Clean. Decisive. Almost a one-hit kill!

This thunderous display of power instantly drew the attention of several nearby monsters and was also noticed by many of the ever-vigilant Great Knights. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

The representative from the Golden Coast, who was struggling to hold on, caught sight of the scene. Hope flared in his eyes and he shouted hoarsely, "Governor, Your Excellency! Help!"

But Murphy didn’t even glance his way. Without breaking stride, he moved again, a deep blue phantom skimming across the ground, lunging straight for the large, ferocious Scorching Beast that was forcing the highlander into a steady retreat.

The reasoning was simple: prioritize neutralizing the greatest threats—the nodes that could decide the battle’s outcome—rather than simply saving people.

On this dark red wasteland, the battle escalated in the bloodiest and most direct way imaginable, suddenly reaching a fever pitch.

Every second was a cacophony of the roars of men and monsters, the clash of blades against carapaces, and the boom of exploding Energy.

The twenty-two Great Knights and ten Temple Knights fought with all their might, slaying numerous Earth Rock Worms and Scorching Beasts. Dark red, almost black ichor and the severed limbs of monsters soaked the ground around them.

However, the number of monsters seemed endless.

The low hum from the writhing, colossal shadow in the distance grew louder. More dark red figures—stranger in form and radiating stronger Energy Fluctuations—began to pour out from behind the rugged mountain ridges.

They no longer just lunged and tore at them. Some of the smaller ones, whose carapaces bore strange markings, began to spit sticky, dark red Energy nets from their maws—nets that were both highly corrosive and ensnaring.

Others emitted high-frequency, mind-piercing shrieks that interfered with the Great Knights’ concentration and the circulation of their Energy.

The pale gold Shield maintained by the Temple Knights finally began to show visible cracks and dim after taking several hits from the corrosive Energy nets and being violently rammed by a number of clearly stronger, massive Scorching Beasts.

While fending off a surprise attack from an Earth Rock Worm, a Temple Knight was grazed on the arm by the edge of a corrosive Energy net fired from the side. His Silver Armor instantly billowed with acrid smoke. He let out a stifled grunt, and the formation faltered for an instant.

The pressure skyrocketed!

"It’s no use! There are too many! And stronger ones are getting closer!" The representative from the Golden Coast had just narrowly survived with the help of another Great Knight. His voice cracked with panic, his magnificent robes were shredded, and his face was a mask of blood and terror. "We’re too big a target grouped together! We’re going to be ground down to nothing here!"

"The plan has changed! Disperse and break through!" The Temple Knight Commander’s voice came through the Shield, laced with both resolve and resignation. "Follow the contingency plan! Each of you, find a direction with fewer monsters and retreat! Cover your tracks and wait for an opportunity to execute the clearance mission! Remember the potential Energy signatures of the anchor points!"

That command was the final straw.

In truth, once they realized the density and strength of the monsters here far exceeded their expectations, and that the siege felt targeted, scattering had become the only rational choice.

Sticking together allowed them to combine their strength, but it also painted a massive target on their backs, drawing a tide of attacks far beyond what they could endure.

Spreading out was still immensely risky, but it at least lessened the chance of being surrounded and annihilated by a massive horde. It would also allow them to more flexibly carry out their mission of clearing the anchor points—a task that required deep reconnaissance anyway.

This was, after all, one of their contingency plans for the worst-case scenario.

"Go!"

"Look after yourselves!"

Without another moment’s hesitation, the Great Knights, already suffocating under the relentless assault, scattered like a startled flock of crows, each breaking out in a direction they judged to have the least resistance.

The Iron Wall Imperial Guard Commander let out a low roar. The runes on his Black Armor flared once more, and he became a human battle tank, brutally smashing through two Scorching Beasts in his path and charging toward a relatively flat, Scorched Plains where the monsters seemed fewer in number.

The Storm Twin Blades Brothers shared a knowing look and suddenly accelerated, becoming two shadows gliding across the ground. In a few flickers, they vanished into a nearby, complex field of jagged rock formed from cooled lava.

The highlander roared, carving a bloody path with his War Axe and sprinting toward a large, skeleton-like structure in the distance, a place where the monsters’ line of sight might be obstructed.

The representative from the Golden Coast practically scrambled and crawled to follow a few Great Knights heading in the same direction, fleeing without a single backward glance.

Knight Armand took a deep breath, cast a long look in Murphy’s direction, then turned. Shrouding himself in the light of his blade, he retreated toward another area of fissures where the monsters were scarcer.

At the same time, the Temple Knights tightened their formation. The ten of them moved as one, fighting a retreat toward a location they had previously sensed was relatively "calm" in terms of Energy. They soon vanished behind the swirling sulfurous smoke and grotesque rock formations.

The instant the Temple Knight Commander gave the order, Murphy had already chosen his direction.

He didn’t choose the seemingly open plains or gentle slopes that would allow for greater speed, nor did he rush toward the complex, rocky areas that could easily hide an ambush.

His "God" attribute was 2.4, and his Perception Power far surpassed the others. During the fight, he had faintly sensed a valley to his rear left, nestled between two low, dark-red hills and covered in a web of fine cracks. The presence of monsters there felt the faintest, and the Energy Fluctuations were weak. It didn’t seem to be an active area.

With a light push of his foot, he drifted backward, seemingly weightless. He slid a dozen meters, perfectly evading a pincer attack from a Scorching Beast spitting a corrosive Energy net and an Earth Rock Worm.

He didn’t even bother to counterattack, simply pushing his speed to its absolute limit. A white radiance of Qi flowed over his body, forming a smooth layer of Protective Gang Qi that deflected stray crystalline fragments and residual Energy waves.

Regardless, he kept his Energy Fluctuations suppressed to a reasonable "Peak of Mortality" level—not high enough to be conspicuous, but strong enough to handle most threats.

He was now like a deep blue fish swimming through the dark red background, darting toward his chosen valley.

Just as he’d anticipated, he met with minimal resistance along the way. There were only a few scattered, medium-sized Scorching Beasts that seemed to be on patrol, and he either easily evaded them or dispatched them with a single, precise strike.

He didn’t look back at their former gathering point, now being overwhelmed by a flood of monsters and turning into a blood-soaked battlefield. Nor did he pay any mind to the directions the other Great Knights had fled, or to their fates.

The true law of survival in the Deep Red Wilderness had only just begun to apply from the moment they scattered.

Every person had become a lone hunter on this bloody wasteland. Or... the hunted.