There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 525 - 518. The Eye of the Storm

Chapter 525: Chapter 518. The Eye of the Storm

"What happ--"

Han Shin was about to turn his head to the sudden commotion from the northwest, but Banner whom he was healing grabbed his face and turned it back to the esper. "Nothing, Shin. Just look at me and focus on healing us, alright?" the defender said seriously. "Just focus. Whatever you’re hearing, just focus on the healing."

Han Shin blinked in confusion even more, because the other injured espers in the aid station were staring at whatever it was happening behind him with widened eyes.

But whatever it was, it must have been something so gruesome that Banner was worried it would disturb his healing. Ugh...it only made him even more confused, but--

"Fuck!" Banner got up before Han Shin could finish healing him. "Shin, close your eyes."

"Huh? But I still need to--"

"Close your eyes!" the man yelled and Shin closed his eyes in reflex; feeling surprised since Banner had never sounded this aggressive before.

To fuel the confusion even more, the still-injured tank grabbed and hauled him over the shoulder just as he heard Kei shouting from a slightly elevated field used as a command base.

"Retreat! Get back!"

And then Banner started running, as well as the other people in the aid station. The support team helped those with heavier injuries and those who couldn’t run to move, while the guides activated their guard while retreating, some still while holding the esper they were guiding. Some, just like Shin, were being carried while guiding.

"Cohen, don’t worry about the corrosion level."

With Zein’s order, Cohen yanked his shield and kicked the ground, jumping toward the middle of the third lane; between the northwest chaos and the fleeing supports. In front of the three giant worms that immediately rushed toward the running humans, Cohen slammed his shield to the ground.

[Iron Sanctuary]

The air rippled as iron pillars raised from the ground, surrounding the three Stone Eaters. From each pillar, metal rods sprouted, connecting each pillar into one huge cage. Thick mana walls filled the gap between the rods as well as the ground and the ceiling to create one unpenetrable enclosure.

Normally, the ’cage’ was used as protection from the outside, but it was more effective to be used as a cage in this case, since the humans were scattered all over the place amidst the chaos.

"Supports--stop retreating and resume the healing!" Kei ordered through the speaker before exhaling harshly, turning to Zein, and asking quietly. "How long can he keep it up?"

[Thirteen minutes] the answer came from Zein’s earpiece.

"Counting down," Kei pressed a timer on the corner of her screen. "Support team, go and help Specter Team four; Team four, casualty report, please."

Meanwhile, the espers who were getting hit by the Stone Eater’s surfacing were scrambling up to grab their injured friend before retreating, but some were still stuck around the first Stone Eater.

"Gacy!" an esper screamed as his partner disappeared inside the Stone Eater’s mouth. He kept screaming as the other espers dragged him out.

"Snap out of it! You can’t do anything if you get eaten too!"

"Forget the Specter--Glen, got back! Retreat! Chen, use taunt!" the team leader shouted while pulling the other espers and shoving them back. "Suppressing fire!"

The marksmen--not just the ones from the team, but also the ones available around, immediately released a hail of bullets and arrows toward the squirming, shrieking giant worm.

"No--don’t aim the body! Gacy!"

"Fuck--shut up, man!" the other espers hissed in frustration but still yelled at the marksmen. "The head--please aim for the head!"

Bassena, who heard all of the chaos from his earpiece, couldn’t help but glance back while shouting to the speaker. "Senia! Got your ass back and deal with the Stone Eater!"

It took him two seconds to give an order, but it was enough for a tentacle to hit his side and propel him to the right. "Ugh--" he groaned and hissed in pain as the impact rattled his bone. It was already seventy percent reduced by the armor, but the impact still hurt like hell.

To make matters worse, he got a warning from his children and a second later, a warning from Zein. [Bas, it comes to you!]

"Fuck!"

He had no time to create a stake to pierce the eye, so he could only cross his arms in front of his body and make a cocoon around himself again, just in time for the energy blast to crash against him. The cocoon, along with Bassena, got smacked to the ground. For the next ten seconds, which seemed like forever, he had to recreate more and more layers of the destroyed cocoon before the energy finally stopped.

"Cough--" Bassena hacked and wheezed--both from the back-to-back impact and the rapid decrease of his mana.

[Bas?]

"Just..." he coughed again, before continuing while wiping the red seeping from the corner of his lips. "Just focus on the situation over there."

[Bas, are you--]

For the first time, Bassena cut off the communication line.

* * *

Zein stared at the commlink and swallowed his curse. But Bassena was right--they had to focus on the predicament in front of them. With the espers scrambling back, the Specters were now rushing forward too, since no one was holding them back.

"Not that easy!"

