GBP Chapter 1357 Cannon Fodder
Chapter 1357 Cannon Fodder
His pistol's energy had dropped to the critical 10% threshold, and the energy weapons of the other four standard robots had also mostly failed due to overload or depletion.
They stood back to back, forming a defensive circle, waving their alloy arms to block blades and bullets coming from all directions.
The sounds of metal clashing against metal and bullets striking alloys were incessant.
Although they weren't completely destroyed like their companion before, their wounds slowed their movements.
Their weapons were also almost at their limit...
However, they still stubbornly carried out their orders.
"We have sensed that His Majesty has safely evacuated!"
"Execute rearguard order B: disperse and contain the enemy, exhaust their forces to the maximum extent, and buy time for His Majesty!"
The team leader android issued the final instructions to the remaining four robots via an encrypted channel.
He then locked his weapon onto an armored vehicle in the distance that had just stopped and whose turret was turning towards him. This was his last bit of energy.
It suddenly aimed its pistol at the sighting equipment on the armored vehicle's turret and pulled the trigger!
A beam of blue light, much dimmer than before, shot out and hit the target precisely.
The sights melted instantly, and the turret's rotation came to an abrupt halt. Having delivered this final blow, the pistol in the captain's android's hand went completely dark, and the energy core emitted an overloaded hum before becoming unusable.
Without hesitation, it hurled its scrap metal-like pistol at the charging soldiers, knocking one down.
Then, with a backhand motion, he drew an alloy battle sword hanging from his waist. This was their redundant design, a melee weapon used for last-ditch self-defense. The blade gleamed with a cold, eerie light in the snow.
"Hold them off! Don't give them a chance to breathe..."
The captain, a humanoid figure, brandished his battle sword and faced the forest of bayonets.
Its combat program is activated, and its swordsmanship is sharp and efficient. Every slash carries immense force, and ordinary soldiers' weapons will either be chipped or broken upon impact.
A soldier who tried to ambush from behind was cleaved in two by its backhand slash, along with his gun!
Its mechanical power, combined with sophisticated combat algorithms, makes it a terrifying killing machine even in close-quarters combat with cold weapons.
These robots are indeed formidable, and they are fearless and unaware of fear!
The other four robots followed suit, using their melee weapons, alloy gauntlets, or standard alloy daggers to engage in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the surrounding coalition soldiers.
They abandoned their movement, remained in place, and used themselves as bait to lure more and more coalition soldiers into this meat grinder-like battle.
The soldiers here initially used weapons, but they were exceptionally agile, and their bullets, after being dodged, ended up injuring their own men.
These soldiers then opted for melee weapons...
Every swing of the alloy weapon brought forth a shower of blood.
But at the same time, the soldiers' bayonets, axes, and even warhammers were leaving more and more dents and damage on them.
A robot's leg joints were jammed by several bayonets, rendering it unable to move. Ultimately, soldiers smashed its core torso with heavy objects.
Another one was hit by a Molotov cocktail. While the high-temperature flames couldn't melt the alloy, they burned away crucial external sensors and wiring, leaving it a blind, mangled metal lump. That metal lump was then dismembered...
The captain's android wielded an alloy battle sword like a tireless metal grim reaper, and the fallen Allied soldiers around him had piled up into a small mound.
But its movements eventually became heavy, its breastplate was covered with cracks and dents, and a joint on its left arm was deformed by a heavy hammer, restricting its movement.
Meanwhile, the robots escorting Shahar relayed a message from the androids: Shahar was safe.
Seeing this, they did not linger.
The captain's android suddenly slashed down several soldiers in front of him, the alloy blade plunging deep into the ground. Without lingering, it used the momentum to propel its entire metal body backward like a cannonball, crashing through a crumbling earthen wall and instantly escaping the fiercest battle.
"It's trying to run away! Stop it!" the soldiers exclaimed.
However, the Captain's android demonstrated astonishing explosive power and the ability to utilize its environment.
