Chapter 807
Up in the sky, a gunship roared its way through as it fired a round of missiles at a giant sea turtle that was on the street. Amidst the flashes and booms, the sea turtle was blown to bits and its remains were scattered across the ground.
After the gunship came the sound of tracks from the heavy tanks trampling over the rubble.
This scene had become commonplace within the city of Los Angeles. The US Army had mobilized over five heavy divisions for their ground forces. And then there were also the Air Force, Naval Aviation, Marine Corps and National Guard.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that almost all the military forces of Southern California had been gathered all around Los Angeles. More, there were still more follow-up troops rushing over.
“What do you guys think? Will the US Army make it to the zoo first, or will the system give us the target location first? Do you want to bet on it?” Roddy smiled at the rest.
“What’s there to bet on?” Qiao Qiao was not the slightest bit interested. “Money? Points? We’re spending it together. What can we use as wager?”
“Stickers work too… careful!”
Roddy was in the middle of talking when his face suddenly sank.
The armed helicopter above had seemingly gone drunk and it flew in a downward slant.
Judging by its trajectory, it was heading straight towards the rooftop of the building they were on.
“Back away!” Lun Tai’s face turned taut and he promptly brought out his shield. Placing it on his left arm, he leapt up high into the sky to meet the incoming helicopter.
The gunship was already too close. There was simply insufficient time for Roddy to bring out his mech and enter its cockpit. As for Bei Tai, without preparing enough steel ingots beforehand, he would not have enough firepower to blow up such a big helicopter to smithereens.
Qiao Qiao’s anti-matter ability also required time to take effect.
Lun Tai jumped into the sky and the shield in his hand abruptly grew ten times bigger to cover his whole body. At the same time, he activated his Muscle Fruit skill and his whole body swelled up like a balloon.
Roaring loudly, Lun Tai blocked the falling helicopter with his shield while pushing it sideways. And so, the 10-ton Apache Longbow was pushed away.
The heavy impact sent Lun Tai smashing down, destroying the rooftop.
But while Lun Tai was very strong, it was not enough to completely push away such a heavy armed helicopter. The building had a big enough rooftop though. After the helicopter had its trajectory shifted, it crash landed onto another corner of the rooftop some distance away. The spinning rotor blades struck the ground, bringing forth countless sparks. They then broke off and flew towards the members of Meteor Rock Guild at a peculiar angle.
Tian Lie rushed forward and spread his arms out as he stood in front of the helicopter rotor. A rotor blade heavily hacked down on Tian Lie’s arm, but it only managed to cut several centimetres into his arm before losing momentum.
With an impassive expression on his face, Tian Lie lowered his head and watched as the rotor blade seemingly melted down and slowly merged with his body.
“Damn it! Do the pilots from the US Air Force not need to take a test before getting their pilot license?” Roddy had already brought out his mech and entered the cockpit. Cursing, he strode towards the crashed helicopter.
Everyone could see that the helicopter had not come under attack earlier. Instead, it had simply flown down for no reason.
Roddy made his way towards the crashed helicopter, wanting to check out what caused it to fall.
As he was about to approach it, the helicopter hatch slowly opened up.
A pilot climbed out from the helicopter’s cockpit before rolling down the ground.
The helicopter had not fallen from a particularly high altitude. Moreover, its fall was also cushioned by Lun Tai earlier. Thus, it would seem as though the crew inside was not fatally wounded from the crash.
Lying on the ground, the pilot gasped for breath a few times. Then, raising his head, he looked at Roddy. Next, he crawled forward with his hands and feet.
His eyes had lost focus. Even though there was a Sentinel mech – a thing from science fiction – standing before him, he did not appear surprised at all. He instead groaned instinctively, “Save… save me…”
“Xiaolei!” Roddy called in a hushed tone. “Come check his injuries.”
Xia Xiaolei responded and quickly walked forward. Crouching down, he looked at the pilot.
His left leg was broken and a bone could be seen poking out there. Blood kept flowing out from the wound and several serious abrasions could be seen on his body.
“How did you fall? Was the helicopter attacked?”
“Save me… save me…”
The pilot had seemingly lost his mind. His whole body was twitching non-stop and all he could do was murmur vaguely.
