617: Chapter 617 Beast Tide, Shocking Change

Ira let out a painful muffled grunt.

The veins on her forehead bulged like earthworms, and two streams of crimson blood instantly spewed from her nasal cavity, dripping down her pale chin onto her protective suit.

But after all, her Mental Energy still transformed into an invisible giant net, forcibly catching the Spiked Boar's lower body.

Bang!

The sprinting Spiked Boar seemed to suddenly crash into an invisible rubber wall.

Its massive body was forcibly tripped by an unseen force less than five meters away from Kyle.

The huge momentum made it roll twice on the ground, and the bone spurs all over its back scraped a large swath of sparks on the ground.

Just at the brief moment when the Spiked Boar's belly faced upward, rolling to reveal its soft lower abdomen.

"Go to hell!"

Kyle threw away the rifle with its empty magazine, and pulled out an exaggeratedly shaped large-caliber double-barreled shotgun from his waist.

He pounced forward directly, pressing the muzzle hard against the Spiked Boar's chin unprotected by bone spurs, and pulled both triggers at the same time.

Boom!

An extremely muffled explosion.

The Spiked Boar's chin along with half of its windpipe was directly blasted into a mass of rotten meat by the violent shotgun pellets.

Pitch-black blood splashed all over Kyle like a fountain.

The massive Mutated Wild Boar twitched violently a few times, its thick limbs kicking wildly in the air.

Finally, it collapsed heavily on the ground, completely losing its vitality.

"Hoo... Well done!"

Roken not far away ran over carrying a gun, and excitedly kicked the wild boar's corpse.

Kyle panted heavily, wiped the blood stains on his mask, and hurriedly turned to support the tottering Ira.

"Are you alright, Ira?"

Ira shook her head weakly, wiping away the oozing nosebleed with her sleeve:

"I won't die."

Afterwards, she put the gas mask back on her face and urged:

"Hurry up, quickly cut off the meat. The smell of blood here is too heavy, and it will soon attract other beasts."

Pike, who was hiding in the distance keeping watch, also lifted his invisibility and ran over excitedly.

Looking at this huge prey, the four people let out deliberately suppressed cheers through their masks.

"So much meat is enough for the children in the tribe to eat for a week!"

Pike excitedly pulled out a bright boning knife, and squatted eagerly beside the pig's leg ready to start.

Kyle also pulled out the iron knife from his waist, and sliced heavily along the wild boar's soft abdomen.

Roken nimbly replaced his rifle with a new magazine, held the gun and walked towards the edge of the collapsed pit, vigilantly scanning the surrounding darkness.

Fang Cheng stood on a high vantage point, quietly watching the thrilling hunt below.

Tacit cooperation, sharp methods, and extremely precise grasp of timing.

Although the power level seemed insignificant to him, this survival instinct honed on the edge of life and death was worthy of respect.

Just as Fang Cheng withdrew his gaze, considering whether to show himself and contact this group of aborigines.

Hum——

A muffled resonance suddenly came from the load-bearing column beneath his feet.

At first, the tremor was very slight, just like the vibration of rails before a subway enters the station.

But after less than two breaths of time, the tremor increased exponentially.

The gravel on the ground began to jump uneasily, and even a suffocating fishy wind whipped up in the air.

Relying on his keen perception, Fang Cheng instantly sensed that something was wrong.

This was definitely not an earthquake, nor was it the commotion that one or two mutated beasts could step out.

Such dense frequency and terrifying momentum.

It was simply as if tens of thousands of behemoths with astonishing tonnage were stepping on the same drumbeat, frantically trampling this wasteland!

Fang Cheng's pupils shrank sharply, and he suddenly turned his head to look towards the extreme north of the urban ruins.

The hunter squad below also felt the ground and instantly froze their movements.

Kyle's hand shook, and the iron knife for cutting meat dropped to the ground with a 'clang' sound.

He stood up abruptly, and the pair of eyes under the mask instantly widened into circles.

The originally stalwart and mighty man trembled slightly at this moment, appearing exceptionally terrified.

Awooo—— Moo-on——

Numerous shrill and crazy beast roars rolled over from the end of the horizon, like a tsunami sweeping across the entire wasteland world.

In Fang Cheng's field of vision, under the originally dark red canopy in the distance, a black sandstorm hundreds of meters high rose up.

Tens of thousands of mutated beasts surged over like a breached black torrent.

Multi-legged, scaled, flying, and even behemoths the size of heavy trucks were among them.

These monsters frantically trampled the architectural ruins along the way, running desperately toward the south.

They did not kill each other, nor did they arrange formations.

They were running for their lives!

An indescribable huge sense of oppression, along with that sky-blocking sandstorm, almost enveloped the entire city.

"Beast... Beast Tide..."

Roken's gun dropped to the ground with a 'clang' sound, his legs went soft, and he almost collapsed into the pool of blood.

