The pitch-black, stormy night shrouded the land. Deafening thunder shook the sky, the whole firmant humming as if it were alive. Spiderweb-like lightning kept tearing it open, turning night into day in sudden, blinding flashes that chilled the heart. Bean-sized raindrops pounded down, drumming on the vast prival forest with a crackling roar, adding a few more degrees of horror to this dark, mysterious sea of trees.
In a patch of dense jungle, countless shadows flickered, rapidly closing in on a military camp. Using the lightning for illumination, they ran like leopards, bodies bare, only a rough hemp cloth wrapped around their lower halves. Bows and arrows in hand, quivers on their backs, their hard, corded muscles stood out starkly under the lightning, as if packed with inexhaustible power.
Once they closed in on the camp, these people raised their bows and let fly. The arrows' buzzing was drowned out by the rain, like swarms of venomous snakes lunging for their prey. Very soon, screams rang out, but were smothered by the deluge and the thunderclaps. The arrows kept coming, and the attackers pushed forward fast.
"Rat-tat-tat!" Soone suddenly scread in panic, as if he'd seen sothing terrifying, and began spraying bullets wildly into the darkness all around. Just then, a bolt of lightning exploded overhead, lighting up the whole sky, and the machine-gunner's twisted, feral expression was clearly visible.
Suddenly, the muzzle flashes in his hands flickered, his whole body shook, then went rigid and toppled to the ground, as if sothing had charred him black. The lightning vanished, plunging the surroundings back into pitch darkness; nothing could be seen, but screams started rising one after another, chilling to the bone.
Crack—another bolt of lightning split the sky, its branches racing outward to form a huge spiderweb that lit up the entire night. In the dense forest, countless bare-chested n with bows and arrows kept charging ahead, loosing shot after shot. The ground was strewn with wounded rolling and wailing, their agonized cries enough to freeze the blood, and others lay motionless, no telling whether they were dead or alive.
The lightning lasted a few seconds, then the sky sank back into total darkness. Nothing was visible, yet the fight went on under cover of night. Every so often soone was hit by an arrow and let out a shrill scream that, beneath the storm and rain, sounded unspeakably horrific.
This was a night of killing, a night of terror. Arrow after arrow hunted down its targets, driving toward the center of the camp. Large numbers of soldiers on the periter were cut down. Then, bullets suddenly erupted from inside the tents, spraying blindly into the darkness ahead. Panicked shouts and roars were clearly audible even through the torrent.
More bullets poured out of the tents, the muzzle flashes weaving a fiery net in the night-draped forest—terrifying to behold, but enough to halt the charging attackers. The tents were rainproof and grounded against lightning, so firing from inside wasn't affected. The raiders had no choice but to break off the assault and pull back in frustration, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
The shooting from inside the tents, however, did not cease until flares began to shoot into the sky one after another. Only then did the firing die down, yet no one stepped outside. The camp lay in eerie silence. Occasionally, a Lighting Bomb arced up, bathing the surroundings in glare, and the mont anyone was spotted trying to sneak in, gunfire burst from the tents in imdiate retaliation. For the mont, neither side could do anything to the other.
In a nearby canyon, Luo Zheng and the others were gathered, chatting idly. Up-to-the-minute reports from the front had just co in. Luo Zheng hadn't expected the enemy to hunker down inside their tents and open fire, blocking the raid. Without hesitation, he had Hook notify the units to pull back and rally here. The enemy could counterattack at any ti; they had to be ready.
Roughly half an hour later, the sky began to pale ever so slightly. The rain eased up, and the lightning stopped. Seeing that the trenches were more than half flooded, Luo Zheng imdiately ordered everyone to move, digging drainage channels to let the water out. As long as there was no thunder and lightning, they could operate in the open.
Fortunately, there was a river nearby at a relatively low elevation, so they could divert the trench water into it; otherwise they'd be in trouble. The troops had already rested for nearly three hours and recovered a good deal of strength. They grabbed entrenching tools and got to work. Half an hour later, the drainage channels were cut through, and the water in the trenches began to flow out.
Luo Zheng quickly ordered everyone to keep deepening the trenches. Once the Guards Regint arrived, they'd need more trench cover. As the water level in the trenches dropped, the raiding units ca straggling in one after another. After a few quick words of greeting, they too threw themselves into reinforcing the works. At Luo Zheng's insistence, the trenches were dug an extra two ters deeper.
Two hours later, daylight fully broke. The enemy still hadn't launched an attack, for reasons unknown. Luo Zheng ordered the troops to keep digging and shoring up the fortifications. He himself moved aside and asked over his earpiece, "Brother Li, what's the situation?"
"Results of last night's raid are unclear. No significant findings from any of the other elents," Captain Li replied quickly.
Luo Zheng asked again, "Lan Xing, can you pick up anything on the enemy?"
"Our satellite just passed out of the sky over your area and is now on the other side of its orbit. It'll take so ti before it cos back around. We're retasking another satellite to take a look; need about ten minutes. It looked like you had a major storm and heavy lightning last night. How are you holding up?" Lan Xing answered hurriedly.
"We're fine for now. Find a way to get a clear picture of the enemy," Luo Zheng urged.
"Bad news. We just received shared intel from another departnt. The host country's forces on your side are showing signs of movent; specific reasons unknown," Lan Xing said quickly, a note of urgency in the voice.
"What?" Luo Zheng was taken aback, instantly sensing sothing very wrong. His face went grim. After a mont of thought, his tiger eyes flashed cold as he said, "Looks like the host country is about to join the fight. No surprise—they're Sam's faithful lackeys. Not only did they give Sam Country a base, now they're sending troops to help. This fight is going to be a long one. If they can deploy troops, they can deploy fighters. Check imdiately what kind of fighter jets the host country has."
"Stand by," Lan Xing answered at once. Luo Zheng grunted acknowledgnt, then saw Lan Xue coming over and gave a wry nod. The situation had gone beyond his expectations, becoming even more complicated. Clearly, he would have to reassess the whole battlefield. Just then, Lan Xing's voice sounded in his earpiece again: "They just took delivery of ten fighter jets, all supplied by Sam Country. It was just on the news—packaged as a 'gift to witness friendship.' Those bastards. Looks like this was planned long ago."
"Ten?" Luo Zheng frowned in concern, then quickly said over the net, "Brothers, get over here, now. Brother Li, stay on the line. Notify Scholar and the others. The situation's gone way beyond what we expected; we need to conference and work out a response."
"You'd better tell Hook," Lan Xue reminded him.
Luo Zheng nodded, understanding, and waved Hook over. Switching to an international lingua franca, he said with a bitter smile, "Brother, we've got a problem. We just received intel that your neighbor's troops are on the move, likely joining the war. Sam Country has gifted them ten fighter jets. We're in big trouble."
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