Chapter 1401: Pincer Attack from Above and Below

In the northern part of Hui-1's Evolution Forest, the shrubs, mutated grass, and even large trees on both sides of a beast trail less than half a meter wide were violently trampled flat by a beast tide of several hundred wild beasts surging forward like a mudslide.

These out-of-control mutated animals—large ones like fanged wolves and foam-mouthed wild boars, small ones like blood-red rabbits and bulging-muscled rat packs—were driven by the desire to tear apart and devour everything, roaring and charging forward in pursuit of one another.

Wherever the beast tide passed, animals still in their right minds scattered in all directions, while those already out of control or on the verge of losing control roared to meet it—either being trampled into a pulp of flesh or becoming part of the beast tide itself.

Before the beast tide lay a blanket of pale yellow mutated snow; in its wake, countless flesh and blood mingled into the black slush.

Looking down at the beast tide from the air and standing on the ground resisting it were two entirely different kinds of震撼.

A gust of wind swept past, and the helicopter visibly tilted.

Peng Jian steadied himself against a grab bar to keep from falling backward, confirmed that the raptors drawn by the smell of blood had not taken the helicopter as a target, then quickly glanced back at Xia Qing, who had a rappel rope tied around her waist and was kneeling on one knee on the cabin floor, aiming her sniper rifle at the target.

From this move, one could see the difference between a strength-evolved sniper and other snipers.

Snipers, including Luo Pei and Peng Jian himself, would rest their rifles on the flexible shooting mount by the cabin door when firing down from a helicopter. Strength evolvers had abundant physical power and didn't need a mount.

The gale rocked the helicopter, and Xia Qing's muzzle shifted slightly as she focused intently. She couldn't fire at the speed-evolved leopard running while concealed by tall trees—she was waiting for the right moment.

Finally, the southern Wolf King, swimming against the current, arrived—and sure enough, its target was the speed-evolved leopard leading the beast tide's charge!

The speed-evolved leopard was intercepted by the Wolf King and had to change direction. When it changed direction, the beasts drawn by its scent also lost their bearings, and the animals at the very front of the beast tide slowed down.

But the animals in the middle and rear kept up their pace, surging forward like a torrent, trampling the corpses of the front-runners as they pressed on.

"Gaaah—roar————"

The Broken-Brow Monkey gripped the dead-branch-like antlers on the驯鹿's head and let out an extremely ferocious roar from deep in its throat, ordering the speed-evolved leopard to keep charging forward.

Macaques on both flanks accelerated forward to kill the evolved wolf blocking the leopard's path. But before they reached the middle of the beast tide, six evolved wolves leaping out from the forest intercepted them.

A grey-white speed-evolved wolf led the way, quickly killing two macaques before charging alone toward the screaming Broken-Brow Monkey.

The Broken-Brow Monkey immediately sprang off the驯鹿, grabbed the trunk of a large tree, and scrambled forward through the branches.

The animals began to fight, and the helicopter following the Wolf King slowed down.

Xia Qing gave the order, "Eryong, hover."

"Copy."

Observer Zhu Wei quickly left the co-pilot seat, opened the machine-gun firing port at the front of the fuselage, and locked onto the target with binoculars. In her eyes, there was only that evolved macaque scrambling swiftly through the trees.

In the eyes of top sniper Xia Qing, behind her to the right, there was only the evolved leopard—blocked by Lord Cui Yan the Wolf King, forced to leap into the trees, and running forward by stepping on the branches.

The wolf pack was fighting; the human snipers on the helicopter stared fixedly at their targets, not moving a muscle.

The moment had come! Xia Qing decisively pulled the trigger.

As the "bang" of the shot echoed inside the cabin, Xia Qing used the radio to ask, "Sister Zhu?"

Zhu Wei immediately reported the target's position: "The target macaque is on a cypress tree at the beast trail's four-o'clock position; to the left of the cypress is a grey-white high-level speed-evolved wolf."

Xia Qing swiftly moved her muzzle, using the still-hot barrel to lock onto the large cypress whose branches and leaves were swaying slightly.

