Chapter 92: Cooperation

This was the third Slicing Fly David had slain. The next attack would come in ten seconds, but the spatial wormhole showed no signs of ceasing its flow of Slicing Flies.

“Brother, thank you for your assistance. I’ve granted you direct communication with us, and we’ll do our best to coordinate with your attacks!” Lieutenant Elmer spoke to David while opening permissions for him on a private channel.

Hearing Lieutenant Elmer call him brother, David couldn’t help but feel embarrassed; after all, this was Daly’s father, his close friend.

“Uncle, I’m David, Daly’s friend. I’ll follow your commands!” David quickly replied in the newly opened channel.

“David!” Lieutenant Elmer was stunned for a moment, then quickly recalled who David was. There was only one with such sniping ability and that name.

“David, I never expected a swarm invasion would force a student like you into battle. That’s our failure,” Lieutenant Elmer said gravely.

As a soldier of the Federation, allowing a high school student—a minor—to join such a war was an error in itself.

“Uncle, I am honored to be able to help you. Five seconds left and I can launch another triple attack!” David glanced at the timer and reminded him softly.

At that moment, two more Slicing Flies emerged from the spatial wormhole, intercepted by the armored warriors.

Lieutenant Elmer didn’t linger in conversation; this was no time for small talk. David’s support was exactly what they needed.

So far, only Slicing Flies had emerged from the spatial wormhole. Though they were exceptionally difficult to deal with, with the assistance of the city defense system, the armored warriors could manage. But if their numbers increased further, the situation atop the city wall would become dire.

David’s sniping ability was the deadly nemesis of these Slicing Flies, whose defenses were relatively weak.

In the next five seconds, two more Slicing Flies burst from the spatial wormhole. David noticed that as the wormhole persisted, the speed at which the swarm emerged seemed to be increasing.

“Girard, help clear the Slicing Flies!” Lieutenant Elmer commanded a nearby armored warrior wielding a grade-two heavy axe.

Including Lieutenant Elmer himself, five armored warriors wielded grade-two weapons: three heavy axes and two battle hammers, all specialized for dealing with grade-two swarm creatures.

Each armored warrior bearing a grade-two weapon was an elite among their ranks.

Girard’s figure flashed, darting into a squad’s battle circle.

Thanks to frequent training, Girard’s intervention didn’t disrupt the squad’s formation; instead, they coordinated skillfully.

The shielded warriors and hammer bearers forced the Slicing Fly into a tight space, and at the perfect moment, Girard swept his heavy axe, splitting the insect’s head open.

Without pause, Girard moved to another squad, seeking his next target.

Meanwhile, David’s number five remote sniper cannon recharged. He fired again, blasting the head of a newly emerged Slicing Fly.

He swiftly switched to number six, taking out another, then to number seven, killing a third in less than five seconds.

With David’s intervention, though Slicing Flies surged from the wormhole, this section of the city wall maintained a miraculous balance.

Unnoticed, David’s tally of slain Slicing Flies surpassed thirty—more than a quarter of the armored warriors’ total kills.

The wall was slick with thick, green swarm blood, strewn with corpses. The stench of blood and insect mixed with the acrid scent of gunpowder; the entire wall had become a slaughterhouse.

In less than five minutes of fighting, the hundred warriors had lost ten men.

Even protected by powerful exoskeletal armor, the Slicing Flies’ forelimb attacks could not be completely repelled.

True to their name, any hit left grievous wounds.

Of the ten casualties, three were killed instantly, their necks or torsos struck. Four lost limbs, and three more were severely injured.

Dozens of medics in white rushed from the passageways, fearless of the Slicing Flies.

One medic, running, was casually struck by a flying insect; his fragile body was sliced in two.

In battles of this scale, ordinary soldiers without exoskeletal armor were helpless lambs.

But the medics’ sense of duty made them disregard danger, and the armored warriors fought to keep the insects from reaching them.

Medics quickly arrived at the wounded warriors’ sides. While their armor contained automatic healing fluids, massive wounds needed immediate treatment; otherwise, the warriors couldn’t last.

Another Slicing Fly broke through the encirclement, rushing at the medics, instantly killing five.

“Protect the medics! Don’t let those damned insects near them—they’re saving our brothers!” Lieutenant Elmer cleaved the insect, then shouted loudly.

Though David watched these events through the Shadow Attendant’s sights, he had no time to dwell on them. He was already preparing for another round of sniping.

“Thirty-two, thirty-three,” he muttered.

Though the sniping system automatically recorded his kills, he liked counting them himself; it gave him a special sense of pride.

The knowledge he’d gained in the illusion had taught him that every grade-one swarm creature was an exceptionally formidable lifeform.

The battle between the armored warriors and the Slicing Flies before him only underscored the terror of grade-one swarm creatures. Even with the support of anti-air quickfire cannons, the coordinated efforts of five warriors, and the occasional help from those wielding grade-two weapons, they still paid a steep price.

Yet these powerful creatures fell with a single shot from his remote sniper cannon. That was the true mark of a sniper.

As he switched to cannon seven, ready to count his forty-fourth kill, something unexpected happened.

After five minutes of battle, sniping had become almost instinctive. When the Shadow Attendant sensed a shift in the spatial wormhole’s energy, David knew another Slicing Fly would appear.

He switched cannons, aimed, and waited for the insect to emerge, fine-tuning his sights for a clean headshot.

But this time, the Shadow Attendant sensed a powerful surge of spatial wormhole energy. David didn’t hesitate; cannon seven was aimed directly at the source.

What emerged was not what he expected. The five-meter-wide wormhole was practically squeezed by the creature that came through.

A colossal form, four meters tall and about seven meters long, with six legs beneath it and two massive forelimbs, each ending in three sharp claw spikes.

The giant swarm creature’s body was gray-white, its shell rugged and uneven, revealing its massive thickness.

Though the creature’s appearance stunned David, his instinct took over—he fired immediately.

The grade-one projectile from cannon seven struck the beast’s head just as it emerged, still stiff from passing through the spatial wormhole.

David, intensely focused, watched through the Shadow Attendant’s vision as a terrifying scene unfolded.

The projectile, infused with immense power and the terrifying penetrative force of grade-one ammunition, slammed into the creature’s head, snapping it backward with tremendous impact.

But when the head recovered, the bullet had been flattened into a thin shard and dropped from its shell.

This was grade-one ammunition—the same material as the weapons used by most armored warriors here.

Even with cannon seven’s immense barrel, which imparted unimaginable kinetic force, the projectile couldn’t pierce the defense of this newly arrived giant swarm creature.