Volume 14: Devastation Chapter 651: Battle in the Central Courtyard
Just as Ke Lan turned the gun around, Asano Akira drew his knife from his sheath - the two Type B mutants were instantly transformed into countless palm-sized pieces of meat. The high-speed dancing blades even formed an airtight curtain over the three people's heads, blocking all the splattering blood and pus from entering.
The swords were sheathed, and the entire hall was covered with a layer of bloody red stains, except for the three people's bodies and the area under their feet, which were clean, as if there was an invisible barrier between them and the surrounding environment.
"By the way, that Sakurai Na went to the field corps camp to look for you, but you turned around and ran back to the Ark with me, leaving the girl empty-handed. I'm sure she must be mad..." Ke Lan said casually to Asano Akira.
"oh."
"Oh my god, are you interested in this girl or not? It's not a good idea to keep hiding from her like this, right?" Ke Lan said with some disappointment.
"Let's talk about it later." Asano Akira said - although the content of this sentence seemed perfunctory, the tone of this sentence was extremely serious.
"You two, can you please stop chatting while we're on the move!" At this time, Aya, who was following behind the two of them, protested, but considering Ke Lan's identity, she had to slow down her tone a little, "What if we get ambushed at this time——"
"What will happen if we are attacked by surprise at this time?" Ke Lan asked as he raised his hand and instantly killed an ordinary erosion seed that popped its head out from the end of the corridor.
The "time stop" ability combined with the high-powered energy weapon in his hand that can hit whatever he points at, the opponent will die even if he just shows a little head.
Not to mention twenty Type B mutants, even if the number doubled, Ke Lan and Asano Akira would not feel any pressure. The only things they need to pay attention to are those black cardinals who possess the power of the Holy Word.
"At the seven o'clock direction, behind the wall on the second floor, nineteen meters away." Asano Akira reminded again.
"Do you want to do it or should I? According to the architectural structure of this house, that should be a load-bearing wall." Ke Lan said.
"I'll do it." Asano Akira had just finished speaking when Aya had already jumped up and, relying on the jet thrusters on the legs of her power armor, she easily leaped to the second floor.
It was a seed of corrosion that still retained its human form. Although the container was dead, this monster seemed to have inherited the container's fighting instincts. It held a carbine in each hand and fired at Aya who had jumped onto the second floor.
The bullets made crisp tinkling sounds when they hit the power armor, but the actual effect was just polishing. Seeing this, the Seed of Corrosion dropped the gun in his hand, grabbed a long-handled axe hanging on the wall, and swung it towards Aya.
Although the axe was a decoration in the mansion and the blade was not sharpened, the material was still sufficient and was in no way inferior to actual combat weapons. Even without a sharp blade, it still had terrifying destructive power when used as a blunt weapon - and blunt weapons as a type of weapon have always been used specifically to break through armor in history.
If Aya was hit by this axe, she would be seriously injured even if she didn't die.
Aya herself didn't know that she couldn't take the opponent's attack head-on, and the two pieces of armor suddenly flipped outwards. Two micro-thrusters simultaneously sprayed out a meter-long flame, pushing her entire body to move rapidly backwards.
"boom!!"
The axe hit the place where Aya was a second ago. With the help of the strange power of the Seed of Erosion, the axe directly smashed through the ground of the second floor, and even brought down an entire shelf at the edge of the corridor!
The humanoid erosion seed and the shelf fell heavily on the ground on the first floor, and the container body, which was already overwhelmed by the weight, finally exploded. Countless tentacles rushed out frantically and grabbed Aya who was floating in the air.
The biggest disadvantage of the micro-thruster is that its fuel storage is limited. If it is not replenished in time, it will misfire in a few seconds at most. Aya could no longer avoid the tentacles at this time. Fortunately, the energy shield of the power armor was activated in time, which saved her from being captured by the tentacles.
After completely burning those tentacles, she had the chance to draw the gun behind her and shoot at the Seeds of Corrosion directly below.