It no longer entangled with the soldiers, but used the complex terrain of the ruins to leap and roll at high speed among the broken walls and rubble, avoiding the main firing points and crowds.
Occasionally, a bullet would hit its back, only sending up a few sparks.
It raced wildly toward the tunnel where Shahar had disappeared.
The other two standard-type robots, equally battered and with their weapons destroyed, received new instructions from their captain and fought their way out of the ensuing struggle. Sacrificing some of their armor, they forced their way through the obstruction and followed the signal sent by the robots escorting Shahar...
One of the soldiers, a captain, shouted, "Get out of the way! I'm going to blow them up!"
As he spoke, the soldier captain picked up a rocket launcher and fired it directly.
With a loud bang, the three people scattered instantly.
A soldier on the other side had anticipated their escape route and fired another shot.
One of the robots was sent flying, while the other two fled in panic without even stopping...
They crawled directly into a secret, unmarked passage and then immediately detonated the entrance...
A short while later, they found Shahar on the other side of the secret passage. Shahar's face looked worse than if he had eaten shit.
Looking at the remaining three robots, the loss of seven people in total, filled him with immense pain...
One of the guards asked Shahar, "Your Majesty, what should we do next?"
Shahar, his face grim, said, "Retreat! Retreat! We haven't lost yet...we still have a large army in our rear..."
Shahar then said to one of the androids, "My Lord, leave two men and a small force to defend the next fortress. I will go to the fortress in the Slavic capital to defend it. We need to wait for reinforcements!"
The humanoid nodded naturally.
They then headed towards the next fortress; Shahar's idea was simple: to delay their advance.
He no longer wants to win; he just wants to stall for time.
They moved on to the next fortress.
The cold wind, carrying ice shards, lashed against the mottled stone walls of the Don River fortress as Shahar and his men fled frantically for several hours.
We finally arrived at our destination.
Shahar, wrapped in his mud-stained, tattered mink cloak, stood at the window of the highest tower of the fortress, looking down at his personal guards and the remaining Slavic soldiers who were bustling about like ants.
His face was frozen blue, but his deep-set eyes burned with an almost manic flame.
"Your Majesty, the last batch of supplies has been inventoried and stored. Everything that can be taken has been taken. The remaining thousand suicide squad soldiers and... the three 'divine messengers' have also been deployed."
A captain of the guard knelt on one knee on the cold ground, his voice broken and intermittent in the howling wind, carrying an undisguised weariness and fear.
He dared not look up at Shahar's expression, fearing that the twisted anger would descend upon him.
"A thousand people? Hmph, that's enough!"
Shahar whirled around, his cloak billowing out a gust of cold wind. “Let them hold out! Nail them to the ground like nails! Use their blood, their bones, every stone, to hold back Handa’s advance!”
Tell them, hold out until reinforcements arrive! Those who survive will be rewarded with ten thousand gold pieces and granted noble titles! Those who desert will have their entire families slaughtered! Those who die in battle will also receive the most generous compensation for their families, ensuring they will live a life of comfort and security!
He practically yelled it out!
As he spoke, he looked at the three bodies covered with scratches and dents of varying depths. One of them, a standard-sized body, had a noticeable deformity at the joint of its left arm, and its movements were slightly sluggish.
“Three divine messengers,” Shahar’s voice softened slightly, “your mission is the same as theirs: hold out! Buy time at all costs! Use your swords and your guns to make those East Asian bastards pay a bloody price for every step they take! Buy time for the mysterious man’s reinforcements!”
The lead robot, devoid of any emotion, mechanically replied, "Mission accepted."
Shahar nodded: "Alright! Thank you all..."
With that, Shahar packed up and prepared to leave. He ordered his generals to summon all the assassins.
He had initially planned to leave, but then he thought about it and decided he wanted to offer them some encouragement...
"Soldiers!"
He suddenly raised his arm, and his tattered mink coat fluttered in the wind!
"Look at your feet! This is no ordinary land; this is the land of us Slavs! The land that our ancestors watered with their blood!"
