Chapter 112: The Offensive Begins
Snowflakes fell thick and fast, drifting down in silence.
A snowflake landed on the shoulder pauldron of 's silver-gray " " , only to be shattered an instant later by his abrupt forward lunge.
"Bam!"
In the dull impact, a twisted " " was sent flying by his kick, crashing through half a ruined wall.
Before the monster could rise, 's arm dropped, and the let out a low roar as a dense stream of projectiles tore the creature's limbs into countless fragments.
Around him, several team members in " " exoskeletons immediately moved in, expertly locking down the monster's writhing torso with specially made alloy restraints.
Next, two team members with flamethrowers sprayed high-temperature flames over its wounds, suppressing that sickening regeneration of flesh.
They had been through this routine many times, and it stirred no ripples in 's heart.
What truly unsettled him was something else entirely.
This time, when this had been maintaining its human form, its body temperature had been normal.
It had walked over with the group of survivors, collected supplies, eaten hot food, and even exchanged a few words of small talk with the people beside it.
Only when a member of the medical team approached with a syringe, trying to collect a blood sample, did it suddenly burst out and attack.
If not for the enhanced squad members' quick reactions, there would likely have been more casualties.
"You people really can't be killed off no matter how many times we do it," said, walking over to the subdued monster and shaking his head. "And you're getting better and better at pretending to be human. What, you take us for fools?"
Then, frowning, he swept his gaze over this city that had already mostly turned to ruins— .
His eyes turned ice-cold, and he demanded harshly:
"Talk! What exactly did you people do in this city?"
The monster gave no answer.
City was 's second objective after .
It held a large copper deposit, so its strategic priority was very high.
The retaking had gone smoothly—there were almost no third-stage mutants here, and even decent second-stage mutants were rare.
Yet the state of the city was so ruined it could only be described as appalling.
The entire central belt of the urban area had caved in, forming a huge pit nearly two kilometers in diameter.
The buildings around the pit had toppled outward in a radial pattern, like toy blocks knocked over by a child.
Concrete rubble, steel rebar frames, and twisted municipal pipelines lay exposed in the falling snow, covered with a thin layer of white.
The blocks farther away were a little better—but "better" only in the sense that the outlines of buildings could still be made out.
Most structures had collapsed to varying degrees, as if they had endured a powerful earthquake lasting several days.
They had searched the whole city and found fewer than six hundred survivors, and mixed among them were several " " like the one before them.
Even if hadn't been a populous city before the disaster, this was far too few.
"What exactly happened here?" asked again.
"What did we do?"
Facing 's interrogation, the monster actually let out a hoarse laugh even as the flames scorched it, its voice dripping with mockery.
"No. We did nothing."
"In fact, if not for the 'refuge' we provided, you wouldn't have found a single living person here. Who told them to be so unlucky as to have lived right on top of the 'Moth's' eggs?"
"So, are you sure you want to treat me like this? A 'benefactor' who sheltered so many people?"
The moment the words left its mouth, the muscles of its face rearranged, and its features settled back into human form—a young, handsome face with a faint hint of grievance.
Its gaze passed over and landed on the group of survivors being shielded by the squad members not far away.
"I'm ! Don't you remember me?" Its voice suddenly turned warm and earnest. "I'm the one who led you through those monsters, gave you food. I was so good to you—have you all really forgotten?"
Among the newly received survivors, several children's faces showed hesitation and pity, and a little girl even took half a step forward.
But at that moment, 's rang out again.
"Rat-tat-tat!"
The monster's torso was blown apart in an instant.
"Sorry, but I can still tell the difference between a beast hiding malice in its heart and a decent person who genuinely saves lives." stepped forward, planted his foot on the monster's remaining head, and looked down at it from above.
"If you want to play innocent, first ask the poor bastard you parasitized whether he agrees!"
"Parasitized?"
Unexpectedly, even with only a head left, the monster could still speak, its tone just as flippant as before.
"You misunderstand. We were always one person. It was I who 'accepted' my best, happiest form."
"It doesn't matter if you don't understand now. Soon, all of you will." Its single eye swiveled toward , a strange light flickering in it. "On your body... there is the scent of 'it.'"
At that, the monster suddenly burst into manic laughter. "The flower is about to bloom! You can't run anymore! Hahahaha!"
"This is the price you paid for killing the Masters! There's no one left who can stop it!"
"Bam!"
, expressionless, stamped its head to pulp, red tissue fluid splattering in all directions.
The surrounding team members immediately closed in, burning the remains to ash with even fiercer flames.
"Damn annoying." pulled off his helmet and cursed in exasperation.
This kind of monster had intelligence, was nearly impossible to destroy, and seemed to feel no pain—interrogation was simply out of the question.
Every time, it spouted a load of nonsense and then got beaten to death. Pure annoyance.
He looked up at the drone beside him. " , big shot, how's your scan looking?"
[Scan complete. Advanced mutants have been basically cleared out. No other special or unknown types detected for now.] 's voice came through the drone.
"That's good." breathed a sigh of relief, but the shadow over his brows didn't lift. "That thing earlier mentioned 'the flower is about to bloom.' It's connected to , isn't it? Over in ... no problems?"
[On the boundary line, some flesh-tissue mutants have been making probing attacks, but the scale is small. It should just be testing. No need to worry for now.]