A large number of active warheads penetrated into the body of the Erosion Seed. When the deadly toxins flowed into the "core", the monster finally calmed down and gradually turned into a pool of smelly pus.
This is not a type B mutant, but perhaps it can barely be considered a relatively special type N mutant. Apart from being able to use human weapons, its combat power is actually not much stronger than that of an ordinary erosion species.
But even so, this Seed of Corrosion once forced Aya into a somewhat embarrassing situation - to kill an ordinary Seed of Corrosion, at most three to five rounds of "enhanced" active ammunition were enough, but just now in a hurry, she emptied the entire magazine.
Aya couldn't help but feel her face getting a little hot. If it weren't for the metal mask blocking it, Ke Lan would have been able to see a beautiful red face.
"It's a bit forced...Team Leader Breya, no, it should be Deputy Minister Breya." Ke Lan teased.
"Sorry..." Aya couldn't help but lower her head. She was indeed a little too stubborn just now. If her actions caused any unnecessary casualties, she would be fully responsible.
"Although the monster just now was not very strong, its combo was still very clever." Ke Lan tried to smooth things over, "Actually, I can't blame you, but I hope you have more confidence in the two of us... You just need to be responsible for supporting us. If there is anything I can ask you for help with, I will ask."
"...Okay." Aya Breya nodded and took the initiative to step behind the two of them.
The three of them formed a triangular advancing formation, with Ke Lan and Asano Akira in front and Aya behind, and they quickly passed through the front hall of the mansion.
Asano Akira confirmed that there was no movement in the front hall, but in the courtyard in the center of the house, there was a very strong and powerful heartbeat.
The erosion species in the acute phase and mature phase have no heartbeat. Those that can retain the heart structure are most likely another kind of monster that has mutated from humans or indigenous creatures.
"So, is this guy in the yard considered the BOSS?" Ke Lan asked.
"It's very strong... within the range I can hear, it's the strongest one," replied Asano Akira.
"Then what do you think your chances of winning against this guy in a one-on-one fight?" Ke Lan asked again.
"Not sure. We'll know after the fight." Asano Akira shook his head.
"Should we... request support?" After hearing what Asano Akira said, Aya suddenly became a little nervous. "The Security Bureau's troops are outside. After sending a signal, they can break into the mansion within a minute..."
"That's not necessary." Ke Lan shook his head. "The human wave tactic is useless against this kind of monster. I don't think you want your subordinates to come in and give away their heads for nothing, right?"
"Then should we go up..." Aya stopped talking halfway. She originally wanted to say "Should we ask for help from the people above?", but she immediately realized that Ke Lan had officially joined the Undead Crew, and he was the "person above".
Until now, Aya still has a very strong sense of unreality.
This time, Ke Lan was still walking in front. He stretched out his hand and pushed open the heavy wooden door leading to the central courtyard.
It must be said that the financial resources of the Williams family are among the top in the Ark's upper class. For example, the courtyard of Miss Soma's mansion only has a swimming pool, a fountain, a few bushes and a few trees. The central courtyard of the Williams mansion is like a large botanical garden. Under the semi-enclosed dome, rare plants can be seen everywhere on Earth. Trees and flowers that have long been extinct in ordinary people's cognition are now planted in this courtyard. It is unknown whether they are seeds preserved by the Williams family for generations or "artificial species" reproduced through genetic engineering.
A winding path paved with gravel leads to the end of the courtyard. On the right side of the path, there is a body dressed as a gardener lying on the ground. There is a very obvious bullet hole on the vest of the body, but it is still unclear whether this is the direct cause of death of the body.
"That thing is underground." said Asano Akira.
"No wonder the Security Bureau's drones didn't see anything." Aya said. At this moment, more than a dozen armed drones were hovering above the central courtyard. The black muzzles of their guns and the missile launch nests with their hatches opened were aimed at the ground, ready to fire at any time.
