Eternal Winter Kingdom, Northport.
“Don't push! Form a line!”
“Drop your luggage, no boats allowed! The King of Graycastle will provide you with enough food and clothing, throw them into the water if you want to live!”
“Move it! Women and children first!”
The port area was teeming with people, a large number of refugees flocked to the sea ships that were raising their sails. If it weren't for the First Army and the lord's guard maintaining order with swords, the narrow trestle bridges would have instantly turned into a path of hell where the weak were preyed upon by the strong.
“Captain, there... might not be enough ships.” The soldier in charge of guarding looked back with concern, at this time a ship full of refugees was slowly leaving the harbor.
“Daring to come to Northport at this time, he's already considered a hero,” Sangshu's gaze had never left the front of the gun muzzle—in just three or four days, the red mist had spread from the Summit of Endless, pressing on the horizon like thick blood, making people feel extremely depressed.
“Boss... will he save a spot for us?” the man muttered.
“If it's Dingzi,” Sangshu smiled, “even if he doesn't take a boat himself, he'll make a hole for us.”
More than half a month ago, they received a mobilization order, left the Hermes Plateau, and went to the northernmost Eternal Winter City to be responsible for the immigration transfer mission. Compared with guarding the Holy City, Dingzi seemed much more relaxed after receiving the new order, he talked a lot along the way, and immediately started working after arriving at Northport.
These hundred or so people were not the first batch of Graycastle people to arrive in Eternal Winter, more comrades had already gone deep into various parts of the kingdom to evacuate the residents there. At first, the evacuation was not carried out smoothly, until the appearance of the Red Moon, did the situation improve—this was all thanks to the rumors that the Red Moon represented the end of the world, which spread among the towns earlier, so when the blood-red moon really appeared in the sky, many locals were frightened and went directly to the army garrison to request to leave.
Unfortunately, it didn't last long.
Only four or five days later, news came from the front that the Red Mist had been discovered.
Then, within the same day, the First Army engaged the devils.
They didn't know the outcome of the battle, but the result was that all the advance squads began to retreat south, and the Dingzi detachment also received orders to prepare to retreat to the next port.
However, it was precisely these few days that the number of refugees had increased several times, with tens of thousands of people coming to Northport every day, begging the sea ships to take them with them. Dingzi couldn't stand idly by, building simple defenses while informing the rear troops through carrier pigeons, requesting more ships, which delayed the evacuation plan by several days.
But Sangshu knew that once the news spread, there would definitely be fewer and fewer sea ships daring to sail north—these fjord merchant ships taking His Majesty's commissions would never risk their lives to serve, they might bite the bullet and leave the port, but they would never arrive... according to the current momentum, this should be the last batch.
Fortunately, Dingzi should also be aware of this, so he had them lay explosives early in the morning, first to resist the enemy when necessary, and second to destroy the equipment that could not be taken away, so as not to fall into the hands of the devils.
“Captain, there's smoke rising in front!” someone shouted.
“Here they come again...” Sangshu spat, “Everyone to your positions!”
In the absence of sufficient manpower and witches for reconnaissance, the ancient method of communication once again came into play.
This was not the first time the devils had visited Northport, there were still several devil corpses lying in the wilderness outside the town, according to the manual distributed, they were almost certainly Mad Demons. Although the enemies came sporadically and were not of a high level, it also meant that they had indeed appeared in the land of the Eternal Winter Kingdom and were gradually approaching here with the spread of the Red Mist.
As a troop that had been stationed in Hermes since the Coldwind Ridge battle, the Dingzi detachment had not participated in the expedition to Taquila. Although Sangshu had heard many rumors, it was his first time actually fighting devils. And his conclusion these days was that as long as you don't let the Mad Demons get within two hundred meters, the God's Punishment Warriors they taught are easier to deal with.
Therefore, he was not too worried about the wolf smoke rising in front of him, instead, he was quite concerned about Dingzi's next decision. Undoubtedly, with the remaining two large ships, it was unlikely to take all the refugees away from here. What should the boss do with the remaining people? Should he let them fend for themselves, or take them south along the coastline?
At this moment, the figure of the first Mad Demon appeared outside the barbed wire of the street.
Sangshu couldn't help but frown.
Northport, like most harbor towns, had no city walls, so the defense line was set up at the main road of the pier. Apart from the refugees, the remaining residents had already been evacuated, and it was not surprising that the devils would be attracted. What surprised him was that the sentries in charge of reconnaissance were still nowhere to be seen. In theory, they should evacuate after lighting the beacon fire and return to the defense line faster than the enemy.
Gradually, more Mad Demons appeared from the street corners, swarming towards the pier.
“Fire!”
Two machine gun squads simultaneously spewed out tongues of fire at the end of the street, pouring dense rain of bullets on the enemy. The opponents also reacted very quickly, immediately using the surrounding buildings as hiding places. After a burst of smoke dissipated, only two corpses hanging on the barbed wire remained.
Soon, gunfire sounded from the roof as well.
Obviously, the enemies trying to bypass from above had encountered the long-awaited sniper squad.
This was exactly the way the detachment defended the port—considering that the field of vision in urban warfare was far less open than in the suburbs, what he had done the most this week was setting up roadblocks. Whether it was piling up garbage or demolishing houses, nine out of ten alleys leading to the pier were blocked, and each block was an entire street. These obstacles could not completely prevent the enemy's movements, but they could effectively delay the time—if the opponent didn't want to waste time clearing and crossing the roadblocks, they would have to break through the main road blocked by machine guns.
The next stage was the entanglement stage of the enemy appearing, firepower suppressing, and continuing to find cover. This should be a small number of enemy troops. According to the current speculation, it was unlikely that they would rush to the front of the defense line to throw spears. They should choose to retreat at this time. But the devils were still stubbornly hiding, seemingly wanting to exhaust the First Army's ammunition.
In terms of combat perseverance, this enemy squad was much more tenacious than those that appeared in the previous days... as if they had seen the battle of bullets.
Sangshu sneered, if the God's Punishment Army knew this trick, then they would really be a little overwhelmed. Unfortunately, the equipment of the First Army was much richer now. Just their hundred-man detachment was equipped with four Mark I models, and there was no difficulty in using ammunition for a day. If they continued to entangle, the enemies would die here sooner or later.
However, an unexpected change happened at this moment!
He only heard a loud bang, and on the north side of the pier, where there used to be a row of houses, billowing smoke and dust rose. A giant creature covered in armor smashed through layers of stone walls and climbed out of the ruins—
“Spider Devil?” a soldier exclaimed.
“Quickly prepare anti-devil grenades!”
Sangshu's heart suddenly sank. The manual did mention a devil similar to a spider, but from the appearance, this one that appeared in their eyes was different from the previous enemies.
The black stone wrapped around its limbs was much thicker, almost blocking most of its body.