Chapter 219: The Gate Falls, A Solitary Sound
BOOM!
The three third-tier scaled beasts slammed into the barricade of concrete and scrapped vehicles almost simultaneously. The piercing shriek of twisting and snapping rebar, the crisp cracking of flying stones, and the dull, heavy roars of the behemoths blended into a chaotic symphony. The hastily erected defensive line trembled violently, with massive chunks of concrete continuously sliding down. The barricade was merely a hastily stacked barrier, fundamentally incapable of withstanding the combined impact of the third-tier scaled beasts. After just two rounds of ramming, a section of the wall in the center collapsed violently inward, revealing a gap wide enough for the behemoths to pass through.
"Concentrate fire! Aim for the middle one!" the non-commissioned officer at the second-floor cannon position roared.
The remaining eight cannon shells were fired in succession, the muzzle flashes blinking one after another. A shell struck precisely at the soft tissue beside the remaining left eye of the one-eyed scaled beast. Dark red blood gushed forth, and the behemoth thrashed its head wildly in agony, its massive body stumbling backward two steps. But the other two third-tier scaled beasts did not pause. Seizing this opening, they crossed the collapsed rubble pile one after the other, stepping into the intersection.
The remaining ordinary scaled beasts in the side alleys followed closely behind, swarming in through the gap.
The three groups of melee soldiers immediately rushed forward, thrusting their short blades and long spears fiercely toward the limited vulnerable spots: the underbelly, throat, and eye sockets of the scaled beasts. The narrow gap restricted the scaled beasts from spreading out simultaneously, allowing the defenders to briefly entangle the charging behemoths. Every single thrust had to be made while enduring the ceaseless auditory and visual hallucinations in their Seas of Consciousness. The Illusion Ancient Being hurled the cruelest images into everyone's minds: the shelter pod gate had already fallen, the people inside had abandoned them all, and the alloy door fifty meters behind would never open for anyone again.
A military police officer's mind faltered, and he instinctively turned his head to look toward the shelter pod. His movement was delayed by half a beat, and he was fiercely pounced to the ground by an ordinary scaled beast. He struggled to raise his knife and stab into the beast's lower jaw, but a second scaled beast had already leaped upon him, its sharp teeth piercing through his shoulder armor.
"Hold steady! The gate hasn't closed yet! Cover the civilians' entry into the pod!" the leading non-commissioned officer yelled desperately. His tongue had long been bitten through, the metallic taste of blood suppressing the overlapping layers of whispers.
In the rear, the civilian convoy was accelerating into the shelter pod. The elderly supported each other, and mothers tightly covered their children's eyes, refusing to let them see the slaughter at the intersection. The engineer at the pod entrance stared at the constantly jumping pressure readings, his gaze darting back and forth between the intersection and the control panel. His fingers hovered over the close button, sweat dripping from his chin onto the console's casing.
Inside the rocky hill observation shed, the light points representing the defenders on Lin Yan's terminal screen were rapidly decreasing.
"Two third-tier scaled beasts have broken through the barricade. The one-eyed one has temporarily retreated to rest and will launch a second charge soon. There are still scattered scaled beasts in the side alleys flanking around the back, attempting to钻进来 (drill in) through the ventilation windows on the side of the civil defense building," Lin Yan reported urgently, his gaze sweeping toward the cavern again. "The five ancient beings are still guarding the core of the rift, unmoving. The Beast Commander continues to dispatch, ordering the breakthrough scaled beasts to entangle the blocking squad. It is not in a rush to send troops to chase the civilians; it wants to clear out these frontal resistance forces first."
Deep within the cavern, the consciousness of the five ancient beings resonated steadily.
The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being continuously poured psychic stings into the intersection, constantly amplifying the soldiers' exhaustion and despair. The Illusion Ancient Being repeatedly switched its imagery—sometimes showing the tightly closed gate, sometimes depicting the horrific scene of scaled beasts breaking into the shelter pod and slaughtering children, constantly pulling at the defenders' judgment. The Spiderweb Ancient Being directed the remaining spore mist to seep into the civil defense building through the ventilation shafts, spawning tiny mutated insects inside to harass the gunners on the second floor. The Beast Commander calmly controlled the rhythm, not greedy for speed, gnawing away at this final blocking force bit by bit.
The supreme ruler quietly observed the intersection.
