Chapter 185: Chapter 185

Chapter 185: War of Steel and Flesh!

On top of the Great Wall, over a hundred pitch-black cannon barrels slowly lifted. As the shells were loaded, the readied cannons emitted a low hum.

This was the core defensive force of the Great Wall—“Thor’s Hammer” Heavy Cannon Array.

With each booming roar, blinding white flames burst from the muzzles, and supersonic projectiles carved vacuum tunnels through the air.

The foremost Giants hadn’t even had time to react before they were blasted into a mist of blood—under such staggering firepower, their vaunted regenerative abilities could no longer take effect.

That salvo swept across the frontlines, evaporating the Giants within several hundred meters into scorched craters.

Meanwhile, hundreds of massive steam heavy crossbows operated at high speed under the drive of gears and steam. Hundreds and thousands of meters-long quenched steel arrows rained down like a storm, piercing through the Giants’ skulls, joints, and hearts, nailing them firmly to the ground.

The roar of the steam crossbows formed a continuous wave, sweeping over the Giants like the scythe of death.

Though immensely powerful, they still could not compare to the “Thor’s Hammer” Heavy Cannon Array.

Many Giants, though riddled with quenched steel arrows and looking like porcupines, still survived.

Wailing in agony, they pulled the arrows from their bodies. As blood gushed from their wounds, their regeneration kicked in, rapidly repairing their bodies.

The front rows of Giants fell in droves, yet those behind continued their charge without pause.

A low rumble came from within the clouds—like rolling thunder, or the breath of a great beast.

Suddenly, the clouds were torn apart.

A formation of high-altitude bombers appeared, their bomb bays slowly opening beneath them as hundreds upon thousands of high-explosive bombs dropped toward the Giants.

The moment they hit the ground, the earth quaked violently.

Shockwaves swept the battlefield like invisible warhammers, and the earth collapsed in a chain of explosions.

Countless Giants were torn to pieces, blood and steam mixing into a blood-red mist that rose into the air.

Tens of thousands of craters merged into a vast, blackened basin spanning several kilometers.

Next came fuel-air bombs and napalm.

The already battered ground turned into a new inferno.

Flames reaching thousands of degrees surged like tidal waves. Giants’ skin charred and peeled, muscles boiled, and bodies vaporized—leaving behind burning white bones.

Though the results were remarkable, most of the bombers failed to return.

Because the moment they emerged from the clouds, the Giants launched volleys of shattered rocks.

The stones came from all directions—inescapable.

At the same time, countless Winged Giants appeared in the sky. While darting forward, they manipulated air currents to disrupt the bombers’ flight paths.

All pilots dove with the resolve to die.

To avoid this round of human firepower, the Giants scattered, running and dodging to reduce the firepower's effectiveness.

But in doing so, they played into the hands of the Great Wall’s commanders.

If those over fifty thousand Giants had charged together in one direction, they would have crushed the Great Wall in an instant.

Only by splitting their formation with overwhelming firepower could the pressure on the A9 Checkpoint be reduced.

Li Ye couldn’t help but exclaim.

Having witnessed this, he finally understood how the Great Wall had stood across the Southern Continent for over fifty years.

He was currently observing the battle from the watchtower atop the Great Wall.

To assist the checkpoint defenders, the Tomorrow Alliance had chosen to contribute.

The Peacemaker had been deployed on a certain Small Lifting Platform, while the Engineer was stationed in the rear repairing previously damaged vehicles and Mobile Cities.

The Vanguard Armed Gunship had also been deployed.

It had to be said, compared to this colossal continent-level structure, the aid the Tomorrow Alliance could offer was limited.

The checkpoint defenders’ offensive instantly wiped out three to four thousand Giants.

But against a total of over fifty thousand Giants, it was far from enough.

The “Thor’s Hammer” Heavy Cannon Array required reloading, and the heavy steam crossbows, overheated from prolonged operation, needed time to cool down.

The bomber formation, entangled by the Barrage of Rubble, air currents, and Winged Giants, struggled to provide effective fire support.

With powerful suppressive fire lost, forty to fifty thousand Giants dispersed and surged toward the Great Wall.

The human forces had to defend a wall stretching thirty to forty kilometers.

At the forefront of the battle line, Level 1 Mobile Cities, tank battalions, and Mechanical Giant Sentinels moved out to engage the Giants.

