Chapter 82: The Long Night Finally Sees Dawn
On the ruins of the , that flesh monster standing twenty meters tall bathed in the artillery fire as casually as if it were taking a leisurely stroll.
Every step it took was enough to make the earth tremble slightly.
Zombies surged toward it like pilgrims, were devoured by the flesh tissue spreading beneath its feet, and became nourishment for its growth.
"Is this for real?" watched the figure swelling continuously amid the gunfire and felt his throat going dry.
[Fall back immediately! Everyone withdraw! Keep a safe distance!] 's voice rang out over the comm channel at just the right moment.
This thing's recovery and energy-absorption mechanics were far too broken; the current firepower had basically lost all meaning.
"Pull back!" gave the order without hesitation.
The convoy immediately swung around and charged into the horde. The 30 mm autocannon plowed a bloody path ahead, and the group raced back the way they had come.
As for that grotesque flesh monster, after completely devouring the surrounding horde, its body had already swollen to about twenty-five meters.
Then its attention turned to the fleeing convoy, and it set off at a run.
Its running speed was far faster than it looked.
directed over ten thousand swarm drones to try to block it, but the monster's "flesh lotus" head, made up of countless mouths and eyes, suddenly burst open, and countless fine blood-red threads shot outward like a heavenly maiden scattering flowers.
Every single thread pierced a drone with precision and, with undiminished momentum, skewered several at once like candied haws on a stick.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The pierced drones detonated one after another, and in an instant a brilliant sea of fire bloomed across the sky.
Over a thousand drones were reduced to fragments scattered across the sky in three seconds, while the high temperature and shockwaves from those explosions landing on the monster only bought it a pause of less than two seconds.
By the time the smoke cleared, the wounds on its surface were visibly closing at lightning speed.
At this moment, even was genuinely rattled.
This was basically cheating, wasn't it? How could it recover this fast?
Right now, even felt like he had run into one of those disgusting boss monsters with locked HP.
But since the final battle had begun, there was no reason to stop.
Even if he exhausted every last bit of firepower, he had to kill it!
[ , lead the team in full retreat toward the power station and lure it over!]
"Roger that!" roared, flooring the accelerator.
The convoy fought as it withdrew. At the same time, 's drone swarm charged forward wave after wave as if they cost nothing.
Finally, at the cost of nearly another ten thousand drones, the monster's terrifying recovery speed seemed to show a hint of sluggishness.
So this monster wasn't absolutely HP-locked after all!
Confirming this, felt a little more at ease.
Then he threw in his final group of ten thousand suicide drones. Under the cover of the other drones, they managed to get close to the monster.
The next second.
Boom——!!!
An enormous white sun once again illuminated the night sky.
The terrifying shockwave spread outward, nearly overturning the convoy that was fleeing at full speed in the distance.
But when the intense light faded, that flesh monster was still standing on the ground.
Even though its body was covered with hideous gashes, countless pieces of flesh tissue torn apart and dripping dark-red fluid.
It was still recovering rapidly, its pursuit not slowing by so much as a step.
What's more, it seemed to have been thoroughly enraged.
Its twisted right arm rose high, and at the center of its palm, a ball of scarlet energy began to gather frantically like a vortex.
Watching this, felt he was about to crack: "No way, big guy? Is this even scientifically possible?"
[Run!!!] shouted a warning.
The engines were pushed to the limit, and the convoy charged into the building cluster of at top speed.
The next second, a scarlet orb of light over three meters in diameter blasted out from the monster's palm!
Boom!
The scarlet orb grazed the rear of the convoy and slammed into a six-story residential building. The whole building snapped apart in the middle within one second — the upper half was vaporized, and the lower half was leveled by the shockwave.
That terrifying power made everyone in the convoy's scalp go numb.
But this wasn't the end.
The monster swung its arm, and several smaller scarlet orbs shot out one after another.
could only command the remaining four thousand-plus drones on the battlefield to intercept in waves, detonating most of the attacks ahead of time.
But the price was that the drone count plummeted to below two thousand.
Explosions blazed in midair. With the drone numbers dropping sharply, the suppression on the monster's recovery vanished completely, and its recovery speed became extremely fast.
Just then, the monster slowly pressed its mangled hands together.
Between its palms, a scarlet orb far larger and more condensed than any before was rapidly taking shape, its terrifying heat radiation distorting the surrounding air.
