99: Steel Torrent

After Jiang Xin issued the order, Zhang Long personally arrived at the front line to command, bringing his Evolver aura boost to the front.

Zhang Long boarded the waiting hind attack helicopter. He arrived at the front line of the 1st Battalion, which was equipped with the entire army's tanks (7 rhino tanks, 13 grizzly tanks), facing the Zombie Horde as the vanguard, with Xiong Da, Blaze Ash, and Yang Yi accompanying the operation.

Li Ang, Chen Hao, and Tanya led the other three battalions, sweeping the flanks of the main advance direction and were responsible for rescuing survivors and collecting funds.

As the hind carrying Zhang Long reached the battlefield, an invisible force spread out—it was his unique Evolver aura. Like an invisible tide, it instantly covered the front-line troops, injecting a sliver of precise calmness into every soldier's tense nerves, while their muscle strength quietly surged. He brought a 20% boost capable of turning the tide of the battle.

On the ground, the iron torrent began to surge. Twenty tanks, like a spear made of steel beasts, rolled forward on the debris-filled streets. The tracks bit heavily into the fractured asphalt, emitting a teeth-grinding "creak—clack" sound. Each rotation left deep ruts, and the kicked-up gravel and dust slapped against the heavy composite armor.

Inside the 003 tank ahead, Commander Lao Zhao pressed his forehead against the cold periscope eyepiece, his eyes fixed forward. Thirty meters away, the entire street was covered in dense, blue-gray figures like a decaying tide, swaying slowly and persistently. Rotting arms twitched and clawed forward from time to time, and empty eye sockets reflected a dead light. The air was filled with a pungent smell of mixed corpse stench and gunpowder smoke.

"Left front, coordinate xxx, main gun, one quick shot!" Lao Zhao's voice came through the vehicle intercom, hoarse and steady, carrying a metallic friction quality that echoed in the sealed cabin.

"High-explosive shell loaded! Done!" the loader roared, his muscular arms bursting with astonishing power as the heavy shell slid into the chamber instantly.

"Clang!" The sound of the breechblock locking had barely faded.

"Boom—!"

A deafening roar tore through the air, and the entire vehicle jolted violently. The massive fireball spewed from the muzzle instantly engulfed the target area. The high-explosive shell detonated in the center of the Zombie Horde, and the dark red shockwave swept across like an invisible giant hammer. Seventy or eighty zombies didn't even have time to scream before they were torn apart and thrown away like broken ragdolls, turning into flying pieces of flesh, broken bones, and filthy viscera, like a rain of rot. The tank did not slow down at all, and the heavy tracks coldly crushed the residual limbs that were still twitching nervously, making a scalp-numbing "squelch, crunch" crushing sound. Dirty, viscous blood and flesh splattered all over the front armor plate and quickly dried and stretched in the high-speed wind, leaving streaks of hideous black marks.

"The tank unit has advanced 1 kilometer!" Zhou Rui, sitting in the 01 rhino tank cabin, pressed the communication button hard. His voice was still clear through the interference, "Large-scale cluster targets discovered on the west road, visually estimated at over three hundred, requesting air force fire coverage! Coordinate xxx!"

"Air force received! hind One received, coordinate xxx, approaching! Done!" The pilot's calm response came through the headset.

Almost as soon as the voice fell, a sharp whistle of rotors cutting through the air came from overhead, like the whisper of the Grim Reaper. A hind attack helicopter dived out from behind the low-hanging clouds. The 30mm cannon suspended under the fuselage roared, spitting out a scorching tongue of fire several meters long. The dense tracer rounds, like burning crimson whips, lashed fiercely at the Zombie Horde on the right road with a destructive shriek. The zombies' bodies were fragile in the face of this violent metal storm, instantly shattered, with broken limbs and remains splattered everywhere. The bullets penetrated the thin walls, and a muffled "pop-pop" sound and the chaotic noise of objects falling immediately came from inside the building. Immediately after, "whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—" several 57mm rockets dragged long, pale smoke trails, like precise vipers, diving into the windows where the zombies gathered.

"Boom! Boom-boom-boom—!"

The violent explosions connected into one, flames soared into the sky, and thick smoke rolled. The violent air waves generated by the explosion made the solid ground shake violently. Broken concrete blocks, twisted steel bars, and charred corpse pieces fell from the air like hail, scattering the street.

"Nice shot!" Commander Lao Zhao of the 003 tank saw this scene through the periscope. A hint of gratified ferocity appeared on his smoke-stained face, and he couldn't help but praise softly.

The tank cluster continued to roar forward. Suddenly, Lao Zhao's pupils shrank, and several unusually large and bloated figures flashed across the edge of the periscope's field of view! "Watch the left back alley! Fatty Zombie! Three of them! They want to flank our side and rear!" His voice carried a hint of tension, but only a hint.

From the narrow, dark alleys on both sides, three monsters the size of small off-road vehicles suddenly rushed out. Their limbs were short and thick but unusually powerful, covered with a layer of gray, thick fat. Their bellies were bulging high, and their fat trembled violently when they ran, but their speed was not slow at all. They rushed toward the vulnerable side and rear of the tank queue with a clear goal! Their huge feet stepped on the ground, making a muffled "thump-thump" sound.

"Main gun! Left back alley! Fatty Zombie! High-explosive shell! One quick shot! Fast!" Lao Zhao's roar exploded in the cabin.

Gunner Xiao Li had cold sweat on his forehead, but his hands were as steady as a rock. He quickly turned the direction and elevation controls. The turret emitted a muffled hum of the motor, and the thick barrel quickly pointed to the target direction. The loader showed high efficiency and quickly stuffed a 125mm high-explosive shell into the chamber.

