Chapter 146 Base Battle

With a command, the city wall opened fire at full speed, tearing the zombies at the forefront to shreds.

However, there were simply too many zombies. They surged forward relentlessly, filling ditches with their corpses and demolishing obstacles, like tireless puppets, frantically charging toward the city walls.

Some incredibly fast Licker mutants clung to the protruding parts of the wall and began to climb upwards! Strength-type zombies picked up the corpses of their own kind and even rocks, slamming them hard against the top of the wall! There were also mutant zombies with superpowers, unleashing various superpowered attacks.

The battle reached a fever pitch the moment they made contact.

"Ability users! Attack the climbers! Watch out for ranged attacks!" Zhang Meng shouted hoarsely.

Ruan Ning lashed out with her water whip, sending several Lickers that were about to climb up the ramparts flying.

The water arrow struck the head of the acid-spitting zombie below with pinpoint accuracy. Zhou Min's mental shock caused the zombies in the area to become disorganized and sluggish. Lin Yan stood guard at the ramparts with her knife, cutting down any monsters that tried to peek out.

The raging fire stood guard beside Ruan Ning, its flames burning the horde of corpses gathered below, and scorching waves of heat surged forth.

Fierce battles raged across the city walls. Fireballs, ice spikes, wind blades, earth spikes, lightning... all sorts of supernatural powers flashed across the top of the walls. Roars, screams, the howls of zombies, and the roar of weapons mingled together.

The smell of blood and burning flesh filled the air.

An exceptionally strong fourth-tier strength-type zombie charged through a hail of bullets to the base of the wall, roaring as it slammed its massive fist into the wall!

Thump! Thump!

The thick city wall trembled slightly, and the soldiers on top of it lost their footing.

"Focus fire! Take down that big guy!" Zhang roared.

Several beams of supernatural energy and heavy machine gun bullets simultaneously struck the fourth-tier zombie. Its hide was thick and tough; it roared and refused to retreat, its body riddled with bloody holes.

Ruan Ning's eyes turned cold. She mobilized her fifth-order spiritual power, mixed it with water-based energy, and condensed it into a nearly transparent, high-speed rotating spiral water drill. She aimed it at the relatively vulnerable eye socket of the fourth-order zombie and shot it towards it!

"Pfft!"

The rhinestone pierced through the eye socket, penetrated the skull, and flew out from the back of the head! The massive body of the fourth-tier zombie swayed and then collapsed to the ground with a thud.

But the crisis is not over.

Behind the horde of zombies, those slow-moving, enormous shadows finally drew near. They were several "giant shield zombies," the size of small trucks, their backs covered in thick bone armor, like mobile fortresses! They withstood the artillery fire, using their bodies to clear a path for the horde behind them, crashing straight into the city gate!

Even more troublesome, black dots appeared in the sky—these were a few mutated birds that were able to fly!

"Air defense! Watch out from above!" "Block those giant shield zombies! Don't let them break down the door!"

Commands and shouts of alarm arose from all sides.

Ruan Ning looked up at the approaching flying monster, then down at the giant shield zombies closing in and the seemingly endless horde of corpses.

She took a deep breath of the hot, blood-soaked air and said to Zhou Min and Lin Yan:

"Hold this place."

Then, she looked at the fire, and their eyes met.

The battle lasted from afternoon until late at night, and then dawn broke.

The pile of zombie corpses at the foot of the city wall had formed a gentle slope, and the zombies behind were climbing up the pile of corpses, getting closer and closer to the top of the wall.

The air was thick with the nauseating stench of gunpowder, blood, burnt flesh, and rotting entrails. Several waves of defenders rotated atop the wall, each their face smeared with blood and ash, their eyes weary yet still fierce.

Ruan Ning's fourth squad on the west wall has lost two members: one was dragged off the city wall after his throat was torn open by a zombie bird, and the other was sprayed in the face with acid and torn apart by zombies while screaming and rolling around.

