chapter 45: newbie

Turning around, team Dazzle was face to face with Lion, Andrea and most probably their teammates. Rolling his eyes at Lion's mischievousness, Luke just greeted them and got back to watching the remains of the battlefield.

With his eyes as wide as saucers, Lion looked incredulously at Luke " No yelling? No talkback? No fails? Kid, what happened to you? I don't recognize you anymore. Was I too fierce with my teasing? "

" … "

Still seeing no response from Luke, Lion looked as if someone just took his most precious thing while Andrea just chuckled. She was the one who told Luke that once he didn't respond, Lion couldn't do anything. Everyone else though felt like third wheels, spectating a couple's ordinary life.

What destroyed this weird atmosphere was an explosion in the distance. Then sirens resounded all over the camp as captain wulin's voice was projected in everyone's mind. " We are under attack, quickly get into formation to defend against the enemy. ECG's teams will form an autonomous division under lieutenant Xi. "

Looking at each other, Andrea asked " Anyone knows lieutenant Xi? " As they all shook their heads, another wolfman, a white-furred one showed up. " I believe you are talking about me, let's not waste time and reunite with my squadron. Note that you may be independent but if I order you to do something, you do it! "

Finished, he began to walk towards the soldier's barracks. As his pace was fast, the slowest of the group actually had to run to keep up with him. ' Braggart '

When they arrived at the soldiers' barracks, they found that there were more than a thousand soldiers waiting for them. They were all in formations, waiting for orders. Lieutenant Xi then transmitted orders to the soldiers as they immediately departed while sending the teams a message. " Follow me. " They clearly didn't have any say in the matters of the fort so they just followed him.

Arriving at the force field, lieutenant Xi then pressed a talisman looking object on it, creating a 5 meters wide opening. As the barrier opened, he began to walk at his pace, forcing the soldiers and the teams to run after him. After traveling around 10 kilometers, they arrived at the battlefield. The fight had already begun. They were most likely late because of the teams. Counting roughly, there were about a hundred thousand allies for the same number of enemies.

As they arrived, lieutenant Xi just disappeared as he went to another place, most likely to battle powerhouses at his level, leaving behind a message " Stay with the formations, your goal today is to learn, not meaninglessly die. Making someone revive is costly, so be sure to not waste resources. "

Watching him disappear, Luke thought ' This whole battlefield thing just looks like a whetstone, for both sides. If the goal really was to just destroy then there would be no need for soldiers, much less actually letting the soldiers battle in a corner while the powerhouses fought in another. '

Not letting these thoughts linger much longer, Luke and the teams just stayed near the formations as they advanced steadily towards an enemy formation, following the new leader by default. It's not that the enemy waited for them this whole time, it's just that they already dealt with the allies battling them up until now, who were currently fleeing towards them.

As they were instructed to stay with the formation and learn, they decided to have a passive role at first and immediately act once the situation looked dire, after a quick debate between the team's leaders who were ironically not any of the big four.

As the enemy formation was a hundred meters from them, they stopped. Luke saw that they weren't tentacle monsters but demons with bat wings, horns, and devilish looks. Not that they were handsome, their faces were a mishmash of wriggling worms.

As both formations were stopped, the tension was escalating by the second as both sides prepared their long-range spells and/or abilities and shields. The first salvo would be a butchery, that, everyone knew.

Luke, Ozz, Milfa and Andrea also prepared to send some destructive spells, though, they would not use much power as they were here to learn, not razing the enemies in a second.

As if by prior agreement, both sides fired at the same time, making some spells collide in mid-air, creating explosions while most hurtled towards their target. The shields, even though mighty looking, didn't last long against the salvo. At least a tenth of the soldier was thus either killed or injured heavily enough to not continue.

Just after both sides suffered damage, some of the soldiers disappeared, only to reappear near the enemy side, delivering a few blows, not looking at whether they succeeded or not before retreating. These were assassins, and they were effective. Seeing them in action, Luke nodded as this was indeed the right course of action. In a direct confrontation, this was the best way to use assassins, without risking to lose too many of them. In a direct confrontation that is...

As they were observing the fighting method of the battlefield, an enemy, which Luke only detected thanks to the space waves tried to sneak up on them. This means that this one was undetected until he was only ten meters away. Not wasting time, Luke shot a simple dark blast his way, making him stagger back, and most importantly revealing his presence to the teams who just ganged up on him. Helpless, the enemy was quickly killed by their combined attacks.

Tier 3 or not, an assassin who just invested on speed and strength couldn't possibly resist an assault from 15 overpowered tier 2, even more so when he is the stealthy type. Honestly, the guy really died an unfair death, he just wanted to dispose of important-looking weaklings but got insta killed instead.

' So it feels like this to gang up on someone... I should do that more often. '

Concentrating again on the battlefield, they saw what a stalemate situation looked like. Both sides' shot range fighters were battling and the long-range ones were firing at each other, leaving the short-range alone in fear of friendly fire. Assassins would pop up sometimes to kill or at least distract enemies at critical moments, in both short and long-range.

Finally, there were a few disguised tier 3 who would kill the highest number of tier 2 possible before retreating. The slowest to do so would just get killed by concentrated fire.

As they were spectating, the leader of Lion's team asked " For which team goes the kill of the assassin? And, consequently, for who in said team? " As they all turned to look at him incredulously, Lion spoke " Well, it should go to team dazzle, these guys are just too pitiful, even more so Luke, that kid is a total newbie. And a weakling at that. "