Volume 15 Gray Fog Forest Chapter 752: Malice from the Gray Mist Forest
"Something seems wrong." Sanshisan suddenly pointed at a mist tree in front of him that was so thick that it took seven or eight people to hug it and said, "Why do I feel like I turned my head and the distance between this tree and me suddenly shortened several meters?"
Thirty-three took a deep breath, stared at the mist tree, and asked the others: "Did you...did you notice it?"
“No.” Mo Jue immediately shook his head. “Hasn’t the tree always been there? It has never moved since the beginning…ah!”
She took a step back, only to find herself bumping into a thick supporting root.
Mo Jue's expression changed immediately.
She remembered very clearly that the place where she was originally standing was an open area. The area within five steps around her was empty land, without even low bushes.
"The space between the trees is getting smaller!" Ivan exclaimed in shock, "It won't be long before the space we are in will be squeezed by the mist trees until there is nothing left."
Asano Akira did not say anything, but swung his sword at the nearest Mist Tree to him. However, the Mist Tree at this depth not only had its diameter increased several times, but its wood strength was also incomparable to that of the Mist Tree 500 meters away from the red line. He chopped hundreds of times before he was able to chop down the Mist Tree.
But before the Mist Tree even had time to hit the ground, the wood inside had already turned to ashes, leaving only an empty shell surrounded by tattered bark, which fell lightly to the ground and quickly mixed with the soil.
This is a supporting root, not the main trunk of the mist tree. Cutting off the supporting root will not completely kill the mist tree.
Soon, the cross section of the stump of the supporting root was stretched open, and new sprouts emerged from it, growing rapidly. In just three or four seconds, it had grown to half the thickness of the original supporting root that had been cut down. The top of the new sprout had already extended into the tree canopy and connected to the main body of the mist tree.
Until this time, the Gray Mist Forest finally tore off its gentle disguise and completely revealed its terrifying fangs in front of Ke Lan and the others.
"Asano, don't waste your energy... There's no way to chop down all these trees." Ke Lan stopped Asano Akira who was about to strike with his sword again, "All we can do is leave this place as soon as possible..."
"I'm afraid that if we stay in any place for too long, the surrounding mist trees will move closer to us little by little... This forest doesn't look like it will easily let us invaders go." Ivan said seriously.
"Then run, don't stop." Ke Lan chose a direction opposite to the direction they came from. "Twelve o'clock, everyone, follow me. Always make sure the teammates in front of you are within your sight and don't fall behind!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Ke Lan ran forward, followed by the others.
They ran for nearly 500 meters in one breath and stopped only when they reached a relatively open area. Ke Lan turned back to count the number of people - Ze Luo, Asano Akira, Sanshisan, Valentina, Mo Jue and Ivan. No one fell behind, and even the Blasphemer mecha in autopilot mode was following closely behind them.
Ke Lan, Ze Luo, Asano Akira, and Sanshisan were in decent condition, but Valentina, Mo Jue, and Ivan were a little overwhelmed - it was extremely difficult to catch up with a high-level enhanced person running at full speed in a complex terrain like a forest. If Ke Lan and the others hadn't deliberately slowed down, these three would have been left behind long ago.
"Huhu... It seems that after I go back... I... I have to undergo a strengthening surgery on myself... Otherwise, I will really become... huhu... a drag." Ivan held his knees and said while gasping for breath.
Valentina, who had a strong personality, did not say anything, but from her flushed face and heaving chest it was clear that her current situation was definitely not any better than Ivan's.
Mo Jue is the relatively better one among the three. After all, he has the foundation of a Hell Paratrooper, and his physical fitness is still quite good. He is also a level five enhanced person. However, compared with extraordinary abnormal beings like Ke Lan, his level five enhancement level is not enough.
"Rest where you are for 20 seconds." Ke Lan looked at Wu Qimu who was around and seemed to have no signs of moving closer to the others. "Get the military stimulants ready. When you feel you can't run any more, inject them right away... But remember not to take too much... If it doesn't work, we can each lead one person to run - Sanshisan, you lead Mo Jue; I'll lead Valentina; Asano Akira will lead Ivan."
