Chapter 121: You Must Return Safely
Seed City, East Gate.
A city guard in black fatigues escorted a woman forward.
Heixi, who had been waiting beside the convoy, nodded to her. “You made it?”
“Guild Master.”
“How is the situation?”
“One of them is stable—only a single deep puncture. The other was far more critical. Several fatal wounds all over; it took quite an effort to stabilize him. It’s a miracle he held on long enough to reach our gates.”
The newcomer was Eudora, Awakener of [Healing] from the Red Flag Society.
Stepping to Heixi’s side, she whispered the specifics of the two guards the administration had asked her to treat.
Upon reviewing the dispatch from Firefly City, Yves had immediately dispatched runners to requisition Eudora from the Red Flag Society.
“It took that long?”
Heixi raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“No… after I finished treating their men, they conducted an assessment of my healing speed and energy consumption.” Eudora held out the case in her hand toward Heixi. “They gave me these energy crystals, saying it was operational resupply for the sortie.”
“Keep what they gave you,” Heixi said. “The Commander provided us with our own crystal allotments.”
When Yves’s detail reached him, Heixi had been holding the perimeter at the gate, repelling the beast surge.
The emissaries laid out the gravity of the situation in plain terms and requested several specific operatives from the Red Flag Society.
[Shield]—Heixi himself.
[Haste], Kui Ping; [Healing], Eudora; and [Paralysis], Gloria.
The remaining Red Flag operatives were left behind to maintain perimeter defense at the city gates.
A newly awakened Red Flag member with an offensive ability was also deployed to the ramparts.
To be frank, Heixi felt that if the beast surge throughout this rainy season remained on par with today’s activity, the garrison could handle it entirely on their own.
All day long, very few mutants had even drifted near the gates.
Those that did were low-tier fodder, the vast majority lacking beast cores entirely upon death.
The armed sentries had more than enough firepower to hold the line.
The administration hiring Awakeners from both syndicates was merely an extra insurance policy for the ramparts.
And to deal with the airborne insect swarms.
Now that Firefly City needed relief, Heixi fully understood the Commander’s tactical redeployment.
Yet the operatives Yves requested were almost exclusively support-oriented.
Heixi already understood the mission’s objective.
Their Awakener unit was tasked with using their abilities to escort Seed City’s transport column and rendezvous with the fleeing populace of Firefly City.
Since Seed City was also in the throes of the rainy season, they naturally couldn’t strip the outpost bare of defenders.
They had to guard against sudden escalations in the beast surges and parasite swarms.
Still… if their squad consisted entirely of support profiles, offensive Awakeners had to be assigned to balance the formation.
Operatives from Dark Star?
Just as the thought crossed his mind, another detail of city guards strode out from the inner gate.
Flanked alongside them were members of Dark Star.
Dark Star had apparently left a garrison behind as well.
The evening curfew bell had tolled, and Seed City’s laborers were retreating within the walls. Civilians avoided operating outside after dark, but mutant beasts paid no heed to bells—nightfall was precisely when their activity peaked.
The Red Flag Society had left offensive Awakeners to hold the perimeter, which meant Dark Star had likely held back support units.
To cross-coordinate between factions?
Pondering the setup, Heixi watched the approaching party.
Zhou Xue… no sign of Zhou Xue?
The Red Flag Guild Master spotted Shelley, Luo Xianghuai, and Turner.
Heixi: “?”
Luo Xianghuai was an obvious choice; with his [Tracking], they stood a real chance of pinning down the exact coordinates of Firefly City’s evacuation column.
Yet Shelley and Turner both wielded crowd-control abilities.
Surveying the full roster of assembled Awakeners, none of them looked built for frontline heavy assault.
“Guild Master Xi.”
Shelley and the others called out a greeting through the sheets of rain as they reached the staging area.
Heixi nodded in return. “Your captain didn’t deploy?”
“No. Command informed us another asset would pair with our unit.” Shelley’s gaze drifted across the Red Flag roster.
Another asset? Surely not just these few.
“The Commander is here.”
Heixi lifted his chin.
Shelley turned along with him.
Yves strode forward, flanked by several squads of city guards hauling a vast payload of provisions freshly procured from the Chinese Restaurant, marching toward the vehicles in disciplined formation.
Aside from the porters, several other figures accompanied them.
Their bearing felt distinctly different from ordinary sentries.
Shelley took a closer look, noting dark grime splattered across their uniforms.
It looked unmistakably like mutant blood and viscera.
Yves spoke a few brief words to his escort, and Keith nodded, leading the guards to secure the crates inside the cargo bays.
The Commander then led those few battle-worn guards directly before Heixi, Shelley, and the others.
