Chapter 48: No Escape

The eight-member squad moved rapidly toward the Baishazhou Yangtze River Bridge. Once they ascended the sparsely vegetated elevated highway, Chen Jian powered down his powered exoskeleton, though their pace remained unabated.

Fifteen minutes later, the eight operatives reached the bridgehead at Baishazhou and quickly established a temporary stronghold using simple barricades.

By this time, the monsters that had landed from Tangxun Lake had already reached the location where they had previously engaged the ground rats, and the images captured by the drone fully exposed the creatures' physical forms.

Looking at the feed projected onto his smart eyepiece, Chen Jian was utterly dumbfounded.

He had considered numerous possibilities, yet he never imagined that the entity which had repeatedly thwarted the Mechanicus and prevented the blindingly fast and highly agile Bloodfang scouts from transmitting even a shred of intelligence would look like this!

It was not a beast-like monster resembling a ground rat or a praying mantis, nor was it a humanoid creature like the matriarch in Chuansha City. If he had to describe it...

The damn thing looked like a giant bullfrog with a turtle shell.

Its immensely developed leg muscles were covered in thick, barbed scales. Its forelimbs were extraordinarily long, with only the elbow joints touching the ground during movement, to the extent that scar tissue resembling fleshy tumors had grown over its elbows.

The forward-protruding foreclaws were likewise covered in scales, and under the moonlight, the razor-sharp bone claws emitted an eerie, translucent amber hue. As it swept them about, patches of low-lying vegetation were mowed down.

Most terrifying of all was the monster's head, concealed beneath its rugged carapace. It had completely lost any basic skeletal structure, looking as though a lump of dough had been kneaded into a sphere and then slammed ruthlessly onto a gravel-strewn ground, with sharp pebbles embedding themselves into the dough, distorting and twisting the skin and muscle tissue beyond recognition.

The thing was not the least bit cute.

Especially in the eyes of the Bloodfang members, who lacked night-vision goggles, the terrifying sense of oppression when the monster leaped with immense force and descended from the sky almost stripped them of the courage to look it in the eye.

No wonder the previous team had perished at its hands.

Its ultra-high mobility was thoroughly worthy of the title "Tier-3 Monster"!

Xu Lie glanced at Chen Jian, seemingly wishing to inquire about his plan.

However, Chen Jian merely lay calmly on the ground, aiming his Type 191 rifle at the target while speaking in a low voice:

"This thing is a bit bizarre; its entire body is covered in carapace structures."

"It jumps so high—leaving aside sheer strength, can its skeletal structure even handle that?"

"The matriarch we saw in Chuansha City wobbled just walking and had to rely on its tentacles to pull itself along."

"We need to figure out the exact composition of its physical structure, otherwise..."

"At a time like this, I hardly think we need to conduct academic research, do we?"

Xu Lie finally couldn't help but interrupt. By now, the monster had finished inspecting the ground rat carcasses on the ground and let out a piercing, shrill howl.

Accompanied by its screech, a massive wave of anomalous thermal signatures instantly materialized within the drone's field of view.

"Ground rats."

Chen Jian calmly issued his command:

"The ground rats truly share a symbiotic relationship with this Tier-3 monster—speaking of which, didn't you guys bother to give this creature a name?"

"No... but is that really the point?!"

Xu Lie had already prepared to retreat. He distinctly noticed that the abnormal rustling sounds approaching the elevated highway were now dangerously close.

If we don't leave now, will we even make it out?

If we get surrounded by these ground rats and our position is exposed, and that Tier-3 monster pounces on us, even if you are Chosen Ones, you won't escape at close range, will you?

I certainly don't want to die here!

"Of course that's the point. Without a name, our subsequent orders lack clear direction."

"Fine, let's just call it Bullfrog."

"Adjust the drone to lower its altitude and maintain surveillance."

"He Shu, use the anti-materiel sniper rifle to fire on the target and test its armor's ballistic resistance."

"Lei Jie, set up the mortar; no matter what, hit it with a shell first!"

"Shen Yue, fire the machine gun at the target's head to disrupt its sensory perception."

"All other Bloodfangs, hold your positions. The moment any ground rats approach, eliminate them immediately!"

"We're not running?!"

Xu Lie was dumbfounded.

"Run? Can you outrun it?"

"The damn thing leaps hundreds of meters at a time; even if we took a helicopter, we might not outrun it."

"We have no choice but to fight first, and withdraw as we fight!"

"...... Fine."

Xu Lie had no choice but to remain in position on guard. Meanwhile, Lei Jie had already unslung the mortar from his back weapon mount and adjusted the elevation settings.

"Bang!"

The heavy sniper rifle in He Shu's hands emitted a dull, explosive roar, and a precious 12.7mm armor-piercing incendiary round broke out of the barrel, striking the monster's head 1.2 kilometers away dead center.

A flash of fire flickered and vanished upon impact. The bullet effortlessly pierced the irregular scales on the monster's head and burrowed beneath the skin.

"Roar—"

The monster rolled and crashed to the ground, wailing, yet only a moment later, it stood back up.

Regardless, the cavitation effect produced by a 12.7mm round was still far too limited for its massive physique. Scoring a one-shot kill was truly not that simple.

"Continue firing at the dorsal carapace, test the back armor's ballistic resistance!"

"Understood!"

At the command, another armor-piercing incendiary round was fired.

Sparks flew in all directions. This time, everyone could see that the efficacy of this round was quite limited.

Did it penetrate?

It penetrated.

The heavy carapace could not stop an armor-piercing incendiary round capable of piercing 20mm of homogeneous steel plate, but the problem was that after penetration, its lethality was virtually reduced to zero.

It wasn't dealing any real damage!

Chen Jian gained a preliminary understanding of the Bullfrog's defensive rating, and after a rapid analysis, he arrived at a fairly straightforward conclusion.

"We can only aim for the head."

"Even armor-piercing incendiary rounds can barely punch through; the weapons we have on hand won't cause much damage exploding against its body."

"Damn it, what a pity the grenade launcher ammunition is all spent."

"Should've saved some for this moment!"

"We need to find a way to pin it in place... Lei Jie, fire a round and test the waters!"

"Received!"

Lei Jie, who had already reloaded his weapon, instantly pulled the trigger. An extended-range high-explosive fragmentation shell descended from the sky, striking the monster's dorsal carapace with pinpoint accuracy.

"Boom!"

Following the explosion, a wave of lethal shrapnel swept across the area.

However, just as Chen Jian had anticipated, this high-explosive shell caused almost no substantial damage to the monster.

It was merely knocked to the ground by the explosive shockwave, stumbling a few times before rising back to its feet.

By now, it had locked onto the squad's position—locked onto the bridgehead of the Baishazhou Bridge.

Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Jian deployed his weapon mount.

Immediately afterward, four micro-missiles swarmed out in a full salvo!

Accompanied by a piercing shriek, three of the missiles surged directly toward the monster's abdomen, while the remaining one executed a bizarre mid-air turn before rocketing straight toward the creature's relentlessly writhing head.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

"Boom!"

Four explosions followed closely one after another, and flames surged into the air.

The explosive power of CL-20 was terrifyingly potent. Once the smoke and dust cleared, a massive gaping hole had been torn open in the monster's head.

Blood flowed freely, and bone fragments were scattered.

The monster attempted to roar once more, but no sound came forth.

It managed to steady its body, fixing its glare entirely on the direction where the squad was stationed.

Then, with a single bound.

The monster lunged straight at them!