It saw that despite knowing they had no way back, the humans still stubbornly wedged themselves into the gap, using their flesh and blood to block the beast tide's path to the shelter pod. It had witnessed countless data points of annihilation. Most people, upon seeing the desperate situation, either scattered and fled or laid down their weapons. Yet, this group, knowing full well that the outcome was already set, still stubbornly pinned themselves to the defensive line, continued to spark a ripple of curiosity in its consciousness. It did not issue an order to accelerate the slaughter, allowing this battle to slowly flow.
Casualties at the intersection continued to rise.
Another soldier had his ribs shattered by the sweeping tail of a scaled beast. Even after falling to the ground, he still reached out to hug the behemoth's hind legs, desperately delaying it until he was pounced upon by the following ordinary scaled beasts. The gap grew wider and wider. More scaled beasts crossed the rubble pile and flooded in. The defenders' encirclement was continuously compressed, drawing closer and closer to the shelter pod's hatch.
"All civilians have entered the pod!" the engineer guarding the hatch reported loudly. "The secondary airtight door is locked inside; they are just waiting for us!"
When the news reached the front lines, the blocking soldiers felt a complex mixture of emotions.
The core objective of the mission had been accomplished; the civilians had safely entered the shelter pod. But this also meant that the countdown to closing the gate had officially begun.
Scholar Su waved his hand and issued a deep command: "All blocking personnel, retreat in batches, entering the pod one after another. The rearguard group stays behind to block another round."
The remaining people immediately provided alternating cover, fighting as they retreated toward the hatch. Seven soldiers voluntarily stopped, forming a rearguard squad. They stayed at the front of the gap, facing the three third-tier scaled beasts that had reassembled. The rest sprinted backward, rushing toward the open shelter pod door.
Having finished resting, the one-eyed scaled beast let out an ear-splitting roar, and the three third-tier scaled beasts pressed forward together. The seven rearguard soldiers stood back-to-back, short blades pointing outward, not taking a single step back.
"Go! Don't look back!" the squad leader yelled toward the retreating column.
Scholar Su ran to the hatch, his footsteps pausing. He turned back to look at those seven slender figures, and then at the black beast tide closing in. He knew clearly that the time left for them had run out.
"Close the gate!"
Gritting his teeth, he issued the order to the engineer.
The engineer's finger pressed the button forcefully.
The heavy alloy sealing gate emitted a low roar, slowly descending along its sliding track. The sound of metal grinding against metal was exceptionally piercing, gradually isolating the sounds of slaughter and beast roars from the intersection. The gap of the gate grew narrower and narrower. Through the gap, one could still see the figures of the rearguard squad entangled with the scaled beasts, and the splashing black blood.
A young soldier in the rearguard heard the sound of the gate starting. He turned his head to take a glance. There was no resentment in his eyes, only a trace of relief. He abruptly turned around and drove his short spear fiercely into the scale gap of the one-eyed scaled beast's neck. The behemoth erupted in fury, its bone spur thrusting fiercely forward.
The gap closed completely. The locks engaged with a loud click.
In an instant, all sound was sealed outside.
The interior of the shelter pod suddenly fell silent, leaving only the low hum of the ventilation system. The civilians who had just rushed in collapsed onto the floor, and suppressed sobbing slowly began to rise. The surviving soldiers leaned against the cold cabin walls, gasping for air. Their faces were covered in dust and blood. Everyone's Sea of Consciousness still retained the dull pain brought by the ancient beings' psychic tide, and their ears seemed to still echo with the beast roars outside and the final shouts of their comrades.
Lin Yan, holding his terminal, entered the shelter pod with the last batch of people from the civil defense building basement. His Sea of Consciousness remained connected to the thermal signatures outside. On the screen, the seven light points of the rearguard squad were dimming, one by one.
Scholar Su walked to the inner side of the cabin wall, his palm gently resting against the cold alloy door. He remained silent.
The gate was closed, temporarily isolating the beast tide. But this was not victory; it was merely a brief reprieve.
The shelter pod was sealed, with a limited oxygen supply. The food and fresh water reserves would only last for a certain period. Outside, the entire urban area of the West Bastion had fallen under the control of the scaled beasts. The five ancient lizard beings were still deep within the subterranean rift, patiently calculating their next move. They had no means to forcibly breach the pod, but they could choose to besiege it. They would wait until the resources inside were exhausted, until the people inside, amidst the long darkness, oppression, and continuous psychic harassment, slowly let their wills collapse.
Lin Yan lowered his head to look at the terminal screen. Outside, the dense thermal signatures were slowly gathering toward the perimeter of the shelter pod, forming a massive encirclement.
The long war of attrition had simply taken a different form to continue.
The battlefield had shifted from the alleyway slaughter to a siege within a sealed iron box.
