Two soldiers quickly approached the newly emerged enemy, pulling the triggers of their anti-devil grenades.

Two wisps of green smoke shot out one after another from behind the bunker, flying towards the enormous spider devil – such a conspicuous target, it was almost impossible to miss. Watching the trail of the grenades, Sangshu felt his heart rise in his throat, he always felt that the opponent's thick-armored limbs would not be so easy to deal with.

The bad premonition came true.

One grenade, due to its shallow firing angle, hit the target and bounced off to the side, planting itself directly into the ground.

The other one did hit its front leg head-on. The explosion stirred up a cloud of thick smoke, but the devil's movement did not stop as a result, it only paused slightly before stepping out of the dust.

"Idiots, shoot the body!" a subordinate couldn't help but shout.

"Let me try!" Another man volunteered, shouldering a box of warheads, and climbed out of the trench.

Sangshu didn't stop him, but he wasn't as optimistic as the others. He now understood where the new spider devil's strangeness lay – unlike those irregular, ugly monsters in the handbook, this grotesque beast was much more coordinated. The "armor" on its limbs was not stone material piled up randomly, but neatly arranged multifaceted prisms. If they were contracted together, they might even be able to piece together a trapezoidal platform that closely fitted with the stone on its back.

Moreover, the amplitude of its limbs' changes was quite large when it moved, making it more difficult for the soldiers to accurately hit its torso or abdomen. The previous misses were not accidental.

Sure enough, the next few grenades also failed to stop the spider devil's actions. It even deliberately closed its limbs after the firing light of the shooting tube was emitted, almost like a conditioned reflex.

At the same time, the figure of a frenzied devil appeared in the gap smashed out by the enemy.

"Damn it, can't these guys shoot any more accurately?" The jqiang hand complained while turning the muzzle of his gun.

"Enough!" Sangshu decisively said, "Retreat to the second line of defense, and leave this area to them! Prepare the explosives."

"But..."

"No buts," he shouted, "If the enemy surrounds us from the side, we won't be able to leave!"

The horn quickly echoed throughout the position. The Nail Squad alternated cover according to training regulations, retreating towards the port wharf. And the refugees, watching the monsters approaching with their own eyes, began to panic in their ranks.

The soldier responsible for detonating the explosives skillfully connected the detonating wire to the hand-cranked generator, and quickly cranked it, "Captain, ready to detonate at any time!"

"Good, let it taste the flavor of explosives." Sangshu stared at the grotesque beast that was charging wildly, and gestured, "Wait a little longer... now—"

As the soldier slammed down the detonating rod, more than a dozen muffled loud noises suddenly entered everyone's ears! In an instant, the earth beneath their feet seemed to tremble, and a series of rising smoke columns almost filled the entire open space.

One pile of explosives was buried under the spider devil's body. The fierce impact caused half of its body to rise into the air, and the stone armor on its two legs suddenly became a heavy burden, breaking its joints. When it fell back, it no longer had the ability to move, like a giant beast with a crippled leg, tilting and collapsing on the ground.

A chorus of whistles rang out from the position.

But before everyone could breathe a sigh of relief, the same crashing sound appeared on the east side of the wharf.

Another spider devil suddenly appeared on the battlefield.

Seeing this scene, Sangshu was glad that he had made the right choice.

He vaguely realized that this devil's attack was probably completely different from the previous ones. The current formation was clearly intended to surround them and wipe them out. The sentry had failed to return on time, and was likely cut off by the enemy. If he had hesitated for a moment, the jqiang squad would probably have had a hard time getting out unscathed. At this moment, although the First Army had given up blocking the long narrow street, the four Mark I models were still there, and could still temporarily suppress the frenzied devil's advance.

But this didn't mean the crisis was over. Who knew how many spider devils the enemy had prepared? If two more came... no, if there was just one more, the time they could hold out would only be calculated in quarter hours. What was worse, there were still many refugees waiting to be evacuated from the wharf. Once panic spread and order was lost, not to mention saving people, they wouldn't even be able to get back on the ship.

The smoke dissipated, and the devil had taken advantage of this gap to pour into the open space that had been plowed by explosives.

The sound of jqiang fire was incessant for a time.

"Boom—!"

While Sangshu was at a loss, a familiar roar suddenly came from behind him. Even with his eyes closed, he could tell the source of the sound at once - for the First Army, the tone of the 152mm fortress gun's bombardment was all too familiar!

And they had no artillery positions deployed at all!

He turned back in surprise, only to see a steel-forged warship slowly sailing into the harbor. The cannon located at the bow of the ship was almost parallel to the deck, aimed straight at the line of defense.

"That's... the Roland!" Soldiers quickly recognized the origin of the iron ship.

"Didn't they already withdraw?"

"Who cares, we have reinforcements!"

"Long live His Majesty, kill these bastards!"

The shells whistled over the soldiers' heads, landing one after another in the open space. Occasionally, the rising smoke columns were only ten meters away from the trenches, and the flying shrapnel would even hit the sandbags in front of the ditches. The flying dirt rained down on everyone's heads. If it were normal times, they would only use the most vicious language to curse the artillery camp for being blind and crazy, but now, there was only praise in the trenches. The roar of the fortress guns seemed to be the most beautiful movement.

Could it be... that the reason why Nail hadn't given up on the rest of the people, and had been waiting, was for this moment?

Sangshu noticed that the last part of the refugees was boarding the Roland gunship under the guidance of the soldiers. In this way, the people at the wharf could almost all fit on board.

Although he didn't know how Nail had asked for instructions from above, now was clearly the best time to evacuate.

"Everyone, pay attention, we are going to the wharf now," he shouted, "One after another, don't fall behind! Once everyone has left, the explosive operator will immediately detonate the remaining explosives!"

The order quickly spread throughout the trench by word of mouth.

The final retreat began.

The Mark I heavy jqiang and the remaining ammunition were left in place. Although they were heartbroken, this was His Majesty's order - in any case, the safety of people should take precedence over weapons. As long as the soldiers were still there, weapons could be recreated.

After the group entered the wharf, the devil also occupied the second line of defense under the bombardment of artillery fire.

However, waiting for them was a deafening roar.

Thousands of kilograms of explosives sent the remaining weapons and frenzied devils into the sky.

In the aftermath of the explosion, the Roland sounded its whistle and reversed at full speed, leaving the shattered northern port.