The Allied relief division was completely trapped inside the city. Their desperate attempts to break out were ruthlessly repelled by Hu Hao's operatives.
Every single step forward was paid for in blood. What terrified the Allied soldiers the most was the sheer unpredictability of the enemy. They had no idea when or where the lethal fire would strike next.
Sometimes, a Special Operations fireteam would unleash a devastating volley, drop several men, and vanish. By the time the surviving Allied soldiers pivoted and saturated the suspected firing position with return fire, the operatives were already gone, relocating to their next ambush point.
The Commander of the relief division cowered on the ground floor of a high-rise, desperately racking his brain for a way to break out. The staff officers huddled around him were equally terrified; the realization that they were likely going to die in this ruined city was slowly paralyzing them.
Meanwhile, Major General Hippocrates was down to fewer than twenty men—half officers, half enlisted guardsmen. They were pinned down in a ruined storefront, too terrified to even twitch. They knew it was only a matter of time. If they didn't attempt a breakout, the Eastern Spirit hunters would eventually sweep the sector and find them.
"Commander... should we try to disguise ourselves as local civilians?" a desperate guardsman suggested.
Hippocrates took a drag from a scavenged cigarette and looked at the soldier incredulously. "Do we look like locals? We are white-skinned; the people of the Central Region are yellow-skinned. You want to disguise yourself as a civilian? Think of something actually useful!"
"But... but..." the soldier stammered. He just didn't want to die. Human nature dictated that when faced with absolute despair, a man would grasp at any absurd straw for survival.
"Don't overthink it. We've slaughtered our fair share of Eastern Spirit civilians. Now we're surrounded and about to be slaughtered in turn. It's the nature of war. If you pick up a rifle, you must be prepared to die by one!" Hippocrates said, his voice surprisingly calm as he accepted his fate.
"Yes, sir," the soldier nodded numbly.
"Listen. The gunfire in the distance is dying down. That means the relief division either managed to retreat, or... they've suffered the exact same fate as us. We likely dragged them into this death trap for nothing," Hippocrates muttered, listening to the sporadic, fading reports of heavy sniper rifles.
"Maybe they broke out! They're a full division, and they maintained unit cohesion! It's impossible for this phantom enemy to annihilate a cohesive division so quickly!" a surviving Colonel argued, clinging to a shred of hope.
"It's highly probable they are being annihilated right now. We still don't know exactly what kind of unit we're fighting, but we must acknowledge their terrifying combat effectiveness.
"They are absolute masters of unconventional urban warfare. They possess overwhelming precision firepower, specifically those heavy anti-materiel rifles. This has to be an elite, Tier-One unit commanded directly by Hu Hao," Hippocrates analyzed with grim clarity.
"GET DOWN!" a soldier suddenly screamed.
Before Hippocrates or the officers could react...
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Several fragmentation grenades detonated simultaneously inside the ruined storefront. A Special Operations sweep team had finally located them.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Two pairs of operatives immediately breached the storefront from opposite directions, their suppressed rifles sweeping the room. They fired ruthlessly into the twitching, groaning bodies of the Allied soldiers, ensuring mutual covering fire as they cleared the fatal funnel.
Thirty seconds later, the lead operative called out, "Clear!"
The other three operatives entered the room, their rifles still raised as they scanned the mangled corpses. They stood back-to-back, establishing 360-degree security. One of the operatives used his boot to roll over a corpse wearing a general's uniform.
"Got a Major General here," the operative reported.
"That's likely the Division Commander. Check his dog tags," another operative instructed.
The first operative crouched down and flicked on his rifle's weapon light, while the other three maintained overwatch on the street and the doorways.
"Name is Hippocrates. That matches the intel for the Tianyu City garrison commander," the operative confirmed, reading the blood-spattered tags.
"Take one of the tags. Cut off his shoulder boards and unit patches. That's our proof of kill! Hey, there's a Brigadier General over here too! Grab his insignia as well! We hit the jackpot tonight, boys! Haha!" one of the operatives laughed softly, thrilled by the massive haul of combat merits.
"Confirmed kill on a Division Commander, rank of Major General... according to Imperial Law, that's enough merit for all four of us to receive a direct promotion!" The operative on the ground quickly snipped the dog tag chain and sliced off the general's insignia with his combat knife.
He then moved to the other dead officers, methodically harvesting their identification. Once they had collected the proof of their kills, the four operatives silently melted back into the rainy night. To them, the corpse of a Major General held no more significance than the corpse of a private once the proof of kill was secured.
"Report, Hao-ge! A sweep team just confirmed the kill on the Tianyu City garrison commander, Major General Hippocrates! They have secured his dog tags and insignia. They are requesting visual confirmation later," Dong Qipeng reported, having just received the encrypted burst transmission from the squad leader.
