On the main front, the situation had changed.
The Fertilizer gang's fighters, clad in scrap armor and armed with melee weapons and iron shields, had unexpectedly coordinated well and managed to hold back the onslaught of the junkies.
Mama of the Chem Gang, seeing that her expendable troops were almost depleted, turned to her subordinates: "Children, release Mama's little dogs," she commanded. "Let them tear the enemies apart!"
The core of the Chem Gang entered the fray – the chem-dogs. Compared to the junkies, they were much more elite fighters: all in scrap armor, with shields and weapons, and Mama's close associates even had homemade firearms.
Mama's plan was simple: first, exhaust the Fertilizer fighters with waves of drug addicts, and then throw in fresh thugs.
But the Fertilizer boss, Electric Eye, had his own ace up his sleeve. He smirked coldly and gave an order to a group of special individuals standing nearby:
"Begin."
Each of these suicide bombers carried a backpack on their back, packed with explosives, detonators, and scrap metal. One such explosion created a monstrous shrapnel storm.
These men were prisoners from the Middle Hive. They hadn't even adapted to life in the Underhive before falling into the hands of the Fertilizer gang.
The bandits only took those who had families. They forced men to become living bombs, guaranteeing the life and safety of their wives, children, and elders in return.
And now the moment had come for these men to play their part.
Fear and pain flashed in the eyes of one of the suicide bombers, which eventually gave way to a silent question.
"Will you take care of my family?"
Electric Eye remained silent. Instead, one of his senior subordinates stepped forward: "Fifteen years ago, my father blew himself up. I was ten then."
The bandit paused. "Now I am the boss's right-hand man. My mother works in the fertilizer vats, and according to forecasts, she will live to be forty before dying of illness."
For a resident of a prosperous world, these words would have sounded monstrous, but here, in the Underhive, they became the very "favorable condition" for which the man was willing to die.
"Swear," the suicide bomber demanded, fixing his gaze on the boss's single eye. "In the name of the Emperor."
He tightened the straps of the explosive backpack.
"I swear, in the name of the Emperor," Electric Eye replied. "Your child will become my foreman when he grows up, and your wife will get a job."
The boss raised his voice: "They will die in a gang war, from a chemical illness, or from unbearable labor, but they will not die losing their dignity, tormented by someone's whim!"
The man closed his eyes. A tear rolled down his cheek. When he opened them again, only rage and cruelty remained in his gaze.
Fifty living bombs, with a howl, rushed forward, towards the crowd of chemically insane individuals.
Two waves collided with a roar, and explosions erupted.
Bodies were torn to shreds, shrapnel mowed down ranks, reaching even the chem-dogs in the rear.
Blood, guts, scraps of flesh and limbs flew everywhere. For this world, they were just dirt on the golden boots of the Master of Mankind – without meaning, without value.
The attack of the main Chem forces faltered in the blood of the suicide bombers. Electric Eye laughed. In his left hand, he clutched a huge cleaver, in his right – a large-caliber homemade gun.
"Brothers, forward!" he roared. "We'll crush these junkies in one blow!"
Shouting, he was the first to charge. This act so inspired the Fertilizer fighters that they roared and rushed to chop the enemy, pushing the front line into the Chem territory.
Mama gritted her teeth in fury.
"Release all the chem-pigs!" she shrieked.
Her subordinate, hearing the order, trembled: "But, Mama, our people are mixed with the enemy... If we release the pigs now, they'll..."
"What?"
Mama shot him a look that made the bandit nearly wet himself. All he could do was pull out the remote and activate the monsters.
At the same time, on the flank, mounted on a container, Xiao Dao let out strange cries, furiously stabbing the brute who had jumped at them with a knife.
In reality, the mutant was already dead. When he jumped, Li Qinyu emptied the entire magazine of his semi-automatic rifle into him – fifteen bullets in two seconds, and all of them went into his chest.
The creature's heart, liver, and lungs turned to mush, death was instantaneous, but due to inertia, the carcass knocked Li Qinyu down and pinned him.
Xiao Dao, terrified to death, started screaming and hacking at the corpse with his little knife. In a couple of moments, this guy managed to land over a hundred blows!
Li Qinyu, suffocating under the weight of the two-meter-tall mass of muscle, roared, "Push him off!"
Xiao Dao continued to howl, "A-a-a-a-a-a!"
"Damn it! Stop stabbing him!" Li Qinyu snapped. "He's dead! Push him, damn it!"
Xiao Dao froze, staring at the motionless brute, and only now realized what was happening. He hastily pushed the corpse aside.
Li Qinyu got up, caught his breath, and began searching the body. From the mutant's pants pocket, he retrieved four stimpacks.
Not bad. The loot corresponded to the opponent's strength; after all, this was a mini-boss.
Satisfied, Li Qinyu put the syringes in his backpack. Meanwhile, the situation on the battlefield changed again.
After a series of explosions, the main forces of the Fertilizers and Chemics clashed in a decisive battle.
And then the Chemics played their last card – over thirty chem-pigs.
These monsters, two and a half meters tall, made of fat and implanted armor, began a chaotic slaughter as soon as they appeared.
The creatures had no minds; they didn't distinguish between friend and foe. They killed Fertilizer fighters, they killed Chemics, and even, when they encountered each other, they started fighting amongst themselves!
The battlefield instantly plunged into chaos.
Li Qinyu noticed from afar that the Chemics had released the pigs. He took out a magazine of fifth-level cartridges and loaded his rifle. It was a perfect opportunity to complete the Black Trader's quest to kill three such creatures.
He aimed at the slaughter for a long time but didn't shoot. Too much commotion: the pigs jumped back and forth, periodically tearing someone apart, and it was difficult to hit them.
Armor-piercing bullets were good for penetration, but to kill such a carcass, you had to aim for the head. Shooting the body was useless – the bullet would get stuck in the layers of fat and do no damage.
While he waited, one of the pigs grabbed a chem-fighter, knocked him to the ground, and sank its huge jaws directly into his stomach.
The unfortunate bandit screamed at the top of his lungs as the creature ripped open his belly and pulled out his intestines. What could he do with his thin arms against a mountain of meat?
The chem-pig knelt, slurping the entrails like noodles. The monster's head had almost stopped twitching – the perfect moment.
Li Qinyu raised his rifle, took a deep breath, and held it, steadying the barrel.
The crosshairs covered the head of the devouring creature. Shot.
Bang!
A heavy, high-pressure armor-piercing bullet burst from the barrel and precisely hit the monster's forehead.
The projectile pierced the iron helmet, broke through the skull, and turned the chemically enhanced brain into mush.
The creature didn't even grunt – its body stiffened and crashed to the ground. One shot – and a half-ton chemical monster was dead.