What Do You Mean I Have To Comprehend Dao As A Mortal God?

I looked down at the horde of Anomalies below us, feeling a shudder go up my spine.

”We have to go through that, huh...” Kris muttered, the catboy peering over the ledge.

”Technically, our plan hasn’t changed,” Olivia commented, looking at the same horde of Anomalies with a determined gaze. ”We would have to take down all of them anyway.”

I looked back at the soldiers, ”Is the communications up yet?”

The signaller of the group quickly pulled out the receiver on his signal set and started fiddling with the knobs.

It took him a moment before he nodded at me, indicating they had already set up the camp to allow communications within the rift.

”Tell the other team that we have met with some resistance and we’ll need some time to clear them out first.”

The signaller made a face at me, probably because he had initially thought I would be calling for backup but it turns out I wasn’t going to.

Not even sure why we would need backup here considering the fact that we have more Vanguards coming to join us and we hold not only the high ground advantage, but the path was narrow enough that their numbers meant nothing.

We just need to form a wall at the top of the chasm and hold against the horde of Anomalies that will undoubtedly rush up towards us, taking care to watch out for those long limbed Anomalies at the side that might try to climb up the sides.

I turned to my Guardians and the Vanguards, ”Let’s form a wall... This will be our Thermopylae.”

Dan, who was at the front of his group, let out a chuckle, ”Let’s hope there’s no traitor to lead the Anomalies to flank us.”

Leena, Ava, Kris and Olivia all turned to look at him with the red Oni just outright glaring daggers at him.

Oh... They didn’t get the reference... They probably thought he was referring to the fact that we had traitors who tried to assassinate me the other day.

Dan seemed to have realized that as well and instead of explaining, he just chuckled, ”What, too soon?”

Thankfully, Jia Lian came to his rescue because it really did look like Olivia was going to beat him up right there and then.

”Umm!! Umm!! He’s making a reference to one of our historical events! The battle of Thermopylae! Where a number of soldiers held their ground against a force several times larger than theirs between a mountain pass! They only got defeated because a traitor led the enemy through another route to flank them!”

Thanks Jia Lian.

That seemed to appease them as they nodded in understanding before they turned back to look at me, waiting for my instructions.

I nodded at them, ”We’ll form a shield wall here and fight them back here. The narrow path will negate their advantage in numbers so this would be a good thing for us. I believe the other group would also be planning to do this in the other chasm as well so we might as well clear as many as we can here before we move to the main location.”

All of them nodded at me and they started to arrange themselves as I had instructed, the melee types moving to the front to form a shield wall while the rest gathered behind them in preparation for a prolonged ’siege’.

I was intending to just wait for another group of Vanguards to show up to have at least a reserve team before we started the battle but... One of the four legged Anomalies happened to climb up the slope and spotted us.

It let out an ear piercing shriek that I didn’t even know it was capable of before it started charging towards us.

That scream caught the other Anomalies’ attention and all of them started running up the slope towards us.

Well... Guess we’re going to have to start now...

”Front line!! Crouch down on a knee, now!!” I ordered.

The Vanguards immediately got on a knee, allowing me to charge up a lightning in my fist before punching it forward, sending a streak of lightning flying towards the Anomaly and obliterating it.

That was not over yet as we could hear the stampede of Anomalies rush up the slope towards us, their footsteps akin to a thundering earthquake as they got closer and closer.

The first of them turned around the curve and it was the quadrupedal Anomalies that came into view.

They ran towards us like a pack of wolves chasing after their prey.

”Fire at will!!” I cried out.

The sounds of guns and spells filled the air as the backline started their attacks, dispatching the Anomalies at the very front of the charge and sending them crashing onto the ground.

I joined them by shooting lightning bolts out of my fists as well, sometimes also switching to using Sergei’s shadows to shoot spikes up from the ground though I realised it wasn’t really as effective.

As we were focused on the front, a large hand appeared from the side, grabbing onto the ledge and allowing one of those long armed Anomalies to pull itself up onto tour level.

I immediately jumped towards it and gave it a flying kick, smashing my foot onto its chest and using it to launch myself back while kicking it towards the bottom of the chasm.

I landed on my feet and it took a few seconds before a crash could be heard from the hole, which was followed by the sounds of several Anomalies’ dying roars.

”I need to reload!!” One of the Vanguards cried out, pulling back to pull out the box magazine on his machinegun.

Another Vanguard took his place and started shooting balls of fire towards the front, keeping the Anomalies at bay.

The piles of corpses ended up forming a small wall which both impeded the Anomalies from being able to get to us while also impeded us from getting a good shot at the Anomalies that were behind it.

Eventually, it reached a point where the wall toppled forward and some of the corpses even spilled out towards the ledge to drop into the chasm below.

The quadrupedal Anomalies were running low on numbers and following close behind them were the human sized Anomalies, all of them running towards us like some kind of zombie with their arms flailing up in the air.

These ones had better protection that their quadrupedal counterparts but our firepower was still heavy enough that we were able to render their rock armour useless.

Just as I was worried about us getting tired, another group of Vanguards came running in, the group only needing a moment to understand what was going on before they rushed to join our defense line.

”Mages and ranged fighters from the first group, pull back!! Let the new group take over while you rest and recover!” I ordered.

A few of them stumbled back from the defense line, clearly thankful that they weren’t expected to fight the entire horde from start to finish.

I turned to Leena who was in the middle of pulling out another box of ammunition to reload her machinegun.

”You can take a break if you want, Leena.”

She shook her head while attaching the box to the side of her weapon, pulling out the belt into the ammo feed of the gun, ”There’s no need, Mortal God. I’ve also brought several quick change barrels to keep the gun running. I also have enough ammunition to last.”

That wasn’t what I was worried about but she already started firing again so I decided to just let her do what she wants.

”Olivia?” I called out, only for the red Oni to shake her head before I could even tell her to take a break.

”There’s no need, my Lord. You should save your strength instead... The larger Anomalies will be coming after this and we might need you to deal with them.”

Sure enough, if I were to look several floors below, I could see the orc sized Anomalies and even a few larger sized Anomalies stomping their way up the slope.

They were definitely slow and there was plenty of space between us and the first of those larger Anomalies but they would definitely reach us sooner or later.

She continued, ”I will rest once we’ve dealt with this wave, my Lord, do not worry. I intend to follow you into combat with the larger Anomalies.”

That’s good to hear.

I also decided to take her up on her offer and sat down to meditate, trying to replenish my own energy with the life energy in the air.

I was careful not to absorb all the energy since I might still need them later so I only took enough to make myself feel refreshed before I was back on my feet again.

Looking back into the chasm, it doesn’t seem like the horde is even ending soon as more of them poured out through the tunnels at the bottom of the hole.

Geez... There better not be a few hundred thousand Anomalies down there...