Chapter 205: Great Escape, Monstrous Creature
A highly explosive warhead had miraculously shot through the hole and exploded inside the rat tide. The power of the 70mm explosive not only fried the converged rats outside but the power of the shockwave caused the standing wall to fall.
The collapse of the wall produced a thick smoke that blocked Zhang Xiao Qiang’s vision. There was no need to talk about the situation outside of the wall, Zhang Xiao Qiang could not even see the HMG on the watchtower that was still firing, and was unsure of what they were firing out at.
Zhang Xiao Qiang did not dare to have someone to check on the situation above. Near him, there was a combat team member lying on the ground, a large shrapnel from the warhead was lodged in his head. This member was the one who was flung out from the shockwave of the first attack on the wall. Previously after dying in front of the battalion gun, Zhang Xiao Qiang had someone shift him to the side and stopped bothering about him.
Zhang Xiao Qiang was unsure of the possible casualties on the watchtower. So far, there were over 10 casualties but he reckoned they were still far from the end of the battle. Zhang Xiao Qiang was uncertain how many would be able to make it back to the base after everything.
“Rumble….” Yet another fiery pillar lit up. At this time, it was almost 5 in the evening and the sky had darkened slightly. The flames of the highly explosive warhead were already brighter than the setting sun.
Zhang Xiao Qiang no longer took note of how many warheads he had fired off. The floor around him had many warhead cases and when he pulled on the gun plug, another piping hot warhead case rolled onto the ground, produced a clank when it knocked into the other cases. Zhang Xiao Qiang used his sleeve to wipe away the perspiration on his head. He looked at the front, where the smoke and cloud of dust had not dissipated, lowered his head and carried another warhead and inserted it into the barrel.
Suddenly, Zhang Xiao Qiang realized that the HMG above him had stopped firing for a while. Right as he was about to question them, Three rushed out of the watchtower with his face covered in soot.
He looked at Zhang Xiao Qiang with an excited look on his face and stammered: “Sca-….scattered……those things ran away…”
Under the gloomy evening sky, scattering groups of rats ran away in all directions, although they were unsure how many were left, they knew that they had killed over a few thousands of the rats. Using the binoculars, Zhang Xiao Qiang could tell that the rats appeared to be estranged and no longer had the power and momentum as they had as a crazy tide.
The dozen-odd porcupine-like creatures had already turned and were en route towards the prison’s food storage, all of their bodies were left with a few thorns. On the road, occasional panicked rats would run under their bodies, but after that, the rats would no longer appear. Seeing these large creatures, Zhang Xiao Qiang ordered the gunners on the ground…..a regiment of flames exploded on the creatures, two of them suddenly overturned, they struggled endlessly on the ground, while the other creatures were so shocked that they squirmed around more intensely.
But they were still too slow, another warhead landed right in the center of them. This time, only one was overturned. As flames erupted beneath it, its large body split into many pieces and flew into the sky.
“Ta ta….” Countless of 7.62mm bullets shot onto one of the creature’s body, destroying the remaining thorns on its back. The creature trembled endlessly under the assault of the heavy bullets….
Zhang Xiao Qiang led 10 fit members to walk along the outer side of the wall. They saw a pile of dead rats outside that was dyed red with their blood.
This perimeter wall was a cut shorter than the outer wall due to the chiseling done in by the countless bullets fired. The dark red felt of the rats and blood had merged together, preventing them from differentiating between flesh and felt. A large pit of a circumference of 500 m appeared in front of them, still emitting spirals of smoke.
Two mounds of bricks and soil could be seen beside the large pit. These two mounds were the stones and soil beneath the wall dug out by the rats.
The thick wall that could withstand artillery shells was not something the rats could claw and dig their way through. They dug through the ground underneath it and scooped out the bricks buried beneath, allowing them entry and almost forcing Zhang Xiao Qiang and his team to die together.
Regardless of outside the pit, inside the pit or the ground, the entire place was covered with countless rat corpses. Around the large pit were 10 concentrated bomb craters where even more rats laid layer upon layer.
The shots fired by Zhang Xiao Qiang at the rats caused great devastation, the number of dead rats in front of them exceeded Zhang Xiao Qiang’s estimation. Looking at the sea and mountain of dead rats, not a single one of the survivors were able to maintain their calm. Even the lunatic Guo Fei turned pale in fright, the long handle blade in his hand trembled slightly.
The sky gradually darkened, Zhang Xiao Qiang decided to withdraw before talking. One part of the perimeter wall had been destroyed, causing them to be defenseless in the night. Although the rats had scattered, Zhang Xiao Qiang was unsure if they would return even stronger, so leaving the prison was the safest choice.
The injured people were carried out by others. Behind, four strong men pushed the Type-92 Battalion gun, two pulled the Type-53 HMG while the rest carried the ammunition crates.
Zhang Xiao Qiang and Three stood at the front and watched the 9 porcupine-like creatures. They were unafraid of rifle bullets, HMGs could only inflict pain on them. The only things that could possibly kill them were the high explosive warheads or the Beast Horn Spear. But to use the Beast Horn Spear, Zhang Xiao Qiang had to locate the heads beneath their stomachs.
The creatures looked like Chinese chestnuts, without any hairs on their bodies, a layer of black and thick leather draped across their back. The leather was extremely thick and covered with pores, which had been closed tightly.
The thick leather draped over their two sides and covered their four limbs perfectly, as though the leathers did not belong to them but a thick blanket. Lifting these thick leathers, one would be able to see a pineapple-sized head that have no hair, just two peanut-sized eyes on the top, making these creatures look extremely wretched.
Their mouths were thin with two inch long incisors exposed. No matter how one looked at them, they were the incisors belonging to rats. Furthermore, there are traces of blood by the sides of their mouth, of course, they were the blood left behind by the rats that they had unintentionally collided into and eaten. These were obviously coward creatures. Once Zhang Xiao Qiang and the rest approached them by their sides, they stopped moving. He allowed the members to use their bayonets to stab at the thick leather to test them. Who knew that this creature would tremble in pain, but still remain unmoved.
Zhang Xiao Qiang used the Beast Horn Spear and killed a few of the creatures that had their limbs exploded. At that time, all of the rats were scattering and only these slow-moving creatures were left. Two of the creatures were instantly fried while three of them had their limbs charred and destroyed as they lay on the ground, half-alive.
Zhang Xiao Qiang got his rifle and went close range to gun down the remaining 8. One magazine of 30 bullets were emptied, but aside from the thorns being cleansed, they did not seem to be injured. With no other choice, Zhang Xiao Qiang got the members to flip the creatures with the stock of their guns. Looking at the creatures wiggling endlessly, Zhang Xiao Qiang thought of another creature, a tortoise.