The hellhound's middle head flew from its shoulders in a clean arc, severed by a flash of light. Xiao Ke's breath caught in his chest. He watched Qin Bing glide past the beast as if it were a training dummy, her light sword already retracting.
Marshal-grade, he thought, the term echoing in his mind with newfound reverence. Is this the kind of power you unlock when you awaken your martial meridians?
While Xiao Ke and his squad were still trying to process her lethal grace, Qin Bing was already moving on to the second hellhound.
They called her the Valkyrie of the Black Shark Legion for a reason. Her style was the military's doctrine distilled to its purest, most brutal form: an overwhelming frontal assault.
The lion-sized creature lunged, a blur of claws and teeth. It met her blade and simply… came apart. Like a slab of butter meeting a superheated knife, the monster was split down the middle. A plume of viscous green fluid erupted into the air, and by the time the corrosive, toxic blood rained down, Qin Bing was already clear, her sword held low, its tip pointed at the ground as she scanned the horizon.
Two hundred meters out, a new threat emerged. A hulking abomination, flanked by dozens of chittering Predator zombies and a shambling horde of walkers, was charging their position with terrifying momentum.
"Light 'em up!" Xiao Ke roared, the order tearing from his throat. The Orca Battalion's discipline kicked in. The time for conserving ammo was over.
A wall of lead met the oncoming wave. Low-level zombies crumpled under the fire, their bodies twitching on the blood-soaked ground. But the horde was a tide, and for every one that fell, two more took its place. The abomination at its head didn't even flinch. It pounded forward, closing the distance to Qin Bing with impossible speed, a pack of a dozen level-four Predators loping at its heels.
Qin Bing met the charge without hesitation. Her light sword became a silver needle, darting for the creature's throat, aimed to lift its massive head from its shoulders.
But this thing was different. It twisted, a surprisingly agile move for its size, and her blade met empty air. Qin Bing let out a soft, surprised "Hmm." This was no mindless brute. It was a level-six, a veteran of countless battles, and it had just sidestepped a killing blow.
The abomination retaliated instantly. It pivoted, its right arm swinging in a devastating arc. The claw, larger than Qin Bing's head, was a fan of razored bone aimed to pulp her skull.
But her reflexes were just as fast. She launched herself into the air, her slender frame coiling like a spring. Her steel-toed boot connected with the creature's chest in a perfect, powerful kick. It looked effortless, but the impact had the force to shatter stone.
The monster's iron-hard chest caved in with a sickening crunch of bone and pulped organs. If it had been human, it would have been killed instantly.
But it was a zombie. Pain was irrelevant. Only a blow to the head was fatal. It staggered back, its balance broken, and whipped its massive tail in a vicious counter-sweep. But Qin Bing had already used the kick's momentum to rebound, landing gracefully out of reach.
The fight for the line, however, was turning into a slaughter. The pack of Predators slammed into the Orca Battalion's defenses, and chaos erupted. The line, composed mostly of green recruits and deserters, shattered. In seconds, a dozen soldiers were dragged down, their screams silenced by snapping necks and torn throats. The rest of the horde poured through the gap.
Panic set in. Faces went pale, legs trembled. If not for the menacing presence of Duan Canglong and Luo Hou's disciplinary squad behind them, the entire battalion would have broken and run.
Xiao Ke didn't hesitate. Gripping his commander's saber—the Fierce General—he charged into the breach. A Predator lunged at him, and he brought his blade down in a brutal chop.
The creature raised an arm to block. The Fierce General, a masterpiece forged by a military legend for a hundred thousand gold coins, sliced through bone and sinew as if it were bamboo. Xiao Ke barely felt the resistance. The Predator's arm fell to the ground.
A surge of adrenaline and confidence hit him. He'd awakened three of his core bones, pushing his striking power to an incredible level. That, combined with this perfect blade, made him a force to be reckoned with. He flowed into the next move of his Assault Technique, a lightning-fast horizontal slash that took the dazed Predator's head clean off.
The headless corpse toppled like a felled tree.
