Chapter 968 - 36: Encounter Battle

The squad leader and his three warriors quickly disappeared behind the hillside, but at that moment, Mr. Liu heard the muffled rumbling coming from inside the mountain again.

"Did you hear it? It sounded again!" Mr. Liu immediately turned to look at his deputy platoon leader, who nodded solemnly.

"Squad Leader! There was a sound coming from inside the mountain again just now! Did you find anything over there?" Mr. Liu shouted into the walkie-talkie.

"Report, we found an abandoned construction site that seems to be the subway halt mentioned by Lee," replied the squad leader, referring to the soldier from Kuqiao Village, "The underground entrance at the site has relatively 'fresh' landslide marks, and for safety reasons, we plan to send a drone inside to investigate."

"Alright, be careful. We're ready to support you at any time," Mr. Liu replied.

"Mr. Liu, what's your take?" The deputy platoon leader pulled out his handheld information terminal and glanced at the screen.

The terminal only displayed some regular combat information, and neither the 151 Battalion headquarters nor the nearby Investigation Bureau observation station seemed to have detected any abnormal sounds deep within the mountain.

"Chunming City's subway construction project... Even if it's cancelled, there must be a department assigned to handle the aftermath. It shouldn't become a neglected project like a collapsing building," Mr. Liu said somberly. "Logically, a landslide shouldn't happen without reason... After all, Kuqiao Village is right at the foot of the mountain, and no one can bear the responsibility if the mountain collapses."

"If it's not human error, could it be a natural disaster?" the deputy platoon leader asked again.

"The geological activity around Chunming City is quite stable. There hasn't been an earthquake above level three for decades," Mr. Liu shook his head. "Even if there was, we'd receive a notice, but the geological and meteorological bureaus have been completely silent the past few days..."

Suddenly remembering something, Mr. Liu picked up the walkie-talkie again: "Squad Leader! Please report your situation immediately!"

The walkie-talkie remained silent, and the squad leader, who reported just a minute ago, seemed to have vanished into thin air, not responding to Mr. Liu's call.

Mr. Liu felt his heart sink, instinctively calling again: "Squad Leader? What's the situation over there?!"

"Something's wrong, something must have happened!" The deputy platoon leader's expression changed, "Mr. Liu, contact the battalion headquarters right away. I'll take people over to support!"

"I've already passed the message to the battalion commander, and I'm coming with you." Mr. Liu removed the large-caliber assault rifle strapped to his back and chambered a round.

The two exchanged a glance, and Mr. Liu waved his arm, leading a dozen soldiers up the steep hillside.

Although this area is part of the patrol zone, because there's a road built through the valley and the surrounding mountains are rarely entered, patrol squads usually just drive along the road as part of their mission.

Mr. Liu has served in the 151 Battalion for four years, having entered this mountainous area fewer than ten times.

Apart from the subway project halted over twenty years ago, this mountain area has seen virtually no development—simply because the natural resources here are extremely scarce, there's no mineral deposits underground, and the rock quality isn't suitable for a quarry.

As for forest and animal resources, that's even less to mention. Almost the whole mountain area is exposed gray rock; the most common vegetation is the yellowed shrubs in the rock crevices and moss beneath the shade or under large stones.

With urgency, Mr. Liu reached the top of the hill in less than five minutes, but when he looked up panting, he was directly confronted by a twisted human-like face!

"Monstrosity!!" Mr. Liu reflexively raised his rifle, but a huge force struck him violently, causing him to lose balance and tumble down the hillside!

Agony radiated from every part of his body, and he could no longer count how many bones he had broken—he tried to get up, but his entire lower body had lost sensation.

This brought a chill to his heart; this situation likely meant the fall had injured his spine, and even if he received timely treatment, he would probably spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Mr. Liu turned his head to look near him, another fallen warrior lay quietly beside him, having lost all signs of life—he wasn't as lucky as Mr. Liu, having no helmet or armor protecting his neck hit a protruding rock during the fall; now, his entire head was tilted at a grotesque angle, and dark purple blood continuously flowed from his collar.

Shouting and gunfire echoed from higher up; the deputy platoon leader, along with the remaining warriors not knocked down, were engaged in combat with the monstrosities. However, Mr. Liu couldn't even sit up straight. From his angle, he couldn't see what was happening at the top of the hill.

"Signal flare! Quickly, launch the signal flare!" Mr. Liu screamed with all his strength, "Launch the purple signal flare!"

Among the many signal flares they carried, the purple flare indicated the most critical situation, showing that the patrol squad had directly encountered a dangerously threatening monstrosity, and every combat unit seeing the purple flare must come to support immediately.

At this moment, the soldiers guarding near the vehicles finally reached Mr. Liu, quickly placing him onto a folding stretcher and sprinting towards the truck parked in the middle of the road.

"Stop! I said stop!" Mr. Liu shouted.

"Platoon Leader! You're seriously injured! We must get you back to the battalion headquarters immediately!" one soldier carrying the stretcher said urgently.

"I told you to stop; are your ears deaf?!" Mr. Liu cursed, "Turn the stretcher around; let me see the situation at the top of the hill!"

Hearing Mr. Liu's words, the soldiers carrying the stretcher had no choice but to adjust their position, allowing Mr. Liu to finally see the battle at the hilltop.

Four or five tall, human-like monsters were advancing towards the deputy platoon leader's group under heavy gunfire, and bullets from large-caliber rifles that could easily tear a regular person in half only blew a bowl-sized hole in these monsters... Moreover, these holes were healing at a terrifying speed; within a few seconds, the rapidly growing flesh completely filled the wound.

Behind these monsters followed a dozen "humans" dressed like primitive men, who held bone-made throwing spears and hurled them towards the 151 Battalion soldiers—at this moment, two soldiers on the battlefield couldn't dodge in time and were struck by the spears.

These spears, though made of bone, had extremely sharp tips, easily piercing the composite material armor worn by the soldiers. Any soldier hit by a bone spear, even if not killed instantly, would immediately lose combat capability.

After realizing bullets were ineffective against the monsters, the deputy platoon leader ordered most of the firepower to shift towards the spear-throwing primitives—the shift in fire was very effective, as these primitive men, wearing nothing but a leather apron and almost no armor, fell like wheat under modern weaponry, with only about a third escaping by using the monsters' bodies as cover.

But for some reason, Mr. Liu had a feeling that those fallen primitive men... weren't completely dead yet.