Ark Journey

Sighing secretly at her own impetuousness, Xue Zhi drank the whole can of beer in one gulp.

[What should we do next? After the civil war ends, the Military Committee will unify Kazdel, and then they will lead an expedition to Londinium under the leadership of the Regent. This should be the opportunity. The radical faction of Kazdel has been taken away, and those who remain can fight for...]

Amidst the noise, Xue Zhi, who had calmed down, was thinking about his next moves. It was an excellent tradition of Tu Bie to think three steps ahead before taking one step. Although he did not have the wisdom and vision to lead people, he could still foresee the future with his understanding of the subsequent plot.

The banquet was over and the satisfied mercenaries dispersed. Xue Zhi helped W, who had drunk a little too much, back to the tent.

After taking off W's clothes, Xue Zhi summoned a water ball to wipe the sweat off her body, then placed her hand on her lower abdomen. A warm light lit up, helping her recover from the discomfort brought by the carbonic acid.

In response, W let out a comfortable moan, her smooth skin rubbing against Xue Zhi's chest, slowly finding a comfortable position in his arms.

......

In the early morning, the order from the Tower of Babel came, and the whole station suddenly became noisy. This time no one needed to stay behind.

The entire mercenary group was ready after packing up the tents, counting the weapons, medicines and food, and taking all kinds of gold and silver jewelry.

As the leader, Hedley gave a brief pre-war speech to the assembled mercenaries. The content was very simple.

"I'll bring you back."

But these simple words made the entire mercenary group excited. The war will end. Although the land of Kazdel has never been peaceful, there will always be time to recuperate.

Xue Zhi, who was watching from the side, also felt his heartbeat begin to accelerate. The powerful strength gave him enough confidence. He was now impatient to see the battlefield art of the Sarkaz. He believed that this would definitely give him a surprise.

Chapter 50: Tactical Interspersion! Battle for Hill 415 (Part )

At noon, the mercenary group, which had been marching for several hours, stopped in a forest to rest, and Hedley was explaining the mission briefing to several cadres.

On the table made of several boxes, Hedley unfolded a map and pointed to a location with a red circle. "The mission given to us by Babel Tower is to occupy Hill 415 tonight and hold it for at least three days. Do not let the Military Committee's troops pass through. According to the intelligence they gave us, there are about 200 defenders on the hill, equipped with weapons such as mortars. The terrain over there is steep on one side and flat on the other. Unfortunately, the steep side is close to Babel Tower's defense zone. We have one chance to call for artillery fire from the rear, but only once."

Upon hearing the mission, W immediately greeted the person who issued the order: "Heh, hold on to the death, that hooded man said it so lightly, do we have to fight to the last man? In his eyes, our lives are not lives? Isn't he afraid that we will give up the mission?"

Hedley interrupted W. Their mercenary group had always had a good reputation, and half of the commission had already been paid in advance. In addition, he planned to use this battle to make their name famous to facilitate subsequent reorganization. "Okay, W, if you have time to complain, you might as well think about how to break through the high ground."

She said this, but W leaned back and pressed against Xue Zhi. She hadn't used her brain for a long time since she met him. "Yes, yes, I'll think about it right away."

But W did not intend to rely solely on Xue Zhi. The Sarkaz were proud and were the most outstanding race on this land. Even without the help of a powerful figure like Xue Zhi, she believed that the mercenary group alone could accomplish this mission.

After briefly explaining the known information and resting for about 30 minutes, the mercenary group set out again.

As the vanguard, W's team moved a certain distance away from the main force and went forward to conduct reconnaissance. Each mercenary used his own ideas and concealed himself with various things to avoid being discovered.

In the forest, mottled light and shadows shine through the leaves, and the rugged terrain cannot stop the rapid maneuvering of the elite troops.

Xue Zhi, who had released her spiritual power, sensed the target while running: "There is a drone hovering in the sky directly ahead, about 3 kilometers away. Do you want me to shoot it down?"

W thought for a moment and gave the order: "Shoot it down when it is within 1 km. If there is any follow-up shooting, shoot it down directly. Remind the drone operator to stop immediately after seeing the fire in the sky, launch the drone to observe the enemy's reaction, and move away quickly to avoid exposing our position."

Several team leaders following her immediately nodded and left to assign tasks.

Xue Zhi, who was beside W, was estimating the distance in his mind. When he saw that the small black dot in the sky had grown to a certain size, he waved his hand and released a transparent wind blade. After a few seconds, the hovering drone was cut off and fell down with black smoke.

