Chapter 1483: Chapter 1481: Where Is Our Steel Fist?
However, no matter how complex the battle is, there is always a moment when it ends.
A few minutes later, the battle on the locomotive was drawing to a close.
"Screech!"
Accompanied by the last strange grey rat that jumped into the carriage being stabbed to death by the end of the weapon, Wind Blade, in the hands of Captain Nong Mei, all the strange grey rats were dead, and the escort personnel won this battle.
However, this does not mean that the escort personnel had no losses.
During the battle, an escort member was dragged out of the window by a strange grey rat, dying on the spot with the body unrecovered.
Moreover, up to five escort members were bitten by strange grey rats that pounced through the window, losing most of their combat capability. Counting up, the entire 30-man escort team had a 20% combat loss.
At this point, the dedicated medical personnel in the escort team, carrying a red box, quickly moved to the side of the injured, squatted down, and took out knives and reagents from the box to help treat the wounds.
After treatment, a bottle of silver powder was sprinkled on the wound, followed by a bottle of transparent liquid.
"Swish—"
Immediately, as the transparent liquid and silver powder came into contact, a layer of white frost formed around, freezing the wound to prevent further deterioration.
The wounded let out a muffled groan, then their tightly knit brows relaxed, seemingly alleviating much pain.
Only then did the medical personnel use gauze to bind the wound and asked Philip and other crew members to help carry the injured to an empty carriage to rest.
Faced with people who saved their lives, Philip and the others had no reason to refuse and quickly complied.
Everything seemed to come to an end.
However, Captain Nong Mei looked solemn, as if he had something on his mind.
Locomotive Captain Bob walked over to him, trying to get closer, and said, "Captain Jent, is it? I’m sorry your men suffered casualties. But their sacrifice saved us all and protected the supplies on the locomotive. When we return to Redstone City, I will report the facts precisely to the higher-ups and request they award you medals."
Jent, as Captain Nong Mei was called, glanced at Bob, gave half a polite smile, and then reverted to a serious expression, saying, "Locomotive Captain, medals are not what I am concerned about right now. To be honest, if possible, I’d rather not have any medals.
After all, as the saying goes, you receive a first-class medal while bleeding, a second-level medal while lying on a hospital bed, and a third-level medal goes to the widow—that’s especially true for the Richard Silver Leaf Medal and more so the Richard Golden Leaf Medal, which is simply not meant for ordinary people like us. For us regular folks, winning a medal brings honor and benefits, but the dangers experienced beforehand are too great."
"Then Captain Jent, what are you worried about?" Bob asked, puzzled.
"I worry that the danger we face may not be over yet," Jent said seriously. "The sudden appearance of the strange rat group this time doesn’t align with some scouting data. Rather than a sudden incident, I tend to see it as a precursor to a massive Beast Tide outbreak. If it indeed is a precursor, it’s likely that we’ll not only experience this one attack; there could be more to come."
Bob’s eyes widened slightly, he forced a smile: "Captain Jent, are you serious?"
"Of course."
"Then how big do you think the danger we’ll face next will be?"
"At least a Richard Silver Leaf Second-level Medal, maybe even a Richard Silver Leaf Third-level Medal," Jent replied.
Bob: "..." His breath suddenly halted for a moment.
"Bam!"
Just as Bob’s mind was somewhat blank, not fully processing the information, a carriage door beside him was slammed open by an escort member.
The person held a small cylinder in their hand, looked at Jent with somewhat labored breathing: "Captain, right front, Second-level danger!"
Jent’s thick eyebrows shot up, he quickly took the small cylinder from his subordinate, "swish" it extended, placing it to his eye to observe outside the window.
Bob, a bit apprehensive, followed Jent’s gaze. Without binoculars, he couldn’t surpass human physiological limits with long-distance vision. However, he thought he saw a shadow moving towards the locomotive along the horizon, whether it was an illusion or not.
That is!
