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Chapter 538: Puzzle

"This is Team Lead 1, Class A Hive guard spotted. Cancel backup, we won\'t last till it arrives."

The Team Leader\'s words went out live in front of hundreds of thousands of hopeful young cadets that were watching from the base ship.

There was a few second delay so if the instructors wanted they could have paused the stream but choose to let everyone see the grim reality of battle.

A second later the response came from HQ which left almost all the cadets in shock. It sounded like a different person from before.

"Copy that brother, may you have a glorious death!"

"Thank you, brother!" the Team Leader responded before turning around to face the young graduates behind him.

"Did you hear?" he asked while straightening his back.

All of them replied in unison, "Yes sir!"

"Good! Then retreat as quickly as you can. I will hold them off as long as I am able to, hopefully, some of you will come out of this alive."

Not a single one of them moved.

"We will fight! All for one, one for all!" one person shouted.

"All for one, one for all!" the others repeated, their voices resounding through the silent halls. Even in the face of certain death, not a single person retreated.

Some would call that bravery, others would call it stupidity. Fighting against the almost countless creatures, just how many of them would be able to actually make a difference?

The Hive Guardian was less than 3 kilometers away now but due to its hulking size and the darkness of deep space, it was difficult to determine that with the naked eye. But even from that far everyone could see the tens of thousands of smaller creatures that were riding atop the massive beast.

The Team Leader smirked and shook his head, "So be it. Prepare for battle!"

The entirety of his Qi was released which looked like an ocean of torrential energy as it swept towards the incoming creatures.

The graduates behind him didn\'t hold back either and released everything they had. Vague silhouettes of mind palaces appeared above their heads.

They hadn\'t broken through to the Profound Realm yet so they couldn\'t actually summon their Mind Palaces outside, only project their images in moments like this.

They formed groups of six, their Qi\'s interlinking with one another and forming pentagons with one person in the center. These pentagons then connected with the others and formed a massive formation.

Alone they might not be that powerful but working together, with the help of these formations their powers were increased several-fold.

Most soldiers were taught how to make rather simplistic formations like this in the heat of battle. They were nothing special but even the most simple one required months of training and hard work.

Every great power in the deep space had something like this and each one was unique in its own way.

All the formations linked together, forming a 200 meter wide orange colored formation. Each person increased the power of the formation by one fold and with so many people inside it, its power was nothing to scoff at.

The Hive Guardian which was now less than 2 kilometers away reared its giant head towards them as soon as the formation was at full power. It had a long vertical body almost like a whale, only hundreds of times larger.

Most of its features were covered by the darkness but its four elliptical eyes were bright enough to be seen from such a distance. They were like lighthouses in a storm, only these signaled death, and despair.

The Team Leader was the first to launch an attack. He brought his sword in front of his chest before raising it in the air. Copious amounts of Qi gathered around the blade.

It started to vibrate ever so slightly and as it did, a soft hum could be heard directly inside the mind of everyone watching. There was no actual sound being produced yet just looking at the blade, the hum was clearly heard by all of them.

"That\'s Sword Dao!" someone exclaimed in the hall after realizing what it was.

"Sword Dao?!" cries of shock and surprise were heard from many of them.

It wasn\'t easy to make improvements in understanding the weapon Dao as it was still too mysterious a subject.

But such a feat required one to be enlightened in the ways of the blade. It was a culmination of all their knowledge and understanding after using the weapon in countless battles and would be different for each individual.

Dao enlightenment was a testament to a warrior\'s prowess and aptitude and those that had some achievements in the field were respected wherever they went.

A bright white slash accompanied by a terrifying energy shot towards the Hive Guardian as he brought his sword down in front of him.

*ROAAR~*

Even though the Hive Guardian was a tier above the Team Leader, it still didn\'t dare take that attack head-on.

It opened its maw and released a light green ball of flame a hundred meters in size.

The slash and the ball of flame clashed and surprisingly, canceled each other out.

The Hive Guardian\'s four eyes visibly contracted after witnessing that. Even though the ball of flame was a normal attack but to cancel it like that, was not easily done.

Yet even after seeing that, the Hive Guardian didn\'t move in to attack itself. Instead, the hordes of monsters on its back shot forth like missiles while the guardian moved towards another direction.

The Team Leader\'s eyes narrowed.

\'Why isn\'t it attacking?\'

Even though his attack was powerful, he was in no way a match for a Hive Guardian that was an entire realm above him. It could easily overpower him yet it kept its distance.

\'Why?\' he asked himself again as a tinge of curiosity took root in his heart.

The formation behind him lit up even brighter and shot blasts of orange light towards the incoming monsters.

The Team Leader moved forward. His blade swung left and right without pause. Those watching from afar could see his unique movements more clearly.

They looked like a dance of sorts.

He moved through the incoming barrage of Class C and D monsters like it was nothing.

Each swing of his blade had a purpose. Either to decapitate the opponent or leave them powerless. He didn\'t move very fast but every creature he passed by was left on the verge of death if not already slain.

And the more he killed, the smoother his movements became.

He closed the distance between him and the Hive Guardian. When he was less than a thousand meters away he finally noticed something.

He quickly tapped on his helmet. The stream was turned off instantly.

After checking once again that no one else was watching, he clicked on the spirit band and opened a private channel.

"Captain, I Found something peculiar here. The Guardian is not after us, it is chasing something. It must be very important if a Hive guardian chose to abandon its position and give chase personally. Please advise."

There was some static noise but a couple of seconds later an emotionless voice came through.

"Keep your distance, I will be there soon," it said before the channel was turned off.

***

The cadets in the hall were obviously very disappointed when the stream was cut off. All they could see now was the 3D map which gave an overall view of the battlefield.

Most of the cadets lost interest soon after and went their ways.

"Let\'s go, it\'s better to practice than waste time here," Matilda said while getting up.

Vaas unwillingly got up as well and walked off but Reinhart didn\'t move.

"I want to watch for a little while longer," he said not taking his eyes off the map.

Matilda opened her mouth to say something but seeing how serious he was she shook her head and walked away.

"Don\'t take too long, nothing will change if you just watch," she reminded him before taking her leave.

There were still a few people left in the hall but most of them were doing their own things. Only Reinhart was still watching the 3D map without even blinking.

"It looks weird," he mumbled, "Something doesn\'t make sense."

His eyes rapidly moved from one side of the map to the other and back around. The saccadic eye movements looked quite eerie.

"There!" his gaze came to a halt on the bottom left side of the map. It was like he was looking at a puzzle and all of a sudden all the pieces fit together.

There, a black dot was moving quickly away from everything else. Its movements were nonsensical. One second it was going in one direction and the next it would go to another for no reason at all.

"That\'s the key!" he exclaimed inwardly.

That black dot was exactly the same Hive Guardian that was giving chase to the unknown object.