End of Chapter.
The three third-tier scaled beasts slammed into the barricade of concrete and scrapped vehicles almost simultaneously. The piercing shriek of twisting and snapping rebar, the crisp cracking of flying stones, and the dull, heavy roars of the behemoths blended into a chaotic symphony. The hastily erected defensive line trembled violently, with massive chunks of concrete continuously sliding down. The barricade was merely a hastily stacked barrier, fundamentally incapable of withstanding the combined impact of the third-tier scaled beasts. After just two rounds of ramming, a section of the wall in the center collapsed violently inward, revealing a gap wide enough for the behemoths to pass through.
"Concentrate fire! Aim for the middle one!" the non-commissioned officer at the second-floor cannon position roared.
The remaining eight cannon shells were fired in succession, the muzzle flashes blinking one after another. A shell struck precisely at the soft tissue beside the remaining left eye of the one-eyed scaled beast. Dark red blood gushed forth, and the behemoth thrashed its head wildly in agony, its massive body stumbling backward two steps. But the other two third-tier scaled beasts did not pause. Seizing this opening, they crossed the collapsed rubble pile one after the other, stepping into the intersection.
The remaining ordinary scaled beasts in the side alleys followed closely behind, swarming in through the gap.
The three groups of melee soldiers immediately rushed forward, thrusting their short blades and long spears fiercely toward the limited vulnerable spots: the underbelly, throat, and eye sockets of the scaled beasts. The narrow gap restricted the scaled beasts from spreading out simultaneously, allowing the defenders to briefly entangle the charging behemoths. Every single thrust had to be made while enduring the ceaseless auditory and visual hallucinations in their Seas of Consciousness. The Illusion Ancient Being hurled the cruelest images into everyone's minds: the shelter pod gate had already fallen, the people inside had abandoned them all, and the alloy door fifty meters behind would never open for anyone again.
A military police officer's mind faltered, and he instinctively turned his head to look toward the shelter pod. His movement was delayed by half a beat, and he was fiercely pounced to the ground by an ordinary scaled beast. He struggled to raise his knife and stab into the beast's lower jaw, but a second scaled beast had already leaped upon him, its sharp teeth piercing through his shoulder armor.
"Hold steady! The gate hasn't closed yet! Cover the civilians' entry into the pod!" the leading non-commissioned officer yelled desperately. His tongue had long been bitten through, the metallic taste of blood suppressing the overlapping layers of whispers.
In the rear, the civilian convoy was accelerating into the shelter pod. The elderly supported each other, and mothers tightly covered their children's eyes, refusing to let them see the slaughter at the intersection. The engineer at the pod entrance stared at the constantly jumping pressure readings, his gaze darting back and forth between the intersection and the control panel. His fingers hovered over the close button, sweat dripping from his chin onto the console's casing.
Inside the rocky hill observation shed, the light points representing the defenders on Lin Yan's terminal screen were rapidly decreasing.
"Two third-tier scaled beasts have broken through the barricade. The one-eyed one has temporarily retreated to rest and will launch a second charge soon. There are still scattered scaled beasts in the side alleys flanking around the back, attempting to钻进来 (drill in) through the ventilation windows on the side of the civil defense building," Lin Yan reported urgently, his gaze sweeping toward the cavern again. "The five ancient beings are still guarding the core of the rift, unmoving. The Beast Commander continues to dispatch, ordering the breakthrough scaled beasts to entangle the blocking squad. It is not in a rush to send troops to chase the civilians; it wants to clear out these frontal resistance forces first."
Deep within the cavern, the consciousness of the five ancient beings resonated steadily.
The Sharp-Sense Ancient Being continuously poured psychic stings into the intersection, constantly amplifying the soldiers' exhaustion and despair. The Illusion Ancient Being repeatedly switched its imagery—sometimes showing the tightly closed gate, sometimes depicting the horrific scene of scaled beasts breaking into the shelter pod and slaughtering children, constantly pulling at the defenders' judgment. The Spiderweb Ancient Being directed the remaining spore mist to seep into the civil defense building through the ventilation shafts, spawning tiny mutated insects inside to harass the gunners on the second floor. The Beast Commander calmly controlled the rhythm, not greedy for speed, gnawing away at this final blocking force bit by bit.
The supreme ruler quietly observed the intersection.
