Without warning, a rocket slamd into the ground near Charlotte, blasting her dozens of ters away. The next second, a hundred of Luke’ n opened fire in unison. With that salvo, Magnus’s thirty-strong team all hit the ground, motionless.
"Heh..."
Luke let out a cold chuckle and snapped, "Advance!"
He still had 373 n left. At his order, 350 soldiers advanced in tight groups, hustling down a narrow concrete road.
These weren’t old war films where n scread slogans and stord ahead blindly. These were trained troops - five-man squads, moving low and fast. No sound, no shouting.
About 250 soldiers took the road, split into two groups spaced two ters apart. Fifty more flanked the road through the rice fields on each side, ready to encircle if attacked.
But just as they passed the bodies of Magnus and his team, the sky above the convoy base rained down over thirty grenades.
In that instant, Emily, Liana, Chloe, and three more won burst from the convoy, automatic rifles blazing.
Luke’s n instinctively returned fire while dodging grenades. But sothing wasn’t right.
Over 300 soldiers gaped in disbelief - none of the won had fallen. Not one.
Explosions ripped across the area. Chaos broke out. Soldiers scrambled back.
Then, like ghosts out of hell, Magnus and the others suddenly stood up from among the "dead," firing in all directions without hesitation, even if they risked hitting their own.
This was no drill. Sinovar’s soldiers had never faced sothing like this. And in that mont, they realized - they weren’t fighting people.
They were shooting gods of war.
Panic spread fast.
What good was flesh and blood against bodies immune to bullets?
One soldier, screaming behind Magnus, emptied his rifle at point-blank. Magnus didn’t even turn.
The bullets ricocheted - and shred the soldier who fired them.
Blood filled the air. Swarms of giant black mosquitoes began gathering above and dived down, drinking greedily. The buzz, the gore - it threw off everyone’s sense of direction.
Magnus, Charlotte, Sophia - all thirty-one of his fighters, together with Emily, Liana, and the rest, charged nonstop. They fired, reloaded, grabbed weapons from corpses - they kept going, relentless.
"No one escapes!"
Magnus yanked off his helt, flung it aside, and roared to his team, "Not a single one!"
The won followed, tossing their helts too, tightening the circle around Luke’s command vehicle.
Inside, Luke and his aides were already pale as death.
What the hell were these things? Machines?
No. Even machines needed armor. Armor these freaks didn’t have.
Yet bullets ant nothing to them.
"Go! Get us out of here!" Luke scread at his driver.
The aide, still stunned, fumbled with the ignition. He finally got the engine running, swung the car around - and Sophia was already on the roof, her feet barely touching it as she leapt.
Charlotte covered her with precise shots. The command vehicle’s right-side tires blew out instantly."Leave him to !"
Magnus charged in, shouting to Sophia, "You’re fast - go after the ones running. This one’s mine!"
Sophia glanced at Magnus, didn’t waste a word. In a blink, she was gone, already chasing.
The military vehicle was armored, reinforced glass and all. Magnus didn’t bother with finesse. He pulled a grenade, yanked the pin, shoved it under Luke’ command vehicle, and backed off a few paces.
First, the grenade went off. Then the gas tank blew a second ti. Anyone inside that truck wasn’t walking away. Magnus barked another order to the rest of the won, "Clean up the stragglers!"
*****
Fifty minutes later, heavy smoke curled into the air. The road between Dunwich Hollow and Unity Point was dead quiet - no more shots.
The fight was over.
Magnus called everyone to regroup. He did a quick ntal tally - at least a dozen enemies had slipped away. Not ideal, but not the worst thing either.
Those dozen weren’t likely to make it back to Springvale City alive. No spray, limited ammo - hell, even Magnus wouldn’t count on surviving solo that far.
Even if one made it, even if they reached Cliff and reported what had happened, Cliff might think twice now. With the kind of resilience Ice Regint had shown today, he’d be wary. A crew that shrugged off bullets wouldn’t be easy to deal with.
As long as they didn’t figure out what the Crystal really was, they’d stay cautious.
The real thorn - air support. But either way, dead enemies or not, Cliff would eventually send a recon plane when his unit failed to report. The outco wouldn’t change.
Ice Regint had pulled off sothing damn near legendary. The won were riding high, especially the ones who’d used tal Crystals - shaking with adrenaline and pride.
Confidence? Through the roof.
Thirty-seven of them had gone head-to-head with four hundred trained soldiers. The result? Zero losses on their side... four hundred on theirs. Unbelievable.
Two hours cleaning the battlefield. Liana went over the haul list...
Total capture: ten shoulder-fired rocket launchers, thirty-five rockets, nine flathrowers, ten extra fuel tanks, three hundred forty-five assault rifles, eight hundred seventy-three mags, three hundred forty-seven pistols, six hundred sixty-one pistol mags, one hundred ninety-five grenades, and three hundred fifty-five military knives.
Plus supplies like canned ats, hardtack, and military water flasks.
After accounting for what they’d used, Liana updated the armory inventory.
Twelve rocket launchers, thirty-nine rockets, fourteen flathrowers, sa ten fuel tanks. Four hundred nineteen rifles, over a thousand rifle mags, four hundred thirty-one pistols, nine hundred thirty-two pistol mags, two hundred six grenades, and four hundred sixty-seven knives.
That old lyric popped into Magnus’s head -
"No food, no gear? The enemy brings it near. No guns, no shells? The enemy makes ’em well..."
Lying in a sleeper vehicle, Magnus reviewed the list. Couldn’t hide the grin in his chest, though his face stayed calm. No doubt about it - they’d scored big today.
Weapons and ammo skyrocketing. Crystals... even more so.
Just after one in the afternoon, they prepped for lunch. Emily stepped up into the vehicle, a frown on her face. She looked like she was about to speak, but Magnus locked eyes with her - and suddenly, a realization slamd into him.
Sothing big.
Sothing that shook even him.
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