Volume One: Planet of Beasts Chapter 43: Rearguard Action

Blood wolf after blood wolf fell, yet more and more surged forward. The feeling of being sandwiched between front and rear was excruciating; concentration was impossible, leading to utter chaos where attending to one end meant neglecting the other. The mantis, who should have been providing suppression from a distance, was now overwhelmed and unable to look after himself. Only Li Juxu remained, incapable of suppressing so many blood wolves on his own. Rat, who only had one arm, was the first to fail under the onslaught, his thigh bitten off by a blood wolf, followed instantly by his neck, making him the second casualty of the team.

Amidst the shrieks, Wang Xiaoxin's back was clawed by a blood wolf, leaving the entire area mangled and bloody. To save her, Cao Gang rushed forward regardless of the mortal danger, only to have a chunk of his face bitten off by a blood wolf. Half of his face, along with his left eyeball, was gone, leaving a gruesome and terrifying scene of dripping blood.

Li Juxu had pushed his abilities to the absolute limit, yet he still could not prevent his teammates from getting injured one after another. On the rock above his head, a blood wolf paced anxiously, wanting to attack him but unable to find a way down. One blood wolf had already slipped past the first sniper position, but he had no time to deal with it. It wasn't until the beast closed to within a meter and lunged at him that he snapped his muzzle around with lightning speed.

Bang—

Fire erupted from the barrel. The bullet entered through the blood wolf's gaping maw and burst out from the top of its skull. The beast flew backward for over a meter and tumbled down the rock face. A sudden flash of inspiration struck Li Juxu. He rapidly pulled out a rope, tied one end to a rock and the other around his waist, kicked hard against the cliff face, and vaulted out over the abyss. The situation on the ridge instantly came into view. As he had expected, the ridge was narrow and the blood wolves were few in number, only about eleven or twelve. Before the rope swung him back, he continuously pulled the trigger.

Thud, thud, thud!

Of the three closest blood wolves, two had their heads blown apart, and the third died as a bullet pierced its neck. Vaulting out over the cliff several times in succession, he used the pendulum motion to eliminate the blood wolves on the ridge. Without even a moment to catch his breath, he immediately untied the end of the rope from his waist, threw it down into the canyon, and shouted, "Grab the rope and come up!"

He propped his sniper rifle against the rock and fired frantically. Cao Gang was truly in love with Wang Xiaoxin; he made her the first to climb up, followed by the nearby Drummer. Li Juxu only had a single rope on him, and the others hadn't prepared any ropes at all, otherwise, their efficiency could have been much higher.

"Wildboar, come up!" Li Juxu yelled. The rope was of excellent quality and could easily bear the weight of three people at once.

"Nightowl, see you in the next life!" Wildboar, who was still firing wildly, raised his head and flashed a grin at Li Juxu. His smile was bitter, helpless, and tinged with a trace of despair.

Only then did Li Juxu notice that Wildboar's right foot was gone. From the knee down, it was entirely missing, bitten off by a blood wolf. The ground was already stained red with blood, and he hadn't even had time to staunch the wound. The barrels of his two submachine guns were already glowing red as he fired madly, his pale face contorted with ferocity.

The distance between him and the rope was about seven meters. Under normal circumstances, this distance would be nothing at all, but right now, several blood wolves were blockading the middle.

"Boss—" A sorrowful cry caught Li Juxu's attention. He looked closely and saw Goldie, the demolition expert. He was being contested by two blood wolves—one had bitten his arm, and the other had bitten his foot. With the slightest exertion, he would be torn limb from limb. The "boss" he was calling out to, Mantis, had somehow managed to descend from the opposite cliff face earlier. He had bypassed Cao Gang, grabbed the rope, and was now climbing upward with all his might. He was covered in blood, but his agility far surpassed that of Drummer.

He seemed entirely deaf to Goldie's cries, entirely consumed by his climb.

