Relentless Pursuit

As Li Xingyao finished speaking, the intense battle chatter in the team channel abruptly subsided, leaving only heavy breathing and the background sounds of clashing weapons. Clearly, everyone had heard his suggestion and was weighing it in their minds.

Indeed, as Li Xingyao said, they might not be able to hold out until the end, simply because the battle was so intense that no one had time to consider anything else.

After a brief silence, Lin Wei's voice rang out, tinged with obvious exhaustion: "Huff...huff...Li Xingyao is right. Everyone, pay attention, Huo Yuan, Lin Feng, prioritize setting up 'Frost Traps' and 'Entangling Vines' along the retreat route!"

"Lei Lie, Mu Chenbin, prepare to cover the rear! The rest of you, maintain formation and slowly move towards the armored vehicle! Zhang Xin, set up obstacles along the way to slow them down! Mu Yao, keep a close watch on those trying to flank! Li Xingyao, your undead support is broken!"

"Okay." Li Xingyao said succinctly, "I will have the Tyrant and the remaining skeletons at the forefront."

"What about the spoils?" Huo Yuan's voice rang out with intense resentment. He quickly fired a trap arrow covered in green light and said urgently, "There are at least a dozen intact wolf carcasses on the ground!"

And those that are seriously injured! Their materials alone are worth tens of millions of credits! Not to mention at least five or six high-level star cores! Are you just going to throw them away like that?! He was experienced in hunting and was the one in the team who knew the value of these demon wolves best.

These words were like a pebble thrown into still water, instantly creating ripples. Even Wu Feng, who was fighting fiercely, paused slightly.

Su Muyao's clear, cold voice rang out immediately. Although she was panting, it was exceptionally decisive: "No! Safety first! All the spoils will be converted into credits based on our combat contributions when we get back. Lin Wei and I will personally give everyone credits!" She knew that she couldn't afford to lose sight of the bigger picture at this moment.

"Yes!" Lin Wei immediately echoed, her tone resolute. "Mu Yao and I will never let anyone suffer! I'll bear all the losses! Now prepare to retreat!"

Lei Lie cleaved the demonic wolf in front of him with an axe and roared heroically, "I don't want my share! I'll share it with everyone!" He didn't care about those credit points; getting away unscathed was the most important thing.

Shadow Shuttle's voice came coldly: "Me too." He slashed open the nose of an injured demon wolf with his knife and used the momentum to leap backward.

"Alright! Go back and divide the rest among the remaining people! Get ready to leave!" Lin Feng added.

With several people expressing their willingness to spend money, Lin Wei finally decided: "Alright! We'll redistribute the funds when we get back! Now, execute the retreat plan! Launch a counterattack to hold off the wolf pack, then leave!"

No further words were needed; the instinct for survival took over in everyone's hearts.

The next moment, the human team members unleashed a burst of violent stellar energy, launching an extremely fierce counterattack!

"Fireball!" Lin Wei shouted, pointing the skill at the densest part of the wolf pack. A huge, blazing fireball crashed down, its area of ​​effect not much smaller than its peak, forcing several demonic wolves to retreat in a sorry state.

"Whirlwind Slash!" Lei Lie suddenly spun like a top, his battle axe carrying the force to tear everything apart, temporarily forcing two or three demonic wolves away.

Mu Chenbin and Lin Jin exerted their strength simultaneously, using shield strikes and heavy sword sweeps to knock back the enemy in front of them.

Su Muyao, Lin Feng, and Huo Yuan fired arrows in rapid succession, not seeking to kill, but only to interfere and suppress to the greatest extent.

A glint of light flashed in Li Xingyao's eyes as he gathered star energy, unleashing over seventy "Arrows of Death" like a swarm of bees emerging from their hive, their mournful shrieks covering the wolf pack ahead!

Although the scattered attacks failed to trigger the finishing blow, the dense barrage of death arrows still threw all the demon wolves into a panic, causing them to dodge or block, and inflicting new wounds and the effects of death's corrosiveness on their bodies.

This sudden and fierce counterattack caught the wolf pack completely off guard, halting their offensive.

"Let's go!" Lin Wei ordered.

The team immediately sprang into action. Maintaining their formation, they began moving quickly and systematically to the southeast. Zhang Xin continuously erected earthen walls and spikes behind them, while Huo Yuan and Lin Feng's trap arrows rained down on their retreat route.

Li Xingyao controlled all the remaining undead, holding the forefront and fighting as they retreated, stubbornly using their bodies to block the pursuit and attacks of the demonic wolves that had caught up with the attack.

The skeletons were repeatedly pounced on and torn apart, while the tyrant zombie roared and swung its claws in retaliation, each step it took leaving behind a trail of grayish-white bone fragments and dark green, viscous blood. They were buying precious time and space for the group's retreat.

The wolves were clearly unwilling to let their prey escape, especially since it seemed to be at its last gasp. They roared angrily, bypassing traps and obstacles, and pursued relentlessly, constantly assaulting the undead's defensive line.

The road to retreat was destined to be filled with bloodshed and hardship.

While maintaining full control over the undead's defenses, Li Xingyao also spared a sliver of attention to guide the undead to collect the star cores of the few demonic wolves that had died along the way.

