The last Black-armored guard had already raised and aimed his rifle before Lin Yu could even register the glint of the barrel.
Consequently, Lin Yu had absolutely no time to conjure a healing arrow and strike their opponent’s forehead.
Even if she had managed the initial spell-casting, the subsequent recovery animation and the several crucial seconds before the stun took effect would have left Lin Yu vulnerable enough to be killed multiple times.
Even if the recovery animation proved swift, she still lacked the requisite magic to cast; five consecutive healing spells had utterly depleted her reserves, leaving her body devoid of even a single drop.
Had she foreseen this, she would have undoubtedly devoted far more time to practice.
Now, with her magic reserves, she could barely cast five spells before sputtering out, a truly pathetic display that reduced her to nothing more than a minnow, a weakling, a scrawny dog.
Stripped of her final trump card, she calmly confronted the reality of her impending defeat, raising her hands towards the menacing gun barrel with practiced ease.
With an exaggerated, mournful cry, Lin Yu dramatically collapsed to her knees, weeping profusely as she pleaded, “Oh, please forgive me, esteemed Black-armored guard! I meant no harm, please don’t kill me—”
“What in the hell did you do to them!”
Infuriated, he racked the bolt, loading a round, his rifle’s muzzle remaining rigidly fixed on Lin Yu’s chest as he sidestepped towards his fallen comrades.
“They just fainted…”
The last remaining member of the supervisory squad was visibly agitated, “Don’t move! Don’t you dare force my hand!”
With all five of his comrades sprawled on the ground, their fates unknown, the situation was dire indeed, and the suspected assailant, a young woman, knelt before him, tearfully pleading for mercy.
From his vantage point, the slightest misstep could see him joining his comrades on the ground, his life hanging in the balance.
He had to proceed with extreme caution, even retaining the option of immediate lethal force.
From Lin Yu’s perspective…
She was patiently biding her time, poised to draw her bayonet and turn the tables.
The moment that man averted his gaze, the instant he began to check the vital signs of the scumbags littering the ground, Lin Yu would spring forward, plunging her blade into him.
Whether the stab proved fatal was secondary; her priority was incapacitating him and then making her escape from these vile individuals.
The mere act of breathing the same air as them churned her stomach with disgust.
Lin Yu mused inwardly, her fingers subtly tracing the patterns on her bayonet hilt, anticipating that single, fleeting opportunity.
Waiting…
Yet, no such chance seemed to materialize.
Even as he crouched to assess the vital signs of the others, his eyes remained glued to Lin Yu, scrutinizing her every subtle movement.
The only opening was a fractional second during a blink, utterly insufficient for Lin Yu to draw her bayonet and launch her attack.
What to do?
Should he fully grasp the situation, would he rouse the unconscious supervisory squad members, only to subject her to even greater torment?
It felt as though she had been driven into an inescapable corner.
Her initial tearful wails and desperate pleas had been nothing more than a carefully constructed facade, a ruse designed to disarm the man before her, paving the way for her swift, decisive strike.
Yet, as she continued to weep… she realized her tears had become genuine.
Why did her tears flow so uncontrollably once they began?
Despite possessing twenty-four years of past-life memories and fifteen years of present-life experience, totaling well over thirty years across two lifetimes, she was still weeping like a mere teenager—a truly unbecoming display.
On the battlefield, tears served no purpose; they merely fueled an enemy’s cruelty and deepened one’s own despair and helplessness.
She understood this stark truth: enemies would not cease their assault simply because she wept, nor would suffering vanish into thin air at her tears.
Then, a final gamble it would be.
Lin Yu strained to peer forward, attempting to pierce through her blurred vision to discern the supervisory squad soldier’s movements, and, staking her very life, drew her bayonet from behind her waist.
As if in a deathbed hallucination, an unbidden vision materialized before her eyes.
“Hey! Watch out! There’s a shell crater ahead!”
Just as Lin Yu was about to stumble over a corpse, poised to plunge headfirst into a waterlogged shell crater, a voice from behind offered a timely warning.
Though the warning registered clearly, her movements proved clumsy.
Despite the alert, she still lost her footing, tripped by the decaying corpse, and was on the verge of tumbling into the waist-deep muck.
As she teetered on the brink of falling in, her left hand, flailing helplessly in mid-air, was firmly caught by an unseen rescuer.
“Saved you once, didn’t I?” the young man, whose collar bore the insignia of a Private First Class, chuckled at her. “Oh, my, a female soldier, no less? Heh, try not to fall head over heels for me now, alright?”
His eyes were as profoundly dark as a night under relentless artillery fire, and his face, etched with a familiar warmth, resembled a homeland one yearned for in dreams.
“You are…”
Through her hazy vision, she perceived someone approaching, a rifle slung across their back.
The pre-death hallucination merged with her current reality, and that face, unmistakably real, appeared directly before her.
“By order of the Regimental Commander, the left bank position has fallen, and the railway bridge is about to change hands; all personnel are to report immediately to the right bank position…”
Yang Xi, bustling about as a messenger, spotted Lin Yu, and the supervisory squad soldier with his rifle trained on her, poised to fire at any moment.
