Volume One: Planet of Beasts - Chapter 58: Fierce Battle (Part Two)

Caught in a desperate dilemma with no way forward or backward, Redhead panicked. He looked at Liu Weian, his eyes clearly asking: What should we do? After sweeping his gaze around the surroundings, Li Juxu fixed his eyes on the Hubei-74 rifle and uttered just a single word.

"Fire!"

Suddenly lifting his head, his gaze turned fiercely sharp in an instant. Raising the gun, aiming, and pulling the trigger—all executed in one fluid motion.

Bang—

A blue-tailed scorpion exploded, followed by a bullet hole appearing on the body of a silver-tailed fire scorpion nearby, leaving a pool of black liquid splattered against the wall. Li Juxu pulled the trigger continuously, wiping out over a dozen volcanic scorpions in one breath as their carcasses rained down.

"Let's fight for our lives!"

Suppressing his inner anxiety, Redhead fired both pistols simultaneously. The accuracy of his left and right hands was nearly identical, and his firing rate was three times that of Li Juxu. They maintained a clear division of labor: Redhead only targeted ordinary volcanic scorpions, while Li Juxu focused on the silver-tailed and blue-tailed ones.

Behind them, the scorpions on the street began crawling upward along the walls. The smoke and dust from the fire extinguisher had mostly dissipated, and the tails of the volcanic scorpions swayed up and down, ready to spit venom at any moment.

After sniping all the blue-tailed and silver-tailed fire scorpions, Liu Weian put down the Hubei-74 and switched to a pistol. His marksmanship for single shots was mediocre, but at a distance of under twenty meters, his accuracy wasn't too bad. Thanks to their seamless cooperation, the wall on the rooftop side was now completely cleared of volcanic scorpions. Aiming his shots toward a window, Li Juxu shouted to Redhead, "You go first. The volcanic scorpions have only occupied up to the fourth floor so far; head straight for the sixth floor."

Redhead did not hesitate. He put down his pistol, untied the rope around his waist, swung the grappling hook in the air twice, and hurled it. It shattered the glass and accurately caught the window sill. Using both hands and feet like an agile monkey, he climbed up instantly, immediately poked his upper body out, and fired rapidly with his dual pistols at the fourth-floor windows. He calculated in his mind that from throwing the rope to climbing up to the sixth floor and raising his guns to fire, it took him only eight seconds. He was quite satisfied with this speed.

However, the curve at the corner of his mouth vanished almost immediately. Li Juxu had taken only five seconds. Although Li Juxu did not need to throw the grappling hook and used his rope, Li Juxu was carrying someone on his back. In fact, even without a person, Li Juxu's load far exceeded his own; the weight of a single Hubei-74 outweighed more than a dozen Mianyang-75s.

"Let's move!" Just as Li Juxu climbed onto the sixth floor, the volcanic scorpions on the street also swarmed up to the spot they had just vacated. Redhead stowed the rope, and the two of them rushed up the stairs toward the rooftop. Sure enough, the rooftop was quiet and had not yet been occupied by the volcanic scorpions, but a new problem arose immediately.

On the adjacent side, there was no connecting building anymore. The only one there had already collapsed, and the closest remaining building was over sixty meters away. The hope that had just been ignited was shattered once again. Redhead instinctively looked to Li Juxu, as Li Juxu had figured out the solutions to all the previous crises.

Li Juxu's expression remained calm as his gaze searched the surroundings, his right hand firmly gripping the Hubei-74. Redhead kept looking back behind them, not daring to urge him on, though his expression grew increasingly anxious. He felt as though he could already hear the volcanic scorpions rapidly climbing up the stairs.

Fierce gunfire echoed from the distance, punctuated by occasional explosions. However, it was clear that no one was coming to rescue them. Even if they weren't strangers, acquaintances wouldn't come—and they couldn't anyway. The streets were filled with volcanic scorpions; unless one had an armored vehicle, breaking through was simply impossible.

