60: Chapter 60 The Roar of Tank Engines

There was more than one Strength Titan, and each was digging up rocks, lifting them overhead, and throwing them. The rocks pelted the city wall like a torrential rain, blotting out the sky, and the sound of the air being Rend-ed merged into a continuous, ear-piercing shriek.

The city wall was in an uproar.

The Awakened displayed their various abilities.

A short, stocky Awakened slammed his fists into the ground, raising a thick stone wall from the earth at the base of the city wall, blocking the outermost edge. Rocks smashed into the stone wall, sending debris flying; cracks appeared on the stone wall, but it did not collapse.

A lean Awakened formed seals with his hands, condensing a rotating vortex of airflow above the city wall. Several smaller rocks were deflected by the vortex and smashed into the open ground on both sides of the city wall.

A female Awakened whipped out a glowing chain. The chain coiled around an incoming rock, and with a powerful swing, she flung the rock back onto the slope, smashing it into a five-meter-class Titan and turning it into a pulp of flesh.

Lin Yan watched a rock flying toward them, stood at the edge of the city wall, bent his legs slightly, and then leaped up violently.

His three-meter-plus body traced an arc in the air, his right fist clenched, and bone spurs popped out.

His fist smashed into the dead center of the rock.

"Bang!"

The rock shattered.

Debris splashed in all directions, blooming in the air like a firework. Lin Yan passed through the debris and landed on the city wall.

Some Awakened in small squads watched Lin Yan's group, secretly commenting that it was no wonder they dared to come to a four-star Dungeon before reaching level 15.

The rocks were just an appetizer.

The Strength Titans' rock throwing lasted for nearly twenty minutes. The city wall suffered dozens of damaged spots, and several sections of the parapets were completely smashed, with stone bricks scattered on the ground inside the city wall. However, the main structure of the city wall remained unmoved; the nearly fifty-meter-thick trapezoidal structure could not be breached by dozens of tons of rocks.

At this moment, a large group of Armored Titans formed a wall and charged forward, followed by countless ordinary Titans.

The Commander's flag signals changed again.

Yellow flag.

"Abandon artillery and muskets, everyone take cover! Wait for them to get close! Prepare the explosives!"

The soldiers on the city wall immediately stopped firing. The artillerymen pointed their cannons toward the sky and stopped reloading. The musketeers retreated behind the cover on the inside of the city wall and took out bundles of explosive packs from the ammunition boxes.

Those were not ordinary explosives.

Mecha Captain Zhao Tiesheng had once pointed at those explosive packs in the arsenal and said: "They are mixed with powder from Titan crystal cores. When they explode, they produce a special energy wave that has a paralyzing effect on the Titans' muscle fibers. It won't kill them, but it can stop them from moving for a short time."

The soldiers held the explosive packs in their arms, their faces expressionless. They were waiting—waiting for the Titans to walk to the base of the city wall, waiting for the Commander's order, and then they would light the fuses and throw the explosive packs down.

The Titans' second wave of the charge began.

The ground vibrated violently under their feet, and rubble was shaken into the air, bouncing and rolling down the slope.

The soldiers on the city wall lit the explosive packs.

The smoking explosive packs were thrown from the parapets and landed among the Titan horde. The sounds of explosions rose one after another, and dark red flames burst open on the grayish-white slope; the explosives mixed with Titan crystal core powder released a pungent odor upon detonation.

The Titans hit by the explosions clearly slowed down. Their arms could not be raised, and their legs could not take steps, as if they were tripped by something. Some Titans fell directly to the ground, struggled to get up, and fell again.

But with the defense of the Armored Titans, more Titans broke through the explosive blockade.

They rushed to the base of the city wall.

The Titans' climbing began.

Their fingers inserted into the gaps between the stone bricks of the city wall, sinking in just like nails driven into wood. Then they began to climb, moving rapidly on the vertical city wall like geckos, but every step caused the stone bricks to shatter.

On the city wall, nearly nine hundred mechas did not attack.

They stood on the open ground inside the city wall, their muscle fibers slightly undulating, and their skeletal frames emitting a low rumble. Each mecha held a weapon in its hand—long swords, spears, giant axes, and broadswords polished from the bones of Titans... The bone weapons were lighter and tougher than steel, and could resonate with the mecha's own muscle fibers, doubling the power when swung.

This was the most effective tactic summarized over the last hundred years.

Utilize the height difference to kill the most Titans with the minimum cost.

He Chen's "iron spine" stood at the very front of the formation.

It held a twelve-meter-long bone broadsword in its hand; the blade was made by splicing and polishing the ribs of dozens of Titans, with a row of thick bone spurs embedded on the back of the blade, and the edge gleaming with a cold white light in the sunlight.

