Chapter 194: Unpredictable Moment  

The guns and cannons kept firing away but this was a top level mutated beast so it did not have much effect. How fast can a snake be? Well, according to pre-apocalyptic research, once a snake gets within a good attacking distance of its prey, it can attack and bite it in 0.1 seconds (that also includes injecting venom). Due to human limitations, it was truly difficult to capture the movements of the snake.

As for this mutated beast, it is basically faster than an ordinary snake so it was expected that its speed was incredibly fast! Everyone felt helpless and even hopeless. In just a second, the armored vehicle which started shooting at the beast seemed to have disappeared completely- only leaving behind a bloody and oily smell in the air. In the next second, numerous parts of the vehicle rained down from the sky and half of the vehicle was in the mouth of the giant mutated snake. The thin armor of the vehicle definitely could not withstand the snake’s sharp and strong teeth which had completely sunk into the vehicle. It seemed inevitable that the soldiers inside the vehicle were all dead by then.

The giant mutated snake seemed to know that the vehicle was not a living creature; it spat the vehicle out hundreds of meters away and upon hitting the ground; it exploded. As the entire scene was too crazy for them to fathom, everyone subconsciously stood still and became very quiet. Nobody dared to move to prevent the giant mutated snake from noticing them.

The crystal clear but cold-blooded eyes of the snake started to glance through the crowd; scanning from left to right to find its next victim. Through its eyes alone; fear and horror could strike those who looked into them. The only thing on their side was the fact that the snake was no longer in optimal condition due to the series of attacks it endured moments ago. Most of its scales were shattered and its skin was slightly injured too; there was blood slowly oozing out from its body.

The atmosphere became very depressed as everyone was hit hard by the fear of death. Suddenly, a self-propelled artillery caught everyone’s attention (including the giant mutated snake) as hydraulic jet sounds were particularly clear in such a quiet environment. The snake looked at the weapon and its sharp teeth became visible. "Oh no!" Luo Yuan’s heart was pounding quickly in his chest. In just a second, he saw a black shadow fly past him with strong wind circulating around it.

The next moment, he heard a loud noise - Boooommmm! The self-propelled artillery was hit badly by a huge force. As a result, its ten-meter-long barrel was broken and its armor was completely damaged. At the same time, a few soldiers nearby were subsequently killed as they had no chance to react when the heavy machine flew in their direction. Their bodies were crushed and blood splattered everywhere.

The giant mutated snake did not stop there; it took notice of another self-propelled artillery and was ready to attack. Perhaps it could sense the danger and threat posed by the giant metallic monster so it lowered its head and stretched its body; its giant tail swept through the ground and all the fortifications around its vicinity were wiped away instantly; even a few boulders weighing several tons were blown away.

Within seconds, the other heavy self-propelled artillery was hit badly and was no longer recognizable. All its parts were scattered everywhere and the remaining steel case flew a few meters away. The snake then continued to attack the remaining vehicles around the area.

Everyone else was lying on the floor and dared not make any moves. Wang Shishi was hugged tightly in Luo Yuan’s arm; her face was filled with fear and her body kept on trembling. It was rare for Luo Yuan to have a strong feeling of helplessness. If the snake were to be in front of his face right now; he would not be able to defend himself from its attacks. He was scared and for the first time, he felt like fleeing.

However, he quickly snapped himself out of his fear. He knew well enough that he would die even faster if he attempted to run away. Looking at the entire team on the ground, the giant mutated snake seemed to jeer at them. It slowly wriggled forward, but its speed was considered fast to them.

The snake’s silvery scales reflected the light from the Sun and several soldiers could not keep their eyes off its huge body in front of them. They couldn’t help much as their bodies were already weak and out of strength. The snake suddenly lowered its head, and unfortunately one of the soldiers was already in its mouth.

Upon realizing this, he screamed hysterically and tried to struggle but very soon the screams faded and disappeared. His whole body was swallowed into its stomach in an instant. The rest of the soldiers became frantic after seeing this scene. They jumped up and began to shoot at the snake. As brave as they were, the bullets hardly inflicted any pain on the snake’s body. Instead, the soldiers were swallowed into its stomach one by one.

Fatty Xie who was very near to the scene was already prepared to fight, but this time he was totally frozen in fear. The deaths and screams in front of him drove him crazy. He noticed the sky turning darker and a strong wind blew towards him. He was stunned but immediately stood up, gathered his strength, and took a leap! He managed to escape to a place five to six meters away. He had never been so fast before, but he suddenly felt a pain on his waist.

"Noooo!!"

Before he died, he seemed to hear his bones being broken and right after that, he lost his consciousness forever. Luo Yuan took a glance and immediately turned away. His face carried all sorts of negative emotions. Fatty Xie was already running very quickly! His speed was equivalent to about thirteen points, but still, he could not escape from the snake.

