Chapter 34: Vigilance Before the Tide
The warning alarm sounded in the dead of night.
A piercing siren pierced the walls of the barracks. All combat units within the bastion simultaneously received an urgent notification from the war zone command center: multiple rift monitoring beacons had simultaneously captured the psychic fluctuations of massive scaled beast swarms. The main Black Mountain rift was the epicenter, and all surrounding secondary rifts showed signs of movement. The scaled beasts were continuously amassing, and the war zone had determined that a small-scale beast tide was imminent.
The whistle for emergency assembly shattered the night.
Lin Yan quickly got up, donned his standard-issue armor, checked his energy rifle, short blade, and spare Sea of Consciousness stabilizer patches, and rushed to the military armory to assemble. Outside the barracks, soldiers were running everywhere, vehicle headlights sweeping back and forth across the streets, and supply trucks shuttling to and fro. The bastion, which had been relatively peaceful, had completely transitioned to a wartime footing overnight.
Instructor Zhou's squad was assigned to the defense reserve force of the temporary outpost on the outer perimeter of Black Mountain. Their mission was not to launch an offensive to clear out the scaled beasts, but to guard the outer defense line of the outpost, intercept scattered vanguard scaled beasts, and protect the monitoring beacons. Once the main beast tide arrived, they were to immediately rely on the outpost's fortifications to hold their ground and wait for support from the main forces.
"Everyone remember this," Instructor Zhou stood at the front of the formation, sweeping his gaze over the crowd in the light of a military searchlight. "This is the harbinger of a beast tide. The first to rush out will be scattered scout scaled beasts. Their numbers won't be large, but their mobility is strong, and they excel at squad ambushes. Our four-man team will continue to be responsible for flank patrol. Once a scaled beast swarm signal is detected, report it immediately; do not fight them alone. Furthermore, that third-tier scaled beast is highly likely to act as a commander within the beast tide. Once you sense its heavy psychic field, everyone must retreat. Do not attempt to engage it in prolonged combat."
The crowd responded in unison.
The convoy drove out of the bastion in the dead of night, arriving at the temporary outpost on the outer perimeter of Black Mountain just before dawn. The outpost had already been heavily reinforced with troops, the fortifications were strengthened, the energy cannons on the walls were fully loaded, and the Sea of Consciousness early-warning array was running at full capacity, continuously scanning the psychic signals across the entire wilderness.
Lin Yan's four-man squad was assigned to the outer sentry post on the west side of the outpost, responsible for a three-kilometer wilderness patrol to intercept scaled beast scouts.
As the sky began to lighten, the gray wilderness was fully revealed in the morning light. The scorched trees and crisscrossing fissures were visible, and the putrid stench in the air was much heavier than usual. In the distance, the massive rift seemed to continuously leak out wisps of cold, sinister psychic mist.
The four members of the squad spread out into a horizontal alert formation, slowly pushing forward. Lin Yan continued to be responsible for guarding the right flank, extending his fine mental tentacles to continuously probe amidst the mixed psychic noise.
"Before a beast tide, the scaled beasts will first send out scouts to test the weak points of the defense line in batches," the veteran beside him whispered. "These scouts won't charge the outpost directly; they will specifically target isolated patrol personnel. After ambushing them, they will quickly retreat. They will transmit the intelligence back to the rift to provide information for the main beast tide."
Lin Yan nodded slightly, his mental tentacles continuously extending outward.
After only half an hour of patrolling, two low-level scaled beasts burst out from a rock crevice. They had been lurking in the shadows of the chaotic rocks, waiting until the squad was close before suddenly launching their attack. Two sharp psychic stings plunged straight toward the four people's Seas of Consciousness.
"Form up!"
The front-line veteran raised his gun to suppress them from the front, the energy beams blasting into the heads of the scaled beasts. Su Qing, positioned at the rear left, provided precise supplementary fire to restrain the other scaled beast. Lin Yan maneuvered on the right flank, his eyes fixed on the rock crevices on both sides to prevent any other scouts from lurking in ambush.
