This World is too Cruel to Men – Chapter 486

The urgent gesture of someone marked the beginning.

I had heard somewhere that among the physical enhancement abilities, there are talents that not only increase physical strength but also elevate the overall senses of the body. Was that woman exactly such a case?

As if seeing something, her face turned pale, and with frantic gestures, she pointed toward the sky above the base. The gazes of those nearby all instinctively followed her finger.

Just then, the movement of the automated turrets, which had been painting the sky with bullets and shells, halted abruptly in an unnatural fashion.

“What is that…?”

“I can’t believe it, but it seems they’ve figured out the turrets’ blind spots.”

“Then, could it be that the flying entity that appeared at the start was…?”

“It might have been a bait to check our turret’s conditions.”

Was it hard to believe that those foolish Another Ones would employ such sophisticated tactics? The team leader, speaking those words, wore a bewildered expression filled with confusion.

And maybe that feeling affected him.

His decision-making speed dropped significantly compared to earlier.

“Tsk, I tried to conserve my strength as much as possible, but…”

While lightly clicking my tongue inwardly, I hastily moved my hands to cover the upper part of the base with ice.

And the moment the ice formed, releasing a chilly mist all around—

Boom—!

With a loud and ominous sound, the massive ice covering the base shook as though it would shatter at any moment.

And beyond that shaking ice… they began to come into view.

Like bombs dropped from a bomber, the Another Ones were descending towards us.

Though it was said that the flying entities were only a fraction of the size of the typical Another Ones, how was this possible?

Perhaps it was due to the somewhat surreal sight of those solidly armored Another Ones falling from the sky like rain. Above all, such thoughts filled my head first, but…

There seemed no time to leisurely speculate.

The ice wall covering the sky above the base was hastily constructed, and thus its thickness matched that urgency.

So surely it wouldn’t hold for long.

Therefore, what I needed to do now was—

“Prepare for battle—!”

It was nothing less than a mental preparation.

If things continued like this, it seemed I’d have to take on a role akin to that of the expedition leader, and I had wanted to avoid stepping up as much as possible…

But what could I do? The urgency of the situation was too great to ignore.

So, raising my voice as high as I could, I shouted, and it seemed everyone heard me, snapping back to reality.

Everyone appeared to have frozen in place, as if we had reached an unspoken agreement, but now they began showing quick movements as if they were suddenly alive.

“Non-combat personnel, please evacuate beyond the rift quickly!”

“For those who cannot evacuate in time, please, though it may be uncomfortable, we would appreciate you taking refuge in the accommodations!”

The accommodations were nothing more than repurposed empty containers, akin to a wall, but still, it was a hundred times better than standing dumbly in the midst of a combat zone.

As some individuals managed to begin evacuating the non-combat personnel for various reasons, the remaining members had already completed their preparations for battle.

And just as our preparations wrapped up…

Disaster began to descend from the sky.

Boom—!

Kaboom—!

The first to open fire were the well-known lower entities.

Nevertheless, they felt immensely threatening due to their notoriously massive exoskeletons.

If we had encountered them on the ground, I would have been confident I could deal with a dozen of them in one breath, but those falling from the sky could not be easily ignored.

How could one disregard them?

Unless one possessed physical enhancement talent, getting crushed by them would inevitably mean being eliminated from the fight.

However, they were merely the beginning.

It seemed the Another Ones had anticipated we would do something, as the ones falling later and comparatively slowly were far more formidable.

These upper-tier entities, named Bruisers due to their overwhelming size and ability to command surrounding Another Ones.

In reality, unless a rift opened on a large scale, encountering even one of them would be a rare occurrence, yet here they swarmed as if they were lower entities.

Among those falling from the sky, there were already more than five that looked like Bruisers—imagine how dire the situation was.

Thanks to that, there was a loud cracking sound as they collided with the hastily made ice ceiling, which shook as if it would collapse at any moment…

“Is it… going to break…?”

“Damn…”

While others were plunged into feelings of anxiety, I thought it was still alright.

The reason being, while they were falling, we hadn’t been idle either.

Creating ice that hadn’t existed before was indeed a labor-intensive task, but reinforcing already formed ice was relatively easy.

Especially, freezing just the cracked parts again didn’t even qualify as significant work.

While I was using a bit of cleverness to buy time for the non-combat personnel to evacuate, it was likely they began noticing that something was going awry with the situation now that there were several Bruiser-grade entities mixed in.

The ones who had been exuding an intimidating aura, ready to break the ice wall and charge us, began to slam into it.

Was that their plan, to see if they could break it?

Boom—!

Kaboom—!

Each impact was heavy enough that the ice wall trembled every time they collided, but it was still not as severe as before.

Well, considering that the results of falling from an unseen height and shaking in place both produced the same effects would itself be strange.

Anyway, having succeeded in fending off their ambush, it was now our turn to retaliate.

That’s when I turned my head in the direction where those who would help enable such actions were gathered.

“Th-that…!”

The eyes of the one who had first detected the Another Ones’ ambush shook once more, and the moment she reflexively cast her gaze in that direction, what caught her eye was a comet falling toward us.

Different from the familiar comets, this one was entirely black and flew at an extraordinary speed, crashing directly into the ice wall.

And right after it struck the ice wall that had remained firmly in place despite the onslaught from the heavy lower entities and Bruisers, a massive hole was created.

Did it come flying in at such a speed from far away?

As if it had been there all along, a black monster descended into the forward base, surrounded by a thick mist.

And the moment that being, exuding overwhelming pressure, turned towards us—despite the hole created in the center, the ice wall somehow managed to hold on precariously for a moment before finally collapsing, sending ice shards and those waiting above tumbling into the base.

“Oh no…!”

“They’re coming!”

Just as the RK Guard personnel, who had been on alert and ready for combat at any moment, stepped up to face those expected to fall nearby, there were those who had moved in ahead of them.

A huge piece of ice that had been falling toward the ground suddenly froze mid-air as if caught in an invisible web.

And just after it stopped in mid-air, it collided with a figure flying in from somewhere, shattering into hundreds and thousands of pieces.

In that moment, the large structure transformed into smaller sharp shards, and a gust of wind swept them all up.

Thus, finally completed, the hailstorm of ice engulfed the bodies of the descending Another Ones.