Battle Frenzy

Divian shrugged her shoulders before continuing to speak. ” Both of them aren’t easy to deal with, though that’s something that there’s no need to worry about. It’ll be alright if we really bump into them on the battlefield. This competition’s truly interesting, and Vladimir seems to be extremely interested in you. I’m even able to feel that he had given me face after bumping into him.”

A faint smile appeared on Carolyn’s face in response, appearing akin to the wind, giving no care about those words.

Upon hanging up her Skylink, Divian proceeded` to shake her head. Truthfully speaking, there were times where she felt that it was harder and harder to understand Carolyn. Or perhaps, this was the reason why all of her elders all thought highly of her. Being able to utilise the advantages she possessed, while possessing an abnormal level of ice cold calmness. Being able to give up those that needed to be given up, competing for those that needed to be obtained. This made her seem somewhat cruel and cold-blooded.

In reality, why did she attempt to gossip with Carolyn? Perhaps, Divian was trying to see if there were any exceptions to this icy calm queen. From the looks of it now, it seems that she had given too much thought about this. For some unknown reason, Wang Zhong’s gaze seemed to appear right before her eyes. Had he died just like that?

This felt slightly pitiful.

At this moment, within Grozny City…

In reality, the Tianjing squadron wasn’t the only ones had missing members in their ranks. Although some slightly weaker squadrons had staked their lives and managed to complete the mission and reach Grozny City, they were now not at their full strength. Even Adolf Academy had 2 missing people, with a large portion of the B ranked squadrons having 1 or even 2 people from their ranks missing or injured, though their reasons were different from Wang Zhong and Scarlet. The majority of them had been injured due to their strength being at the lowest end of the spectrum. This resulted in them taking the initiative to leave the squadron and travel by themselves for the sake of their squadrons were able to arrive at the designated locations without the burden that they would cause. However, the chances of these people reaching Grozny City before the end of this elimination round were rather grim.

However, many squadrons still held hope for those missing members of their squadrons, as no one would hope for their own squadron to have their members reduced for the upcoming round of the competition. Although this was the first time they had been one of the five privately ruled cities of the federation, Grozny City, there was not a single person within the Tianjing squadron that had the mood and interest to sightsee around the city.

Right at the break of dawn on the second morning, Emily proceeded to take root and stand guard at the entrance of the city upon waking up. The majority of the people from the squadron had also accompanied by her side, all of them wanting to welcome Wang Zhong and Scarlet at the very first moment if they were to appear. They weren’t the only people present here though. Quite a few squadrons were waiting alongside with them for their missing members. Grai was even able to see Adolf Academy amongst the crowd. During this elimination round, they had lost their vice-captain Simon and their substitute heavy soldier Bu Lianshan.

Upon seeing Tianjing squadron standing amongst the crowd of people waiting at the entrance of the city, complicated emotions surfaced within the hearts of the Adolf Academy squadron. Nevertheless, feelings of hostility did not surface within them. In fact, if not for them experiencing defeat in the hands of the Tianjing squadron, there would not have such a big change happening to the squadron. What they had lost was arrogance, though they had gained strength in return. From a certain point of view, Adolf should be grateful to the Tianjing squadron.

Other than Grai, Cecil was one of the people that had the greatest understanding of the level of strength Wang Zhong possessed. Hearing that he and Scarlet were missing was somewhat of a shock for Cecil, who had become slightly silent. After his private duel with Wang Zhong, he finally realised that the strongest person of the Tianjing squadron had not taken any action during their group battle. However, this same person was now missing. He truly didn’t know whether to celebrate or to feel regretful, though it was more towards the latter. He had wanted to cross hands once more with Wang Zhong, with the next time not being just a duel, be in an all-out group fight.

