The counterattack pushed to twenty meters in front of the hole.
Bo Er led the men forward, the sound of copper swords clashing and the sizzle of burning intertwining, every swing trailing a golden flame.
Lu Yuan provided cover fire from the rear, responsible for clearing out any stragglers on the flanks.
But he noticed something.
The golden light film on his body was thinning.
It was not thinning on everyone.
The golden light on Bo Er was still thick and even, and the same was true for the other Nightwatchers.
Only the blessing on his own body was gradually dissipating.
When it was first applied, the difference was not noticeable, but as the battle progressed, the gap became more and more obvious.
The copper swords of the others glowed with a bright gold, while only a faint, flickering layer remained on his revolver.
It was as if something from within was repelling it.
【Note: Angel's Blessing has a weak repulsion with the host's own special attributes... blessing adhesion efficiency continues to decrease...】
When the nun had raised her hand to grant the blessing earlier, the three members of the Ascension Society had been directly repelled; the golden light could not even touch the two Descendants or the grey-haired woman.
And now he was also being repelled by the holy light, making it clear that there was a certain conflict between himself—or rather, his transcendent pathway—and the blessing of the Angel's believers.
Lu Yuan did not say anything.
However, he adjusted his fighting style, no longer relying on the extra lethality of the holy light and instead utilizing precise shots combined with the inherent burning of the copper-cased rounds.
He was simply being more conservative.
At the front, the two Descendants were still holding the line.
The Descendant with the severed right arm had only a short spike left on its stump, and its left arm was completely deformed, yet it stood a step in front of the corpse pile without retreating.
Its condition was worse than it had been before the counterattack began.
The black robe at its waist had long been shredded, revealing twisted gears and connecting rods beneath, some of which had fallen out and were dangling outside its body.
Its shoulder plates were covered in bite marks and scratches, and the metal framework at the right collarbone was exposed.
But it was still fighting.
A ghoul pounced, and the short spike thrust into its jaw from below, piercing through the top of its head.
A second one followed immediately, biting into the Descendant's spine.
The metal was bitten through instantly.
Fangs pierced the internal structure, snapping a metal shaft responsible for transmission.
The left side of the Descendant's body was instantly paralyzed.
The deformed left arm slumped down, no longer under control.
But the short spike on the right arm was still moving.
The moment the ghouls saw their target was injured, they swarmed forward simultaneously.
The Descendant was instantly pushed down.
The metal skeleton let out a series of snapping sounds under the heavy pressure.
It fell to the ground, the short spike still thrusting mechanically, but it could no longer reach any targets.
It was merely stabbing futilely at the air.
Growing slower and slower.
Lu Yuan's peripheral vision swept toward the far left end of the position.
The grey-haired woman was still there.
She had made a move before the counterattack began.
With a lift of her hand, three ghouls had shattered from the inside, clean and simple.
After that, Lu Yuan had not paid much attention to her; the pressure on the front and flanks was too great to spare energy for someone who did not need it.
But now that the counterattack had pushed forward and the pressure from the rear had plummeted, Lu Yuan finally had time to see clearly.
She stood there.
Less than fifteen meters away from the Descendant's battle.
Her hands were clasped behind her back.
She did not act.
She had not hesitated when clearing the left flank earlier, but now that the Descendant was being torn apart, she stood still.
Clearly, she did not care about the life or death of the Descendant; she was simply watching.
Watching the armless Descendant be torn by the ghouls.
Watching gears burst out from the ruptures.
Watching it grow slower and slower.
She remained expressionless.
It was as if she were observing something, right until the Descendant was completely scrapped.
The metal skeleton was torn to pieces among the ghoul swarm, its limbs scattered at impossible angles, and the bird-beak mask was ripped half off, revealing what was beneath...
Lu Yuan only took one look.
The Descendant did not have a face.
There was nothing under the mask.
Only a layer of black metal lining and dense, tiny gears.
The ghouls were still tearing at the fragments, as if fighting over food.
The grey-haired woman only moved when she saw this.
She stepped forward, knelt down, and picked something up from the fragments.
A metal component the size of a fist, still connected to a few snapped copper wires.
She examined it carefully for a while.
Then she put it into her pocket.
As she stood up, she frowned slightly and her lips moved, as if she were saying something.
Just then, three ghouls surged in through a gap in the ruins on the left, less than ten meters from her.
She did not even look at them directly.
She simply raised a hand.
It was exactly the same as before. The three bodies froze simultaneously, shattered from the inside, and turned into powder.
Clean and simple.
