For Ezio, the Champion of the Shadows, what happened on Tux V was not a battle that made him feel like a fish in water or a little bit comfortable.

The impact of the subspace storm on the empire was actually greater than many people imagined, at least, for some already scattered or sparsely armed fleets, the storm almost destroyed their organizational system and logistical supplies, leaving many warriors to fight with insufficient equipment.

This was the case with Ezio, and while the First Legion was not short of his ammo and regular supplies, the loss of his Combat Brothers was difficult to compensate.

Shadow warfare seems to be a simple concept that an Assassin can accomplish with a dagger or a silenced pistol, but at least for the shadows of the Second Legion, their tactics are far less crude.

After more than a century of continuous exploration and experimentation, the Cause in the Shadows is far more complex than anyone imagined, and the Fourth Fleet of the Second Legion only has about 2,000 Astarte warriors, but their tactical diversity can be proud of many legions.

In addition to the simplest guerrilla, assassination, and infiltration operations, Ezio and his comrades also knew the art of warfare, including but not limited to high-speed assault, orbital delivery, ambush warfare, material interception, asymmetrical warfare, and siege warfare with low collateral damage.

Of course, the most dangerous figures in the Second Legion will always exist only in the Third Fleet, and God knows what kind of new attitude those psykers who dare to explore the subspace will take to welcome their long-absent battle brothers.

In this way, the shadows have been carrying out their own explorations, even the division of the Legion has not stopped their steps, which has made many other Astarte Legion warriors quite complaining about them, and for these followers who are keen on head-to-head confrontation and endless glory, the attitude of some of the Morgan Sons who crouch peacefully in their shadows, not caring about any honors and titles, makes them very uncomfortable.

But that's their thing.

The shadows never cared.

——————

Ezio stopped, and he waited for about ten seconds until each of his temporary teammates came up behind him.

The Shadow Champion sat in silence gesticulating, motioning for his comrades to look at the wreckage of the fortress in front of them: it had apparently been reactivated, with patrolling warriors belonging to Randan walking high above, and behind the cracks and ruins, large and small, the muzzles of the guns could be faintly seen.

This was the J-47, the first target of their mission, and where they intended to find more friendly troops: but apparently, the resistance here did not hold up until the moment reinforcements arrived.

Hector let his gaze out of the shadows, and he scrutinized the ruined fortress, following the Shadow Champions back and forth from the vantage points around them.

"Twenty-seven."

After a while, Hector said all the firepower points and threats he had found, both in the light and in the shadows.

Ezio shook his head.

He held up three fingers and did it twice.

But then, his fingers stopped in mid-air, as if hesitating to add one, and he was silent for a moment before turning his head and whispering to Hector.

"I'll sneak in first, you and your people wait for my signal."

Hector nodded.

In the next second, the second moment that the Nova of the Second Legion didn't even catch it, Ezio's figure had disappeared into the shadows.

Hector touched his face, as if he was a little annoyed that his reaction speed was still a little substandard, he wanted to eat sugar, but quickly curbed the craving.

He turned around and slipped stealthily under the vantage point, where his team had a concealed makeshift base that they could rush into the ruins from the nearest gap at any time.

The shadow was enough to squeeze four Astarte warriors, but when Hector returned to the area, he found that it had become a little crowded.

Because right now, there are five of them here.

A new warrior arrives at his team of chappers while he's scouting with Ezio, and it's clear that he's already faced off with the veteran ancient warrior Chron.

"Recruits for the Third Fleet...... A recruit in the literal sense of the word. ”

Teacher Chiron's words rang out in the private communication channel of the two men, and Hector nodded, quietly stepped forward, and shook hands with the uninvited fighting brother.

"Hecht."

He greeted him first, and the new fighting brother also warmly shook his hand, his appearance was not handsome, his face was a little long, and he was a little thin, but he did have a faint aura of psionic energy: this aura was even stronger than Salieri, who had officially become a think tank earlier.

He smiled, a smile on his face that belonged to those young warriors who didn't know anything about the world.

"Eris."

Here's how he introduced himself.

"Just call me Eris."

——————

In the sky, the seemingly never-ending fleet battle continued, compared to when the battle for the airspace of the Tux had just begun, the fleet of the First Legion had been reduced by almost one-fifth, but their results were indeed extraordinarily brilliant: at least ten times the size of their fleet of the Randan battleships could not survive their stubborn sniping, the menacing offensive of the alien fleet had shown some kind of decline, and the bloody war on the ground was also from an effective means to break the deadlock, It gradually degenerated into a bloodletting trough that did more harm than good to Ran Dan.

