As the sun rises, the day's work begins in the morning; the same applies to warfare.
Last night, after breaking through the fourth layer of security, Kelt ordered his troops to rest for an hour. At dawn, they continued their advance, preparing to take down the Dark Crow Valley Base in one fell swoop. At this moment, they were fighting the enemy within the third layer of security.
"Boom boom boom--"
Explosions were deafening, the woods were ravaged by bullets and shells, and there was shattered shell casings and shrapnel everywhere, with smoke billowing all around.
Hesla's soldier squads, in coordination with armored vehicles, attacked one defensive position after another, including blockhouses and bunkers. The intelligence captured by Ye Fan proved invaluable, leaving the enemy's defenses Nowhere to Hide. The Hesla army breached one defensive position after another with minimal losses, achieving a very pleasing casualty ratio. The soldiers had never fought such a smooth battle before.
"Keep advancing! Break through the last two lines of defense in one fell swoop!"
The Kelt were full of confidence and high spirits.
Of course, once the troops, brimming with high morale, broke through the second defensive perimeter, the battle situation immediately took a sharp turn for the worse!
Not long after entering the second level, the Hesla army encountered its first ambush since the start of the war. Two armored vehicles and more than a dozen soldiers were sent flying by anti-personnel mines. This was just the appetizer. The more successful the Hesla army had been before, the worse it was now. The number of casualties continued to rise, as if ambushes and traps were everywhere.
Ye Fan's intelligence was useless; following the wrong instructions only led to greater losses, and the squad commanders panicked.
Using intelligence from the first four areas, the Hesla army was lured into a reckless advance, designed to lure the enemy deep into their territory, before a counterattack was launched. The Ji Jie trap was activated.
The death toll is rising sharply!
The Kelt were filled with shock and anger.
Wenna and the others' expressions changed. It turned out that the information they had obtained was indeed bait. Han Xiao's guess had come true, and they bore some responsibility for the defeat in the battle.
Ye Fan shook his head and said, "The enemy is too cunning and ruthless. Their intelligence trap uses their own people as bait, making it too difficult to avoid falling into the trap. This is the advantage of the defending side. Germinal can disregard the consequences of mutual destruction, but we can't. Kelt is too aggressive. He should listen to Han Xiao's advice and be more conservative." He looked at his teammates who were blaming themselves and sighed.
Kelt looked at the frontline soldiers falling one after another, his face grim. The favorable situation had been reversed. What should have been a great victory was now a Pyrrhic one, greatly diminishing his gains.
The Hesla army suffered a crushing defeat, incurring heavy losses and its advance slowing to a snail's pace.
Suddenly, a fierce-looking man, wielding a long sword upside down, charged out from the enemy ranks. His body emanated a chilling, colorless aura, like an invisible flame, distorting the surrounding air as he rushed towards a squad of Hesla soldiers. The soldiers hastily opened fire, but the man spun around as he ran, his long sword flashing out in a dazzling display of light, sweeping past like a windshield wiper. All the bullets were shredded into fragments by the blade, clattering and falling to the ground.
"Martial Arts Master!"
As the soldiers watched in horror, the man charged into the crowd, unleashing a chaotic burst of blade light in the center of the squad. In the blink of an eye, the soldiers were torn to pieces, their limbs, torsos, and heads scattered across the ground. The man stood bathed in blood, like a god of war.
"Pan Kuang!"
The agents all paled.
The head of the Dark Crow Valley Base and the executive officer of the Germinal Organization, he has a large number of impressive achievements on the Dark Net, having killed countless powerful figures.
According to reports from the Dark Net, Pan Kuang was skilled in swordsmanship, and his martial arts style originated from Raylen. He was known as "Blade Soul."
His flashing blade was the last image on the enemy's retina before death.
The armored vehicle turned its guns around, and large-caliber bullets rained down on Pan Kuang. Pan Kuang moved, incredibly fast on his legs, dodging around trees. Ordinary soldiers couldn't lock onto Pan Kuang Pan Kuang at all; he would often disappear from their sight in the blink of an eye, and all the bullets would hit empty air.
Pan Kuang roamed the battlefield like a grim reaper, slaughtering one soldier squad after another. He even cleaved through the outer armor of several armored vehicles, killing all the soldiers inside.
As long as the surrounding environment can provide a shield against bullets, superhumans can unleash formidable destructive power on this low-tech battlefield of ordinary people. With their qi protecting them, ordinary gunpowder bullets are difficult to harm them.
Grade D superhuman can single-handedly hold off a small armed force and has a high chance of escaping unscathed afterwards.
Grade C superhumans possess strength that surpasses a certain standard, along with exceptional physical resilience, making them difficult to damage from firearms and small cannonballs. They begin to exhibit destructive power that disregards terrain, making demolishing buildings with their bare hands commonplace. Grade C is considered a basic level of strength in the universe, also known as the "basic physique for planetary exploration warriors." Each planet has different gravity and climate, and Grade C physiques allow them to land on most planets, and even some interstellar races with harsh living environments are born with Grade C physical attributes.
