Chapter 175 Prepare to Fight!

"Aow!"

Another sharp screech echoed as the dense smoke enveloping the Marine Apostle was forcefully dispersed. In a blaze of fire, its enormous, grotesque form slowly emerged.

The Marine Apostle's posture was peculiar. Its left and right heads were shifted towards the center, seemingly to shield the giant serpent head in the middle, defending it from the bombardment.

The goat and female heads were now charred, and cracks appeared on some areas of its body, revealing small wounds.

Clearly, the previous round of bombing wasn't entirely ineffective. However, this level of damage was too insignificant for a second-stage evolved being to pose a threat to its life, or even hinder its movements.

"The firepower was aimed at its head... This beast's head is clearly stronger than its body, and the skin is tightly adhered to the skull, with almost no soft flesh. Therefore, this level of firepower can't tear through its skull, but it can inflict some damage to its body." Chakhin listened to the command center's message through his headset, his brow twitching wildly. "Even armor-piercing rounds can't penetrate its skull. If we want to destroy it, we might really have to use nuclear missiles!"

The Marine Apostle slowly swam forward, emanating a terrifyingly cold aura. Suddenly, its giant tail swept up several giant beasts and flung them into the air. Then, ignoring their terrified cries, it opened its three bloody maws and tore them to pieces, swallowing them whole.

Blood flowed down its scales as the Marine Apostle's abdomen churned, seemingly digesting the flesh and blood of the giant beasts.

Then, in less than five seconds, the Marine Apostle's fine wounds began to heal rapidly, and the charred scales were pushed off and replaced with new armor.

The traces left by the firepower that could flatten a mountain range vanished completely from the Marine Apostle's body!

"Its recovery speed is terrifying... With this beast in the battle, we've completely lost control of the battlefield. Retreat to the defense line and use heavy firepower to block it!" Chakhin said, his voice trembling as he suppressed the intense discomfort and oppressive despair, as he watched the Marine Apostle get closer and closer. "Evolutionist Squads, retreat in an orderly fashion behind the defense line... Mechanical Gladiators, intercept and cover the rear."

"If we don't retreat to the defense line, we'll all die!"

But just as Chakhin issued the retreat order, a new directive from Li Zhi in the command center came through his headset.

"Evolutionist Combined Corps, do not retreat!"

"In my capacity as supreme commander, I am issuing you a new order!"

"Immediately launch an encirclement and kill the Marine Apostle. We will use firepower to intercept the enemies behind you and create sufficient hunting conditions for you!"

Chakhin was stunned by this.

...

At the same time, many people in the command center showed expressions of shock and incomprehension.

"Supreme Commander, you... You're asking the evolutionist troops to hunt the Marine Apostle?" A middle-aged general stared wide-eyed at Li Zhi, who had just issued the order, and said in confusion, "You just saw how strong that beast is. Our evolutionist troops and pioneers are just going to their deaths!"

"Even with the assistance of Mechanical Gladiators, it's impossible to kill the Marine Apostle!"

Everyone in the command center turned their gaze to Li Zhi, waiting for his explanation.

Ten seconds ago, after witnessing the Marine Apostle reappear unscathed after a round of bombardment, Li Zhi issued an order to the evolutionist troops that no one could understand.

Faced with an enemy like the Marine Apostle, who transcended the level of life, Li Zhi not only did not use firepower to assist the evolutionist troops in retreating, but instead issued an order for them to attack proactively.

This was incomprehensible to everyone!

After all, it was hard to imagine what a heavy loss the evolutionist troops would suffer when faced with a Marine Apostle that even a round of missile bombardment could not seriously damage.

They might be completely wiped out!

"Yes! Let the evolutionist troops retreat to the defense line! Only heavy firepower can stop the Apostle! If that doesn't work, use nuclear missiles. Although the defense line wall might be damaged, as long as we can repel the Marine Apostle, the giant city can be rebuilt!"

"We can replenish the firepower after it's used up, but if the evolutionist troops are wiped out, it will be very difficult to replenish them!"

"Those are human lives, not cold ammunition!"

Many generals in the command center began to persuade Li Zhi to change his order.

"All of you shut up!" Li Zhi suddenly roared, slamming his hand on the energy display console. The loud noise startled everyone, and the entire command center fell silent.

"What do you understand?"

Li Zhi turned his head, his angry gaze sweeping over everyone, and then said in a deep voice: "If we let the evolutionist troops retreat to the defense line now, we can indeed maximize the integrity of the evolutionist troops, but... Without the evolutionist troops outside to stop the beast tide, this giant city will soon be breached by the beast tide!"

