Chapter 29: What They Do Better
The blazing sun hung overhead as over a hundred people ran across the grassland, the distant base camp gradually disappearing from view.
Among the crowd, Su Xiao was also running. He was temporarily with the assault team. He would break through the fortress's front defenses with them, then find an opportunity to slip away and infiltrate the fortress under the cover of chaos.
Several Fission Beasts flew high in the sky, looking down at the running crowd below. Their instinctive thought was that these humans couldn't hold out any longer, that they were abandoning their defensive positions and fleeing the Fallen Zone in a group.
These Fission Beasts had this idea because the twelve contractors from Holy Light Paradise hadn't leaked any intelligence yet. After being captured alive, they wouldn't hold out long—not because the Holy Light girls weren't brave and resolute, but because of the existence of Parasite Species.
Bang. Bang.
Two short gunshots rang out, and two Fission Beasts in the sky fell diagonally.
A dozen seconds later, all six Fission Beasts had been silenced.
Their group of over a hundred would be exposed sooner or later. The Alien King would inevitably send large numbers of flying Fission Beasts to scout.
As expected, after they had been moving at full speed for over forty minutes, the number of Fission Beasts in the sky grew, scouting in flocks.
Woo~
A low, intermittently pausing horn sound spread, signaling an enemy attack.
Three kilometers away, a magnificent fortress stood. Its front wall was over sixty meters high, built from massive boulders stacked together. Looking at the gaps between the rocks, each boulder had interlocking grooves, tightly connected to one another.
At the four corners of the wall stood black giant pillars. These pillars were hollow, their texture resembling asphalt, but they were actually living organisms. Normally dormant, when needed, the four black pillars would dissolve, sinking into the ground, lifting the fortress's foundation and moving it along.
The entire fortress was surrounded by walls. The front half consisted of the wall, a large open area, and scattered small buildings—though calling them small was relative; these buildings were five or six stories high.
The back half of the fortress was its main body: a massive structure built against the rear and side walls, over seventy meters tall. At its top stood a sculpture of a strange beast with spread wings, roaring skyward, its mouth filled with three rows of sharp teeth, its pupils radiating outward.
This fortress was built by orcs, while the other items inside were all crafted by the alien species.
A dull, heavy thud came from within the fortress. Each sound made one's heart tremble.
"Roar!"
Dense ranks of Ground Beasts leaped directly from the city wall, charging in groups toward the contractors. In a very short time, over ten thousand had gathered.
The alien commanders hadn't expected the Reincarnation Paradise side to attack, nor had the Alien King. Under these circumstances, no normal person would take the initiative to strike.
Unfortunately, the madmen of Reincarnation Paradise weren't normal. They appeared to be marching to their deaths, but in reality, they were seizing the only opportunity at hand.
This was one of the benefits of fighting alongside madmen. Contractors who had survived this long in Reincarnation Paradise, even brute-force types like Diamond King, weren't complete fools.
If something was possible, they dared to do it. Compared to being slowly whittled down, taking the initiative to break out was the wise choice. Su Xiao, the Dean, and Widow West all knew this, but they had never had the chance—until now.
"Cover your ears."
Diamond King's shout had barely faded when his body visibly swelled, quickly becoming a gorilla about twelve meters tall, covered in thick fur. The shiny black muscles on his chest looked forged from iron.
Diamond King's forearms were especially thick. He stood upright, looking down at the alien species charging toward him.
"Roar!!"
Diamond King leaned forward and let out a roar. Black shockwaves spread outward, and all the contractors on their side covered their ears.
Boom! Boom! Boom!...
The Ground Beasts charging ahead exploded into blood mist. Diamond King extended one thick arm forward, and black light gathered on the corpse fragments, rapidly converging into his hand.
Contrary to what everyone expected, Diamond King didn't throw the black energy ball in his hand. Instead, he shoved it into his mouth, leaning back slightly to gather power.
With a deafening roar, a pitch-black beam shot from Diamond King's mouth, slamming into the city wall half a kilometer away.
After a series of crackling sounds, a depression appeared in the wall, as if a giant had punched it.
Diamond King hadn't used this form before because he couldn't. In a defensive stance, increasing his size made him a living target. If he couldn't build up momentum in this form, he'd be covered in Ground Beasts and be the first to die.
"Gorilla."
A short-haired girl spoke. Hearing her call, Diamond King grabbed her.
"Throw accurately."
"Roar."
Diamond King clearly couldn't speak anymore. He assumed a throwing posture, while in his hand, the short-haired girl took out her phone, using Diamond King's upper body as a backdrop, tilting her head and making a peace sign.
Click~
The flash went off. The short-haired girl finished her photo. Diamond King, holding her, exerted force from his waist, then swung his arm, throwing the girl. Her name was Luoni, she liked small animals, and she was a madwoman—among their group of madmen, she was in the top tier of both craziness and strength.
Luoni broke through the air, heading straight for the top of the fortress wall.
With a crash, Luoni landed on the wall, which was over ten meters wide. As soon as she touched down, she pulled a short rod from her calf. The rod was covered in patterns.
"Chant, Resonance."
Luoni raised one arm. With a metallic clang, the short rod in her hand snapped open, energy converged, and the rod transformed into a war scythe with a long blade.
As soon as the scythe appeared, Luoni spun it in a circle, sending blood and limbs of Ground Beasts flying everywhere.
"Ahahaha!"
Luoni laughed maniacally. Moments later, the scythe abruptly stopped swinging. Blood mist drifted around her. Luoni reached out her hand just as a Ground Beast lunged at her. She grabbed its head and snapped its neck.
Luoni hugged the Ground Beast corpse with one arm, pressing her cheek against its ferocious face. A phone fell from above, its auto-capture function continuously snapping pictures.
Click.
The flash went off. The photo was complete.
"Yay~"
Luoni made another peace sign. The Ground Beast corpse, her phone, and her scythe all fell to the ground together.
"Chant, Dark... Scythe!"
Luoni's voice was ethereal. A giant scythe blade descended from above, slashing down on the city wall. Stone fragments flew everywhere, and large cracks spread.
A blur flew in from the distance—another person thrown by Diamond King, crashing down at the base of the wall.
This was a man with a blood-streaked face. He seemed taciturn. Standing directly below the wall, he slightly crouched. Compared to the sixty-meter-high wall, he was as small as an ant.
'Heavy Cannon.'
A very ordinary straight punch was thrown. With a thud, the earth trembled. The soil around him was lifted half a meter high, like a tank firing a shell.
Crack, crack...
Thick cracks spread across the wall. The next moment, this section of the wall shattered and collapsed. The fortress's first layer of defense was breached 2 minutes and 31 seconds after the battle began.
"Death."
A low voice came. Amid the crowd, the Dean's body turned into a flock of gray crows. The number of crows grew rapidly, soon reaching tens of thousands.
The gray crows formed a giant array in the sky. Below the array, all the Ground Beasts grew weak, their life force rapidly draining away.
The madmen of Reincarnation Paradise weren't good at holding the line. They excelled at killing enemies, destruction, assault, fighting outnumbered, behind-enemy-lines assassinations, using explosives, destroying large structures, and so on. Now, it was time to unleash their respective abilities.
Perhaps in the later stages of the war, the alien species would wonder if the enemy had somehow swapped out their entire team.