However, there are very few Grade C superhumans on Planet Aquamarine, and the superhuman level on this planet is relatively low.
Pan Kuang is an E+ level superhuman, just one step away from the Grade D level. He can easily handle a group of Hesla soldiers in the complex jungle environment. Superhumans are powerful individually, and their greatest threat is their ability to ambush commanders in the midst of a large army or to infiltrate and sabotage.
Pan Kuang launched a surprise attack, cutting down soldiers along the way, his direction clearly leading to the Kelt!
Kelt, gripped by Pan Kuang's murderous intent, felt a chill run down his spine. The surrounding army offered him no sense of security, so he hurriedly shouted, "Launch the heat-seeking missile array!"
An armored vehicle equipped with a missile launcher arrived late, firing several small heat-seeking rockets, all of which locked onto Pan Kuang.
Pan Kuang circled rapidly through the woods, and the heat-seeking rockets crashed into the trees and exploded one after another. Only one rocket pierced through a gap in the trees and headed straight for Pan Kuang.
With a furrowed brow, Pan Kuang abruptly stopped, the momentum kicking up a clump of dirt. Gripping his knife with both hands, an invisible blade of energy extended, and he swung it to parry the heat-seeking rocket. His movements were incredibly fast, striking the rocket precisely on the side—his timing was impeccable! The skillful strike sent the heat-seeking rocket flying, crashing erratically into a tree twenty meters away, erupting in flames. Pan Kuang only suffered a slight shockwave; if Han Xiao were there, he would have seen the damage value was less than twenty points.
Seeing that the rockets were ineffective, Kelt felt a chill in his heart. He turned his gaze to the agents, his meaning clear.
"Go!" Wenna shouted, and the Hesla agents surrounded them.
The Thirteenth Bureau watched coldly from the sidelines; the so-called joint operation had already fallen apart, so naturally they would no longer offer assistance.
Seeing the agents go into battle, Pan Kuang immediately sheathed his knife and retreated; he didn't want to get entangled here.
Gunshots rang out.
The bullet leaves the barrel.
A flash of light appeared, and the bullet aimed at his brow was cleaved in two by Pan Kuang. His speed was not faster than the bullet, but he had already positioned the Blades vertically on the trajectory of the bullet before it even arrived, demonstrating extremely fast reaction speed.
Pan Kuang remained expressionless, turned around, and disappeared into the woods at high speed.
In this surprise attack, Pan Kuang killed over a hundred people and destroyed several armored vehicles. The morale of the Hesla army was low, and the casualties were heavy. The fatigue accumulated from breaking through four layers of defense in one fell swoop erupted. Seeing this, even though Kelt was unwilling, he could only slow down his offensive.
At the Dark Raven Valley base, Ji Jie watched the battle on the monitor. The second line of defense had been breached, and the Hesla army was advancing towards the last line of defense. Even if he caused the Hesla army to fall into a trap and suffer heavy losses, he could not bridge the gap between the base's armed personnel and the regular army.
However, everything is still under control.
After Pan Kuang returned, Ji Jie sealed off the passage between the outer and inner bases. Even if the enemy breached the outer base, they wouldn't be able to discover the inner base. Moreover, Ji Jie left a "big gift" for the Hesla army at the outer base.
"Deputy Supervisor, when are we going to evacuate?"
"Now," Ji Jie said softly.
At the entrance to the Number Three secret passage, the personnel of the inner base gathered. Lin Yao and Lambert were at the back of the group. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, they pretended to talk to each other and secretly passed messages to the miniature earpiece through a code.
"Boom!"
The last bunker was blasted into ruins by a small tank, leaving the remaining armed personnel with only one last option: to retreat back into the base.
With all defenses destroyed, the Kelt finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The last two lines of defense cost him 70% more in casualties, and his battle report was definitely not going to look good.
"The enemy only has their last base left, with nowhere to escape. Should we let the troops rest for a while?" the adjutant asked.
Kelt pondered for a moment, then suddenly remembered Han Xiao's intelligence, which mentioned an inner base and a secret passage inside. He immediately felt that this was the only opportunity to expand his military achievements and could not afford to waste time, fearing that the enemy might escape. So he decisively gave the order.
"Charge in immediately. Have the soldiers search the facilities inside, especially the storerooms. There's bound to be a hidden door that leads to the enemy's secret inner base."
The order was given, and the soldiers, still recovering from the fierce battle, mustered their spirits and entered the Dark Crow Valley Base to sweep away the enemy. The base was cramped, like street fighting, and gunfire was constant.
The battle lasted for a while.
"Report: The target storage room has been located, but there are no hidden doors; the walls are all normal. We've already tested it with bombs."
"Could the intelligence be wrong again?" Kelt frowned and called his adjutant. "Go and bring the people from the Thirteenth Bureau here, along with that Han Xiao. I need to question them about their intelligence."