Chapter 747.1: The Sacrifice For Humanity

“Roar!”

A deafening roar echoed through the tunnels of Blood Peak as the Plague Champion, drenched from head to toe in blood, lumbered forward with heavy, ponderous steps.

Not far ahead of it, four members of the Alpha Mobile Task Force stood their ground, waiting.

The meat grinder of a battle had inflicted devastating losses on both sides. More than 3,000 Plague Monks of the Bloodhoof Clan had fallen, while over half of them who had entered the Blood Peak tunnels had been killed, leaving only a little over 400 survivors.

As for the destroyed drones, they were too numerous to count. The narrow tunnels were littered with twisted metal fragments and corpses lying in the mud.

There was no possibility that four people alone could stop the advance of a Plague Champion, yet none of them retreated.

Their superiors had ordered them to fight to the death and never fall back.

In truth, the moment they accepted the implantation of that mysterious biological prosthesis, they had already prepared themselves to die.

The four exchanged glances and held a brief discussion over the communications channel before launching the attack of their own accord.

Two assault rifles and two Gauss rifles were simultaneously leveled down the tunnel, unleashing alternating flashes of yellow and blue muzzle fire.

Apparently surprised that the humans still dared to leave cover and return fire, the Plague Champion let out a pained roar. It thrust out its right arm, which quickly morphed into the shape of a cannon barrel, and immediately launched streams of pale crimson mist toward the defensive position.

Dense clouds of spores burst apart almost instantly, splattering over the four Alphas like exploding rifle grenades and rapidly burning straight through their gas masks.

Fortunately, they had all been implanted with Little Feather's biological prostheses. Their specially enhanced immune systems easily resisted the invasion of the Alpha Protozoan.

However, that was hardly the only problem. The spreading smoke obscured their vision. Even with the tactical helmets' thermal imaging activated, all they could see were blurry heat signatures.

The thunderous footsteps shaking the tunnel were rapidly closing in.

Without hesitation, one Alpha pulled out a solid hydrogen battery and hurled it forward before firing an airburst incendiary round toward the approximate location. A wall of roaring flames erupted instantly, transforming the tunnel exit into a blazing inferno.

Two soldiers fired suppressive bursts through the flames while the other two rapidly withdrew, trying to widen the distance between themselves and the Plague Champion.

Unfortunately, such insignificant attacks failed to slow the monster in the slightest. The massive black figure rolled straight through the dense wall of fire like a tank charging through a tunnel and arrived directly before the four soldiers.

Its left arm bore an enormous shield, while its right arm had transformed into a massive club resembling an oversized greatsword, a stark contrast to the Alpha Mobile Task Force's sophisticated equipment, which looked as though it belonged in science fiction.

Yet in terms of technological sophistication, it was no less impressive than the Academy’s equipment.

Although the Torch Church had never completed Project Complete Human, it had still achieved a breakthrough based on its existing foundation. That was, allowing consciousness to govern biological processes, rather than allowing biological processes to govern consciousness.

These Plague Champions could freely select genetic material from pre-designed organs and express it as needed, allowing them to morph their bodies into weapons.

It was a singularity that not even the Prosperous Era, which had already achieved designed evolution, had ever accomplished. One could say their very existence was the crystallization of technology itself, a miracle beyond belief.

The two soldiers who continued firing felt as though an oncoming train had slammed into them. The black figure pierced through the flames with a single blur of motion, cleaving both of them cleanly in half at the waist. Their shattered organs scattered across the ground.

Neither even had the chance to scream when they were killed.

Bathed in fresh blood, the Plague Champion let out a triumphant howl as the countless wounds covering its body visibly healed before the naked eye. The newly grown flesh looked even more grotesque than before.

"Monster."

"Absolutely."

The remaining two soldiers stared at it in terror, yet neither took a single step backward.

According to their battlefield tactical analysis system, their chance of survival had already fallen below 1%. Turning around would only hasten their deaths.

If that was the case, they would make their deaths meaningful.

