221: Chapter 221 Pressing the Thumb, Hell Descends

"Maintain formation! Don't stop! Accelerate through the intersection!" David ordered. Stopping here would make them sitting ducks.

Jonah, the driver of the lead vehicle B-01, slammed on the gas. The heavy "namell" let out a roar and began to accelerate.

Just as its front wheels were about to roll over a slightly protruding concrete slab in the center of the intersection—

Five meters north of the center of the intersection, beneath the road surface.

Sinwar's eyes were fixed on the simple screen in his hand, which looked like a game controller. On the screen, several green dots represented the convoy's vehicles, and a red circle represented the preset smart mine detonation zone. His thumb hovered over the largest red button.

The front of B-01 cast a shadow over that inconspicuous concrete slab.

Now!

His thumb pressed down hard!

BOOM—!!!

It wasn't just one sound, but three massive explosions that followed in such quick succession they were almost one!

Beneath the front right wheel of B-01's "namell," beneath the front left wheel of B-02 following closely behind, and beneath the rear right wheel of B-04 at the end of the convoy, the road surface suddenly arched upward and tore apart!

Three pillars of blazing fire, mixed with pre-positioned fragmented metal jets, erupted from underground!

Tandem Shaped-Charge Mines, specifically designed to exploit the weaknesses of the "namell" heavy armored vehicle's chassis, displayed their terrifying power at this moment!

B-01's front right road wheel was instantly blown off, and the vehicle body tilted violently to the right. The chassis emitted a tooth-aching sound of tearing metal, the drive shaft was likely damaged, and the vehicle swerved out of control, its side slamming heavily into a pile of rubble and coming to a halt as black smoke billowed from under the hood.

B-02's situation was worse; the left track was blown clean off. The heavy vehicle, like a crippled giant beast, spun half a circle in place and lay paralyzed in the middle of the road, blocking the path for the vehicles behind it.

B-04 was attacked from the lower side. The explosion tore open the relatively thin side skirts and part of the hull armor. Flames and thick smoke poured from the breach, accompanied by shrill screams and frantic pounding from inside the vehicle.

Only B-03, positioned in the middle of the convoy, narrowly avoided the mines. However, the driver was scared out of his wits by the sudden series of explosions and instinctively jerked the steering wheel, causing the vehicle to crash into a nearby pile of ruins and get stuck.

A perfect opening!

Within five seconds, four "namells" were either paralyzed, destroyed, heavily damaged, or trapped! The once-imposing armored column had instantly turned into several dying iron turtles struggling in the center of the intersection!

"Snipers! Snipers, take out their weapon stations!" David roared inside the violently shaking, smoke-filled vehicle. He grabbed his assault rifle and pushed open the top hatch, attempting to lean out and observe.

However, faster than his command was—

Bzzzzzzzz—!!!

A dense, scalp-numbing hum of electric motors suddenly echoed from all directions!

From the ruined windows and holes in the walls that seemed to hold only rubble and emptiness, dozens of palm-sized black shadows suddenly flew out! They nimbly avoided the crisscrossing tracer rounds overhead (most of the firing had become scattered due to the vehicles being disabled), and like an enraged Swarm, they traced chaotic paths in the air before—

Diving precisely toward their respective targets!

Most of the drones swarmed toward the paralyzed B-02 in the middle of the road and the smoking B-04. A few flew toward B-01 and B-03 as they attempted to open their hatches to escape.

"What is that?!"

"Drones! Small drones!"

"Open fire! Shoot them down!"

The surviving Squid Nation soldiers shouted in terror. Some raised their rifles to fire into the air, but amidst the violent jolting, thick smoke, and suppression from multiple directions, such shooting had no accuracy to speak of.

The first drone slammed into the gap where the top weapon station of B-02's "namell" connected to the hull.

There was no loud bang, only a dull "thump!"

Immediately, an orange-red fireball, with what seemed like a flash of white light inside, expanded! The shockwave of the explosion wasn't particularly strong, but what followed was terrifying negative pressure and ultra-high temperatures!

A Thermobaric Bomb!

Inside the enclosed hull of the "namell," the air was instantly sucked out and then violently ignited! The screams cut off abruptly, replaced by a more hair-raising dull sound and the smell of charred flesh, as if from hell itself.

Then, a second, a third... the drones, like precision bombers, delivered lethal thermobaric warheads into the armored vehicles' firing ports, observation slits, gaps opened by the mines, and even the top hatches they were trying to open!

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

Dull explosions rang out one after another, each one meaning the interior of a "namell" had turned into a purgatory. The vehicle bodies themselves might have retained their general shape, but inside... there was no longer the breath of any living thing.

Sergeant David of B-01 had just pushed open the hatch and leaned halfway out when he saw a small black object flying straight at him. He could even clearly see the blurred shadow of the high-speed rotating rotors.

"No—"

Thump!

The Thermobaric Bomb detonated at the hatch right above his head. Flames and overpressure poured into the vehicle, also consuming his exposed upper body. His vision finally froze in a piercing orange-red before plunging into eternal darkness.

From the first machine gun fire to the end of the last dull thud of a Thermobaric Bomb.

The entire process took three minutes and forty-seven seconds.

The gunfire stopped.

The drones had completed their mission. Some crashed directly into remaining high-value targets (such as B-03's engine compartment) to self-destruct, while others followed their programming, flying off into the distance to crash or self-destruct at predetermined locations.

The intersection was deathly silent.

Only the wreckage of the four "namells" burned quietly, black smoke billowing upward and casting long, distorted shadows in the afternoon sun. On the hulls, the white numbering "Givati-7-B" looked particularly jarring amidst the flames. The air was thick with the strange, mixed odor of roasted meat, burning plastic, and overheated metal.

The ruins on both sides remained silent. It was as if that brief and bloody massacre had been nothing more than an illusion.

Whoosh— Whoosh—

Several agile figures darted out from concealed openings at the base of the ruins, quickly approaching the burning wreckage. Their movements were professional; working in pairs, one stood guard while the other quickly checked the interior of the vehicles and collected items of value—weapons, radios, IFF modules, maps, and... the soldiers' dog tags.

The entire process took less than a minute. Once the collection was complete, they signaled to each other and quickly retreated into the nearest gaps in the ruins, vanishing from sight.

Another dozen or so seconds passed.

Rustle—

About eighty meters from the intersection, on the third floor of that half-collapsed water tower, a piece of camouflaged canvas was pulled back. A thin and small Abu crawled out, his face pale and his fingers trembling slightly, but he clutched the GoPro camera in his arms tightly. He took one last look at the burning intersection, took a deep breath of the hot air filled with the scent of death, turned, and ducked into a narrow passage inside the water tower, his figure quickly swallowed by the darkness.