Chapter 144: Fierce Battle Against the Snake-Dog Pack

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

Although everyone was stunned when the heavy doors swung open, Snake-Dog's roar instantly snapped them back to reality.

This was hardly the time for shock.

Immediately afterward, several more roars echoed from varying distances.

First came the Spine-Snail swarm, and now the Snake-Dog pack.

Just as Mark had warned, these creatures never hunted alone.

At someone's shout, the men immediately hoisted their supplies and bolted forward.

The people outside were somewhat alarmed to see them rushing out in a panic, but the presence of veteran soldiers steadied the situation. Unlike the raw recruits, Jeff intercepted a runner directly, cutting him off with a rapid-fire interrogation.

"What's going on? Where is Captain Mark? Did you see anyone strange?"

"Huh? Oh!"

The interrogated man was momentarily dazed by the barrage of questions. After a brief pause, he stammered, "The Marked-Flesh Beasts are here! The Marked-Flesh Beasts are here! Captain Mark is right behind us, and... and that strange person is back there too!"

Before he could finish, Mark and the rest of the Lighthouse Hunters came charging out. Mark was shouting at the top of his lungs, "Leave behind whatever isn't loaded! Everyone get in the vehicles, we are evacuating immediately with the current supplies!"

Hearing this, Jeff yelled back across the distance, "Captain Mark! All the supplies are already loaded! We're just waiting for you guys, hurry!"

Mark's face lit up with elation. Naturally, he was thrilled. True, the laborers rushing out were still carrying supplies that hadn't been packed yet, but loading them onto the trucks would be a matter of moments. They could toss them straight into the vehicles, board themselves, and roll out without a second delay.

Normally, the supplies they scavenged weren't loaded right away; instead, they were piled along designated evacuation routes.

Every scrap of resource came from the surface, and vehicle fuel was no exception—every drop burned was gone for good. Hence, meticulous planning preceded every mission.

First, they mapped out the vehicle evacuation routes, drove the trucks inward, and split the teams to scavenge supplies, stacking them at predetermined points along the escape path.

Upon leaving, the vehicles would simply sweep through, collect the piles along the way, and withdraw.

Any alternative, such as having every team search for a vehicle, would undoubtedly waste precious time. Conversely, having vehicles chase down people would constitute an enormous waste of fuel.

While efficient, this system meant that any sudden emergency forced them to abandon whatever supplies hadn't been packed in time.

He never expected the crew outside to deliver such a pleasant surprise by getting everything loaded onto the trucks ahead of time.

In truth, Zhou Shu's actions had made an impact. A man capable of appearing and vanishing like a phantom could not simply be ignored.

For such an extraordinary individual to appear out of nowhere could not be a coincidence. Furthermore, Mark's expedition had only been on this continent for a few months, whereas this surface survivor had lived here indefinitely and undoubtedly understood the terrain far better than they ever could.

Therefore, Jeff had taken a calculated risk and made his move.

After conferring with several elite squad members, he ordered the drivers to start the engines and had all the recruits pitch in to haul the supplies. Within a short span, everything had been secured aboard the transport vehicles.

Relying solely on dust-lander laborers could never have achieved such speed.

Their haul this time was substantial; even with the slightly higher fuel expenditure, it was well worth it. There was no longer any need to strictly adhere to the rigid fuel-conservation protocol.

The moment Captain Mark emerged, Jeff knew he had won his gamble!

Just as they scrambled toward the vehicles, a chorus of overlapping beastly roars reverberated through the air.

"Roar—!"

"Roar—!"

"Roar—!"

"Awoo—!"

Taking in the scene, the group realized the grim reality: not only were several monsters charging out of the spaceship wreck, but the entire vessel's ruins were completely surrounded by them.

While the veterans had encountered these Marked-Flesh Beasts in combat before, the recruits had only ever seen them in textbooks. Confronted now by the terrifying reality of being ringed by these colossal horrors, the recruits felt their legs turn to jelly.

"Don't just stand there like idiots! Provide covering fire!"

"Establish a firing grid! Don't let them near the convoy!"

"All Hunters, protect the supplies!"

Veterans immediately bellowed at the recruits to open fire, while Mark shouted on the run, "Jeff, Corey, Erika, deploy your Heavy Power Armor immediately!"

Upon receiving the order, the three sprinted toward the convoy to activate their combat rigs.

Spurred by the veterans' shouts, the recruits instinctively began firing.

During training, the instructors' most repeated piece of advice was always: "Obey the veterans."

"Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!"

"Stop wasting ammunition! Aim for their glowing tentacles!"

"Watch out for their tails!"

"Do not stand directly in front of them!"

The veterans' frantic instructions continued, but as everyone knew, greenhorns lacked basic combat positioning. A single sweep of a Snake-Dog's tail could knock down a whole swath of them.

In less than thirty seconds, the tranquil wind whistling through the spaceship ruins transformed into a blazing battlefield.

Everyone armed with a gun was firing away, but infantry small arms could barely scratch the Snake-Dogs. Striking their glowing tentacles could disorient the beasts momentarily, but hitting a fast-moving target was difficult enough, let alone targeting specific glowing appendages.

In any world, ordinary soldiers struggled against supernatural entities.

Fortunately, the Lighthouse Hunters' elite were far from ordinary. Not only did they possess powered armor, but they also had top-tier snipers.

Moreover, the continuously firing 12.7mm vehicle-mounted triple-barreled rotary machine guns managed to cause considerable trouble for the Snake-Dogs.

"Thump-thump-thump-thump—!"

As the 12.7mm heavy machine guns wove a web of fire, Mark and the other three had already climbed into their heavy power armor and launched a counterattack. His adjutant, Ran Bing—the silver-haired young woman—was also sprinting toward a military transport.

Nimbly weaving through the complex terrain, she leaped with a single bound into the back of a towering truck, ripped away a canvas tarp, and uncovered a heavy electromagnetic sniper rifle.

Snatching up the weapon, she switched it directly to high-power single-shot mode and fired squarely at the head of a Snake-Dog lunging toward the cargo bed.

"Zzz—!"

Accompanied by a crackle of electricity, a flash of blue light cut through the air as the electromagnetic sniper rifle's magnetic rails engaged at full capacity, instantly blowing the Snake-Dog's head apart.

At that moment, she heard frantic screams nearby. Turning her head, she saw a Snake-Dog's tail sweep down several Hunter recruits, pouncing forward to devour their life essence.

She anxiously raised her sniper rifle, but the beast had already begun lashing its tentacles. The soldiers' eyes, mouths, and ears were already flickering with a ghostly blue luminescence.

*It's too late!*

The thought flashed through her mind. Her eyes widening in shock, she watched as a spinning cabin door slammed violently into the Snake-Dog, sending it hurtling away.

"Awoo!"

The feeding process was violently interrupted before it could even begin.

This sudden collision between motion and stillness made her catch her breath, the unfolding chaos appearing momentarily like slow motion.

Tracing the trajectory of the flying door, she spotted Zhou Shu standing nearby. Two Snake-Dog carcasses were flying backward away from him, while he still maintained the posture of having just thrown something.

Behind Zhou Shu lay several lifeless Snake-Dogs.

The ones farther away lay motionless on the ground, while the ones closer were just then collapsing, mirroring the fate of the beasts currently flying through the air.

Their bodies were closer to the ground, however, proving they had been struck just a fraction of a second earlier than the ones still airborne.

Yet...

Ran Bing mentally cursed in utter disbelief.

*Just how fast is his attack speed?! The second one is already knocked down, and the first one hasn't even hit the ground yet!*

*That "fraction of a second" is literally just a fraction of a second!*

And that wasn't all. As her field of vision shifted slightly, her rifle barrel instinctively rising toward the previous target area, she realized she didn't even need to pull the trigger. She caught sight of another Snake-Dog lunging at Zhou Shu from behind.

It was as though Zhou Shu had eyes in the back of his head; without even turning around, he ducked slightly and delivered a ferocious backward high kick straight into the beast's skull.

Despite the distance, Ran Bing distinctly saw the Snake-Dog's head deform under the immense impact before the creature was sent hurtling backward through the air, crashing hard into the nearby spaceship bulkhead.

Moments later, a swarm of other Snake-Dogs leaped toward him from all directions. Yet, to Ran Bing's perception, it didn't look like the beasts had surrounded Zhou Shu—it looked entirely like Zhou Shu had surrounded the beasts.

Seemingly noticing her gaze, Zhou Shu glanced in her direction, offered a faint smile, and gave her a thumbs-up.

Such unruffled composure amidst extreme peril was something she had never witnessed before.

It prompted a furrow of her brow: *Is he even human?*

She hurriedly shook her head to clear her thoughts and looked back at Zhou Shu's position. Half the Snake-Dogs surrounding him were already flat on the ground.

Ran Bing: "..."

Confirmed. Probably not human.