"Orca Battalion, with me!" Xiao Ke's voice boomed over the chaos. "Guns or blades, fight!"
He plunged back into the fray, his saber a blur. His courage was contagious. Duan Canglong, Luo Hou, and the other squad leaders rallied, meeting the Predators head-on. Luo Hou raised his heavy machine gun as one leaped at him, unleashing a deafening torrent of fire. The creature was shredded in mid-air, its body disintegrating under the storm of bullets before it hit the ground.
"Yeah!" Luo Hou screamed, triumphant.
They were turning the tide. Xiao Ke, moving like a storm of steel, cut down three more Predators, buying his men precious seconds to regroup. But in the chaos, the last Predator got inside his guard, tackling him to the ground. Its fetid jaws snapped inches from his face. He shoved his saber up defensively, and the creature's teeth clamped down on the hard steel. With a grunt of effort, Xiao Ke ripped the blade sideways, splitting the zombie's skull open. It shuddered and went limp on top of him.
Duan Canglong hauled the corpse off him. "Brother, you're hurt!"
Xiao Ke looked down. Deep, ragged scratches ran down both his arms. A cold dread settled in his stomach. His face went ashen, but he gritted his teeth. "Forget it! Finish the rest of them!"
Just then, a final, decisive flash of light arced across the battlefield. The hulking abomination's head tumbled to the ground, and its massive body crashed down, silent at last. The battle was won.
The field was a carpet of corpses, both zombie and human. Besides Xiao Ke, five others had been wounded. They were already succumbing to despair, their hands reaching for their sidearms. Xiao Ke, though terrified, managed to hold it together.
Qin Bing walked over, her face unreadable. She examined his wounds. "Show-off," she said, her voice flat. "Trying to play the hero when you don't have the strength to back it up."
She pulled a small medkit from her belt. Inside lay a syringe and ten small vials.
"Count yourself lucky," she said, handing it to him. "Commander Bai Longyin sent ten doses of the zombie virus vaccine with the last supply drop. Otherwise, the best advice I could give you right now would be to eat your gun."
Relief washed over Xiao Ke so powerfully that his knees felt weak. "A vaccine? I'm… I'm not going to turn?"
"You were lucky," she repeated, her tone sharp. "This only works on infections from level-five threats or lower. If that abomination had scratched you, this wouldn't do a damn thing. Next time, think about your limits before you charge in. I don't have time to pick a new Centurion. Understand?"
He heard the anger in her voice, but beneath it, there was a current of concern. It warmed him.
"Yes, ma'am," he said, his voice thick with emotion.
The vaccine was a miracle. Normally, such a thing was reserved for elite legions. The life of a line soldier was cheap; a dose of the cure was not. The ten vials were a gift, a personal favor from Commander Bai Longyin to Qin Bing. A favor that had just saved Xiao Ke's life.
As the last of the wounded were being treated, the rumble of engines broke the evening quiet. A convoy of armored jeeps and trucks sped toward them, kicking up dust in the twilight. The imperial dragon flag flew alongside the banner of the White Shark Battalion.
Qiao Mingxuan had arrived.
The man himself leaped from the lead jeep with practiced agility, his hair perfectly coiffed and gleaming, a stark contrast to the blood-and-grime-caked soldiers around him.
"Look at this slick bastard," Duan Canglong muttered under his breath next to Xiao Ke. "What's he doing here?"
"He's the one who fed us the intel," Luo Hou added, his voice low and bitter. "He told the Centurion this would be a good training exercise for us. Said it was just a couple of hundred low-levels."
"He set us up," Duan Canglong spat. "We faced double that, plus a level-six and a pack of Predators. He wanted us dead."
Xiao Ke watched as Qiao Mingxuan approached Qin Bing, a sycophantic smile plastered on his face. "Not dead, necessarily," Xiao Ke corrected them quietly.
They both looked at him, confused.
"Think about it," Xiao Ke explained. "He deliberately low-balled the enemy's strength. He expected us to get overrun, for Qin Bing to be trapped in a desperate fight she couldn't win alone. Then, he'd ride in at the last minute, the hero coming to the rescue, and earn her undying gratitude."
