Chapter 96 – Wild Charge!

Volume 3: Rising Winds and Clouds

The Combat Command Center had anticipated this possibility.

Any encirclement had to account for the enemy breaking through.

Just as every war inevitably brought bloodshed and sacrifice…

"Exact locations?" Fang Wenhai asked calmly.

"The entire… front line!"

That answer allowed Fang Wenhai to piece together what had happened.

The Military had no shortage of devices capable of detecting underground vibrations. But there was no way to deploy them around Demon City.

Anything placed there would simply be destroyed by low-level Bipedal Lizards.

Under those circumstances, the Military had no means of detecting Level 4 Demonic Creatures tunneling beneath the battlefield before they burst from the earth at the very front and attacked.

And the fog over Demon City…

Fang Wenhai cut off the thought and raised his voice.

"Order every soldier on the front line to withdraw immediately. Tell Sequence 2 and Sequence 3 to begin rescue operations and establish defensive perimeters at the designated positions. Move!"

"And where are those missiles? Launch them at the clustered Level 5 Bipedal Lizards. Blow them to hell!"

The moment Fang Wenhai finished speaking, the Second Artillery Corps stationed at the Outpost launched its attack.

Their target was the pyramid of stacked Level 5 Bipedal Lizards.

…

How fast was a Level 5 creature?

Wen Yu could answer that. In his Combat State, judged solely by his Physical Attribute, he possessed the power of Level 5.

Once a Level 5 creature accelerated to full speed, it could break the sound barrier with ease. It might even reach dozens of times the speed of sound.

Which raised a question.

How fast could a pyramid of stacked Bipedal Lizards move?

The Bipedal Lizards forming its base were all Level 5 Peak creatures. Those above them had slightly lower Physical Attributes, but they did not need to move at all.

Their only task was to cling tightly to their kin below.

And then there was the boost from the Mass Haste Spell.

Their immense size produced tremendous drag, slowing the formation considerably. Even so, the screaming gales and blast waves around it-and the earthshaking sonic booms in its wake-revealed an unmistakable fact.

The pyramid of Bipedal Lizards had broken the sound barrier.

Going supersonic was not particularly difficult, at least not for Class Holders. With a Physical Attribute near 100 Points, a person could break the sound barrier at a full sprint.

But how large was this pyramid?

It was as large as Demon City itself.

This grotesque thing, this terrifying Baru Demon Legion, hurtled toward the Outpost like a meteor-like an entire city on the charge.

Its momentum shook heaven and earth.

…

Fang Wenhai watched the horrifying images on the screen and felt the faint tremors beneath his feet. His brow furrowed deeply.

He had not looked this grim even upon learning that the Bipedal Lizards had tunneled beneath the front line.

At the same moment, a sentence Lin Haifeng had once spoken surfaced in his mind.

"The nature of war has changed…"

"Has it really?" Fang Wenhai murmured.

Then the missiles launched.

…

Striking a target moving faster than sound with missiles was anything but simple.

Fortunately, the rapid development of electronic information technology in modern warfare meant a missile battery did not need visual lock-on to target an enemy.

And they could afford to fire freely. The Outpost had missiles to spare.

Following the formation's calculated trajectory, a sky-blotting barrage of missiles streaked into the distance.

Several minutes later, they hit-not with perfect accuracy, but they hit.

The imperfect strike was entirely due to the Baru Demon pyramid's speed.

Against a supersonic target, a small number of missiles missed. Most, however, slammed directly into the pyramid.

Then…

A Black Light flared and rapidly neutralized the explosions. The Baru Demon pyramid emerged from the sea of smoke and flame completely unharmed, still charging relentlessly toward the Outpost.

The earth split in its wake. Any creature that dared stand before the monstrosity-whether a soldier of the Human Race or a low-level Baru Demon-was shredded by the terrifying pressure waves before it could even draw near. Only flecks of blood and minced flesh remained, splattered across the Demon Qi Shield.

The second missile barrage followed close behind.

It was just as useless.

…

The Demon Seed watched the smoke ahead and let out two vicious chuckles.

Of course he understood the power of the Demon Qi Matrix.

The amount of Demon Qi the device could absorb was limitless. The more Demon Qi it absorbed, the more energy it stored-and the stronger the defenses it could provide.

Once the black hole had been opened, Demon Qi had flooded in from the Demon Realm at a rate surpassing even the combined output of dozens, perhaps a hundred Demon Realm Gates.

The Demon Qi Matrix had absorbed all of it for an entire week.

That meant its present defensive power was astonishingly high.

Under the Demon Seed's untroubled gaze, the second wave of missiles smashed against the Demon Qi Shield.

The shield stopped every one.

"Die! Die! Die!"

The Demon Seed's grin grew wider and his roar louder with every repetition. The Black-skinned Demonic Creature beside him shuddered beneath the force of his murderous aura.

…

Inside the Outpost's Combat Command Center, Fang Wenhai asked, "Calculate its arrival time. How long before that thing reaches the Outpost?"

The answer came back within a few dozen seconds.

Thirty minutes.

"Launch a nuclear missile! Now!"

A nuclear strike would do more than intercept the Bipedal Lizard pyramid. It might also damage the Demon Qi Shield Generator-and it would certainly send any soldiers who had failed to escape the surrounding area straight to hell.

Fang Wenhai issued the order with almost no hesitation.

Then he added, "Notify Commander Lin and Kaldor. If even the nuclear strike fails, open the entrance to the Treasure Land immediately!"

"Yes, sir!"

The messenger behind him accepted the order and hurried out.

Fang Wenhai stared at the images on the screen, an ever-deepening unease taking root in his heart.

He had already imagined the worst possible outcome.

If that thing reached the Outpost, every human there would be dragged into an exceptionally bloody battle.