Blood Fight

The total number of Wei Kengs who had arrived on this plane was 1,567. There were 1,559 still alive; eight had died in the early disasters.

Taking that as a warning, the Wei Kengs in the collective began a full mobilization. Every person, every minute, was spent preparing for victory. They used every resource they could and prepared every measure they could.

During the standoff between the Wei Kengs and the beasts near the water source, several fires were kept burning continuously. The dry rope made by roasting plant fibers at the edges of the flames kept accumulating. Some burning charcoal was also placed in bamboo tubes, with grass rope wound around the outside, and sent to other squads to provide them with fire.

And at last, the system had sent them some support.

First came the Map System. It provided terrain map data for Earth, which was combined with information gathered by the Wei Keng observers on the high ground using the Three-Point Method. After the maps were updated, a Wei Keng unit of 150 men began circling toward the nearby highland area.

The Auto-Aim System Wei Keng had requested was also installed for the 600 individuals responsible for shooting.

For instance, when they raised a crossbow or pistol, a Red Circle Area appeared in their field of view. It showed the area the projectile could hit. Why a red circle rather than a red dot? Because their bodies were still in a panic, they had no precise feel for their weapons, and the wind field outside affected their aim. The system also couldn't make a more precise judgment based on their own sensations, so it could only mark a Probability Circle based on their field of view and arm annotations.

Why had it taken an hour to equip them? Because measuring each Wei Keng's perception took several minutes. With hundreds or even thousands of Wei Kengs, even a small task became a major undertaking.

But everything had been ready in time for the preparations before Wei Keng launched the battle.

As the sun gradually sank in the west, the Wei Kengs on several high points finished their terrain statistics and assessed the current wind direction. They decided to launch their attack at 3:33 p.m.

Every Wei Keng was extremely nervous, but their programmatic communication made them understand the need for an active assault.

Rather than wait for those beasts to trample them that night, they might as well seize the moment and attack once they were nearly ready.

Among Wei Keng's current supplies, weapons and ammunition weren't the only things that mattered. Gold and the like were worthless for now. Compressed rations were essential, as were iron pots. After stuffing their precious compressed rations into their stomachs, all the Wei Kengs took a pot of cool boiled water and waited for the countdown.

The battle began with a ranged attack.

Submachine guns had an effective maximum range of around 150 meters. But considering the large species could withstand bullets, their actual effective range was only twenty meters. Wei Keng didn't use firearms for this initial harassment battle.

Instead, he brought out a series of small, fired-clay pots, each about 200 grams and roughly the size of a fist, with a red-hot piece of charcoal inside.

Wei Keng threaded grass rope through them and packed them into simple bamboo baskets. Fifty Wei Kengs carried these baskets, jogged 300 meters, and came within fifty meters of the beasts. Then they began swinging the ropes to throw the grenades.

These things had a range of eighty meters. Under normal circumstances, they wouldn't have been accurate. But in Wei Keng's field of vision, a red trajectory marker appeared. As the sling swung, the trajectory kept changing. The weight and size of each hard-mud pot varied slightly, and the system adjusted the wind direction parameter, accounting for it in the projectile's path. Wei Keng only had to release at the right moment!

As clusters of flames shot up from Wei Keng's position, the beasts in the forest stirred. But the first wave of attacks caused massive confusion. Eighty percent of the pots struck the beasts accurately. The impact from a sling was powerful, its kinetic energy comparable to a crossbow bolt. But because swinging one required a lot of space, they couldn't form a dense formation or aim precisely, so the weapon had been phased out.

Those drawbacks no longer applied. Even the large species, like war elephants, had flesh that visibly caved in where the pots struck. Of course, it bounced back, just like a Seven Wolves Belt whipping someone's backside until it swelled.

The smaller species, like wolfdogs, were knocked down and sent rolling.

Besides the kinetic energy, the charcoal caused a secondary scare and burns. For a time, the area, lit by flying sparks, was impossible to stand in.

After throwing their pots, the creatures gathered their wits and began giving chase. Wei Keng immediately took off running, abandoning the pots and bamboo baskets. They weren't worth much anyway.

The wolves behind them were fast, but it would still take a while to cover the fifty meters. And the Wei Kengs weren't fighting alone. As the throwers retreated, twenty Wei Kengs carrying submachine guns rushed forward to support them. Bullets might struggle against large animals, but they were more than enough to give the speed types a hard time.

