"What? A Giant Blue Boa is nearby?" the village chief nearly yelled as he heard the news from his granddaughter, "Are you sure, Lyzbeth?" He looked at her in disbelief.
"Everyone, stop what you are doing!" Angelo shouted to the villagers. "Get your families prepared and ready for an attack now!"
"I simply can't believe it!" the village chief muttered. "If such a creature was nearby, we would've been attacked long ago! Why would such a monster be here?"
Angelo sighed and decided to rush out into the forest with the others.
While running, he looked at the catwoman next to him. "Is Nathan still out there?"
Lyzbeth nodded worriedly. "His communication magic artifact doesn't seem to work, so he told me to get you."
In this rare moment of reminder, Angelo's mood became even heavier.
'If this creature's MEUs is over 5000, which means we're in a whole lot of trouble. The last time I encountered such an extremely dangerous creature was during the New Year Tragedy with the MEU of only 6,000, and it was as terrifying as a monster literally straight from Hell! It easily slaughtered half of my squad!'
A sigh escaped Angelo's lips as he clenched his weapon so tightly that he might break it.
"Everyone, keep running! WE ARE NOT LETTING ONE OF US DIE!"
————————————————
As Nathan watched the Giant Python slithered its way down the tree majestically and crawled its way towards the village, he hugged himself against the tree roots and prayed that the snake would not detect him as it passed by his way.
The Boa's tongue flicked in and out as it tasted the air and it suddenly froze, before whipping its head directly toward Nathan's position.
[IMAGES]
"Ah fuck this!" Nathan cursed out loud as the large glassy eyes of the Blue Boa stared at him before slowly stretching out its jaws to expose its fangs the size of a grown man and let out an ear-piercing shriek.
[IMAGES]
"SHIRRRREEEEEK!!"
Instinctively, Nathan aimed his shotgun directly at the mouth of the Giant Blue Boa.
"Say hello to my little friend!" he shouted, holding down the trigger and furiously pumping away at the pump action slide.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
A series of blasts of 12 gauge, 00 buckshot repeatedly fanned out into the mouth of the giant reptile, stinging and hurting it. Its soft meaty mouth ruptured with dark red blood as the shots tore into its opened mouth.
The Giant Blue Boa jerked its head back in pain and surprise. An angry bubbling hiss came from its bloodied mouth as it wrapped its rear body around the tree Nathan was sheltering behind.
"AHHHHHH!!" Nathan screamed in terror as the lower half of the tree was crushed into two, sending showers of wood bark and splinters raining down all over him. He ran half-crouched, away from the destruction caused by the thrashing snake.
At that moment…
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunfire erupted as Nathan's squadmates arrived and opened fire with their Heavy Machine Guns. Clouds of smelly, dirty gray smoke shrouded the undergrowth. Nathan leaped over another tree root and slid to rest against a tree, and dug into his ammo pouches before beginning reloading his shotgun with shaky hands.
"That was fucking scary!" he muttered.
"Go, go, go! Spread out!" Angelo yelled as the gunfire intensified, causing roosting wyverns and other small animals to scramble or fly away in fright at the sudden loud thundering roars.
"Use the armor-piercing rockets!"
The Giant Blue Boa rampaged as hundreds of .50 caliber and AP rounds slammed into its body. Most were deflected off by its tough scales, but some managed to penetrate into its body, the soft lead bullets ballooning inside the flesh of the snake, tearing muscles and severing nerve endings. It swung its massive body towards the creatures that sting and hurt it, but the tightly packed trees blocked its attacks.
If the battle took place in an open area, it would definitely be a massacre for the soldiers.
The boa decided to run no matter where it tried to attack as more and more of the strange creatures appeared, stinging it with their loud weapons.
It turned tail and tried to slither away its way from the stings.
When suddenly…
SWOOSH! BOOOMM!!
A loud crash threw the creature against a massive tree trunk and broke it.
The snake wiggled feebly, trying to escape, but its back was torn to shreds.
It felt the lure of sleep calling it into its embrace and gently surrendered to the darkness.
Far from the battlefield, Paulo can be seen hoisting the smoking bazooka he had fired at the back of the retreating giant snake.
The armor-piercing rocket had taken less than two seconds to impact against the back of the snake, where it punched through the thick scales and dumped all its explosive warhead within the snake, ripping out a huge chunk of flesh as the force of the explosive slammed the snake into a tree and breaking both the tree and snake into two.
The stench of blood and cooked meat rose from the aftermath of the one-sided battle. Other than a few scratches and torn skin, the Special Op soldiers suffered no other injuries. Angelo received the all-clear from the team and invited both the Village Chief, his granddaughter, and a few villagers capable of fighting over to take a look at the dead giant snake.
The villagers stiffened when they saw and smelled the gory scene and quickly covered their nose while the Village Chief's eye glinted with excitement. He stood over the dead carcass of the snake and peered at the damage of its body.
"Did you use magic artifacts to kill this thing? Fascinating!" he exclaimed.
Angelo nodded, not wanting to disclose their full strength yet. "We will need some of your people's help in dismantling the meat, bones, and skin of this Magic Beast," he said. "And fast. This amount of blood is going to attract a lot more trouble."
"I'll get my people on it quickly!" the Village Chief replied. He turned to the villagers, who agreed and hurried back to the safety of the village.
"Still, very powerful magic artifacts," the Village Chief praised Angelo and the guns they carried. "Your warriors are very strong to defeat this monster. From what I've heard, that monster should be at Level 4 or Level 5. It would take over hundreds of humans to fight and take it down, with at least half, or two-thirds dying in the process." He spoke in a respectful manner. "Many must have died fighting that monster, and I give my regards for their sacrifice."
Angelo nodded and did not share that there were virtually zero casualties at all. Nevertheless, he thanked the Village Chief and watched as more villagers appeared nervously and began to butcher the snake, skillfully separating the meat from the skin and bones.
In a span of the turn of two-hour glasses, the giant snake was cut up, quartered and carried back to the village. The villagers were in high spirits as the meat will be a vast improvement over their current rations that will last a month for the entire village.
As they left the area, snarls and cries were heard as lesser monsters and creatures fought over the scraps left behind.
————————————————
While Angelo's team began their mission, other teams in each nation immediately established information networks throughout the entire Third Civilization Zone.
Like Angelo's team, they first contacted other humans and promised them salvation. It was an immensely risky move, but the humans agreed without hesitation. This strange pattern suggested there was something influencing the humans of this world to follow them, which means more information must be gathered.
They got to work quickly, gathering all sorts of information throughout the nations of this world that they were able to send a squad of special operations officers.
Days turned into weeks, and various intel was pouring in, including the fetishes of aristocrats of different nations and their preferred foods.
The humans of these nations wholeheartedly keep sending them all sorts of information, so much that it was becoming too much of a burden to sort all of them. However, it was their job in the first place so they bide their time sorting through all the information trying to find the useful ones.
For the people of Austronesia, the reports that they were seeing were immensely painful to see. The way their fellow kinds were being treated was enough to put a hole through their hearts. These kinds of videos that were being recorded by the special operation soldiers were being sent back to the Empire, and were all being freely distributed towards the populace. The cruel treatment their fellow humans were receiving was enough to generate heat of intense outrage that could burn metals.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a prime example of the power of propaganda.
Unfortunately for the Austronesians, all they could do for now was bide their time until they were ready to liberate their fellow humans.