Chapter 131: Chapter 131: Cunning
If someone accidentally triggers a landmine and exposes the whereabouts of the main force, all their preparations will be meaningless.
Renee Morgan’s reminder was clear to the team leader.
He glanced at Dane, who was silent, nodded without any objection: "The commander asked me to lead the team, so for now they’ll listen to me. I’ll make sure they cooperate with Dane."
After everything was settled, the sky was just turning light. The team leader led the main force away with Dane, leaving behind sixteen assault soldiers from Group 5 (including one temporary member).
The members of Group 5 watched the main force leave, then looked back at Renee Morgan.
Renee Morgan curved her lips, her eyes clear and bright: "Regret it yet?"
All sixteen shook their heads in unison: "No regrets."
"Good." Renee Morgan nodded, instructing them to sit by the nearby rocks to talk.
Once everyone had sat down, Renee Morgan took a seat opposite them and spoke first: "I’m Renee Morgan, sniper from Team Blue. You can briefly introduce yourselves."
The others nodded in agreement. The temporary member from Group 5 raised his hand first: "I’ll start. I’m Isaac Bell, originally from Group 4, now in Group 5. Assault soldier, Team Blue."
Sitting next to him was a teammate Renee had met in the tent, Group 5’s squad leader. He raised his hand: "I’m Desmond Ulrich, squad leader of Group 5, assault soldier, Team Blue."
The rest raised their hands one after another and introduced themselves.
Renee Morgan silently memorized their faces and names, then entered their comms numbers into her communicator for better coordination.
The others likewise saved Renee Morgan’s number.
Team Red Tower,
After several hours of rest, the Team Red members assigned for reinforcement gathered at the hall at the designated time.
Louis counted the members and didn’t set out immediately, waited about twenty minutes, and when he was sure that person wouldn’t come, he sighed inwardly and told someone to prepare vehicles for departure.
One hundred fifty people, completely filling six armored vehicles.
Louis sat in the front vehicle’s passenger seat, his back perfectly straight, not daring to relax for a second.
After leaving the building area, the convoy headed south, and came to a sudden halt when passing a mountain road.
Louis saw the trees blocking the road, didn’t get out right away, glanced around, waited a minute, and with everything still quiet, took out his communicator and told the team to remove the trees in the middle.
Louis kept his eyes on both sides of the road. He couldn’t hear anything through the car window, so he rolled the window down.
"Swoosh!"
Louis quickly pulled his hand back from the window, listening alertly, and heard another "swoosh."
He immediately grabbed the communicator and ordered someone to take shields down and search the thickets on both sides of the road.
They had shields today, so weren’t worried about sneak attacks. As long as the shields didn’t cover the three kill zones on their helmet tops, there was no foul.
A squad descended quickly from the armored cars, shields in hand, splitting into two rows to check the thickets and woods along the road.
The brush and woods showed messy footprints, clearly a lot of people had been there.
Unable to find anyone, they returned and checked the vehicle tires, discovering four tires had been punctured, and not just on one vehicle. Fortunately, every vehicle had a spare tire, so after swapping, they could continue forward. ℴ𝗆
Once the tires were changed and the obstacles cleared, the vehicles moved out again.
Worried the hidden enemy would pull the same tricks, Louis ordered those seated by the windows to lower them and point their guns at both sides of the road.
He knew this wouldn’t be very effective, but with such a long journey, if they had to abandon the vehicles and march, it’d take much more time. That’s exactly what Team Blue wanted, but definitely not what Team Red did.
Just as Louis had this thought, he heard news from Team Red’s border post: Team Blue’s main force was moving, and had sent people to raid Team Red’s patrol team.
Tick!
The Red commander’s comm came through.
The order was for Louis to get his reinforcements to the border post immediately.
Louis answered, "Understood," but as their convoy rounded another bend, they stopped again.
This time, it wasn’t trees blocking the road, but rocks of various sizes.
If Hugh had been sitting in the vehicle, seeing this never-ending string of roadblocks, he’d be suspicious. He knew relying on roadblocks alone wouldn’t stop anyone.
Jay Monroe and Renee Morgan were known as Team Blue’s elite—why waste energy?
The reason for this was simply a smokescreen.
Unfortunately, Louis wasn’t Hugh.
While ordering people to clear the rocks, Louis also told them to raise their shields to protect the tires in case of punctures.
But as they stowed the shields and got back in, the left tire was still punctured.
Louis: "..."
The vehicle stalled again. He sent people out to check and change the tire.
This time, another four were punctured, only two spare tires left, two short.
Six cars had to drop one, five kept moving, the vehicle with two blown tires had its good tires removed and taken along.
They knew Team Blue had homemade weapons similar to crossbows, and would definitely pull this again. It wasn’t that Louis didn’t want more spare tires, but resources were limited, only so many vehicles, and nowhere to get more tires.
Blame Team Blue for being too damn clever.
The five vehicles moved forward. With one car fewer, 25 people had no seats and had to run behind.
The runners gradually fell behind the vehicles. As they traversed a rocky cliff, several large stones tumbled from above and landed at their feet.
The Team Red members with shields immediately raised them, crouched down, and checked their surroundings.
Their posture and angle was just like the oblique angle used during yesterday’s ambush—unless someone engaged them face-to-face, it was nearly impossible to hit the three helmet kill zones.
But there’s a downside: in this position, it takes a lot of effort to see into the woods. They squatted for a long time, but nothing stirred above, and exchanging glances, they slowly and cautiously stood up, shields in hand.
A false alarm.
Just as they wiped the sweat from their brows, a commotion was heard up ahead. As they rounded another bend, they saw a lush tree blocking the road.
They were speechless. Since they weren’t in vehicles, they could just step over it—so what was the point of a tree blocking the way?
Grumbling inwardly, they still held their shields, moving back-to-back, always alert to any movement along the road, advancing carefully in a cross-step.
No one noticed that the lush tree’s leaves were fluttering—the barrel of a black tube was sticking out, aimed right at them.
"Bang!"
After the first shot rang out, Jay Monroe quickly chambered another round, fired a second, a third, a fourth...