DipNovel Chapter 21 A Secluded Place
Chapter 21 A Secluded Place
"Stop fighting! Run!"
Ruan Zhicheng pressed down Cha Long's arm and took the lead in rushing back, with the other two following closely behind.
Many oviparous creatures leaped high and pounced on them, but they nimbly dodged them and ultimately missed.
"Shall we go too?"
Mpuent was very anxious. "Let's go quickly!"
He was still waiting for Di Yan, his savior, and he couldn't possibly abandon him.
Di Yan coldly watched the departing Kachin trio, then turned and pressed himself against the wall to find another exit.
It's too late to turn back now; the situation here is constantly changing.
Just a few seconds later, their path was blocked by the surging oviparous creatures, which shrieked and rushed to both sides, chasing after the Kachin organization members on one side and attacking Di Yan on the other.
Di Yan led the three members of the Mpuente squad forward, hugging the wall, while the four of them continuously fired at the oviparous creatures that approached them.
These monsters grew much stronger after hatching, their bodies becoming thicker, which theoretically made them easier to hit.
But they are extremely fast, and the team members don't have time to aim carefully at all; most of the time they are shooting blindly.
Xavier's voice came through the earpiece: "There's a cave entrance 200 meters ahead. Watch out for oviparous attacks."
Di Yan fired repeatedly, repelling two more monsters, but more monsters advanced by stepping on the bodies of their own kind. Their sharp, pointed limbs pierced the oviparous creatures on the ground, turning them into sieves, with black sap flowing everywhere.
Upon reaching the cave entrance, Di Yan led his teammates inside, only to be met by seven or eight oviparous creatures.
He shot one down, then punched and kicked, carving a path through it.
This tunnel, like the one they had come through, was filled with "vines" and eggs. However, nearly half of the eggs had broken open, and oviparous creatures were emerging from them, their continuous howling filling the narrow space instantly.
"Be careful!"
Mpuent leaped forward, using his shoulder to knock away an oviparous creature that lunged at Di Yan, and then fired several more shots at it.
Di Yan glanced briefly back at the unassuming mecha beside him and said, "Thanks."
Mpuente confidently patted his chest, indicating that he had it covered, and continued running while keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings.
"After exiting the cave, turn around, pass three stone pillars, and turn into the eleven o'clock fork."
The four of them ran for their lives, rushing frantically, until they reached the cave entrance.
They had essentially escaped the encirclement of the oviparous creatures, and now all the monsters were hot on their heels, surging like a flood, seemingly inexhaustible in number.
The hatchery was enormous; Di Yan conservatively estimated that it contained tens of thousands of eggs, but they only destroyed a small portion of them beforehand.
After turning into the fork in the road, they began to go straight. During this time, the side tunnels were filled with oviparous creatures, which were everywhere.
These things were incredibly fast, and seemed to possess extremely keen senses, able to clearly pinpoint their location, and then surround them from all directions.
They can't run as fast as the oviparous creatures, so they have to shoot backwards from time to time. If they can knock down the oviparous creatures in front, they may trip up the ones behind them.
According to Xavier's instructions, they should continue straight ahead, but Di Yan, who was running at the front, saw that the oviparous creatures had rushed out from the left. Under the light, their twisted and intertwined limbs were everywhere, and their long tails were raised high, rubbing against the cave ceiling.
Di Yan fired several shots and kicked the oviparous creature blocking his way aside, barely managing to squeeze out of the encirclement.
The team members behind him were not so lucky. When Di Yan looked back, there was already a thick layer of alien species between him and the other three.
"Go quickly! Don't worry about me!"
Mpuent shouted into the channel, his voice almost drowned out by the piercing alien sound waves.
Di Yan had no choice but to keep running forward.
He gritted his teeth, trying his best to suppress his increasingly terrible thoughts.
It was the pain of losing a teammate that he hadn't felt in a long time, and it was now rushing over him rapidly.
Since leaving the African battlefield, he had tried to distance himself from the war and lived a solitary life. He was even a little overprotective of Jerry, but at least he wouldn't let their information be leaked.
Aside from not knowing why Kalman Dmitri had come to him, he made no further mistakes.
Gradually, he got used to being alone, which is also the nature of an assassin.
However, for more than two years, he often woke up in terror from his nightmares. His mercenary career in Africa remained a persistent nightmare for him.
When he joined the Starfleet Force more than two months ago, he had imagined that this situation might happen today.
What if I lose my teammates again? What if I face that cruelest thing again?
He had no answer and didn't know how to deal with it.
