novelhome Chapter 1356 - 523: Retreat (2)
Chapter 1356 - 523: Retreat (2)
This is a brutal battlefield rescue, and in such a short time, countless people have already perished. Some trains have long been swallowed by the monster tide, with countless torn to shreds by monsters before being evacuated by the Air Fleet.The communicator’s command channel, filled with hundreds of convoy channels, already has many lost signals, while the remaining continue to transmit screams and cries.
"Save them!"
"The magnetic anchor array won’t hold for long, use the hoist cables!"
"Where are the transport ships?!"
"There are too many monsters in the sky!!"
"Hold on!"
Boom boom boom!
At this moment, the rescue team, including Lin Xian, has swelled to over a thousand people. Apart from Superpower Users, the rest are equipped with flying ability power armors or mechas. The entire rescue team breaks through the airborne monster swarm, striking along the Orbit Team’s path.
Lin Xian and KIKI lead the way, continuously extracting some trains or convoys from the monster tide. KIKI’s telekinesis transforms into a giant invisible hand, piercing the train’s underside. Accompanied by the screeching of metal deformation, the entire train of eight carriages is forcibly pulled from the monster pile, the exterior coated with viscous blood and flesh. A broken window extends a half-severed arm, fingers still in a trigger-pulling pose, dangling weakly when shaken.
There are no survivors on this train, yet the dense monster tide below still relentlessly lunges upward.
"Damn it!" KIKI curses angrily, clenching his five fingers. The boiling telekinesis field instantly spreads, pulverizing monsters within hundreds of meters into powder.
"Ignore it, keep searching!"
Bang! Zzzzz.
Not far from Lin Xian, a magnetic anchor array flashes with high-energy sparks and quickly explodes, causing the magnetic levitation passage to fail.
Within less than ten minutes, the magnetic anchor array has already collapsed in succession.
A derailed military train from the Iron Guard Brigade is deeply entrenched at the monster tide’s core, the 1130 Close-in Weapon System on the roof still spinning furiously, shredding the attacking Hunting Bodies into blood mist, though the barrels have already burned to crimson.
At the carriage’s joint, soldiers brace against the deformed cabin door, flames spraying through the seams, licking their power armor.
"Hold on! The Silent City’s gunships are coming!" Fire Stone Fleet pilot’s roar breaks through the communication channel.
Suddenly, a blaze descends from the sky, scorching the dense monster tide before the fire line.
"Get them into the passage!" Brother Huo shouts.
Empty empty empty! Ryuji unleashes his Superpower, directly lifting the entire military train, accelerating it down the magnetic levitation track just before the passage entrance is engulfed and collapses under the monster tide.
Lin Xian has no idea how many have died in this short time, as Jiang Yun’s Superpower storm sweeps open swathes of scarlet clouds. He watches helplessly as uncoupled trains are swiftly devoured by the monster tide.
It’s not just one or several carriages, but hundreds, thousands, along with many Iron Guard Brigade’s lines and car motorcades.
The death rate is hundreds of times faster than in Dawn City; the endless monster tide devours lives like a plow knife slicing through grass. Lin Xian has never seen so many lives perish right before his eyes.
Men, women, children, soldiers, countless people turn into corpses without even uttering a wail.
When the last severed carriage is pulled from the dust by KIKI, it is already a scene of blood red, with only two children buried under corpses, and a woman torn in half by monsters hanging on the roof. Below her waist is missing, her intestines trailing on rusted iron sheets, fingers clutching the scorching gun as she keeps firing at monsters. When KIKI attempts to save her, she is swallowed whole by a large Abnormal Body in an instant.
Buzz!
The Supercritical Diffraction Sword slices through, instantly disintegrating and incinerating thousands of monsters into charcoal.
At this moment, Lin Xian’s fury surges, the ringing in his ears completely drowning out the communicator’s sound, as if only the sharp ear-splitting noise remains between heaven and earth.
He directly turns the train carriages into dust, then amidst the downpour of corpse rain, retrieves the two children from a heap of bodies.
Lin Xian, carrying the rescued children, begins retreating towards the North Shore. From high above, he sees the endless monster tide continuously engulfing and obliterating Starfire below.