The next second, a thick scarlet beam shot out from between its hands, sweeping across the ground!
The convoy scattered at the very first moment, but the beam's range was too wide. Everything seemed already too late.
And just when everyone thought they were going to die here—
The sky was lit up by another, even more dazzling fire.
Dozens of 300 mm heavy rockets trailing long flames struck the monster's massive body with the force of thunder.
Boom——!!!
The violent explosion knocked the monster's body askew, and the energy beam swept past the convoy by a hair's breadth.
Immediately after, a sky-covering rain of projectiles fell.
In the far distance, two menacing PHL-191 long-range container rocket launcher vehicles, guided by the real-time coordinates transmitted through drones, completed this beyond-visual-range precision strike.
The forces had arrived!
When had the drones escort and the others back, after confirming that war was about to begin, he had taken the extra step of sending drones ahead to according to the location had given, to request reinforcements.
Unexpectedly, they ran into the main force advancing this way halfway along the route.
It turned out they had long since detected signs of the exchange of fire in . As soldiers, their commander also understood the principles that opportunities must not be let slip and speed is paramount in war.
So they took a gamble, splitting off half their forces to come and size up the situation first.
Afterward, under the drones' guidance, this force joined up with 's troops, and so came this thunderous support before everyone's eyes.
On the road nearby, eight Type 99A main battle tanks rolled over the highway in a wedge formation. Their 125 mm smoothbore guns fired on the move, armor-piercing shells smashing into the giant's torso like meteors.
Behind the tanks were four Type 04A infantry fighting vehicles, two PHL-191 container rocket launcher vehicles, six PCL-181 vehicle-mounted gun-howitzers, and more than twenty support vehicles of various types.
More than three hundred fully armed professional soldiers and a firepower configuration beyond imagination — even was a little awestruck.
These guys... they really were loaded!
"What the hell is that thing?" stared at the towering silhouette in the distance, shock written all over his face.
[No time to explain! Just put these on first!]
A whistled past, dropping watch-shaped items from its payload bay.
glanced at the sky in confusion but ultimately didn't ask further, decisively ordering everyone to put them on.
After all, the bizarre monster before their eyes was completely beyond the comprehension of every one of them.
Just looking at it made them nauseous involuntarily. Fortunately, after putting on the "watches," it got much better.
With fresh troops entering the fight, the tide of battle reversed once again.
Under the full firepower coverage of the forces, the flesh giant's recovery speed finally showed a clear decline for the first time.
125 mm armor-piercing shells blasted hole after hole in its body, and the PHL-191's rockets tore away great swaths of its surface flesh tissue.
As it turned out, there was no monster that couldn't be killed — only firepower that wasn't strong enough!
Seeming to sense its own crisis, the monster suddenly let out a piercing shriek.
Then the monk's-robe-like flesh cloak on its body suddenly peeled away.
It writhed and crystallized rapidly in midair, and in the blink of an eye became a massive crystal monster like a giant elephant, which roared and charged at 's troops in the distance.
The flesh giant's main body, meanwhile, abandoned and the others and, under the cover of the frenzied , charged with clear purpose toward the distant .
Without a doubt, it also wanted to make one final desperate push.
Because of the crystal elephant monster, and the others had no choice but to turn most of their firepower to focus on this new target with astonishingly strong defenses.
Armor-piercing shells slammed into the "crystal elephant's" head carapace, throwing up sparks, but only leaving a shallow dent.
"Concentrate fire! Stop it!" roared.
***
On the other side, with the flesh giant's arrival, the density of advanced mutants in the also climbed to its peak.
On the bulwark in front of the power station, watching the countless monsters charging from afar, everyone knew that the hardest wave of the assault was coming.
"Move the guns! Turn the plasma cannons on both sides around!" commanded loudly from the wall.
With everyone working together, the two " " plasma cannons were hastily rotated, their cold railgun muzzles pointing straight at the nightmare closing in.
The three plasma cannons, plus all the " " rapid-fire turrets, opened fire at full power, aimed directly at the flesh giant that had closed to within less than a kilometer of the wall.
Blue-white orbs like a meteor shower slammed into the monster's body, but couldn't slow it down by even a fraction.
The monster endured the plasma bombardment head-on, its massive body constantly shattered and constantly regenerated amid the explosions.