The two psychic stings slammed into the Sea of Consciousness barrier in waves. Lin Yan skillfully stabilized his core, allowing the outer Sea of Consciousness barrier to absorb the impact without his mind wavering. While keeping an eye on the movements of the two scaled beasts in front of him, he also diverted a portion of his mental tentacles to continuously scan the distant valley, guarding against more scaled beasts flanking and surrounding them.
After a brief skirmish, the two scaled beasts were successively wounded. Realizing they could not break through the four-man formation, they turned and fled into the chaotic rock piles.
The squad did not pursue. They rested in place briefly and quickly checked their Sea of Consciousness status.
"They were just scouts; there will likely be more behind them," the veteran said, looking toward the distant, dark rift. "During the beast tide assembly phase, this kind of sporadic attack will be endless."
For the rest of the day, they encountered three more waves of scaled beast scouts during their patrol. Each time, it was a small team of two to three beasts that excelled at using the terrain for surprise attacks, taking turns releasing psychic stings to drain the warriors' Seas of Consciousness.
Lin Yan always guarded the flank, responsible for early warning and intercepting scaled beasts that circled behind. Every time they engaged in combat, he practiced the allocation of his Sea of Consciousness in actual combat: allocating a portion to perceive the movements of nearby scaled beasts, a portion to maintain long-range early warning, and simultaneously stabilizing his defenses against the stacked psychic stings.
His Sea of Consciousness still remained at the second-tier peak, with the core showing no signs of loosening. However, his ability to allocate Sea of Consciousness perception and his ability to process multiple psychic signals simultaneously were continuously polished through these continuous, small-scale battles.
At noon, the outpost's Sea of Consciousness early-warning array suddenly issued a short alert. A heavy psychic fluctuation was moving back and forth around the edge of the rift.
"It's that third-tier scaled beast," Instructor Zhou said, his voice grave after receiving the notification from the outpost. "It hasn't directly attacked the outpost; it's roaming in the distance, seemingly coordinating the scattered scaled beast scouts."
Everyone immediately heightened their vigilance, contracting their Sea of Consciousness perception to reduce the leakage of psychic signals and prevent being locked onto.
Lin Yan extended extremely fine mental tentacles, capturing that heavy fluctuation from afar. This time, he clearly sensed that the psychic field of the third-tier scaled beast was expanding outward, like an invisible net connecting the psychic signals of all the scattered low-level scaled beasts nearby.
In the records of the human war zone, this was still explained as the innate tribal psychic linkage ability of high-level scaled beasts. No one knew that it was the Lizardmen deep underground, using the Sea of Consciousness of this third-tier scaled beast, to uniformly coordinate all the scout scaled beasts and test the strength of the human outpost's defense line.
"It is coordinating the surrounding scaled beasts," Lin Yan reported his perception results to the squad in a low voice. "The fluctuation is continuously connecting the scattered psychic signals nearby."
"It matches the tribal psychic network hypothesized by the research institute earlier," Instructor Zhou frowned. "But this intensity of coordination is stronger than any previous record."
For the entire day, the patrol continued without interruption. Waves of scaled beast scouts took turns harassing them, and the squad patrolled and fought simultaneously, repeatedly refining their coordination in actual combat. As night fell, the squad rotated back into the outpost to rest.
The medic checked everyone's Sea of Consciousness in turn. Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness was only slightly overdrawn on the surface, with no new severe contusions. Leaning against the corner of the outpost's rock wall, he closed his eyes to regulate his breathing and turned his awareness inward to inspect his Sea of Consciousness. The pale white barrier was still covered in dense, old marks, and the bottleneck of the second-tier peak remained immovable.
On the holographic screen in the outpost's command room, the curve of the psychic fluctuations of the scaled beast swarm inside the Black Mountain rift was still climbing continuously.
The probing by the scouts was merely the prelude. The main force of the true beast tide was still quietly completing its final assembly within the dark underground rift.