In fact, the Wei Kengs with submachine guns had sights marked in their fields of vision. They fired in bursts. Even if a large animal like a wild boar came after them, three quick shots aimed at its weak point were enough to take it down.

As the Wei Kengs ran and threw fire pots, they scattered the clusters of beasts in the area, which had barely had anything resembling a formation to begin with.

Then an orderly roar rose from the grass.

"One-two, one-two! Forward march! One-two, one-two..."

The chants were weak at first, but they grew more coordinated and louder. Perhaps they had shed their embarrassment about making a show of themselves, or perhaps they needed the courage.

The Wei Keng collective's front line began to advance. The ranks weren't perfectly straight, mainly because the ground was uneven, but everyone maintained the battle line.

The Wei Kengs in front wore two bulletproof vests each and had bamboo shields strapped to their arms. In both hands, they held spears with bamboo shafts and sabre blades.

This front line was meant to defend against creatures roughly their own weight, no larger than tigers, so the crossbowmen behind them could load their crossbows without interruption and use the Three-Stage Shot. Anything weighing more than a ton wasn't something they could handle head-on. Those things had to be eliminated by concentrated fire from a hundred meters away.

Three rows of crossbowmen followed behind the front line, using three-stage volleys. On both flanks, four submachine-gun wielders formed a group to protect the hundred-meter line—just enough for crossfire.

With the system's sights and trajectory markers, Wei Keng could hit targets with his sling 80 percent of the time. Crossbow bolts were even easier to use; nearly every shot was a headshot.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! Strong crossbow bolts shot straight into the monsters' eye sockets. One bolt was usually enough to end the fight, emptying their health bars.

Among most of the creatures in the herd, only a few monsters smaller than wolves could slip through the fire net. Those that charged all the way to the last line were intercepted by Wei Kengs gripping bamboo poles. They moved too fast to stop once they hit the sharpened spears, and struggled to shake them off.

From above, the mile-long battle line looked like sixteen moving dams, steadily pushing forward. This formation relied on their ability to unleash a sudden barrage of firepower; there was no need to charge.

They controlled their pace to keep the line steady, constantly watching for signs that the enemy might gather for a charge. They let the enemy act first, then responded.

If they identified the direction of a charge, the other lines had to close in and attack the enemy's flanks, while the reserve force filled the gaps left in the line.

As the line slowly advanced, one frenzied beast after another died with its eyes pierced. There was no doubt that Wei Keng would win.

But in this battle, Wei Keng could only make predictions; he wasn't Omniscient and Omnipotent. And so, a weak point appeared in the battle line.

A third of the way along the eastern side of the line, they ran into a troublesome giant beast.

It weighed six tons and had a centaur-like build. Its lower half had four hooves like a horse, while the upper half had three pairs of arms like a naga. One pair was made up of primate-like hands; the longest pair were mantis-like pincers. The shortest pair were crab claws.

Most importantly, it wore armor. It was made of unknown plant fiber and tiles, but it offered good protection against arrows.

As the line advanced, Wei Keng's ranged attacks had already destroyed its eyes. But when one Wei Keng approached and tried to strike an unarmored joint, the mantis pincers snapped shut around him faster than a bullet. Their accuracy and speed made Wei Keng realize it had another way of sensing its surroundings besides sight.

At that moment, the system explained over the Communications Group: "This is the Node Creature of the local Gene Colony, the pinnacle of the Life Radiation System in this area. It must have located you by sensing the Life Radiation coming from your individual body as it emitted its own."

Wei Keng had no time to listen to the system's belated explanation. The Wei Keng caught in the mantis pincers had exposed thigh bones. The others wanted to save him. They prepared to rush in, use submachine guns to break the pincers, and drag the wounded man away. Even with a broken leg, a Wei Keng still had a reason to live; he could contribute to the collective by shaping tools with his hands.

But the giant beast gave them no chance. Its shortest pair of arms clamped down on the Wei Keng's head. With a chilling crunch, it crushed his skull. The headless Wei Keng twitched for several more seconds.

Hundreds of Wei Kengs on the front line saw it happen, their eyes blazing with rage.

