"Enemy attack——"
Belmaren, who was left behind, shouted loudly.
"It's those bugs!"
"Ready to fight!"
Chapter 39: Death Battle in the Mine (Two in One)
Belmaren is a rough man. To put it bluntly, he is a straightforward warrior.
Mapus-Dalent was able to analyze some of Countess Jiyang's intentions from her words, but Belmaren did not have this ability. However, this did not mean that he was unaware that "going down the mines would likely trigger a battle."
He did have a sense of it, but it did not come from his understanding of those words. It was simply because he heard a fierce and murderous aura in those words.
And no one here was more sensitive to this kind of aura than him, so he hung at the end of the team from the beginning, ready to be prepared for any emergency at any time.
The attack comes from within.
There was a police officer standing alongside him, whom Belmullen did not recognize...he could not even remember his name. He had the impression that this man came here with Sheriff Dabe, and he had been trying to pass through the gap and move forward since he went down into the mine.
Belmalen deliberately blocked him, and every time there was a gap in the team ahead and a chance to change positions and move forward, he would use his armored body to block in front.
Perhaps the time had come, or perhaps the other party had run out of patience, and this person finally couldn't hold back anymore. He pulled out a pitch-black blade from somewhere and stabbed towards this side silently.
Belmalen had been on guard against him. He twisted his body, and the blade that was originally intended to pierce through the gap slid out on the surface of the plate armor, causing an extremely obvious metal collision in the darkness. But before anyone else could connect this movement with the attack, Belmalen opened his throat and roared forward.
"Enemy attack——"
"It's those bugs! Get ready for a fight!"
The reason why he added the second sentence was because he finally saw clearly with the help of the firelight...what the opponent was stabbing towards him was not a sharp blade at all, but a sharp claw transformed from the forelimb of the arm, like a mantis sickle!
His shouting stirred up a hornet's nest, including the police officer who attacked him, and the two people behind him - it was not known whether they were police officers or miners. Their bodies swelled up and burst their clothes, transforming into ferocious insect men nearly meters tall, rushing up with their hook claws waving.
There was also such a bug man in front of him, and its "transformation" caught everyone around him off guard. The companion next to him was focusing on the so-called "fog light flower", when he suddenly felt a fishy wind blowing around him, and his chest and abdomen were instantly pierced by several sharp spikes. When he regained consciousness, he was thrown to the ground and was on the verge of death.
"Bang!" Darent had been on high alert the whole time. After the accident, he immediately pulled out his pistol and fired in that direction. The first bullet accurately hit the insect man's shoulder.
This was not his original small pistol, but the large-caliber specially made Langlun pistol that he got from Xia Yibing!
puff!
The shell of the insect man was directly blasted through by the bullet. The bullet somersaulted out from its back, creating a terrible fist-sized blood hole. The man standing behind him was splashed with the smelly liquid before he could dodge. He probably thought the liquid was poisonous. The fear of sudden situations, monster insects, and venom completely destroyed his psychological defenses. He immediately dropped the torch and fell to the ground, screaming desperately.
This was almost a microcosm of the situation in the tunnel... In less than two seconds, when Hitzfeld turned around to observe the situation, many of the torches and lanterns had fallen and gone out. Some of them reacted quickly and took out pistols and daggers to fight the insect people, while others fled into the side roads with lighting in their hands. The whole scene was in chaos.
Hitzfeld's face was very calm because this was all within her expectations.
Just as Darent asked her "Are you crazy" after knowing that she was going down the mine, there is no reason why their enemies would not realize what they have done if even their own people could realize it at the first moment.
What it means is... "The mine is dark and narrow. If attacked by insect people, even if the invading enemies can be completely wiped out, the explosion of their body when they are on the verge of death will most likely cause the mine to collapse, burying everyone inside alive."
So she knew it from the beginning, that "the real clues might be hidden deep in the mine", and she also understood that "anyone who goes down the mine to explore will be attacked by insect people."
No insect people are on the verge of death yet, and no insect has expanded into a "giant insect", so there is no need to worry for the time being.
"Don't be too harsh." She warned Darent, "The timing is wrong. Don't trigger the 'Giant' now if you can avoid it."
