Chapter 112 – The Opening Move

Chapter 112 - The Opening Move

"The world is like a vast tomb, where all things march toward death. The living scatter and regather, while the dead congregate and disperse. Only later did I realize that it was all for the reunion with him..."

When Amber woke up again, he found himself in a massive trench, the cold wind of the early morning cutting through the mountains, chilling his bones. The exposed skin on his body had formed a thin layer of frost.

Amber curled up, feeling an excruciating headache, his vision blurred to the point of seeing mere shadows. He struggled to get up from the ground when a strong hand suddenly landed on his shoulder, pushing him back down:

"Don't move recklessly; be careful not to expose yourself!"

The voice was deliberately lowered, yet it sounded peculiarly familiar, as if it tugged at his heartstrings, making every beat and pause beyond his control.

Upon hearing this, Amber's heart skipped a beat. He slowly lifted his head to see Ludwig's familiar face right before him. His clear, cold features were flawless, appearing vivid against the barren land around them, like a perfect work of art sculpted by God's hand.

So distant, yet within reach.

Frowning, Amber whispered, "Ludwig?"

His voice was carried away by the wind, sounding faint and uncertain.

Ludwig's eyebrows slightly raised. "Yes, what is it?"

He hated soldiers whispering on the battlefield more than anything, but whenever facing Amber, he always showed a patience he didn't extend to others.

Without a word, Amber suddenly cupped Ludwig's face, the force so strong that it seemed out of character, his voice low and unsteady. "Ludwig, is it really you?"

Ludwig: "…"

What was wrong with this male?

Ludwig struggled to remove Amber's hands, noticing red marks on his pale chin, a testament to the male's strength. Astonished, he said, "If not me, who else could it be? Sir, you'd better not joke around; we have a mission."

Ludwig felt something was off about Amber. Frowning, he was already considering whether to send him back to the starship for a medical check-up. After all, males shouldn't be on the battlefield. But then, his gaze inadvertently caught sight of Sifflay quietly leaving the trench, causing his eyes to narrow sharply.

"I have something I need to take care of; I'll be back soon. Moja, you lead the team and contact Joyce for now. Protect Sir Amber!"

With those words, Ludwig left the trench and chased after Sifflay. The heavy fog of the early morning quickly concealed his figure from view.

Only then did Amber remember Sifflay's matter. His expression changed, and he immediately tried to follow, but he was stopped by Moja, who held onto his wrist. "Sir, where are you going? General Ludwig ordered me to protect you well."

"You just stay here and contact General Joyce!"

Ignoring Moja's attempts to stop him, Amber rushed forward. Even if Sifflay had a Mutual Destruction card, he couldn't kill him for the time being, but he couldn't let Ludwig fall into his trap!

The black mountains stretched endlessly, making the surroundings solemn and dangerous. The peaks pierced the clouds, forming a winding and rugged canyon. Amber followed the route he remembered, but no matter how far he went, he couldn't reach the end. Suddenly, a gunshot echoed through the valley, like thunder exploding overhead—

"Bang!"

Amber swiftly turned to look southwest, his gaze sharp as a sword. At that moment, he had prepared for the worst—either Fang Yun would be blown to pieces or Ludwig would be ambushed by Sifflay. But when he hurriedly arrived at the canyon, he saw Ludwig standing alone on the cliff, tightly gripping a photon gun, while not far away, Fang Yun lay on the ground, barely breathing.

"Ludwig!"

Amber quickly approached, relieved to see that Ludwig wasn't injured. Looking around, he frowned and asked, "What happened just now? Where's Sifflay?!"

Ludwig still seemed dazed. Hearing Amber's words, his expression darkened. "I noticed Sifflay sneaking away from the trench earlier, so I followed him secretly. I never expected him to try to kill Fang Yun. In a hurry, I fired to stop him, accidentally hitting him and causing him to fall off the cliff…"

Hearing this, Amber suddenly looked up. "Killed? Where's the body?"

Although Ludwig had always been at odds with Sifflay, he had never thought of killing him. Pointing to a nearby cliff, his deep voice nearly drowned by the cold wind, he said, "Over there."

Amber walked to the edge of the cliff and leaned over to look down. Below, in the rugged ravine, lay a familiar military uniformed figure. A small bloodstain marked the center of its forehead, unmistakably the lifeless body of Sifflay.

He was actually dead?

Amber frowned unconsciously, feeling that it seemed unlikely. Using the rock wall for support, he leaped from a high place to Sifflay's side. Reaching out to feel for a pulse, he found no sign of breath or heartbeat, confirming that he was indeed dead.