He swept his gaze across the gathering. “Everyone is accounted for. The situation is dire, leaving no time for a formal briefing in the war room. We must conduct tactical deployment here on the tarmac. Bear with the haste.”
Yves extended a flat hand toward Mo Zeya beside him. “This is Captain Mo Zeya, commander of this relief sortie. Once the convoy rolls beyond the gates, all tactical commands fall under Captain Mo Zeya’s absolute authority.”
Mo Zeya snapped to attention.
The adjutant offered the assembly a crisp, immaculate salute.
“This is Sergeant Major Mori.” Yves angled his hand toward the stern, battle-hardened guard officer, addressing Heixi and the others. “For this operation, she and her operatives will coordinate with your units to spearhead perimeter culling along the transit corridor.”
Hearing this, every Awakener from Dark Star and the Red Flag Society locked their gaze onto Mori.
The Commander’s implication was unmistakable: this guard officer and her detail were awakened operatives as well.
Shelley ran a quick, discreet assessment.
Excluding Captain Mo Zeya, Sergeant Major Mori had brought two operatives with her.
Meaning the garrison now fielded three Awakeners?
No… Extracting Firefly City was paramount, but as the supreme commander of Seed City, Yves would always prioritize Seed City’s survival above all else.
It meant the administration fielded at least three Awakeners.
Combined with the seven from Red Flag and Dark Star, ten Awakeners were gathered in the staging yard.
Precisely matching the standard complement of an Awakener strike team from the Three Great Cities.
“Time is short, so I will be direct. Luo Xianghuai, you will utilize these personal effects to track the coordinates of Firefly City’s evacuation column to the best of your ability.”
With that, Yves handed him a wrapped parcel before continuing:
“Heixi, you hold responsibility for the barrier over all convoy haulers. Kui Ping…”
The Commander reeled off every operative’s name and designation, laying out their duties with exacting precision.
Every person present had a specific operational purpose.
Sergeant Major Mori and one of her guards formed the primary assault vanguard; Shelley, Turner, and Gloria managed crowd control; Luo Xianghuai pinned down navigational bearings; Heixi and Kui Ping guaranteed the convoy’s speed and defensive integrity; and Eudora served as the medical anchor once they reached the survivors—stabilizing as many critical civilians as humanly possible.
To draft such an intricate tactical profile on such short notice implied deep, preliminary analysis.
Yet a glaring logistical bottleneck remained.
“Commander, my effective radius cannot cover the entire transport line, and Kui Ping’s [Haste] has a limited operational envelope as well,” Heixi pointed out as soon as Yves finished.
“My [Tracking] is similarly constrained by distance at its current rank,” Luo Xianghuai added frankly.
Yves gave a measured nod, gesturing toward the guard officer he had yet to introduce. “This is Sergeant Sheila. Her designation is [Domain Expansion].”
Noticing their collective shock, Yves delivered a terse breakdown of what [Domain Expansion] entailed.
Before they could map out the exact chain of coordination, Keith marched over. “Reporting, Commander! Cargo secured. The convoy is cleared for departure.”
Mo Zeya glanced down at her tactical chronometer. “Commander, ninety seconds to designated rollout.”
Time waited for no man.
The detachment was fully mustered and locked in.
Drawing a deep, steady breath, Yves issued the final order: “Move out. Operation commences!”
The rain poured relentlessly.
Yves raised a gauntleted hand, wiping a smear of water from his visor, and looked upon the ten operatives standing before him.
Eleven, counting Acting Commander Mo Zeya.
On the trek over, Yves had told Mori that her distinguished combat record over recent days had long qualified her for a commission to Second Lieutenant, promising to promote her the instant she returned… only for Mori to cut him off mid-sentence.
She told him not to casually drop death flags like that.
So Yves held his tongue.
As the Commander of Seed City, Yves lived and died with the stone ramparts.
The crushing weight of extracting Firefly City’s survivors rested solely on the shoulders of Mo Zeya, the ten Awakeners, and their military escort.
Beyond those assembled, thirty-two city guards and inspectors were deploying alongside them.
It was the absolute maximum manpower Seed City could spare without compromising its own baseline defenses.
Yves snapped a sharp salute toward the eleven before him, the convoy, and the thirty-two soldiers already standing by their vehicles.
Keith mirrored the salute a fraction of a second later.
The night was hushed, muffled beneath the roar of the downpour. Every operative stood straight as an arrow.
The uniformed soldiers returned the salute with precision, while fierce resolve burned in the eyes of the rest.
I entrust them to you.
You must return safely.
The Commander whispered the prayer silently within his heart.
