Chapter 262: Storm Chase Battle!

Above the Trakama Ice Valley, the snowplain was crushed by a steel torrent of vehicles, the roar of engines tearing through the howling storm.

"Conserve ammunition—those big ones haven't shown yet!"

Lin Xian shouted over the comm, "The four-legged snow demons and the winged anomalies in the blizzard haven't appeared yet—we must conserve ammo, especially heavy ordnance. Even if we make it to Longshan No. 1 and Infinity, it's still just the calm before the storm. After darkness falls, these thousands bearing the Dark Mark will face true terror."

Squeeeeee!

Hundreds of snow wraiths with sharp tail spines burst endlessly from deep snow, swarming the convoy like locusts. The convoy had already accelerated; countless snow wraiths darted through the snowpack, and soon, waves of monsters surged from all directions, converging on the convoy—the sheer, mountain-collapsing momentum tightened many hearts.

Vvvvv!

On the polar vehicle, Bai Xiaoqing slammed the accelerator; the engine roared as tracks and traction wheels spun wildly, kicking up vast clouds of snow behind. The vehicle shot straight into the rear flank of Shi Di's lead train.

Thud! A snow wraith suddenly leapt from the passing snow and slammed against the passenger-side door, roaring as it raised its tail stinger to pierce inside.

Bai Xiaoqing dropped the window, drew her blade with her left hand, and slashed backward—cleanly severing the wraith's head. Then she kicked the door, sending it flying along with the corpse.

Lin Xian sighed helplessly—he'd just fixed that door. This girl really didn't care about the cold.

Bang-pat-pat-pat!

Both flanks of the convoy now faced waves of snow wraiths. Beyond gunfire came a dense barrage of impacts, forcing the flanking vehicles to press inward toward the center.

"Three o'clock—four-legged demons! All large-sized!"

"Seven o'clock too!"

Watch the front—Deity's crash zone!

"Unknown winged entity—rear airspace! Everyone alert!!"

Boom-boom-boom.

The earth trembled; the entire snowplain shuddered.

Along the canyon's edge, countless monsters gathered, surging toward the convoy like a flood, then forming a pursuing horde behind.

Yu Yu sat in a fully-terrain polar vehicle in the convoy's center, surrounded by tech team colleagues, all fully armored. He listened to the roaring assaults outside, face tense and uneasy.

"Group Leader Yu…"

Two colleagues beside him stared in horror at the vehicle's rear. Yu Yu turned instantly—his face paled, nearly gasping.

Behind the convoy, the snowplain had vanished. The amassed snow wraith horde now resembled a gray-white wave, surging forward with relentless momentum.

Constant streams of fire poured backward; each grenade explosion tore apart swathes of snow wraiths.

"This is terrifying… how could there be so many in the snow…?"

"I remember during the initial prototype test, there weren't nearly this many. Why are they all converging here?"

Yu Yu's eyes flickered as he murmured, "It might be linked to the S-Class Entity No. 13."

A middle-aged researcher beside him tensed: "Didn't the observation team confirm No. 13 was heading toward Yunwang Marsh?!"

Yu Yu shook his head. "It's not that simple. After that collision, Prototype No. 1 seemed to have become the sole target of every anomaly under this polar vortex. This scale of phenomenon has never happened before."

"Group Leader Yu," the researcher said gravely, "could S-Class anomalies possess some kind of… summoning… or… incitement?"

"Command," Yu Yu's glasses glinted faintly. "That's what you mean, isn't it?"

The researcher nodded urgently. "Yes—exactly that feeling. Maybe they've marked us and Prototype No. 1, and now all monsters in the area are swarming us. This whole thing's been abnormal from the start."

"We all thought it was strange," another added. "At first we assumed it was just Prototype No. 1's noise attracting them. But from Team Leader Lin's reports, when we came under attack, they suddenly saw no snow wraiths hundreds of kilometers away. That's too odd…"

"That's why we've taken such heavy losses. Those black worms' destructive power far exceeds A-Class estimates, yet there's more than one inside this canyon."

