Chapter 19: The Beast Tide Draws Near, the Burning Thorns, and the One-Armed Crossbow

The news from the anvil was like a drop of water into a frying pan of oil, instantly making the hollow boil with tense foam. A tainted beast tide! A swarm of monsters from the stinking marsh, completely twisted by radiation! They had no reason, only the instinct to devour and destroy, like a moving calamity!

The news that Lame Wolf had been temporarily blocked at the broken bridge bought a sliver of breathing room, but it was brief and deadly. Once the beast tide reached the hollow, or Lame Wolf broke through the obstruction, Hope Outpost would be attacked from both sides!

Time had become the most extravagant thing of all.

"Reinforce! Light it up!" Sister Ai Li's voice carried an unquestionable decisiveness. She pointed at the newly arranged thorn walls. "Pour oil! Burn!"

Lin Mo instantly understood Sister Ai Li's intent—a fire wall! Using the animal fat they had rendered, turn the thorn walls into a burning barrier! Not only would it block the beast tide, it would also create a massive obstacle against any possible enemy assault!

He sprang into action at once, and together with Xiang Lingna, hauled out all the animal fat they had collected, including the reserves meant for the Molotov cocktails. Using a small bucket and rags, Xiang Lingna struggled to splash the thick, foul-smelling fat over the outermost thorns and branches of the thorn wall. Lin Mo was in charge of spreading the fat as evenly as possible, especially over the dry, easily ignited dead branches.

A sickening, fishy reek of fat hung in the air, but no one could spare a thought for it now.

Meanwhile, Sister Ai Li was not idle either. Though her left hand was ruined, the strength and precision of her right arm remained astonishing. She picked up the small backup light crossbow and walked over to Xiang Lingna, whose little face had gone pale with fright.

"Take it." Sister Ai Li thrust the crossbow into Xiang Lingna's hands, the motion a little stiff. "I'll teach you… to use it."

Xiang Lingna froze, staring at the cold weapon in her hands, then at Sister Ai Li's tightly wrapped hand, at a loss.

"Aim… squeeze here." Sister Ai Li steadied Xiang Lingna's arm with her right hand, helping her settle into position, and pointed at a scrap of sheet metal set up as a target in the distance. "Breathe… steady… squeeze!"

"Whoosh!" The bolt bit into the edge of the sheet metal, well off the center of the target.

"Again." Sister Ai Li's voice was flat, yet carried an undeniable force. She guided Xiang Lingna again and again to adjust her stance, control her breathing, aim at the target. Time was short; she could not train Xiang Lingna into a sharpshooter—only hope that at the critical moment, the girl could loose that one bolt, even if it only distracted an enemy for an instant!

Xiang Lingna bit her lip, eyes brimming with tears, but what shone through more was a stubbornness forced out by desperation. Again and again she drew the string, again and again she aimed, again and again she fired. Her accuracy was still poor, but her movements gradually lost their panic.

Lin Mo watched the scene, his heart a tangle of feelings. In her own way, Sister Ai Li was adding one thin thread of survival's capital for Xiang Lingna, and for this outpost.

The work of spreading the fat was soon done. Lin Mo carefully set aside the last of the fat for the three Molotov cocktails. Looking at the deadly band of thorns before him, soaked through with fat and exuding a dangerous air, he felt a measure of relief. All it would take was the beast tide or the enemy drawing close, a single flame set to it, and a wall of fire that devoured life would rise!

"Woo… aoo…"

Just then, a low, ragged, fury-laden howl rolled in from the western horizon like muffled thunder! The sound drew nearer, clearer, denser! The very earth seemed to tremble faintly!

They were here! The tainted beast tide!

Lin Mo's and Xiang Lingna's faces went deathly pale in an instant! Sister Ai Li also snapped her head up, her cold gaze fixed on the fog-shrouded horizon to the west!

There, amid the churning gray-yellow dust, countless twisted, grotesque figures surged toward the hollow like a black tide! They came in all shapes—some like wild dogs magnified several times over, bodies rotting and oozing pus; some like mutant boars with insectoid limbs; others simply lumps of writhing flesh studded with eyeballs and fangs! Their common traits were madness, bloodlust, and a thick, reeking stench of radiation!

The numbers of the beast tide far exceeded imagination! As far as the eye could see, a teeming mass, like a filthy flood bursting its dam!

"Light it!" Sister Ai Li barked, her voice cutting through the roars of the beast tide!

