The senior general’s eyes narrowed, clearly cacluating something from the expression he had on his weathered features. “You look remarkably… refreshed for someone who just battled a Silver-rank monster.”

They suspect something. Why can’t they just shut their mouth and worry about themselves.

He rolled his eyes inwardly. He didn’t want to get into a fight with two generals. Not because he was scared of them, but because it was stupid and he would be killing two generals who had protected this city and the humans in it for years.

“Well, I had a few potions.”

Ethan gestured toward the wall. “How’s the situation here?”

“Stable, for now.” The general allowed the subject change, though suspicion remained in his gaze. “No further Silver-rank sightings in this sector.”

A messenger approached at a run, face pale with urgency. He saluted sharply before addressing the senior general.

“Sir! Urgent news from the north wall—it’s fallen! General Feng is dead, and General Han has ordered full evacuation of the outer districts!”

The blood drained from both generals’ faces.

“Feng is dead?” The Mid-Silver general’s voice dropped to a whisper, the loss of his peer striking him visibly. “How?”

“Silver-rank monster, sir. A winged beast with wind powers. Reports say it killed him during a dust storm.”

Ethan absorbed this information with outward calm, while internally his mind raced through implications.

The northern wall fell?

Shit.

That wall wasn’t just another barrier.

It was the closest out of all the walls to Lin’s place. Lin, Tiana, and HongWei were waiting there.

Waiting for him to come back.

Ethan didn’t hesitate.

Power surged into his limbs.

A faint crackle ran through the stones beneath him as he activated his speed talent. The world blurred.

Wind ripped past the two generals as he vanished.

The Mid-Silver General narrowed his eyes, lips thinning. “That was—”

“Faster,” The weaker general finished, jaw tight. “Much faster.”

But the time for comments had passed. The frontlines were shifting.

Screams echoed across the battlefield, carried by the wind.

“Formations!”

“Pull back in layers! No breaking ranks!”

The commander turned, scanning the field. Fighters had also received the news of the wall collapse, and panic had started to take root.

He raised his own voice, sharp and commanding.

“Those with family in the third—grab them. Get them to the second district! You hear me? Don’t wait!”

The formation began to reorient, slowly, steadily. Lines bending but not breaking. The monsters took advantage of that, killing more soldiers.

A junior officer stumbled forward. “General—General, we can still send reinforcements to the third—”

“No.” He didn’t shout this time. He looked the young man in the eyes. “We’re not reinforcing the third district.”

“But—”

“Listen. We send people in now, they’ll get cut off. We’d be flanking ourselves.”

“They’ll be surrounded,” The other general added, stepping beside them. “And we’d be giving the monsters two fronts to devour. We don’t have the numbers for that.”

“But it’s our people—”

“And this is still a war, you think I don’t care about them?”

His voice dropped, steel-hard.

“That district has no fallback point. No second wall. No defensible choke points. No ground we can hold. Every fighter we send there dies for nothing, and the monsters use their corpses to climb further into the city.”

He stepped back, sweeping his gaze over the field. “We hold the second district line. That’s the new border.”

A silence spread among the nearest fighters. They all understood what that meant. The third district, a crowded, crumbling, poor area, was being left to burn.

“Get the evacuation teams moving. Tell them they’ve got thirty minutes. Then we cut the bridges.”

The junior officer still looked stunned. “But what if there are survivors in the third—”

“Then they’ve got thirty minutes to stop being survivors and start moving,” He said, already turning away. “Now go.”

Ethan moved through the city like a ghost, enhanced speed transforming his surroundings into a smear of colours and shapes.

‘Faster. Need to go faster.’

His newly elevated Agility responded to his desperation, pushing his Speed.

The Third District had descended into pandemonium. People flooded the streets, clutching children and precious belongings as they fled toward the inner districts.

Screams and shouted orders competed with the distant roars of monsters breaching the outer wall.

Ethan dodged between fleeing civilians, his enhanced perception allowing him to navigate the panic without slowing.

Every second counted.

Please still be there.

Lin’s restaurant appeared ahead, but the scene made Ethan’s blood freeze in his veins.

Monsters circled the building like wolves around wounded prey. The front door hung from a single hinge, splintered wood evidence of a forced entry. Clawed footprints marked the threshold, disappearing into the darkened interior.

Ethan’s heart plummeted.

No. Not like this.

Without hesitation, he summoned dual talents simultaneously. Fire manifested in his right palm while wind gathered around his left.

The nearest beast, a wolf-like creature with serrated teeth, turned at his approach. It never completed the motion.

A condensed fireball struck its skull, detonating on impact. The monster collapsed, smouldering before it registered the threat.

Three more creatures—scavengers following the main invasion force—noticed their fallen packmate. They snarled, abandoning the restaurant to face this new challenger.

Wind blades sliced through the air, and each found its mark.

Three heads hit the ground before their bodies registered death, toppling seconds later.

Movement inside the restaurant caught his attention. Something large navigated the cramped space, knocking over tables as it advanced toward the storage room.

‘The storage room. That’s where they are hiding!’

Ethan cleared the remaining distance in a heartbeat, Enhanced Speed carrying him through the shattered entrance. Inside, devastation greeted him—tables overturned, chairs splintered, the modest furnishings destroyed by monstrous strength.

A guttural growl emanated from the back of the restaurant.

A hulking beast, twice Ethan’s size with chitinous plates covering its hunched form, battered against the storage room door. Wood cracked under each impact, the barricade failing rapidly.

From within, terrified screams punctuated each strike.

“Help! Someone help!”

Hong Wei’s voice. Alive.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep