Chapter 184: Siege tactics of the Zombie
If it was just shooting zombies from afar, it would be fine with the novice soldiers. But taking on zombies in close combat requires a lot of guts. Guts that these new soldiers do not have.
Lei Cheng’s soldiers were mostly comprised of new soldiers who only been trained for three months, and have zero practical combat experience. Asking these soldiers to shoot at the zombies is all and well with them. But to get them to engage the zombies in close combat, that is mission impossible.
The veteran soldiers immediately turned annoyed and shot the soldiers who fled, while shouting: “All deserters who flee will be shot on sight!”
The veteran soldiers killed several soldiers. Under the threat of death, the new soldiers dare not run away, and took up their guns and shoot at the L1 zombies.
Some of the L1 zombies managed to land on top of a group of soldiers, and smashed them into a pulp. Then these L1 zombies immediately began a biting spree as the zombies chomped down on the soldiers nearby. Each bite creates a horrifying wound, and the soldiers’ flesh were ripped off. The soldiers cries of pains and struggles under the L1 zombies’ bite only seek to add fear to the atmosphere.
The rest of the troops proved to be merciless towards the men who were bitten as a hail of bullets ripped towards the L1 zombies and the eaten men, tearing them into a bloody mash. Even more L1 zombies had yet to get up from the floor before a stream of bullets were fired at them.
But the zombies are different from men. As long as their heads were not hit, they were able to get up and fight again. Even if the L1 bodies were filled with countless bullet holes, as long as its head or its spine is not broken, these creatures have no problems getting up again.
At the same time, the L2 zombies began to grab the normal zombies around them and toss these zombies towards the wall. Many of these zombies were thrown into the ranks of the men, creating even more chaos.
But the regular zombies were different from the strength and toughness enhanced L1 zombies. These ordinary zombies were relatively weak, and most of the standard zombies were either smashed into meat paste from the impact, or had their vertebra shattered.
Those standard zombies that had their bones broken from the impact could not stand up, but they continued to crawl towards the men in their insatiable lust for blood.
These common zombies were not as dangerous nor as threatening as the L1 zombies. But seeing the zombies restlessly crawling towards the men with faces filled with bugs and maggots were especially terrifying to the fresh recruits. Many of these recruits face turned white with fear, and they involuntarily peed in their pants. If not the fact that the veteran soldiers would shoot them if they try to run, they would have fled long ago.
The zombies on top of the wall continued to increase in numbers as more and more zombies were lurched into the wall. The death count of the soldier continued to rise steadily. Not long after, the death count had risen to thirty men, and the defenders’ situation look more and more hopeless. The tide of the battle seemed to shift towards the zombies.
“Fire the cannons and concentrate all fire towards the L2 zombies!”
Under the roar of the commanding officers, the heavy artillery team finally let loose their power, and several explosive shells were launched towards the L2 zombies.
“Bomb! Bomb! Bomb!!!”
Following the sound of the massive explosions, many of the L2 zombies and the zombies surrounding the L2 zombies were blown apart into dust.
As if the heavy shelling had set off a chain reaction, all the firepower the military possessed were crazily fired at the sea of zombies. Under the scary golden hail of bullets, many of the zombies within the range of the weapons were like as if a massive invisible scythe mowed them.
At the same time, the evolvers within the military began to take action. They grabbed their Tang Imitation swords and rushed towards the zombies that managed to get on the wall, and began the grim task of clearing these zombies.
Under the firestorm of bullets, the tide of the battle began to change and shifted towards the human’s favour.
In the east gate where Yue Zhong was guarding, the elite marksmen were unable to stop the tide of zombies from advancing. Other than the elite marksmen, Yue Zhong had not allowed his men to open fire at the zombie horde. Therefore, Yue Zhong faced the same situation as the rest of the gates – a massive swarm of zombies soon filled the area below the walls, and several L1 zombies were launched into the top of the wall.
Yue Zhong was surprised by this tactics employed by the zombies. But he was very pleased with this outcome, as he yelled, “Close combat team 1 and team 2, these are all yours!”
Twenty-four men wielding Tang Imitation Sword and dressed Water Python Snakeskin armour immediately took action as they rushed forwards and hacked at the L1 zombies.
These L1 zombies had not even regained their footing before they were cut down by the close combat team members. Each of the L1 zombies was a level 10 creature. With each kill, a vast experience orb flew into the level 6 close combat team members, and allowed these men to evolve.
Without the threat of regular zombies distracting them from fully utilizing their teamwork skills, killing an L1 zombie did not pose much of a threat to the team of close combat evolvers.
