The Card Apprentice - Toughing it Out
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Toughing it Out
Although they’d lost contact with the advance division, they still hadn’t stopped their forward progress. On the contrary, they wanted to increase their forward speed. The gummy cloud puffs incessantly dropping from the sky were like spirits urging them along, not letting them stop for a second. They had seen a wild beast with their own eyes stranded by a ball of the gummy cloud and suffocated straight to death.
It was a terrifying scene! That fierce wild beast had struggled weakly in the gummy cloud ball for only three minutes before it died. No one had ever seen such a strange scene; they stared blankly at the wild best in front of them struggling so desperately. Every one of its movements was as if in slow motion, with its hideous face vividly playing out the terror in its soul.
Everyone’s movements unconsciously quickened several paces after such a fright.
Colin and Kitt consulted for a while and decided to walk toward the northeast. Their chances of running into the other division would be greatly improved if the direction were correct.
Kitt’s condition seemed to be worsening while his fever persisted; he showed fewer and fewer moments of clarity each day. The accompanying doctors couldn’t do much about it, as they still hadn’t found any cause. Everyone was concerned about him, though no one could do anything. Not being a doctor, Chen Mu couldn’t do anything either. He couldn’t come up with any effective measures.
An awful sound suddenly came from in front of them.
“The white mottled ant!” The expression on Colin’s face had changed.
Everyone’s faces transformed except for Chen Mu’s and Wei-ah’s. Chen Mu didn’t know what a white mottled ant was, while Wei-ah might simply not have known what fear was.
But it could still be seen from Wei-ah’s response that he wasn’t going to be careless in front of the white mottled ant. Chen Mu suddenly felt his collar tightening and his whole body chilling. Wei-ah grabbed Chen Mu with one hand and Li Duhong with the other and dodged into the jungle.
All the youth had lost their minds in fear as they ran madly after Wei-ah into the jungle beside them.
Seeing the frightened youth, Colin had a determined look in his eyes.
“Prepare to confront the enemy!” he growled, as he took the lead in raising the Blue Moon Gun in his hands and started firing at the white mottled ants.
The white mottled ant was one of the scariest creatures in the jungle. When they appeared in ranks, nearly all the creatures in their path would become food in their bellies. They were only as big as a walnut, and their solitary battle strength wouldn’t be anything to talk about. But it was their terrifying numbers that had given them such a notoriously formidable presence in the jungle.
“Every troop pay attention! Draw the ants’ attention toward the South!” Colin’s brain was exceptionally clear in that moment. They needed to draw the ants away, or none of the children would be able to survive. If they were to move back toward the village, then the divisions after them would suffer the same calamity. So, after a brief pause for examination, he decided to move south.
The Fifth Unit’s soldiers were battle-hardened; they didn’t hesitate to put the Blue Moon Guns in their hands into a steady cadence of shooting to keep an appropriate distance from the leading edge of the swarm of ants. Although they knew they would die, many of the soldiers had a look of gratitude in their eyes, since their own children were among the division.
Their movements in the jungle were resolute, as they kept up their firing of the Blue Moon Guns toward the swarm of ants, riling them up. The wavy blades from the guns effortlessly sliced apart the white mottled ants, and since the blades were so dense, each one could kill quite a few. Still, their effect on the swarm was minuscule, but they had been very successful in riling them.
Colin led the soldiers in a mad dash to the South, sometimes looking back to see the swarm of ants relentlessly closing in, which gave his eyes an unconscious perpetual iciness.
They had already entered the region of instability for the gummy cloud layer by then, with balls of the gummy cloud dropping from time to time. When they hit one’s body they were like jelly, tight and falling off very slowly.
The swarm of ants also seemed to be aware of the danger in front of them, as they slowed their pace.
An icy smile formed on Colin’s face as he made a signal for his comrades to fire all-out. In a while all their firepower was cascading down on the swarm of ants, with nothing held back. Quite a few of the ants were pulverized under such dense firepower. Their fluids and guts were flowing out as the air filled with a pungent smell.
The swarm of ants became enraged! They suddenly surged toward Colin and the rest, where two sides of the ant swarm had already begun to move, wanting to surround the evil gang.
The sound of Blue Moon Guns lightened up, as they were no longer actually firing any wavy blades, since the energy cases were used up!
Colin dropped the Blue Moon Gun without any hesitation as he growled, “Run!”
Everyone dropped the guns and dropped their heads in a wild run. The enraged swarm of ants was giving even faster chase that time, with no hesitation at all.