Lin Mo was already ready! He snatched up a still-burning stick left over from the earlier burning of plant ash, and with every ounce of strength hurled it at the oil-soaked thorn wall!

"Whoosh—!"

Tongues of flame, like greedy demons, licked at the fat in an instant! The dry thorns and fat erupted into fierce blaze! A wall of fire, two meters high, blazed up around the perimeter of the hollow! A wave of scorching heat washed over them, the firelight painting all three faces a deep red!

The few radiation beasts at the very front, hyena-like, were caught off guard and plunged headlong into the fire wall!

"Aooo—!!" Their shrill howls were swallowed by the flames in an instant! The stench of singed fur spread out! The beast tide behind them was checked by this sudden barrier of fire, its momentum stuttering! The beasts' instinctive fear of flame overrode their madness; at the fire wall the tide began to fall into chaos, shoving and trampling one another, letting out restless, frantic roars!

The fire wall worked! It had temporarily blocked the beast tide's frontal charge!

However, the numbers of the beast tide were simply too great! Fierce as the fire wall was, its reach was limited. Soon, large packs of radiation beasts began to work their way along both flanks of the fire wall, trying to circle around the flames and attack the hollow from other directions! Especially some swift-moving, giant lizard-like monsters, which were rapidly crawling toward the weakly defended flanks!

Worse still, Lin Mo saw within the beast tide some massive, armored rhinoceros-like monsters lowering their heads and, cloaked in raging flames, charging straight at the fire wall! Their hides were thick and tough; the flames could not kill them in any short time! Once they smashed a breach open…

"Molotovs! The flanks!" Sister Ai Li's voice rang out again. The short crossbow in her hand was already raised, its ghostly-blue bolt locked onto a giant radiation lizard trying to skirt the edge of the fire wall!

Lin Mo snatched up a Molotov at once; Xiang Lingna, in a fluster, used a torch to light the rag stuffed in the bottle's mouth! Flames leapt up in an instant!

"Throw!" Sister Ai Li commanded.

Lin Mo hurled the flaming bottle with all his might straight at the densest cluster of beasts on the flank!

"Boom!" The glass bottle smashed against the back of a boar-like monster and shattered! The sticky, burning fat spattered outward, clinging to several surrounding monsters and blazing up fiercely!

"Aoooo!!" The ignited monsters let out shrill howls, becoming crazed, careening fireballs that crashed into the rest of the beasts, triggering even greater chaos and conflagration!

It worked! Lin Mo's spirits lifted! He immediately grabbed the second Molotov, lit it, and hurled it at another wave of beasts pouring in from a different direction!

Xiang Lingna, summoning her courage, imitated Lin Mo and, with all her strength, threw her lit Molotov at a closer claw-beast trying to climb the barricade!

"Boom!" The bottle burst at the claw-beast's feet, and flames swallowed it in an instant!

Firelight, thick smoke, the roars and screams of beasts, the stench of singed fur… the perimeter of the hollow instantly became a chaotic hell! The burning fire wall and the Molotovs hurled in every direction temporarily checked the beast tide's assault, splitting them apart, igniting them, scattering them!

Sister Ai Li's short crossbow was like the Grim Reaper calling the roll; each time the ghostly-blue bolt left the string, it precisely took out an elite monster trying to break through the flames or scale the barricade! Her figure amid the firelight was like a boulder—one arm bracing the crossbow, calm enough to chill the heart!

Hope Outpost, amid raging flames and beastly roars, was like a reef in a furious sea, stubbornly holding its ground!

Yet the burning fat would eventually run out, and the thorns would turn to ash. The beast tide was endless; the chaos was only temporary. Lin Mo had only one Molotov left in his hand! Sister Ai Li's bolts were also more than half spent!

What tightened the knot in Lin Mo's chest even more was that, behind the chaotic beast tide, on the western ridgeline, several figures astride modified iron steeds had appeared! They had stopped at a safe distance, coldly watching the hollow's battle, like vultures waiting for their prey to tire.

Blood Claw! Lame Wolf's men! Had they broken through the beast tide's obstruction? Or were they merely advance scouts?

The leader was not particularly tall, even somewhat thin, one leg seeming a little off—Lame Wolf? But what he held was not a chainsaw blade, but a sniper rifle fitted with a scope, its cold metallic sheen glinting! The muzzle was slowly sweeping, as if searching for the most valuable target.

A cold killing intent pierced through the flames and the beast roars, locking onto the hollow!

A chill crept up Lin Mo's spine! The true threat had finally bared its fangs!