novelsite Chapter 19 Fierce Battle
Chapter 19 Fierce Battle
The team advanced several kilometers further into the dark, narrow cave.
To be precise, it was a "downward" journey, with the road almost entirely downhill.
The team encountered very few alien species along the way, and they were all operating alone. They were blasted to pieces the moment they were discovered and did not pose a real threat.
These variants all have different appearances; some have thick limbs, while others have flat and long bodies, and their carapace colors also vary. However, Xavier categorized them all as "variants."
Half an hour later, they arrived at a fork in the road, the place Xavier had mentioned in his last instructions.
There were only two forks in the road, one to the left and one to the right, so it was clear that they would have to split up again.
At this moment, Di Yan received the next instruction: "Enter the right-hand tunnel until you encounter the entrance to the lower level."
"Who wants to go to the left? Raise your hand." He Xu said, and was the first to raise his hand.
Next up were Ahn Jae-in, Naohiko Onmura, Wasabi Isayama, Charon, and one of Mpuent's teammates.
He Xu stared at Di Yan for a long time, and seeing that he still didn't raise his hand, he smiled bitterly: "Fellow villager, it seems that we are destined to be apart."
Di Yan shrugged and said, "It's probably just luck."
Soon, the twelve men split into two groups and entered the tunnels on either side.
On the left tunnel, Ahn Jae-in and Heo Hee walked in front, with the Japanese couple following closely behind.
An Jae-in said in a low voice, "Brother He Xu, your China region has the largest population and a large army, so why is it so difficult for someone to become a mercenary?"
He Xu answered quickly: "The military in the Greater China region places the greatest emphasis on secrecy measures and also attaches great importance to the ideological education of officers and soldiers. Retired veterans are directly assigned jobs, which practically arranges their future. Perhaps that's the answer to the question."
"Unbelievable," Ahn Jae-in exclaimed. "You also have the most beautiful language. Every time I listen to you chat, your intonation is so melodious, like singing. I really should have learned Chinese sooner."
"Then you've got a lot to learn," He Xu smiled. "Chinese is universally recognized as the most difficult language to learn."
Ahn Jae-in leaned closer: "Brother Heo might not believe it, but I can count in Chinese."
"Hmm?" He Xu immediately became interested. "Try counting them, let me hear it."
"Then I'll make a fool of myself."
Ahn Jae-in counted very slowly, and his pronunciation was extremely unclear, with a strong Korean accent, which made Heo Heo frown.
"One...two...three...four...five..."
Ahn Jae-in paused for a moment, then surprisingly repeated the numbers again.
"six."
He reminded the Koreans around him who were diligently counting, "Five is followed by six."
"No, Brother He Xu." Ahn Jae-in's tone suddenly became serious.
"What's wrong?"
Why are there only five people in our team?
He Xu's eyes widened, and he suddenly stopped and turned around, almost bumping into Wasabi Isayama behind him.
Tomura Naohiko helped his wife up and asked what had happened.
Suddenly, He Xu called out from the darkness, "Charon...Charon, where are you!"
At that moment, Chalong was secretly following behind the group entering the right tunnel. He quickly took a few steps and patted his two Kachin colleagues on the shoulder.
"What are you doing following us?!"
Ruan Zhicheng was stunned the moment he saw Cha Long beside him. "You're disobeying orders!"
"So what if I disobey? It's just a robot, it can't eat me, can it?" Charon waved his hand, looking completely unconcerned.
"The left team is short of people. What if they encounter danger?" Ruan Huzhong's tone was slightly reproachful.
"What do their safety have to do with me?"
Charon said earnestly, "I came here to help because I didn't want you to be in danger. Remember, the three of us must stay together no matter what! No matter what!" He emphasized each word clearly.
"Alas," Ruan Huzhong sighed deeply, unsure how to respond.
Although Cha Long was a bit rough and unrestrained, and sometimes even lacked manners, he was not a bad person. He valued loyalty and always regarded Nguyen Hu Trung and Nguyen Chi Thanh as his own brothers.
Since the Kachin Organization suffered a defeat in the Strait of Malacca nearly a year ago, resulting in the deaths of many brothers, the remaining members have become even more united.
The three of them are considered an iron triangle within the Kachin organization. They had previously sworn an oath that no matter what happens in the future, the three of them will always stand together through thick and thin.
"Stay close to us," Ruan Huzhong stopped blaming Chalong and shielded him behind him. "We don't know how to handle this situation right now, but we hope Xavier will assign you a suitable mission."
Ruan Zhicheng also whispered, "If you really can't do it, then help us out. After all, we're all in this together."