Chen Mu, who was being carried, suddenly noticed Kitt and Alfonso. He wrestled himself from Wei-ah’s hands, hurriedly saying, “Take Kitt!” As soon as he hit the ground, he rushed toward Alfonso.
Wei-ah was stunned, but he quickly responded after some pause. He picked up Kitt with one hand. By that time, Chen Mu had arrived in front of Alfonso, who he pulled up onto his back. Alfonso was utterly astonished, his delicate constitution having become his most fatal weakness by then.
Running for over ten minutes on a single breath, Chen Mu found that the situation was getting worse. There were several thousand people running pell-mell, making a chaotic scene.
The children were out of their minds with fear, with their shrieks and cries sounding up again and again.
Chen Mu furrowed his brow. If things were to go on like that, not even half of them would survive.
Chen Mu halted his pace, shut his eyes, and took a very deep breath. Wei-ah gave Chen Mu a strange look, as he stopped as well.
“Everyone, close your mouths!” Chen Mu abruptly shouted. Those four words nearly exhausted all the strength in his body. The blank-minded Alfonso on his back was jolted right out of consciousness.
Chen Mu’s shout had blanketed all the youths’ shrieks, and all the noise came to a sudden halt within an instant.
Looking at all the young people’s blank expressions, Chen Mu sighed to himself, and then immediately ordered in a loud voice, “Those over 16 who have undergone military training, stand to my left! Those under 16 who have undergone military training, stand to my right.”
The youths, who were out of their senses, unconsciously did what Chen Mu had told them to, and there were very quickly around 200 or more youths meeting the conditions to Chen Mu’s left. While their bodies were still rather frail, they were all nearly adults. Chen Mu’s right was almost full of people of all different sizes, all with panicked looks. But the ratio was a shock to Chen Mu. As far as the eye could see, there were only about 300 children who hadn’t received any military training, and they were mostly only 5 or 6 years old.
“You, you, you…” In a single breath, Chen Mu selected 20 from the left of him whose bodies looked the most well-developed. Those selected were at a loss, and then without much calculation, Chen Mu said to them, “You are all now the team leaders, with each of you responsible for a team.
“It is your responsibility to lead your team to follow the larger team!” Chen Mu stared at the 20, as he said word by word, “Now divide into teams!”
The division into teams went very quickly and much more efficiently than Chen Mu had ever anticipated. Most of the children had undergone military training, and although their skills weren’t yet sufficiently developed, there wasn’t any issue with their basic abilities. And those children who hadn’t undergone any military training were then calmed, looking as obedient as ever.
All the 5- and 6-year-olds were taken on the backs of those 16 and over.
“Where do we go?” The ever-silent Wei-ah suddenly opened his mouth.
The youths were all looking at Chen Mu, whose recent actions had made him the only one they could rely on in their eyes.
Chen Mu was stunned, thinking that Wei-ah knew where to go. But from what Wei-ah had said, Chen Mu immediately understood that Wei-ah had only gone running for his life, without any purpose.
Chen Mu smiled bitterly. Everyone’s gaze was focused on him, and he had no way to evade it by then. Otherwise, the organization he had just accomplished would revert again to chaos. In truth, he also couldn’t evade Kitt still being unconscious, and Alfonso wasn’t any good, so he could only pay attention to Wei-ah. It wasn’t worth thinking any further.
Just then, there was a disturbance in the jungle behind him, and everyone’s expression suddenly changed. Could the white mottled ants have caught up?
Several of the startled beasts of burden were charging out from the forest. Those docile creatures had also been frightened. Their appearance brightened Chen Mu’s eyes, since the material they had on their backs had been bound so securely that it surprisingly hadn’t fallen off. He immediately ordered several brave youths to gather them up.
The thing that made everyone happy was that there were only three of the beasts of burden missing; the rest were still there.
Getting the supplies calmed everyone down quite a bit. But as soon as they thought of Colin and the rest, the youths’ eyes all turned red, and the smallest among them started to wail.
“Move ahead.” Chen Mu had thought for a while and then gritted his teeth to speak. Seeing the still-dazed Kitt, Chen Mu hoped he could come out of it quickly, so he could hand the mess over to him. He now realized what he hadn’t been able to bear before: there were too many problems. He had no idea how to lead such a big gang of bratty kids who didn’t have the strength to protect themselves in that jungle.
But staring at those 5- and 6-year-old children dying tragically in front of him, Chen Mu couldn’t just let himself do nothing and run for his life to safety.
Still, after toughing it out, Chen Mu had discovered that he had no idea.
Wake up, Kitt!
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