Chapter 99: The Crack of Thunder
The silence in the Dead Man’s Switch was absolute, heavy, and suffocating, punctuated only by the mourning howl of the blizzard as it tore through the jagged peaks.
The temperature had plummeted far below freezing, turning the narrow mountain pass into an icy corridor of death.
High up on the northern ridge, Old Wang’s finger didn’t tremble against the freezing metal of his sniper rifle’s trigger. His breathing was a slow, controlled rhythm, each exhalation a barely visible puff of vapor instantly torn away by the howling wind. Through the crosshairs of his high-powered scope, the lead infantry vehicle crawled into the center of the bottleneck, its heavy, chain-wrapped tires crunching over the packed ice and frozen snow.
He squeezed the trigger.
CRACK.
The heavy-caliber round cut through the storm, striking the exact center of the driver’s side windshield. But instead of the satisfying shatter of glass and a sudden slump of the target, a spiderweb of thick, milky-white fractures bloomed across the pane. The bullet ricocheted off into the blinding snow.
"Bulletproof glass. Modified military grade," Old Wang’s gravelly voice reported calmly over the short-range radio channel, his tone completely devoid of panic despite the setback.
Inside the cabin of the transport truck parked securely below the ridge, Han Zheng’s hand tightened on the grip of his weapon. "Can you pierce it, Old Wang?"
"Give me three seconds," Old Wang replied smoothly, his eye never leaving the rubber eyepiece of his scope.
Inside the lead mercenary vehicle, the driver had already slammed on the brakes, his eyes wide with sudden, breathless terror as the web of fractured glass filled his vision. He scrambled to throw the heavy transport into reverse, his hands frantically slapping at the heavy gear stick in a desperate attempt to back out of the narrow gorge. But he was far too late.
Old Wang didn’t just fire randomly. With the terrifying, mechanical precision of a seasoned veteran, he cycled the bolt. CRACK. A second round slammed into the exact center of the previous impact point, deepening the fractures and violently weakening the structural integrity of the laminated polycarbonate layer.
The driver desperately lunged toward the passenger seat to escape the imminent kill zone, but before his torso could even clear the center console, Old Wang fired a third time.
CRACK.
The third bullet struck the precise millimeter of the weakened crater. This time, the reinforced glass gave way completely, shattering inward in a violent spray of sharp, crystalline shards. The heavy-caliber round punched cleanly through the cabin, drilling through the driver’s upper chest before he could successfully dodge or dive out of the door. The man went limp almost instantly, his dead weight slumping heavily forward onto the steering wheel.
The vehicle’s horn began to wail, a long, droning, and agonizing shriek that echoed off the high canyon walls, serving as the official opening note of the massacre.
Without a conscious driver to control its forward momentum, the heavy infantry transport rolled violently sideways on the ice-slicked incline.
It crashed nose-first into the jagged rock wall of the gorge, its rear frame swinging outward across the road to completely block the single-file path. The two logistics trucks directly behind it slammed on their brakes, their tires skidding helplessly on the black ice. The heavy, towed iron artillery pieces jackknifing across the narrow road, pinning the entire convoy in a hopeless, suffocating bottleneck with nowhere to run.
"The trap is officially sprung! Light them up!" Han Zheng’s deep voice boomed over the radio channel, echoing through the earpieces of his elite strike team.
From the high northern ridge, the dark silhouette of Lieutenant Chen stepped into view against the white snow. His eyes flared with a brilliant, volatile orange light as his thermal manipulation core activated to its absolute limit. He extended his hands forward, focusing his power directly onto the exposed fuel bladders of the stalled logistics trucks below. Within seconds, the freezing air warped with intense, suffocating heat.
BOOM!
A series of spectacular, blinding orange explosions ripped through the center of the convoy. The force of the blast tore through the metal framework, sending cascades of burning diesel fuel and jagged shrapnel raining down onto the panicked men who were desperately trying to scramble out of their troop carriers.
"Return fire! Return fire! Look to the high ridges!" a mercenary officer screamed, his voice cracking with sheer panic as he fired a blind burst of automatic rounds toward Lieutenant Chen’s position on the cliff.
But before a single enemy bullet could reach the lieutenant, Xiao Li stepped directly in front of him. Xiao Li’s arms were crossed firmly over his face, his molecular stone armor flaring to life in an instant. A thick, crystalline layer of reinforced earth erupted from his skin, forming a massive, unbreakable shield. The enemy’s desperate rounds sparked and ricocheted harmlessly off his chest, leaving him entirely unmoved. Beside them, Ah Hua unleashed a brutal suppression barrage of his own, his heavy squad weapon forcing the surviving infantry back into the burning wreckage of the vehicles.