Both of them exchanged one final glance before simultaneously disengaging the safeties on the self-destruct modules mounted on their exoskeletons. The moment their life signs disappeared, the modules would automatically detonate their power cells. It might not be enough to kill the monster, but causing it some trouble should not be a problem.

Its regenerative ability was not limitless. If the damage exceeded its healing capacity, it would still die. The comrades who had fallen before them had already paid with their lives to discover that.

Now, all they needed to do was spend what little remained of their own lives to increase the odds that those behind them might survive.

The battle was about to erupt and just as the Plague Champion prepared to execute the two soldiers and move on to hunt its next prey, a blazing torrent of fire suddenly shot past the two without warning and rushed straight toward its face.

Reacting instinctively, it raised its left arm to block. The searing flames were rapidly swallowed by the fleshy crimson spore membrane covering the shield.

Though the attack failed to inflict any fatal damage, it still forced the monster's advance to pause for a brief moment.

Both soldiers stared in surprise before turning around. Behind them stood a warrior clad in exoframe, carrying an enormous-caliber shotgun.

"Out of my way!" Sideline Slacking shouted as he pumped the manually operated Flame Dragon shotgun, spraying wave after wave of blazing fire at the shield-bearing monster.

Under the relentless barrage of searing flames, the Plague Champion roared in pain. Raising its shield, it charged straight through the inferno.

At the very same moment, a strength type player stepped forward with a ceramic steel shield raised high. Facing the massive right arm swinging toward him, he neither dodged nor flinched. Instead, he charged straight ahead.

Boom!

A heavy impact echoed through the tunnel as the player's knees buckled slightly beneath the tremendous force.

However, that was all.

Instead, it was the Plague Champion whose eyes widened in astonishment as it stared at the completely undamaged shield. Its biotic battle axe could tear straight through armored steel, but it had failed to leave even the faintest scratch on whatever that was.

Naturally, it had no way of knowing that the shield was made from structural materials designed for use on space stations.

Its performance against armor-piercing rounds might not have been exceptional, but when it came to resisting high-velocity impacts, it was second to none.

After taking the blow, the player immediately threw away the shield, ducked beneath the monster's guard, and charged into point-blank range. With a loud roar, he drove the syringe strapped to his waist straight into the creature's thigh.

B strain Na Fruit possessed a pronounced inhibitory effect against the J strain. Not only could it consume J strain, but it also suppressed its reproduction.

The regenerative capabilities of the Torch Church’s biological exoframe were supplied precisely by colonies of Na Fruit fungi.

That conclusion had been reached by the New Alliance Biological Research Institution the previous year after analyzing Qi Gaen’s remains.

Based on those findings, the New Alliance developed a J strain inhibitor, specifically designed to suppress the regenerative ability of the Torch Church’s biological weapons. The inhibitor remained effective for at least three minutes. During those three minutes, the biological exoframe's regeneration efficiency was reduced by over 90%!

The creature would be controlled until the injected toxin had been completely metabolized.

The Plague Champion let out another pained roar. It violently kicked forward with its right leg, sending the strength type player flying.

The player slammed into the rock wall with a muffled groan before losing consciousness and apparently, he logged out.

Enraged, the Plague Champion ripped the needle from its thigh, only to discover in horror that blood continued pouring from the pin-sized puncture wound without the slightest sign of clotting or healing.

Seeing that the attack had worked, another player who had entered the cave alongside Sideline Slacking grinned in excitement. Dropping to one knee, he shouldered an RPG launcher, disengaged the safety, and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"RPG!"

A trail of white smoke burst from the launcher and the rocket slammed directly into the shield.

Flames exploded outward in every direction, blasting chunks of rock everywhere and nearly taking friendly troops inside the tunnel along with it.

Shielding his head with an arm as he stepped back, Sideline Slacking looked up while gripping his shotgun.

To his surprise, the Plague Champion emerged from the explosion seemingly unharmed. The shield fused to its left arm had been blasted open with a grotesque wound, yet the damaged flesh was visibly regenerating before his eyes.

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