NCCnovel Chapter 1385 Patience exhausted
Chapter 1385 Patience exhausted
After being attacked, the robots staggered a few steps with stiff movements. Three of them lost their balance and crashed to the ground, emitting black smoke and becoming paralyzed.
The other units were still operational, but some functions were clearly impaired, and their movements became sluggish...
Kornev roared and pointed in the direction from which the energy beam was coming, reacting instantly!
"over there!"
In the shadow of the icy ravine, more than a dozen figures flashed by like ghosts!
Covered in snow camouflage exoskeletons that blend seamlessly into their environment, they moved with astonishing speed, disappearing into the deeper shadows and snowstorms after a few leaps across the rugged icy gullies.
It was the elite squad from the thousand-strong "bait" force dispatched by Han Da!
They fought and ran without stopping at all; it was a classic hit-and-run tactic!
"Chase them! Crush them!"
Kornev's eyes were bloodshot, and he drew his sword, ready to lead his men to charge forward.
"stop!"
The owl's cold voice stopped him.
At the same time, several fast-reacting black robots started up, their engines roaring as they rushed toward the ravine. Their scanning beams swept across the area like searchlights, trying to lock onto the target.
However, the terrain was complex, with crisscrossing ravines, and thick snow and steep ice walls provided excellent cover.
The robot's scanning was hampered by the complex terrain and strong winds and snow, and it could only capture a few afterimages of fast-moving heat sources before losing sight of the target's exact location.
"Report: The target has left the effective lock-on range. The terrain is complex, and the strong winds and snow are causing serious interference, making the pursuit high-risk and potentially leading to a pre-set trap."
The pursuing robot sent back a message.
"Bastard! Coward! Don't run away if you dare!"
Kornev was furious and flew into a rage, helplessly raging at the empty ditch.
His Slavic soldiers were still in shock, their faces filled with fear as they stared at the expensive, smoking robots!
Those guys wearing exoskeletons were able to cripple the "divine messenger" with a single blow?
Xiao Dingshan sat upright on his horse, the shadow beneath his hood pulsating violently.
He didn't look at the ravine; his gaze was fixed on the wreckage of the fallen robots, billowing black smoke.
The smooth, piercing holes on the machine, their edges still shimmering with the faint glow of burning energy, looked like mouths mocking him.
Shame! An unprecedented shame!
His steel legion, built at great expense, crossed the icy sea and should have been utterly crushing them, but it was hampered by mines planted by its own people. Now, it's being ambushed like a game of whack-a-mole by a group of ordinary soldiers wearing "scrap metal" exoskeletons, and they've even succeeded?!
This is practically rubbing Xiao Dingshan's face into an ice field! Xiao Ce didn't even show his face, yet he made him look so pathetic with these little tricks!
"Han! Da! Xiao! Ce!" Xiao Dingshan's voice was squeezed out through clenched teeth, each word filled with icy killing intent, and the surrounding temperature seemed to drop several degrees. "Good! Very good! Xiao Ce has raised a good dog!"
"Shahar, use your army to bombard those minefields with artillery shells. I've lost my patience. After the bombardment, have your soldiers clear the mines!"
Shahar's face turned deathly pale instantly, his lips trembling as he made a final struggle: "Master...Master! This...this is too dangerous!"
“Our elite soldiers have already suffered heavy losses. Sending them into the unknown minefield…it’s tantamount to…it’s tantamount to suicide! They…they are also your precious…”
He wanted to say "strength," but under Xiao Dingshan's cold gaze, the word seemed so pale and powerless.
"valuable?"
Xiao Dingshan said with a hint of mockery, "Shahar, you seem to have not yet grasped reality. In the face of absolute power and the ultimate goal, the so-called 'elite' are nothing but expendable resources. Their value lies in using their flesh and blood to clear the way for my legion, saving me precious time! Execute the order! Immediately!"
He stopped looking at Shahar and turned to the core command unit of the black robot legion standing behind him: "Night Owl Squad, disperse. Command combat unit, keep an eye on them. Anyone who disobeys orders, eliminate them all..."
"Yes, Master!" Night Owl's cold voice showed no hesitation.
Kornev was summoned at this point, but they knew there was no way...
They had no choice but to comply, so they used artillery shells to clear a path...
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom...
