Chapter 5, The Green-Skinned Beast

How tough is the green-skinned beast known as the cancer of the cosmos?

Gu Hang saw it with his own eyes today.

The battle was drawing to a close, and as he personally led the remaining troops into the fray, planning to finish off the fight and, incidentally, get a close-up whiff of the smoky scent of war, he heard a huge beastly roar, much like that of a bear.

Then, a genetically modified giant at least two meters twenty in height, muscular and hefty, with dark green skin, appeared before him.

This creature was almost naked, with only a few strips of cloth hanging from his body, clearly a result of his suddenly enlarged form bursting through his original clothes.

His skin was dark green and appeared very coarse. The weapons in his hands were wildly styled, with most components looking quite haphazard. In the hands of an ordinary person, they would seem like a handheld cannon or rocket launcher, but in the hands of this giant, they were as normal as a shotgun, and he could even use them one-handed.

After making his presence known, he immediately drew the attention of the surrounding soldiers. The Mechanized Infantry Battalion soldiers, with their G7 Type 'Striker' Rifles, aimed at him, pulled their triggers, and the automatic rifles' rapid fire fiercely enveloped him.

However, a shocking scene unfolded: the dark green mutant giant was hit by so many bullets, yet nothing happened to him!

In that instant, at least a dozen rifles were fired at him. He didn't fall, and of course, the soldiers didn't release their triggers, fully unleashing their rounds. With the beast's large frame and lack of evasive movement, most bullets hit their mark.

Logically speaking, unless it was made of iron, any flesh would be torn to shreds.

But it wasn't.

The creature was still standing there, unharmed.

Some bullets were deflected, some lost all their kinetic energy and fell, and others lodged into the skin and muscles but failed to penetrate further...

A bit of blood was shed, but it was nowhere close to a severe injury.

Kaja, having just completed his transformation, recovered from his initial confusion. He retained some self-awareness, knowing that even though he had transformed and grown stronger, his primary goal was still to escape as quickly as possible.

Thus, he started running towards the outskirts of the camp.

His increased stature and stronger muscles didn't make him clumsy; instead, they made him faster and more agile. Once he was in motion, the chances of the Mechanized Infantry Battalion soldiers hitting him plummeted.

If he hadn't been reckless and just kept his head down and ran, he might have really had a chance to get away.

But during the process, his attention was constantly drawn to the nearby Mechanized Infantry Battalion soldiers, and he couldn't resist the urge to attack them.

On the one hand, being shot irritated him—the 'Striker' Rifle bullets weren't fatal, but they were still painful; on the other hand, the drug's effect swiftly invaded his brain, urging him to unleash a bloodthirsty massacre.

Finally, he couldn't hold back any longer.

He was still running, only at a slightly reduced speed. He turned his head and aimed his ugly, bulky gun at a Mechanized Infantry Battalion soldier and pulled the trigger.

Thick black smoke belched from the muzzle, and the burst of buckshot disintegrated the entire upper body of that Mechanized Infantry Battalion soldier, splattering flesh and blood everywhere, with plenty splashing onto Kaja himself.

The green-skinned beast, bathed in blood, became even more ferocious.

He worked the bolt action, fired another shot, and another Mechanized Infantry Battalion soldier met a gruesome death.

Another go, but the bullet didn't fire. His shotgun only had two rounds.

Kaja instinctively reached into his chest pocket, as if to reload, but came up empty. His clothes had been torn apart, let alone any ammo he might have been carrying.

He simply tossed aside the wild shotgun and lunged directly at a third victim.

The targeted Mechanized Infantry soldier raised his gun to fire while retreating in combat, but before he could get off more than a few shots, the extremely fast green-skinned beast was already upon him. A large hand scooped up the soldier, who was then brutally torn in two.

Holding the corpse above his head and letting the blood pour down from above, Kaja felt complete satisfaction, even believing that his already invincible physique was reaching new heights. The little rationality that remained made him understand that the drugs he had taken were further enhancing his body's potential, which might not be a good thing. But those slight worries and struggles were quickly overwhelmed by a flood of combat desire.

All he wanted was to keep killing.

A hand grenade was tossed at his feet and exploded, but Kaja had already rolled away to avoid it before it went off.

A machine gunner had set up a firing position a hundred meters away, and a succession of bullets came screaming towards him. But thanks to the combat instinct that had been implanted by the drug and was now coursing through his blood, Kaja weaved through the gunfire with serpentine agility, not only dodging most of the bullets but also maintaining his forward charge.

At this moment, his eyes were blood red, intent only on tearing the machine gunner to shreds.

But just then, he suddenly stumbled and, due to inertia, fell heavily to the ground.

He couldn't feel his left leg, as if it had been severed by something.

Looking down, his left leg was still perfectly attached to his body, hardly injured at all. Yet no matter what he did, he couldn't move it, as if the leg attached to his body wasn't his own.

Using his hands and his remaining leg, he barely propped his body up and raised his head to see a man in luxurious clothes, protected by several Navy Marines, approaching from behind the machine gunner.

He opened his mouth wide to roar, but a burst of machine gun fire hit him full on, stifling the roar back into his throat.

Even the squad machine gun, which was much more powerful than the 'Striker' Rifle, couldn't kill him quickly. However, the 'Eagle' Electromagnetic Rifles in the Marines' hands were on another level.

The metal spikes accelerated by electromagnetic fire could penetrate his epidermis and muscle defenses. After the four Marines emptied their magazines, Kaja was riddled like a hornet's nest.

But he was not dead yet, still gasping for breath, even as the gaping wounds on his body were slowly self-healing.

Gu Hang stepped forward in stride, "This is Kaja? The leader of the Captives? The one who can fully transform humans... Those green-skins have some outrageous technology."

He actually didn't care about Kaja the individual, but the condition displayed by this mutant was worrying.

Kaja could no longer speak, only emitting meaningless roars from his throat.

Gu Hang didn't bother to say more. With a wave of his hand, the soldiers behind him took over the cleanup.

The Electromagnetic Rifles fired a series of metal spikes, turning the green beast's head into minced meat.

Dealing with a green-skin is a troublesome matter. Killing it is just the beginning; the area where its blood flowed, where its corpse lay, must all be burned with high-temperature flames. Otherwise, it wouldn't take long for a bunch of mushrooms to grow here, and then it would turn into a spawning ground for little green monsters. First would come the goblins, then orcs, and later on orclings...

Although this green-skinned beast was supposedly the leader of the 'Captives' who had mutated for some reason, who knew if there would be similar cases?

Anyway, the fight was over, and there was plenty of time to clean up the battlefield.

Gu Hang also needed to tally his gains.

[Resounding Victory, earned 19 points of Grace]

[Losses 9, Kills 146, Prisoners 11]

[1st Automaton Light Infantry Battalion: Losses 9, Kills 105]

[Navy Marine Corps: Losses 0, Kills 41]