There was no need to tell Belmaren about this, as he probably had the most combat experience among them. He was the one who suggested at the beginning that there would be no danger as long as they fought the Zerg in the open. He knew too well what the real threat of these things was, so Hitzfeld was not worried about him.
What you said sounds good, but is it so easy to control?
Darent roared in his heart while firing wildly.
He really didn't understand what Hitzfeld was thinking.
You said you wanted to lure the wolf cub out, okay... you want to use yourself as bait to attract the enemy to show up... no problem!
But you have to have a "bottom line"...you have to be absolutely sure that you can save your life!
Although the killing power of these insect people is relatively limited - perhaps not as good as some ferocious nightmares - but when they are about to die, they can grow to a gigantic size and collapse the mine!
He wondered how Hitzfeld would survive if this place collapsed.
With ice needles? Even Grace couldn't survive this kind of danger. Did she really know what she was doing?
It is a team like theirs. Hitzfeld has never made any mistakes in decision-making, and both sides have accumulated deep trust.
Otherwise, if someone else wanted to play like this, Darent would not accompany them at all!
He won't die! He will pull the people away if he is up there!
"Trust me, Maps."
In between the gunshots, he could vaguely hear Hitzfeld whispering beside him.
"I have reasons why I have to do this."
"...Don't tell me you just want them to be gigantic!"
The corner of Darent's mouth twitched, and he remembered that what she had just said was not "absolutely cannot trigger the giantization" but "the timing is wrong".
What does that mean? Did she intend to let these ugly things collapse the mine from the beginning?
She wasn't really crazy... What good would this do them? A free burial ground?
"There are some things."
Hitzfeld summoned an ice needle and nailed a bug man that suddenly emerged from the shadows behind to the wall. "Some things are too slow to dig by ourselves. I thought there are ready-made miners here, so why don't we do it."
Is she talking about the fog light flowers?
It was so obvious, Darent immediately realized that her main purpose of coming down was the strange plants in the corners of the wall.
She wants to dig out what's hidden under the fog light flower?
So when she said "wrong timing", she meant wrong location?
She wanted to force the insect people into the corner in front and kill them, forcing them to grow giant?
This logic seemed to make sense... but Darent still stared at her with wide eyes: "Why do you think you won't be buried?"
"The mine collapse is based on the fact that 'it is a normal rock and soil structure.'" Hitzfeld said calmly, "but how do you know that it is really a rock and soil structure inside, and not supported by something else?"
"??? What could be supporting it?" Darent racked his brains, but could only think of the roots of the fog lamp flower.
"Oh, Mr. High Priest has actually already told you the answer." Hitzfeld leaned back, and once again a hooked claw brushed across his chest. He suddenly raised his hand and pulled the white whale out of his clothes.
"call!"
She first took advantage of the fact that the insect man's momentum was exhausted and swooped down before he could regain his strength. Not caring about getting dirty, she slammed her shoulder hard into the surface of a barbed shell, causing the attacking insect man to stagger and fall backwards with bumps and bruises. Then she lifted the white whale and pulled the trigger at its chest.
"boom!!!"
Darent vaguely saw a glimmer of orange light.
The orange light cut through the darkness, connecting the muzzle of the gun and the insect man's chest. He seemed to vaguely see a big hole bursting out of his chest, and dark blood was constantly splashing. His hideous body became increasingly weak, and it retreated little by little to the corner of the mine and slid down against the wall.
At this moment, everything around him slowed down in Darent's eyes.
He could hear screams coming from the branch tunnel, could feel people cursing and shooting behind him, and even vaguely knew that Belmaren, Sheriff Dabe, Faram and others should all be looking here at this time.
Everything became so slow. He stood still, his expression gradually becoming ferocious, his lips stretched to an exaggerated angle, and one arm slowly reached out to Hitzfeld to pull her.
But he was too slow.
Too slow, too slow.
His movements gradually stopped and froze. In the slow motion, the camera was focused on his face, and a series of rapid changes could be seen in the reflection of his eyes.
The body of the insect man swelled and bulged in the reflection. Like an over-fermented cake bursting out of the oven, countless layers of rock and soil fell down along with the giant foreign objects. He had no time to react quickly to this sudden change, and when the scene in his eyes was coming to an end, he did not see a "mine collapse", but a white greasy foreign object that fell down due to the collapse of the wall and was reflected in both of his eyes.
what is that?
