The roar of clashing steel and the guttural shrieks of the dying became a singular, deafening storm that pounded against Shen Xun'er's eardrums.
Rain mixed with soot began to pour from the ashen heavens, turning the blood-drenched battlefield into a churning morass of crimson mud.
Shen Xun'er led the charge.
She did not command with grand tactical flourishes or sweeping stratagems; she led through the sheer, unbridled ferocity of a wild beast refusing to be butchered.
Without a single thread of qi to bolster her limbs, every step was a battle against the crushing inertia of mortal fatigue.
Her lungs burned as though she were inhaling liquid fire, and the heavy, battered iron armor pinched viciously into her bruised collarbones with every frantic stride.
"Follow the girl!" the blood-stained mortal captain screamed, his voice cracking with desperate frenzy as he raised a splintered banner. "Break through their vanguard! Charge!"
