Modern Cultivation : The Strongest Couple Bonded by Vampire System-Chapter 658: Transit Hub Nine
Jorrent grabbed the injured soldier’s collar and hauled him up.
"Take this," Jorrent said. "Then fight again. If you stop here, you die."
He shoved a recovery pill into the soldier’s hand.
The man’s fingers were shaking, but he still swallowed it on the spot.
Their issued elixirs were already gone.
Not just his, most of them.
In the Human Empire, most frontline soldiers received a fixed wage and a monthly allotment.
Pills, elixirs, formation, bullets. Enough for normal patrols and short operations.
But "enough" meant nothing inside a place like this.
The soul insect didn’t care their budget.
Every day chewed through supplies.
If they ran out, they didn’t get another crate dropped from above.
They fought with what they had left, and if they couldn’t, they died.
That was why so many soldiers dug into their own pockets.
If they survived and returned with enough merit, they could file for reimbursement.
Sometimes they got it. Sometimes they got delayed for years.
Jorrent lifted his rifle again. "Move."
They pushed forward.
BRRTTT! BRRTTT!
Shock rounds hammered the left wall.
Insects burst out of cracks in a swarm and got blasted mid-leap, bodies exploded as the bullet turn them into mince meat.
A soldier in the rear shouted, "Blade Wind!"
His qi cut forward in a narrow fan, that split the insect in the front..
The swarm didn’t stop.
They come in from the ceiling pipes, dropping into them.
Mingyue lifted one hand. "Freeze."
A chill freeze trough the air.
The swarm frozen for a moment, just long enough for rifles to shred them before they fall.
Alex use his riffle blasting each one in quick succession.
BAM!
One the large tried to rush the right lane.
Alex shoot its head turning it into pieces.
BAM!
Another leaped from the black water. His bullet create a hole on it’s chest.
Jorrent eyes fixed on the map feed.
"Transit Hub Nine is ahead," he called. "Cmon guys, just a bit more."
His words raise their morale.
"It’s just a bit more guys, cmon!"
The squad fired faster and sprinted forward with all their power.
They reached a sealed maintenance gate.
Two gunners stepped in and cut the locking hinges with a heated wire tool while the others held the edge.
BRRTTT!
Another swarm of soul insects poured in.
Alex blocked their path and blasted twice, each shot turned a soul insect into mince meat.
Mingyue raised her hand and fired a storm of ice bolt. Each one hit their legs and joints, freezing them.
"Push through!" Jorren barked.
They pushed trough the gap.
The tunnel finally widened into a hub chamber.
Broken signs hung from the ceiling.
Bodies were scattered across the ground.
But the swarm was still coming from behind them..
Jorren’s eyes snapped to the far wall.
A metal ladder ran straight up into a square access shaft, the kind that led to the surface.
"That ladder. Now," Jorren said.
The squad moved in a line.
The men on the lower rungs kept their rifles up, firing in short bursts to slow the rush.
Shock rounds blasted into the front ranks and knocked insects into the ground, but the swarm kept pouring in.
Alex stayed behind with Mingyue.
He covered the ladder base, making sure no soul insect could to leap for a climber’s leg. Mingyue’s ice bolts kept snapping into joints and pinning the front bodies to the floor, turning them into a temporary wall.
"Keep climbing," Jorren shouted from the surface.
More men disappeared into the shaft.
The last two soldier rise up the ladder.
When the last soldier was almost up, Alex looked at Mingyue.
"Let’s finish all of them."
Alex fired twice into the front rank. Two dropped and slid in the water.
"Alright," Mingyue said.
She opened her palm.
An ice lotus formed, then she blow it toward the swarm.
The moment it touched the first insect, frost spread like a snowstorm, turning the whole swarm into ice statues in a blink of an eye.
The tunnel turned silent.
Alex smiled and stomped once.
Crack.
The frozen statues shattered into pieces and dropped into the water.
"For pests, they sure gave us a lot of trouble," Alex said.
Mingyue smirked. "That’s because we’re hiding our power. If we really at this level, this place would turn into a disaster."
Alex let out a short chuckle. He knew she was right.
If they really at this level, than this will be life or dead battle.
It will be a miracle if they could even survive.
They climbed up.
Jorren and the others were already on the surface, faces soaked and pale, but their eyes were filled with ope.
Jorren looked down the shaft. "How is it?"
"They won’t climb out," Alex replied.
He locked the hatch rim, making sure it completely sealed.
Two soldiers pushed a heavy crate over the opening and set it on top, locking it in place.
"For now we secure the area," Jorren said. "Then we get the turrets back up."
He looked around.
"We hit a jackpot or what? There isn’t a single soul insect here."
A few soldiers laughed, relief showed on their faces like a weight finally sliding off their shoulders.
If they could fix the auto-turrets and seal the access points, they could hold this place and breathe for a moment.
Alex looked at Mingyue.
They both knew the same thing.-
Something had pulled the swarm away.
Alex turned toward Jorren. "We’ll check the perimeter."
Jorren nodded. "We will fix the turret here."
After they got some distance from the others, Alex said, "Seems the Soul Princess did us a favor."
"It could be that," Mingyue replied, "or they’re preparing for their plan."
"Consuming the Arachne Progenitor. Their queen is ambitious."
Mingyue glanced at him. "If we can do it, I don’t see why she can’t."
"It’s different," Alex said. "In our case, Alucard did a lot of preparation to make sure it worked.
You can’t compare that to the soul insects, and the soul sealed inside that heart..."
Mingyue snorted. "I think it’ll just be a tasty feast for them."