"iron spine, follow me."

The first five-meter-class Titan poked its head out from below the parapet.

"iron spine" moved.

Its movements were different from the other mechas; the other mechas were clumsier, as if using brute force. "iron spine"'s movements were extremely agile. The twelve-meter-long broadsword in its hand was like a scalpel; the blade cut into the side of the Titan's neck, following the gap in the cervical spine, decapitating it in one stroke.

The Titan's head flew off, and its body fell from the city wall, crashing at the base of the wall.

Clean and efficient.

The second, the third, the fourth.

"iron spine" moved rapidly on the city wall, the broadsword dancing in its hand. Every slash precisely hit the Titans' weakest points—the neck, underarms, and the back of the knees. Its kill efficiency was more than three times that of other mechas, with every slash claiming a life.

The soldiers on the city wall were greatly encouraged by "iron spine"'s performance. Some were shouting "iron spine! iron spine!", the sound traveling from the east section to the west section, like waves crashing against the city wall.

He Chen heard those shouts, and the corners of his mouth curled up even higher.

"iron spine" charged into a denser area. Three ten-meter-class Titans were climbing up from three different directions simultaneously. "iron spine" did not retreat; instead, it accelerated and charged forward.

The broadsword swept horizontally, and the first Titan's head flew up. The blade turned back, and the second Titan's arm was severed at the shoulder. The third Titan's fist smashed into "iron spine"'s chest, but "iron spine" did not retreat; the broadsword slashed upward from below, the blade cutting from the Titan's crotch all the way to its chest.

Lin Yan was not idle either.

His position was at the No. 3 arrow tower on the east section. This was not "iron spine"'s combat zone; the number of Titans was smaller than in the center, but there were still many.

A five-meter-class Titan climbed over the parapet. Before it could stand steady, Lin Yan's fist smashed into it. Bone spurs pierced the skull, and the Titan's body collapsed limply onto the city wall.

[Tank Engine stacks +1, current 15 stacks. Body size 3.7 meters.]

Another five-meter-class Titan climbed up from the other side. Lin Yan dodged its pounce, and his right fist smashed into its ribs from the side, bone spurs piercing the heart. The Titan twitched twice and stopped moving.

[Tank Engine stacks +1, current 16 stacks. Body size 3.9 meters.]

Three ten-meter-class Titans climbed up from below the arrow tower simultaneously. Their sharp claws gripped the gaps between the stone bricks, moving upward rapidly.

Lin Yan stood at the edge of the arrow tower, looking down from a commanding position.

The moment the first Titan's hand touched the parapet, Lin Yan stomped down with his left foot. With his body weight added to the muscle explosive power of the Tank Engine, he stepped on the Titan's fingers. There was a sound of bone cracking; three of the Titan's fingers were crushed, its grip loosened, and it fell from the city wall.

The second Titan climbed over from the side. Lin Yan's right fist smashed into its face, bone spurs piercing through the eye socket into the cranial cavity. The Titan's body suddenly stiffened and hung on the city wall, motionless.

The third Titan climbed over the parapet while Lin Yan was retracting his fist. Its arm swept over, but Lin Yan did not dodge; he took the hit head-on. The Titan's arm smashed into his chest armor, and he didn't even retreat a step.

His left hand grabbed the Titan's wrist, and his right hand clenched into a fist, smashing into the Titan's elbow joint. Bone spurs pierced the joint, and the Titan's forearm bent at an impossible angle. The Titan opened its mouth to roar, but Lin Yan's third punch smashed into its throat.

[Tank Engine stacks +3, current 19 stacks. Body size 4.5 meters.]

Three Titans, in less than ten seconds.

Qin Chuan was on the other side, his short blade cutting into the ankle of a five-meter-class Titan. The World-Breaking Blade effect triggered, and dark red light patterns spread from the wound. The Titan's ankle was cut more than halfway through, and it lost its balance, tilting to one side. Lin Yan's fist came in from the side, smashing into the Titan's temple.

[Tank Engine stacks +1, current 20 stacks. Body size 4.7 meters.]

With the assistance of Shen Xin and Qin Chuan, Lin Yan continuously hunted the Titans climbing up the city wall.

[Tank Engine stacks +1, current 21 stacks. Body size 5 meters.]

[Tank Engine stacks +1, current 22 stacks. Body size 5.2 meters.]

...

[Tank Engine stacks +1, current 55 stacks. Body size 26 meters.]

Qin Chuan shook the blood off his blade: "Boss, you're stacking this way too fast; I can barely catch my breath."

Lin Yan did not answer, because another batch of Titans had climbed onto the city wall.