Chapter 176 Mid-Stage Calamity

While repairing, Han Xiao glanced at the interstellar warships in the sky above Senyuan City and said, "It's been fighting for so long, why haven't those warships moved?"

"Those are the city's sky barriers, and also the strongest weapons. The beasts now are just small fries, it's not yet their turn to use warships," Nivelle said.

Han Xiao changed the subject and asked, "I heard you also have some trump card equipment called General-Grade Armor, which possesses extraordinary power, far exceeding the Officer-Grade Armor you're wearing. Why haven't you used it?"

"General-Grade Armor is a thing of the distant past. When our mother star suffered disaster, the manufacturing technology was lost. Now the warehouse only has four sets of damaged General-Grade Armor, with a damage rate of 70%, and there's no way to restore the technology."

Nivelle said with a sigh, "Although General-Grade Armor can be used by ordinary people, only Espers can unleash its full power. When our mother star was attacked, all General-Grade Armors were sent out to fight valiantly. One by one they were damaged, and the users died one after another. But without their sacrifice, the surviving population wouldn't even be half of what it is now. In the end, only four sets of damaged General-Grade Armor were collected, full of battle scars. These four sets of armor are heroes who protected the race and are carefully preserved."

General-Grade Armor is completely different from Soldier-Grade and Officer-Grade. The latter two are standard equipment, while General-Grade is equivalent to top-level equipment, elite armament, and Esper equipment. The resources to produce one General-Grade Armor can be used to produce hundreds of sets of Soldier-Grade Armor.

The loss of General-Grade Armor is equivalent to the disconnection of top-level power. If they had the technology for General-Grade Armor, they could mass-produce top-level warriors to deal with high-risk beasts, and the threat of the calamity would be reduced by at least one level.

Boom—

The ground suddenly shook, and two armored soldiers flew out from the side. Nivelle could see behind Han Xiao, his eyes widened, and he shouted, "Get out of the way!"

A burrowing carapace beast, the size of a wild ox, crashed through the soldiers and charged straight at him. There are many varieties of burrowing beasts. This kind of carapace beast is good at ramming, and its defense is very strong. The dark carapace is like a steel plate, able to withstand the concentrated fire of defense machine guns, making it very troublesome.

Han Xiao turned around, and a golden small ball slid out of his cuff, instantly unfolding into [Garitan's Wrath]. Without a word, he directly activated Willpower Combustion plus several burst skills, and also triggered true damage.

A dazzling, scorching beam of light shot out, directly piercing through the body of the carapace beast, through the mouth and out the anus, leaving behind a burnt-through mark.

The carapace beast that the defense team would have taken more than ten seconds to kill crashed to the ground, killed with one shot! Under the effect of inertia, the corpse slowly slid to Han Xiao's feet, overflowing with a pool of tissue fluid.

"Don't make a fuss, I can fight better than you," Han Xiao put away his weapon and continued to bury his head in repairs, as if it was just a casual act.

"...I forgot." Nivelle opened his mouth, he subconsciously regarded Han Xiao as a non-combatant logistics personnel, and then remembered that Han Xiao was an Esper.

Soon, Han Xiao put down the tools, "Fixed."

The armor ran normally. Nivelle immediately stood up, confirmed that there were no faults, and directly picked up his machine gun and returned to the battle, cursing at his subordinates, scolding them for leaving their posts.

Although they were scolded, the soldiers did not feel any resentment at all, but were happy because they had saved their commander's life.

Nivelle cursed for a while and then stopped, focusing on dealing with the enemy, continuing to loudly command the troops.

Han Xiao was about to rush to the next repair location when a piercing alarm sounded in the base. His movements stopped, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

"Second-level alert, the calamity has entered the mid-stage!"

A strange chill spread out, and a group of black shadows flew out of the forest, wrapped in black mist. They swept across at low altitude, only a few meters off the ground, avoiding the minefield, and were extremely fast. They were very agile in the air, twisting and turning, and actually dodged a lot of long-range artillery fire.

The firelight illuminated the appearance of this creature. Its entire body was covered in shiny black bald skin, without any hair. It had a standing trunk, a height of three or four meters, and no facial features, but a pair of curved antennae. It used its antennae to sense the environment, had four curved long claws, and strong reverse-jointed animal legs underneath. On its back was a pair of dark red bat wings, and it had three whip-like thorny tails, making it extremely ferocious.

"Nightmare!" Han Xiao thought to himself. He recognized this beast from the illustrated manual, representing that the calamity had passed the early stage and finally entered the mid-stage. The scale of the early stage was already so large, and the Sunil people said that the mid and late stages were dozens of times more dangerous than the early stage. The real large-scale casualties occurred after the early stage.

