Chapter 173: One Shot at a Time

Then, as if responding to some unseen command, the three giants slowly lifted their heads as their mouths began to open wider... and wider... until their jaws stretched to an unnatural size. A chill swept through the soldiers. "Not again..."

The horrified whisper had barely left a soldier’s lips before the battlefield was engulfed by another monstrous roar.

"GRRUUUUUAAAAAAAAAA!" The deafening sound exploded outward like an invisible tidal wave and a sharp ringing instantly filled every soldier’s ears.

"Tiiiiiiing..." At the same time, every radio channel erupted with violent static.

"Crrrshhh... West... crrr... repeat... crrr..." The transmissions dissolved into meaningless noise as communication across the entire western sector collapsed.

The roar swept over the battlefield with terrifying force, throwing soldiers off their feet one after another. Many instinctively clamped their hands over their ears, but it accomplished nothing. Blood streamed from their ears as the overwhelming sound battered their eardrums, leaving them disoriented and barely able to think.

The soldiers inside the armored vehicles suffered even worse. Confined within the steel cabins, the roar echoed violently through the armored hulls, amplifying the sound until it became unbearable. Crew members screamed in agony as they clutched their heads, some collapsing against their seats while others slumped over the controls, losing consciousness almost instantly.

The Behemoths didn’t stop. Their continuous roar threw the entire western defense into disarray, then one of the Behemoths drove its enormous body deeper into the breach, forcing its way through the shattered wall.

CRAAACK! The reinforced concrete groaned under the overwhelming pressure as more chunks of the already ruined wall broke free and crashed to the ground. Twisted steel beams snapped apart one after another, widening the breach even further as the Behemoth relentlessly pushed forward.

Amid the deafening roar a single suppressed gunshot quietly sliced through the battlefield.

SPLAT! The giant forcing its way through the breach suddenly jerked backward.

One of its eyes exploded as a bullet punched clean through the socket before blasting out the back of its skull. Black blood, shattered bone, and torn flesh erupted into the air, leaving behind a gaping hole large enough to see straight through.

Yet the Behemoth didn’t fall. Instead, it threw back its head and released an even more furious roar.

Its remaining eye burned with savage rage as it dug both arms deeper into the ruined wall, seemingly determined to tear the entire structure apart even if it had to force its own body through the opening.

Several rooftops away, Jaxon knelt quietly at the edge of a building, his DMR resting firmly against his shoulder.

The Behemoths’ roar had reached him as well. A sharp ringing still lingered in his ears, and the pressure inside his head had yet to completely fade. Even so, compared to the soldiers, his strengthened body and enhanced endurance allowed him to recover far more quickly.

"To think you can even punch through something that big..." Jaxon briefly lowered his eyes to the rifle in his hands, a faint smile forming at the corner of his lips "You really never disappoint."

His gaze returned to the Behemoth struggling at the breach.

The suppressed shot vanished into the night, almost completely drowned beneath the Behemoth’s relentless roar. A fraction of a second later...

SPLAT! The bullet pierced straight through the Behemoth’s remaining eye. The giant recoiled violently, its massive body staggering for the first time as black blood burst from the ruined socket.

But it still refused to retreat. Instead, it dug its massive arms deeper into the broken wall, desperately trying to force its enormous body through the breach. Its massive shoulders became firmly wedged between the collapsed concrete, trapping the giant halfway through the breach.

Unable to force its way any farther, the Behemoth threw its head back and slowly opened its mouth, preparing to unleash another earth-shaking roar.

Jaxon’s eyes narrowed instantly. ’No, you won’t. A suppressed round streaked straight into the Behemoth’s open mouth before it could make a sound as the giant’s head jerked violently.

Before it even had a chance to react a second bullet tore into its skull from within. Then another, and again.

Jaxon never took his eye off the scope. Every squeeze of the trigger sent another round exactly where it needed to go. Some bullets pierced through the ruined eye sockets, others disappeared into the creature’s open mouth, while the rest found every exposed gap in the shattered skull.

Dark blood erupted with every shot as fragments of its armor-like skull were blown apart piece by piece. Cracks spread rapidly across what little remained of its head, growing wider with every precise round Jaxon sent into the same weakened area.

Then... the final bullet struck.

BAM! The Behemoth’s skull burst apart in a violent spray of black blood, shattered bone, and mangled flesh. The roar it had been preparing died before it could even escape its throat as the light faded from its remaining eye.

Its enormous body suddenly went limp and at the same time, a familiar notification appeared before Jaxon’s eyes.

(450 EXP, 600 Coins, 3 Strength obtained from the zombie.)

Jaxon barely spared it a glance and frowned. ’I should’ve gotten to the wall sooner... Damn it.’

The Behemoth’s lifeless body slowly tipped forward. Unable to fit through the breach, the giant remained wedged between the shattered remains of the wall, its colossal corpse collapsing against the broken concrete and blocking nearly half of the opening by itself.

The soldiers scattered across the western wall stared blankly at the gigantic corpse lodged in the breach, their minds struggling to comprehend what they had just witnessed. Moments ago, the monster had been tearing apart the strongest defensive wall in the safe zone. Now it hung there lifeless, its head completely destroyed.

Even the remaining two Behemoths stopped moving. Their enormous heads slowly turned toward their fallen companion, their pure dark eyes fixed on the corpse as though they, too, couldn’t understand how one of their own had been killed so suddenly.