Chapter 404: Aware (1/2)

Milan's expression hardened.

The lost Invalids suddenly grew focused once more. Whereas they hadn't had any direction in the past, they could now see their targets.

Miles hadn't expected such a thing to happen. He had thought that his ability was infallible. He had considered the possibility that his ability could be ignored by some powerful existences with stronger minds. But, he hadn't ever thought that it would be possible to dispel its effects on others in this fashion.

In truth, this lack of preparation could only be blamed on Miles himself. Ultimately, any Force based ability was reliant on Force to manifest itself – obviously. In such a case, this meant that a greater Force could always force it to collapse.

One might think of how scared others were of the Dream Abode in Brave City and assume Dream Force to be infallible, but this couldn't have been further from the case.

The reason even Emperors without the appropriate affinity didn't dare to approach the Dream Abode wasn't because of the Dream Force alone, per se, but rather because of its sheer quantity.

The Abode represented a vast store of Dream Force. Even Leonel, with his talent, couldn't even begin to deplete it during his breakthrough, let alone someone without an affinity to speak of, or a person with a much weaker affinity like Miles.

However, if Leonel were to try to replicate the abilities of the Dream Abode himself – without its support – he would end up dying from exhaustion before he could cause the likes of Anared or JIlniya to feel threatened.

And in such a case… How could the stores and strength of a Variant Invalid not absolutely crush someone with a mere S-grade ability like Miles?

The white wolf stood at over five meters tall, its majestic coat and mane whipping about beneath its strength.

Its low growl crawled over the battlefield, sinking into the hearts of all those who heard it.

At that moment, the 12 guards around the Variant Invalid all shot forward at once. Their reserved auras surged out like a tidal wave, each and every one of them carrying an ice type ability. It was clear that the Variant Invalid had hand selected its guard and not a single one of them was below the SSS-grade.

'Shit.'

This was the only word Milan could think of. He could feel that the engineers had begun to panic. Any speed they had gained from growing comfortable plummeted. Whereas it might have only taken them 10 more minutes to finish before, now it wouldn't be surprising for it to take another half hour.

At such a pace, they were screwed. Even if it was just ten minutes left, they would be doubtful to finish.

Miles watched all of this from the top of the city walls, his gaze turning steely. This was likely his final chance and he couldn't act rashly either.

”Order the retreat.” Miles said after some deliberation.

The Commander sighed a breath of relief. He had expected Miles to close the gates and leave them all out there to rot. This would have been very much in line with Miles' usual actions.

However, Miles knew that he was on a short leash. As much as he didn't want to risk the city by leaving the gates open for a second longer, if he abandoned them outside without even trying, any prestige he had managed to scrounge up would collapse once again.

”RETREAT!”

The scrambling engineers felt as though they had heard the most beautiful word to ever exist. They didn't hesitate to abandon their work. In fact, they didn't even bother to pack everything back up again.

They rushed to the sides of the trucks that brought them here, clamboring into the open trunks and hanging off the sides to the best of their ability.