[Besides,]
A trace of amusement entered 's tone.
[Your old is just getting warmed up right now.]
***
At the junction of and .
The land area where the two districts met wasn't large; most of the boundary was separated by the River.
The cross-river bridge that had once connected the two banks had been snapped in two by a slap from that colossal thing long ago, leaving only two stubs of bridge piers above the water.
On this three-kilometer-wide front where the land met, several formidable defense lines of steel, concrete, and countless gun turrets were being added to and reinforced day by day.
This was 's "front line."
At this moment, beyond the defense line, dozens of flesh monsters with horrifying forms were howling as they charged.
Some looked like enormous writhing intestines lined with sharp teeth; others were living spinal columns, scuttling at high speed on the bone spurs that had grown from their sides like centipedes.
On the wall, automated turrets spat tongues of fire, shredding most of the monsters midway with dense curtains of bullets.
Since three days ago, had been like a body excreting waste, vomiting out a batch of flesh mutants toward the defense line every few hours.
The numbers weren't large—only a few thousand each time—but each batch was stranger and more disgusting than the last.
"Ten o'clock direction, new wave." A report came over the communication channel from the forward outpost.
raised his binoculars.
Through the snow curtain, seventeen or eighteen flesh-red figures were stumbling out of the ruins on the opposite side.
They looked like human bodies that had been flattened and then wadded back into a ball. Their limbs had become thick, stubby pillars of flesh, and their heads were gone entirely.
In place of their heads, a ring of outward-curling, tooth-like protrusions grew from their shoulders, opening and closing ceaselessly, like a flower of flesh that never stopped chewing.
" ." recognized this batch of monsters' type—over the past few days, had been giving abbreviated names to all the new model variants.
"No need to activate the turrets. I'll take care of this batch myself." He pressed the communicator.
Before the words had even faded, he had already jumped down from the command platform.
The instant he landed, his body began to swell.
1.82 meters, 2 meters, 2.5 meters, 3 meters—
Dark-gold scales spread outward from his spine, covering his ever-growing body with alarming speed, like living things.
The bone plates at his shoulder blades swelled and thickened, and several spikes veined with dark-red patterns grew from the edges of the carapace on his forearms, their cold edges gleaming in the snowlight.
3.03 meters.
"Thud!"
The dark-gold figure, over three meters tall, landed heavily in front of the pack of monsters, kicking up a ring of dust.
"The Director's going in alone again." The squad members behind were used to it by now.
"Only natural. Who wouldn't get itchy hands with a slick new set of gear like that?" chimed in from the side.
"Ugh! Why don't I have some kind of ?"
ignored the teasing behind him. In three quick strides he cleared the trench and stepped straight into the open kill zone in front of the defense line.
Seventeen caught the scent of living flesh and surged toward him in unison.
The first to reach him didn't even come close to 's knee.
The three-meter-tall figure raised a leg and kicked. The lump of flesh, roughly eighty kilograms, was sent flying more than twenty meters, slamming into an anti-tank piling and shattering into several chunks.
The second lunged from the flank. 's fist smashed down, the dark-gold armored knuckles carrying a visible distortion of air as they slammed into it. The entire burst apart on the spot, splattering dark-red fluid across the ground.
Next, sharp spikes sprang from the knuckles of the symbiotic battle armor and stabbed deep into the flesh of the third monster.
A bizarre sight followed.
The instant they pierced in, the flesh monster's writhing slowed dramatically, its vivid color visibly draining away as it turned gray and withered.
At the same time, could feel the fatigue from sustaining his ease somewhat.
This was another wonderful property of the " " symbiotic armor: it could absorb energy, sustaining battle through battle, extending the duration of his .
"This is the feeling!"
let out a low roar, feeling power surge endlessly through his body. Then he strained his arms and tore the fourth monster clean in half with sheer strength!
Bright-red bodily fluids and shredded flesh rained down. The entire scene was brutally violent.
The remaining thirteen " " posed no threat either. simply plowed straight through them.
Between punches and kicks, the spikes on the dark-gold armor kept stabbing into and absorbing the vitality of their flesh, endlessly replenishing the stamina consumed by maintaining his .
Ten minutes later, the battle ended.
slowly returned to his normal size, the contracting with him.
"So damn useful!" He clenched his fist, feeling the strength still abundant in his body, and a satisfied smile spread across his face.
The absorbed energy had fully covered the cost of this battle—and then some.
Against monsters of this level, he could basically sustain himself indefinitely now.
Behind the defense line, a few squad members close by duly cheered him on.
"The Director's a beast!"
[The Director's a beast!]
A had appeared above the battlefield at some point, and 's joking voice came through it.
"Alright, alright!" laughed. "Don't you go joining in the racket too!"
Then his gaze shifted to the rear of the defense line, his tone light. "The 's built?"
In the safe zone a few hundred meters behind the defense line, a brand-new " " mother-unit platform, its blue indicator lights blinking, had already been deployed in silence.
[That's right. The first batch of suicide drones is already prepared.]
Who said only the other side could come over and harass?
's consciousness locked onto that forbidden zone in , shrouded in flesh and . It was only polite to return the favor—he hoped the other side would like this big gift.
The next second, over a thousand " " suicide drones—like a swarm of silent metal insects—crossed the defense line without a sound and flew toward that ominous city of flesh.