Chapter 358 - Armored Up!
Chapter 358: Armored Up!
The trembles did not put too much of a nervous look on the aide’s face.
He held the cigar in his mouth, looking slightly frustrated as he looked at his superior, Major Van Persie.
“Funny, isn’t it? Those bastards can’t even stay put in such weather. They just have to do something to disturb us.” Van Persie sounded relaxed but was also slightly frustrated.
No one liked to fight. At least, no one in Iron-Blooded City liked to be in a battle.
However, no matter how much he disliked battling, as a major in Iron-Blooded City who had to lead 500 men, Van Persie grabbed his weapon as his first reaction. His weapon had a complicated structure and could be divided into five different independent weapons. The overall design made it look like a chained lance.
There were at least three types or more tier-2 superalloy used to forge this unique weapon. Although not much was used, it was quite exquisite.
Van Persie hung the chained lance behind his back and tapped it out of habit. “Here we go again, old pal.”
Warriors who had served long enough in Iron-Blooded City understood the meaning of a weapon; it was something similar to a person’s second life. Many people would pay a fortune to power up their own weapon and Van Persie was obviously one of them.
The aide also had his weapon equipped at his waist. The dual blades made him look extra valiant.
He walked in front of Van Persie and opened the door.
The icy wind brought some snowflakes in and Van Persie cursed out loud at the sudden cold.
As a major, Van Persie’s office was located high above the wall. With a hundred years of endless strengthening construction, plus many super-advanced technologies that were absent in the old civilization used in the process, the wall was so huge that its size was ridiculous.
It was 550 meters tall and 150 meters thick. This mega construction would have been nearly impossible in the old civilization.
At the top of the wall, due to the loud trembling, the troops had fallen in line.
Perhaps every soldier on the wall had gotten used to the tense atmosphere. They knew a fight could break out at any moment, hence there was not a single complaint from them. All the soldiers did was calmly and somewhat dully, get into their respective positions and wait for the orders from their superior.
Three Iron-Blooded companies were stationed at every 500 meters on the wall.
One company consisted of 500 men. The soldiers worked on a shift basis and would rotate once every five days.
Small skirmishes were usually settled by the company on their shifts alone, but for the larger scale battles, the rules stated that all three companies that were in charge of that particular section must participate in the battle. The company on shift had the responsibility of being the vanguard.
The vanguard must engage the enemy first during a critical battle in order to buy time for the rest of the companies to fall in.
As for how many men should be sent to battle, it was all up to the lieutenant of the 5 km section to decide.
Van Persie looked even uglier as he walked out.
His footsteps were originally inaudible, but because of his frustration, when he pressed his battle boots to the piled-up snow, he intentionally made squeaks.
Judging from the number of men who fell in, it was a large-scale battle. The men from the other two companies were already in line on top of the wall. As for his own men, they were already in a neat line at the edge of the wall, waiting for his arrival.
It could not be helped. Van Persie’s Iron-Blooded Company No. 357 was on its last day of shift, but they had encountered a large-scale battle.
He quickly strode to his own company. Van Persie realized that his men might be calm, but many of them looked rather pale. He wondered was it because of the weather or because the situation beneath the wall was not ideal.
“Major.” Another patrolling aide handed Van Persie a communication device that resembled a walkie-talkie from the old civilization and a pair of binoculars.
Van Persie was not in a hurry to take the two items. He instinctively looked at the other areas of the wall. With his sharp eyesight, he saw troops falling in line outside the 500-meter section.
“Damn it!” Van Persie spat and took the binoculars from the aide.
As the snow was getting heavier, snowflakes as big as a man’s face were definitely unimaginable to the people of the old civilization, but when the large snowflakes poured down from the sky, it blinded almost everyone and everything.
However, the binoculars had super-advanced heat technology added inside. It relied on heat for observation, hence the snowflakes would not be a problem.
Through the binoculars, a large group of heat signatures that represented living beings appeared in Van Persie’s sight. The large group of signatures was moving at a suffocating speed.
The binoculars managed to capture a single entity from the group and a quick analysis popped up on the glass interface. A lively image of a bull with the traits of a tiger appeared on the interface of the binoculars.
After the image of the tiger-bull appeared, lines of detailed description popped up.
‘Autol tiger-bull, Level 3 vicious beast. Strength XXX, speed XXX, reflexes, stamina…Talent ability: wind element.
‘Species special ability: Wild Blizzard. The special ability will activate when 100 Autol tiger-bulls gather.’
Then, the detailed description was replaced by a new set of information.
‘Number: Approximately 30,000
‘Impact range: 1.7 km
‘Remaining distance: 3.7 km
‘Calculated outcome: 3.17 minutes before impact’
Phew! Van Persie removed his cigar after reading all the information.
