Just the Beginning
The late summer night was, as always, swelteringly hot.
Hong Lang lay in the grass, annoyed by the buzzing flies above his head, which only added to his already anxious mood.
"I mean, it's been eight hours, why haven't those German soldiers shown up yet?" Hong Lang whispered to Jin Gang beside him. "Weren't we told that the enemy could arrive in as little as four hours?"
Jin Gang, half-closing his eyes, replied, "Gathering troops, devising a battle plan — all of that takes time. The enemy is coming to retake the bridge, not to die."
He glanced at Shen Yi, who was dozing off. "Can't believe he can sleep through this," Hong Lang mused, then suddenly said, "What if we pointed a gun at his head right now and shouted in German? Do you think he'd be scared out of his wits?"
"You could try," Jin Gang egged him on.
Hong Lang chuckled but made no move.
Wen Rou, having been observing through binoculars, put them down to rub her sore neck and laughed, "You guys really have the leisure for jokes. Keep watch for me, I need a break."
"I'll do it," Shen Yi surprisingly offered, suddenly sitting up and taking the binoculars.
Hong Lang was surprised, "You weren't sleeping?"
"I can never sleep properly in a new place," Shen Yi replied, then, without looking back, said, "And I especially like to slap people who get cocky... You really should have tried your idea just now; it would have given me a good reason to beat you up."
The other adventurers who were awake stifled their laughter.
Hong Lang, somewhat annoyed and embarrassed, retorted, "You can't beat me in a fight."
"That's why I wanted you to try," Shen Yi replied casually. "Don't blame me for not warning you. I've been practicing karate since high school, was the vice president of the karate club in college, a third-degree black belt in the Tianjin style, specializing in counterattacks and using the opponent's strength against them."
"You know karate?" Hong Lang was taken aback.
Shen Yi answered seriously, "I started to pick up girls, to 'legitimately' touch their bodies under the pretext of practice, or, let's say, to caress them. But later..."
Shen Yi didn't finish his sentence.
Wen Rou, lying in the grass, asked, "For killing?"
"Yes," Shen Yi admitted after a pause.
"So you planned this for a long time?" Wen Rou asked again.
"Seven years," Shen Yi answered indifferently.
That number sent a chill through everyone.
To prepare for a bloody massacre for seven years — the man before them was truly intimidating.
Wen Rou's ears suddenly twitched, like a startled rabbit.
She sat up quickly, "I hear the engines of Tiger tanks!"
Her enhanced hearing, more effective than eyes in the silent night, picked up the distant sound.
The Germans had finally arrived.
The roaring of engines broke the silence. German tanks were approaching. Wen Rou observed through infrared binoculars, counting, "Thirteen tanks, three towed artillery pieces, and about four hundred German soldiers. They're coming in strong."
Shen Yi quickly informed Frost through the walkie-talkie. The soldiers of the 2nd Airborne Battalion readied themselves for battle.
The rumble of tracks grew louder as they neared the destroyed road. German soldiers emerged from behind the tanks, attempting to clear the roadblocks. About sixty of them split to the left and right in defense, anticipating a British paratrooper ambush.
They were well-trained regular soldiers, calm and methodical in their actions.
Frost watched a vague figure in the distance, seemingly a German officer, and slowly raised his gun to aim.
The gunshot rang out, and the German officer collapsed in response.
The gunshot served as a command. Gunfire erupted in the skies above Arnhem. The soldiers of the 2nd Airborne Battalion, already in ambush positions, unleashed a barrage of bullets filled with vengeance at the Germans. Tracers streaked through the night sky like festive fireworks.
Numerous German soldiers jumped off their vehicles, shouting and firing into the darkness. Both sides exchanged fire in the night, their visibility greatly reduced, making the accuracy of the bullets alarmingly low.
A German officer rushed forward, gesturing wildly and shouting.
"What's he saying?" Hong Lang asked Shen Yi. Most of the adventurers didn't understand German. To learn other languages in the Bloodthirsty City, adventurers needed to spend Bloodthirsty points — two hundred points per language. Shen Yi knew English and German before entering the city.
"He's ordering his troops to seize the Arnhem Cathedral," Shen Yi replied.
A group of German soldiers, following the officer's command, crouched and rushed towards the cathedral. A flash of light from the bell tower followed by the wailing fall of a German soldier.