The pieces clicked into place for Duan Canglong and Luo Hou. Everyone knew Qiao Mingxuan was trying to court Qin Bing. The realization that he'd used their lives as pawns in his romantic games made their blood boil.
"We're keeping this to ourselves for now," Xiao Ke warned them. "It's just a theory. If we make accusations we can't prove, he'll use it to have us disciplined. Just watch your backs around him."
He then walked forward to greet the man. As a fellow Centurion, protocol demanded it. He saw the flicker of genuine shock in Qiao Mingxuan's eyes, the utter disbelief that this rag-tag battalion had not only survived but won so decisively.
"Reporting, ma'am," Qiao Mingxuan said to Qin Bing, his voice smooth as oil. "I was concerned for your safety, so I brought my men to provide support."
Xiao Ke stepped up beside them. "Quite the long trip, Centurion Qiao," he said with a wry smile. "You must be disappointed you missed the party."
Qiao Mingxuan's face hardened. "What's that supposed to mean, Xiao Ke?"
"It means your intel was off by a factor of two," Xiao Ke shot back, his voice cold. "It makes a man wonder if you had another outcome in mind when you suggested this 'training exercise'."
Panic flashed in Qiao Mingxuan's eyes before being replaced by rage. "The battlefield is fluid! And don't you forget your place just because you have a new title. I could crush you like a bug."
"Enough!" Qin Bing's voice cracked like a whip. Her icy gaze fell first on Xiao Ke, then settled on Qiao Mingxuan. "Watch your mouth, Qiao Mingxuan. Your family name got you this rank, but it won't protect you from me if you step out of line again." She turned to Xiao Ke. "And you. No more accusations without proof. I'll have you up on charges of slander."
"Yes, ma'am," they both said, though neither backed down in their glare.
"We have ten more days on this deployment," Qin Bing said, her voice leaving no room for argument. "I expect both of you to do your jobs. Anyone who jeopardizes this mission will answer to me personally. Now, take your men and get back to town."
Later that night, the Orca Battalion was given leave to celebrate. Most headed straight for the tavern. Xiao Ke, however, excused himself. He had better things to do than drink.
He went to Qin Bing's private courtyard and let himself into her training room. The battle had left him drained, but also energized. He sat and began to cultivate his Tiger-Pouncing Art. After a few hours, he felt a familiar reservoir of Origin Power pool within him.
He had a choice. He could use this power to try to break through to the next rank of warrior. Or, he could use it to temper more of his bones. The latter offered an immediate, tangible boost to his physical strength.
The choice was easy.
He directed the flow of energy, feeling it saturate two of his vertebrae, setting them alight with an internal, pearlescent glow. That made five bones in total now: the coccyx, the sacrum, and three vertebrae, all connected along his spine. He felt a surge of new power, a raw strength that could likely shatter stone.
As the five bones pulsed in unison, the faint outline of his entire spinal column flickered into view, like a ghostly blueprint. A thought sparked in his mind: What if I awaken the entire spine? What kind of power would that unleash?
Suddenly, a commotion from outside shattered his concentration. He opened the door to find one of his men, Liu Jinquan, looking frantic.
"Centurion!" he gasped. "It's bad. It's really bad."
"What is it?" Xiao Ke asked, a knot tightening in his stomach.
"It's Duan Canglong and Luo Hou. They were at the tavern, drunk. They started mouthing off about Qiao Mingxuan… calling him a coward, a schemer… said he was a toad trying to eat swan's meat by chasing the Centurion…" Liu Jinquan's voice trembled. "Someone must have snitched. Qiao Mingxuan just surrounded the tavern with his men. Sir… I don't know if they're still alive."
A cold dread washed over Xiao Ke. Qiao Mingxuan had threatened to crush him like a bug. What would he do to a pair of drunken, insubordinate soldiers?
"Sound the alarm," Xiao Ke commanded, his voice deadly calm. "Get every soldier we have. We're going to the tavern. Now."