Chalon chuckled, straightened his gun, and followed beside him with his head held high, behaving quite naturally.
At the front of the group, Mpuente was right next to Di Yan. His greatest reliance now was on his former savior.
"Don't get so close to me, is something wrong?" Di Yan frowned slightly and moved to the side.
"I just want to protect your safety."
Mpuente's answer was very sincere, but it was a bit silly to hear such words coming from inside a mech.
Di Yan was slightly speechless. He looked back and saw that the multiple forward-facing searchlights made him dizzy.
His immediate reaction was that there seemed to be a lot of people behind him.
With a question in mind, he deliberately counted and found that there were six lights following behind him.
If you include him, there are seven people in the team!
"Stop!" Di Yan immediately ordered the team to halt.
"What happened?" Mpuent asked in confusion, only to see Di Yan walk straight to the back of the group.
He stopped in front of the Kachin trio, glanced at the names and numbers above them, and asked quietly, "Shouldn't one of you be in the left tunnel?"
Charon immediately raised his hand and said, "It was me. I didn't want to listen to the robot's orders, so I left with my brother. What's wrong?"
The Thai man's tone was unfriendly. Di Yan narrowed his eyes, and after a few seconds of stalemate, he turned around and said, "Since things have come to this, let's stick with the group. We're all in this together now."
The group continued forward, and after walking for a long time along a spiraling downward tunnel, they encountered an entrance leading to the lower level.
The opening was probably dug out later, appearing abruptly in the straight, extending tunnel.
Di Yan used his light to illuminate the space and saw a hollow area beneath a rock layer about three meters thick, with some kind of black slime distributed on the ground.
It resembled a black tide, sweeping from right to left, leaving only a small portion of the ground uncovered. The entire mass was sprayed out, with the slime intertwined and glistening under the light.
The cave entrance was small, limiting the view. Di Yan couldn't see what was outside, but he sensed that the space below was the alien species' nest.
The long journey from the ground to here is all for the purpose of reaching the nest, and the true activity area of the alien species is now officially unveiling its mysterious veil.
Xavier relayed the action instructions in his earpiece. Di Yan silently reviewed them in his mind, then followed the instructions and jumped directly down from the cave entrance.
The steel mech stomped heavily on the black substance on the ground, as if stepping on a thin layer of black mud, splashing up many black spots with a crackling sound.
Di Yan's light swept forward, illuminating a wide cave hall.
The interior is irregularly shaped, with varying elevations and numerous cave entrances and stone pillars arranged haphazardly, appearing completely disordered.
The ground was covered with black slime, and dozens of mutants of various shapes and sizes were gathered in the center of the hall.
Di Yan felt as if he had stumbled into a bizarre gathering, as the mutants turned around one after another, revealing their various claws and mouthparts.
Among them was a gigantic creature, resembling a giant worm, its body a pale pinkish-grayish white.
Upon spotting Di Yan, it suddenly let out a sharp shriek, as piercing as a heavy train screeching to a halt on the tracks.
Without hesitation, Di Yan immediately took off running to the left.
The alien species in the hall also began to stir, stomping loudly on the black slime on the ground.
Although Di Yan didn't dare to turn his head to look, he could hear them rapidly approaching him.
Arriving at a stone pillar, Di Yan nimbly changed direction and circled around to the back. Several mutants that rushed in front crashed directly into it, and large pieces of rubble fell off the pillar.
But the monsters surged forward relentlessly, engulfing the stone pillar like a tidal wave, and continued to chase after Di Yan.
And so he began to lead the vast number of mutants in circles, occasionally firing a couple of shots behind him.
Whenever the plasma cluster comes into contact with the alien species, it produces a bright, lightning-like explosion, ionizing the surrounding gas at high temperatures, sounding like cloth being suddenly torn apart.
The cluster of light was like water dropped into ink, quickly submerged in the dark, surging tide of aliens.
Di Yan was already running at full speed; he had to do everything he could to buy time for the others.
Behind them, the terrifying howls were continuous and deafening; any slight mistake could be drowned out by them.
As instructed by Xavier, he needed to use the wide and complex terrain around him to hold off all the mutants while the others seized the opportunity to quickly kill the "giant worm" in the center of the hall.
Di Yan looked towards the center of the hall in the distance. Although there were multiple barriers, with rocks and stone pillars blocking most of the view, flashes of light still appeared.
He pulled the trigger of the plasma gun again, but the gun did not respond. He had exhausted the twenty bullets that were charged.
He put the gun back behind his back, drew his two swords from his waist, and prepared to "play a big game".
