GA: Chapter 124: The Beast Tide Under Suppressive Fire — A Black Beam That Pierced Heaven and Earth
Even as the civilians were still talking among themselves, the Haicheng Spiritual Energy Bureau members arrived on the scene at the first opportunity.
They had anticipated this day from the start. So there was no panic — they moved quickly and began combat preparations without hesitation.
Countless drones cut through the sky in rapid formation. In the advancing tide of sea creatures below, a massive mutated sea turtle raised its head. Water gathered in streams along its shell, converging into the shape of a long serpent before launching upward at the drones.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
A series of explosions rang out as numerous drones caught in the water jets burst apart, becoming brief blooms of fire that scattered light through the dark.
It wasn't only the sea turtle — mutated sea serpents, mutated crabs, and others were all using their own abilities to take down the aerial units.
That moment marked the official start of the battle.
"Brothers — open fire!"
"FIRE!"
Officers roared across the line, and then countless streaks of light blazed outward.
BOOM. BOOM BOOM BOOM. RUMBLE.
The thunderous sound of artillery erupted continuously, shells screaming toward the mass of sea creatures.
RUMBLE. RUMBLE RUMBLE.
The earth began to shake. Smoke from the bombardment swallowed the battlefield whole, the scent of gunpowder spreading thick through the air.
Vast numbers of mutated sea creatures were obliterated in the barrage. Others scattered under the assault, fleeing in all directions. The ground ahead was pockmarked with craters, each filled with the bodies of fallen sea beasts.
These lower-evolved sea creatures had no meaningful resistance against human artillery.
In an instant, crimson blood soaked the earth — and this was only the beginning.
The drones fell back and were replaced by fighter jets stationed throughout Haicheng. Once the positions of the mutated sea creatures were confirmed, missile after missile tore through the air and screamed down toward the ground.
BOOM. RUMBLE RUMBLE. RUMBLE.
The explosions rolled on without end. The ground shook again and again.
Faced with humanity's firepower, large numbers of mutated sea creatures showed unmistakable fear. If the threat lurking in the ocean hadn't been even more terrifying, they would have turned back long ago.
Beyond the weaker creatures, a small number of powerful mutated sea beasts absorbed human attacks with little more than pain to show for it — but even their formidable defenses couldn't endure wave after wave of sustained bombardment indefinitely.
Under the pressure of suppressive fire, the sea creature advance ground to a halt.
The soldiers in the city couldn't help but let relief show on their faces. They'd forgotten — this wasn't an internal city beast tide. This was a threat from outside the walls. Certain weapons couldn't be used within a city, but out here, this kind of fire suppression was effortless.
At this rate, even if the mutated sea creatures numbered in the millions, it would only be a matter of holding out a little longer.
With that thought, the tension that had gripped every chest began to loosen.
What they didn't know was that the beast tide wasn't the real crisis.
The shadow in the ocean was their greatest threat.
Deep in the water, the enormous dark shape that had been circling seemed to grow enraged by humanity's artillery.
Black tentacles churned through the sea in sweeping arcs. Then the entire body surfaced — dozens of massive black tentacles spiraling into a ring as pitch-dark energy gathered at the center.
"ROARRR."
RUMBLE.
With a thunderous cry, a deep black beam erupted into the night.
Where the black column struck the ocean, the sea itself seemed to split — an enormous depression carved into the water's surface, waves surging away in both directions.
RUMBLE RUMBLE.
Without pause, the black beam carried its terrible energy forward. The instant it made contact with the mutated beast tide, every creature it touched dissolved on the spot — dissipated into the air as if they had never existed. And at that point, the beam had spent barely a tenth of its energy.
"What — WHAT IS THAT?!"
"No — no, this can't be right. This has to be some kind of mistake."
"Wasn't the mutated beast tide already enough?! How is something with that kind of energy even possible?!"
"The ocean — what in the ocean could have birthed something like this?!"
The soldiers who had been fighting the mutated sea creatures looked up at the black beam that had just vaporized a section of the beast tide in an instant, and went completely still.
They couldn't comprehend what they were seeing.
And before they could react, the black beam punched through the beast tide without slowing for even a fraction of a second, turning toward the city and continuing forward.
BOOM—!
A devastating explosion. The hardened city wall was pierced clean through — and everything it had been protecting—
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
Explosion after explosion erupted throughout the city interior. Fire spread. Smoke billowed in rolling clouds.
Countless buildings were obliterated by the black beam. And countless civilians within its path were erased along with them.
"Roarr..."
In the depths of the sea, the massive dark shape showed no excitement at the destruction it had caused. It was waiting for something. It waited a long time — and whatever it had been waiting for never came. A sound somewhere between frustration and disappointment resonated from the deep, and then it sank back below the surface.
As for what catastrophe its black beam would leave behind — it did not care. It had never cared.
This was a natural disaster. This was terror. This was the price that had to be paid at the frontier of the spiritual revival.
Chaos.
Total, irreversible chaos.
Among both humans and mutated sea creatures alike.
The sea beasts that had scattered and avoided the black beam — shaken by what they had witnessed — now charged toward Haicheng in a frenzy.
The civilians who had survived in the city stared at the destruction the black beam had left behind, and simply could not move.
One strike.
One beam.
Nearly half of Haicheng. Countless lives.
All gone.
The fire and explosions were merely the collateral — the secondary damage. At the very center of the beam's path, there was nothing left at all. People, buildings, everything — erased clean. Gone without a trace.
As if some unfathomable force had simply wiped them from existence.
That kind of power...
Silence. The entire city fell silent.
Grief. Agony. Even despair.
But unlike the humans who had been reduced to despair, the mutated sea creatures had long since abandoned restraint. They were already swarming the human defensive lines, already pouring into the streets of Haicheng itself.
Crack.
A mutated crab closed its hardened claw and split the human soldier before it cleanly in two.
BOOM.
A mutated sea turtle retracted into its shell, then spun out like a massive, razor-edged gear, cutting through human lives in wide, sweeping arcs.
Hisssss...
The eyes of a mutated sea serpent burned with bloodlust. Its crimson jaws opened wide and swallowed its prey whole.
"..."
No technological suppression. No city walls for defense. In direct combat against mutated beasts, humans were being crushed almost without exception.
Even the ability users who fought back with everything they had, cutting down mutated beast after mutated beast — it wasn't enough. The slaughter continued, unstoppable.
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