End of Chapter
A piercing siren pierced the walls of the barracks. All combat units within the bastion simultaneously received an urgent notification from the war zone command center: multiple rift monitoring beacons had simultaneously captured the psychic fluctuations of massive scaled beast swarms. The main Black Mountain rift was the epicenter, and all surrounding secondary rifts showed signs of movement. The scaled beasts were continuously amassing, and the war zone had determined that a small-scale beast tide was imminent.
The whistle for emergency assembly shattered the night.
Lin Yan quickly got up, donned his standard-issue armor, checked his energy rifle, short blade, and spare Sea of Consciousness stabilizer patches, and rushed to the military armory to assemble. Outside the barracks, soldiers were running everywhere, vehicle headlights sweeping back and forth across the streets, and supply trucks shuttling to and fro. The bastion, which had been relatively peaceful, had completely transitioned to a wartime footing overnight.
Instructor Zhou's squad was assigned to the defense reserve force of the temporary outpost on the outer perimeter of Black Mountain. Their mission was not to launch an offensive to clear out the scaled beasts, but to guard the outer defense line of the outpost, intercept scattered vanguard scaled beasts, and protect the monitoring beacons. Once the main beast tide arrived, they were to immediately rely on the outpost's fortifications to hold their ground and wait for support from the main forces.
"Everyone remember this," Instructor Zhou stood at the front of the formation, sweeping his gaze over the crowd in the light of a military searchlight. "This is the harbinger of a beast tide. The first to rush out will be scattered scout scaled beasts. Their numbers won't be large, but their mobility is strong, and they excel at squad ambushes. Our four-man team will continue to be responsible for flank patrol. Once a scaled beast swarm signal is detected, report it immediately; do not fight them alone. Furthermore, that third-tier scaled beast is highly likely to act as a commander within the beast tide. Once you sense its heavy psychic field, everyone must retreat. Do not attempt to engage it in prolonged combat."
The crowd responded in unison.
The convoy drove out of the bastion in the dead of night, arriving at the temporary outpost on the outer perimeter of Black Mountain just before dawn. The outpost had already been heavily reinforced with troops, the fortifications were strengthened, the energy cannons on the walls were fully loaded, and the Sea of Consciousness early-warning array was running at full capacity, continuously scanning the psychic signals across the entire wilderness.
Lin Yan's four-man squad was assigned to the outer sentry post on the west side of the outpost, responsible for a three-kilometer wilderness patrol to intercept scaled beast scouts.
As the sky began to lighten, the gray wilderness was fully revealed in the morning light. The scorched trees and crisscrossing fissures were visible, and the putrid stench in the air was much heavier than usual. In the distance, the massive rift seemed to continuously leak out wisps of cold, sinister psychic mist.
The four members of the squad spread out into a horizontal alert formation, slowly pushing forward. Lin Yan continued to be responsible for guarding the right flank, extending his fine mental tentacles to continuously probe amidst the mixed psychic noise.
"Before a beast tide, the scaled beasts will first send out scouts to test the weak points of the defense line in batches," the veteran beside him whispered. "These scouts won't charge the outpost directly; they will specifically target isolated patrol personnel. After ambushing them, they will quickly retreat. They will transmit the intelligence back to the rift to provide information for the main beast tide."
Lin Yan nodded slightly, his mental tentacles continuously extending outward.
After only half an hour of patrolling, two low-level scaled beasts burst out from a rock crevice. They had been lurking in the shadows of the chaotic rocks, waiting until the squad was close before suddenly launching their attack. Two sharp psychic stings plunged straight toward the four people's Seas of Consciousness.
"Form up!"
The front-line veteran raised his gun to suppress them from the front, the energy beams blasting into the heads of the scaled beasts. Su Qing, positioned at the rear left, provided precise supplementary fire to restrain the other scaled beast. Lin Yan maneuvered on the right flank, his eyes fixed on the rock crevices on both sides to prevent any other scouts from lurking in ambush.
