(a)

"In this way, I parted ways with my father, and with a force of about 800 men, plus a temporary conscripted civilian population of 6,000 who were able to fight and volunteered to participate in the war, I defended the city alone. ”

"Most of the weapons in the arsenal are still intact, and the bureaucrats and nobles who fled with their troops have left in a hurry and have not taken care of their armor, which is good news for us. After the inventory of weapons was divided, the trained elite soldiers were all dressed in armor and helmets, armed with swords, shields, bows and crossbows, and the temporarily conscripted militia could also have a weapon in their hands, instead of carrying farm tools and wooden sticks to fight. ”

"Here's my plan......"

"The forces at hand were divided into two groups, one for defense and one for attack, each with 3,000 men, both with elite soldiers leading the militia. The defending team took my hometown as their base camp, relied on the high walls of the fortress, blocked the intersection with barricades, set traps, set up heavy crossbows, and fortified layer by layer with the shelter where civilians gathered, and retreated to the inner layer if the outer layer was broken, which could drag on for a minute. The attacking team concentrated its forces to break through, opening the shortest route to the outside of the city, and then covering the evacuation of civilians. When all the civilians have been evacuated, I will quickly withdraw with the remaining troops, if we can survive until then......"

"In the beginning, the plan went very well. Although there are many mutant beasts scattered in the city, they are only wandering unconsciously, and as long as they don't get too close, they won't be attacked. The defending team was not under much pressure, even the outermost circle of defense was intact, while the attacking team opened a safe route and was covering the orderly retreat of the civilians. ”

Then, somehow, things started to get worse and worse. The monsters of the whole city seemed to have opened their eyes all at once, and began to launch a frantic siege on the shelter, going forward one after another, fearless of death. ”

"It was a tough battle, and we had to light firecrackers near the base camp to attract the attention of the monsters as a way to share the pressure on the attacking team and the civilians who were retreating in batches under their cover. The cost of this was that the defenders suffered heavy casualties. ”

"In the second half of the night, half of the 6,000-strong troops had been lost, and the remaining combat strength was less than 3,000, of which the defenders were only a little more than 500 men. The situation can be described as corpses everywhere and rivers of blood, which is unbearable. There was still the last layer of defense outside the shelter, and it was already crumbling, and it was barely held by piling up human lives. But, no matter what, we did it. ”

"As I watched the last civilians walk out of the gates of the vault with their luggage, and watched the last bolt shoot through the head of the oncoming lame monster dog, with only mountains of monster corpses piled up behind it, not a single living thing, I knew that we had won. ”

"But, as it turned out, I was still too naïve......"

(b)

Although the number of monsters is large, it is still limited after all.

When the last mutant creature fell with a wail, the strange screams that had been ringing in the city all night finally stopped.

It was as if the world was suddenly clear, except for the "crackling" sound of burning wood crackling.

Then, again, the voice rang out.

"Ping Pong ......"

It was the sound of soldiers throwing off their armor.

"Plop!"

It was the sound of them loosening the last tense nerve and sitting on the ground exhausted.

"Win...... Won!hahaha...... We've won!"

It was the sound of their cheers.

Li Weiyong stood outside the crowd, looking at the delighted soldiers from a distance, and smiled with satisfaction. He leaned his sword, stained with coagulated black blood, against the wall, kicked open the corpse of a stinking monster, freed up a piece of ground, and sat down there.

The moment he hit the ground, he realized how tired he really was. When he was nervous, he didn't feel much, but once he relaxed, his body immediately hurt as if it was about to fall apart. He could barely tell where it hurt, because it hurt everywhere, and as he sat down, he felt that he would not want to get up again until dawn.

Still, his heart was full of joy, as if the more painful his body was, the happier he became. Saying this may cause misunderstanding, but Li Weiyong is not a masochist, he just feels that the victory at this moment makes all the efforts and sacrifices meaningful.

Yes, they won, at least, for the time being. Now, the last civilians have been withdrawn, and there is no trace of mutant monsters in sight. Those of them who stayed behind, fought bloody battles and survived in the end, can finally have a good rest.

"Thinking rationally, now is the time to immediately form a team and evacuate this place immediately to eradicate the hidden danger. Li Weiyong thought in his heart, "But how can they be rational like this...... I still have to take a break first. ”

He thought so, and at the time, it was absolutely reasonable.

Just after a bitter battle, it is difficult to hold up on the psychological level, which is the most basic physiological level. Man is a human being, flesh and blood, not a monster or a tireless machine, if there is work, there must be leisure, otherwise it will collapse.

However, it was this necessary, short-lived relaxation that became the last straw that broke them.

"Whew-"

A roar, coming from the midst of the cheering crowd, was not like a human voice, but somewhat similar to those monsters.

