Chapter 190: Chapter 190: The Last Hour
Center of Combat Island.
Lin Yi stood firmly on the frontline.
"Don’t get yourself trapped! Understand?"
"Understood, boss!" the soldiers shouted.
"Waaah!" the Beastmen echoed.
The Undead Army quickly reached the canyon, but before they arrived, they were bombarded by a barrage from several homemade small catapults.
Dozens of clay pots filled with Burning Agent smashed into the zombie horde, instantly igniting an inferno that reduced the zombies to ashes in seconds.
But the Zombie General was not foolish; he had seen this trick before, so he immediately isolated the burning zombies to prevent the fire from spreading to the others.
Without fuel, the fire soon died out.
Despite this, a single clay pot could eliminate a dozen or more enemies, slightly slowing the advance of the zombie army.
The zombie horde drew ever closer.
Bullets, arrows, and magic mercilessly and continuously pounded these undead beings.
The firepower was so intense that the undead had to tread over thick layers of their fallen comrades’ bodies to advance.
But zombies felt no emotion and knew no fear.
As long as they were "alive," they would press onward toward their target. Each step the zombie army took cost hundreds of zombies their lives.
Before long, the undead collided with the first layer of spiked barricades set to block infantry.
These barricades had three sharp steel bars pointing in different directions, one even pointing toward the sky, bound to cause immense damage.
Yet when the massive zombie horde charged together, inevitably some zombies were pinned on the barricades like butterflies on needles.
The spiked barricades temporarily halted the zombie advance.
Some zombies were maimed or killed, but those behind stepped right over them, forming small mounds of bodies almost instantly.
Though the spiked barricades could block regular zombies, they were ineffective against Second Level mutants.
The barricades were not anchored firmly enough to withstand the immense power of the burly mutants.
These strong creatures simply rammed the barricades aside and continued pushing forward.
However, since zombies were everywhere, the barricades they knocked over crashed into other zombies.
Fifteen meters ahead lay another layer of spiked barricades, followed by a third.
In total, there were five layers...
Another 150 meters forward was the first steel wall.
Reaching that wall would not be easy!
A group of sharpshooters was stationed in small mobile watchtowers, tasked with locating mutants and preventing them from getting too close.
They were all equipped with Laser Rifles but only fired on mutants to avoid overheating the guns.
The opportunity to gain experience was simply unimaginable!
Lin Yi was among them and reserved one VIP position for Solomon.
As the battle intensified, a truck arrived at the back of the army, and over twenty civilian volunteers began unloading Killing Cocktail bombs.
This time, instead of glass bottles, they used clay pots, containing more explosive substances.
Thousands of these bombs, of various sizes, gathered in the volcano crater. Some were for the catapults, while others were for throwing.
Though the zombie horde advanced slowly, it steadily approached the wall, leaving a thick layer of bodies in its wake.
In places where Hellfire had burned them to ashes, the gaps were filled again with more corpses as soon as the fire died out.
Bam!
A spike suddenly pierced Lin Yi’s chest.
But against his Fourth Level Armor and powerful attributes, such an attack had no effect.
"There’s a spitting zombie!"
He traced the spike’s source to a cunning zombie hiding among ordinary zombies.
Lin Yi fired a bullet.
The mutant, shot in the head, fell and was instantly swallowed by the zombie swarm.
"Be careful, when you see one spitting zombie, it means you can see more! Teruo, we need to boost perception!"
The mutants hidden among ordinary zombies were hard to detect, and that’s when Teruo appeared and used his skills to accelerate the thinking process of all gunmen.
To them, time seemed to slow down, allowing them to aim faster and react more swiftly to threatening zombies.
As the mutant raised its head from the zombie crowd, ten laser beams shot toward it.
Just as Lin Yi predicted, many cunning mutants were concealed within the zombie horde.
The overall hit rate of the gunmen and machine gunners improved, further slowing the undead advance.
Beastman Warriors were assigned to throw the clay pots, as their strong arms were perfect for the task.
Dozens of clay pots flew overhead every second, forming an impenetrable Fire Wall, greatly reducing the zombie horde’s advance.
Yet despite the defenders’ best efforts, the enemy reached the wall.
The Zombie General issued some command, driving the zombies into a frenzy.
They seemed to go insane, charging maniacally at the wall.
The soldiers were caught off guard by this, and despite their utmost efforts, the zombies broke through to the wall.
Lin Yi waved his hand and gave the order.