He might have reacted badly before but managed to keep his cool, but after reading the information, he could no longer remain calm and his brows furrowed tightly.
Autol tiger-bulls were old friends of the wall. Van Persie had served the wall for almost 4 years and he had encountered the tiger-bulls for no less than a hundred times.
However, the biggest fight he had with the tiger-bulls saw only a thousand of them charging towards the wall, but despite the number, it caused a certain level of trouble to the wall.
The vicious beast might only be at level 3, but they had a d*mned group skill.
30,000…What in the world? The impact range might only be around 1.7 km but…
With that in mind, Van Persie grabbed the walkie-talkie from his second aide. There were 3 minutes left before impact, so he must do something.
“Lieutenant, 30K tiger-bulls. Do you think this is a natural wave? Okay, forget about that. I hereby request the deployment of the tactical weapon from the wall to aid us in battle.”
“What? The request has been submitted but there isn’t any reply from the higher-ups? No, I refuse to fight then! 30K tiger-bulls charging at us like that, do you think it’s something that 3 companies can stop?”
“Damn it, I swear I’m going to be a deserter! And my company has to become the vanguard?!”
Van Persie smashed the walkie-talkie on the ground.
He did not understand what was going on in the minds of the higher-ups. The wave of beasts was unusually large and the enemies were a group of tiger-bulls with a special group skill! The higher-ups should come up with a countermeasure as soon as possible, yet they were still unable to decide whether or not to deploy the tactical weapon?!
On top of that, according to his lieutenant, it would be too late when all three of the companies fell in line as the tiger-bulls would have reached the wall by then and the damage would be immense. Hence, the vanguard troops must be deployed to stall the tiger-bulls.
As a major, Van Persie was no idiot. He knew that the second order was absolute. Despite complaining that he wanted to be a deserter, would he really run away from his post and diminish the troops’ morale?
No, never!
As a man, no matter how fierce the battle was, Van Persie had his own bottom line to hold on to! He swore to protect the elderly, the women, and the children behind the wall, with his slightly stronger body.
“I’m gonna apply for leave after this battle,” Van Persie spoke fiercely to himself albeit having said the same thing for more than eight times out of ten battles.
“Armor up!” Van Persie grabbed the pendant that was hanging from his neck.
The 500 men and women behind him also took out their respective pendants around their necks.
As everyone pressed their pendants, it broke into smaller pieces and transformed into a dozen metallic shards that swirled in the air before transforming into bigger pieces of armor and assembling on each and every one of the soldiers.
Upon a closer look, the metallic shards did not enlarge by itself. Instead, as they swirled around in the air, they unfolded into larger pieces of armor. They were stored in the pendant using a special folding technology.
After more than 20 seconds, everyone was suited up.
Except for Van Persie and the two of his aides, everyone’s armor was black and had red linings as decoration. The armor covered the entire body and only their eyes were revealed through a line. The armor looked extremely valiant. Even the women in the company looked handsome when equipped.
As the main battle armor in Iron-Blooded City, these armors were all forged with Grade S alloy with a tiny bit of superalloy which was used to make the armor lighter and increase the tenacity by more than a level. Overall, it was considered a powerful set of armor.
The difference between Van Persie and his aide’s armors to the others was only the amount of superalloy used in the forging. Given his position and status, he could apply for modifications of his armor, but he was broke since he poured all his fortune into his weapon.
After everyone wore their armor, their black armors glared coldly under the dark but unusually bright sky.
Van Persie glanced at his armored troops before his next order followed, “Arsenal, up!”
After the second order, everyone then removed their gauntlets and removed a ring from their little fingers.
The inner metallic decoration then spun and transformed into a 40-cm-tall tactical movement disk, the arsenal that Tang Ling wished for the most. This tactical movement disk was countless times more advanced than the ones in Safety Sector No. 17, and super-advanced metallic folding technology was used to store it in the ring.
Everyone quickly backed the tactical movement disks. Van Persie and the two aides walked to the front of the troops and hooked the buckle of the disks on the rows of giant hooks lined up neatly at the edge of the wall.
“Our enemies are more numerous than usual this time. So, we’ll go with the triple rotation formation. The first rotation will have 175 men, the second and the third…” Van Persie quickly issued his orders for the battle plan.
The snow got heavier. Even though it almost covered everything in white, as the seconds ticked away, the madly charging tiger-bulls were slowly visible from afar.
“Move out!”
After he explained the battle plan, Van Persie simply passed the cigar that he had been holding in his hand to one of the soldiers beside him.
He drew his weapon from his back, the chained lance that he treated as his brother. Then, he was the first to jump down from the wall.