【Detection Target: Ascension Society · Great Augmenter (?)】
【An anomaly modified starting from the brain. Retains the appearance of a complete human body but has discarded everything else of humanity. The degree of modification is extremely deep, no mechanical traces can be observed externally, and the method of operation is unknown.】
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: +0.2... 12.2/100】
The experience bar jumped.
Modified starting from the brain.
Lu Yuan thought of Marcus, the man with half a mechanical face, whose modification started from the torso and went from the outside in.
This woman was exactly the opposite.
From the inside out.
Her exterior was perfectly intact, but who knew what the inside had been replaced with.
She retained a human body but discarded everything else of humanity.
What things?
A greater ghoul in its semi-metamorphosis stage jumped down from the roof, pouncing straight at her.
She stepped aside to let it pass.
The index and middle fingers of her right hand were pressed together, tapping the back of the greater ghoul's neck.
Psh.
A very soft sound rang out.
The greater ghoul's entire hindbrain exploded from the inside. Keratin shattered, and brains splattered.
It maintained its pouncing posture as it fell straight to the ground, twitching twice before becoming still.
She withdrew her hand.
Expressionless.
As if she had crushed an ant.
Bo Er saw this scene from a dozen meters away.
His copper sword was still stuck in a ghoul's head.
He pulled it out with force and shook off the debris.
He said nothing.
He silently pulled back his defensive range from the left flank.
That side did not need him.
The battle continued.
But the pressure was plummeting.
Fewer and fewer ghouls were emerging from the hole; clearly, the thing in charge beneath the collapse had also realized that this was only sending the ghouls to a useless death.
However, the surviving ghouls still let out unwilling roars before finally retreating toward the bottom of the hole with great impatience.
The remaining Descendant stood in front of the corpse pile, three deep scratches added to its bird-beak mask and its left arm completely deformed, yet it still stood there, motionless.
Lu Yuan felt the golden light film on his body thin even further.
He looked down at his revolver.
Almost no golden light could be seen on the barrel anymore.
While the blessing on Bo Er and the others was still very bright.
Only his was accelerating in its decline.
Lu Yuan did not hesitate.
"Everyone, fall back to the defense line!"
Bo Er was in the middle of a smooth killing spree and was stunned for a moment when he heard the order.
But he did not ask why.
He pulled his blade from a ghoul's skull and turned to run back.
The others followed suit.
"Repair the barricades! Pull the copper wire mesh! Spread the copper powder across the front!"
Lu Yuan's voice was not loud, but every word was clear.
While the blessing was still active, they needed to rebuild the defensive depth.
If they were rushed again after it dissipated, there would not be a second set of nuns on the roof.
The Nightwatchers executed the orders quickly.
Three men rushed to the front to fix the barricades, and two others re-strung the copper wire mesh.
Bo Er personally scattered the last of the copper powder on the open ground between the barricades and the cover, creating a thick layer.
He had already learned not to ask why.
The blessing gradually dissipated.
The golden light faded.
The copper swords turned back into ordinary copper.
The bullets no longer carried a glow.
The golden light film on their bodies was like mist blown away by the wind, vanishing silently.
A faint trace of warmth remained in the air.
But the area around the hole was already quiet.
Only the occasional roar from the very far and deep distance remained.
No one on the position spoke.
Everyone held their weapons, staring ahead.
But no new ghouls crawled out.
The distant roars were also weakening, as if they were retreating to a deeper place.
Lu Yuan slowly lowered his revolver.
He moved his thumb away from the hammer.
His fingers were a bit stiff.
After holding the gun all night, his five fingers had curved into the shape of pulling a trigger, and for a moment, he could not straighten them.
He moved them a few times, his joints making faint clicking sounds.
The four nuns leapt down from the roof.
The lead nun's face was pale, but her steps were steady, and her scripture book was now closed and held in her hand.
Her eyes had returned to normal; clearly, the Angel's Eye had ended.
The other three nuns followed behind her.
She walked across the position.
Her gaze swept over the Nightwatchers, over the Descendant that was still standing, and over the grey-haired woman on the left flank.
The grey-haired woman returned her gaze.
Neither of them spoke.
The nun continued walking.
When she passed Lu Yuan, her footsteps paused for a moment.
It was as if she had smelled something.
She looked at Lu Yuan.
Her brow furrowed slightly.
But there was no hostility; instead, it was as if, among a bunch of normal scents, she had suddenly captured a trace of something that should not be there.
Her lips moved slightly.
Ultimately, she did not speak.
She looked away and continued forward.
But his expression did not change at all.
The nun walked a few steps.
She did not look back.
"The Angel protects the lost, but also scrutinizes every one who is protected."
Her voice was not loud.