"These observations help us understand anomaly biology," Yu Yu nodded, gunfire ringing like firecrackers beside his ears, the snow wraith tide boiling behind him. He kept glancing back, then said to his team: "Especially the traits displayed by Entity No. 13…"

He turned to the several metal devices inside the vehicle, his gaze heavy: "Prototype No. 1 is abandoned—but we must extract the experimental data. Otherwise, all our work is wasted!"

Boom-boom-boom—the earth shook. Along the canyon's edge, vast layers of snow began collapsing. The convoy entered a valley pass—the very spot where Lin Xian and Xiang Ningjing had stopped earlier.

The convoy passed through countless aircraft and vehicle wrecks, then faced a massive black corpse stretching hundreds of meters like a mountain.

"That's the black worm's corpse."

On Longshan No. 1's polar vehicle, Xiang Ningjing, clad in thermal gear, stared at the colossal worm corpse ahead: "We're almost at Team Leader Lin's position!"

Shi Di scanned the left-side hills and right-side canyon cliff, his voice sharp: "Hurry—we're about to make a lot of noise."

Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.

The monster tide surged.

The rearmost convoy unit was Qian Dele's Joker team. Qian Dele, wrapped in a thick mink coat, stood elegantly outside a large polar vehicle, gripping the railing as he faced the wind, watching the snow wraith horde behind him churn like a pack of hyenas—some as close as a few meters.

"Disgusting~"

He pressed his comm: "Everyone—avalanche incoming. Increase speed."

"Understood." Subordinates responded in unison.

"Everyone, prepare!" Lin Xian's voice came over the comm.

Ahead, Lin Xian glanced at the slope behind the black worm corpse, then fixed his gaze on his watch and the detonator's signal lights.

Beforehand, he'd sent Kiki here to plant metal explosives on the slope—and had her place some bombs directly on the black worm's corpse.

Kiki turned back nervously: "I forgot to ask—can snow even suppress those snow wraiths?"

"No," Lin Xian said, eyes on the detonator. "It'll only scatter the pursuing horde, buy us breathing room. My real target is the worm corpse. That's why you used thermite charges."

Kiki nodded. "Hope it lures out whatever's underground. It always strikes once and vanishes—worse if it's night."

Lin Xian felt the tremors beneath the ground, squinting: "It's about to surface. We must disrupt its rhythm."

He feared it would burst straight through the convoy's center—that'd be disastrous.

Beep!

The detonator suddenly flashed green—the signal connected!

"Everyone, watch out—it's coming!"

Lin Xian roared over the comm. The convoy had just passed the massive black worm corpse—he slammed the detonator.

Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!!

Instantly, a chain of explosions erupted ahead on the slope, while fire erupted along the black worm corpse's back.

The thermite blasts shattered, melted, and sprayed vast swathes of frozen tissue from the worm's body.

Hundreds of churning snow wraiths were caught in the blast, shredded and flung outward. Shockwaves hurled green blood and black worm flesh in a massive fireball, drenching the pursuing horde below.

The green blood seemed to disrupt the orderly advance of the snow wraiths—panic and agitation spread through them.

Boom.

Simultaneously, the slope ahead collapsed under the explosions, vast layers of snow sliding downward, forming a roaring avalanche.

"Hurry!"

"Faster, faster!"

"Maintain formation!!"

Thud-thud-thud!

A dark shadow surged forward—a massive four-legged demon burst from the snowstorm on the flank, its hardened limbs crashing down onto the roof of a small vehicle.

"Too late!"

The armed personnel inside the small vehicle, firing outward, saw it—his vision darkened, his heartbeat froze.

The driver, seeing it in the rearview, immediately spun the wheel, preparing to veer from the convoy to avoid his destruction disrupting the formation.

But at that instant, a golden shadow flashed from the snow outside. The shadow moved so fast that the avalanche behind and the demon's lunge appeared in slow motion—it seemed to tread the snow without leaving a mark, leaping upward and kicking the demon's hardened foreleg with one foot.

