"Shoot! Break his legs!" Wilder roared in fury.
Suddenly, the task force soldiers opened fire, shooting wildly at Luican.
Luican just smiled and instantly vanished into the desert.
Hiss...
Suddenly, a Death King Snake appeared behind a task force soldier. The soldier's scalp went numb; as he turned, a bloody maw swallowed him whole.
"Oh no, it's the Death King Snakes!" Wilder was horrified.
All the task force soldiers frantically shot at the Death King Snake.
However, more Death King Snakes suddenly erupted from beneath the desert sand. Soon, hundreds of them surrounded Wilder and his men from all directions.
"We've been tricked!" Wilder's heart sank as he finally understood why Luican had been waiting for them.
Hiss...
The Death King Snakes were filled with rage and killing intent towards the SCP personnel. Their kind had been captured for experiments. Now, they finally had a chance for revenge.
Led by their leader, hundreds of Death King Snakes madly charged at Wilder and the others.
The task force soldiers fired desperately. Their bullets were specially made, capable of killing ordinary anomalies. However, these Death King Snakes were not ordinary. The weakest among them were Level 2 anomalies. The bullets, at most, left bloody holes far from lethal. Unless they hit the seven-inch vital spot, the snakes wouldn't die.
"Change magazines!" Wilder bellowed.
The task force soldiers swiftly swapped in green magazines filled with bullets containing a green liquid—special ammunition designed specifically for the Death King Snakes.
Hiss...!
The leader of the Death King Snakes went berserk. It recognized these bullets—the very ones the SCP used to capture its kind.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
The special bullets struck the surrounding Death King Snakes. Those hit instantly collapsed to the ground, falling unconscious.
This bullet was specially developed by the SCP to instantly incapacitate Death King Snakes for up to ten hours. Since this desert was where the SCP cultivated the snakes, they had naturally brought this ammunition.
With the special bullets in play, the Death King Snakes fell one by one. In the blink of an eye, over a dozen were comatose.
The Death King Snake leader was furious but dared not let itself be hit.
"Hmph! You're just lab specimens, and you dare attack us? Subdue them all!" Wilder said coldly.
Underground, Luican moved swiftly. He burst from the sand, grabbed a task force soldier's ankle, and dragged him under.
Crack!
He instantly broke the soldier's neck and seized his rifle.
Soon, he emerged elsewhere, rifle in hand, and instantly killed several task force soldiers. The rifle was loaded with the anti-Snake bullets, potent enough to kill a human.
"Kill him!" Wilder glared at Luican, enraged. At this point, he no longer cared about the order to capture Luican alive. Anger had consumed his reason.
Rat-a-tat-tat...
Bullets sprayed towards Luican. He leaped behind a Death King Snake, letting the bullets strike the creature instead. Peeking out, he shot and killed several more soldiers.
"Take cover!" Wilder yelled.
The task force soldiers dropped to the ground.
The Death King Snake leader roared. All the snakes burrowed into the desert.
Their disappearance filled the task force soldiers with anxiety.
"Ah...!"
A Death King Snake erupted from the ground and swallowed a soldier lying prone. More snakes surged from the sand, devouring the soldiers one by one. Appearing and vanishing like ghosts, they instantly disappeared back underground.
Wilder and his men were helpless. Their formation collapsed into chaos. With the ground unsafe, the remaining soldiers scrambled to their feet, dodging the snakes.
Luican seized the opportunity, ruthlessly attacking the disorganized soldiers. One by one, they fell to his attacks.
Soon, only fifteen task force soldiers remained alive. The fifteen stood back-to-back, vigilantly watching the ground, ready to attack any snake that appeared.
"Captain, what do we do?"
The shadow of death loomed; the soldiers panicked.
"I've requested backup from the base. Commander Li is sending reinforcements. We just need to hold on a little longer!" Wilder said gravely.
"Yes, Captain!" The soldiers' morale lifted slightly.
"SCP-1010! You're colluding with anomalies! We've sent your information to SCP headquarters. For the rest of your life, you will be hunted by the entire SCP!" Wilder shouted at Luican.
Luican's heart clenched. If Wilder was telling the truth, then his identity was known to all SCP personnel. He would be hunted endlessly from now on. Only one side could survive—either he died, or the SCP was destroyed. He was pushed to a dead end, completely opposed to the SCP!
"What a ruthless move!" Luican clenched his fists.
He had originally planned to hide his identity and never have anything to do with the SCP again after escaping alive. Now, that was impossible. He would be hunted by the SCP for life.
"All of you must die!" Luican was furious, consumed by a desire to kill. He decided to eliminate everyone here alongside the Death King Snakes, leaving no witnesses.
Hiss!
Twenty Death King Snakes suddenly erupted from the ground, their bloody maws gaping as they swallowed the fifteen task force soldiers.
Twenty monstrous mouths surging from beneath their feet—the fifteen soldiers were terrified. Though they fired immediately, seven or eight were swallowed whole in one bite.
The survivors looked at the comatose snakes in fear, their hearts pounding. They had come within a hair's breadth of being devoured.
"Wilder!" Luican stood up, dragging an unconscious Death King Snake. He used the snake's body as a shield against the bullets.
"Kill him!" Wilder panicked.
The Death King Snake in Luican's grasp blocked all the bullets as he quickly closed in on Wilder and the others.
One hundred meters!
Fifty meters!
Thirty meters!
The distance shrank, deepening the fear in Wilder and his men.
"Captain, what do we do?!" The surviving soldiers were frantic. They were powerless against Luican.
Ten meters!
Luican stopped. He coldly stared at Wilder and the others.
Then, to their horror, he grabbed the Death King Snake by its tail and whipped it horizontally towards them like a massive flail.
Ten meters was too close. The twenty-meter-long snake struck before they could dodge.
Thwack!
Everyone was sent flying, vomiting blood.