“How long until the next ‘Thor’s Hammer’ bombardment?” a commander urgently asked.

“Reporting, Sir! Five minutes until ready!” came a gunner’s voice through the Communication Channel.

The commanders exchanged glances, their expressions grim.

The Giants in the rear began their counterattack.

They pulled chunks of ruined buildings from their pockets and smashed them into rubble. Some Giants punched nearby mountains, breaking off tens of tons of rock.

Rubble and dirt slid through their fingers, and every Giant fixed their gaze upon the humans on the wall.

“You! You! You!” they roared, voices hoarse, then swung their arms with force.

The defenders on the wall turned pale.

A combat personnel member immediately waved and shouted:

“Everyone, take cover!”

In an instant, countless rocks and boulders were hurled skyward.

A rain of destruction blotted out the sky.

The first boulder struck the Great Wall.

The thick composite armor plating dented like a shell, rivets flying off under immense stress, leaving dozens of crimson sparks streaking across the wall.

Steel structures at the impact point warped into waves, internal support beams snapped with a brittle crunch like the wail of a beast. Several scalding steam pipes burst under pressure, spraying high-pressure mist that cooked a nearby combat personnel alive.

Then came a hellish onslaught.

Thousands upon thousands of rocks and boulders poured down like rain, gouging countless breaches into the Great Wall.

A steam heavy crossbow was directly hit and smashed into scrap metal.

One “Thor’s Hammer” Heavy Cannon was battered into a sieve by the endless rubble.

A section of the wall, struck by multiple boulders, finally gave way—collapsing like a stack of bowling pins.

On the battlefield, the checkpoint’s ground forces clashed with the Giants.

While executing high-speed Mobile Evasion maneuvers, Level 1 Mobile Cities fired Level 3 Weapons at the Giants.

The tanks loaded armor-piercing shells and fired at the Giants’ heads. Against Giants, these shells were far more effective than high-explosive ones—the former’s sheer kinetic force could shear off half a Giant’s skull, killing instantly.

Mechanical Giant Sentinels slowly advanced, using twin arms equipped with rotating chainsaws and flamethrowers to inflict damage.

The human defenders at A9 Checkpoint numbered barely ten thousand.

On average, that meant each had to face five Giants.

After the world-shaking Barrage of Rubble ended, over two thousand Giants broke through the battlefield and slammed into the Great Wall.

The wall shuddered violently.

Giants grabbed the breaches and began climbing.

At three hundred meters tall, the wall wasn’t particularly high for them—they themselves stood over a hundred meters tall. Read full story at novel✶fire.net

And what awaited them was an Asphalt Waterfall.

Countless sluice gates on the wall slammed open, and boiling black asphalt poured forth, forming multiple waterfalls of death.

The climbing Giants were caught off guard, drenched in the scalding, viscous liquid. Muscles melted under the heat, and bones twisted instantly.

Once reloaded, the “Thor’s Hammer” Heavy Cannons launched another bombardment, instantly annihilating a large number of distant Giants.

The steam crossbows, now cooled, resumed firing waves of quenched steel arrows, forcibly suppressing the Giants’ charge.

But the problem was that the front the checkpoint defenders had to guard was simply too long.

A city wall stretching thirty to forty kilometers.

Some Giants even chose to take the long route and climbed over the Great Wall—currently, the checkpoint defenders couldn’t handle that.

More and more Giants were closing in on the Great Wall and began ramming the walls.

As the distance shortened, the human defenders saw all kinds of Giants.

The Berserker Giants who became increasingly violent the more injured they were.

The Shield Giants bearing massive shields, clad in heavy armor, slow-moving.

The Volcano Giants who crawled on all fours, carrying a small volcano on their backs.

The Stone Giants, whose entire bodies were made of rock, boasting extremely strong defense.

The Magnetic Giants capable of attracting all kinds of metal equipment.

The battle gradually evolved into a white-hot phase.

Around the Great Wall, humans and Giants engaged in fierce attack-and-defense combat.

If there was anything to be grateful for, it was that the Great Wall had an extremely abundant supply of asphalt.

At this moment, the area before the wall was covered in asphalt, making it difficult for the Giants to advance even an inch.

On the distant battlefield, human ground forces were engaging the Giants in fierce firefights.

