Chapter 509: Chapter 334: Giant Ferocious Beast (Part 2)
Amidst the tragic wails, the domineering body capable of crushing the Titan Mecha was melted by the Dragon Flame, leaving only a giant charred corpse with flickering flames.
The war continued relentlessly, with gunfire raging day and night. The acrid smell of gunpowder filled the entire battlefield, and the constant heavy thuds echoed like massive hammers striking the heart.
The intense offense and defense battle lasted for two whole days and nights. With the continuous reinforcements from the Hegemony Company, the defensive lines of the Celestial Gate Patrol Station became increasingly stable.
The number of beasts, which initially surged like tides, gradually became sparse.
"Bang!" A gunshot rang out, and the last beast charging towards the Celestial Gate Patrol Station was shot dead. No living beasts could be seen on the battlefield anymore.
Looking around, there were mountains of corpses inside and outside the Celestial Gate Patrol Station, mostly beasts, but also not without fallen company soldiers.
The surviving soldiers gradually snapped out of the slaughter. They stared at the silent battlefield for a moment and then burst into enthusiastic cheers.
"Victory! Long live the Company!!!"
"Go back to your old homes, vile beasts. You think you can challenge humanity?!"
"Once this war is over, I’m going back home to get married."
"Climb, climb, climb, don’t set up flags here!"
As the soldiers celebrated, the Razor Captain, possessing the Dragon Flame Blood Code, hovered in the air, wings spread, looking down at the entire battlefield.
Suddenly, his expression turned peculiar: "Something’s not right..."
In the communicator, a subordinate’s voice came through: "Captain, what’s wrong?"
The Captain stared intently at the heaps of beast corpses on the battlefield, as if confirming something, and said in a deep voice, "The number of corpses is incorrect. The number of beast corpses here is far less than what the previous satellite images showed."
The subordinate immediately became tense: "You mean... the beasts haven’t been completely wiped out, and there might be a second wave of attacks? I’ll have the reconnaissance units widen the search range immediately!"
The order was quickly relayed to the reconnaissance units. Airborne early-warning reconnaissance aircraft, military satellites, and even the Apocalypse Star were deployed to conduct large-scale searches for beast traces in the direction of the Land of No Master, using the Celestial Gate Patrol Station as a base point.
The Captain landed from the air to the rear base and walked into the mobile radar vehicle assigned to the reconnaissance unit, asking, "How’s the situation?"
The reconnaissance officer looked at the images on the screen and shook his head, saying, "We’ve searched the mountain ranges surrounding the Celestial Gate Patrol Station several times and found no trace of beast activity."
"Also, considering the rugged terrain nearby, it’s impossible for land-based beasts to take a detour and cross over, and the airspace is fully sealed by us, with all intruding flying beasts already shot down."
"So... wherever those beasts that didn’t participate in the attack on the Celestial Gate went, we should be safe. Yes, it seems safe for now."
The Captain pondered for a moment and said in a deep voice, "Change the reconnaissance method and conduct a reverse trace of beast activity traces."
The reconnaissance officer cautiously said, "Captain, pardon my boldness, but the traces of beast activity will gradually disappear with weather changes, especially after the heavy rain this morning. Reverse tracing will be extremely difficult, akin to finding a needle in a haystack, with an astronomical workload."
The Captain firmly replied, "If we lack manpower and equipment, I can apply to headquarters. I must know where those beasts went, whether they dispersed on their own or circled to other places, and what the source of their abnormal movement is."
With that, the reconnaissance officer dared not say more and led the other members of the reconnaissance department to reassign tasks.
High-frequency reconnaissance continued for an entire day and night. As the reconnaissance officer had said earlier, the traces of beast activity vanished due to the weather, and searching now could only be done through a carpet search.
Although this method of searching would miss nothing, the wider the range spread, the more the search difficulty and workload increased geometrically.
Just as the reconnaissance unit was at a loss, a message came through that a group had recaptured traces of beast activity.
Following that trace for reverse tracking, they suddenly realized that the traces of beast activity were increasing, seeming to converge towards a certain location.
When they followed the growing clues and finally located the area where the beasts gathered, everyone was shocked.
