Chapter 108 - 80: Artillery Barrage

Chapter 108: Chapter 80: Artillery Barrage

Utter terror and panic were written across their faces. Not a shred of their former cruelty and violence remained.

They all fled for their lives, cursing their parents for not giving them more legs, their speed shockingly fast.

Clearly, the devastating artillery fire and the towering sea of flames had utterly crushed their fighting spirit, leaving only a bone-deep terror.

Just then.

"DI DI DA—DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DA—DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DA—DI-DI-DI-DI-DI-DA—DI DI DA—"

The short, rapid, high-pitched, and piercing notes of a bugle charge echoed from the western wasteland.

On the western horizon, a thousand tanks appeared, rolling forward like steel behemoths.

Their cannon barrels glinted coldly as their treads crushed the scorched earth, sending out a massive RUMBLE that made the very ground tremble.

The tanks picked up speed, forming an unstoppable torrent of steel that charged toward the fleeing Pigman army.

"Fire!"

Someone’s shout rang out.

The muzzle of the first tank flashed. A shell WHOOSHED out and landed among a crowd of Pigmen, instantly blasting a dozen or so of them into the air.

Immediately after, all the tanks opened fire. The roar of cannon fire became a continuous thunder, each shell claiming the lives of a cluster of Pigmen.

The Pigmen fled in a frenzy, but the tanks were faster.

Treads rolled over their bodies with the CRUNCH of breaking bones, while shells detonated in their midst, blowing them into unrecognizable scraps of flesh and blood.

Even though these Pigmen all possessed First-Grade Qi and Blood and were formidable individuals, when faced with war machines like tanks—especially tanks from the Red Moon Era, forged from synthetic metals—they were nothing but lambs to the slaughter, as fragile as paper.

「On the South City Wall of Yang City.」

The soldiers defending the city watched the scene unfold and finally relaxed.

"Reinforcements have arrived! The Nanjiang Military District’s field army is here! We held the line!"

Someone shouted.

Instantly, a sea of cheers erupted from the city wall.

Some Martial Artists even embraced, weeping with joy—

They had finally defended Yang City!

Lin Yi watched the overwhelming tank division advance and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"’No wonder the military still uses these old relics,’ Lin Yi murmured. ’When it comes to dealing with a massive monster tide like this, conventional firearms are still king.’"

Ever since the coming of the Red Moon and humanity’s discovery of a new, more convenient and efficient energy source—monster Heart Cores—high-end industries had gradually abandoned coal and oil in favor of this new power source.

The Yang City Public Security Bureau, for example, had almost completely phased out traditional guns in favor of Energy Firearms.

However, that didn’t mean conventional weapons had vanished completely.

On the contrary, in this day and age, conventional weapons remained an indispensable part of large-scale warfare.

Because...

Conventional weapons had a key advantage that new Energy Weapons could not replicate:

They were cheap to produce.

Take guns, for instance.

A bullet from a conventional firearm would typically only create a small wound on a First-Grade Martial Artist.

And with their precise muscle control, Martial Artists could prevent severe blood loss, making such an injury rarely fatal.

Furthermore, a Third-Grade Martial Artist could already dodge bullets from a conventional AK-style rifle. A Fourth-Grade Martial Artist could even withstand a direct hit with their formidable physique, the bullet unable to penetrate their defenses.

But the cost-effectiveness of conventional ammunition was a massive advantage; it could be mass-produced on factory assembly lines.

This allowed for wide-scale suppressive fire.

Energy Firearms, on the other hand, were a different story. A single monster Heart Core, worth one hundred thousand, could only be made into one Energy Box, which at full capacity could only fire five Energy Bullets.

In terms of cost control, Energy Firearms could never hope to compete with their conventional counterparts.

Besides, while conventional firearms used by individual soldiers were less of a threat to high-grade Martial Artists, the power of high-end conventional weaponry was not to be underestimated.

This included heavy ordnance like rockets and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

As far as current technological development was concerned, research into the ultimate destructive potential of Energy Weapons had yet to reach the heights of conventional ones.

Nuclear weapons... remained the most powerful ultimate deterrent on Blue Star.

Even a supremely powerful Ninth-Grade Martial Artist would be instantly vaporized by the intense heat at the epicenter of a nuclear blast.

...

「Under the morning sun.」

The torrent of steel continued its pursuit of the fleeing Pigmen.

Flames and thick smoke wove a grim tapestry across the wasteland.

On the walls of Yang City, cheers rose and fell in waves.

The defending Martial Artists could finally lower their weapons. They collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

They knew that this time, they had won.

Just then, on the South City Wall of Yang City, in the core area that had seen the fiercest fighting, Governor Yang Zhen stood drenched in blood, like a god of war returned from Hell.

He thrust his Longsword toward the sky. Its tip pulsed with a cold light as his voice boomed across the land, drowning out the din of the battlefield:

"The reinforcements from the Nanjiang Military District are here! All Martial Artists with strength to spare, follow me out of the city! We will coordinate with the tank corps, break their lines, and wipe them out! Leave none alive! Slaughter every last one of these beasts that dared to invade our Yang City!"

"Kill!"

"Kill! Kill every last one of these Pigman bastards!"

The Governor’s roar was the spark that lit a wildfire, instantly setting the blood of every Martial Artist on the wall ablaze!

His call was met with a hundred roaring replies, their fighting spirit rekindled!

With Governor Yang leading the charge, every Martial Artist on the wall still able to grip their weapon and channel their Qi and Blood leaped from the towering ramparts, pouring down like a flood from a broken dam.