The fel-corrupted warriors kept advancing despite the torrent of gunfire.
They raised their massive forearms to shield their heads and vital organs, but the barrage was simply too dense. Bullets still slammed into their shoulders, ribs, thighs, and backs.
Their flesh had been reinforced by fel energy, preventing the rounds from reaching their organs, but they were still made of flesh and blood.
Thick, viscous green blood seeped from every wound.
Bullets lodged deep inside swollen muscle.
It hurt.
And they loved it.
"Heh... heh... hahahaha!"
The five monsters burst into savage laughter.
Their minds had long since been consumed by fel corruption. Pain no longer discouraged them.
It exhilarated them.
Every fresh wound only drove them into a greater frenzy.
The distance continued to close.
When they reached roughly fifty meters from the convoy, two of the Humvees’ mounted machine guns finally exhausted their ammunition belts.
The wall of fire weakened.
The opportunity lasted only a heartbeat.
The five monsters abandoned all pretense of defense.
"HAAAAAA!"
Laughing maniacally, they lowered their arms and charged at full speed.
Rip.
Smash.
Destroy.
Kill.
Nothing else remained inside their shattered minds.
Fear.
Self-preservation.
Reason.
Fel fire had burned them all away.
One of them surged ahead of the others.
Ten meters from the convoy, he launched himself into the air.
With a thunderous crash, he landed atop the center Humvee.
The gunner was frantically replacing the empty ammunition belt when the vehicle lurched violently beneath him.
A massive shadow swallowed him.
He slowly looked up.
The grotesque face staring back made his blood run cold.
"...Oh, fuck."
The monster ripped the mounted machine gun from its cradle as though it were made of cardboard.
The barrel was still glowing from sustained fire.
Without hesitation, the creature rammed the red-hot barrel straight into the gunner’s mouth.
It punched through the back of his skull.
The surrounding soldiers recoiled in horror, firing desperately as they retreated.
But their defensive line had already collapsed.
One monster had broken through.
The other four weren’t far behind.
A soldier stumbled backward while firing.
Two enormous hands suddenly seized his shoulders.
Razor-sharp claws punched effortlessly through his body armor and into flesh.
Bones cracked.
He screamed.
Then the monster pulled.
The soldier’s body tore apart under the impossible strength.
His scream ended instantly.
Another fel-corrupted warrior barreled directly into the formation like a tiger entering a flock of sheep.
What followed was slaughter.
In only a few seconds, seven American soldiers died.
One had his helmet and skull crushed together beneath a single punch.
Another was lifted overhead, slammed into the ground, and stomped flat before he could recover.
A third monster grabbed two soldiers by their heads and smashed their skulls together with enough force to pulp both helmets.
Captain Kobe stared at the carnage in utter disbelief.
One of the creatures bit through a soldier’s throat.
Then, laughing wildly, it drank from the spurting wound.
The last thread of composure snapped.
"My God..."
"What are these monsters?!"
"Fall back!"
"Retreat!"
Another scream echoed across the battlefield.
One more soldier had fallen.
A monster drove its clawed hand into the man’s abdomen.
Its entire forearm punched through his torso before bursting from his back.
Loops of intestine hung tangled around the bone spurs protruding from its arm.
The wound wasn’t immediately fatal.
The soldier remained alive.
Still conscious.
Still suffering.
The creature seemed delighted.
Grinning hideously, it slowly raised the impaled man above its head.
Blood streamed down its arm.
The dying soldier coughed crimson across the monster’s face.
His agony...
His terror...
His desperate struggle...
Every second of it brought the creature unspeakable pleasure.
But even the weak possessed dignity.
He could accept dying.
He refused to become entertainment.
"Monster..."
"We’re going to hell together."
With trembling fingers, he reached into the demolition pack on his back.
He withdrew a block of plastic explosive.
Using the last of his strength, he slapped it directly onto the monster’s face.
Then he smiled.
A smile every bit as mad as the creature’s own.
Only his was born of vengeance.
His thumb pressed the detonator.
BOOM!
The explosion erased the monster’s upper body.
The dying soldier vanished with it.
A cloud of blood and shattered flesh exploded across the desert.
The blast did more than kill one of the monsters.
It also detonated the nearby Humvee.
The vehicle erupted in flames, and the secondary explosion hurled the remaining four fel-corrupted warriors off their feet.
Captain Kobe’s ears rang from the shockwave.
He shook his head, forcing himself back to his senses.
"Everyone still alive!"
"Into the vehicles!"
He dove behind the wheel of the lead Humvee and floored the accelerator.
The engine roared.
The vehicle surged forward.
What about everyone else?
There was nothing he could do.
Staying behind offered only different varieties of death.
Die fighting.
Die running.
Die screaming.
There was no option that ended with everyone going home.
This wasn’t abandoning comrades.
It was recognizing the impossible.
Fortunately, Kobe’s vehicle had been at the front of the convoy.
Before the monsters recovered from the explosion, it tore away across the desert.
The remaining vehicles weren’t nearly as fortunate.
One had already been destroyed by the blast.
Another had been crippled from the very beginning.
The first monster to leap onto the Humvee hadn’t merely skewered the gunner with the mounted machine gun.
When it climbed down, it spotted the driver.
It reached into the cab...
And yanked him out.
Along with the steering wheel.
A third Humvee barely had time to move before two monsters overturned it by brute force.
The final vehicle managed to accelerate away.
Then the same particularly obnoxious monster who loved jumping onto Humvees landed on its roof.
Apparently ripping out steering wheels had become his favorite hobby.
This time, however, fate had other ideas.
The driver saw the creature climbing onto the roof.
Stopping meant death.
So he kept his foot planted on the accelerator.
No matter where the vehicle went...
Forward was better than standing still.
The monster leaped down in front of the Humvee, intending to stop it with sheer strength.
It had badly overestimated itself.
Maybe it could have stopped a family sedan.
This...
Was a military Humvee.
Instead of stopping the vehicle, it was shoved backward across the sand.
Unfortunately for the monster, the Humvee’s path led straight toward a massive boulder.
The creature found itself pinned between several tons of speeding steel and solid rock.
Its body was crushed in place.
Even then...
It wasn’t dead.
Its demonic vitality refused to let it die so easily.
The front-seat passenger reacted instantly.
He jumped out of the moving vehicle.
Rushed to the immobilized monster.
Pulled the pin from a fragmentation grenade.
And shoved it straight into the creature’s mouth.
A split second later...
Its head disappeared in the explosion.
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