Chapter 301: I Will Still Stand in Front of You

Chapter 301: I Will Still Stand Before You

When the interleaved unit suffered its first casualty, the bloody battle truly unfurled its curtain.

The main tide of beasts finally arrived, and the combat slipped into a close‑quarters melee.

Attack, redeploy, resupply, and attack again.

The ferocity of the fight rose to unprecedented heights, the tempo quickening to a point where there was no room to breathe.

Of the daily sorties flown by the three commissioned bombers, more than a third are devoted to dropping supplies.

Yet even so, the supplies on the southwestern front remain a thin rope, ever on the brink of snapping.

Yu Qian, who had taken over the squad leader’s post, had gone 27 hours without sleep; there were too many things he did not understand, too many skills he still needed to learn.

Thus, even when his men finally seized a lull in the fighting, shaking off the pursuing monsters to claim a precious respite, he still had to stay in contact with Fuxi, constantly debating and revising the next phase of the plan.

He did not know how much longer he could endure.

But he knew the war against the beast tide would not end in the near future.

Perhaps, when the moment of his own fall arrives, someone will step forward and take his place?

That “successor” will have endured longer trials and study than he has.

When he finally gets the hang of it, it will likely not be as arduous as it was for him.

At that thought, Yu Qian felt a faint sense of solace.

He drew a deep breath, and a wave of putrid stench surged into his nostrils.

At first he thought it was merely the result of his long neglect of bathing.

But when he lowered his head to inspect, he discovered that somewhere in his chest rig hung a piece of a monster’s rotting flesh, silently decomposing in the slot that should have held a magazine.

He forced down his nausea, extracted the carrion from the pocket, tossed it aside with disgust, and then wiped his hands on the damp ground.

The other soldiers, mid‑meal, saw his motion; one deliberately made a gagging face, then burst into laughter.

“Ha ha.”

The first laugh rang out.

Then.

“Hahaha!”

The group erupted in uproarious laughter.

Yu Qian, a little embarrassed, forced a chuckle, then feigned sternness and said:

Everyone, check your gear.

Pay attention to every nook and cranny; any leftover carrion might harbor disease!

Understood.

The others laughed, nodded, and quickly set about examining the unseen corners together.

The scene reminded Yu Qian of his days back in the Imperial Capital.

In the capital, many would sit together, checking each other’s hidden spots.

Only then they were pulling out each other’s lice.

Now, what they were cleaning were the remnants of the flesh and blood of enemies they had slain.

“Is everyone done checking?”

Yu Qian asked.

“All checked!”

“All right!”

The others replied in turn.

Yu Qian raised his hand and said:

Then the rest is over; let’s move out.

We must rush to the mobile supply point to fetch the next batch of provisions.

The commander has assigned personnel to service our vehicles and gear; we should have about two hours to recuperate there.

Then we can steal a quick nap!

Copy that!

At the command, everyone boarded the vehicle at once.

The war‑horse vehicle roared thunderously, its wheels turning, splattering blood‑red earth.

This battle‑scarred war‑chariot pressed valiantly into the fray, its rear littered with the shattered corpses of countless monsters.

On the other side, the infantry‑tank coordination squad.

Huang Meng leapt from the tank; the rush of fresh air cleared his head, but the thick plume of gunpowder that clung to it nearly made him choke.

“Damn!”

“Why hasn’t the smoke cleared yet?”

Huang Meng spat, and the gunner who clambered out after him shook his head and replied:

“It’s not the smoke we fired.”

“It’s the haze released along the Banghu defensive line.”

“I heard the commander stockpiled a great deal of gunpowder to generate smoke, pairing it with a few thermal‑imaging night‑vision units for the artillery; the effect is impressive.”

“The smoke spreads over a kilometer; the beasts have lost their bearing and now linger around the outer rim of the Banghu defenses.”

“We should finally get a breather—though the tank’s condition is poor and needs urgent repair.”

“What’s the problem?”

Huang Meng frowned and asked.

“The auto‑loader.”

The gunner replied:

“It’s shaking badly; it feels like it could seize at any moment.”

“That’s not a big deal.”

