Chapter 91: Charge Toward Death

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The whistling sound of the tentacle's thrust grazed past D-1999's scalp.

"Pfft!" The tentacle easily pierced the titanium-alloy armor, impaling a living corpse.

However, when the attacking dark creature tried to retract its tentacle, it found that no matter how hard it struggled, it could not move the tentacle even an inch.

Just look at the living corpse impaled by the tentacle; it seemed not to care about its abdominal wound at all, and its left hand immediately grasped the tentacle piercing its abdomen.

With a mighty heave, it pulled back.

"Roar?!" The dark creature hiding on the second floor let out a bewildered roar, yet the living corpse forcibly yanked it out.

Seeing this.

"Tap-tap!" D-1999, D-1247, and other D-class personnel immediately raised their guns and fired.

"Roar!!!" Accompanied by the dark creature's unwilling roar, still airborne it could not withstand the attack and self-immolated, eventually turning into a pile of ash that drifted down to the ground.

But even after defeating this one, an endless stream of dark creatures continued to assault them.

Already a living corpse soldier had been pierced simultaneously by the tentacles of several dark creatures.

Even though such a piercing wound meant little to a living corpse, two fists could not fight four hands, and that living corpse was dragged into the mist by several dark creatures.

Moreover, many D-class personnel had already suffered casualties; wounds where tentacles pierced the chest or abdomen were fatal, and even if rescued by a living corpse or comrade, they would not live long.

"Ptoo… cough… shit, die… die…"

"Come on! Come on! Hahaha!"

But relying on a death-defying ferocity, the wounded D-class personnel either slumped to the ground or leaned against the wall to return fire at those dark creatures.

But the ultimate fate of these wounded personnel was either death from severe injuries, or being dragged into the mist by the dark creatures.

D-1999 couldn't see the condition of the front of the formation, but he knew that the team originally advancing toward the city center was now stuck like in a mire, unable to move.

This cannot continue.

Staying here to defend is a dead end.

"Hey!" D-1999 shouted at the living corpses: "Charge forward! Protect us as we charge forward!"

"..."

The living corpses gave no reply, but they still followed the suggestion, regrouped their formation, and hurried toward the city center.

"Everyone! Our mission is not to exterminate these unkillable ghostly things! Follow those living corpses and charge toward the city center!"

While shouting, D-1999 also swapped a fresh magazine into his M41A, then adjusted his stance to follow behind the living corpses, raising his gun to pick off those dark creatures trying to sneak attack the living corpses.

"Hahaha! Exactly! Come on, guys, we charge!" D-1247 was the first to respond.

Immediately afterward, the team that had halted its advance resumed marching due to D-1999's action.

But this forward momentum was no longer the orderly, well-defended advance before; it resembled more a suicidal charge.

Fortunately, the Tyrants at the forefront clearing the path had so far suffered no losses; they were absolutely deadly weapons against humanoid dark creatures.

Even the spider-like dark creatures could inflict little damage on the Tyrants.

Although the living corpses had suffered some losses, they remained the backbone of firepower, and with the assistance of several dozen D-class personnel, they actually managed to push the entire unit forward about four kilometers.

As for the cloned cat faces that had vanished from everyone's sight from the start, they continued to nimbly leap between buildings, eliminating those dark creatures that tried to ambush the unit.

However, when the unit was only two kilometers from the city center, several giants composed of numerous dark creatures fused together blocked their unstoppable momentum.

Those giants' heights approached twenty meters, and their heads were covered in dense red dots, making them extremely unfriendly to those with trypophobia.

!

(Arrogant!)

!

(You will eventually become our rations!)

The giant dark creatures also shouted words that D-1999 and D-1247 could not understand.

However, the giants' shouting, in their eyes, was an expression of fear, indicating that their destination was tantalizingly close.

Unfortunately, the Tyrants could not pose an effective threat to these giant dark creatures.

The 3-meter versus 20-meter size difference is not something a Type T-103 Tyrant can handle; even if they released their coat restraints and actively entered their released form, the Tyrants are no match for these giant dark creatures.

Moreover, these giant dark creatures are not the giant centipede that the Stalker once faced, and their numbers are far more than just one.

In an instant, this "March Toward Death" team was shattered into pieces by the giant dark creatures and the countless dark creatures.

The team was split apart.

The D-class personnel and living corpses were forced to abandon the wide main thoroughfare, having only to skirmish with the dark creatures in the narrow alleys between buildings.

———————

…

Soon after.

A low building less than a hundred meters from the center of Sheheba.

D-1999 and D-1247, two D-class personnel, were hiding in a room on the second floor of the low building, facing east.

The two of them crouched, peeking their heads out from the balcony, gazing toward the cross street in the city center.

The fog in this area was relatively thin, and visibility had greatly improved.

Just look at the exact center of the cross street; there is a gate emitting a purple, eerie light.

Beyond the gate lies a wasteland, with the sky resembling a burning hellscape.

Moreover, they saw many two-meter-tall humanoid dark creatures dragging the corpses of their D-class comrades, lining up to pass through that eerie gate.

Conversely, the corpses of living corpses, Tyrants, and cloned cat faces were casually tossed aside by the dark creatures to one side of the gate, as if they despised such soulless bodies.

When the team was scattered, the two of them, taking advantage of the chaos, pressed forward in their charge and eventually arrived at this second-floor room.

Originally they could still hear sporadic gunfire and cries, but now it was utter silence, indicating that they might be the sole two survivors of the entire team.

"Dad! Don't leave me! Don't!" D-1999 still hears the hallucination in his ears.

D-1247 suddenly shakes his head, apparently having heard something as well.

He eases up.

"Buddy." D-1247, watching the movement ahead, says softly, "Looks like this situation needs a bait to lure those dog things away."

"…" D-1999 nods wordlessly.

"I'll go." D-1247 offers.

Hearing that, D-1999 turns his head, slightly surprised, to look at D-1247.

"Heh, don't think of me as noble, buddy. You're going into the gate side, and I'll tell you, if you can't deal with the source of those dog things, I won't spare you even as a ghost."

D-1247 speaks lightly and calmly.

"Fine." D-1999 isn't the pretentious type, and immediately nods in agreement.

The two then leave the second floor, bend and stride quickly through the alley, and finally arrive at a small courtyard on the west side of the crossroads.

"Take care, buddy."

D-1247 smiles, pats D-1999's shoulder, then lifts a 12mm‑caliber pulse machine gun and rushes out of the courtyard toward the south without looking back.

"Tap tap tap!" the machine gun's frantic spray.

"Dog things! Your father is here! Ha ha! Die! Die!" and D-1247's loud shouts.

!!

Roar!

This commotion successfully draws the attention of the vast majority of the black monsters, which also shout as they give chase to D-1247.

(End of chapter)