"What are we waiting for? Boys! Follow me out of the city to meet the enemy!" Bai Ye waved a broad hand and took the lead toward the city gate.
He could not wait to test the power of the Taboo Object.
King Snake and Tan Jie exchanged a glance. Without a word, they summoned their men and followed Bai Ye out of the city.
Before long, the group of over thirty people marched out through the gates.
The underlings gripped their guns nervously, their eyes darting uneasily in every direction, afraid that a hyena might suddenly pounce from some corner.
They formed a circle, shielding Bai Ye, King Snake, and Tan Jie as they slowly pressed forward.
The distant hyenas remained unmoved by this. Only after the group had moved a hundred meters away from the city walls did several hyenas in the bushes suddenly begin barking wildly.
Roar! Roar! Roar!
More and more beastly roars rang out. At the horizon's edge, yellow sand swirled through the air, and dense black specks slowly emerged from within it.
One, two, three... twenty!
More than twenty hyenas came charging from afar. They were far larger than ordinary hyenas, nearly the size of adult bulls.
Dense pounding footsteps thundered across the ground like drumbeats. The earth trembled faintly, and so did the hearts of Tan Jie and the others.
"Open fire!!" Tan Jie roared. His firearm fired first, like a signal flare, and battle erupted in an instant.
Facing the charging hyenas, over thirty people raised their guns and fired wildly. A dense barrage of bullets wove into a net of firepower that swept toward the hyenas.
No one spared ammunition, and no one retreated, because they all knew clearly that if they could not deal with these hyenas, they would sooner or later be trapped to death in Gray Soil Town.
It was precisely this life-or-death crisis that made the leaders of the East District and West District join forces without holding anything back.
The torrent of bullets stalled the hyenas' charge. Bai Ye, standing amid the crowd, did not fire. The distance was too great, and his marksmanship was not very good. He could not waste Blood Qi using the Taboo Object; he had to wait until the hyenas got closer.
He observed silently, gaining a direct sense of the Mutated Beasts' power. These warped bodies of flesh and blood simply did not fear bullets fired by ordinary guns.
The bullets could only break the hyenas' skin. Though blood sprayed everywhere and the sight was gruesome, the wounds were merely superficial and not fatal. Unless a massive barrage focused on one hyena at once, or someone got lucky and shot through an eye socket, killing them was extremely difficult.
Tan Jie's group had only a few dozen guns, and their ammunition was limited. They could not maintain heavy fire suppression and could only rely on the terrifying lethality of [Breath of Bones].
After one round of volleys, everyone hurriedly reloaded while the hyenas used the opening to close in at high speed.
Just then, a hyena suddenly sprang out from behind a dead tree at the side and viciously clamped its jaws around an East District man's arm.
"Aaaahhh!!" The man screamed miserably. He had not noticed the hyena silently circling behind them at all.
Panic and fear instantly spread through the crowd. The difference between trained and untrained people became painfully clear at that moment. In their confusion, they instinctively fired. They missed the hyena and instead directly killed the man who had been bitten.
"Bai Ye! Fire!" Tan Jie shouted in fury and alarm.
Bai Ye calmly loaded a bullet. His icy eyes and the muzzle of his gun locked onto the hyena at the same time.
"Call me Deputy Commander Bai."
Bang!
The roar of [Breath of Bones] rang out alongside his cold voice.
A scarlet-glowing bullet tore through the air like a blood-red meteor, trailing a long tail as it struck the hyena viciously.
Boom!
The hyena's head exploded instantly, like a watermelon dropped from the tenth floor. Blood and chunks of flesh splattered everywhere.
So this was the power of a Taboo Object?!
Tan Jie looked horrified. As a Genetic Modifier, his physical abilities far surpassed those of ordinary people, but if that shot landed on him, there was no way he could withstand it.
His killing intent toward Bai Ye intensified once more, but when he saw Bai Ye's pale face and violent panting, he relaxed inwardly.
Fortunately, such immense power came with severe side effects. With that kid's physique, he could not possibly endure more than a few shots.
Bai Ye panted heavily. At the instant he fired, he felt as if his body had been hollowed out, like he had donated blood for three straight days. If he had not eaten meat these past few days to build himself back up, he might have blacked out and fainted on the spot.
Fortunately, after the hyena was killed, a warm current flowed out from [Breath of Bones] and surged throughout his body.
In just an instant, not only was the Blood Qi he had lost restored, it even seemed to strengthen slightly.
The exhilarating sensation of his physical abilities improving jolted his spirits!
So he raised his gun and began firing at the nearest hyena.
Bang!
The gun roared again. The scarlet bullet struck the hyena with perfect accuracy—not because Bai Ye's aim was good, but because the charging hyena had already been hit several times and its movements had slowed.
The warm current swept through his body again. Bai Ye's eyes grew brighter, and the wildness and defiance deep within them were thoroughly ignited.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He fired without pause. More and more corpses piled up nearby—some hyenas, some underlings.
As more and more hyenas closed in, the two leaders, who had been mindful of their status, joined the fight as well.
King Snake tore off his shirt, revealing a mechanical arm gleaming with cold metallic light. Hydraulic rods let out piercing shrieks as the silver-white alloy skeleton abruptly unfolded. The mechanical arm completed its energy charge in 0.3 seconds.
He threw a punch, compressing the surrounding air into transparent ripples with the force of his fist. Bang!
A hyena's skull instantly caved in, sending it flying several meters away.
Though gravely wounded, the hyena still fearlessly climbed back to its feet and continued charging.
Tan Jie roared repeatedly as the hair on his body rapidly thickened and hardened. Each black bristle became perfect protective armor, allowing him to fight the hyenas in close combat without falling at any disadvantage.
With his defensive strength, Tan Jie even had the leisure to watch Bai Ye.
Seeing Bai Ye fire again and again, he was overjoyed. Was this idiot so bloodthirsty that he had lost his mind? He was actually using [Breath of Bones] at such high intensity. In a few days, he would probably be drained into a dried corpse.
He had originally thought that if Bai Ye deliberately slacked off, he would force him to act even if he had to point a gun at Bai Ye's head. He had not expected Bai Ye to work so hard.
Tan Jie laughed to himself. At this rate, he would not even need to deal with Bai Ye afterward. This brat would play himself to death!
But after laughing for a while, he could no longer laugh.
Because Bai Ye was still firing!?
Was this kid trying to get himself killed? The more than twenty hyenas that had appeared were not all of them, and the Hyena King had yet to show itself.
Watching Bai Ye's deathly pale face and swaying figure, Tan Jie felt his heart lurch. He had never intended to wipe out the hyenas in one go. He planned to fight a war of attrition, killing a few each day and slowly wearing down the Hyena Pack.
In his eyes, Bai Ye could die, but he absolutely could not die now! There were still several days of fighting ahead!
"Bai Ye... no, Deputy Commander Bai, today's results have been excellent. We can retreat now and fight again tomorrow!" Tan Jie shouted.
He had thought Bai Ye would obey, but the pale-faced youth instead snapped, "Retreat? The enemy hasn't been dealt with yet. Let me see who dares take a single step back! Kill them!"
Before you continue