The two psychic stings slammed into the Sea of Consciousness barrier in waves. Lin Yan skillfully stabilized his core, allowing the outer Sea of Consciousness barrier to absorb the impact without his mind wavering. While keeping an eye on the movements of the two scaled beasts in front of him, he also diverted a portion of his mental tentacles to continuously scan the distant valley, guarding against more scaled beasts flanking and surrounding them.
After a brief skirmish, the two scaled beasts were successively wounded. Realizing they could not break through the four-man formation, they turned and fled into the chaotic rock piles.
The squad did not pursue. They rested in place briefly and quickly checked their Sea of Consciousness status.
"They were just scouts; there will likely be more behind them," the veteran said, looking toward the distant, dark rift. "During the beast tide assembly phase, this kind of sporadic attack will be endless."
For the rest of the day, they encountered three more waves of scaled beast scouts during their patrol. Each time, it was a small team of two to three beasts that excelled at using the terrain for surprise attacks, taking turns releasing psychic stings to drain the warriors' Seas of Consciousness.
Lin Yan always guarded the flank, responsible for early warning and intercepting scaled beasts that circled behind. Every time they engaged in combat, he practiced the allocation of his Sea of Consciousness in actual combat: allocating a portion to perceive the movements of nearby scaled beasts, a portion to maintain long-range early warning, and simultaneously stabilizing his defenses against the stacked psychic stings.
His Sea of Consciousness still remained at the second-tier peak, with the core showing no signs of loosening. However, his ability to allocate Sea of Consciousness perception and his ability to process multiple psychic signals simultaneously were continuously polished through these continuous, small-scale battles.
At noon, the outpost's Sea of Consciousness early-warning array suddenly issued a short alert. A heavy psychic fluctuation was moving back and forth around the edge of the rift.
"It's that third-tier scaled beast," Instructor Zhou said, his voice grave after receiving the notification from the outpost. "It hasn't directly attacked the outpost; it's roaming in the distance, seemingly coordinating the scattered scaled beast scouts."
Everyone immediately heightened their vigilance, contracting their Sea of Consciousness perception to reduce the leakage of psychic signals and prevent being locked onto.
Lin Yan extended extremely fine mental tentacles, capturing that heavy fluctuation from afar. This time, he clearly sensed that the psychic field of the third-tier scaled beast was expanding outward, like an invisible net connecting the psychic signals of all the scattered low-level scaled beasts nearby.
In the records of the human war zone, this was still explained as the innate tribal psychic linkage ability of high-level scaled beasts. No one knew that it was the Lizardmen deep underground, using the Sea of Consciousness of this third-tier scaled beast, to uniformly coordinate all the scout scaled beasts and test the strength of the human outpost's defense line.
"It is coordinating the surrounding scaled beasts," Lin Yan reported his perception results to the squad in a low voice. "The fluctuation is continuously connecting the scattered psychic signals nearby."
"It matches the tribal psychic network hypothesized by the research institute earlier," Instructor Zhou frowned. "But this intensity of coordination is stronger than any previous record."
For the entire day, the patrol continued without interruption. Waves of scaled beast scouts took turns harassing them, and the squad patrolled and fought simultaneously, repeatedly refining their coordination in actual combat. As night fell, the squad rotated back into the outpost to rest.
The medic checked everyone's Sea of Consciousness in turn. Lin Yan's Sea of Consciousness was only slightly overdrawn on the surface, with no new severe contusions. Leaning against the corner of the outpost's rock wall, he closed his eyes to regulate his breathing and turned his awareness inward to inspect his Sea of Consciousness. The pale white barrier was still covered in dense, old marks, and the bottleneck of the second-tier peak remained immovable.
On the holographic screen in the outpost's command room, the curve of the psychic fluctuations of the scaled beast swarm inside the Black Mountain rift was still climbing continuously.
The probing by the scouts was merely the prelude. The main force of the true beast tide was still quietly completing its final assembly within the dark underground rift.
End of Chapter