At the east gate where Yue Zhong was guarding, fifty L2 zombies continuously launch standard zombies towards the walls. The twenty-four close combat team members did not have sufficient time to clear all the zombies that attacked in the first wave before the second wave of zombies were flung towards them.
White Bones began to move, and attacked the normal zombies tossed by the second wave of attack.
Seeing the number of zombies was steadily increasing, Yue Zhong immediately ordered, “Close combat team 5 and team 6, engage this new threat!”
Close combat team 5 and team 6 are new close combat team. Each of these team members was only about level 2. Although they could not be compared to the first four teams regarding evolution and battle ability, they were made up of men who have shown bravery and skills.
After the close combat team 5 and 6 entered the fight, the clean-up of the regular zombies proceed relatively smooth. These zombies could only crawl on the ground and were to the faster-moving men, an excellent source of experience orbs. As soon as the regular zombies landed on an area, the men surrounding it will quickly rush up to kill it.
“Luckily these zombies are relatively stupid, or we would be in great danger.” Yue Zhong was looking at the zombies that were thrown at the walls, and he could not help but to think in this way.
If the zombies combined all their strongest forces and focused on one of the walls, two hundred L2 zombies can toss two hundred zombies at once into the wall. If this happens, the Lei Cheng’s team would be in grieve danger.
Lei Cheng has 600 men, but these men were divided into three gates. Therefore, each gate only had about 200 men. Also, he needed to leave aside some men for emergencies. Stopping the advance of these zombies would be a colossal task for him.
If one observed the battle from the sky, they would find a strange sight. Only in the East gate would the sounds of gunfire occasionally and rhythmically rang out in short bursts. But in the other three gates, the sound of gunfire and cannons were deafening and fierce.
The firepower of the weapons of today was extremely vicious and powerful. The zombies were all mowed down by the best firepower that modern technology can boast of.
In particular, the heavy artillery guns that use massive bullets were explementary in mowing down scores of zombies. Each bullet can tear a huge hole through the body of humans, ripping apart flesh and bone in a single hit. These zombies could not hope to withstand the might of technology’s finest firearms.
The zombies in the West, North and South gates were completely suppressed by the firepower, and most of the zombies within the range of the firearms were swallowed up in a sea of explosion and bullets.
Xu Zhenggang saw the battle situation and immediately ordered his men. “Stop firing! Stop firing!”
While the effectiveness of these firearms is indisputable, it is also a fact that these firearms were consuming the limited bullet supply at a very rapid rate. It was like there was a big hole in the bottom of a massive jar filled with water, and the bullets were gushing out of the jar extremely quickly like water. If this continues, all the bullets would be quickly used up.
Under the command of the officers, all of the men in the West, North and South gates stop firing. Only the snipers in the army continued to pick off the zombies by firing at the head of each of zombies.
Once there is a ceasefire, many of the zombies slowly crawl up again. Many of the zombies had holes in their bodies. Some of the zombies have lost an arm or leg, or their guts were dangling out of their bodies, but still they got up, or crawled towards the gate. As long as their heads and spine were intact, they would be able to get up again and again.
If these bullets were to be used against men, the men will be gravely injured and would be unable to fight anymore. However, the wounds were nothing to the zombies that uncaringly crept towards the walls again.
The L2 zombies also got up from the ground. Although the cannon fire was very powerful and had a huge blast radius, it was not very good when it comes to directly targeting of zombie’s head. Only about slightly more than ten zombies were blown into shreds by a direct hit from the cannons. The rest of the L2 zombies were sent flying by the force of the explosion. But the majority of shrapnel pieces that explode outwards landed on their massive body or hands, and did not otherwise affect them at all.
Of course, the standard zombies that were caught in a cannon’s blast radius had been long turned into dust. But the L2 zombies had enhanced strength and toughness that allowed them to survive an indirect hit from the explosion and shrapnel bits.
Looking at the L2 zombies that continued to get up, most of the men felt their hearts sank. Many of the soldiers were terrified. If the cannons could not kill these L2 monsters, they have no idea of what they need to use to kill the L2 zombies.
As soon as the L2 stood up, they immediately walked towards the wall, and continued to throw zombies at the wall.
“Evolvers, all attack!”
This time, the military had already made preparations. Under their command, the evolvers from various factions of Longhai Survival Camp were assigned to fight against the zombies that were thrown onto the wall.
There were over 100 evolvers from both the military and the various factions in LongHai Survivor camp. Once these evolvers joined the battle, the regular zombies were quickly slain. Each evolver is different from the recruits – they had experienced combat with the zombies before, and was not afraid of the standard zombie. Killing the regular zombies that had been thrown onto the wall is but a mere matter for these evolvers.
