Golden Tank's searchlight could only cut through the darkness of twenty meters ahead. The crunching sound of the tracks running over the stone slabs could not cover up the increasingly dense friction sounds all around. The sound was weird, like nails scratching a blackboard, or like rusty gears forcibly biting together.
"Something is coming." Gaara stopped. Although the gourd behind his back had become a decoration, his instinct of wallowing between life and death for many years was still there.
Before he finished speaking, several black shadows suddenly appeared in the darkness.
It was a puppet. But it was not a delicate work of art like Sunagakure, but some kind of rough and ferocious ancient war weapon. They had bronze cast skeletons, with dried carrion hanging from their joints, purple light in their eye sockets, and they moved as fast as crazy beasts.
"Protect Lord Kazekage!"
A Sunagakure Jonin roared, and his muscle memory made him react instantly. He pulled out the short chakra knife from his back, advanced instead of retreating, and slashed hard at the approaching puppet.
If this knife is placed outside, the wind chakra attached to it will be enough to cut through the rock.
But here, there is only despair.
As soon as the blade touched the purple mist on the puppet's body, the layer of light blue chakra was like a flame encountering a vacuum, extinguishing instantly. The stainless steel blade, which had lost its chakra reinforcement, struck hard on the puppet's bronze shoulder armor.
"Ding!"
There was a crisp sound and sparks flew everywhere.
The knife broke.
The Jonin was stunned. Before the shock in his eyes could turn into fear, the puppet's rusty claws had already swung down.
"Pfft."
There was no splendid light and shadow of ninjutsu, only the most primitive and bloody sound of flesh tearing. The two Sunagakure elites were instantly torn into pieces by several puppets before they could even let out a scream. The blood spattered on the dry stone slabs, and was greedily sucked up by the purple mist before it even hit the ground, leaving not even a trace of residue behind.
"Back off! Back off everyone!" Hiruzen yelled loudly, and the Adamantine Staff in his hand danced into a black shadow, barely hitting a puppet that was rushing towards him.
But this ghost thing was so hard. It made Hiruzen's mouth numb from the shock, but the puppet just rolled around on the ground and got up again like nothing happened.
Panic exploded instantly.
These puppets seemed to have a perverted appetite for creatures possessing chakra. They ignored ordinary people and besieged ninjas crazily.
Gaara's eyes turned cold, he turned sideways to avoid a sharp claw, raised his leg and hit the puppet's chest with a whip.
"Bang!"
It was like being kicked on a red-hot iron plate.
The puppet didn't move at all, but Gaara's trouser legs were instantly corroded by the purple mist, and a heartbreaking burning pain spread across his skin. He groaned and jumped back, his face extremely ugly.
This is rule suppression.
In this hellish place, the proud ninjutsu is poison, and the honed Taijutsu is a joke.
"Ah--!"
Screams came from behind the tank.
The bikini bodyguard group that was originally hiding in the "safe zone" was in chaos. Facing this supernatural monster, these girls who were paid to do things were so frightened that their faces turned pale and their formations were in chaos. Several puppets who had not grabbed the "ninja meat" immediately turned their guns and pounced on this group of ordinary people who had no strength to restrain themselves.
The tank hatch was not closed tightly.
Colonel Ka was squinting, observing the battle situation through the periscope. When he saw a long-legged female bodyguard being forced into a blind corner, desperately pulling the trigger of a rifle, and the bullets jingling on the puppet but in vain, his mung bean eyes suddenly widened.
According to common sense, this arms dealer who is greedy for life and afraid of death should shrink into a turtle shell at this time, weld the hatch door shut, and wait until everyone outside is dead before running away.
But the next second, a furious roar came from the car loudspeaker, which shook the corridor to the point of falling dust.
"Those are the employees I spent a lot of money to train! Only I can deduct their wages, how can you scraps touch them?!"
"Buzz-boom!!!"
Golden Tank roared on the spot, and the black smoke ejected from the exhaust pipe was as thick as ink.
Immediately afterwards, this steel monster weighing dozens of tons made an action that completely violated common sense in physics.
Colonel Ka turned the steering wheel fiercely and stepped on the accelerator into the fuel tank. The track on one side of the tank was locked, and the other side was idling crazily, creating dazzling sparks and green smoke on the stone slabs.
Drift in place and turn around!
"Get out of the way! Get out of my way!"
Colonel Ka ignored the exclamations of the ninja in front and drove the moving metal wall towards the puppet that was about to kill him at full speed.
No fancy tricks.
No chakra, no Hand Seals, no tactical deception.
Just pure mass, acceleration, and the violent aesthetics of Newton's second law.
"Clang!"
A heart-wrenching loud noise.
The mutated puppet, which was indestructible and even Adamantine Staff couldn't beat it, was forced against the stone wall of the corridor by the collision angle of the front of the tank.
The bronze frame was as brittle as a biscuit in the face of the impact of dozens of tons.
