The military had formed an encirclement around District E. The third battalion was not the primary attacking force. Therefore, they were in charge of clearing out the remaining Zergs behind the front line.
"Lieutenant, when are we going to stop doing these cleaning jobs and have a real mission instead?" Big Head complained.
Big Head felt it was safer on the front line than behind it, because there were more soldiers at the front line while the ninth platoon always carried out the clearing mission by themselves. Both humans and the Zergs would agree on that one—there was safety in numbers.
"Stop babbling. I wish we could too!" Jansining rebutted. He wanted to join the front line, but he also knew that his teammates need to improve their skills before they could be put to use in an actual battle.
"It's bullsh*t! The thirteenth platoon had been transferred to the first battalion. They probably have a great time killing Zergs right now. When is it going to be our turn?" Third was also very jealous of the elite teams that got transferred to the frontline.
To put it simply, the ninth platoon was a mediocre platoon in a mediocre battalion.
When Jansining heard that there would be a member of the great house being transferred to their mediocre team, he thought he had heard it wrong. But luckily, Ma Xiaoru had proven to be a competent soldier.
As they made their way across the field, they killed three waves of attacks. In each encounter, they had Wang Tong and Ma Xiaoru at the forefront, while everyone else supported the two with firepower. All three groups of Zergs initially tried to ambush the human soldiers, but with Wang Tong's experience and Ma Xiaoru's incredible detection ability at work, the Zergs ended up shooting themselves in the foot by revealing their hideouts.
As the platoon went further into the woods, Wang Tong found that things didn't add up: the Zergs they had encountered were all higher level Zergs than one would expect to see in an area this far away from the hive, unless, the hive was nowhere near the front line.
The military had been using the number of Zergs as an indicator of the location of the hive. However, the lesson learned from last hive battle was that the Zergs would be able to relocate their hive very rapidly, thanks to their incredible ability to bore holes. Therefore, Wang Tong reasoned that the hive in District E had been shifted as well, and most likely was somewhere close to where they were right then.
Wang Tong shared his thoughts with Ma Xiaoru, and the latter told him that she, too, had a nagging feeling of eminent danger. Unlike Wang Tong who had arrived at his conclusion using logic and observation, Ma Xiaoru relied on her intuition of the Enchantress. It was said that a real Enchantress could predict the future events, and had many seemingly magical abilities. The soul energy was the greatest gift from the creator to mankind. Both wealth and body would eventually run out, but not the soul energy. Its supply was limitless once one was truly enlightened like General Li Feng and Zhou Zhi. Only a few close friends of General Li Feng and Zhou Zhi, such as the Ma family, knew that the two generals' appearance had stayed at that of age 28 after they reached the highest level of cultivation.
Ma Xiao had always believed that it was only a legend until she started to reach the higher level in her cultivation and felt the subtle but seemingly magical changes in her body, such as the ability to detect danger ahead of time. She decided to continue the path of cultivation, hoping that one day, she would be able to stay young forever like general Zhou Zhi.
"We are not getting anywhere. Let's split up into three groups. Wang Tong and Ma Xiaoru, you each take a couple of soldiers and scout left and right flanks, and the rest follow me in the center. Keep within 100-meter distance with each other, and keep your radio on; if the situation gets hairy, regroup with the center group. "
Ninth platoon took action immediately. There were only a few Zergs scattered around in the woods, so even if one team encountered enemy, the other teams could quickly rush to their aid. However, time was of the essence. When it turned dark, the Zergs would gain a significant advantage over the humans, forcing the soldiers to quit their mission during the night.
While the ninth platoon was carrying out their mission, Li Shiming and his team had encountered a horrific Zerg counterattack at the camp. The majority of the Zerg army was made out of middle-level Zergs; the number of Tank Zergs alone had reached 18. Although Li Shiming knew that he was within the area where most higher tier Zergs were spotted, he did not anticipate such a large number of powerful Zergs sieging a human camp.
LI Shiming saw that surrounding the higher tier Zergs were countless lower tier Zergs; he registered that the Zergs might have poured all their forces in this counter-attack, and therefore, if the human could come out victorious, the number of Zergs in this area would be drastically reduced, at least for a while.