"Trigger the first trap, then retreat!"
The soldiers immediately sprang into action.
The beastmen began hurling incendiary grenades more quickly, while the support team evacuated the ammunition.
Before the first wall at the edge of the canyon.
A small "gift" awaited the zombies.
Humans had felled a large number of trees, coated them with a burning agent, and placed them at the canyon’s edge.
They had prepared this trap well in advance, so everything was quickly set in place.
Dozens of huge logs fell from the edge of the canyon onto the zombies, crushing them, zombie bodies scattered everywhere.
But that wasn’t the main point; once the logs caught fire, the area before the first wall turned into a true sea of flames.
The beastman grenadiers continuously hurled more "kindling," ceramic jars filled with a burning agent, into this hellish blaze.
The zombies broke through the wall in several places, yet this didn’t stop the defenders from retreating in an orderly fashion, killing any enemy that got close to them in the process.
Once everyone safely withdrew behind the second wall, the passage was immediately sealed and reinforced.
The first wall held for almost an hour, during which both the second and third squads faced quite a few dangerous situations.
Predictably, the Zombie General sent his fastest mutants in pursuit. Consequently, the third squad on the west suffered some casualties.
The terrain in the west was rocky and difficult to traverse. During the tactical retreat, a truck suffered a flat tire and overturned.
Another truck was caught up by a swift third-level mutant. This monster was as big as a jeep and ran as fast as a race car...
Both trucks were rendered unusable, and no one knew what had happened to the humans and beastmen inside.
The terrain in the east was flatter and more open, so things progressed much more smoothly there.
Louis also drove his tank there.
However, the second and third squads were supposed to arrive simultaneously so they could face the enemy together.
Thus, the second squad sped up their retreat to catch up with the third squad.
About forty minutes later, both squads accelerated towards the north side of the canyon.
The second squad consolidated their position in the northern canyon and exchanged personnel with the third squad.
Then, the third squad set out to defend the beastmen’s Ark. The mages and shamans who had run out of magic power were withdrawn from the second squad and sent back to recover as quickly as possible.
The plan was for the third squad to attack from the rear of the undead army once the mages and shamans had recovered their magic power.
Then, once the north was cleared, the two squads would come to reinforce the first squad.
Soon, a battle broke out in the north, but only the fast mutants remained, most of which had been eliminated during the tactical retreat, so the northern soldiers mainly fought with ordinary zombies.
The defenses in the north were as robust as in the south, so the zombies were met with fierce attacks.
The southern defenders had just fallen back behind the fifth wall, and these ghouls were still in a state of rage.
The Zombie General was squeezing every last bit of power from his troops, causing muscles to explode as zombies ran, collapsing and never to rise again.
Due to the zombies’ insane fury, the army had to abandon catapults during the final retreat.
For the zombies demonstrated such leaping abilities that even gold medal athletes would be shamed...
[Time remaining: 00:59:00]
"Listen up, guys! We’re just one hour away from victory!"
"Boss, it’s guys and girls!"
"Girls? Aren’t you a guy?"
Lin Yi looked at Solomon in surprise, scanning him up and down.
Solomon was somewhat embarrassed: "Boss... I meant there are women fighting with us..."
Some soldiers chuckled over the radio.
"Alright, how’s the situation up north?"
"Most of the Zombie General’s forces are concentrated south to deal with you. We’re still at the third wall, and things aren’t bad."
Hubert’s voice came through the earphones, with background sounds of machine gun fire.
"Copy, then you’re the reinforcements. I have a feeling we’ll soon confront that leader..."
"Understood, I’ll send Louis with our thirty best archers from the rear."
"How about you, Terghai? Ready?"
"Hahaha! I was born ready!"
The beastman lord replied eagerly, itching for revenge for the morning’s attack.
~~~~~~
In some dark place, inside a gigantic fleshy cocoon, something began to move.
Suddenly, five fingers tore through the cocoon, followed by another ten fingers slightly below the first five.
These fingers gripped the cocoon, ripping it apart. A deep green liquid gushed from the cocoon, and a creature emerged from it.
This was a gigantic humanoid creature about seven meters tall, with red skin and four arms.
"Awooo!" The giant roared, then closed his eyes, observing the entire battlefield through the eyes of his subordinates.
With another roar, he left the lair, a massive underground parking lot in the city.
His roar was answered, and monsters began to gather around him.
Dozens, perhaps even hundreds of third-level mutants followed the giant as he moved toward the center of the island...