Seven high-level star cores, still warm from the demonic wolf's body, silently slipped into Li Xingyao's bag.

Having done all this, Li Xingyao took a deep breath and focused all his attention on directing the rearguard and the retreat. His face was pale, but his eyes were unusually bright.

Just as Lin Wei unleashed another Fireball spell, sending a wolf attempting to flank the enemy flying and the scorching shockwave temporarily repelling two or three other wolves that were close behind, Li Xingyao's team seized this fleeting opening and retreated more than ten meters as a whole.

Their explosive barrage briefly interrupted the wolf pack's relentless offensive, giving the human team a chance to maintain their formation and retreat quickly.

However, this brief retreat was interpreted by the bloodthirsty Shadowmoon Wolf as a clear signal of exhaustion and defeat!

"Awooo—!" "Woo-wooo—!"

The howls of wolves, rising and falling in waves, suddenly became high-pitched and excited, filled with cruel pleasure. Greed and impatience gleamed in their eerie green eyes. In their minds, these tenacious prey were finally about to give out! The allure of victory and flesh stimulated their nerves, instantly replacing the slight anxiety they had felt from their prolonged siege with a fervent desire to attack.

The next moment, the remaining twenty-odd Shadowmoon Wolves stomped their feet on the ground and launched another fierce attack, like arrows released from a bow, accompanied by a shriek that tore through the air! They no longer maintained their cautious probing, but increased their speed to the extreme, trying to break through this crumbling defense line in one fell swoop.

"Now! Fight back!" Lin Wei's icy voice boomed through the channel!

As if it had been rehearsed beforehand, the "retreating" team suddenly stopped!

"Roar!" Lei Lie and Mu Chenbin simultaneously unleashed deafening battle roars. The radiance of [Berserk] and [Power Amplification] enveloped their bodies once more. Like two war machines suddenly activated, they charged forward fiercely to meet the alpha wolf's attack! Their massive battle axes and greatswords slashed down with a resolute determination to tear everything apart!

"Clang! Snap!"

The battle axe clashed with the wolf's claws, producing a deafening clang of metal against metal, sparks flying everywhere! The greatsword, meanwhile, struck the joint of the other wolf's outstretched forelimb!

At the same time, Wang Yisong and Lin Jin's huge tower shields, like moving city walls, suddenly advanced half a step forward in unison. The energy shockwave of [Shield Impact] slammed into the chests of the other two demon wolves, forcefully stopping their momentum and even causing them to stagger backward!

The arrows from Su Muyao, Lin Feng, and Huo Yuan in the back row were like precise scalpels, focusing their fire on vulnerable areas exposed by the charge almost at the same moment the close combat began—eyes, open mouths, and previously injured but not yet healed wounds!

Li Xingyao's Tyrant Zombie let out a deep roar and stepped forward. Its giant paw, covered with thick skin and horny claws, slammed down on the demon wolves that were trying to bypass the warrior, pinning them to the spot and preparing them for the cunning and ruthless attacks of the skeleton swordsmen that followed!

This was a perfectly coordinated, textbook-perfect defensive counter-attack!

What the wolves perceived as a rout instantly turned into a meticulously laid trap!

"Pfft!"

"Awooo—!"

The sounds of blades piercing flesh, bones shattering, and the agonizing howls of the dire wolves instantly replaced their earlier excited roars. At least four or five of the leading dire wolves suffered heavy losses in this head-on clash!

One had its forepaw severed by Lei Lie and rolled on the ground screaming in agony; another had its joints severely injured by Mu Chenbin and was now limping; and two others had their eyes or throats pierced by a barrage of arrows, and although they were not dead, they were temporarily no longer a threat.

The wolves' offensive faltered, and for the first time, a look of surprise and uncertainty appeared in their fierce eyes. They seemed unable to understand why these seemingly exhausted prey could still unleash such a fierce counterattack.

Taking advantage of the wolf pack's brief hesitation and confusion, the team did not linger in the fight and immediately retreated in an orderly manner, widening the distance between the two sides to a relatively safe range for long-range attacks.

The entire battlefield moved extremely slowly, inch by inch, towards the location of the armored vehicles, in this cruel yet exquisite rhythm.

The wolf pack launched a fierce attack with their overwhelming strength, speed, and numbers, attempting to break through the defenses by inflicting casualties on the wolves.

Under extreme pressure, the human team, through exquisite teamwork, complementary skills, and attrition from the undead, seized the gaps in the wolf pack's attacks to launch a fierce counterattack, targeting their weaknesses and making them pay the price for every pounce.

Once you've landed a successful blow, don't be greedy for credit. Immediately use the damage's delaying effect to retreat.

The wolf pack would make a slight adjustment, and relying on the superior mobility and recovery of the advanced star beasts, they would roar and chase after them again, repeating the previous process.

Both sides seemed to be caught in some kind of bloody waltz, each step marked by blood and pain. Although the human team was still at a significant disadvantage, with the undead suffering far more casualties and consuming far more star energy than the wolf pack, they used their resilience, intelligence, and equipment to drag out a retreat into a brutal and protracted tug-of-war.