"Click--Zizzi--"
The puppet instantly deformed and its parts fell apart. Immediately afterwards, the wide tracks ruthlessly crushed it, turning it into a pile of twisted scrap metal and flesh, which was deeply embedded in the ground.
The whole place was dead silent.
Hiruzen opened his mouth wide and his pipe almost fell to the ground.
He was surprised to find that the ridiculously thick layer of gold-plated armor, which he despised as vulgar, made a "sizzling" corroding sound when it came into contact with the purple mist on the puppet's body, but it was able to withstand Chaos corrosion due to its extremely high density and physical thickness.
Compared with the fragile chakra defense line, this "physical shield" full of copper smell has become the most reliable barrier at this moment.
"Who else?!"
Colonel Ka kicked open the cabin door and leaned out half of his body. He held up the gold-plated large-caliber pistol and fired several shots "bang bang bang" at the other puppet trying to get closer.
Although the bullet did not penetrate the bronze armor, the huge kinetic energy knocked the puppet staggering, successfully attracting hatred.
"Ho--"
The remaining dozen puppets seemed to be enraged, gave up on the ninja, and roared towards the Golden Tank.
Purple mist surged, and sharp claws scratched deep marks on the armor.
"Colonel! There are too many of them!" the co-pilot screamed from below, "The tracks are going to be stuck!"
Colonel Ka ignored it. He stared at the crushed puppet remains and his nose twitched twice.
In that pile of scrap metal, a large amount of black, viscous liquid flowed out, exuding a pungent smell.
"Gears... drive shaft... and lubricant?"
Colonel Ka's mouth opened in a ferocious arc.
He immediately realized that although these monsters had been made invulnerable by Chaos Corruption, their core drives still relied on ancient mechanical principles.
As long as it is a machine, it is afraid of two things: no oil, or the oil is too hot.
"Children! Stop using guns!"
Colonel Ka grabbed the walkie-talkie and shouted to the shocked bodyguards, with a hint of madness in his voice, "Get on 'Holy Water'! Throw down the spare diesel barrel in the truck bed! It's flammable, let me burn these idiots who don't use electricity!"
The female bodyguards woke up from a dream.
Although their marksmanship was average, they were good at moving things. Several brave girls immediately climbed onto the bed of the pickup truck, pushed down the red iron oil drums, and rolled them along the slope of the stone road towards the area where the puppets were most densely packed.
"Gululu--"
The oil drum rolled across the ground, making a dull sound.
The puppets had no idea what this was, and they were still pulling at the tank's armor frantically.
Colonel Ka retracted the turret and held the handle of the coaxial machine gun with both hands. He did not fire the shell - too close would collapse the corridor and bury everyone.
He pressed a red switch.
The chain rotates, and every third round on the bullet chain is a tracer bullet coated with red paint.
"Physical salvation, Namo Gatling Bodhisattva!"
"Da da da da da!"
Tongues of fire spurted out.
The hot tracer bullet accurately penetrated the rolling oil drum.
"Boom--!!!"
Diesel all over the floor was instantly ignited.
A blazing wall of fire rose up in the narrow corridor. The orange-red flames rolled crazily in the enclosed space, and the high temperature instantly drained the surrounding air.
"Squeak--squeak--"
The originally arrogant and domineering Ziwu quickly retreated as if encountering a natural enemy in the face of the high temperature of more than a thousand degrees.
In the fierce fire, those bronze puppets made a shrill sound of mechanical friction. The black grease at the joints was instantly ignited and carbonized, and the precise transmission structure expanded and became stuck under the high temperature.
Their movements became slow and stiff, and finally they were like burning sculptures, frozen in place. Only the purple mist on their bodies was still twisting unwillingly, but they were unable to break through the blockade of flames.
A heat wave hit my face.
Hiruzen subconsciously covered his face and looked at the sea of fire in front of him through his fingers.
The surviving ninjas and bodyguards retreated behind the tank in embarrassment, breathing heavily.
Colonel Ka climbed out of the turret and looked at the corroded pits on the tank armor. The fat on his face twitched with distress.
"Damn, how much does it cost to repaint..."
He cursed, took out a handkerchief and wiped the golden gun, then turned to look at the stunned Kage Level strong men behind him.
"What are you looking at? Have you never seen a barbecue?"
Colonel Ka spit out the cigar butt in his mouth, with an impatient look on his face, "Hurry, keep walking before the fire is out! This place is very evil, if you stay here any longer, my car will be scrapped!"
Hiruzen looked at this fat man who smelled like copper and was vulgar.
Kakkō reflected on his greasy face actually showed a somewhat strange sense of reliability.
Although I still think this person is a gangster, Hiruzen has to admit that in this hellish place where chakra is ineffective and rules are broken, this kind of "rough and fine" survival wisdom and simple and crude industrial violence are more effective than any advanced ninjutsu.
"... Follow up."
Gaara took a deep look at Colonel Ka and waved his hand to give the order.
Under the cover of the flames, the team stepped over the still burning remains of the puppets and continued to advance into the depths of darkness.
Only this time, no one dared to look down upon this tank that was emitting black smoke.