“Brother Lun Tai, should we use a Beast Blood on him?” Xia Xiaolei looked at Lun Tai. “He seems to be very badly injured.”
“Use it.” Lun Tai nodded. Xia Xiaolei then brought out a Healing Beast Blood and shoved it into the pilot’s mouth.
The pilot instinctively swallowed the Healing Beast Blood. Next, his injuries healed at a rate visible to the naked eye. With the exception of his broken leg, the other injuries on him had all healed up.
Strangely though, he did not regain consciousness. His trembling body also did not calm down. Rather, the trembling only grew increasingly violent, almost to the point of convulsing.
“Strange…” Xia Xiaolei frowned. The injuries on the pilot were not fatal. A single dose of the Healing Beast Blood should have been enough to completely heal him.
“Argh!!!”
The pilot suddenly shook violently and spat out a mouthful of blood. Only, the blood was not red in colour. Instead, it was a yellowish-green viscous fluid.
“Back away!”
Lun Tai’s face immediately turned grim and he shouted.
Without any hesitation, Xia Xiaolei and Roddy put several metres between them and the pilot. One created a thermal blaster, which was aimed directly at the pilot while the other activated the gun barrel on the mech.
The pilot’s whole body twitched violently for a few seconds. His face was utterly pale, his eyes bereft of focus and animal-like sounds escaped his throat non-stop. Both his hands were clutching his neck as his legs kept kicking about.
Bone spikes suddenly grew out from his body, piercing through his skin and clothes. The spikes covered every part of his body.
“He’s infected.” Qiao Qiao harrumphed.
“Should we open fire?” Roddy, who was aiming all the weapons in his mech at the pilot, whispered to Lun Tai. “This fellow… is mutating.”
“Wait first.” Lun Tai shook his head.
“Hey, this fellow is mutating right now. Are you planning on waiting for his mutation to complete?” Roddy felt puzzled.
Lun Tai responded with an indifferent smile. “It’s just one. What is there to fear? Let it finish its mutation first. That way, we can see how strong it is. This looks different from the animals from the zoo.”
“Makes sense.” Roddy nodded. Under his control, the mech rubbed its fists. “Then, who should go first?”
“Xia Xiaolei, you go.” Lun Tai laughed and turned towards Xia Xiaolei. “You have a more comprehensive style of fighting. You are also the least likely to die. Additionally, your strength is not at the level where you can trample him.”
When Tian Lie heard the last part, he smiled and nodded.
The pilot continued mutating and the number of spikes jutting out from his body kept rising. Even fangs had begun growing out from his mouth.
The skin on his body was rapidly pulling and withering, becoming black as it tightly wrapped around his body. His four limbs stretched, elongating as four sharp claws protruded from each end.
His facial features had also become twisted, becoming like a pile of smashed persimmons.
Gradually, the gasping sounds subsided. When the pilot finally stood up, he had already become a complete monster.
Unlike the others that Meteor Rock Guild had encountered before, this was not an enlarged version of some existing creature from earth. There wasn’t a single similarity between this monster’s body and the other creatures.
“Xiaolei, careful.” After giving a warning, Lun Tai then took a few steps back.
The others all backed away to give Xia Xiaolei enough of an open space.
“Surely there is no need for that.” Xia Xiaolei casually shrugged. His body was already hardening as he put on the Bug Armour.
“Hey, do you guys get the feeling that… these two fellows look somewhat similar?”
Qiao Qiao poked Lun Tai, a wicked smile on her face.
Xia Xiaolei’s Bug Armour was also an organic enhancement prop. When utilized, it would envelop its user with a carapace made from bio matter. It would further transform its tendrils into various organic weapons.
Thus, when Xia Xiaolei used his ability, with the exception of their sizes, he looked quite similar to the mutant monster.
“Hou ga!”
With the mutation process complete, the pilot seemingly lost the ability to speak the human language. He instead roared. Then, he leapt, his right hand slashing down at Xia Xiaolei.
As this fight was originally to test the abilities of the other party, Xia Xiaolei did not counter attack. Instead, he simply placed both his arms before him to block this mutant creature’s claws.
The sharp claws managed to create a small crack on the Bug Armour’s carapace, but they failed to go any deeper before Xia Xiaolei kicked it away.
