista seemed to sense what Leo Luo was about to say next.
“I’ll cover you. Everyone else can die, but not you!”
Leo Luo’s tone was firm.
“Leo Luo, I order you to take that back! I’m no different from all of you. I’m the leader. I should be the last to retreat, do you understand?!”
Vista tried to argue.
“Enough! Vista! By seniority, I’m old enough to be your uncle! You don’t have the authority to order me around!”
Leo Luo waved his hand, his gaze leaving no room for argument.
Osaiku immediately had the people around him stack up the bodies. The workers nearby directly grabbed Vista and dragged him off into another alley.
Leo Luo and Osaiku leaned against the wall of corpses behind them. They scanned the remaining twenty-plus people and sighed in unison.
In the first round of enemy fire, more than twenty had died, and the group had been scattered. Then they’d lost nearly half again. Adding the ones who had just retreated…
The 150-strong force Vista had worked so hard to build was now less than half. And those still on the scene numbered pitifully few.
“Dammit, with so many people around, why the hell am I stuck here with you?”
Osaiku grumbled.
“I should be saying that about you! Why should I have to lie next to a dumb pig like you?”
Leo Luo shot back.
“Whatever… Let’s take the other alley. This time, no objections, right?”
Leo Luo pointed in the direction opposite the one Vista had retreated in.
“No objections.”
Osaiku nodded.
For once, they actually agreed on something.
