When the mother body rose to its full height before Chen Jian, he finally felt the oppressive presence of such a giant creature.
Its massive lower limbs trampled on the concrete floor, seemingly ready to crush his head in the next moment.
Looking up, Chen Jian couldn't even see the head of the mother body, as his view was blocked by the wildly thrashing, broken tentacles.
He finally understood why humans harbored both reverence and fear for such giants, because this thing...
No matter how odd it looked, once you saw it, you'd immediately capture an irrational, extremely eerie sense of...
Beauty.
Yes, beauty.
A beauty as if a deity had descended.
----Unfortunately, at this moment, Chen Jian had no mood to savor it because the enemy was intent on destroying him.
He quickly dashed to the back of the building, with the mother body's tentacles closely trailing.
"Bang!"
A massive collision sound erupted, and the already fragile building collapsed in an instant.
"Release the drones! Establish aerial surveillance!"
Chen Jian shouted orders, and the team members reacted immediately.
Within moments, two drones soared into the sky, and the images from above were swiftly refreshed on Chen Jian's smart goggles.
"We can't engage directly! Lei Jie, report remaining ammo!"
"I have 5 grenades and 2 fragmentation grenades left, plenty of bullets!"
"No matter how many bullets you have, they won't help! Shen Yue, how many bullets do you have?"
"Less than two hundred!"
Running low on ammo.
Once Lei Jie's grenades were expended, the team would only be left with small caliber weapons.
And clearly, these small caliber weapons wouldn't be effective against the mother body.
What to do?
Chen Jian's mind raced, but even before he reached a conclusion, tactical orders were issued instinctively.
"Everyone spread out to divert its attention, use the aerial view to avoid direct confrontations!"
"Utilize the building as cover, enforce a tiered retreat!"
"Search for the target's weak points, find a way to eliminate it!"
"Understood!"
At his command, the four members of the team immediately dispersed.
The urban terrain had one advantage: it severely limited the movement speed of large vehicles.
Clearly, the mother body was akin to a large vehicle.
As the four team members darted through the streets, utilizing alleys and narrow pathways to relocate, even with its aerial view, the mother body found itself perplexed.
It could see them.
But it couldn't reach them.
After all, it was just a monster, not a Kaiju from Ultraman and Godzilla!
The threat to the team diminished instantly, and the better news was that the drones' thermal imaging system detected no other strange heat sources.
The mantises hadn't followed them in the attack.
Perhaps just as Chen Jian had judged, their evolution was meant for "hunting in the dark," and the glaring noon sunlight undoubtedly immobilized them.
The situation was vastly in their favor now.
Chen Jian was instantly buoyed with confidence. He ducked into a narrow alley, and after ensuring the mother body wasn't moving in his direction, paused to catch his breath and said:
"It seems it can't do much to us---- that's why Du Hu wanted us underground. He knew the mother body couldn't squash us on the ground, just like an elephant can't crush ants!"
"Indeed, but we can't do anything to it either!"
Shen Yue's voice crackled through the headset, his breath heavy. Clearly, as the team's heaviest loader, he was struggling physically after the high-intensity exertion.
"Run or fight, we need to decide quickly!"
"Fight nothing if there's no weakness?!"
Chen Jian spat and said:
"This thing doesn't seem like an animal, it's like a shaped fungus."
"Its head has been blasted from a triangle into a pentagon, how can it still move freely?"
"Its brain isn't growing on its tentacles, is it?"
"Not many tentacles left either!"
Lei Jie chimed in:
"Captain! I see its lower limb has less than a 2-meter diameter, should we try breaking it?"
"Go for it!"
Chen Jian's eyes lit up, then he ordered:
"Shen Yue, fire in bursts to draw its attention!"
"He Shuo, use the Model 10 to hit its head! If you find a visual organ, prioritize hitting the eyes!"
"Lei Jie, aim at its lower limbs, try to break a leg in two shots!"
"Understood!"
The tactical shift led the four members' positions to change as well.
Chen Jian circled out of the alley, found a shooting angle and, without hesitation, aimed his fire at the weakened spot on the mother body's head, which had been previously bombarded.
The mother body's attention immediately turned, but as soon as its head began to shift toward Chen Jian, Shen Yue, who had created distance, also opened fire.
"Bang bang bang----"
Bullet after bullet penetrated the mother body's muscle, its keratin covering completely destroyed.
Perhaps the bullet damage was limited, but at this moment, each bullet striking it felt like a pin piercing the skin.
It must have felt pain, as the stinging interference had thrown it into complete chaos.
"Lei Jie! Now's your chance!"
Chen Jian shouted.
"Bang! Bang!"
Just as the mother body halted its actions, two grenades were launched from the side, hitting its lower limb joints.
Flesh flew, and for the first time, blood- and slime-covered bones were exposed before the four-man squad.
The mother body staggered, nearly toppling, but promptly used a tentacle to grip a nearby high-rise, maintaining its stance.
----but He Shuo would not give it a chance.
"Bang!"
A 12.7mm bullet flew from the rear, striking the mother body's leg bone with unerring precision.
The sound of a dull explosion was heard, fragments of bullet and bone flying out.
The next second.
The mother body lost its balance completely, toppling to the ground!
"Lei Jie! The other leg!"
"Received!"
"Boom!"
Another grenade followed the same process.
The mother body's other lower leg was severed from its body, and it entirely lost the ability to stand up.
"It's down!"
Chen Jian advanced steadily, a burst of shots severing a flailing tentacle.
The massive body of the mother was still struggling on the ground, its incredible muscular response still ongoing.
But it didn't have powerful regenerative abilities, and once the limbs were separated, it couldn't move again no matter what.
"Secure!"
"Continue to search for weak points, find a way to finish it off!"
Chen Jian calmly ordered, but at that moment, a sudden alarm sounded in his headset.
"Humanoid heat source detected, humanoid heat source detected!"
Chen Jian's eyes shifted slightly, and the image feed zoomed in.
And on the screen, a cloaked figure was standing atop a tall building, quietly overlooking the battlefield.
...
On the rooftop.
The man held an ancient, weathered walkie-talkie, watching the struggling mother body on the street and said:
"I just arrived in Chuansha."
"Yes, the monster is here."
"It's about 20 meters in size, confirmed to be at least level four."
"Yes, very strong."
"Evolution direction is clear, with diverse combat methods, and equally impressive survivability."
"But... the situation here isn't quite how we expected."
"That monster....."
"Is dying soon."