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'There's too many of them...'

This is what all the cadets thought as their scalps tingled at the sight of the crawling horde of voidlings.

The sprawling and magnificent camp site has been flooded with them. There's so many that it was difficult to even see other buildings around. The only saving grace these cadets had was the tiny bubble of protection from the building next to them.

At this point, they have already caught up with the situation. They all wore their Void Suits and begam firing away at the voidlings, doing their best to cull as many of them as they could because, deep down, they knew that this barrier wasn't invincible.

Amidst the hail of bullets and explosion of black pus, a streak of gold flew like a tiny comet, piercing through multiple voids like a hot knife through butter.

This tiny comet was Cedric's fire laws-infused dagger controlled by his thoughts. On top of his increasingly accurate shooting efficiency, this dagger increased his kill count even further—not that it matters that much since there's nobody counting.

It helps, though. It might be small, but the might it contained was concentrated and immense. It's also fast enough to pierce the voidlings before they could even react to it. This fire-infused dagger eased up the burden, preventing the barrier from facing too much abuse.

As Cedric did his best to defend this place, he was also paying closer attention to the enemies...

This was the first time that Cedric encountered a living void creature. The one he encountered before was a mere corpse, crudely used as a weapon by the Demon King. It barely counts as an encounter either since it's already dead.

Cedric perused the records of the voidlings compiled by the alliance. But he only saw them through simulations before. It doesn't count as a real encounter either.

The voidlings are the weakest of the void creatures. But it's precisely because of their weakness and simplicity that they're easily produced by the void. And what they lack in strength is made up with their sheer numbers.

Voidlings hardly appear alone. They move in hundreds at minimum. And if they're on sight, other void creatures usually aren't far behind.

The voidlings took on various forms too, despite their simplicity. There were tiny but fast ones, bigger and harder hitters but slower ones; there are also those that could phase out, turning virtually invisible. Some can shoot projectiles, others can morph into shapes, a few can fuse with their fellow voidlings, etc. In short, even the weakest of the void creatures had varieties too, which could turn them into tricky opponents.

That said, there's simply too many of them here. Even if Cedric were to fire his rifle haphazardly, his aim wouldn't really suffer too much because, with their numbers, it'd be impressive if he missed.

In an attempt to increase his killing efficiency even further, Cedric tried summoning one of his numerous swords. Like the dagger, he infused them with pure fire laws and sent it flying as well.

But as per his initial guess, it didn't perform as well as the dagger. Each time the sword pierces through a void, the infused power within it weakens as if being eroded. It didn't take long for it to lose power and turn into nothingness under the withering corosion of the voidlings.

This meant that ordinary tools, even those created from rare metals, are less effective against creatures of the void. The unique materials used for the issued dagger and rifle were specifically made to be effective against these creatures, so he'd find more success using them instead.

It's a pity though; if his weapons performed just slightly better than they had, he wouldn't mind losing them if it meant killing more voidlings.

He could've easily sent hundreds, if not thousands, of swords shredding through the voids. It could've been a great spectacle that would announce his arrival at this camp. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

But aside from this, Cedric was also paying attention to the distant fight.

He hasn't forgotten about those gigantic blobs that erupted these voiding spores. Others might not see it, but he could. He knew that they weren't fighting alone.

Cedric had seen turrets and cannons emerging from the depths of the camp, spewing out all manner of projectiles and lighting up the skies with explosions. He also saw multiple people wearing advanced Void suits rushing towards the gigantic blobs to deal with them. Of course, there are also other soldiers who are doing their best to reduce the number of voidlings around the camp.

He wished that at least one of them could come nearby and give them better weapons. He thought that if he could use the ones they're using, his slaughter efficiency would've skyrocketed. Alas, the obvious lack of manpower was proving to be real troublesome at times like this.

That said, Cedric didn't forget to test his theories while defending this zone. Even though the situation was hectic, he simply couldn't pass on the chance to experiment. Yes, he knows that it's risky, but he wasn't planning on doing anything big. Just small tests here and there to compile some data.

See, the voidlings carried the air of the void, and it has the aspect of withering, which was proven to be harmful to all life within the Primeval Scarlet Dust Realm.

Back then, when he first encountered the aspect of withering, Cedric used his deep understanding of concept laws to reinforce his surroundings, preventing the foreign aspect from exerting too much of its influence. This worked somehow, but it might only be because the void creature was already dead to begin with.

And thus, to prove whether it could truly work or not, he decided to test his theories right now.

With a deep throughm in the depths of his mind, Cedric submerged his senses to the chaotic concept laws around him. At that instant, he felt the pain and hate of the void. He could feel the gnaw of the void creeping up to it and couldn't help but feel disgusted as well.

And so, with this connection, he began reinforcing the concept laws by supplying them with his comprehension of their structure. Since he only grasped the Grand Solar level of concept laws, he knows that this is barely sufficient.

However, at times like this, where every little bit matters, his small contribution becomes a big deal.

The effect was immediate. The spread of the void's influence slowed down to a crawl, and the voidlings weakened further.

Cedric's influence covered a hundred-mile distance in this chaotic place. This was but a small spot in the grand mass of the camp, but it helped out immensely in defending against the horde.

With the chaos around them, the other cadets didn't sense anything amiss. They were so focused and frenzied about defending their temporary base that they didn't have the capacity to pay attention to other things. However, some did become suspicious because, all of a sudden, the voidlings seemed much weaker and slower.

'Well, it's better than nothing, I guess,' Cedric supposes.

This was the best he can do for now because even this seemingly simple act with a miniscule effect was a massive effort on Cedric's side. The mental burden of reinforcing the concept laws within a 100-mile radius was immense, even with his uniqueness. Any more than this could become life-threatening to him.

Ftoom! Boom!

A grand explosion of gory black pus was the ending of the gigantic blobs over the horizon. With them gone, any further possibilities of them sending out more voidling spores disappeared.

What comes next was predictable...

Since the main threat was gone, only the cleanup was left. And since the big guys are no longer occupied, they could give aid to the people beneath them.

Cedric watched as they flew down and began razing the voidlings to the ground. They're like lawnmowers, cutting through grass with barely an effort.

Some of them happened to pass by the reinforced 100-mile zone he created and felt a bit puzzled. It didn't take long before they sensed him and the still-erected barrier of the building before they began moving in their direction.

One of the swifter guardians appeared. She turned into a streak of blazing light that harvested the voidlings like their wheat. Her slaughter efficiency put Cedric's to shame, truly.

Seeing this, the cadets finally relaxed. Some collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Beyond this, they also felt incredulous. The threat that nearly pushed them to the brink of desperation has been dealt with by her in a single minute. It's simply too absurd.

Once the voidlings were gone, only the mess they left had to be dealt with. The swift female guardian then passed through the barrier and landed next to Cedric, who's on top of the building.

"Greetings, Ma'am," Cedric saluted, removing the visor of the Void Suit to show his face to his superior. "We appreciate your help."

The lady then gave him a head-to-toe look, and her expression turned sour and apologetic.

"One hell of a first day at work, huh?"

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com