Chapter 81: The Chosen Few

This whistle was a unique means of communication reserved exclusively for the Second Reconnaissance Platoon.

The brown-haired veteran had given it to him.

Clearly, he had steeled himself to die, determined to hold off the macaque demon before them.

If this fiend were allowed to continue its charge,

the repositioned right flank would be completely caught in a pincer between the demons ahead and behind.

But that was not even the worst that could happen.

Should the demon choose to strike at the center of the formation,

the machine-gun platoon and radio operators, who had yet to complete their spirit-bonding, would be reduced to helpless targets—a massacre would be inevitable.

And without the support of heavy weapons, the demon-imbued infantry would be left to face the fiends with nothing but flesh and blood, fighting alone and unsupported.

Such circumstances would only further increase the toll of death.

This, no doubt, explained the severe casualties suffered by First Squad of the 571st Regiment’s Reconnaissance Unit—they must have encountered just such a predicament.

In this moment of crisis,

Du Huaishan snatched the whistle from the ground and blew two long, urgent blasts, warning the forward units: a demon was attacking from the rear.

Then, wasting no time, he slung down his Ma rifle. At a distance of less than twenty meters, he took aim at the demon’s right ankle joint and fired.

A hit.

The bullet drove into the demon’s sinewy flesh, spraying foul blood, but the creature was simply too massive—nine meters tall, so that even one of its calves was thicker than the average adult man!

In other words, the rifle bullet hitting the demon was like a human being pricked by a nail.

In the span of a single breath,

the deformed bullet was squeezed out of the muscle, dropping to the grass.

No, the firepower was far too weak!

“Li Mingcheng! Get up! Distract it! Li Mingcheng!”

Du Huaishan shouted, intending for his comrade to help him support the brown-haired veteran with rifle fire.

But to his shock,

the other man sat there as if soulless, staring blankly at a blood-soaked length of intestine on the grass.

He was utterly petrified.

“Damn it!”

Du Huaishan cursed, and in his demon-imbued state, dashed forward and kicked Li Mingcheng hard, sending him crashing into a tree trunk.

“Did you waste all that training for nothing? Planning to sit here and wait for death?”

Perhaps it was the force of the kick,

or perhaps the harshness of Du Huaishan’s words, but suddenly, Li Mingcheng snapped out of his stupor.

His eyes reddened. “Huaishan…”

“Demonize! Take up your rifle! Prepare to support!”

“…Yes!!”

Three quick commands finally brought Li Mingcheng back to his senses.

Near the macaque demon,

the brown-haired veteran’s body flashed with earthen light, a layer of armor like clods of earth floating around him.

This was his first awakened skill: Earth Mantle Armor—a defensive ability, akin to donning another layer of padded protection, but without added weight or loss of agility.

Whizz—the grappling hook shot out and caught a tree beside the demon, and using the momentum, the veteran rapidly closed in.

But the fiend was lightning-quick.

In an instant, its enormous eyes locked onto him. Before he could reach it, the demon raised a massive blue arm, and with a whoosh, swung down as if swatting a fly.

The veteran quickly retracted his hook to dodge—bang!

The giant palm slammed into the earth, digging a deep furrow.

Dirt and grass flew, spattering his armor.

What terrifying reflexes this demon had!

No time to be surprised. In the very next instant, a vast shadow filled his demon-imbued brown eyes—growing larger, nearer—

It was the demon’s foot!

Whoosh! He could no longer dodge by rolling; instead, he shot his hook at the nearest tree root and yanked the trigger.

Screech!

He was dragged rapidly along the ground.

Bang! A deafening impact sounded behind him, sending his heart racing. With the speed and friction, the wild grass and undergrowth left him dizzy.

He scrambled to his feet—

Only to find darkness overhead—the demon was looming above!

Bang!

“Monster! Over here!!”

At that moment, gunfire rang out a short distance away, and a shadow flew onto a tree trunk, waving a military knife and shouting.

That boy?

He hadn’t run?

The veteran stared in shock at the soldier shaking his knife in the tree—it was Du Huaishan!

A demon was a demon.

It was quickly drawn to Du Huaishan’s gunshots and shouts, twisting its head to look back.

Nine meters tall, its presence was overwhelming.

Even standing high on a birch trunk, Du Huaishan was barely taller than the demon’s waist.

Worse, the fiend’s grotesque, human-like face came looming in, making his skin crawl.

The fear was like standing on a third-floor balcony, gazing at the view, only to turn and find a monstrous face pressed against the window, filling it entirely.

Eyes the size of basins.

A nose as long as an arm.

Teeth the size of one’s palm!

Anyone with a phobia of giants might have died on the spot from the sight.

The demon did not hesitate; its eyes writhed, then its left hand swept toward him.

Du Huaishan was no fool.

He could never take on a level-twenty-seven disaster-class demon alone.

As the massive claw swept in,

he hurriedly fired his arm-mounted hook at a nearby tree and swung away.

A heartbeat later, the claw smashed into the trunk he’d just vacated, sending a shower of green leaves raining down.

Thankfully, the old trees of Baiweng Mountain stood fifty or sixty meters tall; if these had been ordinary trees, they’d have snapped instantly.

“Senior, its reflexes are amazing—far swifter than any demon I’ve seen! Judging by its appearance, I think it resembles the mythical Xingxing!” Du Huaishan shouted from his perch, bracing himself against a branch.

He had been studying the demon’s form: it looked like a macaque, but with white ears, able to crawl and walk upright. Ancient texts called it Xingxing.

Legend had it, eating its flesh granted humans incredible speed.