Seeing the enemy drone crash, the drones on this side took off immediately, and with the help of the pilot's superb skills and the assistance of artificial intelligence, they flew to both sides of the team at an ultra-low altitude before increasing their altitude.

The optical observation mode was turned on. High in the sky, the precision probe of a drone kept turning, trying to find traces of people in the green forest below, but found nothing.

Other drones took advantage of their high altitude and near silence to fly over the target location.

Xue Zhi, who sensed the high-speed target approaching, whispered a warning: "There are mortars, be careful not to panic! The shells are not coming at us, nor are they at the location where the drone took off. The enemy's level does not seem to be very high."

He was sure that there were no enemy reconnaissance units within at least 5 kilometers. The drone just now was no match for it because its lens and information transmission technology were not good enough. When the plot progressed to Londinium, the drone here could only see about 200 meters after being modified by Krusil.

As soon as he finished speaking, three explosions were heard diagonally in front and behind him. Through the perspective of their own drone, they could see a large amount of smoke and dust suddenly erupting in the forest. Judging from the range of the smoke and dust, the caliber of their mortars was not small.

W, who kept moving, smiled disdainfully: "This is the best. If they waste more energy now, we will have an easier time later."

The drone was flying at a very fast speed. The one that had already flown over the target activated a large number of reconnaissance modules and then transmitted the information back. At the same time, the remaining drones activated the terrain mapping function with it as the center. Invisible radar waves were emitted and then bounced back by the ground.

Seeing the message sent back, W, who had paused his march, suddenly looked unhappy: "Fortress? And this slope is too steep, isn't it?"

The signal receiver's screen displays the exact information of the target location, which, after comprehensive processing, presents a three-dimensional picture.

It was a horizontal mountain range whose length exceeded the field of vision of the drone. Towards them was a steep rock with a slope of more than 80 degrees. The large amount of flat land on the top of the mountain provided convenience for defense. The soldiers of the Military Commission had already set up camp here and hung camouflage nets on a large number of long-range weapons. Only the three mortars that had just fired were discovered here through thermal imaging.

Xue Zhi turned the drone's view and pointed to the other side and the side of the mountain top to W: "Take a detour. The ridge on the side is not very high, and the forest here is very dense, so you can hide. It will be easy to find your way up to the Military Commission."

On the battlefield, something buried in Xue Zhi's genes began to awaken, and tactics were activated!

W nodded and called the mercenary in charge of communications: "That's a good idea. Tell Hedley to hide in the forest first and wait for our signal to launch the attack. We will also leave a few people here to hand over the information obtained by the drone to him."

After a brief arrangement, W led the entire force to speed up, and the drone flew over the forest where it was about to penetrate after completing the terrain mapping.

A drone operator suddenly sent a message: "There are people in the forest, about 300 meters to our left, and they are heading towards the target location. But the forest is too dense to determine the number of people, and the use of thermal imaging cameras is not ideal."

After a period of use, these specially selected clever people have thoroughly mastered the convenient and powerful components on the drone.

W, who knew that even a one-second lead would be enough to change the situation, said, "That's enough. Everyone, pay attention, use strength and speed potions, and try to destroy the opponent instantly!"

At W's command, the entire team drank the potion they got from Xue Zhi, and suddenly, their speed doubled.

The distance of 300 meters passed in a flash at this speed. When the mercenaries jumped out from the side, the soldiers of the Military Committee did not react at all.

There was a strange car in the middle of the team, and a tall Sarkaz next to the car was about to shout, but Xue Zhi instantly increased his speed and rushed into the crowd, cutting off his head with a knife to stop him.

Along with Xue Zhi came several ice spikes that burst out from his body. These cold and hard things penetrated the brains of the unlucky people around him who had no time to react at an extremely fast speed.

Chapter 51: Perfect Capture! Battle for Hill 415 (Part )

Suddenly, the smell of blood began to spread in the forest.

[Something is wrong. Why do these people smell so bloody? ]

After a successful strike, Xue Zhi continued to rush forward to deal with the soldiers who were picking up weapons behind him, but his keen sense of smell detected something wrong, and this smell was there before he drew his sword.

The mercenaries who were a step slower than him had also chopped down several enemies. The 1.3x bonus from the strength potion made these elite soldiers unstoppable when dealing with ordinary soldiers.

In just one minute, the entire team fell to the ground. W finally pulled the dagger out of an enemy's neck. The extremely sharp and hot blade instantly cut off and melted his blood vessels and nerves.

W, who also had a premonition, frowned as she looked at the bodies scattered all over the ground and the strange car in the middle that was mainly red and had several liquid barrels. She remembered seeing this thing in the illustrations of Hedley's book, but she couldn't remember it in a short time: "These people don't smell right, and what is this car?"

