Free Web NovelChapter 781: Chapter 691: The Battle in Progress (Part 2)
Fleur gritted her teeth and forcefully dragged Xiaoliu out. The two of them scrambled to roll and crawl their way out.
After much effort, they managed to break free from the encirclement of the stinger bees and reached behind the slope, where they joined the infantry platoon ahead.
Dozens of soldiers huddled behind the troop carrier, defenseless against the enemy’s crossfire that pinned them down.
"We’re doomed, we’re all going to die..." One infantryman seemed terrified, mumbling to himself incoherently. "God, please get me out of here..."
"What nonsense are you spouting?" Jishilin slapped the infantryman’s head and straightened the slanted helmet. "What kind of bullshit god? If there really were one, we wouldn’t be here!"
"Get your act together; no one’s going to save you if you don’t, understand!?"
The soldier’s yell seemed to bring some clarity, and he adjusted his helmet, swallowing hard as he nodded.
In every passing second, stray bullets whizzed over their heads. Farther away, at the horizon, three fully-armed Poisonous Torture War Chariots advanced side by side, the machine gun barrels glowing red-hot as they fired relentlessly.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Air support flew overhead, dropping missiles that promptly destroyed the enemy’s high-threat targets.
Through the rearview mirror, Xiaoliu could vaguely see a few comrades who had been parasitized by the headhunters, blindly shooting at the cover they were hiding behind.
Every minute that passed saw their space for survival continuously compressed by the Insect Race, from hardly maintaining a small piece of ground at the beginning to retreating into a circle. Occasionally, soldiers were shot by stinger bees in the sky, scenes like this happening everywhere on the battlefield.
"We can’t keep this up." The infantry platoon leader, not experiencing this for the first time, remained relatively calm. "The brothers behind us are blocked; the enemy is closing in from two directions; we can’t hold."
"Look, look! They’re bringing the vehicle over!" A soldier’s eyes lit up.
The soldiers looked over to see a transport vehicle careening down the road, with several worker bugs clinging to it. A Mantis Blade was on the roof, its sharp limbs deeply embedded below.
The driver’s expression was panic-stricken as the Mantis Blade flung itself at the window, repeatedly striking it with its blade arms, the force of which had fissures running through the windshield.
"We need to help them!" yelled their platoon leader.
"No, it’s too dangerous."
"There are over a dozen wounded on that vehicle!" pointed out a sharp-eyed soldier.
Fleur was crouched on the ground, launching a drone, while Xiaoliu suddenly ran out; the startled girl tried to grab him but grasped at empty air.
"Xiaoliu, come back!" Jishilin urgently shouted.
"Xiaoliu, are you fucking crazy?" Huang Yusheng saw Xiaoliu nearly being hit by a stray bullet and rushed after him.
"Those two idiots!" cursed Jishilin as he got up to cover for them.
"What kind of soldiers have you got here?" The platoon leader yelled as the falling artillery left his ears ringing, holding his head.
"Better than your turtle kids!"
Jishilin’s eyes were nearly torn with rage, gunfire flashing constantly in front of him.
"Hey, you bastards, look over here!"
Xiaoliu, sprinting, lost his footing and fell to the ground as a stealthy hunter was just revealing itself, a burst of blood splattering from its head. Xiaoliu turned back to find Jishilin shouting and tossing a smoke grenade towards him.
"You, run faster..." Jishilin hadn’t finished speaking before his right arm was hit by a venomous sting, and he fell to the ground.
"Don’t you usually keep so calm." The platoon leader grumbled a bit before pouncing on Jishilin, extracting the knife from his waist to slash at his turning-purple, rotting right arm.
Amid the swirling dust, a few priests who tried to approach were wailing and covering their eyes, desperately waving their hands to disperse the smoke enveloping them.
A shell exploded beside Xiaoliu, throwing up dust several meters high as he seized the opportunity to rush to the transport vehicle, forcefully wrenching open the door.
"Let me do it!"
The driver, seeing someone appear, had not yet reached out before the Mantis Blade shattered the windshield, the arm blades piercing straight through his chest.
Xiaoliu’s eyes flickered, as the out-of-control transport vehicle jostled violently and careened toward the cliff.
Unbalanced, Xiaoliu clung to the door, his thin body swaying like reeds in the wind.
A drone flew in, and with a boom, a loud explosion rocked the left wheel of the transport vehicle, causing the entire head to flip over, paving a swath of ground flat as the Insect Race along the way was crushed into meat paste.
Seeing the transport vehicle stop at the cliff’s edge, Fleur, controlling the drone, let out a sigh of relief, collapsing soft behind cover.
Huang Yusheng also lunged at the vehicle’s head, grabbing Xiaoliu’s hand, preventing him from falling into the abyss below.
"You owe me two favors now!"
At that moment, movement came from behind Huang Yusheng; a Mantis Blade charged in, raising its sharp blade arms high.
"Behind you!"
"Tsk," Huang Yusheng turned sharply.
With a flick of his hand, golden chains appeared out of nowhere, instantly tearing off the Mantis Blade’s limbs.
"What is this...!"
Witnessing this moment, Xiaoliu’s expression froze. That was the power of Order! In his impression, only people from the Order Court could wield it.
"Even if you don’t know what you’re thinking," Huang Yusheng pulled Xiaoliu up, "I’ll clearly tell you that it’s different from what you think, just pretend you didn’t see it."
The mental shockwave from using the power left Huang Yusheng with blood from the mouth and nose, his consciousness wavering.
"Don’t mind me for now, do what you need to do."
Huang Yusheng flipped into the driver’s cabin, tossing out a capsule, from which a blue gel rapidly expanded, sealing the space above in a blink.
Xiaoliu snapped back to attention, disregarding the bullets whistling past beside him and the shells falling around, ran to the back of the transport vehicle, spotting several heavily injured soldiers in his view, one with their thigh bone exposed, the cries of pain unending.
Taking a breath, Xiaoliu recalled the steps he’d learned previously, first administering emergency hemostasis for that soldier, then hoisting them up, tying them onto his back with strips of cloth, sprinting back toward the others.
"Leave me, I won’t survive." The barely-conscious soldier, teetering on the brink of fainting, murmured, "Their wounds are lighter, save them first..."
"I’m not leaving anyone behind." Xiaoliu’s gaze was unwavering, not slowing his pace.
"What are you... saying..." The soldier lightly cursed before slipping into unconsciousness, "You fool."
Xiaoliu nimbly leaped and bounded across the pockmarked battlefield, returning to the group, swiftly putting the soldier down, leaving a few words to care for them before turning back to the gunfire-laden battlefield.
Soon enough, Xiaoliu emerged once more from the dust and smoke, carrying two more comrades on his slender shoulders, inevitably bearing more injuries.
Time ticked on, each second feeling both tense and drawn-out, and the number of wounded brought back steadily increased.
When he returned again, Xiaoliu’s injuries were glaringly severe, his condition no less dire than those he had rescued, covered in bloodstains not clearly discernible whether his own or from the wounded, as if freshly risen from a heap of the dead.
"Isn’t he afraid of dying?" The platoon leader was struck by Xiaoliu’s actions.
"Who knows." Jishilin gazed up at the smoke-filled sky, "There are always a few hot-blooded guys."
"I noticed him during training; he’d always rush forward first, falling several times but always standing back up, I don’t know where he gets this stubbornness."
"I thought this kind of idiot had gone extinct." The platoon leader murmured.
"Better not to go extinct." Jishilin struggled to get up, "At times like these..."
"Only this type of fool won’t give up on you."
"Help me up; I can’t just watch this kid go to his death!"