Therefore, he has long maintained a lukewarm image in public, attempting to muddle through in all social situations.
But things didn't go as planned; the more he tried to break free, the more people came looking for him.
At first, He Xu regarded him as the only fellow countryman from the Chinese region, and would come over to chat from time to time, showing him deep affection.
Then came the "Yellow Race Alliance," where everyone trained and played together, and everything just happened naturally.
After rescuing the four-man team from Africa, they were always grateful to Di Yan and would protect him no matter what, but Di Yan never felt that this was a well-deserved reward.
Later, when he joined the "minority alliance," he found himself becoming increasingly entangled.
And today, as expected, he has to face that pain again.
The pain of losing a teammate is like losing a limb.
"what!"
Di Yan screamed hysterically, stopped and turned around, unleashing high-speed electromagnetic projectiles at the surging brown tide behind him.
The oviparous horde did not retreat because of his weak firepower; on the contrary, they became even more frenzied and faster, leaving the surrounding rock walls riddled with holes by their high-speed, diagonally thrusting limbs.
Click click...
The continuous firing caused the electromagnetic gun barrel to overheat. Facing the oviparous horde that was within reach, Di Yan was enraged. He drew his twin swords and clashed with the monsters.
Amidst the flashing blades, Di Yan wielded his sharp blade amidst the dozens of oviparous creatures, but the cleavers were not effective at cutting through them. Soon, the outer armor of the mech emitted a dull scraping sound, and the entire cockpit shook violently.
"Di Yan, you must withdraw from the oviparous body immediately. I have arranged a new route for you."
Di Yan slashed a few more times, and seeing the oviparous creature on the ground rise again, he realized that he had lost control of his emotions and would perish here if he continued like this. So he chose to follow Xavier's orders and turned to break out.
The mechs themselves have extremely strong power. Even though the oviparous creatures have tough bodies, the enormous kinetic energy from the swing of the blade is enough to knock them aside.
These oviparous creatures were all very thin. Their limbs supported their bodies, making them three or four meters tall, but they only weighed a few hundred kilograms, which was incomparable to the size of a mecha.
Like a rugby player, Di Yan piloted his mecha, forcefully breaking through the oviparous tide and advancing along the route newly arranged by Xavier.
His mech now has many deep and wide scratches on its outer armor, as well as holes made by powerful limbs. If Di Yan stays inside for a few more seconds, the oviparous creature will definitely pierce through the armor, and then death will be his only fate.
After making several turns, he suddenly heard someone speaking to his right.
Someone shouted in the public channel: "Damn it, stop chasing you bastards!"
Di Yan's heart sank. A moment later, he saw a mech emerge from the side passage on the right, and the two almost collided.
"It's you?" The person who ran over was Charon.
"Run if you don't want to die!"
Di Yan simply uttered those words without pausing.
"When will this ever end!" Charon complained as he fired a shot behind him.
"Where are your other teammates?"
"They were scattered by these monsters."
Charon said bitterly, "And what about you? What about the Africans who traveled with you?"
"Same here, we got separated."
The two ran in silence for a while, then Charon suddenly spoke up: "Hey, we need to think of something, or this will never end."
Di Yan glanced back: "What's your plan?"
"Got it!" Charon shouted after a few seconds of silence. "But you have to cover me; we have to turn around at the same time!"
"Can."
Both of them are now in equally dangerous situations, and Di Yan is willing to try any constructive solution.
"On my command," Charon panted, clearly exhausted, "three...two...one!"
The two braked simultaneously, and Di Yan began firing his electromagnetic gun at the monster. At this density, there was no need to aim; almost every shot hit the alien.
If Charon is going to do anything, he'd better hurry. The overheated barrel hasn't fully recovered yet, and at this rate of rapid fire, it might overheat again soon.
Charon raised his electromagnetic gun and began firing at the cave ceiling.
Di Yan instantly understood his meaning; he intended to deliberately trigger a partial collapse to block the tunnel.
The gun barrel overheated, so Di Yan pulled out the plasma gun from his back. It was currently only charged with ten rounds of ammunition.
Shot after shot, high-temperature orbs of light exploded amidst the brownish alien frenzy, and the powerful impact sent limbs flying everywhere.
"Ready! Right away!" Charon shouted.
He drew a complex pattern on the cave ceiling with an electromagnetic gun, then kept firing at the pattern, causing large chunks of rock to fall and crash into the oviparous group.
The cries of the oviparous creatures were deafening; they were already very close.
Di Yan had only one bullet left in his plasma gun, but instead of aiming at the oviparous creature, he raised the muzzle and calmly stared at the dilapidated cave ceiling through the scope.
