Chapter 176: Training a Newcomer - 1

Bai Yuxi’s orders were naturally not meant to have them act as human shields. It was simply because Su Xiaoke’s location happened to be the safest spot on the combat platform, serving as an indirect way to protect these greenhorns who had never experienced transcendent combat.

"Bai... 04?"

After watching the members of the Seventh Squad fight for a while, Zhou Hao could not help but ask, "Do we not need to participate in the combat?"

Bai Yuxi, who had been closely watching the battle scene, turned around and looked at Zhou Hao and the others. Zhou Hao had awakened earlier, and due to his rather special circumstances, his super-energy level had stabilized at around F7. However, it was hard to accurately gauge his actual combat capability. As for the other three novices who had just awakened, with their physical markers still in a phase of rapid growth, they were a different story. Aside from having decent physical statistics and considerable growth potential, their super-energy levels had not even reached the F rank, making them barely classifiable as G1-level extraordinarians.

Considering that these elite soldiers hailing from special forces backgrounds undoubtedly possessed sound combat experience, what they lacked was simply transcendent active defense capabilities.

Therefore, Bai Yuxi led them a few paces to the side of the combat platform and assigned their roles: "02, you will take charge of the primary offense. 21, 31, and 41, the three of you will provide supporting cover!"

Then, calling out to Drumstick, Jason, and the others, he shouted, "Send an F5 one over so they can try!" As he spoke, he stationed himself directly behind the four of them.

Amidst his busy routine, Drumstick glanced back and swung his square shield horizontally. A lunging F5-grade mutated snake let out a miserable hiss, blood spatter flying from its wide-open jaws as it was knocked through the air, crashing into the water before the four of them and sending up a splash of spray.

When this unlucky mutated snake dizzily regained its senses and looked up to find the four figures standing inches away, it instantly and furiously coiled and sprang, launching itself to pounce and bite at Zhou Hao, who stood at the front.

Although he had never engaged in combat with transcendent creatures, Zhou Hao had at least undergone a week of basic training at the Transcendent Warrior Training Camp. Combined with their inherent combat experience, though somewhat nervous, he wielded his battle blade with composure and met the charge.

With Bai Yuxi standing guard nearby, there was no need to worry about safety. Whenever Zhou Hao was too slow to defend himself, a strike from Bai Yuxi’s Ninety-Nine Shield would blast the mutated snake right back into the water.

However, watching the F6-grade Zhou Hao—despite repeatedly hacking the mutated snake until flesh flew and scales scattered—struggle to deal any fatal damage to the creature, Bai Yuxi finally realized that the battles between other transcendent warriors and transcendent creatures seemed vastly different from their own!

The attacks of F-grade transcendent warriors still lingered at the level of "coverage damage." That is to say, they instinctively coated their fists, feet, or weapons with the super-energy particles within their bodies to strike transcendent creatures, inflicting damage imbued with transcendent energy. The threat posed by this attack pattern was extremely limited; strictly speaking, it was merely a mutual cancellation of energy between both sides. You slashed with your blade, outputting 100 degrees of energy. I took the hit head-on with my skull, consuming 100 degrees of super-activity. Before the transcendent energies of both sides were entirely depleted, it was difficult to inflict fatal damage upon the opponent.

On the other hand, the attacks of E-grade transcendent warriors operated on a model of "output-type damage." This meant channeling their own transcendent energy directly into the opponent's body during an attack, inflicting internal damage, which invisibly multiplied their destructive power several times over.

By the time one reached the level of a D-grade transcendent warrior, it became true "projected damage." They could detach their transcendent energy from their own physical limits to form ranged super-energy attacks, much like Maya’s blade arcs or Willie’s energy piercings.

No wonder F-grade mutated creatures were barely a threat to Bai Yuxi and his companions anymore. Having skipped "coverage-type" and "output-type" entirely at the level of F-grade transcendent warriors and entered the "projected-type" damage model directly, apart from having super-energy levels inferior to D-grade transcendent warriors and a weaker endurance in battle, their combat tiers were already infinitely close to those of D-grade transcendent warriors.

Seeing that the F5-grade mutated snake was almost being hacked into a squirrel-fish by Zhou Hao, Bai Yuxi simply could not bear to watch him torture the poor animal any longer. Seizing an opening, a Ninety-Nine Pierce from him blasted the mutated snake's head apart.

Sweating profusely, Zhou Hao panted to a halt, feeling utterly humiliated.

Meanwhile, the three novices behind him had initially felt a bit reluctant—first when Bai Yuxi assigned them to protect a girl, and then when they finally secured a chance to fight, only to be relegated to a supporting role. However, after watching a battle up close, they finally realized that those mutated snakes, which the Seventh Squad treated like noodles—cutting horizontally or vertically at will—were not nearly as weak as they had imagined.

Bai Yuxi was also nursing a headache. Although he had taken on Xie Long's "babysitting" job through an exchange of interests, he now discovered that there were actual techniques to "mentoring newcomers," and the work was not nearly as easy as he had imagined!

The highly dangerous mutated snakes on Xewao Island were entirely unsuitable for training novices; if one wasn't careful, the babies would end up dead. By comparison, the mutated rats they had encountered previously were much more suitable for these newcomers. Truly, trying to pull seedlings up to help them grow faster was a terrible idea!

Rubbing his chin in thought, Bai Yuxi decided not to overthink it for now. He would directly "fatten them up" first; once their super-energy levels were raised, they could consider the rest. Otherwise, their attacks could not even break through defenses; even if he wanted to act as a "babysitting nanny" to escort these greenhorns, there was simply nowhere for him to intervene.

Glancing over at Drumstick and the others who were deep in fierce combat, he then looked up at the particle mist in the barrier space, which was beginning to condense once more.

Bai Yuxi suddenly released his pheromones, which he had hitherto restrained to the utmost limit. The drifting, mist-like super-energy particles were drawn by the change, shuddering violently before rapidly converging toward his location.

Unexpectedly, however, mutated creatures seemed to judge the danger level of enemies based on pheromone concentration. The moment Bai Yuxi unleashed his pheromones, it threw the entire pool of mutated snakes into absolute pandemonium. They thrashed wildly, fleeing frantically in the direction away from Bai Yuxi, throwing the members of the Seventh Squad—who were currently fighting them—into a flurry of chaos.

Fortunately, Bai Yuxi released and instantly reined in his pheromones, condensing the gathered super-energy particles into a cloud of particle mist right around Zhou Hao and the other three.

The sudden influx of concentrated energy rushing into their bodies elicited involuntary gasps from the four of them. Although the majority of it was absorbed by the higher-ranked Zhou Hao, to the three novices who still lingered at the G rank, such a high concentration of super-energy particles was undoubtedly like the immense pressure of the deep sea. The massive difference in energy "pressure" between their insides and outsides immediately caused them to swell up like blown-up balloons!