Volume 1 Chapter 19.3: Slaughter
- Slaughter
Only when it was about to smash into the mountain peak did the plane slow down with difficulty. After trembling a bit, it barely managed to reverse its trajectory, practically scraping the side of the mountain as it made its rocky descent. Four propeller engines roared as they supported the heavy weight of the plane. They blew the snow covering the mountain peak everywhere.
The plane flew for a few minutes before it arrived at the foot of the mountain. During these few minutes, even the most unperturbed cadet's heart began to pound quickly. The large amounts of snow rushed into the plane cabin from the open door, freezing everyone until their lips trembled. This was bad enough, however, regardless of who it was, when they saw the wings of the plane and the spiral engines practically touch the rocks as they swept through the snow, they couldn't remain calm. Even the most advanced fighter aircraft would need great luck to not fall and crash, let alone this kind of obsolete old era aircraft.
They finally managed to reach the foot of the mountain. Below was an expanse of lush green jungle that was so bright and vivid it was a bit unsettling.
The plane suddenly turned upwards, and the four spiral engines faced upwards as well. The plane's speed abruptly slowed, slowly descending down into the jungle from the sky. The powerful winds created by the engine blew all of the nearby shrubbery flat.
At that moment, almost all of the cadets heard an indignant and frantic roar below them! However, when they tried to listen carefully, they couldn't hear anything anymore. Could it be that they had imagined it? The cadets all looked at each other in dismay, but then they noticed that their companions were all the same as themselves, it left them with overwhelming shock and confusion.
Su leapt down from the roof of the cabin. Carrying his Barrett close to him, he silently stood there with a serious expression. He was different from these cadets. Su, who grew up in the wilderness knew that the roar filled with mad killing intent wasn't an illusion, but something that did happen. Only, this type of roar was similar to a mental attack, one that would cause another's consciousness to immediately react, as if the roar directly sounded in the depths of their consciousness! The cadets used their ears to carefully listen, but they couldn't catch this type of psychological roar.
The cry that swept out like a wave suddenly retreated, but an overcast and faintly discernible low roar rose and fell. It was everywhere, and from time to time, they would sound together. Su could even feel the hunger, thirst, and apprehensiveness in these roars. What left him even more frightened was that the roars below, based on the different frequencies, should be from over 600 different sources! This signified that the jungle below the plane had at least this number of vicious beasts hiding in ambush!
Fortunately, Su already distinguished that these low roars were actually extremely high frequencies that far exceeded the hearing capabilities of ordinary people, yet they could still directly affect one's mental state to influence their consciousness. Because Su was equipped with overclocking hearing ability, he could distinguish the truth. Su somewhat relaxed a bit. What he feared the most were unknown life forms, especially existences that possessed mental type functions. Fortunately, these weren't of that sort.
The plane remained ten meters in the air and circled about. Its speed didn't exceed forty kilometers an hour, and its flight was extremely stable. It didn't seem like the old airplane not too long ago.
Captain Curtis stuck his black and shiny head outside of the cabin door. He took a look before roaring towards the cadets, "Little bastards, we've arrived! I'm going to count to ten, and all of you better hop down one after another! Don't worry about those bags of yours, I'll toss them down to you all. Those of you wearing heavy armor, you all better take off your turtle shells. Otherwise, this old one will make sure all three of your legs are broken! I will repeat myself and give you all one last briefing! The site is right here. Half mountains, half plains. As for the how large this region is, you all won't be able to cover all of it even at the end of the mission! The target is the native city of this region! All of your missions are to completely kill off the natives and then survive until I come to pick you all up after ten days. I don't care what methods you all use to complete the mission or how high the mortality rate is, even if all of you die off. However, I will give you all a word of advice, and that is to not look down on these natives. They might possess abilities you all can't even imagine. You all should work as teams, and only then will there be a chance of survival. Even the most vicious violent bears aren't a match for a pack of wolves! Alright, that's all. You all can jump!"
After experiencing Curtis' demonic training in the training camp, almost every cadet had showed improvements in their abilities, but there was still a high chance of suffering injuries if one jumped from this height. However, as long as bones weren't broken, this level of harm to the flesh towards these valiant and blood-thirsty cadets didn't matter much. At the very least, it would be much better than getting beaten by the captain's rod. As such, no one hesitated and they jumped off one after another. Even the fellow that had been trampled on for almost half an hour jumped off the plane with difficulty.
At this critical moment, almost everyone revealed their life-saving abilities. Some extended their bodies in the air, allowing their speed of descent to strangely slow down as they flew into the shrubbery in a slanted manner. Some protected all of their bodies' crucial points and tightened their bodies until they were as hard as metal before smashing straight downwards. Apart from being a bit unstable when they stood up, nothing else seemed out of place. It was clear that these were individuals with extremely freakish defensive abilities.