Clang!

A metallic ring rang out.

The demon's foreleg snapped backward, the force hurling it back. The rest of the team reacted instantly—volleys of metal projectiles rained down, shredding the demon's upper body into fragments that tumbled into the snow wraith tide.

The golden shadow vanished again, retreating to the convoy's rear, stepping on dozens of snow wraiths in quick succession before landing gracefully atop the large polar vehicle.

"Ugh, filthy~"

Qian Dele looked down at his delicate pointed shoes, now smeared with green blood. His severe OCD made him recoil—he pulled a handkerchief from his mink coat and meticulously wiped the blood off, then glared at the cloth, then at the snow wraith horde behind, and hurled it away: "This silk handkerchief is yours."

Boom-boom-boom!

As the convoy advanced steadily and Lin Xian judged precisely, the avalanche crashed down just after they passed, swallowing tens of thousands of pursuing snow wraiths. The roaring flow dragged them over the canyon's cliff, cutting off a massive portion of the pursuing horde.

But the convoy hadn't caught its breath before more snow wraiths erupted from the snow like locusts.

As they neared the pass, the ground's rumbling intensified—the entire snowplain seemed liquid, rising and falling.

"It's coming out!"

"Girl!"

!

Lin Xian and Kiki immediately opened their doors and stepped out. Kiki hovered in the air; Lin Xian gripped the vehicle's handle, standing at its side, eyes locked on the snow.

He then looked up—the sky under the polar vortex was choked with clouds; wind and snow never ceased howling. The setting sun pierced gaps in the clouds, casting light over the Parma Grassland's endless snowplain. The pure white sea shimmered with blinding brilliance—this light was far stronger than during the blizzard.

Snow wraiths bursting from the snow seemed torn by some invisible force—their skin cracked inch by inch, shrieking in agony as they swarmed the convoy.

One vehicle, its firepower stalled, was surrounded by seven or eight snow wraiths, dragged out of the convoy, rolled into the horde, and instantly buried under a sea of wraiths.

"Aaaah!! I'll take you all down with me!"

Boom!

The man inside, consumed by rage, detonated his explosives at the last moment—himself and dozens of snow wraiths turned into flaming fragments.

Vvvvv.

One vehicle fell; another behind instantly accelerated to fill the gap, shielding the center's living and tech vehicles.

Casualties mounted; the convoy's nerves tightened further.

Lin Xian scanned the battlefield, lowering his voice to Kiki: "Remember what I told you—if it bursts from the center, save as many as you can."

"I know!"

At this moment, Kiki's eyes glowed with psychic energy; she was enveloped in a field of telekinesis, completely shielded from the freezing wind outside. Her mind had already sensed the ground and dozens of vehicles in the central zone—such an action was an extreme test even for Kiki!

On the other side, Shi Di, Ning Jing, Bai Bai, and over a dozen other powerful fighters from the convoy vehicles had all stepped out, staring at the knife-like cold wind as they searched for the target beneath the ground.

Ning Jing held the frail Bai Bai atop the roof of Longshan No. 1 train; Bai Bai, mouth open, breathed heavily, his thick sunglasses scanning the ground relentlessly.

"Did you see it?"

Bai Bai trembled with tension, pushing through the wind as he continued his search.

At this moment, everyone's heartbeat seemed to tighten.

Boom boom boom!

The violent earthquake intensified; layers of snow along the edge of the Trakama Ice Valley collapsed in vast sheets down into the valley. Just as the convoy was about to burst through the pass, Lin Xian and Bai Bai suddenly turned their gazes toward the front of the convoy!

"It's in front!"

"It's in front!"

Their voices rang out simultaneously over the communication channel.

Fei Mao, the driver of Longshan No. 1, heard the shout—and saw the ground ahead of the pass explode violently, snow and dust shooting skyward like a geyser!

Boom boom boom!