Zhang Meng's left shoulder was pierced by a bone spur, but after a simple bandage, he was still roaring and giving orders.

The fire had several new wounds, and its golden fur was matted together with blood and filth, but its flames remained the most effective way to clear the area.

Ruan Ning felt the dual depletion of her water-based and mental energy. She swallowed a second-tier crystal core, its energy dissolving within her body to barely replenish what she had lost. Zhou Min's face was ashen, and the frequency of her mental attacks was decreasing. Lin Yan's blade had already chipped, and her arm swung mechanically.

In the sky, zombie birds would occasionally swoop down, only to be torn apart by the fire net atop the wall, but some always managed to escape and cause casualties. Several powerful zombies, carrying thick tree trunks, repeatedly rammed into the reinforced city gate below under the cover of ranged mutated zombie fire, producing dull, resounding crashes.

The next day at noon, something even more troublesome appeared in the horde of zombies.

Several distorted, yet strangely coordinated zombies mingled among the ordinary horde. Unlike the other zombies that charged blindly, they hid behind them, their eyes flashing with an unusual red light.

One of them raised its withered hand and pointed to a machine gun emplacement on the top of the wall.

Boom! Near that position, two or three soldiers and a superhuman suddenly collapsed without warning, clutching their heads and screaming, blood streaming from their orifices. They were then dragged away by the zombies that climbed up. The machine gun went silent.

"It's a mental attack! A superpowered zombie! At least level three! Find it and take it out!" an experienced officer shouted hoarsely.

Almost simultaneously, another superpowered zombie pressed its hands to the ground, and the soil at the base of the wall suddenly softened and collapsed, forming a small quicksand pit. Several soldiers who were throwing Molotov cocktails down slipped and almost fell in, but were pulled back by those around them.

The zombies' attack began to become more organized. Simple coordination emerged between the different mutants. Strength-types led the charge, speed-types harassed from the flanks, nature-types launched ranged attacks, and psychic-types sought opportunities to create chaos.

The pressure increased sharply. Several dangerous situations arose on the top of the wall, and the defensive line began to falter.

"Don't panic! Focus fire on the special ones! Give special attention to the superhumans!" the commanders shouted hoarsely.

Using water arrows in conjunction with the fire, Ruan Ning painstakingly cleared away the special mutants near the ramparts. She noticed that the zombies' attack rhythm and focus shifted as if there was some kind of unified coordination.

She unleashed her fifth-order mental power at full strength, struggling to capture the mental fluctuations that were continuously issuing commands amidst the chaotic energy fluctuations and roars.

The source of the disturbance wasn't at the front lines, but behind the horde of zombies—in the area with the densest smoke and the highest concentration of mutants. The distance was too great, and the interference too strong to pinpoint its exact location.

“We must find out who is in charge,” Ruan Ning said to Zhou Min and Lin Yan. “Otherwise, if we keep dragging this out, the city walls will be breached sooner or later.”

Zhou Min gritted her teeth: "My mental power can't reach that far; the interference is too strong."

Before dawn on the third day, the battle entered its most intense phase. The city walls suffered damage in many places, and although earth- and metal-elemental ability users desperately tried to repair them, the defensive gaps widened.

Casualties among those with superpowers and soldiers have skyrocketed. Even the reserves in the inner city have been mobilized.

Qin Li, covered in blood, led an elite squad of military superhumans, providing support at various points on the wall, rushing to wherever danger lurked. He saw Ruan Ning, exchanging only a grave glance with her.

Ruan Ning forced herself to remain calm, fighting while continuously sensing the mental fluctuations. She discovered that whenever the zombies made significant tactical adjustments to their attacks, such as suddenly focusing their attacks on a section of the city wall or deploying new combinations of special mutants, the mental fluctuations would briefly intensify and change in frequency.

It is directing operations in real time.

Another fierce attack was repelled, and the zombies retreated a short distance, seemingly regrouping. The group on the wall got a brief respite, quickly drinking water, bandaging themselves, changing magazines, and absorbing crystal cores.