Lin Fei, in the form of Astrons, led the charge. His objective was crystal clear: the leader Antlar, the only one not corrupted by the Chaos Header but possessing the most formidable Class A strength.
"SCREECH~~~"
Seeing someone challenge its authority, the Antlar leader showed no fear. After letting out a long, piercing shriek, it took the initiative to charge. The massive, sharp mandibles at its front snapped open and shut with menacing force.
"ROAR!"
Astrons didn't back down. Seeing Antlar's display of dominance, he retaliated in kind. Opening his maw, he unleashed a barrage of Fire Missiles. They streaked through the air like meteors, striking the Antlar leader squarely and engulfing it in a massive explosion of flames.
Plumes of black smoke billowed upward, momentarily blinding Astrons' field of vision.
Suddenly, Antlar's enraged roar erupted from the smoke. Astrons watched the haze warily, only to be caught off guard when something grabbed him from below, flipping him onto the ground with a violent heave.
It was the Antlar leader. It had used its roar within the smoke to bait Lin Fei's attention, then tunneled underground to strike from an unexpected angle, successfully toppling him. Once it surfaced, it swung its insectoid, segmented limbs repeatedly, battering the pinned Astrons.
Meanwhile, the rest of the student-monsters were struggling against the remaining fourteen Chaos Antlars.
Among those fourteen, almost all had a base energy of Class B. Combined with their primal monster instincts, their combat efficiency was scores higher than these first-time trainees. For a moment, the students had absolutely no way of dealing with them!
"The tide is turning against us. Lin Fei is the only one with high combat power right now, but he's been getting thrashed by that Antlar for so long and not a single person has gone to help him." Lu Bai watched anxiously, desperate to materialize and join the fray, but he was held back by Ye Feng.
"Don't act impulsively. I've realized this isn't as simple as it looks. These might not be all of them; there are more hiding in the back." Ye Feng stared toward the south. Through his vision, he detected a powerful Chaos Header reaction roughly five kilometers away from the battlefield.
If the Chaos Header energy couldn't possess a Class A monster, would that remaining energy just go to waste? The answer was no. Under the observation of Luna Clairvoyance, Ye Feng discovered that the hidden Chaos energy was quite dispersed. This proved that besides the fifteen Antlars already present, there were other monsters lurking behind.
Or rather, there were Antlars hidden there that the TPC had failed to detect! After all, Antlar is a magnetic monster; it was entirely possible it had altered its own magnetic field to evade TPC's sensors during the initial scan.
"Holy shit, seriously? These aren't even all of them?!"
Lu Bai had unconditional trust in Ye Feng's words. He quickly accepted the guess and shouted in shock. Amidst his realization, the ground suddenly underwent a violent, rhythmic tremor!
Gansu TPC Base.
Lin Jing and the others, who had been observing the battle, noticed the room's lighting shift once more to a flashing red. A danger alarm followed immediately after.
"What now?" Seeing yet another sudden development, a rare look of displeasure appeared on Lin Jing's face.
"Satellite T3 has detected eight more Antlars appearing! According to the energy readings, there is a Chaos Header reaction; they have possessed a group of hidden Antlars."
As the operator spoke, he let out a silent sigh of relief. If the students had suffered heavy casualties because they had missed these hidden monsters, their careers would have been over. Fortunately, the Chaos Header seemed to have no intention of hiding; it found the Antlars that human satellites couldn't detect and directly parasitized them.
However, these eight Antlars were similar to the fourteen already in combat—their base strength wasn't particularly high. Even under the influence of the Chaos virus, aside from their eyes turning a deep crimson, their physical appearance remained unchanged.
"There were even more monsters in ambush." Lin Jing's brow furrowed before he asked, "What are the energy levels? Has anyone exceeded Class A?"
"The energy level of the eight Antlars was Class C+. After being infected by the Chaos Header, their energy reached Class B. No Class A monsters have appeared among them."
Once the results were displayed, Lin Jing felt inexplicably relieved. As long as there was only one Class A monster, things were manageable. Based on Ye Feng's performance a year ago, he should be able to handle a single Class A threat. As for the rest of the Antlar pack, the other 499 students should be able to manage, right?
