Chapter 605: The Difference.

Arin and Fidelia had arrived at the Muster Ground several minutes earlier, but neither had rushed into the fight.

Standing atop the massive wall, they’d watched the battle unfold below, weighing both sides carefully.

At first they hadn’t seen any need to get involved.

The Federation soldiers held overwhelming numbers, and with several tanks already bearing down on the four traitorous Generals, it seemed only a matter of time before the rebellion was crushed.

But the situation had shifted in a way they hadn’t expected.

The Generals had brought far more advanced weaponry than the Federation had accounted for.

Their thermal weapons punched straight through armored vehicles, their explosives had already destroyed several tanks and defensive positions, and despite being badly outnumbered, they were pushing forward.

Arin watched another tank go up in flames and narrowed his eyes. "They are getting through."

Fidelia kept her gaze fixed on the battlefield below. "They will reach the gate soon."

Neither needed to say more. If the four Generals broke through the last of the defense, they’d vanish into the city which would become more problematic if they wanted to stop them.

The two exchanged a brief look as they came to the same conclusion. Without hesitation, Arin stepped to the edge of the wall while Fidelia followed.

Then both of them dropped.

The sight caused immediate confusion below.

Soldiers fighting near the gate spotted the two figures falling from the top of the wall and instinctively paused mid-fire.

The wall stood more than three meters high, a height that would leave an ordinary person injured on landing.

Yet the two descended as though the distance meant nothing at all. Their feet touched the ground almost silently.

"What the..."

"Did they just jump from the wall?"

Confusion rippled through the nearby soldiers, but the four Generals reacted very differently.

Their faces went grim the instant they saw how Arin and Fidelia had landed.

Awakeners.

The realization struck all four at once.

Awakeners!

Their hearts sank.

How could this be?!

Why is this happening?

They had braced themselves to fight through soldiers and tanks, believing the military was the only obstacle standing between them and freedom.

The lead General stared at the two newcomers in disbelief before his expression twisted violently.

"Nooooo!" His scream tore across the battlefield, all hesitation gone, replaced entirely by desperation.

"Kill them all!"

His soldiers reacted instantly.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Dozens of thermal weapons turned toward Arin and Fidelia at once, unleashing a barrage that filled the air.

Bright streaks of energy tearing through the smoke with enough force to level armored vehicles.

All the soldiers firmly believed that even awakeners couldn’t dodge fire this concentrated without paying dearly.

Unfortunately, they were about to learn why awakeners were entirely different from ordinary humans.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Arin and Fidelia vanished from where they’d stood, moving too fast for any eye to track.

As for the concentrated fire, it tore through empty air.

Boom! Boom!

The attacks slammed into the wall behind them instead, tearing chunks of reinforced concrete loose and scattering debris in every direction.

The soldiers stared, confused, their targets nowhere to be found. Before they could even understand what was going on, a flash of steel cut through the battlefield.

Three soldiers felt something passed through thier body.

"Ahhhh!"

"Ahhh!"

Their bodies fell apart under the strike, blood spraying across the ground as they collapsed and never to rise again.

Seeing this, the men around them froze.

As for the attacker, Arin was already moving. His figure blurred across the battlefield, his sword flashing again and again as he wove between soldiers before they could even raise their weapons.

One tried to aim, and Arin was already behind him.

Another tried to turn, and the blade had already passed through his neck. A third fired blindly into the smoke, hitting nothing but air.

As for Fidelia, she was even movingfaster. As a Blade Dancer, her speed was beyond anything ordinary soldiers could track, her figure seeming to vanish entirely before reappearing meters away.

"Argh!" "Argh!"

Several men dropped their weapons and clutched their throats, eyes wide with fear and confusion as blood poured through their fingers.

For one terrible moment, fear and regret crossed their faces before their heads separated cleanly from their necks.

Thud!

Their bodies dropped.

Fidelia didn’t slow down.

She didn’t need to.

Too fast to follow, impossible to predict, she was standing several meters away one instant and behind another cluster of soldiers the next.

A flash of her blade, a spray of blood, another body falling.

The battlefield that had thundered with weapons fire minutes earlier now rang with screams and the heavy thud of bodies hitting the ground.

Ordinary humans had always believed their weapons could stop awakeners. It made sense, in a way.

Advanced military technology had been built to give ordinary people a fighting chance against powerful threats, and soldiers had grown used to trusting that enough firepower could overcome almost anything.

But most of them had never seen the true horror of what an awakener represented. They’d trained with advanced weapons, fought beasts, watched comrades die.

But an awakener was different.

There was no comparing an ordinary soldier to someone whose body had surpassed the limits of humanity itself.

Their weapons couldn’t keep pace.

Their eyes couldn’t track the movement.

Their reactions came too slow, their bodies too fragile.

And now, the soldiers were witnessing that brutality firsthand.

The four Generals watched in horror as their men were cut down one after another, heads separating from necks, bodies collapsing, weapons falling uselessly to the ground.

The thermal weapons that had let them fight tanks meant nothing against these two. Every time a soldier pulled a trigger, Arin or Fidelia had already moved.

Every time another tried to aim, a blade had already found him, sliting his throat.

There was nothing the Generals could do but watch. The soldiers who had been their greatest advantage moments earlier were being slaughtered in front of them.

Less than a minute later, the battlefield had gone completely silent. Every soldier who had come with the four Generals had been cut into pieces.

Weapons scattered across the ground, bodies littering the area, blood pooling in the cracks of the concrete.

And now, only the four General remained standing.

Arin lowered his sword slowly, his expression cold as he looked at them. "Will you four get on your knees, or do you want us to show you?"

The four Generals didn’t move.

For several seconds none of them answered, their faces still frozen in disbelief. Even now, they couldn’t accept what had just happened.

They’d had overwhelming firepower, advanced weapons, hundreds of soldiers under their command.

They’d destroyed tanks and forced the Federation to retreat. And in under a minute, two awakeners had unraveled everything they’d built their escape around.

The gap in power was simply too vast.

One General looked slowly at the corpses surrounding him, fingers trembling. Another General stared in horror at the two, his heart pounding heavily against his chest as his weapon drop.

Clang.

The sound echoed across the battlefield.

The remaining three looked at him with complicated expression.

Thud!

The first dropped to his knees and quickly the other follow suit. The four Generals surrendered without trying to fight them.

Across the battlefield, the Federation soldiers stood frozen, staring at the kneeling men in stunned silence.

Arin and Fidelia sheathed their weapons without any change in thier expression.

Arin turned slightly, preparing to leave with Fidelia, when something caught his attention. His eyes drifting toward the edge of the battlefield.

Fidelia noticed the shift in his expression and followed his gaze.

Someone was standing there. Together, they stared toward the figure waiting at the edge of the battle.