Luo Yuan secretly estimated the success rate of the team if they tried to escape, however, the result was disappointing. No matter how he calculated, they had very little hope. The snake was just too fast and no one could escape from it. It was impossible to wait for it to go away after it was full because at its current size, it would probably just be half full even if it ate everyone here.

"Bloody hell."

The screams of the soldiers disappeared one by one, and soon it would be their turn. Luo Yuan was anxious and a trickle of sweat slid down from his forehead. Suddenly, he noticed Commander Xia who was ten meters away from him. His head was bowed down as he attempted to camouflage himself in the grass; but his hands seemed busy doing something. Luo Yuan was able to sense very quickly that his hands were holding level five explosive bombs! He was using grass to pull all the lids together.

“This is...” his face slightly changed as he spoke. He was stunned and hesitated for quite a while, but slowly he let go of Wang Shishi and told her softly, “You stay here and be careful."

"Luo... Brother Luo... don’t go... you will die..." Wang Shishi was scared for herself and for him. She was still gripping on to Luo Yuan’s clothes.

"Don’t worry, I am very powerful. I will not die easily." Luo Yuan squeezed out a smile on his face to try to comfort Wang Shishi.

Wang Shishi shook her head and did not let go of his hand. Tears rolled down her eyes as she uttered, "But... But I’m still scared."

"Don’t cry. Stay here and do not move no matter what happens.” Luo Yuan slowly took Wang Shishi’s hand away and rubbed her head softly.

Then, Luo Yuan just turned away and tried not to look at her face full of tears. He took a deep breath and crawled towards Commander Xia slowly. He constantly heard the screams of soldiers indicating their imminent death. He tried very hard to keep his head low and did not even dare to take a glance. He simply relied on his skin and nose to sense the surrounding.

Commander Xia’s position was about seven to eight meters away from where Luo Yuan planted himself. There were two or three more soldiers nearby so he didn’t look too noticeable here. This would be the best distance for him to attack; if he stayed too close he would attract the attention of the snake and lose his best opportunity.

Suddenly, he noticed a strange phenomenon... about twenty meters away, Mu Wenwen was lying alone on the ground. There were no other soldiers around her- apparently all the soldiers in the area were already eaten by the snake. Luo Yuan disregarded her but continued to focus on the snake. His entire body was tensed to the point that the veins on his forehead had popped out. He kept low on the ground and stretched out his arms and knees, the soil on the ground was slightly moved by his foot. With this position, he could have more power to leap forward when the right opportunity arose.

Finally, the snake stared at Commander Xia. The sight of its eyes made him shiver. He held the bombs tightly in his hand waiting for the right moment to present itself. At this point, suddenly Xiao Fei pressed and held on Commander Xia’s hand. He said calmly, "There are people waiting for you to go back. Let me go before you."

"You......" Commander Xia lips trembled as he spoke; he did not know what to say.

Xiao Fei then picked up the mortar beside him, placed it on his shoulder, and fired. The bullet hit the unsuspecting snake which was only around ten meters away. Everything happened so quickly again but this time the snake was not aware of the attack beforehand thus it was a direct shot which hit its stomach and exploded.

"Roarrrrrrrrrrrrr!" The giant mutated snake roared in pain! Despite how powerful it was, it had a petite body which was light; thus the explosion of the mortar made its body tilt to one side.

"Good chance!" Luo Yuan whispered as he prepared himself to attack.

Two big holes could be seen on the ground where he positioned his feet. He ran at lighting speed towards the giant mutated snake with his Zhanmadao hanging on his body. His eyes were fully focused on the head of the snake. He had actually never been so focused before. He gathered his will and a hazy light surrounded his entire body. It was clearly visible on this bright sunny day.

His speed was picking up and with only two steps he leaped up into the sky. He was too fast and what everyone could see was just a myriad of dust and rocks forming a mini-tornado behind him. There was only one chance, either he would be alive or dead at the end of it. Simple as that.

He kept his eyes sharp and after a few strides, he was already very close to the snake’s head. At this time, the snake had recovered from the initial attack, and its cold eyes were ferocious. When it tried to raise its body to kill this "insect" that hurt it, Luo Yuan had reached close to it with his Zhanmadao; aiming for its jaw.

Everyone held their breath looking at this scene as if the time had just stopped ticking. What they saw next was the jaw of the giant mutated snake raised up a few meters and at the same time a black shadow was thrown into the distance.

"Roarrrrrrrrr!" the giant mutated snake indicated that it was in severe pain.

Everyone quickly stood up and some of the soldiers even began to run away. Some of the sharp-eyed people noticed that there was a knife jabbed into the snake’s jaw. The knife had completely penetrated its jaw to the point where only the handle was still visible.

Wang Shishi knew that Luo Yuan was the black shadow thrown into the distance. She screamed loudly with fear in her mind. She disregarded the fact that the snake was still alive and quickly ran towards Luo Yuan.