He pointed to the vast snowfield outside the fortress, his voice suddenly rising as he roared, "Now, a pack of jackals from the East are trampling over the corpses of our brothers, greedily trying to tear them apart!"
He paused, his bloodshot eyes scanning the faces below—some resolute, some fearful, some numb.
"You! You are the last shield of the empire! The last iron wall between the jackals and your homeland! I, your Tsar Shahar, command you! Like the hardest nails, nail yourselves firmly to this place! With your blood! With your bones! With every stone of this fortress! Let those damned East Asians know the price of stepping into the Don Fortress!"
He practically roared, his spittle freezing in the cold wind.
“Listen!” He took a deep breath of the cold air, trying to suppress the trembling in his throat!
"Your mission is singular: hold them off! Hold them off until our reinforcements crush them like an iron torrent! For this, I, Shahar, hereby pledge!"
"The surviving warriors will be rewarded with a fortune, a noble title, and generations of honor!"
"The fallen heroes!!! Your families will receive the most generous compensation from the Empire, and will live a life of comfort and honor!"
His voice suddenly turned cold, like the sharpest ice pick, piercing everyone's heart!
"But if anyone dares to desert in the face of battle..."
He pointed sharply at the dark entrance of the fortress, as if it were the gates of hell, "I swear! I will find you! I will slaughter your entire families! Leave no one alive! I will use your cowardice and betrayal to atone for the fallen heroes!"
"You are not alone!"
Shahar turned to the side and pointed to the three "divine messenger" robots behind him, which stood like iron towers, covered in wounds!
"Behold! The divine messengers are with you! With their bodies of steel and divine power, they will stand with you and make the enemy pay a bloody price for every step they take! Let this fortress become a meat grinder that the enemy can never cross!"
He clenched his fist as if to shatter all fear and despair: "For the Empire! For our homeland! For your Tsar! Hold the Don! Let Handa's army bleed to their last drop on this frozen land!"
"I will go to the capital to defend it. The longer you hold the Yellow River, the more chances we have to survive! If you stay, you will surely become heroes of the Slavic Empire!"
Before Shahar's piercingly threatening words, like an icicle, had even finished, a spark seemed to have been thrown into the deathly silent air in front of the fortress.
After a brief, suffocating silence, the crowd suddenly erupted!
"Hurrah!!!"
A roar that ripped through the cold wind erupted from the mouth of a Slavic veteran with a face covered in frostbite. He pounded his tattered breastplate, his fear replaced by an almost insane determination.
This roar acted as a fuse, instantly igniting in the hearts of all the soldiers the flame stirred by the Tsar's words—a flame mixed with fear, loyalty, despair, and the last glimmer of hope for their homeland.
"For the Tsar! For the Fatherland!"
Another soldier raised his chipped machete high, his voice hoarse but powerful. His comrades around him responded in unison, "Weapons!"
Guns, knives, axes, and even broken spear shafts were all raised high, forming a forest of steel thorns in the shadows cast by the fortress towers and the pale light of the snow.
"Hold the Don River to the death!"
"Let's dye this snow red with our blood!"
"Let the jackals break their teeth!"
The shouts rose and fell, initially somewhat chaotic, but soon coalesced into a deafening roar that violently collided and echoed between the stone walls of the fortress.
The soldiers stomped their feet, striking their shields and the ground with a heavy, unified roar, as if the entire fortress trembled slightly under their resolute will to fight to the death.
Their faces were contorted with fear of death, but more so with a desperate ferocity fueled by the Tsar's description of "honor" and the threat of "leaving no one alive."
A young soldier, his face still bearing traces of childishness, trembled violently from the cold and excitement, but he bit his lower lip so hard that it bled, and roared with all his might, "To live or die together! To live or die with the fortress!"
His voice was choked with sobs, but his eyes were fixed on the entrance of the fortress like those of a wounded beast, as if he could see the enemy about to surge in! That energy that Shahar had forcibly ignited completely overwhelmed the soldiers' previous exhaustion from fleeing and their fear of battle.