He could hear his own heartbeat and the thoughts in his mind.
No longer able to catch Hitzfeld, Darent immediately straightened his hat, retracted his neck to avoid the falling earth and rocks, and stared at the inside of the soil layer exposed by the collapse - and fell on the foreign object that fell from the top of the soil layer.
It looked very, very ominous.
The cylindrical body looks soft and flexible. Its entire body is pure white like a snake's body, and just as the legend goes, its snake skin seems to be made up of countless human skins.
Is this a snake?
The body-eating phantom snake?
Darent's head was buzzing.
Could it be that the Manion tribe that Falram described was real? And the totem of the devouring phantom snake was also real?
No...it's not just that!
As the flashlight began to shine, Darent saw more details. He was shocked to find that there were many such "snake bodies" in the soil! They were coiled together in layers, just like giant snakes entwined and mating during the mating season!
How can there be so many! ?
Just from what is exposed here, there are dozens of them... How is this possible?! Can this kind of snake monster reproduce at a high speed?
This shock and sudden change was too intense for the fragile mine tunnel. The battles in front were all stopped temporarily. Even the surviving insects followed everyone else and shifted their gaze, staring at the revealed "white snake".
Countless "white snakes" were winding and entwined. It was precisely because they were fixed in the soil, acting like a steel skeleton, that the expansion of the giant insects did not completely destroy the tunnel, and they were still able to stand here.
"This...this is impossible..."
The people who were most frightened were undoubtedly the two Buro natives.
Fram and Heim were almost trembling as they watched the scene in front of them. They kept muttering to themselves and looked like they were crazy.
"how come……"
"White snake... White snake..."
"The legend of Manion... turns out to be true..."
"That's not a snake!"
Belmaren suddenly growled at the crowd.
"That's a fucking plant rhizome... Look at it! Look at it!!!"
They turned their heads in the direction his finger pointed and stared at a small flower.
That is the "fog light flower".
Its slender stem had been buried deep in the rock wall, and everyone thought that no matter how deep its roots were, the system would still be small and fragile. But at this moment they discovered that the other end of the stem was actually grown together with the snake skin of the "white snake"!
"Those are not snakes! They are not snakes!" Belmaren was still yelling, "Stop looking! Stop looking! We have to get out! Get out!!!"
His observation ability was much more sensitive than those police officers. He just saw that the white rhizome that lost its soil layer and hung down seemed to tremble slightly, as if affected by the impact of the giant insect.
Everyone suddenly woke up from their dream.
Yes!
Who cares what it is!
They don't want to get involved in such a terrible thing. They want to get out now! Get out!
But at the same time, many insect people jumped out of the void again without warning.
There were too many of them. They suspected that there might be more than a hundred of them? They couldn't possibly resist such a large number, not to mention that they had to follow Belmaren's orders and not hit their vital points to avoid triggering the gigantism.
"Don't kill them!"
Hitzfeld reminded everyone loudly.
"Force them close to the roots! Avoid any contact with them yourself!"
"Buzz!"
The hammer head rotated, and Belmalen deeply embedded the front end of the hammer into the belly of an insect man. He really couldn't care about so many things at this time, but instinctively followed the prompt and threw the thing towards the exposed white root canal beside him.
Then he saw a scene that he would never forget - as soon as the insect man approached, the white root tube instantly came to life. It immediately pulled its body out of the wall and wrapped around the insect man like a real giant snake. A series of dense roots extended from its body surface and penetrated into the insect man's carapace, sucking it dry in an instant.
And that's not all. After sucking the fragile life dry, this thing twisted and pulled again, and a soul body with a normal human face was dragged out of the empty shell, and was also entangled and sucked by those tiny roots.
The whole process probably took only a little over a second. When Belmalen realized what was happening, the soul he had just seen - the human being had turned into a new "human skin" and emerged from the surface of the white root canal's body, forcibly squeezed.
What's this?
With his eyes wide open, Belmaren's skin was covered with goosebumps.
His actions soon produced a chain reaction. The white roots around the mine were like hibernating beasts that suddenly smelled blood. They began to wriggle and spontaneously rolled towards the insect men.
The insect people could not offer any resistance to this attack.
