Chapter 1265: Escape

Two helicopters, loaded with Disaster Extermination squad members and supplies, hovered eight hundred meters above the northern planting zone of Liehuo Mountain.

Top sniper Xia Qing hung from a rope twenty meters beneath the helicopter, one hand gripping the rope, the other holding a megaphone. The snipers and gunners aboard both helicopters, including Luo Pei, all pointed their weapons at Liehuo Mountain.

Xia Qing looked down. The Green-Eyed Wolf King, which had originally led the beast tide, had already pulled back to the rear of the tide, howling to drive the attack forward.

The weathered old gray wolf charging at the very front began to accelerate. From the look of it, it would be the first to scale Liehuo Mountain's six-meter-tall solid wall—charging toward both the battlefield and its death.

Although its point of attack was excellent, it surely anticipated that leaping in from such a height would very likely get it shot by human snipers. In its decisive running, Xia Qing saw the resolve of one going to a noble death.

After it died, the beasts it had led—a tsunami-like horde that had already lost its reason—would crash straight into Liehuo's wall. Even if they couldn't topple the wall, the fierce beasts in the middle and rear of the tide would not slow down. They would trample the "ramps" of bodies built up by the beasts at the front, scale the wall and keep surging forward, flattening every obstacle in their path.

The only things that could stop them were exhaustion and death.

This—this is a large-scale beast tide.

Xia Qing in the air raised the megaphone and shouted sternly down below, "Disaster Extermination Commander Zhang San orders: personnel remaining on Liehuo Mountain are not to attack the beast tide, or they will be shot dead on the spot!"

"Disaster Extermination Commander Zhang San orders: personnel remaining on Liehuo Mountain are not to attack the beast tide, or they will be shot dead on the spot!"

"..."

It sounded as though Xia Qing's address was meant for the Liehuo squad, but in truth it was for the old wolf leading the beast tide against Liehuo Mountain. Xia Qing wanted the old wolf to know that Third Brother was already punishing the humans who had invaded the wolves' territory and poisoned the wolf pack—its companions—and she wanted it to calm down, stop advancing after taking Liehuo Mountain, and not, upon finding no humans there, drive the beast tide to attack human territories or bases.

Apart from Luo Pei, the snipers and gunners aboard the helicopter only understood the literal meaning. Their weapons were aimed at Liehuo Mountain, searching for Liehuo squad members who hadn't taken shelter underground.

The moment any were spotted, they would be shot dead on the spot!

Below, fierce beasts roared, the earth trembled.

The old wolf charging at the very front, using the terrain to spring high into the air, glanced at Xia Qing in the sky, then leapt over Liehuo's wall. The expected bullets and shells with their acrid smell did not come. The old wolf landed steadily, looked up at Xia Qing once more, then locked onto its direction with sight, smell, and hearing, and charged straight toward the building with the densest human scent!

Bang! Bang! Bang...

One by one, the maddened beasts slammed into Liehuo's three-meter-thick, six-meter-tall wall. Beasts in the middle of the tide trampled the corpses and still-struggling bodies of those ahead, scaled the wall and dropped into Liehuo squad's territory. Those still alive after landing kept surging forward, and one planting greenhouse after another at the foot of Liehuo Mountain was quickly leveled.

"Aoo—oooo—"

The Green-Eyed Wolf King, driving the attack, let out a resounding howl and led its wolf pack through the passage carved by the beast tide, charging murderously into Liehuo Mountain.

The megaphone hanging in the air kept broadcasting the commander's order again and again. Xia Qing, already back inside the cabin, used her sniper rifle to protect the old wolf that had charged into Liehuo Mountain first and was now bouncing rapidly across the rows of buildings, searching for enemies.

Bang! Bang! Bang...

Dozens of giant lizards, leading the beast tide from the southern evolution forest of Hui-1, slammed into Liehuo Mountain's southern wall, each impact producing a dull thud, blood flying in all directions.

Looking down from the air, the beast tide looked very much like a flood of blood blocked by a solid wall—but that wall held for only three seconds. Three seconds later, the beast tide surged through the wall and kept advancing, flattening the pharmaceutical factory, the food processing plant, and greenhouse after greenhouse in southern Liehuo Peak.

Wherever the beast tide passed, building wreckage and corpses lay everywhere. Large numbers of birds circling above Liehuo Mountain seized the chance to dive down and feast.

As beasts died one after another, the beast tide's attack power weakened and its pace slowed. But the hundred-plus evolved wolves, evolved tigers, and evolved hyenas driving the tide did not slow. They howled furiously within Liehuo squad's territory, charging about wildly, wanting to tear the enemies apart.

Inside the Disaster Extermination Command cabin on Hui-1 Number Twenty-Eight Mountain, Seeing Xin Yu reported, "Commander, I've input the image of the giant hyena that broke into Liehuo Mountain into the database. It's been confirmed as a member of the evolved hyena pack that originally occupied the Hui-1 Number One mountain area."

Everyone knew that after the Liehuo squad moved out of the safe zone and occupied Hui-1 Southern Number One Mountain, they named the mountain with the unpolluted spring Liehuo Mountain—but few remembered which kind of fierce beast that mountain area had originally belonged to.

"Giant evolved hyena, approximately seven years old, leader of the Hui-1 southern hyena pack." Zhang Song read off the data on the screen. "In other words, when the Liehuo squad occupied Liehuo Mountain and drove off the hyena pack, this giant hyena was still a half-grown pup. It drove the beast tide back to Liehuo Mountain probably to take back its territory."

Zhang San glanced at the not-too-ugly ugly dog on the screen and ordered, "Order Containment Zone Four to speed up the disaster extermination progress, and confirm the situation of the hundred and twenty-five Liehuo squad members in the underground shelter."

"Yes." After three attempts, the aide reported, "Commander, we cannot establish contact with the personnel in the Liehuo Mountain underground shelter."

"Didn't expect this beast to still be alive."

Inside the Liehuo Mountain underground shelter. Through images captured by the three still-undamaged ground cameras, Deng Peng, captain of the Liehuo Seventh Combat Squad, recognized the giant hyena standing on their roof howling.

"The giant lizards were definitely brought here by the Apocalypse Cult. Once the captain gets back, we'll go wipe out those damn dogs."

"Who brought the northern wolf pack here? Professor Fu Tianfeng or Frost?"

"..."

A squad member rushed over. "Captain Qu, the ground base station and power generation equipment are all destroyed. We've lost contact with the outside. The stored electricity here will only last seven hours."

The Liehuo squad members, who had been cursing under their breath, stopped and looked toward Vice Captain Qu Fangzhou ahead.

Qu Fangzhou, standing before the screen, calmly ordered, "Shut down all non-essential lighting. Wait for rescue. Deng Peng, I'm leaving this to you. Seventh Squad stays; the rest of you, follow me."

Deng Peng bowed respectfully. "Yes. Please be careful."

Non-evolved Qu Fangzhou's combat power was very low, but no one in the Liehuo squad dared look down on her. Because she was the brain of the Liehuo squad.

Qu Fangzhou nodded, led the team to the innermost part of the underground shelter. Huo Fei, captain of the Tenth Squad responsible for protecting her, pressed a section of cement wall that looked no different from any other, and pushed open a hidden door.

Qu Fangzhou led over a hundred people, carrying large quantities of weapons, equipment, and supplies, into the pitch-dark underground passage, and via the underground river left the Liehuo Mountain they had painstakingly built up over many years.