Ira looked into the distance with vacant eyes, murmuring to herself:

"Are they crazy... What on earth happened in the north? How could there be such a large-scale beast tide?!"

"Run! Abandon the prey, enter the subway station!"

Kyle couldn't care about his blood-stained hands, turned his head and let out an angry roar.

"But the meat! Uncle, our meat!"

Pike gripped the boning knife in his hand, staring bloodshot at the Spiked Boar on the ground, his feet refusing to move as if they had taken root.

This was the lifeline for the tribe to survive.

"What meat to eat when your life is gone! Hide first and talk later!"

Kyle didn't talk nonsense at all.

He stepped forward, lifted the weak Ira with his left hand, grabbed Pike's back collar with his right hand, and forcibly dragged him away from the prey.

Roken also woke up from a dream, scrambling to grab the rifle on the ground, and plunged headlong into the dark subway station entrance following Kyle.

On the load-bearing column, Fang Cheng still stood in his original place.

His deep gaze crossed that wildly surging black torrent, casting toward the very rear of the beast tide army.

At the end of that distant horizon, a bizarre darkness that seemed capable of swallowing even light was creeping and spreading forward like a living creature.

Even separated by a very far distance, a trace of instinctive chill still welled up in Fang Cheng's heart.

"What on earth is it that can scare these bloodthirsty monsters like this?"

Before he could think carefully, a gale blew in his face.

The wind was mixed with an extremely pungent smell of blood and stench.

The concrete beneath Fang Cheng's feet was shaking frantically at a teeth-aching frequency.

Gravel rattled down along the column body.

The vanguard of the beast tide had already rushed into this block.

Taking advantage of the dim light, Fang Cheng saw the scene below clearly.

Countless mutated beasts seemed to have completely lost their minds.

Like a mudslide, they crowded into the narrow ruined streets, crashing around wildly.

Beasts with slightly smaller bodies and slower speeds didn't even have time to dodge before being knocked into broken walls by the behemoths behind them.

Then, they were trampled by countless hooves and claws into minced meat mixed with dirt.

Whoosh——

Above his head, a harsh sound of airflow tearing suddenly came.

Several hairless freak birds with wingspans of up to three meters wide were skimming low in the air.

One of them, while dodging its peers, violently flapped its wings and changed direction.

Those crimson eyes instantly locked onto Fang Cheng at the top of the column.

It opened its bird beak covered in barbs, and following the momentum of its descent, like a heavy glider, pecked fiercely at Fang Cheng's body.

Fang Cheng didn't even lift his eyelids.

His toes tapped the edge of the column, and his waist muscles suddenly exerted force.

Under twice the gravity, his whole body forcibly completed a mid-air twist that extremely defied physical common sense.

His right leg was like a swung steel whip, striking accurately from bottom to top on the freak bird's lower jawbone.

Bang!

A ball of blood mist mixed with broken bones and internal organs exploded roaringly in mid-air.

The freak bird's head disappeared instantly.

The headless corpse spun and flew backwards, slamming heavily into the beast herd below, and was completely swallowed by the rolling torrent in an instant.

Almost the same second the blood mist exploded.

"Roar——"

A grayish-brown giant lizard over five meters long was forcibly squeezed out of the main road by the stampeding beast herd behind it.

It crashed frantically through half a low wall and headed straight for the load-bearing column where Fang Cheng was.

Rumble——

The giant lizard slammed heavily headfirst into the base of the column.

Under this terrifying impact force of several tons, the half-meter-diameter solid concrete column made a muffled explosion.

Large chunks of gravel peeled off rustlingly, and several internally twisted steel bars were snapped.

The entire column let out a wail and began to tilt violently to one side.

Fang Cheng lowered his gaze, looking at the massive beast herd continuously pouring into the street below, and chose not to continue staying in place to resist hard.

His knees bent slightly, and his thigh muscles tightened instantly.

The moment before the load-bearing column completely collapsed, like a cannonball fired from a barrel, he leaped out diagonally.

Swish——

The wind whistled in his ears.

Fang Cheng stretched his limbs in mid-air, spanning a distance of nearly thirty meters.

Afterwards, he landed steadily on the second floor of a shopping mall ruin that only had half its frame left.

Click.

His feet crushed the weathered tiles on the ground, unloading all the impact force of the fall.

Standing firm, Fang Cheng looked back.

His line of sight passed through the chaotic beast tide below, and suddenly caught an abnormality.

I saw that at the collapsed subway station entrance at the street corner, several black shadows were hugging the base of the wall and quickly darting downwards.

Those were four Mutated Crawling Beasts shaped like crocodiles, with cyan sarcomas all over their bodies.

They didn't join the large army running for their lives, seemingly intending to hide in the subway station to muddle through, or perhaps attracted by a certain aura emanating from inside.

Fang Cheng's gaze flickered slightly.

The four-person hunter squad just now had fled into this entrance.

"Is this considered... getting caught in the crossfire?"

Fang Cheng shook his head slightly, his toes flicked up a piece of rusted steel pipe on the ground, and he grasped it in his hand.

