Chapter 82 Breaking Through the Encirclement

As all eyes converged on the cafeteria, Fly and Old Dog led five hundred brothers, creeping stealthily toward the last of the enemies trailing behind. The dim moonlight and the raucous sounds up ahead masked their movements. The group hauling the artillery forward had no inkling they were being followed.

When the distance closed to about fifty meters, Fly and Old Dog charged at the forefront. By the time someone at the rear sensed the commotion and turned to look, all they could see were hundreds of homemade grenades hurtling through the air.

"Enemy attack—"

The shout barely escaped their lips before a thunderous explosion bloomed at the tail of the coalition forces. A barrage of detonations followed, scouring the artillery position. Old Dog and his companions threw with precision, not aiming directly into the crowd, but using the shrapnel to bring down the enemy. Some, unable to control their strength, damaged a few cannons, but most of the artillery remained intact.

They stormed the position, finishing off the stunned and wounded with makeshift firearms. The battle ended swiftly; after all, when a group of artillerymen is outnumbered five to one at close quarters, it can only ever be a massacre.

Gazing at the captured artillery—around fifty pieces, some old-style gunpowder weapons, and over a dozen portable high-energy cannons—Old Dog and the others were elated. As they watched the swarm of enemies rushing toward the cafeteria, Old Dog and Fly exchanged a cruel, knowing smile.

"Come on, brothers!" Old Dog shouted. "Set up all the cannons! Let’s give them a taste of their own medicine. Tonight, we’ll make those bastards on the mountainside wish they’d never been born!"

Meanwhile, Ye Hai was under tremendous pressure. Fighting off three mechs alone was already exhausting, yet now he had to shield Teach and Nangong as well. Several times, Ye Hai had to take blows head-on to protect them, resulting in severe injuries each time. Fortunately, he managed to avoid fatal wounds to his head, and the formidable regenerative power of the G-virus allowed his body to heal, letting him continue fighting.

But if this kept up, the enemy would eventually exploit an opening. Should his head be destroyed, he would be forced into the G2-to-G3 evolution's suspended animation. Without Ye Hai’s protection, Teach and Nangong would surely be killed by the mechs.

Worse still, the Taran Army and the First Defense Force of Giant Tree Star had already withdrawn from their positions, and Ye Hai now saw the coalition's three forbidden figures converging on his location. Once within their firing range, he could no longer guarantee Teach and Nangong’s safety under such a hail of fire.

This was a peril even greater than facing the mechs themselves. Ye Hai had tried to use Lickers to spirit Teach and Nangong away, but two more mechs burst from the shadows, slicing the Lickers into pieces with ease before vanishing again. Ye Hai realized these mechs were equipped with some kind of cloaking technology. Though only three were visible, there were clearly more lurking in the darkness.

Perhaps out of a cat-and-mouse malice, the enemy hadn’t unleashed all their mechs at once, but it was certain Ye Hai and his charges were now completely surrounded. Escape was impossible.

At that moment, a relentless barrage of artillery fire rained down on the surging ranks of the coalition. These troops had no concept of tactical dispersal or encirclement—everyone simply surged forward en masse, believing safety lay in numbers. This played right into Old Dog and Fly’s hands. With several volleys, at least five or six hundred were killed before panic sent the mob scattering, reducing the effectiveness of the bombardment, though it still claimed lives in droves.

The rabble, weak-willed and disorganized, broke completely after witnessing their companions' gruesome deaths. None even considered turning back to eliminate the artillery. Instead, they fled in a mad scramble, desperate to escape the kill zone.

Seeing such an opportunity, both the Taran Army and the First Defense Force opened fire on the fleeing crowd. The throng of three thousand was quickly whittled down to fewer than a thousand, those who remained too demoralized to resist, thinking only of their own survival.

Ye Hai’s eyes gleamed at the sight. Grabbing Teach and Nangong, he tucked them under his arms and charged headlong toward the crowd. The three mechs behind him closed in, intent on intercepting him, but Ye Hai gave them no chance. With a thought, he summoned his last three Lickers, which he had earlier ordered to burrow underground, lying in wait.

Though the Lickers couldn’t harm the mechs, their sudden emergence forced the pilots to dodge reflexively before destroying the creatures, allowing Ye Hai to open the distance. Just as he was about to reach the fleeing crowd, a gust of wind swept past—he glimpsed a massive alloy warhammer hurtling toward his back.

This time, Ye Hai didn’t dodge. He shielded Teach and Nangong with his body, taking the blow head-on. Using the force of the strike, he shot forward and plunged into the crowd.

Bent low, Ye Hai dashed for the rear with all his might. The mechs quickly pursued, but now, within the firing range of the Taran Army and the First Defense Force, they were immediately suppressed by a torrent of fire, slowing their advance.

Ordinarily, the mechs could have easily wiped out Ye Hai and his companions with their long-range weapons. But their general had ordered them to capture Ye Hai alive, which meant the most powerful weapons, especially the railgun, were off-limits—the latter would disrupt the jamming field and restore communications.

Moreover, though they’d observed Ye Hai’s seemingly unlimited regenerative ability, they couldn’t be certain he could resurrect from ashes. These restrictions gave Ye Hai a slim chance to break out with his charges.

Once clear of the crowd, Ye Hai raced straight for the artillery position, the only hope of inflicting damage on the armored monsters and extracting Teach and Nangong from the battlefield.

Seeing Ye Hai break through the encirclement, Kobayashi’s expression darkened. It was the first time the mechs had seen combat, and Kobayashi had been holding back, testing their capabilities rather than unleashing their full power. Even so, Ye Hai had been forced into a desperate struggle. But as soon as Teach and Nangong escaped, Kobayashi panicked—he knew that if they got away, the consequences would be dire.

He grabbed his communicator and barked, "Permission to use high-energy weapons, except the railgun—that would interfere with the jamming device and restore communications. Also, forget capturing Ye Hai alive—kill him at all costs. We can get the corpse collector’s technology from another source."

With Kobayashi’s order, one of the mechs deployed a sniper rifle. As Ye Hai sprinted, a terrifying sense of imminent death engulfed him. Without hesitation, he hurled Teach and Nangong into the crowd.

A split second later, a high-energy beam sliced Ye Hai in half at the waist. His upper body was sent flying, landing before Fly.

With fading vision, Ye Hai looked at them and whispered weakly, "Scatter—run—keep Teach and Nangong alive."

Fly stared in horror at the bisected monstrosity before him, answering stiffly, "I’m Fly, deputy leader of the sentries!"

At Fly’s words, Ye Hai released his G2 form. Blood gushed from his mouth, and before succumbing to darkness, he mustered his last strength—plucked out his own eye and tossed it at Fly’s feet.

"Use my eye for iris recognition to access the core of the Forbidden Zone. Contact Liana and Javier… Succeed, and all your crimes will be pardoned!"

The next moment, the system’s voice rang out: "G2-to-G3 evolution protocol initiated…"