Chapter 59: Attacked from Both Sides

“Artillery team requesting immediate support!!”

The desperate cry from the artillery team blared through the command center. Li Chengming sprang to his feet, eyes glued to the drone feed revealing the dire situation on the artillery’s flank.

No fewer than two hundred soldiers had encircled the artillery unit. The perimeter guards had all perished, leaving only the crew trapped inside their vehicles.

Li Chengming’s fists clenched with rage as he watched the screen. He slammed his palm in fury.

“That bastard Cao Muhua dared to ambush us! Commander, let me take him out myself!”

Wang Ji’s face was grim, his gaze fixed on the image of Cao Muhua among the group besieging the security team.

“Artillery team, fall back to the command post immediately!”

“Xiao Ning! Take two men—go support the artillery! Eliminate all hostiles!”

“Yes, sir!” The urgency was palpable—at once, the artillery commander ordered the vehicles to start.

Meanwhile, Huang Ning led two special operations troopers and launched their armored vehicle at top speed.

On the embattled artillery line, three self-propelled guns roared to life, crushing several of the attackers under their treads as tongues of flame spat from their firing ports.

Cao Muhua, hoping to seize the three artillery vehicles by trapping them, panicked as they began their escape.

“Kill them! Blow them to pieces!”

Several soldiers in the crowd raised rocket launchers, firing at the retreating artillery.

Watching the monitoring feed, Wang Ji gritted his teeth as the beleaguered self-propelled guns struggled through the rocket barrage.

“Commander, look!”

The surveillance operator shouted suddenly. Wang Ji focused on the hellish nest on screen, which trembled violently. Moments later, a shockwave burst from its center, hurling fire and debris skyward.

From the heart of the explosion, a lone figure slowly rose amid the inferno.

It was Cen Xiaolong.

Yet now, from Cen Xiaolong’s back sprouted eight spider-like legs, gleaming with dark metallic luster, and a blue crystal core was embedded at the center of the intricate patterns on his chest.

He opened his mouth, revealing jagged, serrated teeth, and let out a guttural roar of defiance to the heavens.

He lifted his gaze to the drone above, his voice chilling.

“Damn you… You’ve interrupted the great Ex’s evolution! You’ll all die!!”

A murderous aura erupted from the ruined nest.

Wang Ji wasted no time. “Lin Zheng, take your team—kill it!”

The feed was transmitted to the special ops AI system. Lin Zheng’s face was set.

“Roger! Thirty seconds to the battlefield!”

He pushed his exoskeleton’s systems to full power and surged toward the mutated spider monster at top speed.

“I’m on my way!” Dong Qi’s heavy strides left deep prints in the earth as he raced to catch up.

Wang Ji turned to the guard beside him. “Xiao Yong, bring me my exoskeleton armor.”

“Chengming, suit up and bring me Cao Muhua—alive!”

“Yes, sir, Commander!”

Wang Ji donned his full armor, slammed his fist into his palm, and charged from the command post.

Covering several kilometers in mere breaths, Wang Ji vaulted between buildings, leaping over the heads of three ranks of infantry, landing amid the horde of zombie abominations.

“Die!”

His chainsword whipped up a maelstrom of blood. The parasitic zombies fell before him with no resistance.

Like a reaper, Wang Ji carved a bloody path through the monsters, facing down two giant zombies that lunged at him.

“I haven’t got time for this!” He struck the ground, cleaving through two humanoid creatures, then leaped high and brought his chainsword down.

“Whirlwind Slash!”

The chainsword flashed, slicing through both giants. Wang Ji landed behind them, already surging forward. The monsters staggered a few steps before splitting from shoulder to waist, crashing to the ground.

“Commander! Magnificent!”

Cheers erupted from the soldiers behind, watching Wang Ji break through the monstrous tide and vanish from sight.

“Damn, that’s awesome!” Haozi exclaimed, longing for close combat but confined to frontline command.

On Cao Muhua’s side, two self-propelled guns had their drive systems destroyed, left as sitting ducks. He grinned.

“Leave a squad to finish them off! The rest of you—pursue and take down Wang Ji’s rabble!”

His men surged forward, racing toward the gunfire and chaos a few kilometers ahead.

Suddenly, heavy gunfire erupted ahead as dozens of his vanguard soldiers fled back in panic, their wits shattered.

“What is this? No retreat!” Cao Muhua drew his pistol and executed a deserter.

“Commander! Mechanical monsters! Run, we can’t fight them!” a squad leader wailed, collapsing before him.

Cao Muhua slapped him across the face in fury.

“Mechanical monsters? Stop spreading panic!”

“I’m serious, Commander! We have to retreat—now!”

Cao Muhua’s confidence was shattered, his ambush plan in ruins. Enraged, he shot the squad leader on the spot.