Ark's military stimulants have been improved many times and can delay side effects until twelve hours later. However, if injected in excess, although the efficacy will become stronger, the duration and time of side effects will be rapidly shortened to about one hour, with mild symptoms such as weakness and severe symptoms such as coma.
"Understood." Sanshisan nodded. Although his enhancement level was not as high as Mo Jue's, he could draw strength from the black flying blades that were close to his feet when he ran, just like the immortal cultivators in the fairy tales who "fly with swords". Compared with physical strength, the loss of mental strength was actually greater.
"Ten seconds left." Ke Lan reminded loudly.
Ivan and Valentina quickly replenished their water and stuffed the straws of the water bags back into their bags. Mo Jue poured out a few white pills from a small medicine box and put them in his mouth.
"Type 26 sustained-release tablets?" Ivan saw at a glance what kind of drug Mo Jue was using and shook his head helplessly. "The Ark military stopped using this type of stimulant in 935. Which black market did you buy these expired products from?"
"I am not you... Ever since my father disappeared, all my connections in the army have been cut off, and I can't buy those military supplies at all." Mo Jue said quickly.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier? It's not like I won't give it to you." Sanshisan took out two injections from his backpack and threw them to Mo Jue. "Do we look like that kind of stingy person?"
Mo Jue took the injection, looked at Sanshisan and Ivan with a complicated look, nodded, and said, "Thank you."
"No need to be polite. Now we are really all in the same boat. Just tell me if you need anything. Don't worry." Thirty-three waved his hand indifferently.
"It's break time, get ready to go--"
Before the word "fa" in "fa" was uttered out of his throat, Ke Lan suddenly squatted down and put his palms on the ground.
"What's wrong?" A trace of vigilance flashed in Sanshisan's eyes. He also squatted down like Ke Lan and touched the ground with his palms.
"The ground is shaking. Something massive is moving towards where we are standing in all directions." Asano Akira said - he didn't need to touch the ground, the perception of those thought tentacles was far more sensitive than the human body.
"Asano, can you 'hear' what's happening outside the fog?" Ke Lan asked anxiously.
"No, just like Sanshisan's flying blade, my mind tentacles will disintegrate on their own once they penetrate into the mist." Asano Akira shook his head, "My perception range is limited to the area where the mist has been pushed away."
"Where's Ze Luo?"
"Me too. Although these mists are not spatially specific, they can block perception." The girl said expressionlessly.
"Damn it! If even Ze Luo and Asano Akira's perception can be blocked, then how did these things lock onto our position?" Sanshisan released a large number of black flying blades that surrounded him, forming a barrel-shaped dynamic defense formation.
"They are one with this forest... The fog trees and vines around us, the land under our feet, the fog surrounding us... are their eyes, noses, and ears... Our every move is under their surveillance at all times..." Mo Jue muttered, "My father has said this many times before."
"Who are 'they'?" Ivan asked. "Those native creatures that live in the Gray Misty Forest?"
"I don't know. My father never said it clearly. He wouldn't tell me if I asked him." Mo Jue shook his head.
"If it's those indigenous creatures, we'll be in big trouble." Thirty-three gritted his teeth and said, "They can severely damage even heavy cruisers and sink frigates... Compared to battleships, our skin is not as strong as armor plates several meters thick..."
Those things were approaching very quickly, and soon, everyone could feel the ground shaking noticeably without even trying to feel it... but only the vibrations were transmitted along the ground, and the sound was completely swallowed up by the thick fog.
It was as if they were deaf, and in the silence, the vibrations began to grow stronger and stronger.
"Logically, sound should be able to be conducted through solid matter, but I can't hear anything." Thirty-three said, putting his ear to the ground. "This is unscientific."
"In a place like this, it's ridiculous to use the science of human civilization to seek explanations." Ivan sighed and took off the electromagnetic rifle hanging behind him - as a military doctor in the team, his combat power was the weakest in the team, but even so, there was no trace of retreat in his eyes.