A massive hum, accompanied by the thunderous cracking of the earth's crust, echoed instantly across the gorge and snowplain.

The entire convoy had no time to stop its momentum; it was about to crash headlong into the erupting snow geyser. Beyond the swirling snow and dust rose a colossal black worm, towering like a mountain—its monstrous body sent chills down spines, resembling a grotesque parasitic entity standing upon the earth!

The giant worm opened a mouth as vast as the abyss, blotting out the sky before the convoy. The horrifying sight left many momentarily stunned.

"Split the convoy left and right!!"

Seeing the entire convoy about to plunge helplessly into the giant maw, Lin Xian acted instantly, shouting at Kiki.

"Steer hard! We're about to hit it!"

Kiki, seeing this, turned pale. She shot forward, channeling a torrent of telekinetic energy, forming an invisible current that shoved the rear vehicles sharply to both sides.

Hssss.

At this moment, everyone spun their wheels violently: Longshan No. 1 veered left, Lin Xian's polar vehicle veered right, and all other vehicles followed the lead of these two, swerving wildly—the steel flow began splitting into a Y-shape.

Vehicles behind, unable to avoid it, slammed into an invisible air wall, crashing violently and skidding off to either side.

"Aaaah!!"

The rear life-support and tech-team vehicles, staring at the abyssal maw rushing toward them, stood frozen, mouths agape—this terrifying sight triggered instinctive screams of terror.

One truck, out of control, crashed into Kiki's telekinetic wall. The vehicle lost stability, hurtling with immense momentum into the right-wing armed vehicles, smashing into a snowmobile and creating a massive gap in the right flank—several out-of-control cars immediately tumbled over the gorge's cliff.

Kiki, seeing this, immediately shifted focus to pull the truck back—but the telekinetic diversion field now had a gap. Two vehicles in the center, blinded by the towering snow dust, charged blindly into the giant worm's abyssal mouth—screams erupted.

"Damn it!" Kiki cried out.

Boom boom!

Ooooommm!!

From within the abyssal maw, a sound like hell itself reverberated—the fleshy flaps around the mouth writhed, releasing thick, foul stench.

Bang!

Yet at this moment, an armed vehicle launched the first artillery strike—its mounted machine cannon unleashed a deafening air blast; a 75mm alloy-piercing shell roared forward with terrifying force!

Chen Wei!

Gazing at the abyssal maw, Chen Wei showed no hesitation or fear. To him, this monstrous creature had no effect on his focus—his eyes burned with fierce battle-lust.

"Aim right for the mouth? Suicide!"

Chen Wei's roar echoed through the comms.

Lin Xian and Kiki turned back, both flashing expressions of surprise.

At that moment, Chen Wei's words snapped everyone out of shock—the worm's gaping mouth faced the convoy directly. Though terrifying, it was also its most vulnerable point!

"Open fire! Blow it to hell!" On the train roof, Shi Di pulled out a gleaming 155mm howitzer, its primer completely worn out. His arms swelled into thick tiger-like limbs, his body radiating immense power—he lifted the forty-to-fifty-kilogram howitzer with one arm, stood atop the train, and hurled it with all his might toward the black worm's mouth.

Whoosh!

A piercing whistle—Shi Di hurled the howitzer with tremendous force, sending it flying over a hundred meters. Longshan No. 1 was closest—the shell plunged straight into the monster's black abyssal mouth. Seconds later, it exploded violently.

Boom!

"Don't be afraid—kill it!"

"Fucking thing—destroy it!"

"Full firepower!"

Taptaptap! Dudduddud!!

With targeting guidance, the entire convoy unleashed all its firepower at once upon the abyssal worm!

Hum!

Over a dozen psychics simultaneously unleashed their abilities—a deep red laser beam shot straight toward the monstrous beast.

Lin Xian turned back, seeing all convoy firepower now redirected. Seizing the moment, he spun and raised one finger toward the sky, his gaze chilling.

"Give me light!!!"

(End of Chapter)