Counterfeit Hero

The night shrouded Sunset Mountain.

Under the tranquil starry sky, each mountain peak looked like a volcano erupting collectively. The explosions’ brilliance and burning flames, like red lava, stained the horizon. The black, rolling thick smoke blended with the night, and interwoven beams of energy cannon light flickered, like candles shrouded by thick gauze.

On the battlefront stretching over ten kilometers, every mountain peak had lost several meters in height. Not a single tree survived the position’s front or rear. The charred earth was littered with burning tree trunks and withered branches. All around, the air was filled with the stench of burning remains and the pungent smell of blood.

The fierce firefight roared to the heavens, continuously, as if there would never be any respite.

Western Alliance soldiers attacked again and again, unsure how many times they had charged the hill. Meanwhile, Fei Alliance soldiers atop the hill’s positions also remained uncertain of how many enemy assaults they repelled.

Mechas from both sides fiercely clashed before the positions, and soldiers shot at each other in and out of trenches. Artillery fire in the rear shrieked through the sky like an apocalyptic meteor shower, repeatedly blanketing the ground before and behind the lines. Under this terrifying bombardment, the entire mountain peak roiled and boiled like boiling water.

Everywhere lay a hellish scene.

The battlefield was strewn with soldiers’ bodies, haphazardly covering the positions, while shattered mecha wreckage burned on the ground. Flames licked up and down, casting flickering spells on the surrounding fighters’ mecha and soldiers.

A Feiyang Mecha clung tightly to a Suss Mecha, both rolling and grappling with each other on the ground. A heavy Jiepeng Mecha swept away everything in front of it with formidable firepower until two fearless Taixing Mechas toppled it.

Beside them, troops from both sides pressed forward incessantly against each other. When those at the front were cut down, the ones behind filled in. When a position got seized, a unit immediately counterattacked.

Beyond battle, there was no other thought in people’s minds.

Attack, resist, counterattack, survive, or perish.

The concept of time vanished on this brutal battlefield—only blood and endless slaughter remained.

At four a.m., when a Jiepeng soldier on the main position was struck in the head by an energy bullet during a charge and fell directly downhill, the Western Alliance Army retreated.

Like tidal waves, mechas and soldiers withdrew from the mountain positions along the lengthy defense line to the west.

The Jiepeng soldier’s stiff body, brain matter, and blood splattered, contrasted with the retreating troops, painting a violent aesthetic of contrast between stillness and flow.

As the lifeless body finally lost its fragile balance, crashing heavily into the dust, the Sunset Mountain front gradually quieted down.

The deafening explosions and gunfire dissipated into the sky. Wreckage and trees crackled as they burned. The bodies of soldiers from both sides piled densely on the battlefield, leaving hardly any room to stand. Each peak lay still like a silent graveyard.

This was the Western Alliance’s thirteenth comprehensive attack. Yet, they still amounted to nothing!

Though reluctant, the frontline commander had no choice but to halt the assault. Even the most zealous soldiers weren’t made of iron. From preparation to execution, and now at the foot of Sunset Mountain, the Western Alliance’s assault troops were utterly exhausted. Even with wave after wave of attacks, at this point, they could no longer persevere.

This wasn’t Suss, nor Jiepeng.

The western part of Sunset Mountain Basin was filled with resisting Chuckna Forces, with Chuckna people everywhere full of hatred. Plus, the major towns of Seven-star and Xiushui River, long operated by Chuckna, remained unconquered. The only troops the Army Group could allocate to Sunset Mountain were these.

After the Fei Alliance demonstrated their still strong defensive power during this assault, further attacks became meaningless.

It was time to change tactics or deploy a different unit for the final stroke.

Without artillery fire, the battlefield fell into a tacit silence.

Medics from both sides crossed paths in the battlefield’s center, each like streams transporting the wounded. Screams and wails suddenly echoed over the hills.

Remote opposing combat units watched their foes coldly. Logistics troops hurriedly transported energy ammo. Engineering units worked to consolidate positions. Soldiers’ footsteps and officers’ low yells resounded amidst the brief calm, like low rumbling thunder before an impending storm.

Chuckna Army Admiral Fran walked through the chaos-ridden trenches, stepping deeply and lightly. Everywhere he saw was fatigued soldiers, bullet-ridden walls, scattered mecha fragments, and charred cratered earth.

Casualty reports from various defensive points had arrived. The entire defensive line had only two armored divisions and two mixed formations left. The attrition rate had reached thirty-seven percent. Should the combat continue, there’d be no living Fei Alliance soldiers on Sunset Mountain by noon.

After embracing several soldiers in the trench, Fran firmly gripped a wounded soldier’s hand. The injured soldier on the stretcher spat blood froth, while the medic beside him twisted their head away silently under Fran’s gaze.

The warriors next to him gritted their teeth, bowed their heads, and shed silent tears.