Chapter 812

Chapter 812

Although the number of mutants and their strength was rising higher and higher, the group continued to slowly and firmly advance.

However, their group had started suffering from casualties.

“Damn it! Lun Tai, if this keeps up, do you think we’ll be able to push all the way to the destination?”

Roddy was still piloting the Tidal Fighter. All of its drones had been sent out and all the weapons on the Tidal Fighter was constantly firing. He shouted to Lun Tai through the guild channel. “Damn it, there are too many enemies in the sky! The Tidal Fighter cannot hold on anymore!”

“Then get down here!” Lun Tai was also worried that something might happen to the Tidal Fighter and he quickly gave Roddy the order. “Bei Tai, Tian Lie, Xia Xiaolei, clear a space in front!”

The other members of Meteor Rock Guild had scattered around the group to provide support. By now, Tian Lie had seemingly gotten used to accepting Lun Tai’s order. And while he did not reply, he quickly rushed towards the position marked by Lun Tai. A roar slammed into several of the mutants gathered there, shattering them to bits.

Bei Tai had spent all this time on the truck bed on one of the pickup trucks, not moving even half a step away. He moved his left hand, sending a barrage of bullets to sweep the area in front of Tian Lie.

Xia Xiaolei bent his body before kicking the ground with both feet. His figure charged into the mutant group ahead while both his hands transformed out bone blades. Slashing like a hurricane, he quickly carved out a field of corpses.

They had swiftly cleared out a temporary landing pad.

“Hurry, Roddy! We don’t have long!” Lun Tai shouted.

“Do I f**king not know that?!”

Roddy muttered furiously as he quickly moved the Tidal Fighter down. Quickly, he kept it into his storage gear before bringing out his Sentinel mech.

Even though their current situation was very grim, it was not yet to the point where he needed to use his trump card, the Gundam.

Nicole had been flying up in the sky to defend the Tidal Fighter. After Roddy landed the Tidal Fighter, she too landed. And while she appeared tired, she forced herself onwards. Bringing out the Ion Pulse Sword, she charged into another group of mutants.

Although it was safer to attack using laser cannons, it also consumed more energy. In this battle where there was almost no end in sight, she chose to engage in a melee combat.

“We can’t hold on anymore! We have to retreat back for now!”

The Guild Leader of Dawn’s First Glimmer Guild rushed towards Lun Tai, an agitated expression on his face. “Two of our team members are already injured! Many of our skills are on cooldown! We need to rest!”

“Those are just injuries! Did you not see that guys from other teams have died?!” Lun Tai sent him a cold glance. “Enough nonsense and just bear with it! Did you think you were given the Thunderstorm Tank for no reason?!”

“If we keep taking them on, our men are going to die!” Huan Yu clenched his fists.

“If they die, then they die! This is a bloody instance dungeon! Would no one die here?” Lun Tai impatiently waved him off. “If you insist on retreating, fine. Hand over the Thunderstorm Tank and you fellows can rest for 15 minutes!”

“Err...” Huan Yu revealed a hesitant expression.

Lun Tai sneered. “You want to use it? If you want to use it, then just f**king head to the front and fight!”

Seeing Huan Yu run back resentfully, Lun Tai secretly swore.

If it weren’t for the fact that I’d given you guys a Thunderstorm Tank, would you only have two wounded fellows right now? Several of your men would probably have died.

In order to have the horse run, it must be fed with grass. Lun Tai understood that very well.

But now that I have given you the grass, you’d better run!

Huan Yu jumped onto a pickup truck. As he was giving orders through their guild channel, a highly concentrated wave of bone spikes shot towards him.

Huan Yu swiftly brought out a handkerchief, which unfolded before him, growing in size to a three-metre square handkerchief. The bone spikes struck the handkerchief only to create a series of muffled sounds. Not a single one managed to pierce through.

At the same time, however, tens of round spheres the size of watermelons descended from the sky above to strike the surface of the handkerchief.

