The Ultimate War Of The Apocalypse
Chapter 549 - 542: Truly a Crow’s Mouth

Chapter 549: Chapter 542: Truly a Crow’s Mouth

Artillery cleansing?

It was indeed within the capabilities of the Sanitation Workers, and potentially what they would do, but Gao Yuan felt it was unlikely they would act now.

The reason was simple: unless the Sanitation Workers had confirmed the destruction of the aircraft, they wouldn’t indiscriminately bombard the area with artillery, not unless they intended to destroy this important airport themselves.

So sure, there was danger, but not yet severe enough to require immediate evacuation.

"I’m going to handle the Armored Beast carcass now," he warned his team. "You all need to be careful. If I come into contact with it, you can’t get near me. Order the Anti-Chemical Militants to immediately head to the rendezvous point and wait. You’re not to come within a hundred meters of me, the contagion is extremely potent."

After hastily informing Rabbit through the walkie-talkie, Gao Yuan quickly ran towards the carcass of the Armored Beast.

It was just uncertain whether the carcass of the Armored Beast would be easy to handle.

The Armored Beast carcass wasn’t far away, and Gao Yuan soon found the first body; he then had to consider which parts of the Armored Beast needed to be retrieved.

Carrying the whole thing back wasn’t an option—it was too big and heavy. But judging by the looks of the Armored Beast, it seemed the limbs and head could be detached and taken away.

But how to do it was the question. The stench of the Armored Beast was not just an assault on the sense of smell; it was so foul it stung the eyes and made tears involuntarily stream down.

Gao Yuan first grabbed one of the Armored Beast’s hind legs and tugged hard. Ordinarily, one couldn’t rip the limb off a living animal so easily, but after death, and especially once decay had set in, it would be much simpler. Despite not knowing the anatomical structure of the Armored Beast, since its limbs needed to move, they surely couldn’t be rigidly attached.

Indeed, with a forceful yank, just like popping a cork from a wine bottle, there was a loud pop, and he tore a hind leg off the body of the Armored Beast.

The stench immediately intensified.

This one hind leg was at least four meters long and was comprised of two sections, similar to a grasshopper’s. The upper thicker portion had a diameter of about twenty centimeters, while the lower section, akin to a calf, was only as thick as an egg.

The Armored Beast was lying on its side. Gao Yuan took a couple of steps, grabbed a forelimb of the creature and with another pull, accompanied by a pop, he removed a front leg without needing to resort to the axe he had brought specially for the task.

Next, he had to deal with the head. Enduring the horrendous smell, he examined the head of the Armored Beast, which was about the same size as his own, and found that it seemed to be directly inserted into the body, with no neck to speak of. At the joint where the head met the body—a spot that one might begrudgingly call the neck—there was a thick layer of armor connecting the two.

Two small gaps in the armor allowed for head movement, but there didn’t seem to be a vulnerable spot for Gao Yuan to apply his axe.

Bullets couldn’t penetrate it, and even small-caliber cannon shells had difficulty piercing the armor, so chopping it off with an axe, Gao Yuan thought, was hardly worth considering.

This alien creature was truly a hassle to deal with; it was hard to know how to begin.

Just as Gao Yuan was about to rely on his strength to attempt a brute force detachment, he suddenly heard a familiar rumbling noise.

He had to think quickly, but fortunately, Gao Yuan’s mind was not slow and his physical response was even faster. He suddenly threw himself to the ground and then immediately again.

There was a thunderous explosion, followed by countless more explosions. Gao Yuan’s ears rang with the noise, and he had no idea where he was.

The enemy had indeed begun their bombardment. Didn’t they want to assess the condition of the airport before shelling? Weren’t they afraid of bombing their own planes? Weren’t they really afraid of completely destroying the airport?

Even if they were going to start shelling, they should have waited a bit. At the very least, they should have sent a drone to scout the area before launching such a massive attack. Judging by the density of the shells now falling, it seemed as if the enemy intended to destroy the entire place.

Gao Yuan placed his arms underneath his body. Lying down, he couldn’t let his body touch the ground directly. If a shell were to land nearby, the impact could kill a person. By keeping his torso off the ground, as long as he wasn’t hit directly by the shrapnel or blown away by the shockwave, his chances of survival were much better.

Now Gao Yuan was using the corpse of the Armored Beast as cover, and in utter desperation, he began to crawl quickly across the ground, moving through the liquids that had leaked out of the dead Armored Beast, squeezing into the gap beneath its corpse.

The Armored Beast was too big, and its body formed an angle with the ground. But the angle wasn’t big, just enough to barely hide most of Gao Yuan’s body.

He had no choice but to do this because the enemy had airburst warheads. When Gao Yuan saw shells exploding in the air, he no longer cared about the stench and viruses and started burrowing under the carcass of the Armored Beast.

Rabbit shouted in the walkie-talkie, "What did I say? Retreat quickly!"

Gao Yuan roared, "Shut your damn mouth! Don’t talk! Just shut up!"

Gao Yuan even heard the clattering sounds of shell fragments hitting the Armored Beast’s body. If he hadn’t used the corpse as cover, those pieces from the airburst shells would have hit him instead.

In that short period of time, the enemy had fired at least a hundred shells, and the caliber could not have been small. Very likely, no, definitely 152 mm. Gao Yuan was familiar with the sound of these shells exploding. It was just that this was the first time he was enveloped by their blast radius.

Gao Yuan had delayed for three minutes here, just to take off the two legs of the Armored Beast, and then the shells came flying over. Adding the time for the shells to travel and the adjustment of the gun positions, the enemy had not hesitated for a moment. As soon as they realized their reconnaissance team was attacked, they started the bombardment immediately.

Gao Yuan now found it impossible to run. He was trembling amidst the dense barrage because the feeling of large-caliber artillery exploding nearby, right above his head, was terrifying.

However, the shelling was bound to be an area attack. It was not possible for all the artillery to target Gao Yuan specifically, so as long as his luck wasn’t too bad and no shell landed within ten meters of him, the problems wouldn’t be too severe.

The intense shelling lasted for two minutes, but it stopped abruptly after five minutes. The enemy’s full-speed firing had lasted for a long time.

When the explosions stopped, Gao Yuan’s ears were still buzzing. He couldn’t hear what Rabbit was yelling. He just mechanically moved out of his hiding spot, grabbed the two legs of the Armored Beast, and started running forward as if his life depended on it.

As for what Rabbit was yelling in the walkie-talkie, Gao Yuan couldn’t hear clearly, and all he could do was shout back, "Rabbit, shut up, don’t talk anymore!"

The enemy indeed had reason and the possibility to shell. Even if they covered the airport with their fire, it would be normal. But the issue was that the enemy also had enough reason not to shell. Therefore, Gao Yuan quite normally blamed Rabbit for the enemy’s bombardment.

Indeed, Rabbit just couldn’t speak because he truly was a curse like the Crow.