Down in the valley, hidden behind the reverse slope, the engine of the leading modified transport truck let out a ferocious, unbridled roar that echoed like a beast through the canyon.
With his hands clamped tightly around the steering wheel, Han Zheng narrowed his eyes, locking his gaze onto the burning chaos ahead. Beside him in the passenger seat, Lin Qing braced herself against the dashboard.
"Let’s go," Han Zheng murmured, his voice laced with a lethal calm as he buried his foot entirely into the gas pedal.
The massive truck surged forward under his control, its newly welded, heavy steel plow plates gleaming in the darkness like the teeth of a mechanical predator.
Just behind him, Da Yong grinned fiercely, gunning the engine of the second transport truck to follow directly in his commander’s wake. Together, the two heavy vehicles tore out from the shadows of the ridge, charging straight into the middle of the stalled, burning convoy.
The impact was deafening. The reinforced steel plow of Han Zheng’s truck tore through the side of an enemy infantry transport like paper, throwing the armored vehicle completely off its axis and pinning the surviving mercenaries beneath its weight. Da Yong slammed his truck into the next chassis down the line, fracturing the convoy completely.
Before his truck had even come to a complete halt, Han Zheng threw open the driver’s door and leaped out into the freezing chaos. His dominant core radiated a suffocating, crushing aura.
Down in the valley, hidden behind a truck. A mercenary grunted, raising a rifle toward him, but Han Zheng moved with terrifying speed. He closed the distance in a blink of an eye, gripping the barrel of the rifle and twisting it effortlessly until the reinforced metal snapped, before striking the man down with a single, devastating blow.
Turning his gaze to the side, Han Zheng spotted one of Gao Feng’s heavy iron artillery pieces—the massive war machine that had been meant to level their sanctuary and bury them alive. It was still securely hooked to the burning frame of a truck, its long barrel pointed uselessly at the winter sky.
Han Zheng strode over, his muscles coiling tightly as his core strength surged to its absolute peak. He clamped his large, gloved hands onto the frozen steel frame of the multi-ton artillery piece. With a low, guttural roar that cut through the sound of continuous explosions, he physically lifted the massive war machine off its mount, shifting his weight and hurling the entire heavy weapon over the edge of the cliff.
The artillery piece tumbled into the pitch-black abyss of the gorge, smashing violently against the jagged rocks hundreds of feet below until it was completely destroyed.
Standing amidst the roaring fire and the howling blizzard, Han Zheng looked back toward the remaining vehicles, his expression cold and lethal. The enemy’s vanguard was entirely broken, their heavy weapons were being systematically neutralized, and the real hunt had just begun.
At the rear of the collapsing convoy, a panicked mercenary commander scrambled backward into the relative shelter of a jackknifed supply truck.
Blood poured from a deep shrapnel wound on his forehead, blurring his vision, and his hands shook violently as he tore a high-output radio handset from his web harness. The automated encryption frequencies were failing rapidly, overridden by a foreign signal, but he desperately pounded on the emergency override channel that connected directly back to the flagship base camp.
"Flagship! Flagship! This is Vanguard Lead, do you copy?!" the commander screamed into the receiver, his voice cracking with terror as a deafening explosion from one of the heavy mortar trucks shook the ground beneath him, showering him in white sparks and burning debris. "We are under a massive, coordinated ambush at the Dead Man’s Switch! The base forces knew our exact timeline and coordinates! They’ve already taken down the lead transport and destroyed the primary heavy mortar arrays!"
Through the heavy static, the icy, unyielding voice of Gao Feng cut through the line, sending a shiver of absolute terror down the caller’s spine. "Report status. Maintain your defensive posture and push the heavy armor through the bottleneck immediately. Do not retreat."
"We can’t push through! The path is completely blocked by a burning transport!" the mercenary leader shrieked, ducking frantically as a burst of automatic fire from Ah Hua’s heavy gun shredded the metal plating just inches above his helmet.
"It’s a complete slaughter zone! Han Zheng is on the field personally! I repeat, Han Zheng is here and he’s physically destroying the artillery pieces with his bare hands! We are losing men by the second and our ammunition bladders are detonating! Send backup immediately! Send the remaining heavy reinforcement units from the base camp or we will be completely wiped out before we can even attempt to retreat!"
The line crackled violently as a fresh shockwave rocked the canyon, leaving the mercenary commander screaming for a salvation that was miles away.
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