Chapter 613 — Beacon Fires
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
At the edge of the Greatwood Pass region, Suo Jilin and the steel rangers he led were approaching a small town.
The multi-purpose war chariots that carried the advance party came to a halt outside the town. These sturdy steel-forged vehicles served temporarily as shield generators and power stations, establishing a makeshift strongpoint on a rocky rise beyond the town's limits. One ranger climbed atop a chariot, faced the town, and pressed a mechanism on the side of his sealed helmet.
The crystalline eyepiece set into the helmet's visor was activated by magic, first turning red. The warrior swept a rough glance over the town with mana-detection vision, then the goggles shifted to blue—the eagle-eye spell newly added to the second-generation eyepieces enhanced the user's sight, and countless details within the town immediately came into the observer's view.
After a brief observation, a slightly muffled voice came through the ranger's helmet: "Sir, there are wandering crystal-cluster infected in the town. Obvious mana reactions are present throughout."
"The entire town has already been infected..." Suo Jilin's expression darkened. "It seems we've entered the contamination zone. We can't push any further."
"We haven't found any trace of the Eastern Legion or the Kingdom's army along the way..." the ranger said. "Could they have been wiped out entirely?"
"...Impossible to say. The noble army may be inferior in fighting strength, but at least they have a fair number of transcendents among them. They wouldn't be so easily annihilated," Suo Jilin said gravely. "Perhaps they've abandoned all the open country and are holding out in the major cities, or perhaps they're still further north, locked in battle with the crystal-cluster infected..."
He spoke his analysis aloud, yet in his heart he held little confidence in it.
As a high-ranking ranger—one who had lived through the Great Expansion seven hundred years ago—he still found the present situation extraordinarily thorny.
The bizarre "god-bane contamination" and the sheer number of crystal-cluster infected hampered intelligence gathering. Even with his elite and powerful steel rangers, he could not determine what conditions prevailed deeper within the contamination zone.
This was different from seven hundred years ago. Back then, humanity had fought upon the wasteland, and on the whole there was no need to consider whether reinforcements or safe zones lay ahead in the waste—because in the end it almost always came down to one reckless charge. Charge through and you lived; fail and you were wiped out to the last man. There was no other route ahead, and the demon tide pressing at your heels gave no room for thought. But here... the situation was far more complex.
Suo Jilin analyzed the intelligence gathered over the past few days, while several other rangers continued to observe conditions within the town. This was their first sighting of a large concentration of crystal-cluster infected gathered together outside of combat, and it was a rare opportunity to study their patterns of activity.
Before long, the warriors noticed something worthy of concern.
"Sir, these 'monsters'... they seem to be organized."
Suo Jilin was momentarily stunned, then immediately activated Falcon Vision—the elven eagle-eye spell—and gazed toward the town.
Just as the warriors had seen, the crystal-cluster infected... were organized.
They were not wandering aimlessly but moving in organized fashion. Some exceptionally tall individuals were directing them. Suo Jilin saw those "monsters" working in groups of three or five to carry things together, and he saw them patrolling and standing sentry throughout the town—sights that had never been observed during previous encounters in the wild.
Suo Jilin frowned, slowly recalling more details: during those earlier encounters in the wild, though they had all been melees, the crystal-cluster infected had shown traces of organization even then.