Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 629 - 570: Necromancer

Just as he stepped out the door, beams from searchlights shone from building windows, rooftops, and between the trees.

Li Ang first shielded his eyes, blocking the intense light, then simply had the Elemental Material transform into sunglasses and settle on the bridge of his nose.

The sunglasses dimmed the glare, allowing him to clearly see his surroundings.

Over a dozen transport armored vehicles were parked on the open grounds of the university campus. A large number of Self-Defense Force soldiers surrounded the building from all directions, using flower beds, doorways, and building corners as cover, aiming their guns at the door.

The searchlights were independently powered, meaning he couldn’t cut the power as he had in the hallway to neutralize the enemy’s reconnaissance capabilities.

Li Ang observed them, and they observed him.

Inside the command communication vehicle, a Self-Defense Force officer stared intently at the screen displaying the figure in the patient gown, shouting loudly into his walkie-talkie. However, the previously dispatched Teams A, B, and C gave no response.

Had they all been wiped out in such a short time...?

The officer’s face twitched. A subordinate wearing headphones hesitantly turned and said, "Sir, the US has asked us to exercise restraint and not to actively attack the subject. They are on their way with anesthetic gas bombs."

The officer gritted his teeth. "Damn Americans! They only want to capture the subject alive; they don’t care how many Japanese die."

Why aren’t they attacking?

Standing at the doorway, Li Ang raised an eyebrow slightly. He was prepared to defend himself, yet the Self-Defense Force soldiers opposite merely aimed their guns, showing no intention of striking first.

Are they still trying to capture me alive?

From his previous experience in the armored vehicle, the Elemental Material’s automatic counterattack mechanism only activated while he was conscious. If the enemy used anesthetics or Muscle Relaxants, he would still be in danger.

Time is short. I can’t wait any longer.

Li Ang controlled the Elemental Material to stab out from behind him, coalescing into chains that picked up the projectiles scattered across the hallway floor.

Then, he violently yanked them back and threw them.

The round Fragmentation Hand Grenades traced an arc through the air, landing in the middle of a flower bed.

The Self-Defense Force soldiers, who had been kneeling behind the flower bed, instinctively dove in the opposite direction upon seeing the rolling grenades.

One of them, eyes wide, dropped his gun and lunged towards a grenade, attempting to pick it up and throw it further away.

He succeeded, and yet he failed.

The grenade exploded in mid-air just in front of his head. Shrapnel, propelled by the blast wave, scattered in all directions, mangling him beyond recognition.

It wasn’t just Fragmentation Hand Grenades that flew out. Shock Bombs streaked through the night sky, bursting with blinding light and deafening booms. Tear gas canisters hissed, spewing toxic smoke that obscured vision and choked the lungs.

"The subject has attacked!"

Inside the command communication vehicle, the officer’s eyes lit up. He pressed the communication broadcast button on the control panel and shouted, "All units, counterattack! Fire at will!"

His subordinates in the vehicle exchanged uneasy glances. The female SAT operative, also present, frowned and said in a low, stern voice, "Sergeant! The US specifically said..."

The officer responded coldly, "The Americans only said not to *initiate* an attack on the subject. They didn’t forbid us from counterattacking to protect our own lives and the lives of the Japanese people!"

This area of the campus was open, so the Shock Bombs and tear gas weren’t enough to affect all the soldiers.

Those unaffected Self-Defense Force soldiers, hearing the command through the noise-canceling headphones attached to their tactical helmets, immediately began to unleash a torrent of fire. Grenades were mixed in with the barrage.

Li Ang raised his Elemental Material shield, deflecting the grenade blasts. He retreated two steps back into the corridor as more chains extended from behind him, sinking deep into the corpses littering the ground.

PFFT—

The Elemental Material chains slithered within the corpses, causing all the bodies to tremble and convulse.

Amidst the hail of bullets, Li Ang picked up a pair of noise-canceling headphones from the ground and cleared his throat into the microphone.

"Today, I’m going to show you an unboxing video."

His voice echoed through the communication channel. Inside the command vehicle, the communications soldier blinked in confusion, tilting his head and pressing his headphones closer to his ear to hear more clearly.

"What did he say?" the officer frowned.

The communications soldier hesitated before repeating, "Unboxing... video?"

The officer and the SAT operative exchanged a look. Then, they understood Li Ang’s meaning.

From the corridor, soldiers’ corpses charged out one after another, each bearing fatal wounds: some were riddled with bullet holes; others had their abdomens torn open, intestines dragging behind them; a few were even missing half their heads.

The only thing keeping them "alive" were the chains connected to the back of their necks. These chains had burrowed into their limbs, replacing bone and muscle, restoring the corpses’ ability to move.

"Today, I’m going to show you an unboxing video," the Necromancer, crowbar in hand before a coffin, said to the camera.

Li Ang finished his deeply morbid joke. Like a true Necromancer, he manipulated the soldier corpses to raise their guns and open fire on their former comrades.

A hail of bullets flew. The Self-Defense Force soldiers at the front fell one by one under the assault. The remaining soldiers, witnessing such a gruesome and bizarre spectacle, felt their scalps tingle. Some screamed in terror. Others, their expressions crazed, continued to fire. Rifle bullets struck the corpses, creating sprays of blood and sending chunks of flesh flying, yet this did nothing to stop their advance as they overran the flower beds.

"Where are the machine gunners? Shred them to pieces!"

The officer’s roar had an effect. Soldiers behind the gun mounts squeezed their triggers. The 12.7mm vehicle-mounted machine guns unleashed torrents of fire, spitting out metallic ammunition belts.

The power of the 12.7mm machine guns was far beyond that of rifles or submachine guns. Each hit blasted apart a corpse’s chest, abdomen, or limbs.

Even Elemental Material couldn’t restore a pile of minced flesh to action.

The soldiers, already dead once, finally collapsed for good.

The battlefield fell quiet once more, yet the unease in the heart of the commander inside the armored vehicle grew stronger.

Something isn’t right.

He was looking at the overhead battlefield view relayed by a drone on his screen when he suddenly realized something—several searchlights on the field had been shot out by stray bullets.

Before he could issue his next command, Li Ang shot out from the corridor. Using the shadows where the searchlights had gone dark, he dashed like a bolt of lightning into the center of the battlefield.

Chains extending from his spine whipped out frantically, tearing through the air like snapped steel cables as they lashed out at the surviving soldiers.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Each soldier exploded into a mist of blood where they stood.

The machine gunners on the armored vehicles didn’t even have time to fire. Li Ang exploited an opening and rushed into the cluster of vehicles. Shielded by the friendly vehicles, the gunners lost their firing angles.

Li Ang knelt in the space between two armored vehicles. All his chains rose high, their tips pointing down, maintaining a spider-leg-like posture.

CLANG!!

The chains stabbed downwards, piercing the roofs of all the armored vehicles.