Ling Xiao was closer to the cabin door than Ou Zhanpeng. He finally seized the opportunity, grabbed his rifle, and unleashed a barrage of fire.
The hail of bullets struck the behemoths. The rounds were deflected by their armor, sparks flying, and ricocheting sounds echoed incessantly.
The distance was so short that a few bullets even hit him. Fortunately, their power was depleted, only causing a stingless bump.
The floor-to-ceiling windows beside him bore the brunt of the attack. A cacophony of crackling sounds left behind dimples of bullet craters.
Like their very essence had been grasped, one behemoth lunged at Ling Xiao, claws and fangs bared. The other, as if it had eaten something bad, turned and slammed into the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Its posture suggested it was trying to shield the water cabin with its own body.
Ling Xiao was not short, but compared to the behemoths, he was like an underdeveloped child!
He dared not go head-to-head with a behemoth. With a sudden leap, he nimbly dodged, and while in mid-air, he even had time to change magazines.
Before Ling Xiao landed, Ou Zhanpeng's machine gun roared to life. He practically shoved the barrel into the behemoth's head, firing a short burst that shattered its skull.
Ou Zhanpeng swept his gun horizontally and unleashed another long burst. The behemoth, which had sacrificed itself to shield the water cabin, bled profusely and let out a terrified roar, but it didn't budge an inch until its last breath.
The brainfish in the water cabin stirred, but none dared to move randomly. Restlessness and unease permeated the school of fish.
So pitiful, so innocent.
The gunfire outside raged on. Ou Zhanpeng had no time to bother with these small creatures. He called out to Ling Xiao and quickly rushed out of the cabin.
As soon as their figures disappeared from sight, the agitated school of fish instantly quieted down. They swam swiftly, disappearing into the holes deep within the water cabin, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Outside the cabin was the familiar corridor. This time, Ling Xiao heard clearly and immediately pointed to the right, "This way!"
Ou Zhanpeng quickened his pace and took the lead, "Leave it to me!"
Having learned from a previous lesson, Ling Xiao never thought of arguing with him.
After charging through two corners, the silhouettes of a group of behemoths entered Ou Zhanpeng's sight.
They were hiding at a fork in the road, continuously firing into the corridor behind the corner.
Ou Zhanpeng raised his machine gun and unleashed a wild spray, emptying the ammo box. The unprepared behemoths fell to the ground one after another. "Captain Xie, how are you?"
Xie Yu, who heard the familiar gunfire, immediately understood what had happened. The complex emotions he felt were indescribable. It was like in the movies, he was both inspired by Ou and Ling's courage in rushing to rescue them, and angered by these two scoundrels for disobeying orders at a critical moment.
"I'm still alive," Xie Yu said stiffly.
"We're coming!" Ou Zhanpeng rounded the corner and was stunned by the sight in the corridor – out of a team of over twenty people, less than half were alive. They were pinned down by behemoths in a straight corridor, using the bodies of their fallen comrades to build low makeshift defenses in both the front and rear directions.
Every corpse on the makeshift defense was riddled with holes, and the ground was covered in half-dried blood.
After the battle, Xie Yu remained depressed for a long time.
Ou Zhanpeng found an opportunity to ask him, "Using fallen comrades to build defenses, do you feel particularly guilty?"
Xie Yu shook his head, "I do afterwards, but at the time, I didn't think that much. In the face of life and death, where is there so much time to think about such things?"
But after the battle ended and he calmed down, those vivid faces would always flash through his mind unintentionally, as clear as ever even decades later.
Later, Ou Zhanpeng learned that it wasn't Xie Yu's order, but a dying soldier who voluntarily shielded others.
Thus, every soldier, including Xie Yu, left behind a dying wish to be used as a breastwork after death.
I have resolved to die, and have long since cast aside my life. Why should I care for this mortal shell?
To the onlookers, it was a brutal and heroic story, but to those who experienced it, there was never so much grand ambition, nor so many superfluous thoughts. What they thought and longed for was simply how to survive.
Those sacrificed soldiers might have been lucky, because their surviving comrades had to endure decades of torment for the rest of their lives, until the very end of their existence.
Upon seeing Ou Zhanpeng and Ling Xiao appear, the soldiers guarding the water cabin direction turned to join the battle in the other direction without a single superfluous pleasantry.
Ou Zhanpeng was deeply pierced by this scene. He lifted a behemoth with one hand, roared, and flung it away. It landed heavily before their makeshift defenses.
Ling Xiao, mimicking him, also grabbed a behemoth. He managed to lift it and throw it, but his armor issued a low-power warning.
He felt annoyed again. How come Ou Zhanpeng could throw it so smoothly, but his own armor would randomly alarm?
The surviving assault team members were focused on the battle and didn't think much of it.
Ou Zhanpeng hurled all the behemoth corpses, blocking half of the spacious corridor.
One of them was not quite dead and intended to counter-attack. Ou Zhanpeng savagely slammed it onto the ground and kicked its neck, breaking it. As it fell, its limbs were still twitching, and it received dozens of bullets from unsuspecting soldiers.
Now it was thoroughly dead.
Seizing the moment before the enemy advanced, Ou Zhanpeng shouted, "Quick, this way!"
Without orders or communication, the soldiers picked up their fallen comrades and rushed towards the water cabin.
Everyone understood clearly that at such a time, every extra burden meant a reduced chance of escape, but no one gave up, nor uttered a single complaint.
In a moment of desperate necessity, if they were to abandon the bodies of their comrades afterwards, would they still be considered human?
Ling Xiao, who was usually full of wisecracks, didn't utter a word of complaint. He slung his rifle over his back and carried a fallen comrade back.
After all, the rifle was of little use.
Everyone left at the fastest speed, with Ou Zhanpeng remaining at the rear, setting up his machine gun to cover their retreat.
He no longer bothered to distinguish footsteps. With several long bursts, he repelled the approaching enemies, then turned and charged into the water cabin.
Ou Zhanpeng had no intention of paying attention to where the brainfish had gone. He took out a plastic explosive and slapped it onto the glass, inserted an electric detonator, and rushed out of the water cabin from the other side.
Stumbling into the corridor, he turned back to find the pursuers had entered the water cabin. Ou Zhanpeng decisively sent the detonation signal.
With a muffled boom, the floor-to-ceiling glass instantly shattered. However, this thing was made of something unknown. Despite being covered in a spiderweb of cracks, it showed no signs of breaking.
Seeing the behemoths about to break out, Ou Zhanpeng immediately fired a long burst, not only repelling the enemies but also coincidentally carving several holes in the glass wall, from which finger-thick streams of water gushed out.
Ou Zhanpeng had a flash of inspiration. He decided to ignore the enemies and aimed his gun at the glass wall, unleashing a continuous stream of fire. The floor-to-ceiling glass was marked with a series of bullet holes, followed by a muffled sound, and the glass wall shattered with a crash, water surging out.