The spheres were yellowish-green in colour and appeared soft. It was as though there was liquid inside them. After striking the handkerchief, they suddenly erupted to spray out large clumps of liquid.

The handkerchief had been staying suspended in mid-air by itself. But upon making contact with the liquid, it was instantly broken down. Riddled with holes, it gently fell to the ground.

The liquid also splattered onto several Awakened ones who were too close to the area. Immediately, it burned through their protective suits and they rolled on the ground, screaming in pain.

“My Shockright Cloth!”

Huan Yu immediately let out a pained cry. But before he was done crying out, another concentrated wave of bone spikes flew over.

The grade of the protective suit that Huan Yu wore was not low. Thus, this wave of bone spikes failed to pierce through the suit. Even so, the formidable impact sent his figure flying and he fell down from the pickup truck, tumbling on the ground.

At the same time, a new batch of mutants rushed over from the front.

“F**k!”

Lun Tai swore loudly.

This batch of mutants was clearly different from the previous one. They had been upgraded once more.

The previous batch of mutants all had different appearances. It was practically impossible to find two identical mutants. This time, however, many of the reinforcing mutants shared the same look. The only differences there was that they were separated to a few different types.

The frontmost row consisted of monsters as heavy as rhinoceroses. The hardened outermost layer of their skin was so thick that not even heavy machine guns could pierce through them. Only 20mm calibre firearms and above could damage them somewhat.

Behind these mutants was a group of slender, mantis-shaped monsters with bodies covered in spikes. Three bone blades jutted out from each arm and they spun around swiftly like a propeller.

Her blood-soaked hair hung down beside her cheeks. Add her cold gaze to the equation and she looked like a demon rising from a sea of blood.

However, her body quivered. Suddenly, she staggered and fell down.

In order to kill off the group of long-ranged mutants, she’d had to – during that short period of time – over exhaust herself.

Suddenly, a beam of light shot towards Qimu Xi from the sky. It was like a shooting star.

Nicole pushed the thrusters of her Floating Mech Armour to their limits. With a dive, she scooped Qimu Xi up and nimbly dodged the numerous bone spikes before flying back into the group. There, she released her grip and let Qimu Xi down.

“Nice job!” Xia Xiaolei jumped high into the air to catch Qimu Xi before carefully placing her onto one of the pickup trucks. After that, he clenched his fists and let out a low growl.

Qimu Xi’s face was pale with exhaustion. All she could do was slowly nod and force out a faint smile.

Although Qimu Xi had killed off the acid-spewing mutants, the other mutants were still surging towards them like a tsunami. The flying mutants in the sky had also been replaced with a singular, identical type. These mutants possessed a sleek and slender body. Also using bone blades as weapons, they kept taking turns to launch diving attacks.

“Damn it! Lun Tai, if this continues, I will have to use Gundam!”

Piloting his Sentinel mech, Roddy leaped high up to slam against one of the mutants. His metal war blade collided against a spinning bone blade. Following an ear-piercing grating sound, the bone blade was severed. However, the impact also forced Roddy to take two steps back while a small part of his war blade flew off.

“If you use it now, what do we do later?!” Lun Tai’s battle axe hacked apart a heavy-type mutant, causing its blood to spill all over his body. Without bothering to wipe the blood away, he shouted into their guild channel, “Did you forget that we still have to face the [S] class Aderick?!”

“We can’t even handle our current situation! How can we worry about what happens later on?” Roddy shouted back. “What are these guys made of? Why are they so tough?”

The original left arm of the Sentinel mech that he was current piloting had been ripped off and destroyed previously. This newly-attached arm was a spare part that had not been strengthened using Star Sand. As a result, the weakness of the arm’s war blade could clearly be seen. Already, several nicks and cracks had appeared on it.

“No matter how tough they are, hold it! You get back and bring Adam out. Set up a bunker quick!” After giving the order through their guild channel, Lun Tai rushed to the back and shouted, “Swolegem! Where’s Giant Rock Guild’s Swolegem? Hurry up and get over here!”