“Its strength is not bad. Still, it’s not that strong.” Xia Xiaolei looked at the mutant monster, which roared as it rushed forward once again. While parrying the attacks, he reported loudly, “It’s speed is quite good, but everyone in our team should be faster.”
This mutant creature seemed similar to the mutant beasts from the zoo in that it too did not possess much in terms of intellect. It simply relied on its instincts as it roared again and again while swinging its claws at Xia Xiaolei.
“Looks like it can only fight melee battles. Now, the attack test is over. Next up, it’s time to test its defence.” Xia Xiaolei grabbed the mutant monster’s arm, which was swinging towards him with one hand, and twisted forcefully.
The mutant monster roared as Xia Xiaolei smashed its massive body against the surface of the rooftop, causing web-like cracks to spread out.
“Careful, don’t smash through the floor!”
Lun Tai’s hand swept out to block a few of the concrete fragments flying about before shouting.
“I know!” Xia Xiaolei snickered. He continued holding onto the mutant monster’s wrist. Stepping on the mutant monster’s body, he then tugged with force.
He used 80% of his full strength for this move. Although the mutant’s exoskeleton was durable, it could not withstand Xia Xiaolei’s strength in the end and an arm was tugged out.
Like before, yellowish-green blood flowed out from its wound.
“Good news, its blood is not corrosive!” Xia Xiaolei continued reporting. “But the strength of its limbs is pretty good. It should be strong enough to block ordinary melee-based metal weapons.”
The mutant monster’s body tumbled once. Even though Xia Xiaolei had badly wounded it, it showed not a hint of fear as it rushed forward once more.
A beam of light shot through the mutant monster’s chest.
“It shows no additional ability to resist energy-type attacks.”
Two tendrils emerged from Xia Xiaolei’s body to transform into a thermal blaster, which bombarded the mutant monster non-stop. Every beam of light would send the mutant monster spinning backwards.
“Come, let’s try bullet-based weapons! Xiaolei, get back.” Seeing Xia Xiaolei having fun, Bei Tai felt his hands becoming slightly itchy. His left liquid metal arm transformed into a machine gun, which sprayed bullets at the mutant monster.
The hail of bullets struck the mutant monster’s exoskeleton, but most of them bounced off it. Only less than a tenth managed to pierce through the exoskeleton and the damage they inflicted was not enough to make it retreat.
“Hey, it’s quite durable.”
Bei Tai’s eyes focused and the barrel of the machine gun grew in size to become a 30mm autocannon. He fired five shots in quick succession and swiftly pressed a spare steel ingot into his liquid metal arm.
Firing those bullets had caused his liquid metal arm to shrink in size. But upon receiving the steel ingot as replenishment, it immediately returned to its original size.
“It’s quite similar to you.” Nicole glanced at Tian Lie. “But he only has one arm.”
“A little. However, I cannot create explosives.” Tian Lie smiled.
Given how close they were to each other, not a single one of the five rounds missed. All five struck the mutant monster’s body.
“Brother Bei Tai, can you please give me a warning beforehand next time?”
Xia Xiaolei had been standing very close to the mutant monster. Thus, the explosions affected him as well, blowing him away with great force while flying shrapnel struck the front part of his body. Flipping himself up, he then complained.
“It’s not as though you can die from that!” Bei Tai snickered, looking instead at the mutant monster before him.
“It still hurts!” Xia Xiaolei muttered with an aggrieved tone and took several steps back.
The power of the five rounds was much greater than the previous bullets. Half of the mutant monster’s body had been blown up from the explosions and it could only lay on the ground and flail about non-stop. It could no longer get up.
“Quite tough, though, not that tough.” Bei Tai nodded satisfactorily. “Although it is considerably stronger compared to those beasts, the army should still be able to handle them.”
“The problem is, how did this guy get infected?” Qiao Qiao frowned. “This fellow was piloting an armed helicopter. If even someone like him could become infected, then it is also possible for the others to become infected. Should this mutation happen to the others in the military…”
She had only just said that when her body abruptly lurched down.
The rooftop that they were standing on had suddenly collapsed.
Simultaneously, several sharp claws swung towards them from every direction.
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