Then he leaped down from the second-floor gap, like a weightless shadow, quietly blending into the darkness.

Basement level 1 of the subway station, ticketing hall.

There was not a trace of light here, dark and thoroughly so.

The concrete ceiling overhead occasionally transmitted muffled tremors.

That was the violent commotion of countless mutated beasts on the surface.

Fine sand and gravel fell rustlingly along the cracks of the load-bearing wall, hitting the scrapped iron sheet debris.

Any tiny commotion was infinitely magnified in the dead underground space.

"Hoo... Hoo..."

Kyle leaned against the wreckage of a collapsed security machine, panting heavily.

He ripped off the filter canister of the gas mask, replaced it with a spare one, and installed it with a crisp "click" sound.

Ira collapsed weakly on the ground, her face pale.

Although the blood in her nasal cavity had stopped, the exhaustion of her Mental Energy left her without even the strength to stand up at this moment.

Roken held his rifle, staring fixedly at the dark passage they had fled into, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

Pike curled up in the corner, holding the rusted boning knife in his arms, his body trembling like shaking chaff.

"Uncle... Are we... Are we safe?"

The child's teeth chattered, and his voice came through the mask with an obvious crying tone.

Having survived in the wasteland for more than a decade, he had never seen such a terrifying battle formation or so many monsters.

"It's fine..."

Kyle gripped the double-barreled shotgun in his hand tightly, just about to open his mouth to comfort him.

Rustle... Rustle...

From the direction of the passage entrance, a subtle sound suddenly came.

It seemed like some kind of fleshy pad slowly rubbing against the rough floor tiles.

Followed by a few blood-curdling, low sniffing sounds.

Roken's breathing instantly stagnated.

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his thumb trembling as he pushed on the tactical flashlight under the barrel.

The pale beam of light fiercely tore open the darkness ahead.

At the passage corner less than twenty meters away from them, four Mutated Crawling Beasts covered in cyan sarcomas were lying on the ground.

The pale green vertical pupils reflected greedy and bloodthirsty light under the illumination of the flashlight.

They smelled the scent of humans, as well as the scent of fresh blood that had just flowed from Ira's body.

"Damn it!"

Roken's scalp exploded, and he pulled the trigger almost instinctively.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

In the narrow underground space, the gunshots were deafening.

The bullets hit the scales of the Crawling Beasts, splashing a series of sparks, but only leaving a few shallow white marks.

These beasts' defense power far exceeded those low-level wild beasts on the surface.

"Spread out! Seize the opportunity to attack their abdomens, that's the fatal position."

Kyle let out an angry roar, raised his shotgun and rushed forward.

But the Crawling Beasts' speed was too fast.

Their hind legs exerted force suddenly, like two cyan bolts of lightning, instantly crossing the twenty-meter distance.

One of them directly knocked Roken down.

The sharp claws instantly tore the anti-radiation suit and scratched his shoulder.

Roken let out a miserable scream, barely blocking it with the rifle in his hand, and then he and the gun were flung away together.

The other one pounced forward meeting Kyle's muzzle.

Boom!

Kyle pulled the trigger, and the violent steel balls blasted into the side abdomen of the Crawling Beast, blowing up a large area of sarcomas.

But instead of retreating, the Crawling Beast took advantage of the momentum and slammed headfirst into Kyle's chest.

Kyle's massive body flew backward, slamming heavily onto the wreckage of the security machine, jolting him to spit out a large mouthful of fresh blood.

The double-barreled shotgun fell to the ground.

The Crawling Beast's tongue covered in barbs whipped out, and stinky saliva dripped onto Kyle's gas mask.

It opened its bloody mouth capable of crushing iron plates, biting straight at Kyle's head.

Seeing this, Ira wanted to forcibly urge her Mental Energy.

But a sharp pain as if wanting to tear apart came from deep inside her brain, causing her vision to go black and she completely collapsed on the ground.

"Uncle!"

Pike in the corner closed his eyes and let out a terrified cry.

Kyle stared fixedly at the bloodthirsty mouth getting closer and closer, his hands instinctively pushing upward, trying to make a final defense.

But in this desperate wasteland world, without weapons, the human Physical Body in front of these mutated beasts was as fragile as a piece of tofu.

"It's finally over..."

At the moment of impending death, Kyle's tense muscles instead relaxed.

Fear suddenly disappeared from his mind, leaving only the thought of complete liberation.

Just at this critical juncture.

Woo——

Deep in the darkness, an extremely sharp hiss of airflow suddenly exploded.

That wasn't a gunshot.

Rather, it was the sonic boom produced by some object forcibly tearing through the air at a terrifying speed.

Kyle didn't see clearly what that thing was at all.

He only felt a violent strong wind sweeping across the top of his head, scratching the mask glass to make a "click click" sound.

Then, the Crawling Beast lying on his body suddenly disappeared.

(End of Chapter)