Adolf Academy had also been slightly unlucky during this elimination round. They originally had a smooth sailing trek, only for Sim to get ambushed by a mutated king snake while resting during the final few days of their journey. This led to his leg getting injured and poisoned Although they managed to deal with the wound and suck out the venom, his entire leg had turned red and swollen, causing him to be unable to carry on at their normal pace. According to Simon’s calculations, if nothing happens to him or Bu Lianshan, they would be able to make it to Grozny City before time’s up. This clearly was much better than the situation that plagued Tianjing.

However, a piece of terrible news was announced by the officials as noon came.

A large portion Absolute ice hail storm appeared be persisting on. The wave that the Tianjing squadron had encountered was just the slight remnants of the storm. From the meteorological equipment and surveillance personnel, they have now estimated that there were still a dozen absolute ice hail storms wreaking havoc through the icy plains. This was especially true for the final portion of the trek that all participating members must head through, where the storms would be present at a rather frequent rate.

This piece of news had undoubtedly caused a shocking impact in the minds of everyone who were waiting at the city entrance for their missing squadron members. Of those people that were still on their way to Grozny City, they either were rather important anchors within the various squadrons, or had unique situations arising that involved them. For example, Simon and him being injured, or had bumped into the many large-scale absolute ice hail storms rampaging around…

At this moment, complicated feelings surged within the hearts of all the people waiting at the city entrance! Naturally, all of them still hoped for their own squadron members to be able to reverse the odds, breaking through the heaven-defying unluckiness to traverse the storm and arrive here safely. However, for the matter of fact, the most significant reason why those squadron members of theirs had made such a decision was to give their lives up for their squadrons! Therefore, on the one hand, everyone still had hope for their missing squadron members to make the smarter decision not to brave the storms and find a suitable crevice or mountain cave to weather them. This way, they would be able to weather the absolute ice hail storms and to keep their lives at the very least.

Those were the feelings present in the hearts of the Tianjing squadron. Although they hoped for Wang Zhong to be able to reach Grozny City within the allocated time frame, they hoped more for him and Scarlet to be safe. If they had to choose of those wishes, all of them, with Grai included, would be in favour of Wang Zhong bringing Scarlet to a safe place to hide.

However, would Wang Zhong and Scarlet know about this?

The vast whiteness of the ice and snow locked land appeared just like a prison, locking up the hearts of everyone.

Scarlet had the feeling that she and Wang Zhong had been in this valley for over 5 hours ever since she had wakened up from her stupor. According to Wang Zhong’s estimates, she was unconscious for a full 2 days. That meant that they had already missed out on the opportunity to reach Grozny City before the ending of the first elimination round.

Although only 7 people were required to reach Grozny City to complete the mission given for the first elimination round, even with her dull thoughts, Scarlet knew that she and Wang Zhong had to arrive at Grozny City before the start of the second elimination round. If not, their squadron would have to report their current headcount to the competition committee. When that happens, Wang Zhong and Scarlet would lose their qualifications to continue participating in the CHF.

Having reached this point after much painstaking effort, no one wanted to give up and fall out from the CHF.

When she had heard Wang Zhong speaking about the matter of them “climbing out”, she had assumed that Wang Zhong had found some kind of foothold or passage in the valley that allowed for them to head out. Only when Wang Zhong was ready to make his move did she realize how frightening that the meaning of “climbing out” was.

After carrying her on his back, Wang Zhong proceeded, to tear his outer coat into strips, tying the 2 of them tightly together. “Are you ready? The later part of the journey might be slightly arduous. However, please believe in me. We’ll definitely reach Grozny City on time!”

Resting on Wang Zhong’s back, Scarlet felt very safe and secure. At this moment, she has yet to recover from the injury to her head fully, and indeed was not able to brave the conditions present in the northern reaches. In such a state, it would really be extremely bad if she was to suffer another injury on top of this. However, at this moment, even she did not know exactly how Wang Zhong was planning to leave this place.

A scene of pure whiteness covered their surroundings and the depths of the valley. Steep ice walls were present above them, while a storm sat in the air as it continued to its spin. Such a scene was akin to being in hell. The only way out was to fly, though even doing so would be too dangerous to attempt.