The Crimson Trench was a jagged scar on the earth, glowing with a sickly, rhythmic pulse from the red quartz embedded in its walls. The air here was thick with "Miasma"—the toxic energy that leaked from the Rifts, smelling of rusted iron and rotting meat.
"Formation! Shields up, you idiots!" the drill sergeant, a scarred Tier 4 veteran named Grog, roared over the howling wind.
Han Chen stood in the third row of the recruit vanguard. To his left, Lin Xia held a vibrating wind-blade, her knuckles white. To his right, Lu Feng—still sporting a purple bruise on his jaw—clutched a flame-spear, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
Then, the sound came. It wasn't a roar; it was a skittering, like a million dry leaves scuttling over bone.
"They're here," Chen whispered. His Chronos-Void talent thrummed against his spine.
Out of the red haze, the Talon-Wolves emerged. They were nightmares of biology—six-legged predators with obsidian-hard exoskeletons and jaws that could snap tank-grade steel. Behind them, hovering in the shadows of the trench, was the Shadow-Stalker, a Tier 4 horror with elongated limbs and eyes that shifted like liquid mercury.
"Fire!" Grog commanded.
A barrage of elemental spells—fireballs, ice shards, and wind blades—tore into the first wave. The trench became a kaleidoscope of gore. But the wolves were endless. They leaped over the corpses of their kin, their claws screeching against the recruits' shields.
"My mana! It's draining too fast!" a recruit screamed as a wolf tore through his barrier, dragging him into the red mist.
The View from Above: The Goddess's Agony
In the Strategic Command Center of the Eastern Base, the holographic displays projected the slaughter in high definition. General Ye Xuan stood frozen, her eyes locked on the small, flickering dot labeled [Recruit: Han Chen - Status: Active].
"General, the Rift stability is dropping," Adjutant Li Mei reported, her voice urgent. "That Shadow-Stalker is Tier 4 Middle-Stage. The recruits are meant to be 'bait' to lure it out for the orbital strikes, but... it's moving toward Section 4. That's Han Chen's squad."
Ye Xuan's hand gripped the edge of the command console so hard the metal groaned and deformed. "Deploy the 'Silver Wing' interceptors. Now."
"But General! The protocol says—"
"I don't care about the protocol!" Ye Xuan turned, her silver hair whipping around her like a storm. Her Tier 9 pressure surged for a split second, causing every officer in the room to drop to their knees. "If that beast touches him, I will personally level this entire sector."
She stared back at the screen, her heart screaming. Run, Chen'er. Please, just run.
The Trench: The Equalizer Awakens
Chen didn't run.
A Talon-Wolf lunged at him, its maw dripping with acidic bile. Chen didn't use a sword. He reached out, his hand moving with a precision that defied his F-Rank status. He grabbed the wolf by its throat.
> [AGGRESSION DETECTED: TIER 2 BEAST.]
> [EQUALIZER: SYNCHRONIZING...]
>
With a sickening crack, Chen snapped the creature's neck like a dry twig. But he didn't stop there. He looked up and saw the Shadow-Stalker. It had bypassed the front lines, moving like a blur of darkness. It wanted the "weakest" link. It wanted Chen.
"Chen, get back!" Lin Xia screamed, throwing a wind-gale to slow the beast, but the Shadow-Stalker simply phased through the air, appearing five meters in front of Chen.
The air pressure shifted. The Tier 4 beast radiated a chilling, oppressive aura that made the other recruits collapse, their lungs seizing.
> [HIGH-THREAT TARGET DETECTED: TIER 4 (MIDDLE).]
> [EQUALIZER: OVERCLOCKING...]
> [WARNING: HOST'S CURRENT BODY STRENGTH IS LOW. SYNCHRONIZATION WILL CAUSE INTERNAL DAMAGE.]
>
"Do it," Chen growled.
His veins turned black, bulging beneath his skin as the power of a Tier 4 Commander surged through his F-Rank frame. His heart hammered at three hundred beats per minute.
The Shadow-Stalker lashed out with a razor-sharp shadow-tendril. Chen didn't dodge. He used Void Storage.
In a flash, he pulled out a standard-issue military javelin he had "stored" earlier while the truck was moving at 80 mph.
"Release!"
The javelin didn't just fall out of the void. It erupted. Because it had Retained Kinetic Energy, it exited the portal with the full momentum of the moving truck plus the Tier 4 strength Chen now possessed.
BOOM!
The javelin became a streak of silver light. It pierced through the Shadow-Stalker's chest, pinning the Tier 4 beast to the trench wall before it could even screech. The impact was so violent the surrounding red quartz shattered into dust.
Chen stood there, steam rising from his skin. His nose was bleeding from the strain of the Equalizer, but his eyes were cold and piercing.
"One down," he muttered.
Around him, the surviving recruits stared in absolute horror. Lin Xia's wind-blade flickered and died. Lu Feng dropped his spear.
"An F-Rank... just one-shot a Tier 4 Shadow-Stalker?" Lu Feng whispered, his voice trembling. "That's impossible. That's... that's a God's strength."
Chen didn't answer. He felt a gaze on him—a gaze from high above. He looked up toward the command towers, knowing his mother was watching. He wiped the blood from his lip and intentionally turned his back to the cameras.
The Hidden Threat
In the shadows of a nearby cliff, a man in a grey cloak lowered his binoculars. He was a 'Shadow Guard' of the Ye Family.
"Report," a cold voice crackled in his earpiece.
"The target just demonstrated Tier 4 physical output and a bizarre spatial sub-skill," the scout whispered. "The General's 'bastard' is not a trash. He is a mutation. His essence is highly concentrated."
"Understood," the voice replied. "The Patriarch will be pleased. If he is a 'Fruit-Child' with that much latent power, his heart will be enough to push the Patriarch to the 10th Tier. Prepare for extraction. If the General interferes... kill the boy before she can reach him."