"This guy is really patient. Is he waiting for us to walk into the trap he set?" Ke Lan glanced at the three energy crystals that served as magazines. Judging from the quality of the crystals, they could fire at least two more shots at maximum power. Even if there was a thunder beast lurking underground, it would be enough to kill it instantly.
What's more, with the thickness of the modules in the three western areas, the soil layer in the central courtyard is at most ten meters deep, which is impossible to bury a thunder beast.
"If it doesn't come out, blast it out." Aya looked at Asano Akira, "Can you lock the exact location of that thing? I'll try to attack it directly with a drone."
"Thirty-four meters straight ahead, about one meter deep."
"The target has been locked. Units one to six, launch the attack!" Aya immediately gave the order to the drones.
Dozens of small missiles whizzed out and drilled into the ground in an instant. Then there was a violent explosion and a strong vibration transmitted from the ground. Aya activated the energy shield and jumped forward to block the aftermath of the explosion for Ke Lan and Asano Akira.
However, there was no energy shield protection in other directions, and those rare and valuable flowers and trees were instantly destroyed by the shock wave. The ancient tree, which was so thick that four or five people could hug it and even Ke Lan couldn't name it, was uprooted and fell to one side.
Before the thick smoke from the explosion had dissipated, a black shadow over three meters tall rushed out from the smoke and crashed into Aya Bulaiya, who was at the front of the team.
"Your energy shield can't stop this thing!" Ke Lan grabbed Aya's shoulders and forcibly pulled her back, while Asano Akira quickly stepped forward and drew his sword forward -
“clang!”
The sound of metal colliding was heard, and with the ability of "time stop", Ke Lan finally saw the true appearance of the thing - the monster was indeed a human... an adult human male, but his torso and limbs were wrapped in a hard shell like a crab, and in the gaps of the shell, there were a large number of limbs with bristles on the sides curled up.
Its face was completely distorted. A pair of large claws with a metallic luster tore open the flesh on both sides of its cheeks. Tentacles also covered with shells drilled out from its nasal cavity and eye sockets, dancing continuously in the air.
"CBS variant of the Shell Virus..." Ke Lan murmured, "I didn't expect that someone could actually successfully fuse with this thing..."
"What is that?" Aya was stunned for a moment. Even she, as the deputy director of the Internal Affairs Department of the Security Bureau, had never heard of this thing.
"This is one of the collections in the underground ice storage of the research institute. I accidentally saw it when I entered the underground ice storage last time to perform a mission... To be honest, if the appearance of the corpses sealed in the jars was not too unique, I would not have noticed this thing." Ke Lan explained, "CBS is the abbreviation of Cambarus. This virus was found in an indigenous organism called 'Central Sea Green Shell Crayfish' and has the ability to infect humans. If you accidentally eat this type of crayfish or are bitten by it or injected with digestive fluid, you will show symptoms of infection within 24 hours, mainly manifested as a high fever of more than 40 degrees, coma, skin ulcers, and..."
"And what?" Aya couldn't help but ask.
At this time, the monster infected by the CBS mutant shell virus had already fought with Asano Akira. Although its speed could not keep up with Asano Akira, its super hard shell could withstand the slashing of Nino's alloy sword. Asano Akira often had to slash the same part four or five times in a row before he could split it open . But before he could expand the wound, the edge of the broken shell would quickly secrete some kind of sticky substance to seal the wound.
The places repaired by these sticky substances are even harder than the original shell.
"Also, the large number of carapaces growing on the body surface... The carapaces on those corpse samples are almost exactly the same as those on this monster." Ke Lan said, "I later looked up relevant information. After this virus infects the human body, it will quickly consume the body's energy and nutrients. Even if the infected person can receive timely treatment, it is difficult for them to survive for more than a week ... According to the research institute's speculation, this virus is most likely a creation of the Alpha civilization, and those 'Central Sea Green Shell Crayfish' are either experimental creatures that escaped from a certain ruin, or unlucky people who were contaminated by the leaked virus - the author of the report is more inclined to the former."