After saying this, she continued forward, her white-robed back gradually receding into the night.
Bo Er leaned over and lowered his voice.
"Captain, do you know that nun?"
"I don't."
Bo Er showed a hint of suspicion, but seeing that Lu Yuan had no intention of continuing, he did not press further.
He turned back to his position, stuck his copper sword next to a sandbag, and sat down against the cover.
Silence immediately followed on the position.
No one knew when the next wave of ghouls would surge, and although tonight's battle had not been particularly long.
After the intense emotional fluctuations, everyone felt an unprecedented exhaustion.
Sparse gunfire could be heard from other positions in the distance; it was unclear which direction was still fighting or if they were just clearing out remnants.
Lu Yuan also sat down.
His back was against a sandbag, his revolver placed on his knees, and he allowed his mind to go slightly blank while calculating when to drink the next potion.
Bo Er leaned over, unfastened the canteen from his waist, and took a large gulp.
Water ran down his chin, mixing with the black blood on his face and flowing down his neck into his collar.
He wiped his mouth.
"Two nights."
Bo Er's voice was much hoarser. "Two nights guarding this hellhole, and we're almost out of bullets. I've been stationed at Bronze City for so long, I feel like my body is rusting."
He paused.
"But brothers, not a single one of us died."
After Bo Er finished speaking, he cursed.
He laughed.
It was not the wild joy of surviving a disaster.
It was something hard to describe, a mix of exhaustion and absurdity.
He rested his copper sword on his legs and touched the edge, hissing as a bead of blood was cut from his fingertip.
"It felt too good to hack away while the blessing was active, one after another."
He grinned.
"Pity the blessing didn't last long enough; toward the end, it was getting hard to cut, and the edge is all chipped."
He put the sword down and did not speak further.
"I wonder what we'll do tomorrow?"
"We'll talk about tomorrow when it comes."
Bo Er nodded.
He let out a breath and lay there half-reclined.
At this moment, there was a shallow scrape on his left arm, though he didn't know when he had been injured; the blood had already dried, forming a dark red scab.
Leaning against the sandbag, his gaze crossed the barricade line and looked toward the hole.
It was quiet there, and no more ghouls were showing their heads.
Dawn was already breaking.
The first light peeked out from behind the eastern city walls, shining on the charred battlefield in front of the hole.
White smoke slowly dissipated in the morning light.
Charred corpse fragments that hadn't been cleared yet still hung on the copper barricades, glinting with a dark red luster in the sunlight.
Copper powder, bullet casings, and black bloodstains were everywhere on the ground.
The ground was covered in the greyish-white powder left behind after the ghouls shattered.
The remains of the fallen Descendant were scattered near the front line.
Various twisted metal skeletons were mixed with ghoul body parts.
As the light grew stronger, the sour, putrid smell coming from underground also weakened.
Sunlight was a natural barrier.
At least the daytime was safe.
At the edge of his vision, greyish-white text flickered quietly.
【Forbidden Lore: Knowledge Seeker: 12.4/100】
That final 0.2 was what he had accumulated while observing the grey-haired woman during the battle.
Over the course of the night, including the observation of the holy light repulsion reaction, it was a total of 0.4.
It was not much.
But it was better than grinding herbs in the Alchemy Workshop.
And looking at the current situation, the Bronze City had mobilized quite a few people to deal with this ghoul wave.
If it was only of this intensity, the ghouls would never be able to break through the Bronze City's defenses.
Unless there were more collapses.
Most importantly, this time he had specifically told the Nightwatchers team to preserve a few corpses of the greater ghouls.
Whether his Forbidden Lore could level up depended entirely on this.
Lu Yuan put away his revolver and holstered it at his waist.
He stood up.
In the distance, the gunfire from the other positions had completely stopped.
Someone was shouting something in the direction of the Alchemy Workshop; it was hard to hear clearly, but they were likely reporting the status of the battle.
Bo Er also stood up, patting the dust off his body.
"Let's go see what the situation is with Glock."
Lu Yuan nodded.
The two of them walked toward the Alchemy Workshop.
Behind them, the Nightwatchers on the position began to pack their things.
Bullet casings, empty ammunition boxes, and used-up sandworm oil cans.
And the greater ghoul corpses Lu Yuan had ordered them to keep.
The Descendant that could still move remained standing in its original spot.
There were three deep scratches on its bird-beak mask, and its left arm was completely deformed.
But it still stood.
Facing the direction of the hole.
Motionless.
The grey-haired woman was already gone.
It was unclear when she had left.
Lu Yuan looked back at the spot where she had been standing.
'Truly worthy of the Ascension Society...'
Rate on N.U.