Then, from the smoke and fire ahead, a figure emerged—encased in exoskeleton armor, a machine god of war, chainsword dripping with blood and viscera.

“Commander Cao! You dared to cross my Independent Company—now you’ll taste my blade!” Huang Ning’s voice rang out.

Cao Muhua’s pupils contracted at the sight of this sci-fi killing machine.

“So Wang Ji was hiding this all along—such a weapon of war!”

“Surrender now and I’ll guarantee you a whole corpse!” Li Chengming arrived from the other side, his fury blazing, colliding with two slow-reacting soldiers in a spray of blood.

“Hahaha! Who lives and who dies is yet to be decided! Beast God Guard, transform!”

Backed into a corner, Cao Muhua downed a vial of crimson liquid. His dozen guards followed suit, drinking in unison like puppets.

A chorus of agonized roars—one by one, they mutated into giants over two meters tall, grotesquely twisted with crocodile jaws, wolf claws, tiger stripes.

Cao Muhua’s mutation was most extreme—nearly three meters tall, covered in black scales, drooling, eyes wild with madness.

“Kill!” he roared, charging at Huang Ning.

“Take no prisoners!” Huang Ning and Li Chengming exchanged a glance, then, with two other special ops soldiers, plunged into the fray.

Blood sprayed as the two sides clashed in a storm of violence—there would be no pause until the matter of life and death was resolved.

Several hundred meters away, Redhair and Bai Ye stood together, observing through binoculars.

“Bai Ye, do you still think Wang Ji’s not backed by extraterrestrial forces? I’ll bet you a crystal core.”

Bai Ye lowered the binoculars, his voice heavy.

“It seems I underestimated him. With this armor, their combat power is S-class. Our A-class evolved warriors are no match.”

Redleaf smiled seductively, stowing her binoculars as she walked to the vehicles behind.

“Let’s go. Nothing more to see. Now that we know he represents a real power, we’ll treat him as an equal from now on.”

Bai Ye stood for a few seconds, lost in thought, then finally showed a strange smile and walked away.

Lin Zheng and his team sped through the ruined town, landing heavily before the mutated Cen Xiaolong. They stared warily at the monstrous spider behemoth.

Even with their two-meter exoskeletons, they looked like schoolchildren before this titan, forced to look up.

“So, it’s you who ruined Ex’s evolution?” Cen Xiaolong’s face twisted in rage, his two grotesque eyes fixed on Lin Zheng, his voice sending a wave of dust swirling.

“What nonsense! You’ve butchered countless innocents—today, we’re here to deliver justice!”

The spider monster Ex looked impatient. “Humans and your endless chatter. In this world, power is all that matters! I’ll kill you all and absorb every living thing!”

With that, he raised his razor-sharp spider limbs and lunged at Lin Zheng’s team.

They instinctively fired their rifles, 12.7mm rounds sparking off Ex’s carapace, leaving only shallow white marks.

“Evade!” Lin Zheng narrowly dodged a stabbing limb, rolling aside.

“Switch to armor-piercing!”

The team quickly reloaded and spread out, circling Ex and firing again. The armor-piercing rounds barely scratched the beast’s shell.

Infuriated by the attack, Ex shifted his bulk, crouched, and let out a piercing shriek. One of the team members suddenly clutched his head in agony, collapsing to his knees.

“Watch out, Captain! It’s a sonic attack!” the support specialist cried.

Lin Zheng saw the affected teammate, still reeling and unable to dodge the oncoming spear-like limb.

In that instant, he engaged his exoskeleton’s drive at full power, leaping to his teammate’s side and swinging his chainsword with a shout at the limb hurtling toward them.

A thunderous clang!

Lin Zheng realized he’d unleashed a B-rank skill—Whirlwind Slash.

With nearly fifty points of strength behind it, he hammered the spider’s limb ten times in rapid succession. The chainsword bit in, but before he could rejoice, the immense force nearly wrenched the weapon from his grip.

Ex howled in pain, then swung even harder at the two humans beneath him.

The limb, thrown off by Lin Zheng’s blow, just missed his teammate’s vitals, instead piercing the arm’s armor and spraying blood as it hurled them both a dozen meters away.

Lin Zheng, ignoring the ache in his arm, twisted midair to absorb the impact and landed safely, quickly pulling his fallen comrade to his feet.

“Are you alright?” Lin Zheng looked at the blood on his teammate’s shoulder—a hole the size of a bowl.

Such terrifying penetration. The exoskeleton that could shrug off bullets was pierced like paper.

“I’m fine—captain!” The teammate gritted his teeth, forcing the armor to stand. “Captain, my right arm’s out!”

“Provide covering fire from the edge! The rest, switch to chainswords—let’s carve up this monster!”

With a battle shout, Lin Zheng raised his chainsword and led the charge at the giant spider beast.