"Director, with eight more monsters joining the fray, will this exceed our projections?" Principal Jiang had no idea of the true extent of Ye Feng's power, so he felt very uncertain.
"No. As long as a second Class A or higher monster doesn't appear, and we don't face more than twenty monsters at Class B or lower, we'll be fine."
After responding, Lin Jing said no more. He focused his gaze on the other students fighting the monsters. Although they weren't performing well—one Antlar could hold off ten students—he refrained from criticizing them, considering it was their first real battle.
'Ye Feng hasn't moved yet. Is he waiting for an opportunity, or is it something else?'
The blue giant had yet to appear on the main screen. Even Lin Jing couldn't guess what Ye Feng was thinking at this moment.
Dust billowed as the wind carried yellow sand through the air, enveloping Ye Feng and his group and forcing them to cover their eyes.
"SCREECH~~~"
Behind the screen of sand, a series of shrill cries reached their ears. Ye Feng was the first to react. While the sand affected him, the condition wouldn't last long.
"So they've appeared... the remaining Chaos Antlars."
The students fighting the original fifteen Antlars were caught completely off guard by the eight newly emerged ones. A portion of the students on the outer perimeter were struck by the sneak attacks and directly forced back into their human forms.
Reverting to humans and facing the massive soles of the Chaos Antlars, they were filled with sheer terror.
"Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"
"Help! Save me!"
Miserable screams erupted from their throats. Fortunately, those who could transform and fight monsters were still somewhat rational. The screams quickly drew attention, and one student transformed as an Alien Dada used his weight to body-slam one of the Antlars away.
Though the move lacked grace, it saved a life. After rescuing his comrade, the Dada lunged at the fallen Antlar and began a brutal wrestling match. Shortly after, several non-giant aliens arrived to carry the students who had lost their fusions out of the danger zone. However, the process was fraught with peril; rescuing people from beneath the feet of giant creatures was a massive test of their nerves.
"Ye Feng, is that all of the monsters now?" Qin Yuxin opened her eyes quickly. Seeing the eight new Antlars, she asked for his opinion. After all, before they had even appeared, Ye Feng had predicted there were more.
"That's about it. There are no more hidden Chaos Headers in the vicinity—at least none that I can find." Ye Feng didn't make his claim absolute; if an exceptionally stealthy monster appeared, he would have to take responsibility regardless of the outcome.
"Then... do we go in now?" Lu Bai asked, his Monster Ring already out and the Red King card gripped in his hand, ready for action.
"Wait a bit longer. Since we chose to stay hidden, let's let them continue the war of attrition." Though it felt slightly unethical, there were twenty-three monsters in total. Even if he transformed into Cosmos, he likely didn't have the capacity to face that many at once.
Beyond the Antlars in the Tengger Desert, the other three regions were also facing massive numbers of monsters. They appeared in swarms, as if they had collectively agreed to emerge from a spatial tunnel at the same time. With the Chaos Header acting as the ultimate disruptor, the battles at Mount Everest, the Amazon, and the Diaoyu Islands were all going poorly. Defense Forces and GUTS teams from various nations had joined the students in a desperate struggle.
The battle lasted for half an hour. The battlefield in the Tengger Desert had undergone a total transformation. Of the hundred or so students who had transformed, only seven remained fused; the vast majority had reverted. Half of them had fainted, while the rest watched the battle from two kilometers away with Ye Feng, their faces filled with horror.
Through their collective efforts, twenty of the twenty-three Antlars had been eliminated. Only three remained on the field. One was the original Class A leader. The other two were Chaos Antlars, but their energy readings on Ye Feng's PDI had now reached Class A.
The reason was clear: whenever a Chaos Antlar was destroyed, the Chaos Header would strip the energy from its body and fly directly into the next Antlar. In the end, only three monsters were left, but all of them had reached Class A.
"Is it... rearing Gu?"
By constant fighting and stripping energy to empower another, eventually concentrating all the power into the final monster to maximize its strength—this seemed to be a common tactic for the Chaos Header.