Huang Meng shook his head:

“I asked Fuxi; the auto‑loader’s vibration is a common ailment of the 30A tank, nothing serious.”

“The shock‑absorption system, however, is in a dire state; the road is terrible, and the dampers have worn to sixty percent.”

“If we don’t replace it soon, we’ll be stranded here.”

“Moreover, the two cat‑cars have reached their limits.”

“There’s no way to fix them; if reinforcements can’t keep up, we’ll have to abandon the infantry‑tank combined tactics.”

The squad leader of the third unit, not far away, heard his words and hurriedly asked.

“Commander, where are we headed?”

“I don’t know either.”

Huang Meng let out a sigh.

“First report the situation to Captain Shen and see what his next orders are.”

“Our manpower is too thin, the attrition is too great, and the battle drags on far too long.”

“Now, virtually every squad has been pushed to its limit.”

“And the tide of beasts still numbers over one‑hundred and fifty.”

“It’s become almost impossible to fight—yet the good news is that our mission is nearly complete.”

“Nearly complete?”

The squad leader asked in astonishment:

“How can it be nearly complete? We still have so many monsters here.”

“Do you truly intend to exterminate every one of them? That’s absurd!”

Huang Meng chuckled and said:

“We were never meant to wipe them out, only to cooperate with the Bang Lake defensive line, using hammer‑anvil tactics to slice the swarming beasts heading southwest, preventing them from merging with the hordes from the northwest and due north.”

“But now, according to reconnaissance reports, the beast tide from the northwest has already crossed Yiyang and is pressing eastward.”

“Only a handful of those monsters have veered off the main route toward Hanhui City.”

“If we can hold out another twenty‑four hours, we’ll create a full temporal gap between the two beast columns.”

“Then the expeditionary force on the Bang Lake line will fall back to Hanhui City and engage the stragglers.”

“And we can withdraw in one piece, returning to New Jinling City.”

“Understood,” the squad leader murmured thoughtfully.

“So our next move is: after the main force at New Jinling clears the beasts on the south and southeast flanks, we push northwest to confront that tide.”

“After we finish the northwest tide, we turn back to eradicate the southwest tide?”

“Congratulations, you’ve learned to answer on the fly.”

Huang Meng, puffed up with pride, recited a line he’d learned from an ancient sketch and then ordered:

“Everyone, get moving now.”

“Time is short; finish checking your gear and head to the mobile supply point for resupply.”

“We can rest there for three hours.”

“Then we’ll all get a good night’s sleep!”

Bang Lake defensive line.

He Shuo stood behind the line, his expression cold as he watched the expeditionary soldiers clearing the bodies of their comrades.

Just moments ago they had endured a battle of savage extremity.

As Li Xian had foreseen, this line was in fact a “glass barrier”; if it held, casualties would be negligible, almost unnoticeable.

Yet once breached, the death toll would explode, threatening to push the entire unit to the brink of collapse.

And in the defensive fight a few minutes earlier, their line had been pierced.

Several crimson “blood embryos” hatched from the corpses of monsters, but they did not charge outright; instead they kept shifting positions, using the cover of larger beasts to dodge a hail of bullets and artillery, slipping past Bang Lake to the front of the expeditionary line.

There, those “blood embryos” suddenly turned on the line, launching a coordinated assault.

When they slipped into the hastily‑dug trench, a slaughter began in earnest.

Razor‑sharp claws tore the flesh of the soldiers, while the panicked expeditionary troops and the reinforcement guard‑faith army from Jiujiang fired wildly, aimlessly trying to solve the problem with their weapons.

All in vain; the creatures moved too fast and were too close.

The bullets missed them entirely and even struck comrades in the same trench.

Though He Shuo had already sensed the anomaly and joined the fray, within a mere dozen seconds the casualties had already risen above twenty.

By the time he finally cleared all the infiltrated blood embryos, the death count stood at thirty‑six.

Yet that was not the worst loss.

Both battle arrays were thrown into chaos, and even the artillery positions suffered disruption.

A brief fire‑power void opened in the Bang Lake line, and seizing the gap, two colossal monsters swam across the lake into striking range.