The part of the airspace that maintains the landing operation has become a rather significant weakness in the Randan fleet, the fleet of the First Legion is almost staring at the Randan transport ships, constantly destroying the Randan escort fleet that cannot move in order to protect these transport ships, this half-hung air supremacy has greatly affected the advance of the Alien Legion on the ground, although they have invested a large number of troops at any cost, with endless artillery fire all the way sideways, But as such an offensive moved closer to the center, it encountered an invincible obstacle.

The genetic prototype of the Eighteenth Legion, the Lord of the Fire Dragon, Vulcan himself, the Lord of the Nocturne Star, accurately grasped one of the most critical passes in Randan's path, and arranged the strongest defense here:

Vulcan himself, leading his Primordial Guard and at least three thousand hand-picked salamander warriors, was stationed in the already corpse-laden square, where tens of thousands of xenomorph corpses had been piled up at his feet, and at this moment, the most merciful Primordial only clenched his warhammer with a blank face, like a demon god who had brought the underground purgatory to the earth.

Ran Dan's massive offensive on this area has never stopped, but it has never made any real progress, and they have even spent a lot of money to assemble an armored cluster, but after seeing how the Lord of the Fire Dragon has overturned the largest land war engine in the entire Ran Dan Empire with his hands and purest strength, no armored vehicle dares to rush in front of him.

The offensive on land was thus stagnant and attritional, and the battle above the sky was almost identical: after paying an unimaginable cost, the alien army finally tore through the firepower of the First Legion, and the brutal gang fighting began to unfold on the largest warships on both sides, but the gang jumpers against the core warships of the empire were always unsuccessful.

Ran Dan has gathered a large number of elites, and their transmission technology is far more advanced than the Human Empire imagined, enough to safely teleport a battle cluster to the bridge and deck of a human warship in one go.

In the beginning, these gang jumps will go very smoothly, and the entire deck will change hands in an instant, but soon, from the deeper depths of these ships, several familiar faces will emerge calling themselves the "Inner Ring" or "Sandalwood Order......

In this way, both sides seem to be in a strange stalemate, whether under the sky or in the void, but no one thinks that this stalemate will last forever, because Ran Dan's successor fleet is still emerging from the subspace, although a large part of them will suffer various non-combat attrition in the shortest possible time: the most notable of them is that the psionic on the battleship has been discovered by a spider queen who controls the whole situation. The struggle and the tragic self-detonation that affected everyone were the only end for these alien wizards.

But despite this, Ran Dan continued to advance, and the resistance of the Human Empire significantly slowed down their progress: but when it was not completely stopped, with more and more huge alien warships constantly pouring into this galaxy, the real core force of the Ran Dan invasion army seemed to be planning to join this war and play a real decisive role.

Even at the very edge of Morgan's perceptual vision, the two unsettling breaths seemed to be just a stone's throw away from the galaxy.

The real pressure is coming soon.

——————

But for Ezio, these things have nothing to do with him for the time being.

In the third minute after leaving Hecht, the Shadow Champions were lurking in the heart of the ruins of the fortress, counting what they had just gained: seven dark whistles, one bright whistle.

He hid in the shadows, quietly placing the Ran Dan alien he had just killed, keeping it in its original form, but then, he felt something unsettling to him.

Quickly scanning over the already cold xenomorph corpse, the Shadow Champion noticed that something was wrong in the next instant: a miniature electronic device of near-transparency was buried in the xenomorph's thin eyelids, and when he saw it, he saw that the light of the device was extinguishing.

Damn it.

Ezio didn't hesitate or think for the slightest, he subconsciously flipped his body and rolled to the side against the ground.

Almost at the same moment, he felt a flash of lenses glide through the air in front of him, followed by a violent gunshot, and the characteristic bullet pierced the ruins and exploded the alien's body in two.

Ezio looked up, and from the flash of light he had just flickered, he had already determined the location of the thirty-fourth Randan alien: it was indeed an incomparably clever hiding place.

The wind blew, and he heard the sound of gunfire beyond the ruins: apparently, his temporary comrades-in-arms were not idle.

Ezio looked up again, his eyes narrowing as he listened to the footsteps of the Randan xenomorphs who heard the sound.

He felt everything, everything in the shadows and everything outside the shadows.

The light, the wind, the popping sound of bullets piercing the air, and the sound of the emergency replacement of the magazine.

distance, enough.

Time, too, is enough.

The thought of retreating for a moment flashed through his mind, and Ezio briefly estimated his situation: based on the sound of the fortress's perimeter and the results he had just won, he would probably have to face eighteen enemies, and the sniper, he was confident that he would dodge three shots.

…… Enough is enough.

The footsteps were getting closer, and that was the first signal of an enemy attack.

The Shadow Champion took a breath, and he left the shadows for a moment, and temporarily put away his jet-black blade.

Although, he pulled out a new weapon from behind him.

An old throwing axe.

(End of chapter)