He turned and stopped abruptly, staring intently at the numerous mutants before him. In less than three seconds, he would be engaged in close combat with these monsters.
The electromagnetic gun only has a reserve of 5,000 rounds, which will be consumed very quickly in actual use. He does not intend to consume too much ammunition at the beginning of the mission.
His mission wasn't to kill them; he just needed to hold out a little longer until his teammates killed the "giant worm," at which point he could join them and together they would wipe out these mutants.
Holding his twin swords in front of him, he twirled them, dodged the mutant's thick spikes, and slashed at its body.
The machete is very sharp; its special steel, combined with the mech's brute force, can shred the mutant's outer shell, with the blade deeply embedded in its body.
The mutant seemed to feel no pain, its movements were completely unaffected, and it roared as it continued to thrust its spikes straight at the target.
Di Yan used his knife to push aside the spikes, kicked the mutant to pull out the stuck knife, spun around, and turned his body counterclockwise. With the kinetic energy he had accumulated, he plunged his twin blades into the mutant's body once more.
White light flashed continuously, as if many reporters were holding cameras with flashes, recording Di Yan's heroic figure as he slew the alien species.
The mutant beneath his feet was probably dead; it was motionless. Di Yan used his foot to push off the ground, drew his sword, and engaged in close combat with the monsters that followed, fighting and retreating.
In the center of the hall, the other six people formed a fan shape, trapping the giant worm in the center, and continuously bombarding its huge body with plasma guns in their hands.
The worm is about six meters thick and nearly a hundred meters long. It is coiled in the central area, and most of its head has spiral-shaped sharp mouthparts.
The plasma gun caused it great damage, and it continued to writhe violently as it rushed towards the team members.
The team members were spread out, and with Di Yan's delaying tactics, they had enough space to maneuver around the behemoth.
The surface of the giant worm was blasted with huge holes, from which grayish-white fluid flowed out, and large areas of its tissue were burned and turned black.
Its vitality was extremely tenacious; it held on for nearly two minutes under the repeated shooting of six people before finally collapsing with a thud.
"Pah! You stinky thing!"
Charon spat at the worm's corpse, checked his gun, and found he only had three bars of energy left.
He slung the gun back over his shoulder, surprised that killing a single insect would require so much effort.
Mpuent pointed in Di Yan's direction and shouted, "Quickly, save Di Yan!"
He raised his gun and fired at Hei Chao behind Di Yan, and his two other teammates did the same.
The three Kachin members were simply observing from the sidelines, showing no intention of making a move.
At that moment, Di Yan received news that his teammates had killed the worm, so he grabbed his twin swords and ran to the central area to meet up with the others.
Seeing Di Yan's mech, splattered with alien fluids, running towards them, followed by dozens of monsters, Charon cursed out, "Damn it, is this guy insane?!"
"Don't overthink it, provide support!"
Ruan Huzhong slung the empty plasma gun back onto his back, pressed the button on his arm to launch the electromagnetic gun, and began to cover Di Yan's retreat to this side.
The crossfire network of six people was incredibly effective; the high-energy projectiles directly shattered the mutant's body, and soon the ground was littered with piles of severed limbs and dismembered parts.
Di Yan returned to the queue, pulled out his plasma gun again, calmed himself down, and pulled the trigger at the distant mutant.
After a flash of light, the mutant's head exploded, and the several-meter-tall monster collapsed limply. Behind it, a dozen or so mutants scattered and burrowed into the nearest caves.
"They... escaped?" Mpuhn put down the electromagnetic gun, incredulous at the alien's actions.
Cha Long swaggered over to Di Yan, his tone arrogant: "You're welcome, boy from the Greater China region."
Di Yan held the gun in silence, but he knew exactly what had happened.
He looked at the tattered giant worm in the center of the hall, from which a large amount of grayish-white fluid flowed out, mixing with the original black slime on the ground to reveal various complex and strange patterns.
"A medium-sized shield-boring worm has been discovered and confirmed dead. Please remain vigilant and indiscriminately exterminate all living swarms."
Di Yan looked up at the opening from the top where he had jumped down, and at the vast, irregular space around him. He roughly understood that it must be one of these "shield worms" that had devoured the enormous underground cave world.
Immediately afterwards, the next instruction reached Di Yan's ears, leaving him speechless with astonishment.
"Are you sure it's true?" he couldn't help but ask Xavier in his earpiece.
"I'm sure." Xavier's tone was firm. "Shortly after you entered the inner tunnels, a large number of 'eggs' were born in certain places. You need to eliminate them before they hatch."