Steel steam and flame

Swinging down on the rope, the cold wind made Theodore narrow his eyes. After looking around, he determined his position, and after making a corresponding comparison on the map in his head, he looked in a direction in front of him, and soon jumped off the top of the mountain and got into the clouds and mist.

It was the same feeling that the communicator gave him for a few seconds, relative silence. The thunder continued uninterrupted. Compared to a few hours ago, the heavy rain did become lighter. The color of the rain curtain became slightly whiter, but the impact on the line of sight was still there.

Not long after, Theodore had arrived at the edge of the area where more than a hundred people had died in a short time. In fact, he was still lucky in his heart, thinking that it was just the influence of thunderstorms. The power of climate was indeed not something that his level could resist. Having been to extreme areas several times, he knew and understood extreme climates. He himself thought that humans could barely survive there, even as a surgeon.

Approaching very slowly and gently, Theodore opened his cross pupils. With the ability to sense temperature, a heat source that was different from the cold background appeared. The dim red was motionless, and the time between the signal disappearing and him coming over was probably less than half an hour. Even if he became a corpse, his body temperature would drop slowly.

"They are all dead for sure." Theodore used the vibration in his throat to explain what he had observed so far. His footsteps stopped in place. He was not sure whether the prey would hide inside under the cover of these corpses. It is true that you can avoid the detection of temperature sensors. If you rush over there, there is a certain danger. Theodore didn't believe that prey would take such a big risk to hide in this area. But in the end, he did not pass, but retreated a certain distance.

"How many airships came down?" he asked at this time.

"Four ships have been defended at the foot of the mountain." Stian's voice sounded.

"I need the help of an airship here. It only takes a few minutes." Theodore's attention has been focused on the front. "You should know my position. Using the analysis machine to calculate it, it is probably a different place." Go to the two-hundred-meter circle, five hundred meters in front of me. Use the machine gun to fire once indiscriminately. The density is denser. I suspect that the prey may be hiding in it."

"It will take about five minutes for the nearest airship to get to your place."

"Be careful to avoid obvious thunderclouds. The airship is still something we are trying our best to avoid losses at the moment."

Hiding quietly behind a rock, Theodore observed all the subtle changes in the clouds and mist. Except for the rapidly declining body temperature, there was no moving object.

Five minutes later, multiple "buzzing" beeps fell from the sky, and then amidst the chaotic sound of "whisping", the clouds and fog in front of Theodore began to struggle completely. The bright ballistic lines tore open the thick layer of roiling clouds, and the hard rock surface also boiled. The rocks splashed and spread out in a puff, like the surface of a lake under a heavy rain, sweeping away and destroying everything above the surface.

Lasting less than a minute, the blood from the corpse mixed with the rain flowed down the hillside, dyeing the ground around Theodore red. But the fishy smell was suppressed by the water vapor, and only a faint smell reached his nose.

His own perception made him feel something was wrong, and he immediately held his breath. Theodore put on his mask, and looked at the increasingly thick blood at his feet, and his face under the mask became serious.

Some kind of invisible substance was brought to him in large quantities through the blood. His skin felt a slight heat, and the air he just breathed in made his lungs slightly hotter. It seems that I know how the prey managed to kill more than a hundred people in a short time. But it still needs to be determined, and there are many things he hasn't figured out yet.

"It seems that the prey came here for a purpose, but I didn't expect it to be so surprising." He sighed, and waited until news came from Stian that the attack had stopped, then he slowly and cautiously walked forward.

The corpses were all broken into pieces by the machine gun fire, and their bodies were far from strong enough to withstand the machine gun bullets. It does not prevent Theodore from examining these corpses. The skins all have the same characteristics, the difference lies in the degree. They were ablation marks caused by high temperatures in a short period of time. They seemed to be burning from the inside of the body to the outside. It was also like the corrosion of chemicals, leaving behind a ferocious red spot.

"The concentration of germs here is very high, which is completely different from the values ​​we tested originally." Looking at the concave hole in the rock in front of him, Theodore could imagine the scene when the prey was hiding inside. Not far away, a blackened rock surface caught his attention. Only high temperatures can create that kind of mark. In the center, he even saw some vitrified gravel spots.

"Is it the 'germ' that caused the instant death of these people?" El and Stian asked after listening to Theodore's explanation of what he observed.

"If it were not long ago, I would definitely agree with this view. But now, I think it is not a 'germ'. No matter how high the concentration is, based on the data we have detected, it cannot kill the operator within a few seconds. There will be It's a process. And judging from the situation here, it would be more appropriate to think of 'germs' as what remains after the use of a certain weapon, like the smoke remaining after a bullet is fired. They were killed by other things... ," Theodore walked among the broken corpses and said his thoughts. A slight squirming sound interrupted his words. There was something in the corpse fragments. He crushed a piece of flesh and blood with his foot, and a bright red tissue was not dead, twisting like an insect larvae awakened from hibernation. It was a dragon-like organization that had regained life.

"Did the prey increase its strength during this period of time, or did it acquire some surgically developed abilities in a short period of time?" After hearing Theodore's explanation of the situation of dragon tissues after the influence of "germs", I thought of at this point.

"It's impossible to tell, but no matter what the outcome is, we have to re-evaluate this mission. Knowing that the prey is illegally selling weapons in the black market is just an excuse, but the real reason is really surprising." Use his feet to remove the dragon. The tissue was crushed into pieces. While talking about the latest situation here, Theodore turned and ran to the foot of the mountain, "I won't go back to the airship. I don't know what the special characteristics of the prey's body are, maybe it has to do with his ability to be immune to our biological poisons." It has something to do with it. He was not far away from where the 'germ' weapon was made, and was also injured by that weapon. I think no matter how strong the resistance is, it will be affected to some extent."

"There is a high possibility of going back to hide in the cave to recover, but it does not rule out that he will take this opportunity to escape from the encirclement. Keep the communication between us and report the encirclement information to me in real time. By the way, El, you also We need to be prepared for the one percent situation that we have been unwilling to see."

El didn't answer directly, just said "hmm".

The silence was too quiet, and after a minute or two, El spoke: "Theodore, after re-evaluating this mission, I think you and I have the same idea."

"Of course, I'm waiting for you to ask me." Theodore replied, "You want to pretend that this matter didn't happen? Do you mean to be a person who has nothing to do with it? It seems that there is no choice. To complete this mission, than Let's just leave and let the mission end in failure. No matter how you think about it, the outcome will be much better."