Chapter 305 - 301: Annihilation

Chapter 305: Chapter 301: Annihilation

"Be careful, their bodies are burning up!"

The steel needles were embedded deep enough in the ground that not much was protruding from Peter and Niso’s bodies.

But their muscles were clamped tightly around the steel needles, with only a small amount of blood seeping out from the gaps. It took all of the Noeman family’s strength just to pull Niso free.

"This isn’t the right amount of blood. How is there so little?"

Carl let out a cry of surprise mid-effort. He noticed that Niso’s muscles were contracting intensely around the horrific wounds, but that alone couldn’t explain the strangely low amount of bleeding.

They couldn’t see Magic Power, so they naturally didn’t know that residual Magic Power was covering the bodies, helping to preserve their minimal bodily functions.

But this wasn’t the time to investigate. They struggled again and managed to get Peter out of the pile of needles.

Frank carefully searched their pockets, finally finding a few small leather pouches on their belts. Inside were a few petal-like objects and a small handful of round, red fruits.

"Is this the Flower of Life? Is it supposed to be applied as a poultice, or eaten?"

That was indeed the question.

"There’s not enough to use as a poultice, so it must be for eating. Quick, put it in their mouths."

Carl looked at his blood-soaked family, clenched his jaw, and made a decision, feigning complete confidence.

"Wait, crush them first!"

He took the petals from Frank’s hand and squeezed them a couple of times. A strong, fresh fragrance wafted out, invigorating the four of them.

"Frank, pry their mouths open!"

Working together, Frank and Carl divided the dozen or so crushed Flower of Life petals into two portions and stuffed them into Peter’s and Niso’s mouths.

"What about these fruits?"

"Don’t touch them for now. What if they’re poisonous?!"

The effect was almost immediate. The two men, who had stopped breathing, began to tremble slightly a few seconds after the Flower of Life entered their mouths. Then, they started taking faint breaths.

As Carl and his family marveled at the result, he let out a huge sigh of relief internally. ’Thank goodness, that was the right thing to do.’

With injuries like these, even a fool would know they weren’t ordinary people if they were taken to a hospital. As members of the Noeman family, they knew a little about Dawn and understood just how terrifying Dawn’s power was.

Since Dawn was real and actually possessed Extraordinary Power, as long as they rescued these two men and brought them back, someone from the Dawn Association would surely come looking for them.

Peter and Niso were both tall, burly men with thick muscles. Each of them weighed nearly as much as one and a half Franks.

Thanks to his excellent physical fitness, Carl carried Peter on his back by himself. Old Noeman and Frank dragged Niso along, while Mani carried Peter’s severed arm.

It took a tremendous effort to get both men into the car. Then, they quickly drove away from the scene.

Because they had driven back a good distance earlier, ignoring the damage to their vehicle, they had reduced the time needed to move the wounded. The entire process only took about seven or eight minutes.

...

Shortly before 8:00 PM, the dispatchers at the Munich City Police Department were swamped. They had received at least twenty consecutive emergency calls from different people.

Without exception, they all reported a "Giant Dragon" in the sky and a "Dragon Slayer Warrior" fighting it. There were also many calls for help from injured people. Some had ear injuries, many were hit by collapsing walls and furniture, and the unluckiest had been impaled by steel spikes.

The location was the Lau Park area. In fact, people in many parts of the city had heard the strange roars earlier.

And just two minutes after the emergency calls started flooding in, an urgent order came from above.

The police department and hospital ambulance services were thrown into a flurry of activity. Countless police officers mobilized within minutes of receiving the reports and sped toward the scene in their patrol cars.

But more than ten minutes earlier, the De Yi Country’s Extraordinary Turmoil Investigation Team had already mobilized after receiving Carl’s distress signal. Since the key threat was identified as airborne, the team immediately deployed attack helicopters and air-to-air fighter jets.

The US troops stationed in Germany, however, showed little reaction. On one hand, the small-scale battle was confined to Lau Park, so the De Yi Country’s police had no need to notify them, reporting it internally within the government instead. On the other hand, the US troops stationed in Germany were currently undergoing a phased drawdown, and there was no longer a military presence near Munich City.

The US Army units originally stationed near Munich had been withdrawn from De Yi Country over two months ago and returned to the United States. In fact, aside from a few key locations, a portion of the US Army bases in De Yi Country were likely to be evacuated over the next year.

US officials had been loudly decrying military spending, arguing it was a considerable waste and that burning through the defense budget like this wasn’t worth the cost. After several rounds of shaping public opinion, they began implementing the withdrawal plan.

In reality, the nations of the World Alliance all understood that this was the United States starting to consolidate its forces. Although a complete withdrawal was impossible, pulling back half of the tens of thousands of soldiers from De Yi Country would be a significant supplement to their defense forces at home.

This kind of move had happened several times since the end of the Cold War, and outside analysts believed this time was no different.

Ten minutes after the Noeman family drove off, around 8:00 PM, Munich’s police and fire departments arrived near Lau Park. Police helicopters circled overhead, their searchlights scanning the battlefield.

The order from above was to lock down the scene, keep all media out, and confiscate any video footage from surrounding civilians as much as possible.

The roads around Lau Park were packed with police cars.

"My God!!! What in the world happened here..."

Police officers, both young and old, couldn’t hide the shock on their faces as they stared blankly at the battlefield of steel needles in front of Lau Park.

