Chapter 288

With a heavy thud, among the neatly advancing assault squad at the bottom of the boarding tower, a breach operator holding a pneumatic shield suddenly staggered, rolled his eyes, and collapsed straight down.

“Enemy attack!”

The officer who noticed this was shocked and immediately commanded the soldiers to disperse and called for support from the rear, hoping to gain fire suppression.

However, even though the support team quickly arrived and swept through all possible hiding spots, even dismantling part of the floor, they still couldn’t find the attacker’s figure.

What’s worse, starting from the first breacher falling, it seemed like some unknown epidemic was rapidly spreading. Soldier after soldier began rolling their eyes and collapsing.

Whether hiding behind pneumatic shields, or behind steel beams of the boarding tower, or even retreating into previously cleared compartments, they were still unable to stop the mysterious attacker’s assault. The breakthrough group’s soldiers not only couldn’t find the opponent’s position but also didn’t understand how their teammates ended up on the ground.

Everyone was clearly hiding behind cover with no limbs exposed, yet it was as if Death himself was calling them one by one. Every few seconds, someone would roll their eyes and fall, and the rate of casualties kept accelerating!

“Retreat! Front line becomes rear, breachers hold the shields back, retreat fast!”

When the thirtieth soldier also fell unconscious for no apparent reason, the stubbornly persistent officer finally buckled under the pressure and directly issued an order to terminate the sweep and immediately retreat downward, causing everyone to unconsciously sigh in relief.

Unfortunately, the soldiers didn’t get to relax for long.

Although the number of soldiers fainting suddenly decreased after the assault group started retreating, just over ten seconds later, that “Death” who had never shown their face followed and chased after them.

In the terrified expressions of the soldiers, people kept fainting without warning while retreating. Not only the lagging breakthrough squad but even the forward support squad began having people suddenly collapse, blocking the evacuation route.

He wants to annihilate us! Realizing “Death’s” intention, looking at the fallen teammates on the ground whose life status was unknown, the soldiers of the assault group became increasingly panicked.

At the beginning, there were officers trying to maintain order, but when the officers also rolled their eyes and collapsed, the originally somewhat orderly retreat completely fell apart.

One soldier after another, full of terror, threw off their heavy equipment and began racing downward in a mad scramble, with people constantly falling suddenly and others being tripped by fallen teammates, subsequently succumbing instantly to “Death’s” call.

In less than two minutes, nearly a hundred people had already fallen on the mere five-hundred-plus steps of the staircase.

Whether it was the initial assault squad or the subsequent support squad, everyone had lost consciousness and lay flat on the ground. The vast boarding tower fell completely silent except for the breathing of those who had fainted; no other sounds could be heard.

…

Got a little too cocky…

After confirming that everyone who entered the boarding tower had been incapacitated, Leon, who had activated the Holy Spirit Pendant over a hundred times, couldn’t help but let out a long breath, rubbing his temples that ached unbearably.

Under the premise of not wanting to cause massive deaths, the Holy Spirit Pendant’s mental shock ability was stable and efficient, able to knock out targets without showing itself, and the physical energy consumed during activation could be paid for by [War Diagonal]. In theory, this was the fastest and safest combat method.

Unfortunately, while [War Diagonal] could infinitely replenish physical strength, it couldn’t compensate for mental fatigue.

Each time using the [Holy Spirit Pendant] to launch a mental shock was akin to shaking the will of the opponent with one’s own will, roughly equivalent to someone practicing iron-head skills cracking watermelons one by one with their head—do too many, and even they’d suffer a concussion.

Must change tactics! After estimating his condition and realizing that relying solely on mental shocks wouldn’t handle so many soldiers, Leon immediately shifted his approach and started climbing back up, setting up his long-unused sniper rifle halfway up the boarding tower.

If he used the Black Goat’s ability to incite the guards to kill each other, he could definitely evacuate safely, but this was different from that Blood Night with Leon Lane. The soldiers outside the tower were merely doing their duty and hadn’t committed any unforgivable sins.

Moreover, he possessed the [Eternal Combat] of the ram’s horn, the [Substitute Domination] of the sheep’s heart, and as his ultimate trump card, [Drunk Immortal], three whole survival methods. There was truly no need for a bloodbath.

So the most appropriate method right now was to temporarily disable these soldiers’ command system, take advantage of the confusion to break through, pretend to be defeated, complete the loop concerning “the future,” wait for Joshua’s soul flame to leave, then rise again and thoroughly break out of the encirclement! Steady! Let’s do it!…

Five fully equipped elite squads were wiped out in just over two minutes from the first gunshot?

Looking at the now completely quiet boarding tower, the hand of the officer waiting outside began to tremble slightly.

What exactly happened inside? Those who just entered the boarding tower were equipped with pneumatic shields and regular light arms, and there was even a medium-sized repeating weapon, which was about the configuration needed to clear enemy strongholds in large-scale wars.

Even if hundreds of armed rebels were lying in ambush inside, they couldn’t possibly pose any threat to the assault squad and support squad maintaining slow upward progress without breaking formation.

Even if the ones inside weren’t armed rebels but an equally equipped army, considering the elite level of the breakthrough group soldiers, they should have been able to hold out for a bit, right? How could they go silent in the blink of an eye? Just as the commander of the guard, looking at the boarding tower that seemed ready to eat people, hesitated whether to send more people in to check the situation, the other armies stationed outside rushed over urgently.

No mistakes, first content seen at 69 Book Bar!

“Matthew! What’s going on inside?!”

A tall and burly commander approached under the escort of guards, grabbed the first-arrived guard’s commander, and growled anxiously: “We set so many checkpoints, why could someone still sneak in?”

“And where are your men? I saw you send the breakthrough group in earlier. Why is there no sound coming from inside now? What’s happening in the tower?”

“Inside the tower… be careful!”

“Bang!”

Accompanied by the sharp crack of air being torn apart, a nail shot out abruptly from the middle of the boarding tower, passing through the gap between two pneumatic shields, and with a soft “puh,” embedded itself into the nearby ground.

There’s actually a sniper? Looking at the bullet hole just inches away from themselves, the two commanders who narrowly escaped death instantly paled, cold sweat soaking through their undershirts. They were lucky the sniper missed; otherwise, they might have met their end right there.

However, before they could summon the guards after narrowly surviving, a small dog paw emerged from the bullet hole, pushing out a deep purple strange crystal.

This is… thunderstone?! Recognizing this suddenly appeared strange crystal as the lightning stone stored in the airship cargo hold, the two commanders couldn’t help but shrink their pupils, then turned around and ran.

Unfortunately, before they completed their turn, the small dog paw slammed down hard, shattering the deep purple thunderstone. A large amount of jumping electric arcs instantly leaped out, completely engulfing their figures!

(End of Chapter)