"We can use large-scale firepower to temporarily block the Marine Apostle, but firepower will eventually run out. Once the firepower is exhausted, we will become birds in a cage, doomed to die!"

"And using nuclear weapons..."

"Have you not noticed? So far, although I don't know why, the Marine Apostle has not yet activated its giant ark, but that ark can withstand nuclear weapon bombardment, you wouldn't not know that, would you?"

"Once we use nuclear weapons, in addition to destroying the large-scale beast tide, I'm afraid we won't be able to cause any damage to the Marine Apostle at all!"

"If we don't use nuclear weapons, the Marine Apostle will temporarily continue to roam the battlefield with its pure physical body, and we still have a chance to kill it; but once we use nuclear weapons, the Marine Apostle will 100% use its miracle building. In that case, we really won't have any chance of winning."

Li Zhi stared at the people in the command center, his breathing unusually heavy, his chest rising and falling violently.

The generals fell silent after listening to Li Zhi's words.

Indeed, although it was unknown why, the Marine Apostle had not used the power of its ark so far.

Perhaps it was out of disdain for human power, or perhaps it was out of other ideas. In short, since the start of the war, the miracle ark, which was as large as a continent, was still floating on the distant sea, only revealing the approximate outline of the upper half, and there was no sign of it moving towards the shore at all, like a hibernating turtle.

But everyone knew that miracle buildings possessed amazing power, and even Li Tianran found it very difficult to deal with it, let alone the Northern Border Military Region?

If the miracle ark continued to hibernate, then there was still hope for victory in this war; but once it was revived and participated in the war, it would be certain defeat.

"We can't use heavy firepower to stimulate it." Li Zhi spoke again, his voice lowered, pointing to the Marine Apostle on the satellite screen and said: "We can only use the evolutionist troops to encircle and hunt it, to let it lower its guard, to let it continue to enjoy the pleasure of being high above and controlling everything. Only in this way will it not activate the miracle ark."

"And in this process, the evolutionist troops may still have a chance to kill it!"

The command center was silent for a long time.

Finally, the middle-aged general spoke slowly, his voice very low, with a sigh:

"Can ants kill an elephant?"

Li Zhi raised his head and said: "This is our only way now, and... our evolutionist troops are much stronger than ants."

"Apostles, are not necessarily elephants."

Li Zhi's gaze turned to the satellite monitoring screen, where the Marine Apostle on the battlefield became more and more terrifying, like a demon god.

Thirty seconds ago, the attacks that the Marine Apostle could launch had reached the level of a light nuclear weapon, but Li Zhi did not think that it could really reach the power of a nuclear weapon.

The reason was simple: when a knife, a gun, or a person wants to exert 100 kilograms of force, as the carrier of this force, the material of the object itself or the physique needs to be able to withstand this force first!

Otherwise, the knife will break, the gun body will shatter, and the human body will fracture!

The Apostles are indeed strong enough, but among all the Apostles, perhaps only the Night Apostle, known for its defensive power, can withstand a direct attack by a light nuclear weapon.

And the Marine Apostle, which focuses on attack power and war, does not have this kind of terrifying physique, which means... it is not completely impossible to kill it!

If the Night Apostle was attacking the defense line today, then Li Zhi would have no illusions and would never launch any decapitation operations against it, because there would be no chance at all.

But today it's the Marine Apostle...

Li Zhi wanted to try!

"If we can kill the Marine Apostle, today's war will end... and we will no longer have to worry about that miracle building, and we can use nuclear weapons to eliminate the remaining beast tide and the subordinate sequence pursuers." Li Zhi clenched his fists, and then once again sent a signal to the evolutionist troops outside the defense line through the headset...

"Evolutionist troops, listen to my command and approach the Marine Apostle in a three-three-three battle formation!"

...

"The command headquarters does not allow withdrawal from the battlefield!"

Chakhin heard the clear order from the headset. He was silent for a few seconds and could roughly guess what Li Zhi was thinking.

If they launched an attack on the Marine Apostle now, the possibility of this nearly 10,000-strong combined evolutionist force surviving would be less than a hundred, or even zero.

No one wants to die.

But on the battlefield, soldiers and soldiers cannot disobey orders!

Although Chakhin was not interested in Li Zhi, the joint operations of the allied forces and the unified military power were proposed by Li Tianran. If he did not listen to Li Zhi's orders now, he would not be slapping Li Zhi in the face, but Li Tianran in the face!

As a member of the Pioneers, he would not do anything that would embarrass Li Tianran or disgrace the Pioneer Legion.

"Everyone, listen to my command..." Chakhin raised his head again and issued an order to the combined evolutionist troops through the headset. His eyes were fixed on the Marine Apostle, and he said word by word:

"Prepare to fight!"