"Excellent. That means the original garrison force is essentially wiped out, correct?" Hu Hao asked.
"Yes, sir. Eliminating the Division Commander and his Guard Battalion breaks the back of their final organized resistance," Dong Qipeng confirmed.
"Good. The men fought flawlessly," Hu Hao nodded, looking out over the city.
The battle still raged in the distance, but the Allied resistance was growing weaker and more erratic. As their numbers dwindled, many Allied soldiers succumbed to despair and panic. They began firing wildly at shadows, and in several tragic instances, engaged in frantic friendly fire incidents.
The psychological terror of this asymmetrical warfare was breaking them. Watching their comrades fall one by one without ever seeing the enemy induced a profound, paralyzing helplessness.
"Hao-ge, the relief division is on the verge of total collapse as well. They're not getting out of this city," Dong Qipeng noted, observing the dwindling pockets of resistance.
"Mm. Tell the Platoon Commanders to ease off the pressure. Let the men take their time. Tell them to focus on perfecting their tactics and identifying the most efficient, secure methods of clearing the remaining pockets. Use this as a learning opportunity; don't just rush the kills. Encourage them to experiment and think critically!" Hu Hao ordered.
"Yes, sir! I'll tell them to slow down!" Dong Qipeng acknowledged.
"No, don't rush them at all. We're not pressed for time. This is a rare, live-fire training environment. Let them dictate the pace and learn from the experience!" Hu Hao clarified.
"Oh, understood," Dong Qipeng nodded.
"Go join the sweep. Keep your head down and stay safe," Hu Hao told him.
"Ah! Really?! Thank you, Hao-ge! I've been itching to get out there all night! Standing around up here is torture!" Dong Qipeng grinned ferociously. He grabbed his rifle, signaled his personal security guard, and practically sprinted down the stairwell.
Hu Hao remained on the roof, calmly observing the final phases of the battle. The outcome was absolute; the Allied division was doomed.
He had specifically ordered his operatives to slow down and focus on tactical refinement, allowing them to consolidate their training under live conditions.
As the hours dragged on, the Allied resistance sputtered and died. Finally, only the pocket containing the Commander of the relief division remained active. The rest of his division had been systematically exterminated.
The Commander looked around his makeshift command post. He had fewer than a dozen men left. The rest of his division lay dead in the streets outside.
He let out a long, heavy sigh. He had marched into this city to rescue a trapped division, only to lead his own men into complete annihilation.
"Load your weapons. We break out now. If we die, we die charging forward!" the Commander ordered, his voice remarkably steady. He checked the chamber of his assault rifle, grabbed two spare magazines, and stood up.
"Yes, sir!" The surviving soldiers stood up as well. They knew survival was impossible, but they refused to die cowering in the dark. They would die as soldiers.
"Move out!" the Commander roared, leading the charge out of the shattered lobby doors into the street.
"COME ON!" he screamed, firing his rifle wildly into the dark windows of the surrounding buildings, his men following suit.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
The instant they broke cover, suppressed fire erupted from multiple high-rises. The Allied Commander and his final squad were stitched with bullets. The kinetic impact threw them backward; they slammed against the lobby walls and slid to the ground, dead before they even stopped moving.
"Damn. Gutsy bastards," Dong Qipeng muttered, lowering his rifle from a second-floor window across the street. He spat on the floor. He despised the Allied invaders, but he held a grudging respect for any soldier willing to face certain death with a frontal charge.
"All units, initiate final sweep! Ensure there is not a single living Allied soldier within the city limits!" Dong Qipeng ordered over the regimental net.
"Contact the 106th Corps headquarters. Tell Commander Wu to dispatch his cleanup crews to secure the city and process the corpses," Hu Hao ordered a comms officer on the roof.
"Yes, sir!" the officer immediately relayed the message.
"Special Operations Regiment, listen up. Once your sectors are clear, immediately proceed to the extraction points and mount up! It's currently 5:00 AM; dawn is breaking.
"You will sleep in the APCs. The rain is keeping the temperature down, so the vehicles won't be ovens. Rest up; we will likely have more combat operations during the day!" Hu Hao broadcasted the redeployment orders.
"Understood!" the Company Commanders replied in unison.
Meanwhile, at the Allied Supreme Command Headquarters, a haggard, sleep-deprived Vostok received the final, damning confirmation: contact with both divisions in Tianyu City had been permanently lost. They had been entirely annihilated.
"Draft emergency flash orders! Transmit to the garrisons in Tianjing City, Nanli City, and all adjacent sectors! They are to execute immediate, full-scale tactical withdrawals the moment the sun rises! They must break out and retreat to Liangyuan City immediately!" Vostok commanded, his voice tight with barely suppressed fury and dread.
(End of Chapter)