A Hard-Fought Battle

"Everyone, hurry to your assigned positions. Move as soon as the signal comes."

As one modified truck after another pulled up around Chen Village, everyone advanced in silence.

Chen Village had already returned to quiet. From time to time, the lazy grunt of a pig broke the stillness.

Suddenly, a command came through the walkie-talkies of every squad.

"Move out."

The squads charged into the village from all directions, slowly surrounding and hunting down the monsters.

Among them, one squad stood out, moving very differently from the rest.

They pushed deeper and deeper into the village without stopping, heading straight for the Pig Farm to the north.

Every pig monster that blocked their way was killed in a single strike.

This squad was made up of the directors and the best performers who had emerged during the earlier battle to defend the base. There were seventeen of them in all.

Their top priority this time was to kill the most dangerous, most heavily mutated pigs in the Pig Farm.

The other squads would kill as many of the pigs on the outskirts as they could and keep them occupied, so they wouldn't interfere with the decapitation strike.

The deeper the squad advanced, the harder the monsters became to kill.

The pigs on the outskirts had only been a little stronger and tougher than ordinary domestic pigs. But the ones deeper inside, closer to the Pig Farm, were already twice their size, with harder hides and a more boar-like appearance. The only way to kill them quickly was to strike their weak points directly.

A rough estimate suggested that at least several dozen pig monsters remained inside the Pig Farm. They had to be stronger than the ones outside.

The squad burst through the door, hoping to kill some of them before they could react.

But the sight inside left everyone stunned.

There weren't dozens of pigs, as they had expected. There were only four.

But these four were far larger than the pigs outside.

One lay lazily in the middle. It was four times the size of a domestic pig, with black bristles like spikes that gleamed like metal. Two long tusks jutted from either side of its mouth, displaying its ferocity in full.

Two of the others looked similar to the one in the middle, though they were slightly smaller and had shorter tusks. The last had no long tusks, but a gray horn growing from the middle of its head.

The three pig monsters patrolled the farm, as if they were guards protecting the one in the middle.

The floor was littered with remains, impossible to tell whether they belonged to people or animals. Splashes of dark red blood and the trails it had left behind were still there.

The inside of the Pig Farm was nauseating, and its oppressive atmosphere made everyone shudder.

"Everyone except the directors, form groups of four and surround the three monsters. The five of us will take on the one in the middle," Gao Zheng decided swiftly.

They had already agreed on how to divide into groups for different situations. The twelve men immediately broke away, forming groups of four and charging at the three patrolling monsters.

Gao Zheng led the remaining four toward the pig monster in the middle, which seemed to be their leader.

Of the five, Gao Zheng and Lin Chenxing both wielded spears. They followed Guo Qichang, the only one carrying a shield, while He Qishun and Ma Tianxing brought up the rear.

The formerly lazy leader rose to its feet. Its bristles rippled like waves as its fat quivered.

Guo Qichang charged straight at the pig with his shield raised, ramming it head-on and forcing it backward.

Gao Zheng and Lin Chenxing lifted their spears and thrust at the pig's eyes from either side of Guo Qichang.

To their surprise, the pig squeezed its eyes shut just before the spears struck. The spearheads hit its eyelids, leaving only red spots and causing little damage. The pain made it lower its head, then jerk it from side to side, flinging Gao Zheng and the other two men away.

With the force pushing it gone, the pig-like leader stopped moving. Its vision had yet to recover from the impact, and all it could do was search for targets through a field of red.

As the pig came to a halt, He Qishun and Ma Tianxing darted to either side. They swung their axe and knife upward into its flanks, hoping to inflict a fatal wound on its vulnerable belly.

This time, they did far more damage than before. They cut a gash in the pig's belly, though it wasn't deep.

At last, the pig's vision returned. It fixed its eyes on the tiny pests attacking it from both sides and roared in fury. It pulled back its hind legs, then charged into He Qishun.

He Qishun had no time to dodge and took the pig head-on. Fortunately, the two were close, so the pig couldn't build up much speed, and the impact wasn't too strong. He Qishun only spat out a mouthful of blood. At the same time, he gripped one of the pig's tusks tightly with one hand and swung his knife at its snout with the other.

The pig shook its head wildly, trying to throw He Qishun off, while its body began to spin.

With an axe in each hand, Ma Tianxing moved against the pig's spin and hacked at its legs, hoping either to knock it down or draw its attention.

But the pig's leg hide had also grown harder than that on its other parts, so the axes did little damage.

Guo Qichang had recovered from being thrown. He charged at the pig with his shield and slammed into its head from the side, stopping it from shaking its head for a moment.

Seizing the opportunity, He Qishun quickly dropped to the ground and retreated.

Gao Zheng and Lin Chenxing tried to stab the pig's eyes again. They still couldn't strike before it shut them, but this time the red spot on its eyelid grew larger, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of its eye.

The two exchanged a smile. They pulled back their spears, then thrust them into the pig's nostrils with all their strength.

Gao Zheng shouted, "Old Guo, ram it here! Drive the spear in!"

Guo Qichang immediately adjusted his stance and advanced with his shield, facing the pig head-on.

The shield struck the spear, driving it another few inches in.

The pig shuddered, then lifted both front legs in agony and slammed them hard against the ground.

It shook its head again. Lin Chenxing's spear was thrown free, but Gao Zheng's remained lodged inside.

Gao Zheng's spear had a small feature on its tip: a tiny barb. That barb was what kept the pig from shaking it loose.

Gao Zheng rushed forward, grabbed the exposed shaft, planted one foot on the pig's snout, and yanked the spear out. A long arc of blood sprayed along its path.

He swung the spear around and thrust it back into the same spot.

This time, he followed the wound through the nasal passage, driving it close to the brain before pulling it out again.

Badly wounded, the pig grew more and more frantic.

As it leaped and crashed back down, the entire ground began to shake. Some of the pipes beneath the Pig Farm couldn't withstand the violent vibrations and began to rupture. Water surged up from underground, then splashed into the air whenever the pig landed.

The spray began to obstruct their vision, forcing everyone to pause their attacks.