Chapter 230: The Giant Beast and the Marathon

"Whoa! Whoa~!!"

In the shallow sea area where that "gate" stood, the whirlpool grew ever more turbulent, the sea churned, and all the phenomena indicated that indeed some massive "thing" was about to burst out.

NuoWa, standing at the edge of the living room, removed the sniper rifle affixed to her back, which bore a huge suppressor, and opened a communication report:

"Employee X018 has locked onto the source of the beast-type anomalous creature and assessed it as a likely high‑risk anomaly; it is expected to reach Elizabeth Beach within twenty seconds."

"Received." Red Queen replied immediately: "UNSC's Second Fleet and the company's Bloodtear have already arrived over Elizabeth City; please continue to assist the company in evaluating the threat level of the anomalous creature."

"X018 understood."

Having said that.

NuoWa gripped the sniper rifle, half‑crouched at the living‑room edge, aimed the barrel at the center of that "gate", and waited patiently.

In just two breaths.

"Wha——!"

Accompanied by towering waves, a gigantic Beast Entity leapt straight out of the sea, its massive body hanging in the air before crashing forward.

"Boom—Rumble—!"

Finally it caused an earthquake‑like tremor, blasting a ring of sand dust dozens of meters high onto the corpse‑strewn beach.

This colossal beast was massive, its overall shape resembling the dragon‑type giants that once roamed prehistoric planets; its height exceeded at least a hundred meters, and it bore black, rough, rock‑like skin.

Sharp bone spines sprouted over its body, and the cracks in its skin emitted a deep indigo glow.

"Roar———!"

Unlike the smaller beasts, this giant let out a sky‑piercing roar the moment it steadied on the beach, as if announcing its arrival to Elizabeth City.

NuoWa, who had been watching the creature, furrowed her brow slightly.

It wasn't that she sensed how powerful it was, but the roar made her ears feel uncomfortable.

"Ri~—!"

At that moment, NuoWa heard a distinct weapon charging from above the hotel.

Swoosh———!

Immediately after, an extremely blinding blue light, almost silent, blasted the beast's head, and its entire upper body vanished as if vaporized.

The blue light continued to streak straight across the sea, as if intent on crossing the Atlantic to the South Pole, making it impossible to see its end.

The very beast that had just announced its arrival now announced its own death; only half its body remained, collapsing on the beach with another earthquake‑like tremor.

Because the gash had been charred by the blue light, the deep‑indigo, foul‑smelling blood could not gush out in large volumes, only staining a small area of the surrounding sand.

In the blink of an eye, the "killer" of the beast swept low over the hotel, finally appearing in NuoWa's line of sight.

A light‑gray‑painted light escort ship, bearing the "UNSC Second Fleet" insignia on its port side, had completely skimmed past the hotel and hovered above the beast's corpse, adjusting its heading.

Its small‑caliber pulse cannons on both sides trained on the corpse, maintaining vigilance.

Soon, three more light escort ships arrived at the beach side, opened their hangar bays, and released several Cormorant craft.

Leaving the hangar, the Cormorant craft landed on streets at the beach's edge, where marines—less equipped than paratroopers—unloaded gear, began rescuing trapped citizens, and swept the city of remaining Beast Entities.

"X018's assessment deviated; the newly appearing anomalous creature's threat level is low."

Having witnessed the entire process, NuoWa stood up, said the above to Red Queen, re‑affixed the sniper rifle to her back, and continued:

"Also, please dispatch a company‑assigned special medical team to my location."

"Received," Red Queen replied.

Logically, the beast's actual threat level is not low.

It moves swiftly, its bones are hard, muscles strong, and it fears no radiation.

The beast could easily destroy Elizabeth City; even a one‑megaton‑equivalent nuclear bomb detonated merely two hundred meters away would not cause it any substantive damage.

"Unfortunately," what it encountered was one of humanity's most advanced technologies, an electromagnetic railgun designed to pierce points.

As for the purple "liquid" NuoWa just injected into that father, it contains a large number of nanorobots.

These robots are smaller than red blood cells, only five micrometers, and begin treatment the instant they are injected into the father's body, maintaining normal bodily functions.

Today Umbrella possesses relatively advanced nanotechnology; many Umbrella‑affiliated general hospitals are equipped with nanotech surgical tables and treatment devices.

Once widely deployed, diseases and viruses that have long tormented humanity and represented absolute calamities for many families will gradually be regarded as "just a minor illness".

But now the nanorobots are merely hanging by a thread; to fully free that father from danger still requires more advanced treatment,

Moreover, the father‑daughter pair saw her, who should not have existed, so NuoWa called the special medical team to extract them, complete treatment, and then perform memory alteration.

Shortly after finishing the conversation with Red Queen,

NuoWa then saw several black‑painted transport vessels bearing the red‑white umbrella insignia hovering over the area.

A large transport craft landed on the beach, opened its rear hatch, allowing technically equipped personnel—better equipped than the marines—to exit the cabin and prepare on‑site inspection and processing of the beast's corpse.

One of them, smaller than the traditional Yuyou and carrying no weapons, landed on the plaza in front of the resort hotel.

Soon, several "soldiers" clad in black TPS Power Armor exited the transport and entered the hotel.

Seeing this, NuoWa recognized it as the special medical team.

She waited a moment.

She re‑activated HES's optical camouflage, vanishing silently in the living room as if she had never been there.

The moment NuoWa vanished, the special medical team rushed into the suite, preparing to transfer the father‑daughter pair.

Leaving the suite and the hotel.

Above Elizabeth City, three large warships belonging to UNSC's Second Fleet still hovered.

Two of them were the Cangying-class, long retired by Umbrella but now the second‑most numerous class in UNSC's fleet after light escort ships.

The Cangying-class and light escort ships are the two types of warships that UNSC currently has in greatest numbers.

The final ship, positioned between the two Cangying-class vessels, is also one of UNSC Navy's main assets: the Marathon-class light cruiser.

The Marathon-class is about 1.3 kilometers long; the electromagnetic main gun mounted at the center of the hull is 450 meters long and can fire 20‑ton tungsten‑alloy shells.

In addition to the main gun, it is also equipped with various‑caliber plasma cannons, Gauss and pulse close‑defense guns, and numerous missile launch bays.

The Second Fleet, responsible for near‑Earth orbit defense of Earth, upon learning that Elizabeth City had been attacked, immediately dispatched this vanguard fleet of seven warships into the atmosphere to support the th Airborne Division and the 78th and rd Infantry Divisions.

Within an hour, UNSC had deployed three divisions totaling nearly fifty thousand personnel to Elizabeth City, along with seven capital ships.

(End of chapter)