When Li Weiyong heard this, his first reaction was surprise, because all the monsters in the vicinity had been taken care of by them, and even if there were one or two fish that slipped through the net, it was impossible for them to appear in the crowd so abruptly - although the soldiers were relaxed, they were not blind!

Shocked to shocked, after this night of fighting, several brushes with death, he now basically has the quality of a professional soldier. He stood up at the first moment, reached for his sword, and walked up with it. The crowd was retreating in terror, but he met it.

Next, the scene that appeared in front of his eyes made him completely confused, and only a blank space was left in his mind.

It was a "man", or rather, it had been a man, after all, it was humanoid, and it was still wearing human clothes, and it even carried a spear in its hand. It was the same monster they had killed before, with no skin, only naked and red muscles, which looked hideous and terrifying. Its eyes emerged from its sockets into two long, snail-like antennae, and its nose and mouth were joined together, sunken deep into a large hole filled with tiny spikes.

Li Weiyong didn't know how to describe this abominable creature for a moment, he felt that it was much more evil than all the mutated creatures that had appeared in front of them before combined, because, subconsciously, he had already understood that this monster had once been his own kind. And once he understands this, fear spreads like a tidal wave in his brain, eventually swallowing everything.

Just as Li Weiyong saw it, it also stretched out its two soft tentacles, and used them to visit the young man with the long sword in front of him. Then, with those two, it shed its five fingers, and replaced them with three octopus-like soft tentacles, and the hands, holding its spear, walked towards Li Weiyong.

Its speed is not fast, let alone other mutant beasts, it is not even as fast as ordinary humans. However, the psychological shock it brought to Li Weiyong was huge. At the moment of making eye contact with it, Li Weiyong was stunned for at least a second. This gave it a chance to strike first, especially since the weapon in its hand was longer than Li Weiyong's.

It wasn't until the moment the spear broke through the air that Li Weiyong finally came to his senses, but it was too late. The monster was slow, but its strength was not small at all, and the shot was so hard and sharp that it left no room for Li Weiyong to dodge, and he had no shield in his hand. So, with a muffled "poof", the spear pierced his left shoulder, and the blood stained half of his face.

The force instantly spread throughout his body, almost causing him to fall on the spot, and his left hand lost sensation and hung down weakly, and after that, it was a sharp pain in his heart, like a basin of cold water in the early morning, which woke up his consciousness that had not yet moved away from the clouds. His brain began to run at full speed, mobilizing every cell in his body that could still receive instructions, working together to fight for survival.

At this moment, the spear was still stuck in his shoulder, which greatly restricted his movements, making every slight movement of the left half of his body a painful torture. However, sometimes, in order to survive, we have to endure and endure the pain that is not enough to kill us.

"Humph!"

With a muffled snort, Li Weiyong held the spear, gritted his teeth, and took another step forward. The rough barrel of the gun slid through his wounds, rubbing little by little against his cracked flesh, the pain was enough to make one faint, but Levion held on with a white face.

So he was rewarded.

This was a crucial step that reduced the distance between the two to the range of the sword. The monster was still stirring the barrel of the gun, meaninglessly, inflicting more pain on Levion—it clearly had no intelligence, just like its four-legged counterpart.

Li Weiyong raised his right hand holding the sword, aimed it at the monster's defenseless neck, and swung a sword that gathered all the strength of his body. As the silver-white sword shadow flashed, the monster's head rolled to the ground, and its body staggered down, leaving only a spear across Li Weiyong's body.

"Uh...... Ha ......"

The excessive blood loss made Li Weiyong's eyes darken, and he fell to his knees on the ground after the monster. His lips lost their blood, and he gasped for a while, but not a sound. The heavy spear was pressing on his wounds, making it more and more unbearable for him to bear. He wanted to pull it out, but he was afraid that the ensuing bloodshed would kill him.

"Uhhh

However, before he could properly consider his own safety, another inhuman roar filled his consciousness.

"Uh......h Whoaaaaaaa

"Quack—"

Then came the second sound, the third sound, one after the other, like a rooster crowing in the morning. The situation behind him quickly became chaotic, with the clashing of blades, cries of despair, and the roar of inhuman creatures. At this time, Li Weiyong just knelt on the ground motionless with his head down, with a gun on his body, bleeding slowly, as quiet as a corpse.

Even if he didn't look back, he already understood what had happened, what was going to happen, what would happen to him, everything was clear.

Finally, the worst nightmare came true. Humanity began to transform into monsters, fighting and destroying each other with humanity that had not yet been transformed. And he, he can't escape, or die at the hands of monsters, or become monsters himself after killing monsters, he only has these two paths.

Only a few minutes ago, for a moment, he really, naively thought that he had succeeded, that the battle had been won.

Now, it seems, was just the beginning of all despair.