Fuck!

Wasn’t this supposed to be a Class three rift?! Why is there even a Commander Class Anomaly here?!!

The four armed Anomaly crossed one pair of its arms before clapping the second pair of hands together above its head.

That seemed to be some sort of signal as the Anomalies around me started charging at me, not even caring that there were still artillery shells being rained down on top of us from above.

Either the Commander Anomaly wanted me dead specifically because I was the first one it saw... Or it knew something about me that made it want to eliminate me as fast as possible.

Which means this Commander Anomaly was already more intelligent than the other one I had to deal with...

Are you sure this is a Class three rift? I might need Olivia to check this after we’re done...

The Anomalies rushed towards me and I got ready to defend myself when a figure suddenly appeared in front of me.

It took me a moment to see the bunny ears before I noticed the small hand reaching out towards me.

I immediately grabbed it and used Kris’s gravity ability once again to reduce my weight.

As soon as Maylene’s hand grabbed a hold of mine, she sped off and the world around me blurred as I was pulled along behind her.

I looked behind to see the demon Anomalies still looking at the space that I had just vacated, completely confused how I had disappeared from their sights.

The four armed Anomaly spotted me in the distance and raised its fists to slam them together in front of its chest.

A shockwave exploded out from its fists which seemed to cause a dark cloud to gather above it before flashes of lightning appeared within the cloud.

Don’t tell me it’s able to manipulate lightning?

As though reading my thoughts, a lightning bolt struck down right as it raised one of its fists, the lightning arching towards its fist and electrocuting it to fill the air around the arm with electrical sparks.

The Anomaly doesn’t look harmed by the lightning and just casually lowered the arm to point its palm at me.

I felt my hair stand on end as I charged up my own lightning in my fist, punching it out right as the demon Anomaly’s lightning blasted out from its palm.

My lightning struck against the Anomaly’s, causing an explosion of sparks in the centre that blew away the smaller Anomalies that had been unfortunate enough to be near the blast zone.

Both of our lightning bolts dissipated and both of us managed to make it back to our fortified position safely before Maylene set me down.

My Guardians immediately surrounded me to protect me while I looked back out across the plains to watch the movement of the Anomalies.

Artillery shells were still raining down on the plains and several of the Anomalies were struck down in that short time.

The four armed Anomaly doesn’t even look worried that its comrades were being bombed to pieces and just glared in our direction.

It then let out a roar and all the Anomalies also lifted their heads and roared in response as well.

The problem was that the roars were not coming from the Anomalies that were in front of us but also from the sides and even behind us as well.

I sucked in a breath when I realised what had happened.

I braced myself and leapt into the air, flying up all the way into the sky to look around us.

A chill went down my spine when I saw demon Anomalies appearing from all around us, numbering easily into the tens of thousands in total.

The only good thing was that they were still quite far away and would take time to get to our position. But the bad thing is that if they actually manage to get to us, we’re cooked.

I flew back down towards the group and waved down the military and Vanguard leaders.

"Order a retreat!! We have to retreat right now!! We’re already surrounded by Anomalies!"

The military leader frowned, "Why retreat? We just need to advance and kill that thing right?! Then we stand and fight!"

The Vanguard leader however, was not in agreement, "Are you crazy?! What makes you think killing that will help our position?! What if they still continue to attack us?! We would be fucked!! We should get out of here right now!!"

Everyone else around us seemed also torn between the two decisions, seemingly an equal number of them in both groups.

I suppose we’ve already come all the way here only to hear that we needed to run away would be quite demoralising, since they knew if we ran now, they would still have to come back here anyway as the problem isn’t solved yet.

Then there’s the other group who obviously would rather retreat now for a better chance at staying alive than risking their lives for this.

I hesitated before turning my gaze towards the four armed Anomaly that was still standing at the top of the hill with both pairs of arms crossed in front of its chest, looking as if it was just waiting to see what we would do.

My initial plan was to retreat back towards the gate since the appearance of a Commander Class Anomaly was definitely something not within our expectations as this raises the Danger Class of the rift to at the very least a level four.

So either someone fucked up when measuring the danger level of the rift or... We were lied to about the danger level of the rift...

Olivia must have come to the same conclusion as well because I could see her jaw tightening and her face looking like she was going to strangle someone.

I had a moment to consider what we should do here since the Anomalies were still advancing towards us and they were all rushing up at us at full speed.

If we stay here, we will definitely be overrun... If we advance, we would have to top the artillery bombardment but the number of Anomalies that were still remaining was too many for us to handle.

We could retreat and have the artillery cover us but that would also mean that this expedition would be a failure and there’s no telling how long they would need to organise another expedition to clear this rift again.

And if word gets out that the first foreign expedition the Mortal God of Singapore went on resulted in a failure... Even if it wasn’t my fault... It’s not going to reflect well on us.

I decided to take a risk here.

I turned towards the two leaders, "I want you both to organise a strategic retreat! Tell the artillery to change to a creeping barrage bombardment to cover your retreat! I will face that Anomaly and clear the way to the Gatekeeper with my Guardians!"

Both of them blinked at me, as though having trouble comprehending what I had just told them to do.

The military leader immediately understood and saluted me, "Understood, Mortal God, you can leave it to us! All units, tactical retreat formation!! Watch your flanks!!"

The Vanguard leader didn’t seem to understand what was going on but I guess the fact that they were retreating just like he had wanted incentivised him to shut his mouth.

Of course, what was unsaid between the military leader and I was that this group has now become the designated decoy. They would be drawing in the attention of all the other Anomalies that were currently charging towards us while my Guardians and I will head directly for the big boss.

Hopefully, we can kill it fast enough and then return to help out with this group to clear out the remaining Anomalies because they would definitely be beset by more Anomalies than they can handle without us.

In other words... If we don’t come to their aid fast enough, this group might even be wiped out.

The military leader understood the role that was handed to them, of course. And it seems like he was ready to sacrifice himself and his unit if it meant the completion of this mission.

Unfortunately for him, I have no intentions of making anyone martyrs if I could help it because if word also gets out that the entire expedition group got wiped while under my protection, that would also be a big hit on our reputation.

If we can clear this boss and save this group, we can then turn our finger to point at the people in charge of classifying this rift and demanding answers on how they could fuck up this badly.

The expedition began to move, all of them organising themselves to move back towards the portal while my Guardians and I remained behind.

I turned to Maylene, "Go. All of you should follow them back."

Surprisingly, the blonde haired bunny girl shook her head, "They can go, Mortal God! But let me stay! I can help!!"

I pursed my lips but I couldn’t deny the fact that her speed did help me earlier so it wasn’t like she was useless either.

"Fine... Stay close to us then. The rest of you... God speed."

Ok... Time to run into the artillery barrage... No big deal...