Crossbow fire and gunshots rang out without pause. They repeatedly pierced the giant beast's armor, but sharp-eyed Wei Kengs noticed its flesh writhing like a worm, repairing itself at a visible speed.

For the first time since arriving in this world, Wei Keng felt he needed a heavy sniper rifle, a rocket launcher, and cluster grenades. Of course, a recoilless rifle would be even better.

"Hold it back!"

The Wei Keng leading the second line shouted the words with a trembling voice. He clearly thought he was unlikely to survive. He took a deep breath and suddenly calmed down, then ordered the Wei Keng beside him, "Give me covering fire." He shouted to those around him, "Anyone with the guts, come with me! Get close and cripple it!"

There was no doubt about it. Against something that didn't rely on its eyes and had cell activity as strong as a planarian, with no vital organs, it was impossible to whittle it down with ranged attacks. Wei Keng could even predict that as long as it touched the corpses of the fallen and consumed their organic matter, it would recover faster than their projectiles and crossbow bolts could hurt it.

This was a Node Creature.

When the Pandora Field had first descended, the Carbon-based Life Information Tunneling Phenomenon had been terrifyingly intense.

Back then, within a few hours, it could "turn humans and any animal into plants shaped like skeletons." Or vast colonies of carbon-based fungi would gather around people with strong wills, molding organic matter directly into another identical person to replace the original and return to the human world.

After spreading across the globe, the phenomenon of life information vanishing and converging, which had initially caused such terror, had become diluted over the larger area and was no longer as intense. But the same supernatural phenomenon could still be seen in the Node Creatures of individual regional ecosystems. A Node Creature was connected to the life activities of every organism in its region. Some of the energy from all living things' activities flowed back to the node. Unless an attack exceeded a certain threshold, its rate of recovery could drive its attackers to despair.

And Node Creatures were not necessarily unintelligent.

The giant beast saw that its tile armor had been smashed. It reached out, grabbed a handful of shattered tiles, and flung them at the Wei Kengs trying to get close.

Thanks to the system's advance warning of danger, three Wei Kengs avoided being hit in the vitals. They were still left covered in blood, and one sharp-eyed Wei Keng was struck on the forehead by a tile shard, left dazed, and caught by a mantis pincer around his lower leg two seconds later.

"I'll curse your ancestors, you son of a—" One Wei Keng swore in National Essence and charged straight in. He rolled beneath the beast's armpit and fired his submachine gun into the underside of the strange limb. At close range, the kinetic energy of the rapid-fire bullets was fully unleashed, shredding the limb connection until it was nearly severed.

The armpit was a blind spot. Once one arm had been severed, the giant beast had a blind spot in its movements.

When an enemy could be wounded and made to struggle, morale soared among those fighting it.

"453, look out! It's grabbing rocks!" Rat-a-tat-tat! Gunfire opened up.

"Sixth squad, take the wounded and fall back." Other squads quickly dragged away the Wei Keng with the broken leg.

At the same time, three more Wei Kengs, covered by the fire team, slid straight beneath the beast's armpit. The chance of a successful slide was three in five. The other two were caught by the giant beast's remaining pincers. But unlike before, they weren't crushed by the claws working together. As soon as the pincers moved, gunfire broke them, and the two wounded were dragged aside.

During the covering fire, a squad on each side of the giant beast planted steel pipe spears in the ground, their points slanting upward to form a barrier. There was half a meter between each spear—plenty of room for a person to pass through, but extremely unfriendly to the giant beast.

In the end, the giant beast fell onto the spears. As it rolled, four or five metal barbs pierced its body. Blood gushed out like a fountain.

Wei Keng had finally inflicted a wound that would be genuinely difficult to repair. Next came clusters of sharpened bamboo thrust into its body, stabbing it until it resembled a porcupine. Then they piled on charcoal and threw dry firewood on top, adding fire damage.

The Node Creature's regenerative power could not withstand the relentless attacks. At last, its Life Aura began to weaken.

The creatures involved seemed to sense that the central node connecting their lives had disappeared. They scattered like frightened birds and fleeing beasts, retreating west along the lakeshore.

But they wouldn't escape unscathed. Before the battle began, Wei Keng had sent a unit to circle around. Now they received the signal and started a fire upwind of the beasts' escape route. The flames spread very slowly, but the smoke swept over them as swiftly as water.