A few officers approached a long needle and tapped it lightly with a baton, producing a faint, crisp metallic sound.

"Sounds like it’s hollow?"

"And what’s this? A feather?"

A policewoman walked over to a black, fan-shaped object near a distant steel needle. On closer inspection, she realized it looked like a thigh-length black feather.

The officers in the helicopters were even more horrified than the police on the ground.

In their view, centered on the ancient warrior statue, half of Lau Park, the road in front of it, and the distant houses and trees were all covered in these unknown, needle-like objects.

In the distance, rescue workers were tending to the injured inside houses, and screams of pain occasionally rang out.

Around the ancient warrior statue, there were obvious signs of a violent and incredible battle, along with a mangled car. If they didn’t already know it was impossible, the police would have suspected it was all just a massive, elaborate prank.

By now, officers had approached the center of the battlefield and found large amounts of a black, ink-like liquid and some red blood.

They were also checking the license plate of the wrecked vehicle, trying to identify its owner.

...

In the airspace near Munich, two Gale-type fighter jets screamed past at high altitude.

"Howling Command Tower, this is Fire Fox One. Arrived in the target airspace."

"Fire Fox Two, arrived in the target airspace."

"Commence search."

"Fire Fox One, roger." "Fire Fox Two, roger."

The pilots occasionally glanced through their cockpit canopies at the brightly lit city below, then back at the pitch-black night sky.

Suddenly, a blip appeared on the onboard radar.

’30 kilometers? That close? The onboard radar should be able to detect a target from at least a hundred kilometers away.’

He communicated with his wingman. The two jets pulled up, then banked and flew toward the blip on the radar.

Two minutes later, the roar of the high-altitude fighter jets thundered past, startling the Demon as it struggled to fly.

’What was that thing that just flew overhead?’

But the two pilots were even more shocked than the Demon.

"Fire Fox to Command Tower, target spotted! It’s a large, flying creature, appears to be wounded. Requesting permission to engage!"

"Maintain pursuit for now. Attack helicopter squadron is en route."

"Roger!"

A few more minutes passed. The noise of rotor blades grew louder in the surrounding air as six attack helicopters, flying in a fan formation, surrounded the airborne monster, maintaining a distance of one kilometer.

The Demon was now beating its wings frantically. Although its Perception told it that these flying monsters still had weak auras, it felt an inexplicable sense of pressure.

The more it struggled, the more black blood poured from its wounds.

Onboard several helicopters, cameras were aimed at the monster, transmitting the images back to the Extraordinary Turmoil Investigation Team.

The massive monster was at least a dozen meters long, and over 20 meters including its tail. Its wingspan was slightly less than that.

It had several horrific wounds on its body: a torn wing, a mangled left limb, and most shockingly, a crater in its head. The shattered wound was filled with blood, making one wonder if its brain had been crushed.

"Is that... a dragon?"

It wasn’t just the personnel back at base; every crew member who saw it had the same thought.

It was also clearly in a severely wounded state. Based on the data continuously transmitted from the scene and some of the confiscated videos, it was clear the monster had just been through a major battle. It probably couldn’t use that dangerous-looking rain of needles anymore. In terms of both offense and defense, it was at its absolute weakest.

Strange things had occasionally appeared in De Yi Country before. Some caused few casualties but had created small-scale panic, and the frequency of such incidents was on the rise.

But this was the most unique and largest monster to date. Compared to the previous "minor skirmishes," this thing was a true behemoth. It was the most compelling evidence they could use to persuade the higher-ups to allocate more resources!

The Super-Tuning Team was already thinking about capturing it alive.

"ROOOOAR~~~~"

As its stamina drained from its wounds, the Demon, unable to shake the flying monsters, finally succumbed to its fear. With a roar, it began to attack the helicopters.

Its speed suddenly increased, and its agility became even more astonishing. Within seconds, it closed in on one of the helicopters.

"Oh hell, evade!!!"

The pilot didn’t need to be told. Breaking out in a cold sweat, he yanked the controls to the side. He was caught off guard, and though he dodged the Claw, he couldn’t avoid the long, hooked tail that flashed past.

"SCREEECH..." "BANG!"

Amid a grating screech of metal, the tail hook pierced the middle of the fuselage, tearing a large gash in it. Glass shattered and the cabin door was ripped off. Two Soldiers sitting by the window were hit directly. One suffered a shoulder injury and was bleeding profusely. The other was even unluckier; the retracting tail hook sliced him in half at the waist.

The Demon didn’t press the attack after its successful strike. It immediately flew toward another helicopter.

"Dammit! We’ve been attacked and have sustained casualties! I repeat, we have casualties! Combat formation, eliminate it now!!"

The on-site military Commander had the authority to issue an attack order based on the urgent combat situation.

The surrounding helicopters scattered. Except for the one hit by the tail hook, which was off-balance and preparing to return to base, the targeting cursors in the cockpits of the other aircraft all locked onto the flying Demon.

As the Demon turned back, machine cannons and rockets were fired one after another. Tongues of flame, accompanied by a thunderous roar, wove a web of death. These were no soft pistol rounds.

THWAP THWAP THWAP... BOOM BOOM BOOM...

"RAWRGH..."

The agonized cry from the sky was cut short by the barrage of gunfire. The massive, mangled body plummeted from an altitude of over 800 meters.

"Calling command center, target has been eliminated!"

PS: First Chapter for Monday.