"Two options," Li Juxu finally spoke.

"What options?" Redhead looked at him eagerly, pleasantly surprised. He couldn't even think of one solution, yet Li Juxu had two. He truly was a genius.

"First option: hold our ground here. I've observed the vicinity, and the concentration of volcanic scorpions around us is the lowest. Even if we leave this place, the situation will only get worse, not better," Li Juxu said.

"What's the second option?" Redhead instinctively dismissed the first idea.

"The utility pole!" Li Juxu pointed to the power pole beside the crossroads, which stood a good sixty or seventy meters tall and likely belonged to the high-voltage power lines. "As long as the shooting angle is right and the pole falls toward this side, we can cross over."

"Brilliant!" Redhead's face lit up with excitement as he gave Li Juxu a thumbs-up.

"However—" Li Juxu added.

"However what?" Redhead felt a jolt of shock in his heart. At a time like this, the last word he wanted to hear was 'however.'

"If the utility pole snaps, it will inevitably disrupt the power transmission. The city walls might be in danger," Li Juxu said. Residential electricity could no longer be guaranteed; everything prioritized the city walls now. Two of the electromagnetic cannons had already been damaged, and the remaining two were their last hope. If power issues arose, countless people might die.

"Who cares about all that? Other people's lives are lives, but is my life worthless?" Redhead dismissed the thought entirely. However, just as he was about to raise his gun to fire, he stopped. With the firepower of the Mianyang-75, it was impossible to shoot through a power pole nearly fifty centimeters in thick diameter. He turned his gaze back to Li Juxu.

"No rush, we still have time. Let's observe the situation first." As Li Juxu's words faded, a roaring sound approached from afar. A yellow-and-black armored combat vehicle came into view. Resembling a heavy tank, it crushed every volcanic scorpion in its path into flat pancakes. A Gatling gun mounted on the roof spat out a line of metal fire, tearing the volcanic scorpions on the walls to shreds.

Twin heavy machine guns were mounted at the rear of the vehicle, sweeping down the pursuing volcanic scorpions. Li Juxu recognized at a glance that this was Pu Shaoyun's armored vehicle. While it looked aggressive, the situation was actually dire. The left side of the vehicle was caved in and deformed, the windshield was completely gone, a huge dent marred the rear, and the entire body bore scorched traces of chemical corrosion.

The vehicle's standard crew was eight, but now only four remained.

The roaring engine and the Gatling gun drove the volcanic scorpions into a frenzy, causing them to swarm toward the vehicle in droves. The vehicle's speed slowed down progressively. Suddenly, the driver snatched a package from the passenger seat, hurled it out with force, and then slammed his foot on the accelerator. The vehicle roared like an enraged bull and rapidly reversed.

Li Juxu on the rooftop instantly realized what was inside the pack and dropped flat without hesitation. The backpack landed right in the middle of a dense cluster of volcanic scorpions, triggering a earth-shattering explosion. Metal balls, iron nails, and shrapnel flew in all directions. In an instant, countless volcanic scorpions were blasted into pieces, and the smell of gunpowder smoke mixed with a foul stench permeated the air.

It turned out the backpack had been packed with grenades and explosives. With a dozen of them crammed together, it was no wonder the blast was so powerful; even up on the rooftop, Li Juxu could feel the intense shockwave.

The armored vehicle came to a halt when it retreated to the intersection. For some unknown reason, the engine suddenly stalled. The driver attempted to restart it several times, but every attempt failed. With this brief pause, the roar of the Gatling gun died away—it had run out of ammunition. The hunter on top of the roof immediately whipped out a submachine gun and began firing sweeping bursts, but the submachine gun's firepower was incomparable to the Gatling. As volcanic scorpions swarmed in from all four directions, a hunter in camouflage gear at the back of the vehicle shouted at the top of his lungs, "Civet Cat! What's the situation? How much longer?!"