The Germans began returning fire at the bell tower, raining bullets like a torrential downpour. Tanks, unable to pass through, simply stopped and fired towards the distance. The intense artillery fire forced the British paratroopers to keep their heads down, with explosions rumbling everywhere.
The snipers' fire suddenly lessened, and the Germans pressed forward.
Hong Lang aimed at the German officer, but Shen Yi held down his gun and shook his head slightly, signaling it wasn't the right time.
The sides of the road had turned into a chaotic battlefield, with occasional cries of agony from those hit by artillery fire.
Utilizing the cover of night and the tanks, a group of Germans soon reached a row of low buildings, taking cover behind the walls and returning fire. More followed, with only a few soldiers remaining on the road to clear obstacles for the tanks.
"The time is almost right, get ready to act. Try to capture as many tanks as possible," Shen Yi said coolly.
"That won't be easy," Jin Gang muttered.
"There's nothing easy about what we do," an adventurer responded loudly.
With that, over ten adventurers and forty soldiers from the 2nd Airborne Battalion surged out of the woods, launching a fierce attack on the German flank. Simultaneously, soldiers from the 2nd Airborne Battalion on the front line intensified their counterattack. Two adventurers with heavy weapons opened fire, creating massive fire dragons. Countless bullets tore through the night, piercing walls and hitting Germans, turning them into bloody sieves.
The strike team's surprise attack caused great panic among the German lines, and more than ten tanks turned their cannons.
Shen Yi fired a rocket, hitting the fastest-reacting tank, which exploded violently, sending seven or eight German soldiers running out from behind it. Jin Gang charged forward and took them all down with a burst of gunfire.
"Capture the tanks!" Shen Yi shouted.
The adventurers sprang into action. One adventurer with teleportation boots blinked atop a tank and, after eliminating a few soldiers nearby, opened the hatch and threw in a grenade.
"Don't use grenades! Don't you understand the difference between capturing and blowing up?" Shen Yi yelled in anger.
It was too late, the tank erupted in a blast.
The apologetic adventurer shrugged and leaped towards another tank.
The adventurers rushed forward. A shell exploded among them, and Jin Gang yelled, "Get out of the way!"
A British paratrooper was blown into the air, his body torn in half.
The machine guns on several tanks opened fire, hitting several adventurers, causing them to emit flashes of light.
Shen Yi quickly turned his rocket launcher and fired at the tank that had fired. The turret of the Tiger tank flew off, smashing into another tank, ensuring no one inside would come out again.
The adventurer with powerful magic spread his hands, and lightning struck down from the sky, hitting two tanks simultaneously.
The two machine guns that had been firing ceased immediately.
Hong Lang charged onto the top of a tank, smashed through the roof with a punch, and fired a burst of gunfire inside before yelling, "Get out!"
Two shots rang out, and Hong Lang's body flashed with white light.
Enraged, Hong Lang stowed his gun, leaped into the tank, and activated his powerful impact, hitting the German soldier who had fired at him directly in the head, smashing it like a watermelon.
The other two tank crew members, terrified by this show of force, immediately knelt and surrendered.
"Cheap bastards, made me take two hits," Hong Lang spat in disgust and ruthlessly killed the two German soldiers.
The thirteen tanks, lined up in a long formation and blocked at both ends, lost much of their power when approached by the strike team. The battle quickly became one-sided.
The strike team rapidly took control, destroying most of the tanks and launching a fierce attack on the German rear. The German soldiers, attacked from both sides, were forced to scatter.
The perfect annihilation battle ended in just two hours, and by this time, dawn was breaking.
Regrettably, due to the intense fighting, of the thirteen tanks, only three remained intact, and two were barely usable. The rest were beyond repair.
Shen Yi stood on top of the tank captured by Hong Lang and looked inside, only to see it filled with blood and brain matter.
He spat on the ground and scolded Hong Lang, "Next time, could you please not smash people's heads? Look at the state of this tank! It's disgusting. Get someone to clean this up!"
Hong Lang laughed sheepishly. In the chaos of war, it was rare for a close-combat fighter like him to seize an opportunity to use his powerful impact, and he hadn't anticipated this messy outcome.
The victory elicited excited cheers from the 2nd Airborne Battalion. Frost strode over to Shen Yi, "Well done, my friend."
"Don't celebrate too soon, Frost. This is just the beginning," Shen Yi replied.
Indeed, this was just the beginning.