Most of the tanks and Mechanical Giant Sentinels had already been destroyed, leaving only the Mobile City forces.

The Level 1 Mobile Cities dodged the Giants' pursuit with high-speed movement, then wildly opened fire at their heads.

It had to be said, they applied the “small body, big fists” tactic to the extreme.

One after another, Giants had their heads blown apart and collapsed heavily.

However, quite a few Level 1 Cities were hit by Barrage of Rubble from the Giants, or forcibly grabbed and knocked over.

For them, stopping meant death.

The commanders naturally understood that sending ground troops was a one-way mission.

But to hold the Great Wall, they had to dispatch units to deplete the Giants’ strength.

One commander immediately made a decision.

“Spray out all the asphalt we have stored!” he ordered.

Another commander was stunned upon hearing this.

Though asphalt was useful, it was also highly polluting.

Once this high-temperature viscous liquid seeped into the soil, it would completely block all soil pores and annihilate all signs of life.

For a hundred years, not a blade of grass would grow on that land.

The asphalt would also gradually seep down, forming a pollution belt stretching tens of kilometers, even contaminating groundwater.

Staring at the incoming waves of Giants who came without pause, the proposing commander clenched his teeth bitterly.

“If they’re ruthless, then we must be even more ruthless! This continent-level structure that has stood on the Southern Continent for over fifty years must not fall in our hands!”

After a vote, the asphalt operation plan was approved.

A few seconds later, countless sluice gates at the base of the Great Wall opened simultaneously.

Tens of thousands of tons of stored high-temperature asphalt poured out like a black tsunami.

The charging Giants were caught off guard, and their legs were instantly submerged.

The asphalt sea spread over the Giants’ legs at a speed of several meters per second. The Giants struggled to pull out their legs, but like elephants trapped in a swamp, the harder they struggled, the faster they sank.

Many Giants tried to leap away, but the 200-degree asphalt had already scorched through their soles, carbonizing and sloughing off the muscles with a sizzling burn.

Several others fell into the asphalt sea, and amid their terrified screams, asphalt poured into their mouths and noses, congealing into suffocating black lumps within their tracheae.

From above, the asphalt sea looked like a retaliatory tide sweeping through the Giants.

As the commanders gave the order, the remaining fighter jets in the sky immediately dropped incendiary bombs.

The asphalt sea instantly transformed into a sea of fire, blue-white flames raging wildly over the black viscous fluid.

One by one, the Giants turned into burning fireballs. Their flesh became the best fuel, and their bones exploded with sharp cracks in the blaze.

A stench of roasting meat mixed with petroleum quickly filled the air within tens of kilometers.

Within a short span, the tactic of igniting the asphalt sea eliminated ten thousand Giants.

Watching the raging sea of fire and the Giants writhing and wailing in the flames, Li Ye clicked his tongue.

He picked up his Observation Scope and looked into the distance, discovering that the remaining Giants had begun to retreat.

The remaining “Thor’s Hammer” Heavy Cannons and steam crossbows on the Great Wall took turns firing again, sending them off.

“We actually held the line,” he murmured in surprise.

Perhaps the Giants would circle around and attack other walls or checkpoints, but that was no longer their concern.

No one knew how long it took, but eventually, the raging asphalt sea was extinguished.

In the smoke-choked black tide, countless charred Giant corpses remained in their final struggling postures.

The terrified expressions of the Giants were also perfectly preserved.

The entire battlefield had become a surrealist exhibition of death.

Of the ground forces sent into battle by the human defenders, only a few scattered Level 1 Mobile Cities survived.

Separated by the boiling asphalt sea in front, they had to detour a long way to return to the Great Wall.

“We finally held out.”

The commander who first proposed the plan let out a sigh of relief.

Looking at the Giants submerged in the asphalt sea, his eyes glimmered with genuine pride.

“The asphalt sea tactic really works. We need to share it with other allied forces as soon as possible,” he muttered.

Several other commanders stroked their chins, thoughtful.

If polluting the land could defend the Great Wall, then this method was indeed feasible.

Minutes later, the reconnaissance aircraft brought back good news.

The Giants had already retreated and were expanding to other areas.

The commanders nodded slightly.

With that, the A9 Checkpoint could finally enjoy a brief respite.