A Player whose whole body had transformed into stone ran over. He glared at Lun Tai furiously and said, “We are only working together right now. Do not use that commanding tone on me! Do not forget, we are Players. You fellows are just nat-“

“Can your nonsense!” Lun Tai grabbed him by the neck and said through gnashed teeth. “Now is not the time for you to lecture me about social etiquette! If you want to live, be obedient and listen to me! Let me be clear about this. Even if all of you die, there is still a chance for my team to escape! What I want to do now is ensure that everyone survives! Yap one more time and I’ll snap your neck!”

Swolegem also had a tall and muscular body. Without activating his Muscle Fruit skill, Lun Tai appeared a notch smaller than him. However, Swolegem found that – with Lun Tai grabbing his neck – he was incapable of moving in the slightest.

Additionally, the killing intent spilling out from Lun Tai’s body actually made him dispel the thoughts of retorting.

“Alright! It’s time for you to show us what you got!” Lun Tai jerked his head backwards to look at Roddy, who had retreated back into the middle of their group. There, he brought out big pile of alloy plates from his storage gear.

Those were prefab alloy plates. Adam shuttled about quickly there, laying down the foundation and basic form for a fortress.

“This is...”

Swolegem gaped at what was happening before him.

“Enough gawking!” Lun Tai forcefully pushed Swolegem and said sharply. “Use your reinforcement skill on them! These alloy plates on their own cannot stop the acid’s corrosive power!”

Swolegem held back his rage and rushed towards the alloy fortress. There, he stretched his left hand out and pressed against an allow plate.

Countless miniature crystals grew from the surface of the alloy plate, gradually covering its entire surface.

Back when Lun Tai was making deployment arrangements with the 18 Team Leaders, he had paid particular attention to Swolegem’s skill.

He could crystallize any object. The crystallized object would possess not just high strength, but also a certain degree of resistance towards heat, cold, acid, alkali etc.

Roddy’s storage gear would always have a high number of prefabricated alloy plates. With Adam in charge of the assembly process, they could construct a small fortress within 10 minutes.

And while it was not too big, by squeezing, they would be able to fit everyone inside, albeit barely.

By adding Swolegem’s crystallization skill, they should be able to temporarily stop the next wave of long-ranged bombardment.

Already, a new wave of long-ranged mutants had appeared in the distance. It would not be long before they arrived within firing range of Lun Tai’s group. But by Lun Tai’s estimate, they should be able to finish constructing the fortress before the next wave of bombardment.

But the problem here was...

Even if they could temporarily stop this wave, what should they do for the next one?

The number of mutants was simply endless. And now that they had been forced to stop advancing, they would fall into a passive position of being attacked. They would be exhausted and killed.

They were already at the outskirts of the city. With the exception of this small, temporary fortress, they no longer had any defensive positions to fall back to. No matter how they dragged this out, given their numbers, it was just a matter of time before the ocean-like number of mutants drowned them.

With Adam in charge of the construction process, it did not take long before the basic form of the small fortress was complete. Under Lun Tai’s orders, several small teams had already run inside. They then opened fire non-stop through the loopholes on the walls.

The other members from Meteor Rock Guild stayed in the outermost positions, becoming the fulcrum to firmly support the defences there.

“Damn it, Lun Tai! What are you planning?” Tian Lie shouted furiously into the guild channel.

“If we keep this up, we’ll be buried here with them! Don’t you fellows have a Tidal Fighter? We’ll leave by ourselves!”

“Where are we going to find the space to take off now?” Lun Tai grunted. “Besides, look up in the sky. There are so many flying-type mutants. Even if we take flight, will we be able to reach the destination while fighting them?”

“Then come up with a plan!” Tian Lie shouted furiously.

“I have a plan! But for now, shut it with your nonsense! Hold the line and let everyone retreat! Also... catch one of them for me, alive!”

Adam is a robot Roddy made using android parts from the Star Sand mine.