Steel steam and flame

"Let everyone around you enter a fighting state, and be sure to guard the area around the top of the mountain." El said to Stian. In the crater in front of him, the flames turned into thick smoke in about ten seconds, and the thick smoke column even appeared in a short time. It cannot be blown away by strong winds within a certain period of time. The pervasive smell of gunpowder smoke seemed to have penetrated the protective armor of the airship and entered his sense of smell.

"How many people are still out of the cave network?"

"Probably only about 10% of the total number of people now. They are the farthest from the crater. Even if you choose the shortest route according to the map, it will take a long time. But I think the number of people should be enough. Now there are people gathered nearby. The number of nearly a thousand people, according to the plan you made not long ago, Captain Il, was distributed step by step on the mountain beside the crater. Whether it was the airship or them, the longer-lasting flares also The supplies are enough. It will definitely be enough to round up the prey in the time it takes to use them." Stian replied, "And I personally think that the next action is probably not to round up, but to find prey in the crater. Bodies. Even if there is no death, serious injuries are inevitable."

El didn't comment on Stian's words. He mentally agreed with half of Stian's conjecture and kept the other half as unknown.

At this time, four other airships broke through the clouds below, raised an angle of thirty degrees and climbed rapidly up the mountain. Under Il's order, the four airships hovered in the sky near the crater. They did not attack again. Instead, they all adjusted the lift devices under the navy blue steel bodies, posed an angle, and leaned against the crater. The huge man-made winds accelerated the dispersal of the continuous thick smoke that shrouded the crater.

The thick smoke turned back at an angle from its source and spread out toward the sky, quickly dyeing it a darker color. At this moment, the other six airships turned on their searchlights, and the beams spread out in mid-air, illuminating huge patches of ground below.

After a few minutes, the thick smoke became lighter, and the remaining smoke floated up like a layer of mist, always covering the crater. The scenery below can be seen more clearly. A piece of black after being burned by the flames, there are more than a dozen huge cracks on the raised outer edge of the mountain pass. It is not known how long it will take before it will completely crack and roll down. Almost all the ice melted, turning into a shallow lake that fell into the crater. Maybe only the ice at the bottom didn't melt in the erosion of the flames.

The rocks collapsed, and there were all large and small craters and bullet holes. Shrapnel was embedded in the hard mountain, leaving a scorching trace of looting. Indeed, no place is complete. Under such a dense attack, without a harder object as a shield, the metal debris alone can form a fatal large-scale attack. The body cannot stop this flow.

The melted ice water was almost boiling, and sheets of steam with a strong sulfur smell rose up, but they were blown away by the wind the next moment. It was hard to see what was underneath the lake, because there was a layer of dissolved gunpowder smoke floating on the surface of the water. It was shiny gray-black and spread over a large area like the duckweed that grows wildly in the fields in early summer.

"All airships are ready to launch. If there is any movement, use 10% of the ammunition to attack." The other six airships also lowered to a certain height at this time. Il opened his cross pupils and stared down. , as if you want to completely penetrate the mountain with your eyes.

The surroundings became quiet at some point, and all observation units focused their attention on the rising steam and fine ripples on the water.

Time passed by in this unknowingly tense atmosphere. Within two or three minutes, huge invisible pressure emerged from the gaps in the air. A sense of violence rose in everyone's hearts at the same time, and their heartbeats and breathing unconsciously became much faster.

The sun accelerated its fall in the silent silence. As the natural light quickly disappeared, only the light of the searchlight and the brief white light of lightning were left.

Finally, in the corner of everyone's eyes, the last ray of dim sunlight disappeared, and the entire space became dimmer. At the same time, an invisible buzzing sound spread through the air and the mountain into everyone's heads. It was as if the sun had really fallen a moment ago.

A change occurred under the water at this time. Under the shining gray-black gunpowder smoke, a flickering red light lit up. A series of bubbles suddenly rushed out of the water, and "Gululu" exploded. In just the blink of an eye, all the water inside the crater was heated to a boiling state by some heat source, and the steam rolled upwards. But the next moment, the faint red light suddenly burned, and the red color also changed in the blink of an eye. It turned into a dazzling white light, which once overwhelmed the gradually spreading light of thirty or forty beams of searchlights.

"Attack!" Before Il could finish his words, the terrifying heat carried by the blazing white light evaporated all the water in the crater in an instant, and a huge steam explosion rushed into the sky with steam smoke like snow-white dust. The next moment it was penetrated into a bright white color with a faint red tint.

"Boom, boom, boom -" Immediately afterwards, a substantial ripple of air expanded and rose from the crater. The huge thrust dragged the entire piece of steam dust into the air, revealing the covered form. That ripple carried terrifying heat, and the air where it passed was completely distorted. The bullets that were fired at it were also affected by this air wave, and their trajectories curved and flew to other places. The gas in the crater was completely repelled by the impact, and a vacuum zone was formed in the blink of an eye.

Stian looked down, with a solemn expression as if he was about to squeeze out the water from his body. There is surprise inside, or speculation caused by rapid thinking, but more importantly, it is the fear of choosing not to believe.

El immediately stopped the attack and narrowed his eyes slightly. Only then did we finally see clearly what was inside the crater. Even though the air is slightly distorted, the colors there are very eye-catching and are not affected by air refraction at all.

He clearly saw a man covered in blood standing there. The lava around him was already covered with bullets and shrapnel, and there were even many scratches on the body. But El believes that such injuries are more caused by shock damage caused by impact.

It was the prey that even Il had only seen in photos. It's just that the difference in actual appearance is very huge. When it enters the scaly state, its appearance is almost completely changed. The scales have made the human face disappear. Next to the prey was a silver-white ball that was about half the height. It was covered with round holes and was still extremely smooth without any scratches. The corners of the mouth have been completely torn, and the sharp white fangs that cannot be hidden can be seen through the mouth. The arm that was slowly dripping with blood was holding two weapon-like hexagonal prisms, and less than half of the surface was covered with blood.

The prey itself seems to be the source of heat, and the surrounding space seems to be unable to withstand the heat and distort, making the shadow look like a dream scene and not real. The faint red lines are slowly disappearing from the prey's body at this moment, hidden under the black scales.

Only the bright red pit in front of him with a diameter of about ten meters emitted a ray of light, drawing out a similarly curved and undulating shadow.

The condensed lava was melted by something, and a large bottomless hole was directly ablated. Bright colors spread all over the walls of the deep cave. The molten red lava was flowing towards the bottom of the deep cave.

It is also mixed with connected and flashing arcs, weaving into layers of bright nets that lead all the way to the inside of the mountain.

As if he felt something, in El's eyes, the prey raised its head at this moment, and its bright red pupils faced him through the distorted air. He saw that face, the smile and madness overflowing on the scales.

His mouth was open, and even though blood flowed from the torn corner of his mouth every time he spoke, El had to admit that it was a textbook pronunciation and mouth shape.

"I wish you good luck." The prey said, and then in El's eyes, a black tail sprang out from behind the prey, inserted into the hole of the ball next to it, held up the ball, and then the body turned into a shadow and rushed towards The raised outer edge of a volcano crater.

"Buzzing--" The vibrating sound was like the roots of an ancient tree, shaking the space.