Despite the horrific scene and the gruesome battles, this scenario was exactly what the military wanted.
The human was best at defense; breaching the human defense was not an easy task even to a mighty Zerg army such as this. The besieged human force would only need to hold off for about half hour until the reinforcements arrived, and a few minutes later, the spaceships would be in position, ready for a devastating slaughter from above. Therefore, the situation was completely in favor of humans the moment the massive Zerg Army showed up. Some soldiers wondered what had made these Zergs act so carelessly.
Ever since he arrived in the military, Li Shiming had been promoted to a corporal, leading his fire team at the forefront of the formation. His prestigious family name, exceptional combat ability, and the no-nonsense attitude had won the respect of many soldiers. The quality that soldiers admired in him the most was his bravery. He always led the charge at the front of the line, and fought with the toughest Zerg during battles.
Li Shiming had quickly become the paragon of bravery and strength. He was also approachable and fair as he treated every soldier equally, regardless of their rank. The soldiers could only sense the air of dignity and honor of being the member of House of Li in Li Shiming, but not the arrogance and pomposity.
As soon as Li Shiming's fire team engaged in the combat, a dozen high tier Zergs rushed towards him. There were over ten Were Kongs and a few Nightmares. The Nightmare was a terrible creature that once stuck to a human body would drain all of the life force in a matter of seconds. The mortality rate was extremely high in combat involving Nightmares. In addition to them were the Diamond Beetles. One should not be fooled by its name, since not only was it worthless in a pawnshop, it was also incredibly deadly. The Diamond Beetle got its name due to the almost unbreakable exoskeleton. Only a fifth level warrior would be able to do any real harm to its hard shell, and anyone lower than level five wouldn't even be able to make a dent on it. The Diamond Beetles were only the size of a human fist, and their attack mode was simple. They charged at the humans at an incredible speed, and used the kinetic energy to penetrate anything that was in their way. Although they were small, they were extremely deadly due to being able to penetrate a dozen soldiers wearing tier one armors on one charge. Even the enhanced armor of the heavy armor tanks would give in after their constant ramming.
Despite the shocking display of strength, Li Shiming remained calm. As if the Zerg had sensed that he was the strongest of all soldiers, they all rushed at Li Shiming. Li Shiming held his ground under wave after wave of attacks, and he saved the precious time for the reinforcements and the spaceships to be mobilized. A few minutes after the reinforcements came, the battle was over.
This was one of the greatest victory human had achieved ever since they had taken the planet of Norton from the claws of the Zergs. It should take the Zerg a while to recover from such a devastating blow, and humans would not even give them the chance to do that since they had already sent out extermination teams around the area to chase off any Zergs that had escaped.
Li Shiming's performance in this battle was perfect; he stood against a large number of high tier Zergs while sustaining only minor injuries.
Li Shiming was also satisfied with his performance. Although he had taken a significant risk, he had never doubted himself. He believed that all great accomplishments came with risks, and he would just have to learn to manage it.
He was puzzled after hearing that Ma Sa had requested to see him. Ma Sa was a member of the NNT unit, a special unit within a special department. To put it simply, they were the assassins working for the Confederation. They had strict rules about not being involved in political struggles of the great houses. So, members of the NNT unit would usually avoid meeting with the great houses during wartime.
Li Shiming mulled over Ma Sa's intention and Ma Sa's mission on this planet before he set off to his office. Li Shiming had heard of Ma Sa's methods, and knew that he was a force to be reckoned with. What made Li Shiming so cautious was the fact that Ma Sa had requested the meeting as the colonel of the NNT, instead of his superior during the war.
"This is Corporal Li Shiming reporting to you, sir!"
"Come in please."
Ma Sa's eyes locked on to Li Shiming's as soon as the young soldier walked into his office.
"Shi Shu, what's the matter?" Li Shiming asked directly.
Both Ma Sa and Li Shiming had trained at the Templar's court when they were young, and one of Ma Sa's Templar brother stayed with the Templar and eventfully become Li Shiming's master when he entered Templar. Therefore, Li Shiming had called him "Shi Shu" — "brother of the master."