Chapter 76: The Overlord
Unlike the northern flank of the Roman defense line, where the situation was reversed by Bai Mo alone, the south faced immense pressure and lacked a powerful Ability User to share the burden.
Moreover, as their frontal line was far narrower than the enemy's, the Italian army could only choose an orderly retreat, reforming into a hedgehog formation to prevent the beast tide from outflanking them or encircling them from the rear, which would lead to a collapse of the defense line.
Consequently, the Italian army's frontal defense line became even narrower. From above, it looked like a dike, insufficient in length, slowly shrinking into a reef.
More mutated creatures crossed the southern part of the coastal defense line, gradually penetrating into the Italian hinterlands.
Ultimately, due to the vast disparity in numbers between the two sides, the temporarily conscripted soldiers failed to complete their interception mission.
Approximately twenty percent, or one hundred thousand mutated creatures, still managed to enter the inland regions, and this was merely the situation in the vicinity of Rome alone.
...
Huaxia Federation Frontline Command Post.
"Reporting, General Commander. Apart from Tianjing, Tianhai, and Tianzhou, where the Ability User legions completed their interception missions through a crushing assault, approximately seventy-five percent of the landing mutated beasts were eliminated in other regions. The remaining scattered into the wild natural environment, and our forces are unable to conduct large-scale pursuits. The beast tide landing has concluded. Requesting the General Commander to issue the next order."
"Yes, sir! According to statistics, this interception battle lasted a total of twelve hours, with eight hundred thousand of our troops participating overall.
Of these, the army had seven hundred sixty thousand participants, with one thousand three hundred twenty-two injured and eight dead; the navy had twenty thousand participants and sixty-eight vessels, with no casualties; the air force had twenty thousand participants, with no casualties.
All army casualties were due to poisonous gas and mist released by the mutated creatures."
"Handle the aftermath, then organize various units to cooperate with local militia and reservists to eliminate as many scattered mutated creatures as possible. Issue the same order once the troops from Xintu and Xijiang arrive."
"Yes, Chief!"
"The Sea Race invasion is one problem, but the complete halt of maritime trade is an even bigger one. The sea is the enemy's home ground; our navy cannot go out and confront them head-on. For now, they can only remain in military ports."
The naval vessels that were sent out were all forced back to military ports by countless marine mutated creatures in virtually suicidal charges. If even warships suffered this, ordinary cargo and passenger ships were out of the question.
The public was utterly bewildered and at a loss by the relentless barrage of major news stories.
First, there was the global tsunami, then the nuclear attacks on major cities, and now another wave of mutated creature invasions. Under this crushing superposition, peaceful life was instantly shattered.
Some chuunibyou youths had even begun to imagine how they would slaughter all sides after the apocalypse arrived.
Several small island nations were directly and completely annihilated in this probing invasion by the Sea Race. Only a very small number of people who had already taken planes to leave before the tsunami arrived managed to escape.
Many small islands that were once inhabited by humans were submerged in a sea of mutated creatures. Those that managed to withstand the landing tide either, like Yamato, had sufficient populations combined with modern weaponry for defense; or, like Hawaii, benefited from the protection of military bases.
Even so, after the first round of anti-landing battles, Yamato strategically abandoned many islands that were difficult to defend, consolidating its population onto a few major islands.
...
Huaxia Federation's Rear Provisional Capital, Tianqing.
"What are your thoughts on the next war plan?"
"The Sea Race's schemes are simply inhumane. They immediately used nuclear bombs to blast our three largest cities into ruins and stirred up tsunamis to devastate the entire coastal region. To come up with such vicious tactics, are they truly creatures that only developed intelligence a few months ago?"
"That's a question. Is there a human 'Black Hand' behind this? Relying solely on them, it's impossible for them to have cracked the missile codes of the American nuclear submarines."
"Our biggest enemies have all suffered heavy losses as well, so that possibility is very low. Would they sacrifice New York, Washington, and New Golden Mountain to be buried with our Tianhai, Tianjing, and Tianzhou? I believe they wouldn't do something so self-defeating."
"Could it be some anti-human organization?"
"Which organization could achieve such a feat?"
"It's not as if there are aliens manipulating things from behind the scenes, is it?" someone remarked. "Otherwise, how could these beasts, who've only just gained intelligence, launch nuclear bombs?"
A momentary silence fell.
...
"According to the joint estimation of geologists from multiple countries, a tsunami of this scale is unlikely to recur for at least a hundred years.
Through exploration and satellite observation, this global tsunami was the result of the Sea Race detonating almost all active undersea volcanoes, a tactic of 'killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred to oneself'."
"However, given the sheer numbers of marine creatures, never mind 'killing a thousand at the cost of eight hundred,' even 'killing a thousand at the cost of eighty thousand' would be too much for us to bear. The first wave of suicidal probing units alone numbered two hundred million, and this is just the quantity faced by our single nation; the globally mobilized numbers are estimated to exceed a billion."
"Unfortunately, due to the separation of land and sea, the power of the nuclear bombs was greatly diminished."
"Speaking of nuclear bombs, Professor Zhao Jiasen from the Materials Branch of the Spirit Energy Research Institute submitted a detailed report to his superiors this morning, mentioning that nuclear radiation is rapidly converted into spirit qi in a spirit qi environment."
"So, the spirit qi levels in these three cities — Tianjing, Tianhai, and Tianzhou — are now very high?"
"You could say that. Additionally, according to reports from below, almost all nuclear blast survivors have seen a significant increase in their Spirit Energy levels, which should also indirectly corroborate this fact."
"By the way, any news from the Rome Ability User Conference? Our most elite Ability Users went there; if anything happened to them, it would be a huge blow to Huaxia Federation's strength."
"They've made contact via satellite phone. Rome was also struck by nuclear bombs and tsunamis.
However, they were lucky. It's said that an Ability User from the Dao Academy directly froze a section of the first tsunami, buying them five minutes of evacuation time, which allowed them to avoid a direct hit from the nuclear bombs."
"Can a person truly reach that level?" a middle-aged man from the audience said cautiously.
"Old Liu saw it with his own eyes, so it shouldn't be too far off. Satellite records also show that a few days ago, there was indeed a giant, transparent, unidentified object near Rome. It's just that everyone was stunned by the nuclear bombs at the time and didn't pay any attention."
"Fortunately, we were in the suburbs of Tianjing at the time, and didn't happen to be holding the meeting in the city center."
"Can we truly control Ability Users of this caliber?"
"Now is not the time for internal strife. Put away your petty thoughts. Racial war is the top priority right now.
Don't forget, in this kind of war, there won't even be an opportunity to surrender. Especially with the so-called 'Sea Race,' we can't even communicate. Even if we raise both hands and a white flag, they wouldn't understand it as surrender."
"This planet only needs one overlord."
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