"What are you dawdling for? Get the vehicles moving," Tang Sui's voice, tinged with coldness, snapped the person beside her back to reality.
"Everyone, on alert! Keep driving!"
Major General Modi wiped the water streaks from his shield, abandoned the radio, and resorted to the most primitive method, shouting.
The other soldiers jolted, each returning to their duties, their initial haste replaced by a synchronized and orderly cooperation.
The military trucks restarted, but the creature whose tentacle had been severed in the mist was now enraged. After a roar mixed with fury, the ground began to tremble slightly. Accompanied by the sound of trees being crushed and run over by some colossal entity, the white mist, turning into vapor as it fell to the ground, couldn't obscure the moving behemoth.
It resembled a giraffe in its middle section, with legs made of thick, pale, multi-jointed bony structures.
Six unusually long, massive legs, like an elephant's, supported a body laden with numerous fleshy lumps. At first glance, it appeared as tall as a skyscraper, making both military trucks and humans seem incredibly small and pathetic before it.
Ordinary people might not see clearly, but Tang Sui could distinctly see that each fleshy lump bulging beneath its obsidian-like armor resembled an eye. With every blink, a viscous, pale yellow nictitating membrane would appear, and seemingly slick, elongated little worms would crawl across the closed membrane, sending shivers down Tang Sui's spine.
Several flying beasts, resembling scorpions with fly wings, flitted around the insectoid limbs extending from what looked like a skeletal torso of some beast. Looking up from below was like observing a living fossil, its surface covered in a disturbingly large number of black, rib-like structures.
Unidentified blade-like legs also extended from its abdomen, and large tentacles and sharp limbs were crammed together, making it appear extremely grotesque.
"Roar—!"
The colossal creature, its mouth's location indistinguishable, let out a deep roar.
The next moment, the scorpion-tailed, fly-winged creatures circling the giant beast seemed to receive a command. They flapped their cicada-wing-like wings and, with a buzzing clamor, flew directly towards them.
Major General Modi's pupils constricted. He pulled the trigger of his weapon, unleashing an attack on the dense swarm of scorpion-tailed flies resembling a vast net, while shouting,
"Enemies incoming! Cover the drivers! Maintain formation, full speed ahead!"
There was no more room for cautious advancement.
After all, the military trucks were modified. As long as they didn't face tanks or fully armed armored vehicles, ordinary vehicles and trees were no match for them.
Having roared, Modi, knowing that staying on the truck would only make them live targets, continued to kill the flying scorpion-tails as he said to Tang Sui, "You go inside first, I'll cover your retreat!"
Frankly, upon seeing the colossal beast that rivaled a skyscraper, Major General Modi's heart turned ice-cold, filled with a faint sense of regret.
If only they had known they would encounter such a behemoth, they should have turned back and taken a different route.
With their current military strength, they simply couldn't withstand it!
Tang Sui's expression was also extremely grave, because the moment this behemoth appeared, she realized one thing – she couldn't defeat this creature at the moment.
However, she had no intention of letting Major General Modi act as her mobile target.
After all, she was the one who had initially told people to get on the roof.
"These flying insects are nothing to me. You go down, cover your subordinates, and just maintain full speed. I won't be shaken off."
Although her strength was sealed, her agility and physique remained. As long as her masks weren't disabled, she could protect herself amidst the swarm.
Major General Modi was about to say something else, but he saw Tang Sui, her face solemn, raise her hand. Ripples spread through the surrounding space, and four jade-white masks, each with a different posture, materialized from the void, stunning Modi, who had always believed in science.
Major General Modi's heart was once again profoundly shaken.
These peculiar mask-like abilities – they weren't mentioned in the personal profile report!
"Buzz—"
The increasingly approaching sound of beating wings snapped Modi back to attention. He took a deep breath, tapped the metal plate beneath his feet, and looked up at Tang Sui, saying, "Don't you dare die!"
With that, he leaped down. The window leading into the vehicle was swiftly closed. Tang Sui, now alone on top of the military truck, clearly felt the truck's speed increase.
Very well.
Tang Sui's fingertips trembled as she channeled the demonic power accumulated within her. She spread her ten fingers, and black-red orbs of light appeared from her palms, elongating in an instant to form the shape of long blades. Tang Sui firmly gripped their hilts.
"Hiss—!"
A sharp intake of breath came from the driver's seat of the second military truck. The three soldiers sitting in a row had the best vantage point to observe the first truck.
The masks appearing out of thin air and Tang Sui drawing her sword with "telekinesis" were clearly transmitted to their vision. The worldviews of the three soldiers, who were non-believers, were instantly shattered.
"My God... is she really human?" the driver muttered.
His comrade replied dazedly, "Perhaps, not..." Floating masks and "telekinesis" – these didn't seem like things a human could do!
The soldier near the door snapped back to attention and, belatedly, turned to the driver, "Didn't you hate God and religious people the most?" Why was he invoking "My God" right away?
The driver, regaining his senses, hadn't even had time to explain when a scorpion-tailed fly rammed into the reinforced bulletproof glass with a "bang."
Startled, the other two also snapped back to reality. Staring at the scorpion-tailed fly crawling on the glass with its mouthparts, goosebumps rose on their skin.
"Bang bang bang!"
In the brief moment of distraction, several more plump scorpion-tailed flies repeatedly collided with the front windshield, significantly obscuring the driver's vision and making it difficult to see the road ahead.
"Damn it!" the driver exclaimed, his face changing drastically.
Before his two comrades could take any corrective action, another jade-white shadow, like an iron broom, swiftly and accurately blasted away the scorpion-tailed flies clinging to the windshield, clearing the once obscured view.
"Oh, shit!"
The three who were just saved simultaneously uttered a curse.
Not for any other reason, but because the culprit that had just blasted away the scorpion-tailed flies was hovering in a bizarre parallel speed with the moving military truck, just to the left of the windshield.
At the same time, the scorpion-tailed flies that had been clinging to their window were also sent flying by another white mask.
The three soldiers, who had just witnessed firsthand how these masks appeared, were still shaken. They struggled to recall the scene from their memories, their rapidly beating hearts slowing down a little.
Good. Confirmed from memory. It was an ally.
Tang Sui, using her demonic power to manifest two long blades to kill the attacking scorpion-tailed flies, looked at Fukujin and Dafei, who were already dealing with the second truck's troubles. She withdrew her gaze, and with a swift movement of her blade, three more scorpion-tailed flies were decapitated, falling from mid-air onto the asphalt road, where they were crushed into a pulp by the wide wheels.