The walls surrounding the prison looked rather old. They were thick enough for two people to walk abreast, and makeshift cover had been erected along the top.
Judging by the guns of varying lengths jutting out from behind the cover, the wall was already bristling with defenders. Most of the defenses faced inward, guarding the prison interior all along the wall.
The entrance, in particular, was a major focus of the defenses.
A brief glance revealed at least a dozen guns trained on the entrance. A great deal of clutter had been piled up just inside it, and numerous traps had been laid.
Sometimes, not going through the door really was a good habit. At the very least, it could cut the trouble in half.
When a man came flying up from outside the wall, the defenders atop it barely reacted. Hearing the gunfire outside, everyone had focused on their assigned sectors, and such intense concentration could make people temporarily overlook many unrelated things.
That gave Li Xingkong his chance to strike.
Directly in front of him was a three-man combat team lying on their sides in readiness. Their equipment was fairly good: one spotter, one gunner, and one ammunition bearer.
When the spotter heard the rush of wind behind him, he hurriedly turned to see what was happening. Unfortunately, he was already a little too late.
Li Xingkong had already fired his first Shotgun Spell.
Unlike ammunition fired from ordinary guns, even the widest-spreading shotgun had a limited spread, determined by the muzzle and the distance the shot traveled.
But Shotgun Spell had neatly solved that problem.
From the moment it left his hand, it encompassed almost his entire forward field of vision. Its area of attack was extremely wide.
Against enemies at such close range, a single shot was all it took. Not only was the squad directly in front of him hit, but several other squads within Li Xingkong's field of vision were caught up in it as well.
With one attack, he cleared out every enemy in sight.
Of course, now was not the time to venture deeper into the prison. He first had to wipe out every firing position on the wall, so he wouldn't be attacked from both sides once he went inside.
Li Xingkong's attack had caused quite a commotion, and the teams on the wall had noticed him.
There was no time to think about how he had gotten up there. The first priority now was to adjust their formation, find cover, and open fire.
Gunfire quickly erupted from the opposite wall. Their firing arcs already covered this area.
About three or four firing positions had begun spewing fire, lines of bullets converging on Li Xingkong's position.
Li Xingkong darted forward and took cover behind the barricade built by the squad nearest him. Shielded by it, he quickly moved along the wall to one side.
There was no need to rush to cast Shotgun Spell. It consumed mana, and he had a better way to move between these barricades.
There were guns on the ground. The wall was narrow to begin with, and the numerous barricades took up a lot of space, leaving little room to move without exposing oneself. In terrain like this, using a gun was a good option too.
Bent over, Li Xingkong charged along the barricades, holding the Explosive Reactive Armor in front of him with one hand and pointing the gun forward with the other.
It was not a graceful posture, but Li Xingkong did not slow down.
Although enemies on both sides were edging toward him along the barricades, they still hadn't reacted as quickly as he had.
Whenever a figure appeared in front of him, Li Xingkong's fire was already striking them. His reactions were far beyond those of an ordinary person, and in most encounters, few could get the first shot off against him.
Besides, even if bullets from the front hit him, he still had his armor to hold them off.
Li Xingkong overran the firing positions along more than half the wall at tremendous speed, but his mana had also been heavily depleted.
Besides conventional fire, there was also the threat of grenades. Thrown weapons posed an even greater threat to him, so he had to devote much of his attention to knocking incoming grenades away or throwing them back.
When he couldn't deal with them in time, he had to dodge.
It sounded complicated, but the wall formed one large ring, and getting on and off it was difficult. There were no conventional entrances or exits, only a few tall iron ladders welded to the wall, so the defenders inside the prison couldn't quickly send reinforcements up.
With Li Xingkong clearing it so quickly, the entire wall was soon empty.
The gunfire from the wall went from dense to sporadic, then fell silent altogether, in less than five minutes.
To everyone else on the battlefield, that was terrifying.
A person's combat effectiveness was generally proportional to their morale. Once a team began to feel fear, there was no combat effectiveness to speak of.
In their eyes, Li Xingkong was now fear itself.
Many people were willing to risk their lives for Luke Morgan, but even more were afraid to die.
After clearing the last person off the wall, Li Xingkong had intended to take a short rest and recover the firepower of which he had expended more than half. But then he heard another commotion inside the prison.
Some people no longer intended to hold their positions. They were going to retreat.
"Damn it! That guy isn't human! We were fooled! I'm done!"
A loud shout came from some unknown corner, and the prison instantly descended into chaos.
They were only working for money in the first place. Now that their lives were on the line, the money naturally meant nothing.
Li Xingkong leaned against the barricade and quietly observed the situation below.
Two or three squads had already left their defensive positions. Their goal was clear: they were heading straight for the entrance to leave. More squads were still hesitating, intimidated by Luke Morgan's fearsome reputation.
Luke Morgan's core subordinates had no choice but to act. If they didn't bring the situation under control, the mercenaries would scatter at once.
"You took our money, and now you want to leave? Who gave you the guts?"
The tightly shut doors of the main building inside the prison opened, and a well-equipped squad rushed out, aiming their weapons straight at the squads about to leave.
As it turned out, the core members of a faction generally served as the enforcement squad. Those used as cannon fodder were never counted as their own.
"Damn it!"
With the situation on the verge of erupting and Luke Morgan's core subordinates about to act to maintain morale, Li Xingkong naturally couldn't just stand by and watch.
He had to make sure this fell apart.
Without wasting time, Li Xingkong sprang straight off the wall and sent a Shotgun Spell sweeping over them.
This was exactly the opportunity for him to strike.
The Shotgun Spell caught them off guard. More than half of them took the full brunt of it, while some others had riot-control equipment in their hands and decent defenses. They were merely knocked to the ground and were not badly hurt.
The defending squads in the prison yard got a clear look at the power of that attack. The squads that had been hesitating could no longer sit still.
The squads already running fled even faster, but unfortunately, the barricades piled up at the entrance seriously slowed their escape.
So some people simply threw down their equipment and scrambled outside like mad.
The entire area became a chaotic mess, and no one came out to organize them.
Li Xingkong did not attack them again. With weapons in hand, they were enemies; once they had thrown down their weapons, they were only ordinary people.