As she moved, she noticed that the closer she got to the magic circle at the center of the square, the more Guard Army soldiers there were.
However, these Guard Army soldiers either had their limbs severed or were severely injured. Some had long since stopped breathing, dying silently where they lay.
When these people saw Neia inching her way over, although they did not know what she intended to do, they all began to gather together with extraordinary tacit understanding to provide cover for her.
"Those are the 'Mad Eyes.'"
Someone murmured softly, looking back at the pile of corpses as if reminiscing.
The closer she got to the pile of corpses, the lower Neia kept herself to the ground, because many of the Guard Army soldiers could no longer stand and could only sit or lie down to cover her.
The soil on the ground had long been soaked with blood. With every crawl, blood bubbles popped with a "pu-pu" sound beneath her hands and body against the sticky blood-soaked mud, splashing an acrid metallic scent that made her feel physically nauseous.
"Whew…"
Her body was already drenched in sweat and blood, her lungs drawing in the foul air like an exhaust fan.
This was her first time on a battlefield, and also the first time she had seen her father since reaching adulthood.
When she saw her father's bow, a firm voice in her heart told her, "Resistance offers a glimmer of hope, but waiting for death leads only to a dead end!"
"When are we going to kill these people?" faint voices of demi-humans discussing drifted down from the city walls.
"Keke~ The leaders said that once it gets dark, we'll push them all into the magic circle at once," someone replied.
Neia suddenly turned her head, her eyes watering from the sting of the midday sun.
There's only half a day left!
Her heart began to pound incessantly, and she gritted her teeth, thinking, Indeed, I cannot just wait for death!
She looked at the wounded or crippled guards around her. A few of them still looked like they could move.
When these people looked back at Neia, their eyes were likewise filled with resistance and hatred.
She continued to crawl on the ground.
One hundred meters, fifty meters, twenty-five meters. The dark brown pile of corpses drew closer, and her father's hand grew closer as well.
Neia's gaze became increasingly sharp and determined.
"Nah, fuck it! I can't take it anymore!"
A gruff voice rang out from behind. Neia turned her head stiffly and saw a dog-headed demi-human.
The demi-human grinned, saliva hanging from its interlocking pale yellow canines as it stared greedily at a little girl. "The lords only said we can't kill them. They didn't say we can't eat them."
It's that little girl from just now! Neia's eyes nearly split with rage, her breathing quickening.
"Idiot. If you eat her, isn't that the same as killing her?" a nearby demi-human mocked.
The dog-headed demi-human rubbed its chin and said as if it were obvious, "You're the idiot. If I eat her alive, doesn't that mean I haven't killed her?"
Eat her alive!?
Neia's breathing quickened even more.
"No, no, no! Waaah, I-i don't want to be eaten." The little girl was so frightened that two streams of tears traced clean, pale lines down her dirty little face.
"Hehe, children have thin bones. I can swallow you down my throat in one bite." The dog-headed demi-human grinned hideously, moving its massive body toward the little girl.
"Damn it!"
Neia's gaze sharpened. She quickly scrambled up from the ground and lunged toward the dried corpse's hand holding the longbow.
"Someone's approaching the magic circle, kill her!"
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Four crossbow bolts were fired in succession, their tips flashing with a sharp, cold glint as they shot toward Neia.
Just as the four bolts were about to hit, her eyes flashed. She leaped up, stepped on one bolt, quickly grabbed the other three with her hands, and then kicked off with force.
Neia's body shot through the air like a sharp arrow toward the pile of corpses. With a mid-air flip, she snatched the longbow from her father's corpse's hand.
Without the slightest hesitation, she drew the bow and nocked an arrow in mid-air, locking onto the four demi-humans with crossbows on the city wall.
Creak… Swoosh!
As the arrow left the string, it was imbued with a layer of pale green wind blades. It curved through the air at a tricky angle, swerving around the side of the wall.
Puchi! Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!
The arrows pierced straight through the necks of the four demi-humans, bringing forth bursts of blood.
She landed firmly on the pile of dried corpses. Before the other demi-humans could react, she kicked off hard and charged at the dog-headed demi-human.
"Damned demi-human, die!!!"
"Quick, fire arrows!!!"
Another wave of crossbow-wielding demi-humans on the wall hurriedly fired over a dozen bolts.
Neia used the momentum of the bolts to stay airborne while kicking the incoming arrows toward the Guard Army soldiers who still had some fighting capacity.
"Everyone, protect the civilians!"
She drew her bow and nocked another arrow, picking off the demi-human crossbowmen on the wall from the air just as before.
"One, two, three, four…"
The demi-humans on the wall fired at her desperately, but under her "Mad Eye," these pathetically slow arrows could not possibly pose a threat to her.
They could only let her pick them off one by one.
For a moment, the air became Neia's personal stage.
This scene invigorated everyone present.
They had just heard that they would all die sooner or later.
And Neia's resistance gave them a glimmer of hope.
The Guard Army soldiers who could still move picked up arrows and spontaneously formed teams of three to five, moving to the perimeter of the crowd to protect the civilians.
Neia leaped down from the air, her face cold as she charged at the dog-headed demi-human.
Zheng!
She swept past the still-crying little girl, gripped the bow, and used the bowstring to throttle the dog-headed demi-human's neck from behind.
" Urg! Haah! You bitch.. huff! Gasp!"
The dog-headed demi-human's front claws desperately tugged at the bowstring in an attempt to free itself.
But Neia gripped the bow's riser, pressed her foot against the dog-headed demi-human's back, and pulled back with all her might.
Puchi!
A massive dog head flew through the air, trailing blood.
"Beautifully done!!"
A surge of excitement rippled through the crowd.
"Seize their weapons, kill the demi-humans!"
Neia did not stop, picking off several demi-humans in a row to allow the Guard Army to seize their weapons.
"All women and children retreat! Men, take up weapons!"
"Kill!"
Driven by a massive will to survive, the bloodlust of tens of thousands in the vast square was ignited.
The elderly, the weak, women, and children curled up to give the adult men enough space to move in the crowded area.
And the men launched a charge against the fully armed demi-humans.
Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!
For every human the demi-humans killed, another immediately took their place from behind.
Their eyes were nearly maniacal, all for that one moment when a demi-human faltered so they could seize a weapon.
Meanwhile, Neia provided support from the side, picking off demi-humans with arrow after arrow.
Despite the bloodshed and sacrifice, only through resistance could they gain hope for survival.
Boom!
A strange gravity pressed down from above, acting on everyone in the square.
Thud!
Almost simultaneously, everyone was overwhelmed by the weight and knelt to the ground in unison.
"M-Magic!?"
Neia looked up toward the city wall.
A six-armed insect-man holding a ritual staff looked down at them with a cold sneer. "Do not make useless struggles. It will only make you die faster."
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