Her team leader said beside her: "Not sure, just destroy it?"

Just as they were discussing countermeasures, Xue Zhi, who had killed most of the soldiers alone, felt the change in the energy field, and the bodies lying on the ground suddenly began to twitch, and the flowing blood began to gather spontaneously.

Seeing this chaos, W suddenly remembered the true form of these things. She growled, "Back off! This has the blessing of the Blood Demon Lord!"

The mercenaries jumped away immediately, luckily allowing them to avoid the bloody tentacles and the bloody mouths at the tips of the tentacles that stretched out from the car.

The corpses that had just been knocked down stood up again, their steps were stiff and their eyes were dull, blood flowed out from their wounds, floating around their bodies and turning into identical tentacles.

The blood on the ground formed a white ball with waving tentacles, which made people lose their minds.

The mercenaries clenched their weapons tightly, but they were not afraid. In Kazdel, they could encounter any strange things. Besides, they had been killed once, so what could they do if they stood up again?

Avoiding the vehicles, the mercenaries used their absolute advantage in numbers and rationality to force many of the corpses that had stood up again to fall to the ground again, and those that could only crawl on the ground were easily dealt with by them with crossbows.

But the bodies that fell to the ground actually showed signs of standing up again.

"Back off."

The mercenaries who were fighting fiercely suddenly heard an order. The early training showed results, and they immediately withdrew from the battle.

Rather than being called a mercenary group, they are now more like a regular army as they follow orders.

After the mercenaries retreated, pure white flames of unknown origin rose from each corpse. The extremely high temperature caused the blasphemous objects made of blood to evaporate instantly, and then the corpses were reduced to ashes by the flames.

Xue Zhi didn't like seeing corpses being insulted. This was determined by the culture of Dongda that the dead should be buried in peace. Originally, he wanted to restrain himself in this battle and let the mercenaries play the leading role in order to build their confidence, but the appearance of this thing made him change his mind immediately, and he gave these people eternal rest.

Although the flames were terrifying, they were tightly controlled by Xue Zhi and dissipated immediately after burning the corpses and blasphemous objects. They did not cause any more noise in the woods, and even their clothes were not set on fire.

Xue Zhi held the handle of the knife and walked to W's side. He looked at the strange vehicle that was still showing its teeth and claws and asked, "What should we do with this thing? Burn it? Or bury it?"

This vehicle was the starting point of the energy field change. Xue Zhi didn't dare to burn it directly for fear that something might go wrong.

"Bury it, and be careful not to damage it. It was blessed by Lord Blood Demon himself, and it might be discovered if it is destroyed."

"Row."

Xue Zhi raised her hand, and the ground began to sink as magic power surged. After lowering the strange vehicle to a depth of two meters, the earth element emerged and filled the hole above.

The first battle was a great victory. The images from the drone showed that the people on the top of the mountain were still moving as usual. It seemed that they had not discovered anything.

W put down the operating terminal and said to the mercenaries behind him, "Good job. Everyone, take a five-minute break to adjust your state. Everyone, concentrate. The main meal is about to start."

After a simple adjustment, the entire army began to infiltrate forward again.

After a long period of observation, the drone finally scanned several hidden sentries.

These sentinels whose lives are about to come to an end are still stationed in the same place, unaware that someone has already approached them from their blind spot.

"Well..."

After a few noises that couldn't be any quieter, all the sentries in exposed positions had their necks cut.

At this moment, they were less than 150 meters away from the top of the mountain. From this distance, they could clearly see several patrolling sentries. Unfortunately, the woods ahead that could have provided shelter had disappeared, leaving only the gray-white rocks exposed without even a single shelter.

A group of mercenaries drank two bottles of potion again to renew the effect. W sent the message via the drone. She needed Hedley to make some noise to attract the attention of those people above.

There was a quick response from the other side, and the moment the mortar was launched into the air, W shouted, "Action!"

Then he rushed out first with a dagger in hand.

Behind her, six teams followed closely in a fan formation with big strides.

Ice shields appeared one after another, and Xue Zhi provided protection for the entire team. The magic he cast directly killed the mercenaries on patrol, and their bodies rolled down the hillside like rolling gourds.

In just a few seconds, the mercenaries who rushed out of the woods reached the top of the mountain, and the soldiers who were operating the mortars never expected that someone would attack them from behind.

However, the camouflage nets and piled-up ammunition on the top of the mountain made it impossible for the mercenaries who were unfamiliar with the terrain to find their target immediately. Only the soldiers on guard took the initiative to appear and fight with them.