Su carried the Barrett on his back and descended from the plane. When his legs landed on the ground, he instantly curled his body, transfering almost all of the momentum from his body bit by bit into the ground. Meanwhile, his body toppled over and continuously tumbled for several meters before stopping. Su stood up and gave the shrubbery that was crushed under his pressure a look. His eyebrows frowned slightly, and then he quickly disappeared into the dense jungle.
He knew that the strength of a team was greater than that of an individual, but a bullet from the back was the deadliest.
The plane then circled a few times before turning around and heading off into the distance.
The control cabin opened the shutter that lead into the operating cabin. Inside was a pilot that was already over forty years of age, and he was currently smoking a cigarette while operating the plane. What was a bit unsettling was that what was next to him was actually a row of small tin wine containers. From the heavy smell of alcohol around him, it was clear that he had drank quite a bit. To drive a plane while this drunk might have made the cadets that knew a bit about machinery and piloting immediately faint.
The captain crammed himself into the narrow piloting room and struggled to sit in the auxiliary seat. He then lit a cigarette. This time, he used a match, because there was no place for him to grind his metal piece on in the piloting room.
"Hey, Flying Bear, what do you think about my batch of cadets this time?" The captain said to the pilot who was treating the plane like a classic car.
"There are a few special individuals. It seems like one of them has ulterior motives, and the people behind them aren't easy to provoke. Are you going to intervene?" Flying Bear's voice was extremely rough.
Captain Curtis thought for a bit before smiling sinisterly and replying, "Let's wait a few days and see first!'
Su didn't know that in the Black Dragonriders' terminology, natives had a special meaning. This was often used to describe creatures with rather great intelligence and not necessarily just people. This term might be used to describe any type of mutated existences. The meaning of natives was different from how the refugees in the wilderness understood it. At the very least, in the dictionary of the Black Dragonriders, the status of natives was much higher than that of refugees, and many times, they were even higher than some small companies. The higher the status meant the more troublesome they were to deal with.
Su sat down beside a bush and opened the small bag on his back. He brought out a roll of bandages. After taking off his clothes, he began to carefully wrap them around his body. His current position was several kilometers from his landing point, so he wasn't worried of other cadets noticing him. He reorganized the bullets, water, and nutrient-filled food again inside before carrying it again on his back. The Black Dragonriders' standard backpack was lightweight and durable. In addition, depending on what it was used to carry, it could be adjusted to half, or even a fourth of its size. It was extremely practical.
Su silently assessed the circumstances of his surroundings. Even though he couldn't sense a thing, not even a small creature, he always had a feeling that something was silently looking at him. Whenever he was gazed upon, Su would always feel uncomfortable. This feeling was almost always real, an ability that had saved Su countless times before. However, Su couldn't detect what was spying on him even though it was extremely close.
Countless scenes and countless feelings both disheveled and fine quickly passed through Su's mind. He was going to find exactly what was wrong. Suddenly, Su's mind stopped at the time he heard the 600 low roars. These high and low fluctuations continuously replayed, compared to the numerous sounds recorded in Su's memory. Su trembled a bit inwardly and seemed to understand a bit.
He slowly squatted up. This was a stance from which he could erupt with strength at any moment. Then, he carefully observed his surroundings, not even letting a single leaf escape his senses.
A strong wind blew past, and the surrounding shrubberies were even blow down before once again uniformly standing up. However, there was a bush that was slightly slower that the others at falling and standing back up. This originally wasn't anything strange, because it was impossible for there to be two identical trees. However, in Su's eyes, this meter tall shrub was a bit more flexible than the others, so it should have fell even faster.
Su pulled out the synthetic military knife and arrived next to this bush. He pulled over a branch and sliced down. This was an extremely ordinary-looking branch, and underneath the bark was a soft green layer with fibers inside. From the incision, juice came out, but this wasn't strange either. After all, they were at the foot of a snowy mountain, so there was no lack of water.
Su placed the branch he sliced off into his mouth and slowly chewed it. The liquid this branch gave off was particularly lively, and it was full of vitality. He could even feel countless cells jumping about in the juice, and in addition, the juice only contained a trivial amount of radiation. This also meant that in this jungle, Su didn't have to worry about a water source at all.
He spat out the wooden remains from his mouth. He brought out two Barrett bullets and removed the bullet head, pouring the gunpowder onto the bush in front of him before using a match to light it on fire.
With a hu sound, the sparkling blaze rapidly spread to the entire bush! The gunpowder was burnt up almost instantly, but this tree was clearly easy to light up. Not only did the flame burn more and more furiously, the tree bark continuously ruptured. Then, a blue flame that burned even greater erupted from inside!