38: Where are they?

The Wei Brothers threw another dozen or so smoke bombs nearby, and the thick smoke made it difficult for the beast horde to locate them for a time.

“Hurry! Use the smoke to confuse their vision and carve out a path!”

Gao Feng commanded.

Meanwhile, Thunder God high in the sky had his vision obstructed by the smoke bombs and couldn't accurately determine the specific locations of the Fire Hammer Squad members. However, he checked the time, mentally estimating the maximum duration the Fire Hammer Squad could endure within the beast tide.

“Given their remaining ammunition and stamina, their limit is probably around 10 minutes. I'll go down to save them in another 8 minutes. That way, no one will lose their life.”

Seeing the situation turn sour, Qiao Yu mentally commanded the fungal swarm near him to destroy the organs inside the monsters they had parasitized.

Before long, the monsters near Qiao Yu—whether due to cardiac paralysis, organ damage, or insufficient blood supply—all showed signs of weakness and fatigue. Those that should die suddenly dropped dead, and those that should collapse fell down, causing the strength of this section of the beast horde to sharply decrease.

“Everyone, break through toward me! The monsters here are weak and few in number!”

Qiao Yu shouted toward the other members of the Fire Hammer Squad.

Gao Feng, the Wei Brothers, Zhang Ke, Luo Feng, Chen Gu, and the others saw that it was indeed as Qiao Yu had said, and they all shifted their attacks toward Qiao Yu's position.

Chen Gu held his machine gun, continuously sweeping fire. He didn't have many ammunition belts left, so focusing fire suppression on a single direction was ideal.

After Chen Gu finished spraying an entire ammunition belt, the remaining team members used the moment he reloaded to carve out a path toward that spot.

Instantly, blades flashed, guns fired, blood splattered five steps away, and the air ripped with continuous sounds.

“Strange, the monster strength on Qiao Yu's side has clearly dropped off a cliff. Every single one seems to only have initial Beast Soldier Level strength, making them as easy to cut down as melons and vegetables. This is the first time I've seen such a strange beast tide.”

The Wei Brothers posed a profound question. They had experienced being surrounded by beast hordes several times when hunting Beast General Rank Monsterss before, and every time, the strength of the beast horde only grew stronger the more they fought.

The reason they were able to continue living now was that several comrades had traded their lives to secure a slim chance of survival for them.

They had originally thought that this time it might be their turn to sacrifice themselves to gain a sliver of hope for the other team members, but this beast tide felt like child's play, getting easier the more they fought.

“Can't fighting monsters shut you up? We got lucky this time, and you're still not happy? Do we all have to die here for you to be satisfied?”

Zhang Ke complained helplessly, sweeping his long spear casually. The heads of seven or eight monsters in front of him were as fragile as if they were made of tofu.

For a moment, Zhang Ke couldn't even tell if his own strength had advanced significantly.

“Alright, if you want to argue, wait until this is over. We're lucky for once, so use all your strength to break out!”

Gao Feng scolded them, pulling everyone's attention back to the battlefield. He had also noticed something strange about this beast horde. When they had previously tried to dissect the materials from the Bloodthirsty Tank, those monsters weren't nearly this fragile.

Using the cover of the smoke, the Fire Hammer Squad managed to carve out a small path in just five minutes. Using an alleyway in the densely built area, they quickly hid inside a certain warehouse. After killing the two monsters inside that were resting, they quickly sealed the door shut.

The feeling of surviving a disaster made them even more mentally exhausted.

“We finally escaped.”

Chen Gu let out a long breath, pulled a pack of cigarettes from the inner pocket of his combat uniform, distributed them to everyone, and they each took a drag.

“Our luck was terrible this time. We don't know which beast horde caused the riot, but we happened to get stuck right in their path. It's a shame we didn't get the materials, and we wasted a lot of supplies. We probably have to head back early.”

Gao Feng took a deep drag, exhaled slowly, and said regretfully.