"Five miles away, more than a hundred of them, rodent-like abnormal creatures." At this time, as Jent put down the binoculars, he said.
Glancing at his subordinates, Jent voiced: "Let everyone with combat capability start preparing for battle."
"Yes!"
The subordinate turned and left.
Jent glanced at Bob again and said: "Locomotive Captain, have your people ready as well. This time it might be even more dangerous than before. Casualties will be higher, and I can barely guarantee your people won’t get involved, so let them take care."
"Ah, alright." Bob swallowed, knowing Jent was telling the truth, he turned back to the office carriage to start announcing this bad news.
...
In a moment.
The crew members held iron rods, wrenches, and other strange weapons, standing slightly trembling in the carriage, ready for action.
Meanwhile, the escort personnel once again took up positions at the windows, aiming at the approaching group of Abnormal Creatures.
This time, the Abnormal Creatures were quite similar to the last, most being brown rats the size of hound dogs.
There were about 120 Abnormal Brown Rats, which wasn’t utterly despairing for the people on the train. However, besides them, the rat group also featured a giant rat that seemed to hold a leader position.
That seemed to be an evolved form of the Abnormal Brown Rat, about the size of a calf, with most of its hair gone, exposing a beetle-like shell beneath.
At a distance of over a hundred meters, Jent made a few test shots with a weapon and found that the Light Beam, which could take down a Brown Rat in one hit, would at most cause a bloody puncture when it hit the Hairless Giant Rat, not even causing severe injury.
This was clearly bad news, and everyone’s heart sank.
"Screech~Roar~"
The Abnormal Brown Rat group kept closing in on the locomotive. Like last time, when they got within fifty meters, Jent ordered the attack.
"Whizz, whizz, whizz!"
Dense beams flew out, taking out one Abnormal Brown Rat after another, but the ones that weren’t killed were also getting closer to the locomotive.
In this process, the Hairless Giant Rat was given targeted "attention," suffering at least over ten Light Beam attacks. Its body was full of blood holes and flowing with blood, but it stubbornly showed no impact on its mobility, getting quickly within ten meters of the locomotive along with the Abnormal Brown Rats.
"Bang!"
The Hairless Giant Rat suddenly stamped the ground hard and lunged toward the locomotive.
This immediately gave everyone a strong sense of crisis, with more than half of the escort members focusing fire on the Hairless Giant Rat. Even the crew couldn’t help but throw their weapons at the giant rat, hoping to cause some damage.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
The overwhelming focused firepower and tremendous force made the giant rat halt mid-air, its abdomen producing bloody blooms. Then, somewhat angrily, it crashed to the ground.
With a swift flip, the giant rat bounced up, continuing to chase the locomotive, trying for a second lunge.
This put immense pressure on everyone.
The Hairless Giant Rat was like an indestructible cockroach, making it impossible for everyone to ignore but also impossible to solve. Most importantly, every time it attacked, it attracted a large amount of firepower. Even if it couldn’t reach the locomotive under the combined attacks, it still gave the other Abnormal Brown Rats the chance to leap aboard, causing considerable trouble for the escort members.
Hence, in just over two minutes, three escort members were severely injured, and even Jent personally had an additional wound on his arm.
Seeing the Hairless Giant Rat getting repelled by the focus fire for the third time and still not giving up on chasing the locomotive, Jent touched the wound on his arm, showing a ruthless look in his eyes.
Turning, Jent said to a subordinate: "I remember, there are Steel Fists in the goods being transported this time, right? Go get them from the cargo hold for me."
"Steel Fist? Are we using it now, Captain?" the subordinate hesitated, "We don’t have authorization; could this be a bit against the rules?"
"I know we’re not authorized, but when everyone is dead, saying anything is too late. If there are any issues, I’ll take the blame. Just get that damn Steel Fist for me, and I’ll see how tough this Hairless Rat really is—is it invincible even against a Steel Fist!"
"Yes, understood, Captain!" The subordinate said no more, quickly running to an adjacent carriage.
...
