561 Defending the city
In the past, no one from the three consortiums in the Southwest had thought of the Experimentals as a threat before. This was because the consortiums believed they were just a bunch of unintelligent beasts. They thought they could get rid of the Experimentals once and for all after they were done settling their inter-consortium matters.
But by the time Qing Yi headed to the south to take care of the Experimentals problem, the Qing Consortium came to realize that the intelligent being among the Experimentals was not easy to deal with.
As of now, humans would have to treat the Experimentals as beings with the same intelligence level and carefully deal with them.
For example, right now, the Zhou Consortium troops would have never expected the Experimentals to be holding the refugees and captive soldiers as hostages to advance towards the stronghold. This made the Zhou Consortium commander standing on the stronghold walls very troubled.
Although the commander of the Zhou Consortium troops had calmly given the order to open fire, there were still the elderly and children among the refugees held hostage. After this battle was over, this commander of the Zhou Consortium troops would very likely be bugged by his conscience.
Not everyone could be fully cold-blooded and heartless. He was only making the most rational and calm choice based on the situation.
The heavy machine guns mounted atop the stronghold walls started firing. In the dark of the night, the muzzle flashes produced were like fire-spitting dragons. It even resembled meteors shooting across the sky.
Everyone on the stronghold walls was watching this sight quietly. Old Li and Qin Sheng saw the refugees being ripped apart by the bullets, and some of them were even people they knew. Just recently, they had delivered some medicine to those refugees and received a basketful of wild chicken eggs in return.
Old Li had promised them at the time that he would purchase some coats for twelve of the refugee children. But before he could get the clothes for them, those twelve children had perished.
However, neither Old Li nor Qin Sheng stopped the Zhou Consortium troops from opening fire, because they knew this was the best option they had. Although the Riders were honorable people, they were never taught to be benevolent.
Amid the gunfire, the Experimentals mixed into the crowd of people were also shot by the heavy machine guns. When they realized the humans had opened fire, they immediately pulled back.
They retreated out of the heavy machine guns’ range at the fastest possible speed and disappeared into the forest.
Some of the machine gunners seemed to have gone crazy as they kept shooting at the Experimentals even though they were running off. However, this group of Experimentals seemed to have undergone some kind of training. While they were retreating, they even did so by running in zigzag patterns and trying their best to avoid getting shot.
The commander of the Zhou Consortium troops had already tried his best to draw in the Experimentals so that they could cut off their retreat. But this time, their barrage of gunfire was only able to kill several hundred Experimentals at most. As the Experimentals fled, the garrison troops on the stronghold walls were also able to see for themselves just how much strength these creatures had.
However, before the garrison troops could breathe a sigh of relief, the other garrison troops in the south suddenly roared on the radio that they were under attack!
“What’s going on? Didn’t the Experimentals just retreat?” someone said in a stunned voice.
“This is bad. That was just a feint earlier!” the commander of the Zhou Consortium’s troops said, clenching his teeth.
Earlier, the Experimentals had mobilized a large number of forces to attack the stronghold. They even forced all the refugees to move in front as s.h.i.+elds for them and pretended they were going to attack the stronghold from this side.
As a result, the Zhou Consortium’s troops had to resort to transferring some troops away from the south and north gates at the last minute in a desperate attempt to defend this side of the stronghold. However, those reinforcements had only managed to get halfway to the western walls when they received orders to turn around and head back to their original positions.
It turned out that even though the Experimentals at the west gate had looked like they were launching a very powerful attack, it was only used to divert the attention of the stronghold’s garrison. In fact, the Experimentals had other plans that now seemed even more devious than they expected.
The commander of the Zhou Consortium troops issued an order on the radio frequency. “Defend the south gate! We must not allow the Experimentals to ascend the stronghold walls!”
Just five minutes earlier, everyone had witnessed how strong the Experimentals were. If such monsters were to climb the stronghold walls and engage them in close combat, it would probably only take ten minutes for their entire defense network at the southern walls to collapse.
As he spoke, the commander of the Zhou Consortium troops could already see Old Li and Qin Sheng rus.h.i.+ng towards the south gate. Even the Pyro Company’s 15 members followed close behind.
Both parties were very decisive in their actions. Once there was danger of the south side falling to the Experimentals, they knew exactly where they were needed most.
If the Experimentals managed to get to the top of the stronghold walls, they were the only ones who could drive them back down.
Ren Xiaosu quietly watched through his spotting scope from high ground in the distance. However, he did not know what was happening.
He could only see small, blurry, black figures atop the stronghold walls das.h.i.+ng madly towards the south. Could more Experimentals have appeared at the south gate?
However, Ren Xiaosu still did not make his move. He was considering if he should even partic.i.p.ate in this battle.
During the mad dash to the southern walls, the difference in strength between the Riders and the Pyro Company members became obvious. The two Riders were running ahead without even needing to catch their breaths. Furthermore, they were pulling farther and farther away from the Pyro Company members. Behind them, the Pyro Company members desperately tried to catch up to Old Li and Qin Sheng, but they just couldn’t do so.
One of the commanders of the Pyro Company members suddenly said, “Don’t try to keep up with them. We’re just gonna tire ourselves out if we do that. Save our energy and prepare for close combat later. We mustn’t let the Experimentals get up on the walls.”
The garrison troops in the south could hold the defenses for a while. Meanwhile, it would take time for the Riders to rush from the western walls to the southern walls. It would take at least twenty minutes for them to get there. Old Li and Qin Sheng could only pray that the Zhou Consortium’s garrison troops on the southern walls fought hard enough to not fall to a quick defeat!
Now, Ren Xiaosu was also rus.h.i.+ng towards the south side. He thought that if Old Li and Qin Sheng could not hold the line, he could at least help if he were closer to the area.
Ren Xiaosu thought that if the Pyro Company members he had always been annoyed with were willing to take a stand at this time, how could he continue to sit idle? Would that not make him worse than the people he hated?
Everyone was running madly about. The Zhou Consortium troops that were returning to their positions in the south were also sprinting on top of the stronghold walls. But as they ran, Old Li and Qin Sheng slowly overtook them.
Ren Xiaosu was also leaping from roof to roof inside the stronghold. However, before he could get close to the walls, the two Riders had already arrived at the south gate. Just as Old Li and Qin Sheng got there, the Experimentals managed to climb to the top of the walls. Kicking off hard against the wall, their fully gray figures pounced, like they were flying, towards the heavy machine guns mounted at the top of the walls. It seemed that they were most afraid of those weapons now. The first group of Experimentals that ascended the walls were on a mission to destroy all of their opponent’s heavy firepower!
But before they could do so, Old Li collided into an Experimental in midair with the strength of an off-road vehicle and sent it hurtling down to the bottom of the stronghold.
Ren Xiaosu immediately found another vantage point to watch everything unfold through his spotting scope. He could see that whenever Old Li threw his punches, there would be a dazzling radiance in the follow-through. Even though Old Li was several meters away from the other Experimentals, he could still land those dazzling punches on them through the air!
It was not only Old Li who could do that. Even Qin Sheng was fighting in a similar style. The dazzling radiance followed every punch they threw!
Ren Xiaosu was stunned by what he saw through the spotting scope. What the h.e.l.l was this? Were Old Li and Qin Sheng this fearsome? It was no wonder they dared to stroll around in the wilderness so freely.