The Broken-Brow Monkey clearly realized that, to it, the humans in the helicopter were a greater threat than the old wolves on the ground. Hiding among the dense branches and leaves of the large cypress, it roared loudly, calling its companions back to cover it.

The beast tide had already moved on, making the Broken-Brow Monkey's cries sound especially clear.

When two macaques that hadn't been entangled by the wolf pack turned back to support the Broken-Brow Monkey, Lord Cui Yan the Wolf King—faster than them—arrived, leaping to bite one macaque that had landed on the ground to death, cutting off the path ahead; the other macaque could only circle to a nearby large tree and run back along it.

"Bang!"

Before it could rejoin its leader, it was shot dead by Xia Qing. The Broken-Brow Monkey, isolated and without support, dared not cry out again.

Lao Si looked up at the helicopter, retreated a dozen steps, then charged forward at full speed, his sharp claws raking fiercely into the large cypress. A powerful strike from a dual speed-and-strength evolver was, of course, still not enough to bring down a cypress thicker than a person's embrace.

But, it was enough!

The roar and the trembling treetop exposed the Broken-Brow Monkey's position to Xia Qing's muzzle, and she pulled the trigger a second time.

"Bang!"

"Creak—"

"Thud!"

As the shoulder-shot Broken-Brow Monkey let out a scream, Lao Si slammed into the large cypress a second time, and Xia Qing pulled the trigger a second time, then shouldered her sniper rifle. The Broken-Brow Monkey—the same one that had fled and abandoned its troop when chased by the old wolf last time—was hit in the head by Xia Qing and fell from the cypress.

"Target eliminated. Eryong, return immediately." Landing alone in Hui-1's Evolution Forest was too dangerous; they had to get back to the Disaster-Slaying Camp before the red-level mutated snow arrived.

"Copy!" Eryong accepted the order excitedly.

"Awooo—wooooo————"

The old wolf below let out a victorious howl; the wolf pack's morale soared, and the remaining few macaques fled in panic.

"Reporting to Commander, Sister Qing has eliminated the high-level speed-evolved leopard and the macaque leader. We are returning. Copy that—on the way back, snipe large beasts in the beast tide."

After hearing Zhu Wei's words, Xia Qing ordered, "Eryong, follow the beast tide, maintain a constant speed at 1500 altitude. Sister Zhu teams up with Peng Jian to snipe large beasts on the left side of the beast tide; I'll take the right."

"Copy." Eryong lowered the flight altitude and caught up with the beast tide.

At this altitude, the technical difficulty of shooting down non-speed-evolved large animals from above was not high. The mid-level sniper Peng Jian, a level-five visual evolver, teamed with observer Zhu Wei could fully handle this mission; for top sniper Xia Qing, it was even less of a challenge.

The two snipers began shooting targets, easing the pressure on their teammates blocking the beast tide echelons.

After the last round in the magazine was fired, Xia Qing's fingertip hooked and pressed—the spent casing and the empty magazine dropped onto the cabin floor together with a crisp "ding-dong"—and the modified extended thirty-round magazine she had drawn from the pouch on her back had already slid in with a "click," the magazine catch locking into place, seating perfectly, before her right index finger pulled the trigger again to snipe the target.

When a top sniper changed magazines, not a single millisecond was wasted, not a single extra movement made; the sound made Xia Wanxing beside her热血沸腾.

After Xia Qing emptied the magazine once more, she set down her sniper rifle. Xia Wanxing, who had been hoping to hear the magazine-change sound again, was deeply disappointed.

When Peng Jian had also shouldered his rifle and the helicopter began to descend, Xia Wanxing sidled up to Xia Qing, eagerly helping her close the cabin floor panel over the firing port, and asked, "Sister Qing, why did you stop shooting later on? I wanted to hear you change magazines one more time."

The sound of changing magazines was pleasant? Xia Qing certainly didn't think so.

Why did she stop shooting? Of course, because the rewards from killing the remaining targets weren't even worth the price of a single sniper round!