"Target locked!"

"Fire!"

"Boom—!"

The thunderous cannon roar tore through the air again. The shell exploded not far in front of the three Fatty Zombies. The powerful shockwave threw their huge bodies away like broken sacks for more than ten meters, slamming heavily into the ruins with a muffled thud. However, what was chilling was that these three monsters actually struggled and climbed up again! They let out angry and painful roars. Huge wounds were torn open on their bodies by shrapnel, and dark green viscous fluid poured out, but their movements did not seem to be lethally affected. Instead, they were enraged and rushed more fiercely toward the nearest rhino tank!

"Damn it! That skin is thick! It must be a First-Order!" Lao Zhao spat fiercely and immediately roared into the communicator: "Call hind! Call hind! Coordinate xxx, xxx, xxx, three First-Order Fatty Zombies, have been severely damaged by my rhino unit's shelling but not eliminated! Requesting immediate follow-up attack! Repeat, requesting immediate follow-up attack!"

"hind received! Target locked!" In the sky, the hind helicopter that had just completed the rocket attack made a nimble side-roll maneuver, and the twin cannons under the fuselage instantly turned. "Taste this, scum!" the pilot roared, pressing the launch button hard with his thumb.

"Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump—!"

The 30mm cannon roared, and dense shells precisely covered one of the huge bodies struggling to move forward. Immediately after, a flash of fire appeared from the rocket launcher under the short wings, and with two "whoosh" sounds, two rockets dragged white smoke and rushed straight at them.

"Boom! Boom!"

The violent explosion completely engulfed the Fatty Zombie. The power of the rockets was far greater than the cannon, and the already scarred body was blown to pieces. Large pieces of burning fat and visceral tissue were thrown everywhere, and the dark green, foul-smelling body fluid flowed along the cracks in the ground like a viscous stream, making a sizzling sound.

The iron torrent rolled over the broken flower beds at the intersection, and broken bricks and dead branches groaned under the tracks. The scene ahead made everyone's heart sink—on the main street, the Zombie Horde was like a black, wriggling tide, frantically pouring out from every intersection and alley, layer upon layer. The roaring sound converged into a suffocating and terrifying wave of sound, with at least a thousand of them! They were completely stimulated by the roar of the engines, the explosions of shells, and the deaths of their kind. No longer wandering loosely, they formed a large-scale Zombie Horde and rushed crazily toward this iron team! That dense, twisting, and wriggling scene was enough to make even the bravest warrior's scalp numb.

"rhino tanks No. 1 to No. 5!" Beside the cabin door of the hind helicopter, Zhang Long held the safety rope with one hand and pressed the communication device on his helmet with the other. His body leaned forward slightly, and his eyes were like a frozen lake, terrifyingly calm. His voice clearly reached the headsets of every tank commander through the encrypted channel: "Target the Zombie Tide directly ahead, salvo of high-explosive shells! Tear me a path!"

"Understood!" * 5

The turrets of the five leading rhino tanks emitted a low turning sound at the same time, and the thick, long barrels tacitly sank slightly, pointing to the most surging core of the Zombie Tide.

"Ready—Fire!"

"Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—!"

The five deafening roars that almost connected into one shook the entire street! Five 125mm high-explosive shells dragged the Grim Reaper's shriek, tore through the turbid air, and smashed fiercely into the Zombie Tide. The fire of the explosion instantly connected into a hot line of death! The zombies hit directly didn't even leave dust behind, and the shockwave was like an invisible giant plow, forcibly "plowing" several bloody gaps in the dense Zombie Tide! Broken limbs, broken bone shards, and filthy viscera were thrown in all directions by an invisible giant force, radiating outwards. The originally airtight Zombie Tide instantly appeared with several shocking, huge gaps.

"Advance! Crush them!" Zhang Long's order was like a war drum.

The tank engines let out a deafening roar. Without hesitation, they rushed into the gaps paved with flesh and blood! The tracks rolled up a wave of filth mixed with broken bones, rotten flesh, and soil, slapping against the heavy armor. A muffled and continuous vibration came from inside the vehicle body, as if driving on a carpet made of corpses. The soldiers gripped their weapons tightly, their faces pale but their eyes firm, feeling the bumps brought by every crushing under their feet.

"Light armor unit! Accelerate! Clear sporadic targets on both sides!" Zhang Long's gaze swept over the battlefield situation map, and his speech speed was extremely fast, "hind! Rocket launcher ready! Cover the fifty-meter area ahead! Blow me a path!"

"Received! Rocket launcher ready! Covering the fifty-meter area ahead!" The hind pilot's voice carried a hint of excited hoarseness.

A hind quickly broke away from the formation and hovered over the Zombie Tide. Under the short wings, two multi-tube rocket launchers adjusted their angles, pointing to the black ocean that was still wriggling and trying to fill the gaps.

"Fire!"

At the pilot's command, he pressed the launch button.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!"

More than a dozen rockets, like angry fire dragons, dragged long orange-red tails and rushed toward the ground with a shriek. They covered the entire width of the street, weaving a net of destruction, and smashed fiercely into the densest area of the Zombie Tide.

"Boom! Boom! Boom-boom-boom—!"

The continuous explosions were deafening, and the ground shook crazily under their feet! Huge fireballs rose into the sky one after another, instantly engulfing that area. The scorching air waves rolled and spread to the surroundings, burning the air, and thick black smoke wrapped in flames rushed into the sky, forming a huge smoke column. Even hiding in the sealed armored vehicles, the soldiers could feel the suffocating heat wave and shockwave coming through the steel plates.