Chapter 816
Chapter 816
It was a high-speed, close-combat type mutant. After it was captured alive, the bone blades growing from its body were broken off while its four limbs were tightly bound using a gel-like substance. The mutant was constantly attempting to break free, but no matter how hard it tried, it could not move a single bit.
Xia Xiaolei, on the other hand, looked as though he was about to vomit. However, he continued to hug it tightly.
Tens of tendrils had emerged from Xia Xiaolei’s body, their tips penetrating the mutant’s body. It made the whole scene even more bizarre.
There was anxiousness on Lun Tai’s face as well, but he said nothing to urge Xia Xiaolei, for fear of disrupting his concentration.
“Lun Tai! Hurry, look outside!” Roddy’s voice came from the guild channel.
Lun Tai strode forward. Arriving before one of the firing holes, he pushed a Player aside and looked outside.
Surprisingly, the mutants who had been surrounding the fortress to the point of overcrowding were retreating as fast as the ebb tide.
“This is…” Lun Tai looked at the open space around the fortress. There was not a hint of joy on his face. Instead, his brows furrowed tightly.
Since the very beginning, these mutants had shown not the tiniest bit of fear or cowardice.
Putting it in another way, they simply did not have a will of their own.
For something like this to happen now could only mean one thing.
This was a temporary retreat for an even more furious wave of attacks.
As expected, even before the mutants were done retreating, heavy footsteps could already be heard from the distance.
Like thunder, the sound of every footstep shook the whole world.
Practically everyone there stopped firing from shock. They instead stared blankly at the mountainous silhouettes coming from afar.
The biggest creature on land was the elephant.
And yet, the giant monsters making their way to the fortress could practically play with elephants like little kittens in the palm of their hands.
More importantly, there were more than one of them.
Every one of the giant beasts was nearly 20 metres tall and their bodies were covered with a thick organic carapace. When compared, their makeshift fortress could only reach their waist. Every step the giant beasts took could cause the ground to quake and throb.
On each of their left arms was a massive bone shield, which they used to firmly protect their front side. Their right arms, on the other hand, bulged unnaturally to form a thick hammer.
Although their advancing movement appeared sluggish, the outrageously massive stride of each step made it so they were not as slow as they appeared.
“Fire! Fire! Don’t you mother f**kers stop firing!”
A voice rang out and everyone there immediately gathered in the direction of the giant beasts. Picking up the heaviest weapons they could find, they aimed at the giant beasts and opened fire.
Nearly a hundred bullets and beams of light burst out simultaneously. That included even three arcs of light from the main turrets of the Thunderstorm Tanks.
After the explosions, smoke and flames had dissipated, however, the giant beasts continued to march forward, not stopping at all.
Unfortunately, the organic carapace covering the giant beasts’ bodies was probably over one metre thick. In the earlier salvo, attacks from small-calibre bullets were simply incapable of inflicting any damage to them. And while energy-type weapons and large-calibre bullets were able to pierce through some of the carapaces, in the face of such colossal bodies, the amount of damage they could inflict was very limited.
The best result came from the main turrets of the three Thunderstorm Tanks. However, even though every one of their attacks managed to pierce through the bone shields that the giant beasts were carrying, they could only leave a hole with a diameter of less than half a metre on their bodies.
Meanwhile, the giant beasts also possessed a frighteningly tenacious life force. Those wounds were completely incapable of affecting their mobility in the slightest.
“Not enough firepower! Don’t disperse your attacks! Concentrate fire! Concentrate fire!”
An Awakened roared. Bringing out a laser marker, he aimed it at the body of the frontmost giant beast. “Everyone, open fire on the same one! One at a time!”
“How is this possible?!”
Another Awakened who was beside him screamed like a mad man before dropping the gun in his hand and running to the back.
However, after taking just a few steps, he was stopped by Qimu Xi.
“Go back, fight!”
Qimu Xi cast a cold stare at him, the short sword in her hand had – at an unknown moment – appeared on his neck. An icy atmosphere made its way through his protective suit, causing goose bumps to rise up all around his neck.
“We… we can’t win! We won’t survive!” The Awakened had begun rambling incoherently.
“Those monsters! Those numbers! Do you see how big they’ve become? Once they arrive before us, this shitty building will be ripped apart instantly! We’ll all die here! Run! Split up and run! It doesn’t matter how many of us manage of escape! We just need to survive through the time limit of the instance dungeon. Even facing the punishment instance dungeon is better than throwing our lives away here!”
“Go back, fight!”
Qimu Xi seemingly did not hear what he said. Instead, she simply repeated the words she said earlier.
“Damn it!”
The Awakened gnashed his teeth and pulled out a war blade.
But before he could even swing it, he suddenly felt a chilling sensation on his neck.
Next, the world before him spun.
With an indifferent look on her face, Qimu Xi sheathed her short sword. Then, she picked up a plasma rifle and moved to stand before a firing hole. In the end, she swept her eyes across all the people there. “I’ve said this before. If you don’t want to die, keep fighting.”
Everyone there took a deep breath.
It was true. Escape was impossible.
Judging by the current situation, everyone in Los Angeles had been infected and transformed into various types of mutants.
Run. Where can they run to?
Following the laser mark, everyone there opened fire again.
Finally, the frontmost giant beast staggered. Then, its body, riddled with holes, fell heavily to the ground.