It saw that despite knowing they had no way back, the humans still stubbornly wedged themselves into the gap, using their flesh and blood to block the beast tide's path to the shelter pod. It had witnessed countless data points of annihilation. Most people, upon seeing the desperate situation, either scattered and fled or laid down their weapons. Yet, this group, knowing full well that the outcome was already set, still stubbornly pinned themselves to the defensive line, continued to spark a ripple of curiosity in its consciousness. It did not issue an order to accelerate the slaughter, allowing this battle to slowly flow.
Casualties at the intersection continued to rise.
Another soldier had his ribs shattered by the sweeping tail of a scaled beast. Even after falling to the ground, he still reached out to hug the behemoth's hind legs, desperately delaying it until he was pounced upon by the following ordinary scaled beasts. The gap grew wider and wider. More scaled beasts crossed the rubble pile and flooded in. The defenders' encirclement was continuously compressed, drawing closer and closer to the shelter pod's hatch.
"All civilians have entered the pod!" the engineer guarding the hatch reported loudly. "The secondary airtight door is locked inside; they are just waiting for us!"
When the news reached the front lines, the blocking soldiers felt a complex mixture of emotions.
The core objective of the mission had been accomplished; the civilians had safely entered the shelter pod. But this also meant that the countdown to closing the gate had officially begun.
Scholar Su waved his hand and issued a deep command: "All blocking personnel, retreat in batches, entering the pod one after another. The rearguard group stays behind to block another round."
The remaining people immediately provided alternating cover, fighting as they retreated toward the hatch. Seven soldiers voluntarily stopped, forming a rearguard squad. They stayed at the front of the gap, facing the three third-tier scaled beasts that had reassembled. The rest sprinted backward, rushing toward the open shelter pod door.
Having finished resting, the one-eyed scaled beast let out an ear-splitting roar, and the three third-tier scaled beasts pressed forward together. The seven rearguard soldiers stood back-to-back, short blades pointing outward, not taking a single step back.
"Go! Don't look back!" the squad leader yelled toward the retreating column.
Scholar Su ran to the hatch, his footsteps pausing. He turned back to look at those seven slender figures, and then at the black beast tide closing in. He knew clearly that the time left for them had run out.
"Close the gate!"
Gritting his teeth, he issued the order to the engineer.
The engineer's finger pressed the button forcefully.
The heavy alloy sealing gate emitted a low roar, slowly descending along its sliding track. The sound of metal grinding against metal was exceptionally piercing, gradually isolating the sounds of slaughter and beast roars from the intersection. The gap of the gate grew narrower and narrower. Through the gap, one could still see the figures of the rearguard squad entangled with the scaled beasts, and the splashing black blood.
A young soldier in the rearguard heard the sound of the gate starting. He turned his head to take a glance. There was no resentment in his eyes, only a trace of relief. He abruptly turned around and drove his short spear fiercely into the scale gap of the one-eyed scaled beast's neck. The behemoth erupted in fury, its bone spur thrusting fiercely forward.
The gap closed completely. The locks engaged with a loud click.
In an instant, all sound was sealed outside.
The interior of the shelter pod suddenly fell silent, leaving only the low hum of the ventilation system. The civilians who had just rushed in collapsed onto the floor, and suppressed sobbing slowly began to rise. The surviving soldiers leaned against the cold cabin walls, gasping for air. Their faces were covered in dust and blood. Everyone's Sea of Consciousness still retained the dull pain brought by the ancient beings' psychic tide, and their ears seemed to still echo with the beast roars outside and the final shouts of their comrades.
Lin Yan, holding his terminal, entered the shelter pod with the last batch of people from the civil defense building basement. His Sea of Consciousness remained connected to the thermal signatures outside. On the screen, the seven light points of the rearguard squad were dimming, one by one.
Scholar Su walked to the inner side of the cabin wall, his palm gently resting against the cold alloy door. He remained silent.
The gate was closed, temporarily isolating the beast tide. But this was not victory; it was merely a brief reprieve.
The shelter pod was sealed, with a limited oxygen supply. The food and fresh water reserves would only last for a certain period. Outside, the entire urban area of the West Bastion had fallen under the control of the scaled beasts. The five ancient lizard beings were still deep within the subterranean rift, patiently calculating their next move. They had no means to forcibly breach the pod, but they could choose to besiege it. They would wait until the resources inside were exhausted, until the people inside, amidst the long darkness, oppression, and continuous psychic harassment, slowly let their wills collapse.
Lin Yan lowered his head to look at the terminal screen. Outside, the dense thermal signatures were slowly gathering toward the perimeter of the shelter pod, forming a massive encirclement.
The long war of attrition had simply taken a different form to continue.
The battlefield had shifted from the alleyway slaughter to a siege within a sealed iron box.
End of Chapter.