In the vast wasteland, there was an extremely unique, colossal beast. Its size was unimaginably large, with its trunk buried within the earth, only a part exposed. Yet, even this small part was larger than most colossal beasts.
Its head was covered with rough bumps and irregular flesh grooves, and its mouth split into four petals, forming a giant opening nearly a hundred meters in diameter, with edges lined with blades-like teeth that glinted coldly in the sunlight.
Among those able to work in the reconnaissance unit, their minds were filled with a wealth of intelligence, and they all recognized this enormous beast.
This was a "Tunneling Insect," a beast that typically lived underground, with extremely hard, saw-like teeth, capable of easily crushing rocks when paired with the rapid movement of its jaw muscles.
After swallowing rocks, the Tunneling Insect could digest them and secrete a special mucus on its surface. This mucus would solidify into high-strength crystals upon contact with stone walls, maintaining hollowed rock layers from collapsing and thus forming a "tunnel," which is where its name comes from.
The Tunneling Insect’s ability to tunnel was incredibly astounding, with an underground traveling speed reaching up to hundreds of kilometers per hour, comparable to a car on a highway, often able to launch unexpected attacks.
Moreover, its activity regions were often very deep, reaching up to 1000 meters underground, far beyond the range of earth-penetrating missiles, which was quite troublesome.
However, this beast also had significant weaknesses; its massive body resulted in enormous nutritional consumption.
Generally speaking, after hunting, the Tunneling Insect would quickly burrow back underground and fall into a long period of dormancy, maintaining its body in a state of minimal consumption.
This dormancy period could last several months, even a year, until the nutrients within its body were depleted, only then would it start hunting surface creatures again.
Due to the massive nutritional consumption from high-intensity tunneling activity, the Tunneling Insect usually only moved around near its resting ground, rarely engaging in long-distance movement, let alone crossing border patrol stations.
The last recorded occurrence of a Tunneling Insect in the Human Territory dated back to a hundred years ago.
The appearance of the Tunneling Insect itself was not startling; what was startling was the current scene.
Countless beasts swarmed from all directions, gathering towards the Tunneling Insect, and thrusting themselves into that gigantic oral cavity.
The Tunneling Insect, in turn, continuously swallowed these beasts willingly becoming food, consuming them as if engaging in a hellish gluttonous feast.
No one knew why the beasts engaged in this suicidal abnormal act, but the reason was unimportant now.
What mattered was that these were consumed by the Tunneling Insect’s stomach organs, capable of easily dissolving rocks, becoming its nutrients.
And such a large number of beasts being drawn as nourishment could fully sustain the Tunneling Insect for ultra-long distance activity over hundreds of kilometers.
This meant that a "tunnel" hundreds of kilometers long would appear underground!
If the Tunneling Insect was merely erratically moving within the Land of No Master, it wouldn’t be a problem. But if it targeted the Human Realm, this tunnel would directly pierce through all ground defenses, reaching the depths of the Human Territory!
Normally, this was an impossible event.
No beast would willingly become nourishment for a Tunneling Insect, and a Tunneling Insect wouldn’t leave its territory for meaningless ultra-long distance ventures.
Yet at this moment, this scene, deemed impossible, unfolded like a nightmare.
As the Tunneling Insect consumed the last batch of beasts and reached nutritional saturation, its massive exposed body thunderously drilled into the ground, leaving only a gigantic pit.
Simultaneously, a tide of beasts surged into the tunnel carved out by the Tunneling Insect, following it to begin underground movement.
The reconnaissance officers stood dumbfounded as this scene unfolded, with more information pouring in, their voices trembling uncontrollably from fear:
"Ground penetrating radar shows the source of underground vibration moving in a straight line to the southwest! Something seems to be attracting them there!"
"The vibration source is nearing the defense outpost... but it’s not showing signs of rising! It’s not coming for us!"
"Damn it! The vibration source has crossed the Celestial Gate Patrol Station and is heading straight inland!"
"Oh god... if those beasts show up in a big city, then..."
"The situation has spiraled out of control! Immediately report the situation to headquarters, hurry! Hurry!!!"