Ludwig frowned, puzzled as to why Amber wanted to examine the corpse. Standing above, he shouted, "It's dangerous down there; come up quickly!"

Amber slowly rose from the ground. "Go check on Fang Yun first; I'll be right up."

Hearing this, Ludwig remembered the badly injured Fang Yun behind him and hurried over to assess his condition. Unbeknownst to him, shortly after he left, Amber suddenly drew his sword with lightning speed and decapitated Sifflay—

"Bang!"

The golden-haired head flew far away, a small pool of blood spurting from the neck. Amber expressionlessly shook off the blood on the blade, seemingly recalling something. He searched Sifflay's pockets for a moment and finally found an unused silver whistle.

If he remembered correctly, Sifflay had used this to control the beasts. Although he didn't know if it would work, it wouldn't hurt to keep it.

Amber leaped up and returned to the top of the cliff. At that moment, Ludwig was performing first aid on Fang Yun. The male's abdomen was implanted with fine threads of bomb fuses, numbering about forty in total, like a cluster of grotesque tentacles.

Sifflay had been about to detonate the bombs when Ludwig intervened in time. However, Fang Yun's internal organs were still severely damaged, spitting out blood continuously, his face pale, on the verge of death.

Ludwig quickly cleared away the blood Fang Yun spat out to avoid attracting beasts with the scent. In a hurried tone, he said to Amber, "No good, his injuries are too severe. We must return quickly and let the military doctor handle it."

Amber had no objections. He had just killed Sifflay, and it wouldn't be long before the beast swarm would track the scent. Without waiting for Ludwig to act, he picked Fang Yun up from the ground and carried him back to the camp.

Unbeknownst to them, not long after they left, a somewhat eerie sound suddenly echoed in the air:

"Ding! One resurrection card used!"

As the mechanical voice faded, the headless corpse lying in the ravine suddenly moved, rising from the ground like a robot with jerky movements. It then stumbled towards the direction where the head had fallen.

Sifflay felt around until he found his head, reattaching it to his neck. Then, in a terrifying manner, he rotated his head 180 degrees. A flash of white light passed, and his wounds instantly vanished, only the bloodstains on the ground silently reminding of what had just occurred.

Staggering along, supported by the mountain wall, Sifflay's blue eyes filled with malice. He gritted his teeth and said word by word, "Amber… Ludwig… I will tear you both to shreds…"

At that time, Amber and Ludwig had already handed Fang Yun over to the soldiers below to escort him back to the starship. They returned to the trench, both tacitly avoiding any mention of Sifflay. Instead, they continued to lie in wait, ready to assist Joyce at any time.

After an unknown period, the communicator suddenly rang with a piercing static sound. Inside came General Joyce's anxious voice: "It's bad! When we were slaughtering the Beast King, the underground palace suddenly collapsed, allowing it to escape. It's summoning nearby beasts to gather here! Ludwig, retreat quickly!"

Upon hearing this, Ludwig's eyes turned cold. "It can't have gone far with its injuries. Immediately lead your troops out to join forces and hunt it down; we must slay the Beast King today!"

The Black Eagle Corps had never known defeat since its inception. If they failed to complete their mission this time, not only would they lose face, but even the Emperor would hold them accountable. When General Giles received the report of the ongoing battle, he indeed issued an order to exterminate the Beast King!

"Boom!"

As countless Gourmands emerged from the ground, it was no exaggeration to say that the entire earth began to shake violently. General Joyce led his troops in an encircling maneuver from the outside, while Ludwig charged out from within, gunfire echoing incessantly. The air was thick with the stench of blood, so potent that even the howling winds couldn't disperse it.

Amber wielded his sword and plunged into the fray, his attacks swift as lightning. With each flash of cold light, countless Gourmands met their end. They fought fiercely amidst the beast horde, desperately searching for the Beast King, yet found nothing.

"Damn it!"

Ludwig viciously snapped the skull of a Gourmand, shouting irritably at Joyce, "What does the Beast King look like?"

Drenched in blood, Joyce took a moment to yell back, "It was too dark in the underground palace for me to see clearly! I only know that it looks different from the other beasts. Just find the one that stands out the most!"

His words were as good as none.

Ludwig wished he could kick him to death.

Suddenly realizing that this method of fighting wasn't working, Amber tapped his military boots and leaped up, landing on the thick shells of the Gourmands. Using the mountain walls for support, he climbed to a higher vantage point.

Amber narrowed his eyes, sharp as an eagle's, rapidly scanning the battlefield for the Beast King. However, every beast looked almost identical, making it impossible to discern any differences.

