Chapter 60: Fierce Battle with the Spider

“Hurry up! Grenade launchers, volley fire straight ahead!”

The infantrymen equipped with grenade launchers dropped into a half-crouch, fingers poised on their triggers. At the command, a dozen grenades streaked from the front lines, trailing white smoke.

The grenades exploded in the parasite horde just a dozen meters away, fire and debris raining over the ruined ground and shredding the parasite zombies into fragments.

Lowering his rifle, Mouse shouted, “Advance! Tanks, move up first! We're about to break through! Push harder! Support the company commander!”

The tanks rolled slowly toward the oncoming tide, now confronted by only two or three giant zombies still capable of fighting, less than a hundred meters away.

They rushed forward, gaping maws wide, tearing chunks from walls or abandoned cars to hurl at the defenders. At this range, the infantry and snipers could only scramble for cover from the barrage.

“Tank, target the giant zombies! Switch to high-explosive rounds and blast them apart!” Mouse finished barking orders and raced toward the armored personnel carrier parked behind; his exoskeleton armor was mounted atop it.

“Yes, sir! Preparing to concentrate fire on the giants!”

“Eighty-nine meters ahead—target locked!”

“Firing high-explosive shell! Target hit!”

Within seconds, the tank crew completed their first barrage.

A giant zombie struck by the shell was hurled backward, its chest and arms blown to pieces, yet it still pulled itself up from the ground, roaring and charging the tanks.

The remaining two giants, recognizing the threat, ripped up chunks of wall and stone and hurled them at the tanks, sending the vehicles rocking and shrouded in dust.

“Keep concentrating fire—take down one of the giants first!” The tanks, guided by drone vision, locked onto the wounded behemoth.

Two tanks unleashed a focused assault, rounds hammering the target. Its upper body exploded in a shower of blood and flesh, broken limbs tumbling away until only its lower torso remained, collapsing in a heap.

“Yes!” The soldiers erupted in cheers.

But the other two giants had now closed to within ten meters. The tanks, limited by the proximity, dared not open fire.

The soldiers stared up at the towering figures stitched together from mismatched limbs, their brutal presence sending chills through the ranks. Without Mouse’s order, they could only grit their teeth, raise their weapons, and unleash volleys at point-blank range.

Bullets tore bloody blossoms on the giants’ bodies, but their thick, greasy flesh formed a natural armor; unless dismembered entirely, they could not be felled.

One of the giants reached the tanks, hoisted an abandoned car, and smashed it down with a thunderous crash, rocking the armored vehicle.

“Hold steady! Everyone, hold steady!” The tank commander stared anxiously at the massive monster outside, momentarily at a loss for a solution.

“Commander! The main gun's barrel is damaged!”

“The machine gun can’t get the right angle—unable to engage!”

Gritting his teeth, the commander barked, “Charge! We mustn’t let these giants break into our infantry lines!”

Both tanks surged forward, their massive weight forcing the giants to stumble back a few steps. Roaring in fury, the monsters leapt onto the tanks amid a hail of bullets, grabbing the barrels and tearing at them like rabid beasts.

“Hey! You big brutes—let me have a go with you!”

Mouse, ever the show-off, activated his exoskeleton, leaping atop the building that anchored the infantry line. Wielding a chain-saw sword, he pointed at the giants, his amplified voice drawing their attention.

One giant, preoccupied with the tank, ignored him. The other glanced up, baffled at the noisy insect, then turned back to dismantling the armored vehicle.

Standing on the rooftop, Mouse offered a sheepish grin. “Take this, pineapple surprise!”

Enraged, Mouse sprang from the rooftop, hurling two fist-sized grenades at the giant zombie’s head as he sailed through the air.

The violent explosion and shrapnel redirected the giants’ fury toward him. They raised massive chunks of scrap and steel, hurling them at Mouse as he landed before them.

“Come on! A real man stands strong!” Mouse brandished his chain-saw sword with a roar, charging headlong into the fray.

...

“Damn spider!” Lin Zheng barely dodged a lightning-fast lunge from the giant spider, X-Thunder, rolling behind a crumbling wall less than two meters high.

The special ops squad was locked in a desperate battle with the giant spider; everyone bore wounds, and two men lay gravely injured, out of the fight.

“Is the boss here yet?” Lin Zheng called to the support trooper holding the perimeter.