The logistics team's retreat order came from the headset, "All battlefield maintenance personnel, return to the fifth defense circle and enter the fortress!"

Han Xiao naturally did so, and walked into the metal fortress with a large group of logistics personnel. The doors and windows were locked, and there were no entrances or exits. This was a protective measure, and they could only see the battle scene outside through the windows.

Clap!

Suddenly, powerful spotlights were activated in each defense circle. Countless beams of light shot into the sky, and the night suddenly became as bright as day. The approaching Nightmares let out a shrill cry. They had been flying well, but when the strong light swept over them, they swayed like they were drunk, crashed into other Nightmares, and rolled and fell to the ground. Many Nightmares fell into the minefield and were blown to pieces.

The antennae of the Nightmares are very sensitive to light. They only move in the dark. Once they come into contact with strong light, it's like getting essential balm in their eyes.

The Sunil people have formulated various targeted measures against dangerous beasts. Entering the mid-stage of the calamity, it is no longer a simple matter of firing artillery, but using various targeted plans according to the types of beasts in the beast tide. These plans are experiences gained after bloody lessons, which can reduce casualties to a certain extent.

After all, there are many enemies that cannot be solved by conventional means, such as the overwhelming poisonous insects, which are a sign of entering the late stage…

Each Nightmare has a combat power equivalent to a Grade D Esper, is very agile, and its thorny tail can easily penetrate armor. Wherever it passes, many floating turrets are cut off, and the defense team and mercenaries are caught in a bitter battle, and casualties gradually increase.

…

The fierce battle continued until dawn before the remaining Nightmares retreated, ushering in a long-awaited blank period. At least a thousand soldiers sacrificed that night, making it the most devastating battle since the start of the calamity.

Countless corpses were stuffed into body bags and transported back to the rear. Many soldiers' families lived in the city. They fought bloody battles, driven not only by a sense of mission to the race, but also to protect their families in the city. Their bodies would be claimed by their relatives, and heart-wrenching cries were heard from time to time at the morgue.

Comrades who were still alive and kicking yesterday became mutilated corpses overnight. The atmosphere on the front was extremely heavy. The soldiers who had experienced a night of fierce battle were extremely exhausted, their brains numb. Unable to remove their armor for emergency operations, they sat on the ground in twos and threes, staring in a certain direction, their eyes out of focus, just blankly staring.

The scenes of life and death separation of relatives next to them could cause slight fluctuations in the eyes of these soldiers. Many people thought that they might also be stuffed into body bags one day, and thought of the heartbroken expressions of their families, and could not help but feel sad and sympathetic.

Affected by this atmosphere, even the rude mercenaries did not dare to act rashly, but remained silent and quietly sorted out their equipment.

This scene could not help but remind Han Xiao of Aquamarine Star. No matter where in the galaxy, the pain brought by war is the same.

Suddenly, there was a commotion next to them. A large group of field teams returned after a shift change. The leader seemed to be very prestigious among the Sunil people. Wherever they passed, many soldiers paid attention, and some even took the initiative to stand up and salute.

The field teams have a reasonable rotation system. When the people who are replacing them arrive, the previous batch can come back to rest. The players are taking over part of the rotation of the field teams.

Han Xiao recalled that when he was chatting with Rielton before, he seemed to have mentioned that the Sunil race had two of the most powerful experts who had reached the Grade B standard and were working as mercenaries in the galaxy, handing over huge sums of money every year, and were idols of the entire race.

At this time, walking at the front of the returning field team was one of the two Grade B mercenaries—Fagoner.

The entire high-level military of Sunil appeared to welcome these people back.

Fagoner waved his hand and said in a deep voice, "We lost many brothers. We brought back some of the bodies we could find."

The crowd separated and carried out more than twenty body bags, revealing the faces of the corpses, all of whom were Sunil Espers. Feumi was also among them.

Han Xiao glanced at it and found that Rielton's body was not inside. He looked up and saw that Rielton was standing in the team. Although he had lost two arms and one leg, he could still breathe.

The high-level military officials said solemnly, "They are all heroes, and we will properly handle their funerals."

Fagoner said lightly, "It better be so."

The Sunil Espers looked at the bodies of their companions, and all showed sorrowful expressions. The scene was filled with grief, and the Sunil soldiers lowered their heads to remember the heroes.

Han Xiao always observed this group of Espers and found subtle differences. The group represented by Rielton only had grief in their expressions, silently remembering their colleagues.

And the other group, in addition to grief on their faces, also had hidden anger and dissatisfaction.