Their massive bodies crushed the humans beneath them, and enormous bone spikes reaped lives with surgical precision.

With little time for a more measured response, after firing a rocket and a recoilless gun at the first monster, He Shuo watched helplessly as the Sanctified Blood‑Keeper Zhou Yan led a squad toward the second monster, detonating a modified anti‑tank mine beneath it.

Of the four Sanctified Blood‑Keepers, three escaped; the fourth, as if relieved, met his end calmly in the explosion.

His blood mingled with the monster’s, staining the entire line a deep crimson.

The monster was finally slain, and He Shuo at last played his last trump card, unleashing a massive cloud of smoke.

Vision was obscured, and the beast tide withdrew temporarily.

Yet the Bang Lake line’s casualties surged past seventy.

Over a tenth of the force.

And that was despite a relatively prompt response.

He Shuo wondered whether his squad could endure another breach of this magnitude.

—

By contrast, Li Xian seemed suddenly buoyed with confidence, his spirits lifting a few notches.

“We can hold them.”

Li Xian spoke:

“These men have been forged; they now have the nerve to face the monsters!”

“As long as they confront the beasts head‑on, we will win!”

“That’s not it.”

He Shuo shook his head slowly.

“They haven’t been forged; they’ve simply run out of retreat.”

“The morale string is being pulled tighter and tighter; we must handle the tension with care.”

“Too loose and it snaps; too tight and it breaks.”

“That tension—”

“In any case, we must hold for another twenty‑four hours.”

“Notify everyone: after the bodies are dealt with, rest on site.”

“Whatever good things we still have, bring them all out.”

“It is very likely that this will be the last meal for most of us here before we sacrifice ourselves.”

Jinling New City.

Chen Jian stood on the plaza outside the main thoroughfare of Base 011, and before him stood a meticulously selected force of one hundred and twenty warriors, chiefly composed of veteran soldiers of the Huaxia Army and outstanding recruits from the reserve.

These warriors now bore a new designation.

Huaxia Army, First Assault Company.

Like the previously formed Interleaving Company, they too were assigned a purpose.

And this mission was simple enough to be summed up in a single sentence.

It was this: under Chen Jian’s lead, they would depart Base 011, advance to its southern flank, and meet the beast tide gathering near White Horse Town, arriving from the south and southeast.

This time, they were not merely to contain and block the beast tide.

They would wield every weapon at their disposal, sparing no cost, to eradicate the tide of beasts utterly.

The firepower array had been pushed to its limit.

Tanks, tow‑mounted artillery, rockets, unmanned combat swarms, Attack‑17 drones, and self‑destruct trucks bearing nuclear warheads.

All the most elite personnel gathered here, and all the most advanced armaments were concentrated in this very spot.

They possessed neither a reason nor an opportunity to fail.

Should their mission falter, the chain‑link battle deployment would collapse.

In the end, the Huaxia Army might be driven back into Base 011 by the crushing beast tide, only to trigger all the nuclear warheads and meet a slow, lingering death.

The responsibility of the Assault Company was immense.

Gazing upon each face, tinged with tension yet animated by a fierce, war‑like spirit, Chen Jian drew a deep breath.

Then he lifted the microphone and addressed the soldiers below:

“Our mission is already crystal clear; the platoon and squad leaders have briefed you all, so I shall not repeat it here.”

“I wish to reiterate one point.”

“The Assault Company is the pivotal force in our war against the beast tide.”

“If the Assault Company triumphs, we shall triumph.”

“If the Assault Company falls, we are most likely to fall as well.”

“Therefore, every warrior, every comrade of the Assault Company must summon a resolve of two hundred percent.”

“Behind you lies not only your families and our homeland.”

“You bear the hope of all Huaxia, indeed of the entire human race.”

“We shall inevitably liberate humanity from the monsters’ claws.”

“For this lofty goal, we will sacrifice everything.”

“Now, everyone, prepare yourselves.”

“Check your gear, ready your weapons.”

“We will set out shortly.”

“This time, I will lead the charge.”

“I shall still stand before you!”

(End of Chapter)