Dodging frantically, the support trooper fired a few rounds while retreating, then shouted back, “Captain! No sign of the boss yet!”

Lin Zheng clenched his jaw, spat blood, steadied his battered body, and rose to face the spider once more.

“Tsk, tsk—you’re all getting more and more annoying!” From the spider’s face, Cen Xiaolong’s impatience was evident, and its stingers flashed ever faster.

A shrill, invisible sonic attack ripped through the air—another soldier dropped to his knees, paralyzed as if struck by lightning.

X-Thunder raised a stinger to impale him.

“No!” Lin Zheng screamed, eyes wide with helpless fury, powerless to intervene.

In a flash, Wang Ji arrived at the scene, unleashing a whirlwind slash at the deadly stinger.

The chain-saw sword clashed with metal, splintering the spider’s stinger and sending debris flying in a cloud of dust.

The giant spider shrieked, reeling back, stunned by the newcomer’s presence.

“You... who are you?!”

Wang Ji stepped forward, smiling beneath his armor, sword poised. “I don’t know you either—so why so many questions?”

“No! Impossible! How could a backward planet have a First Rank warrior?!” X-Thunder roared in disbelief.

Wang Ji, sizing up the battered squad, was overcome with anger at the state they were in.

“There’s much you don’t know. But you’ve provoked me, and now you’ll pay the price!”

He leapt at the spider.

“Who’s afraid of whom?!” the giant spider bellowed, meeting his charge.

Man and monster clashed at blinding speed, forcing Lin Zheng and the others to fall back, opening a circle for the duel.

“This spider is so fast—at least a notch faster than me!” Wang Ji noted grimly, parrying the barrage of stinger strikes, then, instead of retreating, dove beneath the spider’s limbs.

With one stinger missing, the spider’s agility was slightly hampered, but the remaining seven lashed at Wang Ji with relentless ferocity.

Under the spider’s belly, Wang Ji felt as if he’d plunged into a raging sea, every moment threatened by a tempest of stinger strikes.

“Time to die!” With a furious shout, Wang Ji seized on the spider’s shifting stance, his sword snapping like a black whip, lashing at Cen Xiaolong’s form at the spider’s core.

X-Thunder howled, two stingers stabbing at Wang Ji as it tried to dodge.

The tail of the chain-saw sword struck Cen Xiaolong’s shoulder in a spray of blood, sending a powerful arm flying.

At the same moment, the spider’s stingers slashed at Wang Ji, who, bracing against the onslaught, swept his sword in a defensive arc.

Sparks erupted as Wang Ji was blasted free, landing more than ten meters away, his sword reverting to its blade form.

Only then did the severed arm fall to the ground, accompanied by X-Thunder’s inhuman screams. Wang Ji’s brows arched in grim satisfaction.

“I knew it.”

“Commander! The humanoid body inside the monster is its weak point!” The support trooper, who had been watching closely, finally found the opening.

“That’s right, I see it now. Everyone, coordinate with me—focus your attacks on the humanoid core!” Wang Ji flourished his sword and charged the shrieking spider.

“Go!” Lin Zheng and his men, catching their breath, attacked the spider’s flanks, providing covering fire.

All attacks now targeted Cen Xiaolong, forcing the spider into a desperate defense.

Wang Ji pressed the advantage; before the spider could recover, he unleashed another whirlwind slash, severing another stinger and leaving the beast spinning in wounded rage.

“Ah! How dare you—wounding the great X-Thunder so grievously! You’ll all die for this!”

The spider crouched, red light flaring from its body.

Wang Ji tensed, fearing a psychic or area-of-effect attack. “Fall back!” he shouted, and everyone retreated a hundred meters from the spider.

It quaked in place, consumed by agony. Its abdomen writhed, black scales sprouting beneath its fangs. The scales spread swiftly, encasing Cen Xiaolong’s body until his form was absorbed into the spider’s belly.

Transformed, the spider’s severed stingers regrew, its carapace darker than ever.

“Die! You’ll all die for robbing X-Thunder of his chance to evolve! I’ll slaughter you all!”

It roared, slamming its eight stingers into the ground and unleashing a shockwave toward Wang Ji and the others.

Staring at the spider’s new, fearsome form, Wang Ji and Lin Zheng exchanged a stunned glance.

“This is cheating!” Wang Ji scanned the monster with his X-System: in this state, the spider had reached the threshold of a Second Rank Commander.