Less than an hour into resistance, more than ten thousand Iron Guard Brigade soldiers lie dead on the North Shore, the torn and burnt mechas strewn across the land, two Planet Raider Mechas severed into pieces, tanks still ablaze, hydraulic oil mixed with blood flowing along the track marks.
An Iron Guard Brigade soldier’s half-torso hangs on the tilted command vehicle’s antenna pole, the dawn wind rustling the ashes, sweeping over thousands of silent bodies.
00:42 AM
The canyon railway bridge collapses, and the Joint Train convoy has completely vanished into the Scarlet Mist of the South Shore.
Of the 13 Iron Guard Brigade shielding the rear, only two maneuvering battalions retreat, with over thirty thousand, including General Li Sheng, buried on the North Shore.
The Red Stone Rift Valley’s cannon fire ceases completely, leaving only sporadic gunfire across the land from some convoys that were unable to be rescued, still resisting. But these gunshots only echo for a moment before completely quieting down.
The land plunges into dark tranquility, leaving only the wind moaning through the remnants of steel and the rustling of millions of shells deep within the thick mist.
In rage or something else, the red Sky Giant Eye above continually emits waves of sound that hum the earth, while the colossal creatures gradually vanish into dust clouds as the storm intensifies.
Clang, clang.
Under the expanse of the Rocky Mountains, a survivor’s special train comprised of various types rapidly charges through the thick mist, iron wheels grinding steel rails, sparks flying, along with the flying ships overhead and the car motorcades’ dense headlights on the plains, heading south.
This is a brutal escape.
Throughout the night, Lin Xian and Silent City’s drones work on repairing the rescued train convoy, and at least ten thousand people receive emergency care on Silent City and Sky Dome Train.
"Including transport and weapon special trains, a total of 5,196 carriages."
On the main bridge of the Sea Suppression Ship, Elder Luo, Zeng Weiguo, and other commanders convene.
"So, just tonight, more than 1,300 carriages were lost, coupled with car motorcade and fleet losses; initial estimates indicate twenty to thirty thousand dead, pending detailed tallying by each convoy."
"Currently transferring the car motorcade onto trains to accelerate relocation."
"Are we abandoning the car motorcade?"
"Not exactly, Commander Lin is reorganizing resources, sending vehicles to Silent City, and merging remnants into train convoys. This way, transferring via rail and air will be faster."
"My plan is to move day and night, spanning three to four days across the South American Continent." Lin Xian says at this moment: "Polar has dispatched maintenance teams to repair our evacuation track; exact whereabouts are unknown, but under the current circumstances, we can’t stop for a minute."
"I think the same." Elder Luo nods solemnly: "Without concerns over the track, this movement is relatively safer."
"Good thing Silent City came; otherwise, I wouldn’t know how those car motorcades would traverse the Scarlet Land next," Zeng Weiguo says.
"If all those monsters gather on this continent, does it mean the Scarlet Mist will become even denser?"
"Certainly."
Lin Xian flies over the rapidly advancing train, completing repairs on the last intercontinental military train’s cabin connection and damaged armor, exhausted beyond measure.
Yet, he doesn’t return to the forefront of the Infinity, but directly flies to Silent City.
"After witnessing such a scale of human extinction, how do you feel?"
Mochizuki Masashi, upon seeing Lin Xian, asks rather peculiarly for his first question.
"Before answering your question, I’d like to address one first."
On the main bridge, Mochizuki Masashi looks at Lin Xian: "Are you worried the Foundation won’t let you easily traverse the north-south conduit to reach Ushuaia with this ’human survivor special train’?"
"Yes! So I’m preparing."
"Preparing what?"
"This!"
Lin Xian raises his hand to retrieve something from the Black Star Forge, causing Mochizuki Masashi’s eyes to reveal confusion.
In Lin Xian’s hand, a mysterious black gear slowly rotates.
"During these months, my train seems to have absorbed quite a bit of energy..."
Before Lin Xian lies a screen flickering crazily with Mechanical Source Points converted by the Heterogeneous Rubik’s Cube, blurring one’s vision.