The Legendary F Rank

After they had filled their reports in and fell back in line to receive their next orders, Haru's unit was told that they were now to head straight for the front line of the fighting. It seemed as though they were needed there more than they were needed in Shenzhen.

From what they were told, the enemy force had invaded Shanghai, which was already completely demolished and set up their camp in the uninhabited zones. Haru looked furious for a few moments as he learnt about what had happened before calming down after a few moments when he thought about what their mission was.

'They have probably killed hundreds if not thousands of civilians by now. If we didn't get to Shenzhen in time, then there is no doubt in my mind that they would have managed to kill Zen and Suyin's family.' Haru thought as he looked up at the sky to feel a static feeling in the air.

It was as though the salt from the ocean below them was giving out its own warning as the ships set off up the coastline to get closer to Shanghai. 

Once they reached Shanghai, it was like nothing they had ever seen before. The whole city was illuminated with gunfire, and most of it had been decimated with bombs to the point that not even rubble remained in the city.

It looked like an open field full of damp mud and hills from where explosions had gone off. The city that Haru once knew didn't exist at all.

'How did things get so bad? Didn't they only just declare war? What happened here?' Haru thought as it didn't seem right to him. 

There was no way that the enemy forces could do something like that in his mind. But as he sensed the area more, he felt something he didn't expect. 

'There are more than fifty S rank mages in the city… And there are still cultivators here. And pretty strong ones too. I wonder who is here.' Haru thought as he sensed the presence of not one but two manifestation realm cultivators fighting in the distance.

"What's going on here?! I know they said the city was destroyed. But I didn't expect it would have fallen to this extent in such a short amount of time." Jake said as he walked up beside Haru.

"Well, I guess that's what happens when dozens of S ranked mages attack all at once. It doesn't come as that much of a surprise when you consider the amount of fighting that has taken place here over the past couple of days." Haru said as Jake's heart began to throb.

"You just said dozens of S ranked mages… But aren't there only a handful of them in the whole world?! Does that mean they are all here?" Jake asked in confusion as Haru remained silent.

'A handful? But I clearly sense fifty of them… Does that mean that there is something out there that can make people stronger? I wonder what kind of technology that is.' Haru thought as he knew magic was different from cultivation.

Cultivators could gain strength in many different ways. But Mages could only become better by fighting and becoming more skilled. Their rank was just based on how much skill they had in combat.

Although there were some things that made it easier to get to S rank, such as having a powerful Lux or defensive gear as well as having a strong magic power, but those things weren't even necessary. As long as someone contained the right amount of battle prowess, it wouldn't matter how much magic power they could use.

They could still become S ranked. So Haru didn't worry much about that. But the thing that he did worry about was the fact that all of the S ranked mages that he sensed didn't only have a strong battle prowess, but their magic power was all the same.

It was like they were all exact replicas of the others, which would take someone incredibly powerful to be able to make that many clones of themselves, so he doubted that it was only one person and thought that there was something else happening.

"I'm not sure what's going on here, but it doesn't look good. But luckily for us, we won't be fighting alone. It looks like there are some more cultivators here as well as some more Japanese soldiers." Haru said as he took advantage of the skill that Ralph had just shown him how to do.

He could practically sense everything that was happening within the old site of the city without even leaving the ship as they sailed towards the coast.

"What are we going to do?" Jake asked as Haru stared towards the coast.

"I don't know. But I think that I just might have to use my true power while I'm here, so If I disappear for a while, don't worry and make sure you cover for me, please." Haru said as the ship drifted closer to the shore before they were ordered to disembark and rush towards the fighting that was taking place further inland.

It seemed that the Japanese soldiers that were already fighting there had called for backup and were in dire need of more forces. But since Captain Liegan remained unconscious until they arrived at the coast, someone else took command of all the units that were present.

He was someone from the main base that had been travelling with them on the ship, and he was ordered to lead all three ships filled with soldiers into battle. 

The ocean on the coast quickly filled with small boats as they all disembarked onto speedboats to make it all the way to land as the ships were simply too big to get any closer. It looked like the water had now turned into a solid with the number of boats that filled it. 

But that wasn't of any concern to the soldiers as they had all become nervous, including Haru, as he tried to think of a way to wipe out as many S ranked mages as possible without anyone knowing.

But he would have to catch them off guard to break through their defence without anyone knowing or disguise himself as a cultivator to not let any of the Japanese soldiers find out about the fact that he was a cultivator. 

'Should I find a place to hide and then put on the mask that Lao gave to me when I went to the soul tempering grounds?… No, that won't work. If they see that I have gone missing before reporting to the frontlines, then they will think that I am a deserter and I will be court Martialed' Haru thought as he knew that once they arrived at the temporary base, that would most likely be set up already that they would do ahead count to figure out how much power they had to fight back. If he was missing, then someone would notice since all the soldiers knew him as their instructor. 

Haru sighed as they got off the speedboats and began to march inland as far north as they could possibly go without setting foot into another city. 

Huge craters littered the floor from bombs exploding, and the ground had formed huge hills that were bigger than houses. It was more like travelling through a city in the mountains than one at the coastline, but that was to be expected of a war zone.

They were lucky that they got to Shenzhen before that too had been turned into something like what they saw now. But for most of the soldiers present, it was like they had entered a completely different world as there was no sign of modern technology anywhere apart from the sounds of guns and explosions in the distance.

After about an hour of walking along the uneven terrain, a large wall could be seen in the distance as they approached what looked to be a temporary base guarded by dirt walls that looked like they had been put up with magic as well as the Japanese flag flying high above the entrance.

A loud cheer could be heard from inside the walls as it looked like hundreds of people had gathered at the entrance to the camp as the man leading Haru and the rest of the units radioed ahead to let everyone know that they were incoming. But by the reaction, it seemed like they were desperately in need of some cheering up.

And as Haru remained using his so-called radar system, he noticed that the base seemed less like a base and more like a hospital as most of the people inside had injuries.

"Who's in charge here?!" The man who led the group called out as they made their way into the temporary camp and began to look around for anyone with ribbons and medals on their chest as that was usually the way to tell who was in charge, but there was no one around who had either.

All the people inside the base were below sergeant rank, and not one of them spoke out and claimed to be in charge until a man on crutches hobbled out of one of the buildings with a limp. 

"Our captain is currently out on the frontline fighting. I doubt he will return for a while. But I have the highest rank here if you would like to come inside and talk about the situation here. I will tell you everything you need to know." The man said as he looked at the soldier who was leading the backup. 

"Thank you. That would be great. I need a better understanding of what's going on here." The man in charge said as he walked alongside the man on crutches into the building, leaving everyone outside to mingle with the other soldiers.