“It's alright, Captain. Nothing is more important than life. Having money to spend but no life to spend it is pointless.”

Zhang Ke took it in stride. He had experienced two beast tide events, and each time, he survived thanks to the self-sacrifice of his comrades. He had long since accepted this reality.

“That's right, Captain. At worst, we just go back early for a vacation. It's only a matter of earning a little more or a little less.”

“Let's just consider this a special training trip for Luo Feng and Qiao Yu. At least we now know their true strength.”

Everyone comforted Gao Feng. Seeing that no one held any grievances because of this, Gao Feng felt relieved. As a captain, he naturally had to prioritize the interests of his team members. While the members could excuse him, he could not excuse his own mistakes.

Luo Feng was a newcomer, encountering something like this on his first mission. For a moment, he didn't know what to say, so he just stayed quiet and didn't comment.

“Alright, I know you are giving Gao Feng face, and I cannot let down your call of 'Captain.' I will bear the loss from this mission alone!”

Gao Feng pounded his chest, guaranteeing it to everyone.

Watching the touching scene of the team members encouraging each other, tears almost welled up in their eyes.

Qiao Yu, however, bored, pulled out a huge, scaly, fiery red hide from his combat bag, deliberately shaking it vigorously in front of everyone as if trying to remove dust from it.

“Oh, I have to say, Brother Chen's marksmanship is divine. Cutting the hide directly from the bullet hole saved a lot of effort.”

While everyone was still emotionally talking amongst themselves, they saw the beast hide Qiao Yu was holding and stared with wide eyes, dumbfounded.

“Qiao Yu, you... you...”

Gao Feng saw the beast hide in Qiao Yu's hand. It looked exactly like the material from the Bloodthirsty Tank he had been cutting earlier. He blinked hard several times—it was identical, even down to the precise location of his first cut.

Qiao Yu smiled and tossed the hide to Gao Feng, who caught it immediately. Everyone crowded around to touch it and examine its quality, judging by the luster and color of the scales that this was indeed the Beast General Level Bloodthirsty Tank they had killed.

“A-Yu! How did you do that?”

“Qiao Yu! You are my god!”

“Weren't you fighting monsters right next to me just now? When did you run off to dissect the material?”

The chirping voices made Qiao Yu's head ache. He waved his hand, and the surroundings quieted down. At the same time, he thought to himself:

‘Why would I need to go dissect the material? That Beast General Level Bloodthirsty Tank was long ago devoured into a pile of dregs by the fungal swarm. If I hadn't instructed them to leave the hide intact, not a single hair would have been left.’

But he said aloud:

“I saw that the Captain only had a little bit left to cut properly, so I secretly snuck over and retrieved it while the two Old Brothers Wei were throwing smoke bombs.”

Qiao Yu said this, grinning widely.

Unexpectedly, Gao Feng gave Qiao Yu a hard knuckle rap on the head and roared angrily.

“Qiao Yu! Don't you know how dangerous that was? Huh? If you had slipped up even slightly, you would have been dead! And you're still sitting there grinning at me!”

Qiao Yu rubbed his head, wincing slightly in pain.

“No unauthorized actions in the future, do you hear me!”

After Gao Feng finished roaring, his breathing finally settled down.

“Got it, Captain.”

Qiao Yu nodded weakly... Meanwhile, Thunder God calculated that the time was up and suddenly dove toward the smoke-shrouded area below him.

“Boom!”

A massive landing sound echoed, and the resulting wind instantly dispersed the surrounding smoke. In less than a second, the beast tide instantly subsided. The beast tide, which had been a catastrophe for the Fire Hammer Squad, was merely an ant migration in front of Thunder God, something he could resolve easily.

“Don't be afraid, Big Bro is here!”

Thunder God clasped his hands behind his back, posing with a cool back turned toward the empty space where the squad should have been.

After waiting a few seconds with no response, Thunder God thought they were stunned, so he coolly turned his head.

“Where are they?”