The mortars were temporarily silenced, forcing the soldiers manning them to take up their weapons and engage in deadly close combat.

Some were beheaded as soon as they stuck their heads out from their hidden artillery positions, with the gushing blood splattering all over the gun barrels. Others rushed out from their hiding places and chopped at the ankles or calves in front of them.

Because the place was filled with deadly explosives, both sides could only fight with swords, not even daring to use bows and crossbows.

For a moment, the entire mountaintop was in chaos, and the sound of sharp weapons tearing flesh continued to be heard. In the first wave of contact, people from both sides fell to the ground.

However, the mercenaries, with the help of potions, still had the advantage. Even if someone was injured, there would be someone else to fill the missing position immediately.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, a commander-like figure opened several sharp blades and shouted, "Detonate the ammunition!"

The sound was extremely penetrating. Many soldiers who had not yet stuck their heads out were stunned for a moment before they began to move. However, Xue Zhi, who had already locked onto all the enemies on the hill with his mental power, was well prepared. He put down his weapon and raised his hand, and a large number of ice cones instantly covered all the hidden blind spots on the hill. This was real powerful magic. In this kind of covering attack, the number of soldiers here was meaningless, and blood and brain matter were immediately spilled all over the ground.

Only a few commanders with strong vitality were still struggling, but death was waiting for them.

In a short time, the high ground of this military committee was torn off the map and filled under the command of the Tower of Babel.

Clean up the bodies, treat the wounded, and count the harvest.

Hedley's large force quickly caught up. They had just launched a number of drones to lure the enemy to open fire.

There is enough space on the top of the mountain to accommodate a mercenary battalion of about 500 people.

Because of Xue Zhi's actions, a large amount of baggage and supplies were retained here. More importantly, several wheeled artillery that had not been fired were also successfully preserved. At this moment, the mercenaries were turning them around to defend against the Military Committee.

Hedley, who had nothing to do for the time being, called a mercenary responsible for delivering messages and ordered: "Go and inform the front-line commander of Babel Tower that we have successfully occupied Hill 415, but in order to confuse the enemy, we will not remove their flags."

After getting a few more items that were sufficient to prove his identity and words, the mercenary responsible for delivering the message left in a hurry.

Chapter 52: Encirclement and Attack

After sorting out the remaining supplies, Hedley breathed a sigh of relief. There were not only various shells and artillery left here, but also a lot of food and other things.

To facilitate evacuation, the mercenaries hammered several large nails into the steep cliff to secure the rope net for sliding down.

W and Xue Zhi led the troops down to set up remote-controlled explosives. They originally wanted to lay mines, but because of the information gap, Hedley planned to use the illusion that this place had not fallen yet to encircle and attack the reinforcements, or to give a small surprise to the troops passing by. If there were mines, they would be exposed.

The drone troops that had nothing to do for the time being were sent to the surrounding areas to conduct large-scale mapping of the terrain to facilitate future operations.

The intense preparations were completed, and no short-sighted Military Commission troops came over. After a good rest in advance, the two elite teams entered the forest to act as sentinels, and the rest of the people all returned to the top of the mountain to rest. They would also enter the forest later. In addition to the artillery troops, at most 100 people would be left on the top as defense forces.

At the temporary command center, while tasting a piece of very tough, greasy and sweet Sarkaz military rations found in the supplies, Xue Zhi asked: "Hedley, how is the battle situation in other places?"

Hedley, who was fiddling with the map, shook his head: "I don't know, the messenger hasn't come yet."

This is the disadvantage of not having information technology. Half of Kazdel is fighting with half of Kazdel, and the battle line is extremely long. Although there are messengers and short-range radios, the efficiency of information transmission means that most of them are not much different from isolated ones. As long as there is a breach in one place, the two sides will not be able to rescue in time and the battle line will collapse. At the same time, they will fall into an unfavorable situation of being surrounded. This is also the reason why Hedley was relieved when he saw the food before.

The power of the Tower of Babel was originally weaker than that of the Military Committee, and the current situation was still managed by the Doctor with his superb command skills. This situation will only make the above problems more serious for our side. Perhaps this is also the reason why the war collapsed overnight after Theresa was assassinated and the Doctor slept in the sarcophagus.

For this kind of battlefield, the only thing Xue Zhi could do was to order the drone troops to expand the reconnaissance circle as much as possible, so that he would have some time to react if anything went wrong. As for the bombardment promised by Babel Tower, to be honest, Xue Zhi didn't trust it very much. That kind of bombardment might come, but whether it could arrive in time depended on which of the two teams that called for the bombardment was more important.