Tempest of the Battlefield

As if the monster was elated by his new name, he lifted its forelegs and neighed almost like a horse. Its forelegs thudded heavily on the ground, and its trepidation affected the other Zergs too as they started to join their leader.

“Hey you guys, get yourself a mount!” Wang Tong shouted, and the soldiers rushed to the beasts to find their Zerg companion.

Not only these Zergs were docile before Wang Tong, they knew that these humans were their master’s friends. Therefore, they let the soldiers pat them and look around. However, there was a limit to their acquiescence. Some of the soldiers got too familiar with the beast, and they got a stern but safe warning from the animals.

Wang Tong sat down at patted Dark Blue and muttered, “Let your brothers be a bit gentle.”

Tan Bu was the most anxious of all soldiers. He lopped toward one of the formidable beasts and hopped on. However, the beast didn’t let him saddle on top for more than a second as it reared and pitched the rider off. The monster looked at Tan Bu on the ground with a contemptuous glare.

Everyone laughed at Tan Bu; meanwhile, they felt that they had got it all wrong. It was the beast which was choosing the soldiers instead of the other way around.

“Tan Bu, let out your soul energy and try to tame it. ” Wang Tong said with a light-hearted smile.

“Balls! I will teach you a lesson not to make fun of me again!” Tan Bu grunted and then turned on his GN force. He tried to restrain the beast with his soul energy, but the beast fought back using the energy from his horn.

Not even dark ones were able to fully utilize the power of soul energy, much less the Zergs. The ability of these beasts was unprecedented. Although these beast’s soul energy had a drastically different form compared to the humans, it had the same makeup as humans’. It was not hard to imagine how much damage these beasts could have done to the human world if they were not tamed by Wang Tong.

The struggle between the beast and Tan Bu reached a stalemate. It was a friendly battle, since neither of the combatants wanted to harm their opponent.

After some time, Tan Bu finally got the upper hand, so he closed in and hopped onto the beast’s back once again. The beast shook his body a few times, but less violently than its previous protest. Tan But cranked up his soul energy further until his mount had stopped moving about. That was when Tan Bu realized that the beast was feeding on his soul energy. These beasts were hungry for soul energy just like they would be for food. After a while, the monster stopped absorbing Tan Bu’s soul energy altogether as it looked back at his new master in a docile manner.

The others were elated by the development and started to experiment on their own. The magnitude and intensity of the soul energy was not the key in taming these beasts; it was the connection.

Wang Tong had tinkered with these monster’s eggs, and therefore, it was easy for him to find such connection with any of the beasts. Although it might cost the soldiers some of their soul energy, as long as the beast considered the soldier worthy after they had a taste of their soul energy, the other human soldiers should be able to tame them with ease.

Yin Tianzong had tamed his mount very quickly. However, the field medics had met some trouble in their tasks. Xiao Libie also found the beast that belonged to him. As he rode on his mount and communicated with it with soul energy, he marveled at how convenient and powerful it would be on the battlefield.

During the time of mecha warfare, the mecha mounts performed sluggishly on the battlefield. It was inevitable that the humans would sooner or later create mounts that were commanded by soul energy. Not only would it be able to make the human more mobile on the battlefield, but it would also preserve the human soldiers’ limited endurance. However, these mounts required advanced gene technology. The Dower family was the pioneer in this field, and they were able to create a few soul energy mounts. However, none of those mounts could pass the test of the battlefield due to their physical limitations. Not only those mounts lacked endurance, but also soul energy.

Although humans thought it was impossible to instill soul energy into wild beasts, Zergs had done it. One had to acknowledge the uncanny ability of the Zergs to edit genes. Perhaps this was a gift of their god?

Everyone was confident that with the help of these creatures, they would be able to overcome any challenge the Zergs would throw at them. Once the soldiers had claimed a mount, they started to appreciate the convenience and effectiveness of soul energy connections. The mount was so responsive that it was as if they and the beasts were fused together into one living organism. The strong bond between the soldiers and their mount meant that they would not only work as one with their beasts, but the existing fluid teamwork among team soldiers would not be disrupted because of these mounts.

With the protection of these beasts, even mastery caster would be able to charge at the front and be personal with their enemies.

Everyone’s face was lit up with joy, and their hearts filled with a newfound confidence.

Wang Tong raised a fist and shouted, “Let’s go!”

Deep Blue snarled and pressed onward, with the rest of the bests following it orderly.

Joined by soul energy, the soldiers felt their bond with these beasts deepening. They no longer saw them as beasts, but instead, as their loyal friend. Since these beasts looked like an oversized wolf, the team decided to call their mount direwolves.

Everyone gave a nickname to their mounts. Whenever the human soldiers saddled on their back, the direwolves would loosen their scale to provide some cushion for their master. Everyone on the team was eager to encounter Zergs so they could fight with their best friends.

However, the direwolves’ speed was too fast for the Zergs to catch up; therefore, they didn’t encounter any of them. The direwolves were born in these caves, and therefore, they knew all the shortcuts. Before long, they saw a bright light and sunshine. It wasn’t until then that the human soldiers realized that they had made it to the other side of Mount Dynamo.

They had made it!

…

When Wang Tong was absent, the tide of the war had changed again.

Despite the series of defeat in his home territory, Moye had doubled down on the attack at the front line. He gathered forces and attacked the human defense line the third time. Even though the Zergs had a significant disadvantage at the northern front, the overall number of Zergs was overwhelming. Meanwhile, after Michaux and Lie Jian’s retinue had suffered the catastrophic defeat, the two Martian heroes had been struggling to stay alive in the Zerg territory. They had been refusing to request for help from the main human force, neither did the two ditch their injured soldiers behind to flee home. It was evident that they had prepared for the worst from the get-go.

Although Michaux and Lie Jian had done things differently compared to Wang Tong, all three of them were not afraid of death, much less the Zergs.

However, bravery and mettle could only carry one so far. The hard reality was that the Zergs were about to overwhelm them at any time.

The situation at the third line of defense was even worse. Every day, the war claimed hundreds of lives on both sides. However, the Zergs’ rate of replenishing was much faster than humans’, so they had the absolute upper hand.

The humans conceded that they had already lost the best timing for retreat. Even if they pulled back from the line of defense, they would not be able to regroup and fight again in such a tattered state.

Einherjar Lie Jintian, Zambrotta, and the Kaedeian princess all had attended the battle in person. Their appearance on the battlefield was a clear message to all the soldiers: Humans would fight to the death!

On the third day after the battle had entered a stalemate, humans’ first group of GN gunners finally arrived on the battlefield. This development had greatly alleviated the severe imbalance humans had in numbers. With the GN guns, anyone who had enough strength to pull the trigger would be able to join the force.

Although the GN gun units still lacked experience in offensive missions, they were more than capable of hiding behind the defensive cover and blow the Zergs’ heads into pieces.

The war had yet again reached a tipping point. Once the humans were able to hang in there until more GN gun units were trained and arrived on the battlefield, they could gain a decisive advantage over their enemy very quickly.

Application for joining the GN gun unit quickly piled up as everyone wanted to go to the frontlines and contribute to the war. Meanwhile, all cities used their expense budget and tried to squeeze out more coins to purchase provisions for the army.