This is a desperate gamble; if they can't trigger a landslide, they'll have to keep running.
The trigger was pulled, and a ball of light flew from the muzzle, leaving a twisted, eerie blue trail as it struck the center of the breach in the cave ceiling.
The intense light caused rocks to crash down, and given that the location was thousands of meters underground with immense pressure between the rock layers, a collapse would trigger a chain reaction.
"run!"
Di Yan took off running first, and Cha Long cursed under his breath before following closely behind.
The cracks in the cave ceiling spread rapidly outwards, and countless pebbles fell, burying groups of oviparous creatures beneath them.
The sound of rocks crumbling filled their ears as the two ran as fast as they could, dust billowing behind them, as the narrow tunnel began to collapse one after another.
Finally, the two ran out of the cave and came into a hollow cavity.
The collapse continued until it reached the cave entrance, where it lost its transmission route. The entire tunnel was completely blocked, with large and small boulders filling the space, effectively preventing the oviparous creatures from catching up.
Both Di Yan and Cha Long were exhausted, almost to the point of collapse.
Their electromagnetic guns were all overheating. Di Yan accidentally dropped his plasma gun when the escape began, and he didn't even bother to bend down and pick it up.
"Hehehe..." Charon coughed awkwardly twice, "It's been a pleasure doing business with you..."
Di Yan breathed heavily, his muscles aching all over as he relaxed.
"Pleasant..." Di Yan murmured incoherently.
Inside this cavity, time seemed to stand still, and they could hear no other sounds.
The two of them were together in what felt like a secluded place.
Di Yan coughed twice, his throat burning, and he desperately needed to replenish his fluids.
"Kill Charon."
Di Yan suddenly laughed.
He struggled to his feet, took a deep breath of the stale air inside the mech that had been circulated countless times, and still couldn't shake off the confusion.
He walked step by step toward Charon until he stopped in front of him.
Cha Long was slumped on the ground resting when he saw Di Yan approaching. He asked, somewhat puzzled, "What's wrong?"
Di Yan crouched down, placed his hand on his shoulder, and asked gently, "Are you alright?"
"It's nothing, I just don't know how my brothers are doing." Charon sounded very frustrated.
"It's okay, they'll be fine."
Di Yan recalled his previous experience wielding a machete among the oviparous creatures, "The mechs' armor is very sturdy, ensuring their safety in the first instance, so I have some confidence in them."
Charon closed his eyes slightly and said, "I hope so..."
Di Yan remained silent.
He had no connection with Charon, but after spending more than two months together, he had come to know him somewhat better.
He's not a malicious person, although he did disobey orders and was in the wrong today...
Di Yan's hand remained on Cha Long's shoulder, and beside him was the plasma gun on Cha Long's back.
A deathly silence enveloped the two of them, and Charon slowly opened his eyes.
Right now!
Di Yan suddenly grabbed the plasma gun on Cha Long's back, while Cha Long tightly gripped Di Yan's wrist!
"What are you doing!"
Charon was extremely surprised; his voice trembled, as if filled with disappointment and fear.
"I had no choice, Charon."
Di Yan suddenly slammed his knee into Cha Long's chest, causing Cha Long's cockpit to shake and the aircraft to become unstable. The hand that had been tightly gripping Di Yan's wrist loosened its grip.
Di Yan quickly pulled out the plasma gun from Cha Long's back, released the safety, took a few steps back, and aimed at the mech sitting on the ground.
The man he was ordered to kill was right in the center of the mecha's chest.
"Hehehe..." Charon laughed, a miserable laugh, "Hahahaha..."
"Your arrogance has ruined you," Di Yan said coldly.
No...no.
Charon shook his head in the cabin, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world.
"I know what ruined me. This damn robot."
Di Yan remained silent.
"That American guy, the one who died in the Africa operation, remember him?"
Chalon spoke with a smile, tears already welling in his eyes.
"Their captain, Carlson, approached me earlier and asked me some questions about his brother's death. He suspects the killer is among us. God, who knows who killed his teammate..."
Chalong raised his head and looked directly at Di Yan, saying softly, "I understand now."
He smiled one last time, his eyes wide, his voice very soft, ethereal as gauze: "That person, you killed him."
The trigger was pulled, and a ball of scorching plasma flew at a speed of tens of kilometers per second, instantly striking the center of the Charon mech's chest.
The scorching flames pierced through the chest armor, instantly igniting the cockpit. The intense heat turned Charon's body into a charred mess in a fraction of a second.