January 24
Both sides were exchanging fire.
At first, the thugs attacking from below had the stronger volume of fire—but after Brent calmly picked off a few of them one by one…
Once several unlucky bastards dropped, their side's suppressive fire began to crumble.
Brent was consciously compensating for bullet drop and wind drift, striving to make every shot a kill. She kept squeezing the trigger in measured rhythm, and one enemy body after another hit the ground.
She could tell at once that their skill levels were wildly uneven. A few of them handled their weapons with real familiarity. They did not look like ordinary civilians at all—more like soldiers who had received military training. They even had decent body armor and standardized gear. Had they been routed JSDF personnel who'd turned bandit after fleeing?
But overall, their shooting was a mess. A few idiots were actually leaning far out of cover, clutching their weapons and trying to "line up" precise shots like they were in some video game.
What a joke.
That sort of idiot naturally got turned into target practice.
Forget everything else—just kill them first.
The refugees who had just been used as human shields had long since scattered in all directions, throwing themselves behind whatever cover they could find. Those who had nowhere to go simply flattened themselves on the ground.
Judging by how fast they reacted, this was clearly not their first time being used this way.
Behind cover, one of the armed men cursed furiously.
"GD!! Boss! Their firepower's too heavy! The brothers can't even raise their heads!"
"You useless piece of trash! I told you from the start not to provoke people carrying full-auto weapons! Look where that got us! We're stuck, we can't advance or retreat, and we don't have much ammo left either! So what the hell do you want me to do?!"
"…Boss, I didn't think—"
The man being shouted at went silent. It was obvious he had no answer either.
Yesterday, they had already reached the foot of this mountain while Xiangzi's group was still fighting. They had naturally heard that ferocious exchange of gunfire. At first, they had thought it was some large survivor stronghold and intended to seek shelter there.
Then their drone went up to scout the enemy.
What it saw changed everything.
Women. Just women.
And another thought took root.
In the drone operator's report, he had deliberately painted Xiangzi's side as weakened and vulnerable. Those women had clearly been through a massive battle. Their ammunition had to be nearly gone. Otherwise why, at the end of the fight, had the gunfire almost disappeared, leaving them to rely on explosives and suicidal charges?
That drone operator had convinced them all that a group like this—tired, half-spent, mostly women—could never stand against so many armed men.
And if they won?
Even if the boss was greedy, surely the brothers would still get to share a few "rewards."
That was what he had thought.
Who could have expected they would fail this badly against a bunch of "weakened women"?
The worst part was that they themselves had not brought much ammunition. Most of their reserves were still in the vehicles.
"If you hadn't said there were only a few women here defending the place, would we have gotten cocky and charged in like idiots?!" the boss roared.
"But the drone only did see women yesterday! The intel wasn't wrong! And they'd just come through a huge battle—they had to be exhausted!"
"Moron! Anyone carrying full-auto isn't ordinary! I was an idiot for believing your crap! If we get captured, forget what they'll do to us—those cannon-fodder refugees you shoved in front would probably kill us themselves!"
He was livid now, barking abuse at his men from behind cover.
Another stretch of fighting passed.
Their armed men were now down to barely half their original number.
And the women above had not lost a single one.
Some of the men below were finally breaking.
The sheer helplessness of being pinned down like this made them want to scream. The last time they had felt this humiliated was back on the front line resisting a corpse tide. Since getting separated from the main force, they had spent their days bullying the weak and preying on women, living comfortably off violence.
Now the roles had reversed.
"We have to break out. We run for the vehicles!"
"Yes, Boss Sakikawa!"
The moment one of them rose from behind cover, a round punched through his helmet. A 5.56 millimeter bullet bored straight into his skull. His brain pulped instantly, and the rifle slipped from his hands.
Hot blood splashed everywhere.
The slightly pudgy, round-faced man called Sakikawa completely ignored the refugees still sprawled ahead of him and threw a fragmentation grenade, followed immediately by a smoke grenade, then turned to run.
On the slope above, Brent's team had to duck from the fragmentation burst. Using that brief opening, the surviving gunmen plunged into the yellow smoke and began retreating at full speed.
"Damn it, they're running!"
"I'm reloading! Huaxiu, that mag—now!"
"Right!"
At the makeshift firing position, Brent ripped out the empty magazine and slapped in a fresh one. You could feel the difference in weight immediately.
But now the momentum had swung the other way for a moment. Brent's group had a brief fire gap, and these men, finally fighting with the desperation of cornered rats, used that opening to run for it.
"You bastards, move faster! We're almost there, damn it—keep going…!"
But Sakikawa's grin did not last.
Saito's bolt-action hunting rifle cracked once.
The shot slammed into Sakikawa's chest. His light aramid vest was punched clean through. The round shredded a lung on the way in. Shock and terror spread across his face, and he toppled over, rigid as a board.
Served him right.
Sakikawa had ditched his heavier armor earlier because he thought it was too cumbersome.
Now he regretted it.
He regretted it to death.
He wanted to live—but there was no longer any path to life.
"Help me—"
Blood-foam spilled from his mouth as he tried to call for aid, but no one paid him any attention.
His underlings showed not the slightest loyalty to their "boss." None of them even glanced back.
"Ah—CNM— you bastards, you sons of—!"
Even with his lungs ruined and his mouth filling with blood, Sakikawa still couldn't let go of his foul mouth. But very soon he could not speak at all.
Because the men fleeing in panic simply trampled right over him.
He died.
He died in utter humiliation.
The few survivors left were now scrambling and crawling, doing anything they could just to escape. The men who had just died were the backbone of their force. Without them, the rest were nowhere near as good with guns.
Then something else appeared overhead.
"What the hell is that?!"
A sharp mechanical buzzing spun through the air.
A drone.
No one had ever taught these idiots how to respond to a drone attack, so they scattered blindly.
For one fleeting moment, they relaxed when it flew past their heads.
"Wait… is that thing going after the cars?!"
One of the armed men realized it first, his face twisting.
But it was already too late.
By the time they raised their rifles, the drone had already completed its drop.
A much louder explosion followed.
Their last surviving vehicle was blown apart.
And with that, the rest of the cars could no longer escape either.
"Hell yes! My aim's amazing!"
Back inside the house, Xiangzi clutched the controller and laughed at the monitor.
The six-rotor drone she had just pulled from a loot box was incredible.
Even better, she had gotten thirty Belgian 40mm AP32-Z grenades with it.
That combination was practically heaven-sent.
She had taken all of it out right in front of Ye Ling without bothering to hide it.
"Don't talk about this," Xiangzi had said, smiling. "Unless you're tired of living."
"I wouldn't dare! Big Sis Xiangzi, my loyalty is plain to see!"
That scene had left the pink-haired fox-girl shocked enough to last a full year.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter222)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 190
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 215
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 200
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 81
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 65
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 61
Checking In in Demon Slayer 65
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
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