Five hundred meters.
Three hundred meters.
was about to keep firing, but at that moment 's voice rang out.
[Attention, all personnel! Withdraw from the front line immediately! Fall back to the safe zone inside the wall!]
Hearing this, immediately jumped off the gun mount and ran: "Everyone out! Move fast!"
Everyone on the wall sprinted for their lives, leaping down the inner stairs. They believed that since said so, he surely had a plan.
The moment the last member withdrew into the safe zone, at the instant the flesh giant was about to smash its palm onto the wall—
The air around the monster suddenly rippled.
Twenty thousand suicide drones, like a black cloud blotting out the sky, converged from all directions at once.
This was 's final trump card — forty thousand , twenty thousand suicide drones.
At this moment, to hell with cost calculations and benefit analysis.
If this thing broke through the wall, then would mean nothing at all.
The next second, beyond the high wall, between heaven and earth, there was nothing but pure white.
Boom——————!!!!!!!
An explosion too violent for words made the entire earth seem to wail.
The black composite bulwark trembled violently, several cracks spreading from the base to the top, but in the end it did not collapse.
And beyond the high wall, at the core of the blast, the ground had been scoured away three meters deep.
Within a radius of two hundred meters, every and low-stage was cleaned out completely, and even the soil was baked into black, glassy crystals.
When the smoke cleared, where the flesh giant had once stood, only a charred, mangled, barely-alive body remained.
It was left with only half a torso and one broken arm. The "lotus" head had shattered for the most part, and the few remaining eyeballs still turned feebly.
But its flesh was still writhing, trying to regenerate.
Only this time, its healing speed was no longer as exaggerated as before.
Just then, 's forces, having dealt with the crystal elephant monster, finally arrived.
At once, a sky-covering rain of projectiles engulfed the twisted flesh monster once more. Several thermobaric bombs landed directly on it, triggering violent explosions that tore its flesh apart again — and his men had basically fired off the very last of their remaining stockpile.
At the same time, 's remaining two Sky Blades, together with the last eight hundred-plus swarm drones, completed the final concentrated finishing strike.
[Ding! Detected killed third-stage special "05-Type Multifunctional Adaptive Biological Weapon" x1. gained: 9000.]
[Ding! Obtained special drop blueprint: "Pioneer" Multifunctional Engineering Mech Blueprint x1.]
[Ding! Detected killed third-stage special " " ( Body - Incomplete) x1. gained: 9999.]
[Ding! Obtained special drop blueprint: "Annihilation Light" Directed-Energy Weapon Blueprint x1.]
[Current : 11829.]
With the final boss dead, the that had been converging endlessly from afar finally showed signs of decline.
On the nearby battlefield, although the zombies and mutants still hadn't given up attacking, their offensive had begun to fall into chaos.
"Counterattack! It's time to make them pay!" 's roar spread across the position.
On the wall, the rapid-fire turrets and anti-aircraft gun mounts, restored to operation by single-use repair tools, swung back into motion, their barrels beginning to spin.
At the same time, nearly a thousand newly produced drones from the reached the battlefield, joining the torrent of the mopping-up.
The was harvested cleanly, in great swaths.
When the last , which had been trying to flee, was shot down from the air by carrying a man-portable air-defense missile, this brutal battle that had lasted several hours finally came to an end.
[Ding! IV: The Long, Long Night — Completed!]
[Mission rating: Excellent.]
[Calculating rewards... rating upgraded... hidden blueprint...]
[ gained: 30000.]
[Unlocked " " x1, blueprint x1; unlocked "Xuanwu" attack-type silent nuclear submarine blueprint x1.]
[Current : 41829.]
***
In the distant sky, the first light of dawn was faintly breaking.
On the ground, corpses lying crisscross had raised the earth by several meters.
Not far away, several battered Type 99A main battle tanks stood silently, their gun barrels still giving off wisps of white smoke.
jumped down from the command vehicle, looking at the unbelievable scene before him, his expression completely numb.
On the black wall, the people who had survived the ordeal clutched their guns, staring blankly at the gradually brightening sky in the distance, as if waiting for something.
Until that familiar, steady electronic voice sounded simultaneously on every member's .
[Everyone, you've worked hard. The war is over.]
[We won!]
The next second, thunderous cheers burst through the clouds!