Just as the scattered gravel and soil on the ground began to bounce up, the vibration suddenly disappeared.
In the surrounding fog, dots of bloody red light lit up - you have to know that the thick fog at this depth cannot be penetrated even by a military searchlight of hundreds of thousands of lumens, but these spots of light can be seen through the thick fog by Ke Lan and the others, which makes them feel that the hairs on their backs stand up.
"They can't really be those monsters that can sink battleships... These red spots, could they be their eyes?" Ivan held up the electromagnetic rifle, but he didn't know which direction to aim - these scarlet spots were everywhere, and they had obviously been surrounded by the enemy.
"I always feel that the arrangement of these light spots is very familiar, but I can't tell where they are familiar." Valentina whispered, her back leaning against the Blasphemer mech, hunched over, holding a heavy large-caliber machine gun in her arms.
Although there were many spots of light, each individual could still be vaguely distinguished - if these spots of light were really the eyes of those monsters, then these monsters seemed to be very similar to spiders... Each individual had eight blood-red spots of light, arranged in a regular pattern: three spots on the top and bottom in a triangle, with two spots in the middle, just like...
Ke Lan was startled. Isn't this arrangement the monitor in front of the walker mech? But the question is... can the light emitted by the monitor of the walker mech... penetrate the thick fog?
Before Ke Lan could think about it, these light spots suddenly began to move, and the vibration came from the ground again.
"Here it comes!" Thirty-three shouted, and the barrel of flying blades surrounding him expanded rapidly.
When these "monsters" emerged from the thick fog and revealed their true appearance before everyone's eyes, everyone except Ke Lan showed a look of astonishment on their faces - Ke Lan was not wrong, these "monsters" were really the mass-produced bipedal tactical mechas produced by Ark - "Walkers".
However, these walkers were wrapped in a large amount of fog vines, and gray fog was constantly spewing out from the fog vines, "coating" the surface of the mecha with a layer of armor made of fog.
The joints of these mechas have been rusted beyond recognition and seem ready to fall apart at any moment, but their movements are as smooth as those of living creatures, without any sense of sluggishness typical of machines.
"Walker mechas... what's going on? Who is driving them?" Thirty-three said with a serious face, "The numbers printed on these mechas... are the armored unit that lost contact when it fell into the gray fog forest."
"The pilots of these walkers can't be alive. Look carefully at the cockpits." Ivan said, "There are quite a few fog vines extending directly into the cockpits. The gray fog on the surface of the aircraft and the gray fog inside the aircraft vaguely form a cycle... Even if the pilots sitting in the cockpits are still 'alive', they can no longer be considered human beings."
"Should we...should we try to communicate with each other?" Mo Jue asked hesitantly.
But what responded to her was the sudden raising of the gun muzzle of the walker in front.
The machine gun's ammunition feed structure had turned into a large lump of rusty red iron because it had not been used for a long time. However, as the energy pathway was connected, the thick oxide on the gun body tore off, and the rusty triple gun barrel slowly turned. The sound of shells being loaded was heard by everyone.
"Everyone, prepare for battle! Valentina, return to your position! Ze Luo will be responsible for defense first, and then attack when the pressure of defense is not too great!" Ke Lan gave the order immediately.
As soon as the words fell, the walker mech's machine gun roared, and a tongue of fire several meters long spurted out of the muzzle, but the shells that flew out of the barrel were "frozen" in mid-air before they flew far, and then exploded one after another.
This walker was loaded with explosive bombs, but the fragments and shock waves produced by the explosion of the explosive bombs were also compressed by Ze Luo into a fist-sized space, turning into balls of extremely bright liquid metal streams that connected to the muzzle... Soon, even the explosive bombs that were still in the barrel were detonated prematurely, and the entire machine gun exploded directly.
The walker mecha dropped its machine gun without hesitation and drew out the combat dagger from its waist.
But before it could raise its knife, a tall black shadow rushed over - Ke Lan asked Valentina to return to her position, which meant to let her return to the cockpit of the Blasphemer: if these mechas were just ordinary "walkers", one Blasphemer would be enough to destroy them all.