The ground cracked and raised again, creating a wall between the Specter and the rest of them. Senia, who came while grumbling, was panting beside Zein from how fast she was running after Bassena yelling at her earlier. She glanced at the ’cage’ and groaned.

"Hey, I can’t kill them if they are inside that thing," Senia pointed at the Iron Sanctuary.

"Wait," Kei raised her hand and spoke to the technician beside her. "Is it finished?"

"Yes, Ma’am--we can trigger the explosion now," the technician nodded. "But we can’t calculate all the bombs they have eaten exactly, only an approximation, so there might be a stray detonation too."

Kei bit her lips for a second, but ended up shaking her head. "Doesn’t matter; we just need to make sure everyone is far away from the explosion, and if the defenders properly make a defensive line--"

"You can’t!" suddenly, a desperate cry came from below. An esper--someone from one of the mercenary groups--looked at her with a tear-streaked face. "My friend is inside that thing--y-you can’t detonate it!"

"Hey, fuck--it’s too late already!" the man’s groupmates held his arm tightly. "I’m sorry, Ma’am, he just--"

"We still need to get the body even if it’s too late!" the crying esper screamed, before kneeling and sobbing in front of the command base. "Please, M’am...please...I know we’re just mercenaries, but--"

"Stop," Kei pressed her lips and massaged the bridge of her nose. Fuck--why did everything become such a mess?

"Hey, umm..." Senia raised her hand. "I can try to get the person out."

Kei turned his head quickly. "Really?"

"I’m going to try--so don’t get your hopes up, but..."

"Go," Zein patted the elementalist’s back. "Can you do it from here?"

"Yeah..."

"Do it as quick as you can--use mana regen serum if you must; I’ll guide you while you do," Zein said, before looking at the mercenaries and using his other hand to send a wave of guiding to them. "You stay here and get healed first."

"Y-yes, Sir!"

From the earpiece, Zein received an update. [Eight minutes]

"You have eight minutes max," he turned toward Senia. "Go."

The girl nodded and raised her arms. The ground raised again to create three shackles that locked the first Stone Eater firmly on the ground. Through the shrieking, jagged mouth of the worm, tiny spirits passed through and started their search and rescue operation.

With bated breath, they watched wordlessly at the invisible battle inside the thrashing worm. Senia closed her eyes, wincing occasionally as she shared the spirits’ viewpoint inside the Stone Eater.

Meanwhile, the fragment teams continued with their attack on their own target since there was no order for them to retreat and help the rear’s situation. With no Senia, however, it took slower for the subdued fragments to be completely stripped of their materialized body with only Gus and Zhan in duty. They also had to take a mana regeneration break from the burden, and step back to receive guiding after each fragment was acquired.

Still, they managed to take another fragment since Senia’s absence, and the support brought back the fourth fragment core to be sealed inside the chest. With that, the fragments had been whittled in half, and each one had double the number of espers raiding it.

Kei exhaled in a slight relief after knowing the fragment raiding was going smoothly amidst all the chaos. She didn’t think they could afford another mishap right now. If Senia truly worked this out...

"Found him!" Senia shouted and clenched her raised fist.

They looked at the first Stone Eater again, which was trashing even wilder than before, destroying the northwest Watchtower. But they couldn’t care less about the Watchtower at that point, waiting with bated breath as the giant worm shrieked in pain. A section of its body got shredded from the inside, as if it just swallowed a tornado.

It might as well, since a tornado truly came out of its stomach. But it wasn’t just the tornado that came out; a strong cocoon made of tangled woods shot out and rolled toward the rear, stopping not far from the command base.

"I did it!" Senia punched the air, and the cocoon retreated, showing the body of an esper. Whether the person was alive or dead, they couldn’t afford to check for now.

"Senia, can you blow all of the Stone Eaters back?" Zein asked. "To the Specters."

Kei turned with widened eyes, before pressing her lips in determination and nodded in agreement. "Can you do it? Please..."

Senia swallowed as she wiped the sweat off her forehead and peeked into her mana reserve. "Yeah...I think so," she nodded eventually, and raised her arms again. The tornado stopped and scattered, but the spirits stayed around. "The dead one too?"

"Yes," Zein nodded and spoke to his personal channel. "Cohen, retract your skill and step back."

[Understood]

With a loud clanking sound, the metal cage retreated, and the trashing, angry Stone Eaters shrieked in vengeance. Before they could do anything, however, the ground beneath them raised and threw them back into the air, before a strong wind pushed them--right into the Specter behind the wall.

"Now!"

With Kei’s shout, the technician pressed the button on his control. The first sound they heard was the Specters’ hissing voice, before it drowned in a series of deafening explosions that shook the third lane.

The bombs they had planted on the ground, which were accidentally swallowed by the Stone Eaters as they ate their way to the surface, exploded from within.