In a critical moment, Amber suddenly remembered the silver whistle hidden in his pocket. Frowning, he brought it to his lips and blew, only to hear a mechanical voice in his ear:

"Ding! Activating one silver whistle!"

"The skill lasts for thirty minutes; countdown begins!"

Amber didn't know where this strange sound came from, but he knew that once he blew the whistle, countless voices flooded his mind from all directions, clamoring for attention:

"Hungry... So hungry..."

"I want food..."

"Kill... Kill them all..."

These were the voices of the Gourmands.

While blowing the whistle, Amber attempted to communicate telepathically, issuing orders to locate the Beast King. Suddenly, a barely audible cry came from the southeast corner. Shielded by rocks, dozens of beasts formed a vacuum circle, frantically signaling to Amber.

"Here... Here..."

"Beast King..."

Frowning, Amber noticed that the vacuum circle appeared empty, and the beasts surrounding it didn't seem like the Beast King. Had he given the wrong command?

Just as Amber was contemplating whether he needed to reissue the order, the sun slowly rose behind the peaks. As the light shifted, an indistinct patch of colorful fragments appeared on the barren ground, anxiously bouncing around in search of an escape route.

The Beast King's body was transparent!!

Without hesitation, Amber shot off the mountain peak like an arrow, stepping on the dense mass of Gourmands below as he headed southeast. His sharp gaze remained locked on the shimmering, color-splashed silhouette under the sunlight. At a distance of three meters, he hurled his longsword with a fierce whoosh, embedding it diagonally into the ground. A muffled "pfft" echoed, followed by a sudden burst of agonizing, shrill screams in the valley:

"Aaaaaaahhhhhh—!!"

Where there was once nothing, a frenzied beast now appeared, its snowy white body impaled by the sword through its abdomen. Crimson blood flowed profusely as it struggled to escape, but was unable to move.

In the blink of an eye, Amber had landed before the Beast King. He pulled out the sword with a backhand motion, using all his strength to deliver a powerful downward slash, cleaving the Beast King in two.

At that moment, the battlefield, which had been filled with the sounds of slaughter, fell silent for a second before plunging into a frenzy. The mental threads in the beasts' minds, severed by the Beast King's death, completely disconnected, leaving them like beads without a string, utterly失控. They ceased fighting and stopped seeking food, instead milling about aimlessly like ants on a hot pan, completely bereft of leadership.

Ludwig and Joyce were both startled when they realized that the elusive Beast King had fallen to Amber's blade. Recovering quickly, they intensified their assault, driving the disoriented beasts into the encirclement and deploying starships to drop energy bombs.

"Bang!"

"Bang!!"

Explosions rang out one after another, sending shards of rock flying. The beast herd suffered heavy casualties, and the remaining few no longer wished to fight, fleeing in panic.

Amber, holding the blood-stained sword, swiftly retreated with the main force onto the starship. The hatch closed, and the vessel slowly ascended, revealing the devastated landscape outside, the scorched earth silently recounting the brutality of the battle.

The surviving soldiers first felt relief, then their thoughts turned to Amber, who had slain the Beast King. Their gazes involuntarily drifted towards him, admiration and reverence evident in their fiery stares. If their intense focus could be tangible, Amber would have been burned through by now.

Ludwig approached Amber, extending a clean towel. His amber eyes seemed calm on the surface, but the burning passion hidden within was no less intense than that of any insectoid. His voice was slightly hoarse. "Wipe yourself off; your face is covered in blood."

Amber might not have realized how alluring he looked with blood on his face. With his naturally clean appearance of black hair and eyes, the stark contrast of vivid red against his skin evoked an inexplicable sense of carnal desire, stirring the insects' desires.

Ludwig wasn't sure if it was because he had just stepped off the battlefield, with his mental powers still in a state of agitation. All he knew was that he felt hungrier than those Gourmands, every cell in his body screaming to devour the male insect before him.

Amber accepted the towel and wiped the blood from his face, unaware of Ludwig's thoughts. Occasionally, his gaze would fall upon the other, inadvertently recalling Ludwig's near-death experience in the valley from his past life. A subtle sigh of relief escaped him, grateful that fate had finally changed.

Just as the atmosphere inside the starship became overly quiet, the medic suddenly emerged from the sterile operating room with his assistants, his tone urgent. "This is bad! Lieutenants Ludwig and Joyce, although all the micro-bombs have been removed from Sir Fang Yun's body, his injuries are severe, and he hasn't regained consciousness. I've already contacted the main hospital; we must get him back to Hazel City for emergency treatment within three days, or it will become dangerous."

Unable to contain his curse, he continued, "Who could be so cruel, using such methods against a precious male insect!"