During that time, however, the group of giant beasts had managed to advance over 200 metres forward.
There was only a distance of one kilometre between them and the fortress.
There were still over 20 giant beasts.
“F**K!”
Bei Tai, who had been defending the main entrance to the fortress, abruptly rushed outside. He brought out a big pile of steel ingots and placed his left hand on them. Next, his face suddenly turned flushed.
Seemingly coming to life, the pile of steel ingots wriggled about as Bei Tai’s liquid metal left arm absorbed them and transformed into…a big cannon.
A big cannon equipped only on battleships during World War II, it sported a diameter of nearly half a metre.
Bei Tai became like an ant holding onto a grain of rice that was much bigger than him. When compared to the big cannon, his body was so small that it was practically laughable.
Next…
BOOM!!!!!
The resulting burst of wind nearly shook the fortress to the point of collapsing.
Up ahead, the giant beast facing the incoming attack had only managed to raise the bone shield on its left hand when the one-ton cannonball smashed against it.
The semi-piercing shell from the battleship’s main cannon easily punched through the bone shield and its organic carapace to strike its chest, causing it to blow up violently.
The whole upper body of the giant beast was blown away, reduced to a cloud of blood. All that was left were the waist and two legs, which fell to the ground.
A delighted burst of cheers instantly rang out from the fortress.
The power of the cannon… was simply too spectacular.
In fact, the power of the Thunderstorm Tank’s main turret was far stronger compared to this old World War II cannon. Only, when facing such shockingly massive monsters, it was not as effective.
However, after firing the cannon, Bei Tai’s face became extremely ugly to behold and blood began trickling down his nose.
The liquid metal arm’s size was something fixed. Temporarily expanding its size by hundreds, thousands of times – absorbing too many metal objects in the process – had still overtaxed his ability
Not to mention, there were also the shockwave and burst of wind that erupted back when the cannon opened fire. Bei Tai had to endure them all while standing the closest to it.
At any rate, Bei Tai was not as monstrous as Tian Lie, whose whole body could become liquid metal data.
Only, at this very moment, he was the only one that could provide the strongest, most concentrated firepower.
Clenching his teeth tightly, Bei Tai turned the cannon, adjusting its angle. Locking onto another giant beast, he opened fire again.
Boom!
Once again, a giant flower of blood blossomed from amidst the group of giant beasts.
But their rate of advance did not change.
“Xia Xiaolei, Xia Xiaolei, Xia Xiaolei! Are you not done yet?”
Lun Tai gripped his fists. He could no longer worry about his actions being disruptive and he whispered urgently at Xia Xiaolei, who was behind him.
“Their genetic makeup… is too complicated and messy…” Xia Xiaolei’s body quivered, his eyes still closed. “Give me a bit more time, just a bit…”
The mutant that Xia Xiaolei was holding was also quivering at the same frequency as Xia Xiaolei. It was no longer struggling furiously as it was before.
The tendrils piercing its body had seemingly gone deeper as well.
Outside, the sound of cannon fire rang out again and again. However, the interval between each cannon fire would grow with each attack.
Lun Tai knew that Bei Tai would not be able to hold on for much longer.
“Roddy, after another 30 seconds, use Gundam.”
Lun Tai gritted his teeth and said grimly through their guild channel.
By now, there was no longer any room for them to hide their trump card.
Their last resort would be to give up on the people here. Have Roddy use the Gundam to ensure the Tidal Fighter’s safety as it took off and rush straight towards the given coordinates.
Even though there was a high number of flying-type mutants in the sky, they were not a big issue for the Gundam’s formidable combat power.
By doing so, they would no longer have these Awakened ones and Players with them during the final battle with Aderick. The Gundam use time would also be used up. However, they could not simply die here with these cannon fodder.
Yes, cannon fodder.
Lun Tai was not Chen Xiaolian. For him, there was no such thing as ‘Since I have saved you, I would do my best to take responsibility for you all until the end’.
He had chosen to gather up all the participants in Griffith Park and head towards the given coordinates together. All that was just to have these fellows fight at the forefront while he looked for an opportunity to kill Aderick.
As for him doing his best to keep them alive, it was simply because he had hoped he could maximize the number of chips in his hand for the final battle.
However, if he were to find out that it was truly impossible to do so, he would not hesitate to abandon them.
Only, until it was absolutely necessary, Lun Tai hoped that it would not come to pass.
“Twenty-five…”
“Twenty…”
“Fifteen…”
Lun Tai slowly counted in his mind.
Outside, the sound of cannon fire was joined by that of other firearms, the interval between each attack becoming increasingly long.
There were less than 200 metres between the giant beasts and the fortress.
At the same time, the smaller mutants that had retreated earlier surged forward once more.
Up in the sky as well, the flock of flying-type mutants appeared again, like a cloud of darkness.
The timing of the monsters’ movements was impeccable. With their movement speed, the other mutants would arrive to join the battle the moment the giant beasts descended upon the alloy fortress.
Should that happen, they would all be killed.
“Ten…”
“Five…”
“It’s done!”
Xia Xiaolei, who was behind Lun Tai, shouted.
Before them, the mutants – with such high numbers that they completely covered the land – that had been charging towards the fortress, even the giant beasts, abruptly halted their steps.
Next, they all let out a sharp roar and began killing one another.