But Du Huaishan still did not understand how this creature had appeared so suddenly.

From the brief encounter earlier,

the Xingxing demon’s expression, like most fiends, was always eerily changeless—clearly not an intelligent aberrant.

The veteran did not ask why Du Huaishan hadn’t fled,

just as Du Huaishan did not question why he’d risked his life to charge in alone.

“Don’t get in close! Draw it north, I’ll cover you!”

There was no time for wasted words.

Having given the objective, the veteran roared, firing at the demon to grab its attention. His Earth Mantle Armor flared bright again, then—whizz—he launched his hook northward.

This was the opposite direction from the rest of the unit.

He meant to lure the demon away from the squad!

Du Huaishan followed with his own hook, ready to fire whenever the demon targeted the veteran, shifting its attention to himself.

Li Mingcheng, after being shouted awake, also caught up from behind, firing whenever he could.

Though the Xingxing demon was fast,

it lacked intelligence—drawn only by the nearest human, with no plan or purpose.

So,

the three men worked together, gradually leading the demon away from the main force.

“The outermost team is ahead!”

The veteran tumbled down from the trees, gasping, and shouted.

Du Huaishan understood at once, blowing two short warning blasts to alert the nearby recon teams.

Sure enough, there was a response.

Three figures leaped up into the trees, staring in shock as Du Huaishan and the others led the demon toward them.

“Disaster level twenty-seven!”

“Heavens, just four more and it’ll reach the brute-force class!”

“You stay here to support—Old Zhang, let’s go help!”

One veteran barked orders to a long-faced recruit, then he and his comrade drew their blades and leaped down.

“We’re here to help!”

The brown-haired veteran, still drawing the Xingxing demon’s attention, glanced up to see two grappling hooks shoot out, catching the demon’s head and shoulder.

A chance!

His heart pounded; he fired his own hook, its red-marrow steel tip biting into the demon’s calf.

A hit!

His eyes flashed; he pressed the reel, his body lunging like a hunting leopard at the demon’s ankle, military knife raised high.

At the same time,

the other two veterans rushed for the demon’s head and shoulder.

If any of them struck true, they would wound its joints or eyes, hampering its mobility.

Especially the brown-haired veteran’s blow at the ankle!

“Kill!!”

His shout tore through the air, carrying all humanity’s hatred for the fiends.

But the Xingxing demon suddenly stopped.

Du Huaishan, Li Mingcheng, and the other recruit watched in horror as,

the demon crouched and launched itself from the ground, leaping with a thunderous crash to cling, macaque-like, to a tree trunk.

My god!

Who could have imagined such a giant could leap so nimbly?

As the leaves settled,

two of the three attacking veterans were flung away by the force of the leap.

The one who had gone for the head, caught between the fiend and the trunk, now hung dazed beside its white ear.

The demon seized him.

Agony jolted him awake to find himself clutched in its grip.

“Let go! Let me go, monster! I’ll kill you—”

He struggled desperately, his knife lost, pounding the demon’s fingers with his fists.

But it was futile; before he could finish his words—

Crunch!

The demon bit down, tearing his body in two, cotton armor and demonized flesh ripped asunder.

Hot blood sprayed through the air.

Smack. The demon tossed the two remaining legs aside.

It slowly turned its head, those uncanny eyes fixing on the long-faced recruit standing on the branch.

“Run!”

Du Huaishan saw the demon target him and shouted a warning.

But the recruit, who had just watched his veteran leader of five days torn apart like a scallion, was paralyzed.

He looked just as Li Mingcheng had, frozen in place, staring as the demon’s muscles tensed to strike.

“Run!!”

Du Huaishan screamed again, firing at the demon’s back.

But it was too late—the Xingxing demon, fully charged, leapt from its tree to the recruit’s.

The recruit never moved.

He was struck by the demon’s bulk—squashed instantly to a bloody smear.

“Uh…uh…”

Li Mingcheng stood in a daze, clutching his rifle, trembling.

This Xingxing demon was far more terrifying than the insect-headed demon they had killed on Qingshi Mountain.

The northern threat was gone.

A moment later,

the Xingxing demon, hanging from the tree, slowly twisted its human-like head, those uncanny eyes writhing as it locked onto Du Huaishan and Li Mingcheng.

Thud.

As the demon’s muscles tensed to leap,

Du Huaishan’s face changed. He raised his hook to flee. “Li Mingcheng, move! It’s coming for us!”

Li Mingcheng looked around, seeing the demon’s gaze fixed on him, no matter where he tried to hide.

But in that brief hesitation,

the demon completed its wind-up.

It’s over, I’m going to die here! I’m doomed!

Li Mingcheng’s eyes brimmed with tears.

As the demon pounced—rumble!

From the depths of Baiweng Mountain forest, that strange otherworldly roar sounded again.

Bang!

The demon lunged, and Li Mingcheng, resigned to his fate, shut his eyes.

But a second passed, and the expected pain never came.

Am I dead?

Li Mingcheng opened his eyes to find—the demon was gone!

Du Huaishan, hiding behind a tree, was equally stunned.

Because,

just now, the Xingxing demon, instead of attacking them, had turned and run west.

Yes,

it had ignored the humans and fled!

It was well known,

the first lesson of demon theory taught that these creatures’ craving for human hearts and brains surpassed all else, worse than any addict’s need for drugs.

Upon finding a human, they would not stop attacking until one of them died.

Yet,

in a century of war between humanity and demons,

rare incidents had occurred.

Some few demons, on very rare occasions, would pursue something else even more desperately than human flesh.

And that was—

large quantities of red marrow!