615 Hang In There

The human soldiers were lucky that they had brought enough energy crystals with them; otherwise, the casters would never have enough energy to deal with this many Zergs.

Lie Jian surveyed the area, and he knew that going out of the building was suicidal. The building was sturdy, and it would hold. He didn't just pick any building as a shelter; he knew this building well. This place used to be called the Torch of Antonio, and its bones were made out of a new metal called adamantium. It used to be a signal tower during the war, and it had become a tourist attraction during peacetime. It's sturdy shape and structure had left Lie Jian a deep impression years ago. Even after much modifications of the Zergs, he was able to recognize the structure with ease.

By then, the face of the structure was battered beyond recognition, but its structure was still sound. The slow progress made Jiezhe grimace. Not only were the human soldiers tough nuts to crack, so was their shelter as well. If he knew this funky looking building would give him so much trouble, he would have already demolished it. 

While the Zergs were dropping like flies, Jiezhe confirmed the identities of the human leaders. As he cherished having caught two big fish, he doubled down on the assault and called in the reserve Zergs to join the battle. He ordered his soldiers to attack the humans round the clock until they gave up the fight due to exhaustion. 

Lie Jian soon registered the Zerg lord's intent as he noticed that the Zergs worked in shifts to keep the pressure on them. It occurred to him that this seemingly safe building might as well be their coffin. Death did not scare the soldiers; their last wish was to show these Zergs their full power before they died.

Lie Jian kept calm and turned over the problem logically. Their best chance was to preserve strength and defend the building with only a quarter of the soldiers at one time. The rest of the soldiers would rest before it was their turn.

Not only did they have enough weapon and ammo, the fresh Zerg meat was laying around them everywhere. They had had much worse meals than this, such as rotten Zerg meat as well as mastery casters.

Lie Jian and his soldiers would do anything to survive. 

The primitive desires and savagery that humans had buried deep under their pretense of civilization now shone feverishly in Lie Jian's eyes. He wanted to become the man who would ride on the back of the world; he would not fall here. 

The world failure did not exist in Lie Jian's dictionary.

By then, the battle had lasted for over five hours, and neither the building nor the soldiers had shown any sign of wavering. Jiezhe's patience was wearing thin; the sight of the human soldiers devouring the Zerg meat also sent a chill down his spine. Some dark ones averted their eyes from such savagery. Even as half humans, they limited their menu to only the brains. 

Perhaps this was the first time that the Zergs had met another race that had outdone them in terms of brutality.

With a strong shelter, medics, weapons, and food, the soldiers were ready for a prolonged battle. They were the best soldiers on Mars, and they wouldn't go down without putting up a fight.

Although there was no immediate threat, Lie Jian seemed troubled. After surveying their surroundings, he conceded that the situation would deteriorate quickly once the powerful dark ones finally showed up. Other than him and Michaux, there were another three legendary warriors, so they should be able to handle the Zergs in one city. However, the longer they stayed here, the more likely they would have to deal with Zergs from the dark lord's palace.

Their only option right then was to wait for any opportunities of breaking the encirclement.

"My lord, if the situation continues like this, it would only be a matter of time before we are swallowed by them. Let me lead a group to break an opening for you and the others to get out of here." Lie Shan suggested. Although he was only a level twenty-two METAL warrior, he was old enough to see the danger.

Lie Jian shook his head and said, "Uncle Shan, if we go out there now, we will all die. We should hold the line. This building is our only hope."

There was nothing else the human soldiers could do other than wait for the situation to change.

Meanwhile in the dark lord's castle… 

"I see...Jiezhe has trapped Lie Jian and Michaux in the city? Haha! well done!"Moye was light-hearted after hearing the good news which had become increasingly rare of late. He was also pleased by the intelligence of his servant. Finally, the dark ones had started to learn their lessons.

The superiority of the dark ones shouldn't only come from their body, but also their wits. There were many things they still needed to learn, and Moye was confident that the dark ones would be ready to take over the world slowly but surely. 

"My lord, the enemy has about three hundred soldiers, but they are all human elites. Plus, they are hiding inside a large structure so that they can easily defend Jeizhe's attacks. I think we need to weigh in before Jiezhe exhausts his force. He has done a good job in trapping the humans." Harmon said.

Harmon lived comfortably inside the dark lord's palace as a guest even after the catastrophic defeat. Moye knew that Harmon was not a combat oriented immortal, so the dark lord had kept him close and heeded his advice.

Despite Moye's hatred toward the immortals, he conceded that there were many things that the dark ones could learn from them. When Patroclus created the immortals, the focus was on perfecting the humans physically. However, it was their human mind that had outshone the dark ones. 

Mankind had the tendency of using their strong suit, sharpening their skills in those areas even further. Therefore, a strong man would get stronger, and a smart man smarter; this was the nature of all living beings in the universe.

Thus, a Zerg would be born with superior strength, but when brute strength did not work for them, they also had to learn to flex their brain muscles.

"Take four of my purple guards with you…That should suffice." Moye nodded.

"As you wish, my lord." Harmon stood up and bowed to the dark lord. 

The purple guards were the personal bodyguards of the dark lord. Any one of them would be at level twenty-three or above. 

"Hurry then, before things get out of control!" Moye waved to dismiss the other. He was not all that interested in Lie Jian. His mind was set on only one person: Wang Tong. That person held the key to immortality, and he dreamed of extracting those secrets out one bit of brain matter at a time.

Moye was the only dark one who knew how to find the key by tracing along the connection between Wang Tong and the Blade Warrior. The ability to extract information from a human's mind was dictated by the dark one's level.

In addition, he wanted Michaux dead in order to seek revenge for the injury his predecessor had brought on him.

The source of a dark one's power was in its continual renewal of energy. However, so far, the dark ones were only able to absorb energy from another living creature. What Moye really wanted was to absorb power from the natural force, as a mastery caster would. 

The dark lord had attempted it many times, but failed. Although they possessed a sea of consciousness, it was incompatible with the forces of nature.

It was the desire for the ability to use nature force that spurred the dark lord to transform Patroclus into an immortal. However, he had never thought that his experiment would have grown so powerful that he would threaten his position. He later conceded that he had overlooked Patroclus' ability; within less than a year, the former Ivantian prince had nearly convinced the mother supreme that the immortals were the future of the Zerg race. Although the immortals were difficult to produce, each one of them was a formidable commander on the battlefield. They had transformed the simple-minded primitive Zergs into an army of cunning and shrewd murderous machines.