The continuous explosions seemed endless; the ice field trembled, and the air seemed to burn!
The carefully laid landmines, booby traps, and explosive charges were detonated and vaporized in droves under the absolute and violent saturation attack! The chain of explosions was like the most terrifying fireworks during a festival, turning the entire area into a true hell on earth!
Scorched earth and melted snow mixed with scarlet fragments, flying everywhere.
They looked somewhat dazed...
These scenes are just like those at the Tsar's ruins.
After the bombing, Xiao Dingshan's gaze swept over the scorched earth hell, without the slightest emotion.
He looked at Shahar, who was slumped on the ground, pale as a ghost, and said to him in an icy voice, "Your Majesty Shahar, it is time for your soldiers to prove their loyalty and worth."
"Send your men to inch by inch along the area covered by artillery fire, especially the edges of craters and depressions that weren't directly hit! Make sure not a single mine escapes!"
"Master...Master..."
Looking at the area still radiating terrifying heat, littered with sharp rocks and molten metal debris, Shahar asked in a tearful voice, "There...it's too hot there...and..."
"Execute it! Or would you like to lead the team yourself?"
"Or do you want our robots to do this?"
Xiao Dingshan's voice seemed to come from the deepest hell, leaving no room for negotiation.
At the same time, the cold muzzles of several combat robots adjusted slightly, and an invisible deterrent locked onto Shahar and the generals around him.
Shahar trembled, overwhelmed by immense fear that instantly crushed all his reluctance and anger.
He scrambled to his feet and roared at Kornev, whose face was equally ashen, "Kornev! Did you hear your master's command?"
"Get your men! Now! Immediately! Go! Split into small teams, spread out! Use your feet to tamp down every inch of ground! Go now!! If you dare let a landmine hit our Divine Envoy, I'll kill you all!"
Kornev looked into Shahar's eyes and saw the almost frantic will to survive and the commands he was given!
He glanced again at the silent but murderous black robots around him, and the scars on his face twitched violently.
He knew this was a true death order, and the consequences of disobeying it would be worse than death.
He gritted his teeth, turned around, and roared at the remaining elite soldiers behind him who were also terrified: "Slavic warriors!"
"For the Tsar! For our master! The time has come to prove your loyalty! First team! Second team! Follow me! With your flesh and blood, pave the way for our master! Hurrah!!!"
The final "Hurrah" was a mournful and desperate roar.
The soldiers whose names were called were filled with fear and numbness, but under the gun barrels of the supervising robots and the orders of their superiors, they were like lambs being driven, gritting their teeth and bracing themselves, dividing into small teams and cautiously stepping into that scorched earth that had just been melted by artillery fire.
Every step felt like stepping on a red-hot iron!
Melted snow mixed with scalding mud, scorching their boots and trouser legs.
Sharp pebbles and twisted metal fragments easily tore through the soles of the shoes.
High-temperature steam spewed out from the cracks in the ground, burning the skin.
The smoke and pungent smell in the air were suffocating.
Even more deadly is the psychological pressure.
Nobody knows if their next step will land on a booby trap that was luckily spared from being detonated by artillery fire!
The soldiers walked extremely slowly, each step taken with all their might, their nerves stretched to the limit, sweat instantly soaking through their inner linings and then evaporating in the high temperature.
puff! boom!
A muffled thud was accompanied by a small explosion. A soldier on the outermost side screamed as he was thrown into the air, losing a leg.
Sizzle... Sizzle...
Another soldier stepped on the scorching metal debris, and smoke instantly billowed from his feet, accompanied by the horrifying sound of burning flesh. He screamed and rolled on the ground.
Panic spread instantly! The line came to a standstill.
"No stopping! Keep moving! Anyone who disobeys will be killed on sight!"
Kornev, his eyes bloodshot, brandished his sword and roared. At the same time, a robot overseeing the battle from the rear raised its energy gun, the cold red dot sweeping across the hesitant soldiers.
The soldiers could only grit their teeth and bear it with tears in their eyes, continuing this desperate march to death amidst the screams of their comrades and the smell of burning flesh.
In this moment of chaos, despair, and the pervasive atmosphere of physical pain and death!
The guerrilla squad dispatched by Han Da, like a pack of wolves in the snowfield smelling blood, launched another silent attack, intending to take advantage of the chaos...
