Soldier against soldier, king against king. Jessica faced off against the Adjutant, while the official personnel under her command clashed with the Soldiers under the Adjutant's command.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!—”
On the Special Service's side, regardless of whether they had extraordinary abilities or not, everyone first pulled out firearms and began to shoot. In low-level combat, ordinary firearms were still highly effective.
Since the opposing Soldiers stood in neat rows that almost completely filled the street, there was no need to aim at all; they only had to make sure they didn't hit their own teammates.
Bloody flowers bloomed amidst the enemy crowd. Some Soldiers were hit in the chest, some in the limbs, while others with worse luck were shot directly in the head.
But strangely, these wounded Soldiers acted as if nothing had happened. Even as blood gushed from holes in their foreheads, they continued to march forward in perfect unison.
Though they were a hundred individual people, the momentum they displayed was like a single, complete entity—much like a starting train where each Soldier was merely an insignificant gear in the mechanism, interlocking and cooperating with one another to propel the train forward, faster and faster!
“Thud—!”
“Thud, thud—!”
Without giving the Special Service members any chance for a second round of ranged attacks, the two sides collided. As one of the captains, Nolan stood at the very front line. He took the lead, charging right up to a Soldier and throwing a punch.
With the enhancement of his extraordinary ability, the force of this strike was warped and magnified several times over. He did not hold back in the slightest, his spirituality draining rapidly. This strike could easily be called 'the full-force blow of a Rank Four.'
If a Rank One extraordinary of the Devil Pathway took this punch, it was no exaggeration to say they would instantly 'blood flee,' turning into a mist of blood that scattered everywhere. If this punch hit a wall instead, Nolan could control the force to distribute evenly to every corner of the building, instantly shattering the entire house.
Yet the seemingly ordinary Soldier in front of him did not explode on the spot after taking this blow. Although he was sent flying with the crackling sound of fracturing bones like firecrackers, the outcome was still incredibly strange.
Nolan's brow furrowed. He had a very precise grasp of his own strength. If the power of the punch he had just thrown was a hundred points, then after hitting this Soldier, only fifty points actually remained.
As for the other fifty? It was as if it had vanished into thin air.
No, it hadn't vanished. Nolan keenly noticed that the moment he threw his punch, the entire marching legion faltered for a brief second, as if... everyone had been struck by an invisible force.
“This is...” Nolan instantly realized what was happening. His attack was being shared among the other members of the legion!
Of course, it wasn't a perfect, equal share for everyone, but rather sharing half of the damage received. Even so, this was absurd. In a sense, wasn't this practically the same as fifty percent damage reduction?
As Nolan was thinking, the two Soldiers closest to him immediately launched a counterattack. None of these Soldiers carried any proper weapons—at most, they had pocket knives, kitchen cleavers, iron bars, and the like. The two Soldiers in front of Nolan each held an iron bar.
“Whir!—”
It was clearly just a normal swing, yet it produced a distinct whistling sound. Nolan originally wanted to use his ability to twist the direction of these two attacks, but his eyes suddenly widened.
Nolan could feel his spirituality draining rapidly, like a bottomless pit, but the attacks of the two Soldiers showed no signs of pausing.
“Bang!—” “Bang!—”
At the last moment, the two attacks still veered off course, striking the ground near Nolan's feet. Under the force of the impact, the two iron bars snapped in half, and several distinct cracks appeared on the paved road.
“How ridiculous. Is this the 【Battle Array】?” A drop of cold sweat trickled down Nolan's forehead. If he were facing these enemies alone, he would probably be defeated within ten minutes at most.
The effectiveness of his attacks was halved, while the enemies' attacks were highly lethal to him. Although he could use his ability to evade, the spiritual consumption was simply too high. Once his spirituality was depleted, he would be defeated.
However... Nolan was not fighting alone this time!
“Charge!”
“Go!”
Accompanied by these shouts, one extraordinary after another from the Special Service followed Nolan's lead and charged forward together. The Special Service members were extremely well-equipped; almost everyone had a firearm, a melee weapon, and wore a custom stab-resistant vest.
However, if even Nolan found it this difficult to fight these Soldiers, then the ordinary official extraordinaries had it even worse. The average strength of each Soldier was far higher than that of the official extraordinaries. Within seconds of the initial clash, several official extraordinaries were wounded.
The female captain with glasses whom Freya had met before shouted, “All wounded, fall back! Let others take your place!”
Gunfire, screams, and roars echoed continuously, alongside commands that were almost entirely drowned out by the noise. All the captains had to shout at the top of their lungs just to get their orders across to the few people around them.
After all, these people were only police officers, not soldiers. Right now, they were fighting purely on hot blood and a strong sense of justice, so the scene naturally grew more chaotic. In contrast, on the legion's side, not a single Soldier made any unnecessary noise. Like robots, they performed their duties flawlessly throughout.
Standing at the rear of the battlefield, Euphemia couldn't help but look worried. Judging by the current situation, the Special Service might win, but they would undoubtedly pay a heavy price. She couldn't help but murmur, “Is Fufu not here yet?”
Then, the very next second after she spoke, a massive dark shadow fell from the sky, crashing heavily right into the middle of the legion like a cannonball.
“Boom!—”
Accompanied by a deafening roar, a crater over ten meters in diameter was smashed into the ground, and dense cracks spread along the edges of the pit. Countless Soldiers were sent flying by the impact, creating a vacuum right in the middle of the legion.
“What a coincidence! I never expected to run into something like this while taking a walk. I just love beating up bad guys! How about counting me in?”
