Chapter 57: Underestimation

“Squeak!”

On the mountain ridge under artillery coverage, a running Multi-legged Insect Beast was hit by the artillery. It let out a scream and was directly blown into meat paste, splattering everywhere and covering its kin nearby in blood. The dense artillery coverage plowed through the entire mountain ridge. Trees were almost completely cleared, revealing the bare, pitted earth of the mountain ridge with freshly turned soil.

The fragile Multi-legged Insect Beasts became the first sacrifices under the artillery coverage, constantly being torn apart by shells.

Rocket launcher vehicles were lined up in front of the artillery line. On the launcher racks, rockets soared into the sky one after another, flying towards the distance in a dense formation. After following an arced trajectory, they plunged straight into the preset targets. Amidst violent explosions, a large patch of Fierce Beasts was blown into the air, disintegrating in mid-air.

In the sky, dozens of Fierce Beasts of various sizes tumbled and fought, their flying speeds rivaling that of Fighter Jets.

Possessing powerful long-range combat abilities, incredibly agile bodies, and ultra-high flying speeds, the Flying Fierce Beasts held the upper hand from the very beginning. Various colorful attacks appeared in the sky, perhaps ultra-high temperature flames, or perhaps the sonic attacks of Flying Bat Beasts, or a beam of light destroying a Fighter Jet in mid-air.

The dozens of Fighter Jets engaging in battle were shot down from time to time.

The speed of the Fierce Beasts was too fast; when they ran, it was similar to cars traveling at 100 kilometers per hour on a highway. The suppression of the artillery and rockets was not as ideal as imagined. Although they blasted a large number of Fierce Beasts to death, large Fierce Beasts like the Boneback Beast had bodies over a dozen times larger than a tank, and when they moved, even the ground trembled. Shells exploding on their bodies had no effect at all.

Even if several shells hit it in a row, and the smoke from the explosions enveloped it, it still walked slowly out of the smoke. Its thick hide gave it unbelievable defensive power; the shells left nothing but scorch marks from the explosions on its body.

Not to mention the Boneback Beast, which might have reached the Fourth Stage, even the Magic Ape Beast treated the shells as nothing and ran wildly among the mountain ridges.

The fastest were the Green Flame Wolves and Red Flame Wolves. When they ran, they were as fast as lightning, and their agile bodies could often easily dodge the falling shells. They were the spirits of the battlefield; when running at full speed, their fur fluttered, looking like green and red flames in the darkness before dawn.

Laser lights on the Frontline swept into the distance, illuminating an incalculable number of Fierce Beasts.

The alarm sounded shrilly. Teams of soldiers rushed into the trenches of the Frontline, drilled into defensive fortifications, and entered machine gun towers. A large number of tanks and armored vehicles appeared behind the Frontline, their gun barrels lowered, aiming at the oncoming Fierce Beast tide.

The artillery was still roaring, continuing to strike the advancing Fierce Beasts in the rear, but it had lost its effectiveness. The further back the Fierce Beasts were, the higher their level, and their defense against shells had reached the point where they could ignore them. Under the continuous artillery fire, they still crawled forward slowly. Some with hard scales could even bounce shells away like tank armor.

If understanding of Fierce Beasts was scarce before, then the appearance of these Fierce Beasts this time not only included many that humans had seen for the first time, but also gave a direct understanding of their powerful defensive capabilities. Many large Fierce Beasts were simply moving human tanks that could ignore shells; it was as if guns had lost their purpose.

For the first time, Fierce Beasts displayed their dominance before humans.

Indeed, in the command center of Wan J City, seeing the power of these fearless Fierce Beasts through the screen, everyone’s face turned pale. Humanity’s strongest method was technology, but conventional weapons caused limited damage to these Fierce Beasts, only capable of dealing with Fierce Beasts below the Third Stage. When Fierce Beasts of the Fourth Stage appeared, even the artillery, known as the king of war, lost its effect.

Facing this situation, no one was confident in holding the entire Frontline.

“Notify the rear to evacuate. We have underestimated these Fierce Beasts too much, always thinking they were just monsters with slightly thicker skin.”

Peng Chunhua, the Commander-in-Chief of Wan J City, stared for a long time at the various Fierce Beasts seen on the battlefield. His current behavior could be described as losing heart before the battle; he had already admitted defeat in his heart before the fighting even started. But Peng Chunhua had to do this because behind the Frontline were millions of people who had not yet evacuated.

As a defensive city, Wan J City should not have left such a huge population here. However, the rear was temporarily unable to arrange for hundreds of millions of coastal residents; the resettlement issue was studied every day, yet no one could propose a solution. It was the inaction of the officials in the rear that caused the population left in the defensive city to grow, leading to the current passive situation.

It was impossible to hold the position; just seeing the large Fierce Beast officially named Boneback Beast, which could withstand five or six rocket attacks with only slight internal shock and still advance, one could know that humans could not hold this place. Being overrun by Fierce Beasts was only a matter of time.

Losing the defensive city would mean there was a breakthrough in the entire defensive Frontline, and Fierce Beasts would drive straight into the rear hinterland…

Peng Chunhua could not bear this responsibility.

But for the sake of the millions of people in the defensive city, Peng Chunhua dared not guarantee that he could stop the Fierce Beast tide. Given the uncertainty, evacuation became inevitable.

A commander with full command power during wartime did not need the consent of his subordinates for certain decisions. Moreover, everyone in the command center knew it was impossible to hold; at best, they could only block the Fierce Beasts for a while to buy more time for the rear to evacuate.

“We can hold them back for two days at most.”

This was the analytical answer given by the staff. Everyone who heard this result frowned tightly. In two days, at most half of the people in Wan J City could escape. In front of Fierce Beasts, these ordinary people had no ability to resist at all; as long as they were submerged by the Fierce Beast tide…

Peng Chunhua looked grave: “Is there no way to extend the time a little?”

The Chief of Staff shook his head and said: “Two days is already our most optimistic estimate. The Fierce Beasts appeared too suddenly, and their various stats also exceeded our previous judgments. Take the Boneback Beast for example; I don’t think tanks can penetrate its hide. It might even cross our Frontline within half a day and appear in the city.”

“We must strive for as much time as we can.”

Peng Chunhua stood up. The operations room began to broadcast the very front of the Frontline. The agile and fast-running Multi-legged Insect Beasts and the two types of Flame Wolves had already entered the soldiers’ combat field of view. Behind these was a type of Fierce Beast Zhou Liming had never seen before; they walked on four limbs, somewhat like toads, with their backs standing high, and a bilobed capsule appearing on the tip of their backs.