Not long after, the four groups of forces entering Flevance met in a clearing on the outskirts of the city.
The troops from the four sides surrounded the clearing, while the four leaders stood in the center.
"Well well! I was wondering who it was. It turns out to be Baron Dalami! Looks like you're one of the abandoned ones too!"
The speaker was a man, 1.7 meters tall with a large potbelly. His voice carried a greasy tone.
He had recognized the simple sword at Dalami's waist at a glance, and it was because of this sword that he identified Dalami under the hazmat suit.
"Heh! Fat pig, shut your stinking mouth."
Dalami looked at him with disgust. The "fat pig," no, Baron Felxi, heaved his chest in anger, but immediately retorted with a fake smile:
"Tsk tsk! It seems our Lord Dalami is having a very unpleasant time with the higher-ups!
"To be given such a rotten job!"
The other two leaders watched the show with an air of indifference.
Dalami's face under the mask was dark, but he said calmly:
"If you have something to say, say it! If not, I'm going to work."
Felxi sighed: "This city is very dangerous right now. All our soldiers have encountered ambushes. They have obtained our advanced weapons, especially grenades, which are very dangerous explosives.
"I don't believe any of you here can take a grenade blast and remain unscathed.
"If they get close and detonate two or three on us, can we survive?
"The answer is... NO!"
The expression on Dalami's face under the mask turned ugly. Even with his decent swordsmanship, even if he could handle a dozen soldiers alone...
Withstand a bomb with his body?
Impossible.
At this moment, another person spoke softly:
"Then how about we sweep the ground inch by inch with artillery shells?"
Hearing this, the last person scoffed: "Ha!"
"Do shells cost nothing? Or will your country bear the cost alone?"
Anyway, he didn't have extra shells.
And his superiors wouldn't approve so many shells for him to waste.
Felxi chuckled:
"We can start setting fire to the city from the outskirts. Parts of it are already burned to ruins anyway.
"After we set the fire, the remaining food here won't be much.
"Without food sources, they can only be cornered and exterminated."
Dalami said faintly: "There are complex sewers here. My men have killed quite a few 'smart' people in the sewers these days!"
Felxi smiled ruthlessly:
"Hey! Isn't that a coincidence! I happen to have a batch of poison gas bombs that need testing. We'll send them into the sewers, guaranteeing not even a cockroach will survive.
"Our four groups will set fires and advance from the four directions of the city. I'll send men to your teams to be responsible for launching gas bombs to 'exterminate rats.'
"What do you think?"
"Not bad, acceptable."
"Hehe, okay."
"Mmh, we'll listen to you."
---
Leaving a cemetery on the outskirts of Flevance, after paying respects to his parents, Merlin took Yol and Lami to another place.
6:00 PM.
In a grove not far from the hospital ruins, Merlin and Yol stood beside a small mound, each holding a shovel.
Lami knelt on the ground with red-rimmed eyes, pouting and sobbing constantly:
"Mom, Dad, Merlin-niichan and Sister Yol have helped lay you to rest!
"Lami will definitely survive. You can rest assured in heaven; Lami has Big Brother and Big Sister taking care of her."
Yol knelt on one knee behind Lami, hugging her and rubbing her head gently. Lami turned her head and squeezed out a smile:
"Sister Yol, let's leave!"
Yol turned to look at Merlin, only to find him staring solemnly at the distant sky.
She asked blankly, "Did something happen?"
Under the slightly dim sky, Merlin's pupils dilated as he saw patches of black smoke drifting in the distance.
Thought appeared in his eyes. It seemed the outskirts were on fire. Fire? A vague sense of unease rose in Merlin's heart.
"Come with me to take a look."
Sensing Merlin's unease, Yol stood up with Lami. "Mmh! Okay."
A moment later, on a roof near the outskirts of the city, Merlin looked gloomily at the raging flames surrounding the entire perimeter of the city:
"This is their counterattack against us. They want to burn this place to ruins."
Yol covered her mouth, her eyes equally grave. Then she pointed to a spot on the ground in the distance. "Look there, why is there yellow-green mist?"
Merlin's gaze focused, looking over instantly, a guess forming in his mind.