This only exacerbated their already tense situation!
They did not choose to attack Xiao Dingshan and the main force of robots, who were in the center and heavily protected.
Their target was precisely and fatally locked onto the Shahar soldiers who were carrying out mine-clearing operations on the outskirts, as well as the scattered and isolated robots!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...!
Hiss...!
Dense and precise energy beams shot out suddenly without warning from behind the ice mounds on the flanks, from the collapsed ruins, and even from the camouflage pits in the snow!
The target is not the rigid robot torso, but their joint connections, power lines, and head sensors!
These individuals had all received prior training, and the weaknesses of these robots were identified through Lingxu's analysis.
Even more deadly were the Shahar soldiers who were exposed in the open, without any cover, and were under tremendous psychological and physiological pressure!
Puff puff!
“Ugh…!”
The energy beam easily pierced through the thin winter uniforms and flesh and blood of ordinary soldiers.
Screams rose and fell, and in an instant, more than a dozen soldiers were shot and fell to the ground, their blood staining the scorched earth.
Of course, killing these Slavic soldiers was just a side effect, intended to create some chaos.
Their main objective is to eliminate those robots...
Meanwhile, several black robots responsible for perimeter security were also affected!
Although their armor withstood some of the damage, the few that were precisely hit in the joints or energy nodes instantly became sluggish and stiff, and even emitted black smoke!
"Enemy attack! Ice mound at three o'clock!"
"11 o'clock ruins! Watch out!"
The chaos escalated instantly!
The already jittery Shahar soldiers completely collapsed. Some instinctively lay down for cover, while others scattered in terror, completely forgetting the potential death traps beneath their feet!
boom! boom!
Tragedy struck! Two panicked soldiers stepped on a pressure-activated mine that hadn't been completely cleared, and the explosion once again claimed lives!
"Damn it! Rats! Catch them!"
Kornev, his eyes blazing with fury, roared and ordered his soldiers to fight back while simultaneously calling for help from the robots.
Several nearby combat robots immediately turned their guns around and unleashed a fierce barrage of energy cannon fire in the direction of the attack!
Boom boom boom!
Half of the ice mound collapsed, and the ruins were filled with flying debris!
However, when the smoke cleared, the attackers had vanished without a trace!
Only a few shallow tracks left on the snow by the exoskeleton-clad figures moving at high speed quickly extended into the more complex gullies and piles of rocks, disappearing from sight.
Their movements are swift as the wind; once they strike, they never linger!
Xiao Dingshan watched all of this coldly.
Harassment? Delay? Provocation? He was all too familiar with this tactic; it was exactly the trick Xiao Ce often used!
His pent-up rage from the previous setback at the ruins was now completely ignited by the harassment from these small groups of troops!
But he didn't roar like before. Instead, in the shadows beneath his hood, his crimson eyes gleamed with a cold and calculating glint, a result of being thoroughly enraged.
"A petty trick. Trying to pull this on me."
Xiao Dingshan's voice was not loud, but it carried a chilling intensity and was clearly transmitted to Night Owl's receiver.
"Xiao Ce wants to use these fleas to bleed me and slow me down? Very well, then I'll show him what the price is for provoking a wounded beast!"
He did not immediately order the main force to pursue the missing squads, as that would only fall into the enemy's guerrilla warfare rhythm.
He needs a more effective and ruthless countermeasure!
"Night Owl!" Xiao Dingshan's voice was like a poisoned ice spike: "Activate the full-domain battlefield dynamic scanning network we brought from the creation base!"
"Power up to maximum! Lock onto all non-friendly energy weapon launch sources! Focus on scanning for small, high-speed moving heat sources!"
"I'll show them what a real weapon of mass destruction is!"
"Yes, Master!"
The data stream in the owl's eyes flashed wildly.
The advanced scanning array brought by the creation base was fully activated, and the invisible detection waves, like a giant spider web, instantly covered an area of several kilometers in radius.
The interference of wind, snow and terrain on ordinary detection was forcibly penetrated. The faint heat signals of the exoskeleton engines and the instantaneous fluctuations of energy weapons charging were detected by those guerrilla squads that relied on speed and terrain to hide!
Under the powerful scan, it became clearly visible, like a firefly in the dark...
"Target locked..."