"Well said, let's smash them all to pieces, whoever is a coward will lose his balls!" The old dog said viciously, took out a grenade hanging under the shoulder armor and held it in his hand.

"I'm not that scared, but the breathability of this iron suit is really poor. It's very stuffy and uncomfortable." Zhuo Ligetu said in a muffled voice. Through the visor of the helmet, one could see that beads of sweat were already hanging on the Mongolian man's forehead.

"Sorry, time is tight and we don't have time to install an air conditioning system. Please bear with it for a while." Layton said a little embarrassedly, "If it really doesn't work, just take off the mask. The radiation level in this tunnel is not high, the air is not toxic, and the oxygen content is acceptable."

"You should have said it earlier." Hearing what Layton said, Lao Gou couldn't wait to open his mask. However, as soon as he took a breath of the air in the tunnel, his brows furrowed...

"There is a strong smell of blood. The further we go inside, the stronger the smell becomes." The old dog whispered.

"It's expected. After all, hundreds of people died in there." Ke Lan said as he moved forward slowly.

"No... this blood smell is a bit strange, not like the smell of humans." The old dog's huge nose twitched a few times, "It's very strange, but I can't tell what's strange about it. In short, be careful."

The team advanced about fifty meters forward. At this time, Ke Lan raised his hand and signaled everyone to stop.

"The interference here is already very serious. None of my detection equipment can function properly. Change formation. Old Dog, Asano, I'm counting on you."

"Okay." Asano Akira, who had been silent for the past few days, finally spoke and walked to the front of the team holding the scabbard.

The old dog moved to the right side of Asano Akira and crossed his left arm equipped with a shield generator in front of him to deal with any fatal attack that might come at any time in the darkness.

Ke Lan, who replaced the position in the center of the formation, held up the searchlight and adjusted the brightness to the maximum, but even so, the light of the searchlight could only reach less than thirty meters away - Leviathan's body tissue seemed to be able to absorb energy from the surrounding environment on its own, even the light was included. Scholars who study Leviathan call this phenomenon the "Leviathan black hole", which means "not even light can escape from it."

To Ke Lan, this place is somewhat similar to the deep sea where light can hardly penetrate, but at least there is no terrifying water pressure like in the deep sea, and there is no deadly poison in the air.

"The smell of blood is getting stronger." The old dog whispered, his tone unusually serious.

"It's still one hundred and twenty meters away from the place where the previous groups of hunters encountered the unknown creatures..." Before Ke Lan could finish his words, a shrill sound of breaking through the air suddenly came from the darkness!

"Enemy attack!" Asano Akira shouted, but he did not hide behind the old dog. Instead, he took a step forward and drew his long sword.

"Swish--" The high-speed flying acid was directly cut in half by the battle blade, half of it was thrown onto the rock wall above his head, and the other half fell in the middle of the energy shield that Lao Gou had just opened.

"Swish..." A few wisps of white smoke suddenly rose from the place where the rock wall and the acid came into contact, and a dazzling fire flashed on the surface of the energy shield, and the acid was instantly burned clean.

"The vanguard has engaged the enemy! The energy shield is effective! Asano Akira retreats immediately, and the hound fires flares! Layton, Zhuo Ligetu, suppress with fire!" According to the plan made before going down the well, Ke Lan issued one order after another in an orderly manner, "Keep advancing! The hound and Layton's energy shields are pushed forward alternately, and be careful not to create gaps. Zhuo Ligetu and I are ready to fill in the gaps. Ivan and Asano Akira pay attention to the rear of the formation, as well as the top and the feet. Don't let anything that can move get within 20 meters!"

The flash bomb fired by the hound exploded in front of them, and the strong light released revealed the thing hidden in the darkness... Just as they had guessed before, this was a monster that was almost humanoid, with a body structure that was almost exactly the same as that of a human, including the torso, limbs, hands and feet, and even...

"Even the distribution of muscles protruding from the skin is the same as that of the human body..." Ivan took a deep breath and said in a low voice.

However, the biggest difference between these creatures and humans is that... they have no heads.

"I finally understand what that messy 'hair' on the survivor's graffiti is..." The Hound spat forcefully and closed the visor of his helmet.

These creatures have no heads, but instead a mass of pale, swollen, fleshy tentacles shaped like anemones.

This group of tentacles grew out of their necks, which made Ke Lan and the others think once again of the containers that were parasitized by the Seeds of Erosion... But it was obvious that these things and the Seeds of Erosion were two completely different creatures.

In the very center of the tentacles, there was a crack with a diameter of about two centimeters. Every time the muscles around the crack twitched, a stream of acid would spurt out of the crack and shoot towards Ke Lan and the others in the distance.

There were six "anemone-head" monsters, about eighty meters away from Ke Lan and the others. According to calculations by the power armor's tactical assistance system, the initial velocity of the acid they spewed out exceeded eight times the speed of sound. Even if it was just a mouthful of saliva, it was enough to penetrate a head without a helmet.

Only a freak like Asano Akira could use a knife to cut it open in mid-flight...

"Looking at these things makes me feel uncomfortable all over... Especially my neck, which always feels itchy..." said the Hound as he continued to shoot at the "Anemone Head". The needle-shaped bullets fired by the electromagnetic machine gun could easily penetrate the light infantry armor, but could not tear the skin of these monsters.

"Old dog! Don't shoot for now... Have you noticed something?" Ke Lan rushed forward with an energy shield and shouted loudly to the hound.

"What's the matter? Are you saying that the acid-spitting organs of these monsters look like chrysanthemums?" The Hound stopped shooting, and the arm armor with the gun barrel embedded inside split open, and white steam continued to pour out from the heat dissipation vents.

"Have you noticed that when bullets hit these guys, although they can't penetrate their skin, the impact site will turn dark purple-red. This process will last for about two to three seconds, and then the purple-red will quickly fade, first turning into light pink, and finally returning to its original pale appearance."

"What does that mean? I don't understand." The Hound shook his head in confusion.

"That should be some kind of defense mechanism of these monsters... They don't have any shells or stratum corneum on their skin, so they should rely on this defense mechanism to block your bullets. Although I don't know the principle, you can try shooting the bullet-prone part in the pink state." Ke Lan quickly expressed his thoughts.

"Are you kidding? Those guys are always moving. It's hard to hit the same part twice in a row, not to mention that the window of time you mentioned is only a few seconds..."

"At least we have to try. We can't just keep wasting ammunition like this... Or, you can try shooting at the hole where they spit acid."