Chapter 50: Who Says Metal Jets Aren't Fireworks

Chapter50: Who Says Metal Jets Aren't Fireworks

What world-famous paintings exist under the moonlight?

Chen Jian only remembers two.

One is the compatriot's crescent sky charge, the other is Spider-Man descending from the heavens.

But now, he feels he has seen a third.

The massive, terrifying, blood-soaked monster leaps high, then slams down hard, shattering the already weathered, fragile buildings.

Dust erupts like an explosion; if not for the drones in the air having identified the heat signature and maintaining tracking, Chen Jian would even doubt whether his squad could still pinpoint the monster's exact location.

"Do we leave!? It's still not too late!"

Beside him, Xu Lie slays a charging mole rat, his voice hoarse as he asks.

He is truly afraid; if before he merely felt the threat of death, now death is truly right before his eyes.

"We can't leave."

Chen Jian quickly unfolds the weapon rack, takes down the mortar, sets it up, and says to Lei Jie:

"Continuous bombardment, drone calculates impact point, block it!"

"He Shuo, see if you can hit its leg; even a few seconds delay is enough!"

"Shen Yue goes to help Lei Jie, one cannon each!"

"Understood!"

"Received!"

With the great enemy before them, Chen Jian's squad of four shows no panic.

They continue to execute each motion in orderly fashion, seemingly unaware they might die here in a minute.

"What exactly do you want to do?? Your weapons can't kill it!"

"Leave now, we still have a chance to escape!"

"We can't win! You can't win either!"

"You don't know shit, we specialize in fighting unwinnable battles."

Chen Jian raises the 191 and fires a few quick bursts, while simultaneously the weapon rack on his shoulder holding the individual anti-tank rocket launcher has already deployed.

"Lei Jie, give me your tube."

"I want to fire a double salvo, speed!"

"Catch!"

Lei Jie loads a shell into the mortar with one hand, and with the other throws the detached tube toward Chen Jian.

Chen Jian snags the tube, quickly deploys the sight, and stands still in place.

His gaze follows the monster's slow movement, while at this moment Lei Jie and Shen Yue, each operating a mortar, have already fired the first salvo.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

The fragmentation shells, accompanied by a whistling scream, slam down hard; one lands less than ten meters in front of the monster, the other again strikes the monster's back armor.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

The blast's shockwave disrupts the judgment of the mole rats surging toward the eight-person squad; they dazedly halt in place, turning their heads trying to locate the sound's direction.

The pressure on the four members of the Holy Blood squad eases, yet now they can't help at all.

Feelings of helplessness and dying despair surge together; watching the monster already "within arm's reach," Xu Lie grits his teeth and says:

"We're leaving, we don't need to accompany you to your deaths!"

"Go!"

The words fall; Xu Lie leaps down the overpass, but when he looks back, he finds his teammates haven't followed.

Li Shi still holds the makeshift shield of scrap steel he hastily assembled, standing before Chen Jian; Xie Liu fumbles nervously mixing his potion, then quickly splashes it on the ground around the squad, seemingly trying to mask their scent.

Zeng Yi likewise has already jumped down the overpass, but he is not retreating; he charges toward the group of mole rats idling in the open space.

He glances back at the incessantly shouting Xu Lie, then without hesitation charges in.

The long blade drinks blood.

Chen Jian has no time to manage the Holy Blood squad's split; he also knows the situation has become extremely perilous.

The distance between them is now only eight hundred meters; if they cannot decide victory within those eight hundred meters, the outcome is inevitable.

——

However, he is not entirely without confidence.

Two anti-tank rocket launchers, paired with unidentified-model metal jet armor-piercing rounds.

If they hit the body, they may not cause the monster to drop dead on the spot.

But what if they hit the head?

In this world, no carbon-based lifeform's brain matter can withstand the 2000-degree heat of a metal jet.

What carapace, what biological armor—I'll turn it into scrambled brains! I only need time.

Just a narrow, brief, yet crucial window of opportunity.

Chen Jian takes a deep breath, disengages the safety on the DZJ19 rocket launcher.

At this moment, Shen Yue and Lei Jie continue to bombard the monster.

Each landing point of its jumps is calculated by the PDA over a second in advance, and using that second-plus delay, each of their shots lands precisely near the monster.

Explosion sounds continue; the monster's movements are slowed, the distance closes to three hundred meters, and Chen Jian shouts loudly:

"He Shuo, what the hell are you still waiting for?!"

"I'm waiting for it to jump!"

"When it jumps, its legs dangle!"

Chen Jian glances at He Shuo; the latter's barrel is already raised.

The next second, the monster leaps again.

And this time, He Shuo hesitates not, pulling the trigger.

"Boom!"

The incendiary round strikes the monster's left hind leg joint head-on, blood erupts, but the monster seems oblivious.

However, when it lands, things change.

The damaged skeletal structure can no longer support its heavy weight; as the full mass presses onto the left leg, the hind leg snaps at a terrifying ninety-degree angle.

"Boom!"

The monster tumbled to the ground, struggling to rise, but was instantly pinned down by Lei Jie, who seized the opportunity with a single blast grenade.

“Last two rounds!”

“My last shot!”

Lei Jie and Shen Yue reported in turn; Chen Jian shifted his gaze to the smart eyepiece, the rangefinder showing he was now 200 meters from the beast in a straight line.

We could get a little closer.

Another fifty meters and I’d feel more confident.

“Don’t hold back—finish it!”

“Holy Blood, fall back! Take position behind us!”

Chen Jian issued the order again, then drew a deep breath and opened his mouth.

At that moment, everything around fell silent.

Under the moonlight, the monster writhed and rolled to its feet; deprived of its leaping ability, it lurched toward the eight of us, almost crawling and sliding.

The relentless barrage had stripped it of reason, flooding its already sizable brain with a blood‑thirsty frenzy.

All it now desired was to crush those loathsome ants.

When the distance closed to 150 meters, the beast rose upright, brandishing its astonishingly long foreclaws.

Its gaping maw stood open, ready to swallow the ants whole once they lay lifeless beneath its claws.

Opportunity.

Chen Jian squeezed the trigger with extreme restraint and utmost gentleness.

At the same instant, the rocket launcher mounted on the rack fired in sync.

Hsss—

A soft hiss, and the projectile arrived in an instant.

The slow, smoke‑trailing rockets you see in movies are pure fiction.

At a hundred meters, the shell struck the target almost the moment the trigger was pulled.

The fuse ignited, the explosive detonated, the metal liner compressed then liquefied by heat, jetting forward from the warhead’s core at over nine thousand meters per second.

The searing flame bored through the monster’s flesh, skull, and brain.

Two golden jets pierced it from front to rear, exiting through the hindbrain.

A mist of blood mingled with a bright yellow flash, blossoming beneath the full moon like a brilliant firework.

Chen Jian tossed aside the spent tube and raised his rifle once more.

The next instant, the monster’s massive form—

—crashed to the ground with a thunderous thud!

(End of Chapter)