With a swift glance, he halted his hurried movements, instead inquiring about the bodies strewn across the ground: “What precisely are you… doing here?”
“You’ve arrived just in time. This individual is suspected of assaulting the Black-armored guard. Go and bind her; I’ll stand guard beside her.”
“Yang Xi! Quick, save me! They’re trying to harm me!”
Two utterly contradictory accounts simultaneously issued from their lips.
Whose words to credit now presented Yang Xi with a truly vexing dilemma.
Under the intense scrutiny of two expectant gazes, Yang Xi slowly drew near Lin Yu, then used sheer force to pin both her hands behind her back.
The hopeful glint in Lin Yu’s eyes instantly morphed into sheer astonishment. “You—you—you actually sided with him instead of me!”
Her strength was meager to begin with, and compounded by her awkward posture, which hindered any effective exertion, she found herself practically forced to the ground.
“I misjudged you!”
“Misjudged me how? You should, at the very least, offer an explanation for these individuals strewn across the ground.”
“I… they…”
With Yang Xi pressing her hands behind her back, she couldn’t discern his expression, while before her, the supervisory squad soldier aimed his rifle, leaving her momentarily speechless amidst this impossible predicament.
More significantly, there was a particular word she found too mortifying to utter aloud.
Almost… almost violated, or something to that effect…
Finally, after a few whispered, stammering words, her face flushed with shame, Yang Xi nodded, signaling his agreement to stand by her.
“My apologies, but I cannot comply with your request,” he stated, releasing Lin Yu’s pinned hands and rising from the ground to address the black-clad supervisory squad soldier directly. “Those individuals perpetrated vile acts against her, acts that flagrantly violated public decency. Their current unconscious state is nothing less than deserved retribution, rendering any accusation of ‘assaulting the Black-armored guard’ entirely unfounded.”
With Yang Xi, the formidable “Engineer Shovel War God,” now standing firmly behind her, Lin Yu’s gaze, fixed straight ahead, now carried an undeniable edge of disdain.
“Public decency? This is a goddamn battlefield, and out here, the supervisory squad holds all the authority! I’m telling you, you’d best assess your own standing… Private First Class.”
“And you, too, might consider your own standing, and whether it carries the weight of a direct command from a superior officer—a personal directive from the Regimental Commander of Reserve Regiment 104, ordering all personnel to take up arms and assemble at the right bank position for defense.”
Yang Xi moved from behind Lin Yu to stand before her, meeting the supervisory squad soldier’s rifle barrel with his own unwavering gaze. “You may continue to disregard this personal directive, persist in your deplorable actions, but I swear on my honor, I will not stand idly by and permit such wickedness to continue.”
“Hmph, honor, what honor? You’re playing the righteous gentleman, but secretly, you’re just looking to champion her so she’ll fall into your arms, aren’t you?”
Upon hearing Yang Xi’s resolute declaration, the supervisory squad soldier gritted his teeth and reluctantly lowered his rifle.
The supervisory squad was undeniably in the wrong regarding this incident, and when confronted by such a formidable opponent, they had no choice but to concede.
“On the contrary, my stance is rooted in our shared identity as soldiers, all bound by loyalty to His Majesty…”
“Alright, alright, they’re gone now. Spare me your lengthy discourses.”
The final supervisory squad soldier scurried away ignominiously, abandoning his five unconscious colleagues, allowing Lin Yu to finally exhale, slumping onto the ground in relief.
It was truly a blessing to have escaped such a gruesome fate.
Indeed, his arrival had been remarkably timely…
As their eyes met in a prolonged, unspoken exchange, Lin Yu suddenly identified a crucial oversight. “Wait,” she questioned, “did you say you were here to deliver orders?”
“Yes. My previous unit was disbanded, and the Regimental Commander himself personally appointed me as a messenger to relay this crucial intelligence.”
Only then did she learn that the front lines had not utterly collapsed; the right bank remained firmly under Diacla’s command.
“Then why are you still dawdling here? Aren’t you meant to deliver those orders?”
“They, no, *he* was the final individual who required notification.”
Yang Xi implied that the supervisory squad represented the outermost fringe of the battlefield’s personnel; it was inconceivable that anyone else could be found beyond them.
Having encountered them, his mission of notification was thus concluded.
“Then… why not stay for a meal before you leave? I’ve made stewed potatoes, and even managed to catch a bird to add some meat.”
A grateful dinner invitation, successfully extended.
Would the foolish Yang Xi prioritize his mission and decline her invitation?
“Yes. The Regimental Commander didn’t set a time limit for the mission, and I also need to make sure they won’t attack again.”
“You’re quite kind-hearted, aren’t you…”
After kicking the supine Black-armored guards a few times to ensure they wouldn’t awaken, Lin Yu began to busy herself with dinner.
Their meal of stewed potatoes and “swan” wasn’t just for the two of them; four other mouths in the tent awaited hot food.