In the middle of the crater, the five-meter-tall Archbishop Pantheon slowly stood up. He had used an ability from the Path of the Giant called 'Gigantification.' However, his growth was not like the Hulk's muscle expansion, but rather a proportional enlargement, which included his clothes and weapons.
Pantheon held a stone greatsword in his hand that was roughly as long as he was tall. However, unlike normal stone, this greatsword gleamed with a cold luster, even reflecting the sunlight.
This greatsword was a weapon Atticus had crafted for Pantheon using his extraordinary abilities. An ability of the Rank Four Earth Pathway, Path of the Earth, was called 'Hardened Earth.' True to its name, it could make stone as hard as steel.
As he spoke, Pantheon raised his greatsword and swept it along the ground. With no fancy tricks, his massive size itself was the best weapon.
Accompanied by the whistling wind, the Soldiers who had just been blown away and hadn't yet gotten up were all hit by the greatsword. The sound of fracturing bones crackled through their bodies as they were swept away once more like tattered ragdolls.
“The Church of the Earth?” Seeing this, the official extraordinaries couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Although their orders forbade them from cooperating with the church, they were certainly happy to see such powerful reinforcements arrive at a time like this.
Nolan narrowed his eyes, staring intently at the battlefield. Why was that guy's strike so effective?
As fellow Rank Fours, Nolan and Pantheon's strength should be roughly equal. But he quickly noticed something. It's the formation! As long as the Soldiers' formation is broken, they will lose the enhancement of their Battle Array!
“Find a way to disrupt their formation! These Soldiers' combat power will plummet!”
However, as mentioned earlier, because the official extraordinaries were somewhat chaotic, it was very difficult to execute Nolan's orders. But just then, arriving slightly later than Pantheon, the other members of the Church of the Earth reached the street, and Atticus suddenly said, “That's easy!”
It had to be said that while the official extraordinaries around Nolan might not have heard him clearly, Atticus, who was over a hundred meters away, had 'heard' it perfectly, which was rather absurd.
Then, Atticus squatted down and pressed his hands against the ground. Thick, solid earthen walls suddenly rose up in the middle of the battlefield, directly dividing the area.
These earthen walls didn't completely block the road; instead, they left gaps on the left, right, or middle that were just wide enough for two people to pass side by side.
This way, if the legion wanted to advance, they had to squeeze through these gaps, which naturally destroyed their so-called formation.
What if the enemy chose to shatter these walls to force their formation?
They could, but it wouldn't be easy. These walls were created by a Rank Four extraordinary using his full power. Rather than destroying them head-on, it would be easier to tear down the houses on both sides to bypass them, or simply climb over the earthen walls.
But whether they bypassed or climbed over them, the formation would still be fundamentally broken. This was an open scheme!
“Crack! Crack! Crack!—”
Accompanied by crisp cracking sounds, steps protruded from the earthen walls on the official extraordinaries' side. Atticus took a deep breath and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Everyone! Get up on the walls and attack the enemy!”
On the surface, he was shouting to the Earth believers, but in reality, the believers were still some distance away. Hearing this, many official extraordinaries climbed up the earthen walls and fired down from above.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!—”
Gunfire rang out continuously. As for what to do if the enemy Soldiers jumped onto the walls to engage the official extraordinaries in melee combat? That would actually be a wonderful thing! Without the Battle Array's enhancement, the official extraordinaries had nothing to fear from these Soldiers!
And what if the Soldiers didn't climb up and instead tried to break down the earthen walls? Then the official extraordinaries could just retreat to the walls behind them and continue shooting after the first walls were destroyed.
It was no exaggeration to say that after the Church of the Earth joined the battle, the situation reversed instantly!
Not to mention, Nolan saw a white-haired girl in a pure white dress, barefoot and with her eyes closed, taking small steps as she slowly walked toward the front line.
She was surrounded by a visible green halo with a radius of about ten meters. The wounds of everyone within this halo began to heal at a visible rate.
The first batch of wounded who had retreated to the rear were completely healed just by the white-haired girl passing them by!
When the girl reached the front line and Nolan found himself within this halo, although he wasn't injured, he could feel his largely depleted spirituality rapidly recovering.
Needless to say, this lovely girl was Freya. As for this halo, it was the manifestation of her using her 'Heal' ability with all her might.
'Looking' at Captain Nolan in front of her, Freya revealed a sweet smile and said in a soft, cute voice, “Fight with peace of mind. I've got your back~”
A slight smile tugged at the corner of Nolan's mouth. If he didn't have to worry about spiritual consumption and could use his ability limitlessly, its power would be absolutely terrifying.
Nolan turned and charged into the battlefield, with Freya following closely behind. She maintained a distance of about ten meters from him—a position where she could grant him the spirituality recovery buff while staying as far from the actual fighting as possible.
“Thud!” “Thud!” “Thud!”
As one Soldier after another fell and the remaining number in the legion dwindled, their combat power began to weaken further and further.
Of course, though Freya's healing range was quite large, it still couldn't cover the entire battlefield. Some of the official extraordinaries still got injured.
But the moment these people were injured, a muscular, tall 'medic' would hoist them up and carry them to the rear for treatment.
In a sense, these 'male healers' looked far more reassuring than any typical female healer.
Seeing the scales of victory tipping in their favor, Euphemia, who had been staying far in the rear, tiptoed over. She waved as she approached Freya and said, “You guys arrived just in time!”
“If you had been any later, I can't even imagine how tragic the battle would have been.”
...
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