It was like giving these evolvers more experience orbs.
The tide of the battle slowly returned to a standstill. Each of the four gates rang out occasional sounds of gunfire. These are from the gunshots from the elite marksmen and snipers.
If one bullet could kill a single zombie, the ammunition in the Survival Camp is more than enough to destroy the zombies many times over. But in reality, other than the snipers and elite marksmen, the rest of the men need to expand about twenty or more bullets to hit a zombie on its head.
The throng of zombies was clustered tightly together. Hitting a zombie is not a difficult issue. But hitting the head of these zombie is the difficult part. The bullets that landed on other regions of the zombie body were ineffective against the zombie horde.
Translator notes:
I thought they were shooting from a height advantage of 6m? When you try to shoot from a height advantage, what you should you see are heads of zombies. Hitting heads should not be too hard. I mean from the top view, you should see only heads and shoulders and not the body of the zombies. If you are on even ground, then it is harder to aim for the head of zombies.
Yue Zhong’s team of elite marksmen had been continuously shooting at the zombies with their type 03 rifles. Their marksmanship is superb, and within 100m, each shot of their gun could blow apart the brains of a zombie with unerring accuracy. Several zombies were continuously fell from their headshots.
The twelve elite marksmen were very calm and composed as they continually adjusted the aim, reload and pick up new targets. Under their shooting skills, scores of zombies had already fallen.
Of these twelve elite marksmen, about seven of these are former professional soldiers who had joined Yue Zhong. Five of the men are survivors who had shown extreme promise with their marksmanship during their encounter with the zombies.
These professional soldiers had all participated in the battle to free Qing Yuan County (where the survival camp was currently located in) and have survived various dangerous missions. Almost all of them are used to battle. If not for the fact that Yue Zhong needed some of them to operate the IFVs and heavy weapons, Yue Zhong could have got more marksmen.
“First shooting team, get down!” Yue Zhong had just shot a zombie when he saw that L1 zombies hosted several H1 zombies in their hands. He immediately felt a sense of danger and roar out the warning. Immediately after, he lay on the floor, flat on his stomach.
The twelves marksman heard Yue Zhong’s order, and although they did not understand why, they complied with Yue Zhong command and immediately lie flat on the ground.
At the next moment, over 20 H1 zombies launched series balls of fire on the walls. Each ball of fire was devastating effective, and blasted several shallow potholes, with the debris scattering everywhere. Had they act a second later, the marksmen would be killed by this attack.
With the danger sense of Yue Zhong, the men in the East Gate was much better off compared to the men in the other gates. The attack of the H1 zombies had killed twenty-three snipers and elite marksmen, dealing a heavy blow to the military.
Under the covering fire of the H1 zombies, several Level 20 boss hunters crawled out of the zombie horde, and quickly reached the wall. Each boss Hunter had a long tail, fours limbs filled with sharps claws and a sleek black body.
These agile Hunters climbed onto the hands of the L2 zombie, and using the great height of the L2 zombies and their hands as a ladder, quickly jumped up and reached the top of the wall.
Many S2 zombies also followed after the hunter zombies, and used the L2 zombies as a ladder to climb on the wall.
As soon as the first hunter entered the wall, White Bones immediately rushed up with its massive axe and cleave apart a hunter. As well, Little Greenie also pecked a hunter to death with its sharp beaks. Yue Zhong was also alarmed by the hunters and immediately fired his stinger gun, and with three shots, managed to kill three hunters.
Ten hunters made it to the East Gate. Yue Zhong, White Bones and Little Green had managed to kill five of these zombies. But the remaining five of the zombies rushed forwards toward the rest of the men.
The four teams of evolvers also bravely charged towards the hunters.
Three of the hunters were quick and silent as a ghost and entered in the midst of the men in the span of a few heartbeats. Their claws flash out, and three low-level evolvers were send flying for 7 to 8 meters and were seriously injured by strength of each blow.
Two of the hunters opened their mouths, and their dexterous tongues immediately impaled itself on the brains of two of these evolvers, and killed them outright.
It was the first time that Yue Zhong’s team have a casualty.
At this time, several S2 zombies also joined the battle. Yue Zhong, White Bones and Little Greenie were locked in fierce combat against these new threats and were unable to make their way towards the hunters that were slaughtering their men.
“Damn it” Yue Zhong immediately launched his shadow step skills, and his speed increased exponentially. Like a ghost, he wove in and out of the zombies as he decapitated an S2 zombie with each swing of his Tang Blade.
In the span of a breath, three S2 Zombies were killed by Yue Zhong.