Li Juxu hadn't noticed when Mantis had broken free from the blood wolves and come down; even his sniper rifle had been discarded. At a time like this, there was no room to blame him for abandoning others to save his own skin—everyone was facing mortal danger, and it was a case of saving whoever they could. Even Cao Gang couldn't say anything; as the team leader, Cao Gang could only hold the rear. Everyone else was climbing, leaving only him and Wildboar behind. All the blood wolves were swarming around the two of them. Judging by the current situation, Cao Gang had almost no chance of getting away cleanly. Li Juxu's sniper rifle was smoking from continuous fire, but the number of blood wolves kept increasing. Wildboar was the first to fall, half his head bitten off by a blood wolf, causing his two machine guns to fall instantly silent. Just when everyone thought Cao Gang was doomed, a earth-shattering explosion rang out.

The shockwave swept in all directions, blowing dozens of blood wolves to smithereens. It was Goldie. Before dying, he had detonated the explosives on his body. His mutual destruction bought a lifeline for Cao Gang. Cao Gang was also caught in the shockwave, but he was wearing a bulletproof vest. After coughing up a mouthful of blood and ignoring the pain, he rushed out from the gap, sprinted toward the base of the cliff like a hundred-meter runner, leaped over three meters high to grab the rope, and hoisted himself up hand over hand, rising over two meters using purely arm strength. It had to be said that Cao Gang's physical prowess was formidable.

By this time, Wang Xiaoxin and Drummer had climbed onto a protruding rock on the cliff face, and together they pulled on the rope, hauling Mantis and Cao Gang up. Down below in the canyon, the blood wolves that had pursued them could not climb and were forced to pace in circles, letting out angry howls.

There was no time to rest; everyone hurried to retreat along the ridge, because deep within the canyon, more blood wolves were approaching this section. The path along the ridge was difficult to traverse, causing the blood wolves to move relatively slowly, but slow as they were, they were still faster than the humans. As the only uninjured member, Li Juxu was responsible for holding the rear. Before leaving, Li Juxu unhitched the rope.

Logically speaking, given Li Juxu's marksmanship, holding the rear in an environment like this should not have been difficult. However, there was one ominous detail: he only had a little over a dozen bullets left, whereas the blood wolves coming along the ridge numbered over twenty. The blood wolves on the ridge were only part of the threat; the true danger remained the blood wolves in the canyon below, which tracked their movement continuously. Unless the group intended to stay on the ridge forever and never come down—though that was hardly a solution, as the ridge was several kilometers long, and the wolves would eventually find a path up.

Thud—

A blood wolf's head exploded, its carcass plunging into the canyon. Li Juxu had no time to look that far ahead; he had to deal with the immediate crisis first. As they retreated, the blood wolves advanced. Whenever a blood wolf approached within the safety threshold, Li Juxu fired a shot.

"I have a good idea," Mantis suddenly spoke up when Li Juxu was down to his last two bullets.

"What is it?" Cao Gang's voice was hoarse, perhaps from extreme tension or excessive blood loss. There was simply no time to stop and tend to his wounds now.

"I still have a glory grenade on me. If we blow open a gap, the blood wolves won't be able to cross," Mantis said.

"Good idea. As soon as Nightowl gets over here, blow the ridge!" Cao Gang ordered.

"The blood wolves are tracking too closely; we can't wait for him to get all the way across. We'll blow the gap first—he has a rope, he'll be fine," Mantis said.

"Nightowl, hold them off for 10 seconds!" Cao Gang didn't have time to overthink and shouted to Li Juxu.

Li Juxu instantly dropped prone to avoid being wounded by shrapnel. Mantis hurriedly planted the explosives, and as soon as Cao Gang and the others retreated to a safe distance, he detonated the charge.

Boom—

Flying rocks scattered everywhere. The narrow ridge was blown into a gap over a dozen meters wide. Li Juxu had just pulled out his rope and hadn't even had time to toss it when the ground beneath his feet vanished into empty air, and his whole body plummeted downward.

He let out a shout.

"You've got to be kidding me!"