Chapter 18 End
Under Karen's tutelage, Gouzi (Dog) understood that the team didn't support idlers. Each dog had to contribute its value to survive in the apocalypse. Thus, it bravely approached the castle, ready to shed blood.
Whether these people were too arrogant, believing they could handle any enemy, or because they never imagined other survivors would come to their place, they didn't even have a guard posted.
Gouzi smoothly reached the outside of the castle. The terrain here was low, and the ground eroded by the sea was frozen into ice.
The entire first floor was dilapidated, with potholes everywhere, and no one in sight.
Gouzi quietly went up the stairs to the second floor, hearing many whispers.
It lay at the top of the stairs, cautiously peering out. Seeing no one in the corridor, it walked to the entrance of the second floor.
The scene inside wasn't too surprising. There were more than twenty men and women, dressed in rags, huddled together in the freezing environment, shivering.
Their eyes were filled with fear, and their fearful gazes were directed towards one direction.
Following their gaze, Gouzi saw two strong white men, sitting comfortably on a sofa by the stove, covered with cotton blankets and clothes.
Next to the sofa were two swords.
Presumably, these two were responsible for guarding these people.
After observing the scene on the second floor, Gouzi quietly returned to the stairs and went up to the third floor.
The third floor was the top floor of the castle with the pointed onion dome, with a structure similar to the floors below.
Gouzi quietly arrived at the door, and before it could look inside, it heard a woman's heart-wrenching scream.
Gouzi looked inside, and the scene before its eyes almost made it unleash endless lightning to strike these people dead.
If it still had lightning, it would have done so.
In the room, there were seven or eight men, some naked from the waist up, some not even wearing pants, surrounding two women, doing things that were worse than animals.
The two thin women, completely naked, were tied to wooden racks, with two large cages not far away.
The men were holding whips and wooden sticks, abusing and ravaging them while venting their bestial desires.
They laughed excitedly, enjoying this absurd and lewd feast.
The two women screamed in agony. Their eyes held only despair and numbness, devoid of any spirit. Clearly, long-term torture had made them accustomed to such abuse, accustomed to a life worse than dogs.
Gouzi's eyes spewed anger, and it gritted its teeth. It saw the open window. Obviously, those people had thrown the poor woman out of this window earlier, causing her to fall to her death.
It watched for a while, clenched its teeth, quietly retreated, and hurried back to Wan Lei and the others.
In fact, it was being overly cautious. Even if it had swaggered back, those who had long been accustomed to acting superior and feared no resistance would not have noticed it.
Everyone gathered around, and after listening to Gouzi's detailed account, they all gnashed their teeth in anger.
The most furious were the former criminals, who had the strongest sense of empathy, because they had been abused in this way before.
"Alas, without the constraints of rules and order, the greed and evil of human nature will be infinitely amplified."
Karen sighed and adjusted the repeating crossbow in her hand.
The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was mindful. Karen's casual remark was firmly etched in Wan Lei's heart.
"Let's go, let's move out, proceed quietly, first go to the third floor to eliminate the main force of the enemy, and then go to the second floor to save those slaves."
"Why? We should save the people on the second floor first and then kill the people on the third floor."
Yang Lazi frowned, she cared more about the lives of those people.
This time Karen didn't speak, but Wan Lei spoke first,
"Although we have a large number of people, we can't fight the enemy while protecting the slaves. It is a big taboo to disperse our forces when we have the upper hand. We must use absolute power to crush the opponent as quickly as possible to minimize our casualties."
Karen stood up, the one who was usually the most timid, was the first to rush over.
A group of nineteen people, all on full alert, holding repeating crossbows, bent over and moved forward, rushing towards the castle at the fastest speed.
After arriving here, they entered in one breath, and followed the stairs quietly towards the second floor.
The corridor on the second floor was empty.
Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu were at the forefront, followed by other comrades, and Yang Lazi and Karen were at the rear, guarding the rear.
They went up to the third floor, and as soon as they left the stairs, they saw two men dragging a woman with bruises and purple marks all over her body.
"Who's there?!"
The two men were shocked. Before they could throw down the woman in their hands, the repeating crossbows in Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu's hands fired together, and two crossbow bolts pierced the heads of the two men.
The naked woman screamed in fright, and Karen and Yang Lazi immediately squatted down at the stairs, ready to attack the alarmed enemies on the second floor at any time.
And the people in the room on the third floor, after hearing their companions' exclamations and the woman's screams, also walked towards the door cursing.
Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu led the people quickly towards the door of the third floor. When those men saw that there were enemies coming, they were at a loss for a while. Four people froze in place, and one was even so frightened that he wanted to jump out of the window and run away.
This was the first time they had seen fully armed enemies.
A dozen well-trained and armed-to-the-teeth warriors were dealing with a few unarmed hooligans who were not even wearing clothes, and the scene was one-sided.
The other four people naturally had people behind them to shoot and kill. Wan Lei rushed into the room in one stride, grabbed the hair of the person who wanted to jump out of the window...
And pushed him forward.
"Ah!!!"
Bang!
He helped the man and sent him outside the window.
At this time, Karen came over, frowning at the corpses all over the ground.
"Zhuo Jiu, you take two people and take these two women down. The rest of you follow me. Don't kill those two enemies on the second floor, just cripple their hands and feet. I still want to ask for information."
This time, Karen and Yang Lazi led the team to kill downstairs first, and Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu quickly followed.
The two people who were warming themselves by the stove downstairs heard the movement upstairs and the screams of their companions, and immediately got up in fright, picked up their swords, and were on guard.
They were not stupid enough to rush out and fight the enemy head-on.
Soon, they saw many people wrapped in full armor appearing at the door.
The repeating crossbows in those people's hands were still pointing at them.
"Don't come over, I'll kill her if you come over again."
The two immediately grabbed a slave woman nearby and put the sword across the woman's neck.
Their eyes were filled with fear, their hands were trembling, just like the eyes of those slaves when they looked at them before.