"I'm going over to check. Wait for me here."
Yol was about to speak, but Merlin had already turned and vaulted down from the ten-meter-high roof.
Landing lightly, his figure quickly disappeared into the streets.
Running, Merlin glanced at the string of grenades tied to his waist and the dagger on his right leg.
One could say he was bold because of his skills.
Over the past three days of high-intensity maneuvering against the soldiers in the city, the synchronization rate of Merlin's two equipped items had risen by 1%.
Although only 1%, it made Merlin more proficient in using both items.
And as the equipment time increased, leaving aside the Calamity Fruit, just with the Lynx, Merlin felt his body quietly undergoing growth.
His muscles became more flexible, his stamina increased, and his five senses and physical reactions were all strengthened.
He vaguely felt that he was adapting more and more to the night environment.
"Is this synchronization? Making my living habits trend towards the nocturnal species of the lynx."
Whether good or bad, firstly, he had no choice, and secondly, the pros outweighed the cons.
Before long, Merlin passed through the burning buildings and lay down in an unmanned, half-burned ruin, staring at a troop of about two hundred soldiers in the clearing a hundred meters away.
Observing them with a dark gaze, he soon spotted a distinctly different figure in the crowd.
Unlike the surrounding soldiers carrying guns and backpacks, this person only had a simple rapier at his waist.
And the surrounding soldiers clearly kept some distance from him, vaguely surrounding him as if protecting him in the center.
Something was fishy.
Merlin instinctively sensed that he must be the leader of this group of soldiers.
Listening intently. The conversation from there was captured by his acute hearing.
"It's good to have more people. Since noon, no more infected have dared to attack us. As expected of Lord Dalami's idea."
"Exactly. Our gas bombs exploded in the sewers. I heard the other three troops have already caught quite a few infected!"
"This should settle it once and for all. Can't these sewer rats just die obediently?"
"Haha, once this mission is complete, we can go home. The reward this time is substantial. We must go out and have some fun then!"
"Count me in, count me in."
At a distance of a hundred meters, the trajectory of a grenade throw should reach.
Merlin's body in this life was much stronger than in his previous one. He started learning combat techniques from his father at the age of six.
Although he was only taught for three years, Merlin hadn't slacked off in the following five years.
His physical fitness was much stronger than the average adult. Coupled with his current [Equipment], Merlin was confident he could easily take down a dozen ordinary adults alone.
Feeling the hard texture of the grenades in the backpack on his chest.
Over the past three days, he had accumulated a total of eighty-seven grenades, and exchanged another twenty-five from other survivors using guns and ammo.
Eighty were stored in the cave where they lived.
Currently, there were fifteen in his backpack, seven on his waist, and Yol carried ten.
Inhaling slowly, Merlin's pupils dilated. He took four grenades from his backpack and placed them in front of him.
Then he gripped a grenade in each hand and bit the pins of two grenades with his teeth.
Pulling hard with both hands, click!
Suddenly, Merlin half-knelled up from the ruins, leaned back slightly, and swung both arms. The two grenades flew in two parabolic arcs, landing in the distant crowd.
Thud! The sound of landing was heard.
BOOM! BOOM!!
Two explosive fireballs bloomed abruptly.
Watching shrill screams erupt from the crowd, Merlin didn't hesitate. He quickly bent down, grabbed the other two grenades, and threw them in the same manner.
At this moment, Bang! Bang! Dense gunfire suddenly appeared from elsewhere, lines of fire shooting towards him.
However, Merlin had already rolled aside the moment he threw them.
At this time, as two violent explosions occurred again, mingled with several other explosions.
It was a chain reaction triggered by the blast.
Merlin quickly fled from the ruins.
Running towards another location.
Meanwhile, as the smoke cleared, Dalami climbed up from the ground on the outskirts of the explosion, covered in dust, his ears ringing incessantly.
Just now, the moment the grenades landed, the hair on his body stood on end. He rolled backward violently, grabbing a soldier who had been knocked down and using him as a shield.
Now, looking at the soldier on top of him, chest a bloody mess, dead.
A strong chill shot straight from his tailbone to the top of his skull like an electric shock.