NEC Chapter 99: The Endless Death Desert

On the eleventh day of entering the desert, the blazing white sun still hung high above.

The sand grains, having been scorched all day, steamed with burning heat that penetrated through Larila's thick boot soles, stubbornly creeping upward, burning all the way into his heart and kindling an indescribable rage within.

Larila irritably kicked away the sand pile at his feet, his gaze fixed deadly on the horizon.

He needed that blinding disc of light to sink a bit more, and faster.

These lazy and stupid goblins could only move for a few hours around sunrise and sunset each day. They complained about the heat during the day and the cold at night. If they were in Zircon Family, such soldiers would have been tied to horses long ago and dragged to death on the highways.

In the marquis's words, lazy people needed more exercise. If they didn't want to walk themselves, then drag them along.

Just then, the sand person let out a clear whistle.

"Sir, something is approaching, seems to be two pack animals, over there!"

"Stay alert!"

Larila raised his head wrap and looked warily at that stretch of sand dunes.

Soon, several small black dots climbed to the top of the dune.

They paused for a moment, apparently observing. Suddenly, two of the figures raised their arms.

"Whoosh, whoosh!"

Two dark objects tore through the air with heart-stopping shrieks, diving straight toward Larila and the crowd of goblins watching the excitement behind him!

The speed was beyond imagination!

"BOOM!!!"

A mass of blazing, violent orange-red flames exploded without warning above the densest part of the goblin crowd! The deafening roar instantly drowned out all other noise.

Countless high-speed spinning sharp fragments poured down like iron rain from hell. In an instant, two cruel slaughter grounds appeared on the scene. The thick smell of blood mixed with gunpowder immediately filled the air.

The goblins lucky enough to survive let out piercing screams, clutching their faces or mutilated limbs, rolling and convulsing on the scorching sand.

This was one of the main weapons in the raid kit that East Xia's military had carefully customized for Vast Sea Territory's high-mobility assault squad, the upgraded version of the integrated rifle-grenade system, QDS191.

Simply called the grenade launcher.

The weapon weighed 5.5 kilograms, with 20mm grenade caliber and warheads weighing only 85 grams. When Little Kaga first got this little thing, he was quite dismissive, as it seemed like a toy compared to the high-low dual-purpose machine gun.

But soon, Little Kaga was conquered by this "little toy."

First, this gun had a fire control system that could achieve automatic ranging and ballistic calculation!

This made up for Little Kaga's current biggest flaw: poor aim.

The moment Little Kaga had paused on top of the dune was to activate the fire control.

On the first aim, pressing the control switch, the scope would display a distance value. After setting the enemy at this distance as the core target, it would quickly calculate the internal and external ballistics and environmental parameters needed to attack the target.

Next, Little Kaga only needed to adjust the muzzle position according to the scope's guidance and pull the trigger.

This wasn't all. The grenade launcher's grenades also had controlled fuses.

The scope would calculate flight time based on attack distance and provide three different explosion modes: premature airburst, contact detonation, and impact explosion.

Little Kaga chose airburst.

Under the fire control system's calculation, the thing exploded in mid-air three meters above the target point. The storm-like high-explosive fragmentation shards easily pierced through the heads of the goblins below who had their mouths agape watching the show.

Within a fifteen-meter radius, everything was stained red and white.

When the shocked and furious Larila looked up again, the dune was already empty.

"Chase them!!!"

"Chase them down and kill them!!!"

But this was truly overestimating their abilities.

Warriors with strong physical qualities did indeed move faster than ordinary people, but trying to chase equally formidable centaurs was wishful thinking.

After all, you only had two legs, while the other side had four hooves specialized for running.

In the past, horses couldn't enter the desert because the desert environment was very unfriendly to most creatures.

Even the famously sturdy Delma horses would lose their ability to move after a period in the desert environment.

Problems included but were not limited to: keratin softening of hooves due to high temperatures; hoof wall cracking and even local inflammation due to sand grain wear; frequent loss of footing on soft dunes causing tendon and ligament sprains; sand dust invading respiratory tracts causing inhalation lung disease...

Most critically, war horses sweated very easily. In hot, dry environments, without massive water replenishment, they would quickly become dehydrated and suffer heat stroke.

However, under East Xia's systematic support that ignored cost considerations, all problems were no longer problems.

This raid kit included not only three sets of weapons but also numerous auxiliary support systems.

For example, desert-specific horse boots.

Full-coverage wide-bottom design, inner flexible materials, outer wear-resistant materials, high-efficiency heat insulation, puncture resistance, strong grip, good breathability. The upper part had sand-proof sealing design, while the bottom had one-way outward sand drainage holes that only expelled sand, never let it in.

Lightweight dust masks that prevented not just sand dust but even dust particles from entering the respiratory system, plus portable oxygen bags. When tired from running, one breath would refresh the spirit.

Besides the personal large-capacity water bags, the kit also included a water source purifier.

There were small lakes or rivers in the desert too. When encountering one, fill a bag of water, press the red button, and the filter and disinfectant chemicals would rapidly purify the water source.

Press the green button, and the storage tank at the top of the water bag would add a measured amount of powder containing sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and trace sugars.

Shake it slightly, and you'd have a bag of high-energy electrolyte water.

As for other things like high-definition goggles combined with night vision systems, portable five-kilometer range biological detection radar, sun protection and cold protection suits, instant communication and positioning systems...

In short, after Larila's warriors chased frantically for several hundred meters, the other side had already gone several kilometers away. In the middle, they even found time to turn around, switch the integrated rifle-grenade system to rifle mode, and fire two shots at the pursuing warriors.

They missed. Bullets didn't have auto-aim.

Kaga felt somewhat embarrassed and left covering his face.

Lost face had to be regained. Over an hour later, as the bandit camp began packing up supplies and preparing for the evening march, the centaur assault team circled around and came from another direction for another round, three volleys.

The bandits truly had a feast today. They stripped the dead goblins of their body hair, removed their intestines, half fire-roasted and half boiled. Both the great goblins and ogres had a satisfying meal.

However, after wiping their mouths, the great goblins immediately began clamoring, "Oh oh, my great warrior died in this filthy place, and he still has poor cubs at home, over ten cubs!"

"Oh, what should we do? No, we must go back, we must go back!"

This forced Larila to owe another large sum in compensation money, and the team stumbled forward again.

As they say, people teaching people can't teach them, but events teach people in one go.

This time Larila learned his lesson and began posting guards in all directions.

Especially when camping, to avoid direct sunlight, they usually chose shaded areas below sand dunes. As long as they posted a few sentries on top of the dunes, they could avoid being ambushed by those beasts again.

Then, the sentries became living targets for the centaurs' shooting practice.

After walking for a day, seven sentries died and the camp was bombed twice more.

Although the bandits had another feast that night, neither the sand people nor the goblins were willing to serve as sentries anymore.

Having meat to eat was certainly nice, but being the one served at the table felt terrible.

Larila could only make endless promises, since he already couldn't pay back what he owed anyway...

Of course, for other members of the bandit group, they were also in a difficult position, so even knowing the other party might be making empty promises, they had to cooperate temporarily.

This time, they pulled ogres up to stand guard.

These things were not only tough-skinned and thick-fleshed, but crucially could continuously cast defensive spells like [Stone Skin Protection] on themselves. Combined with their armor, bullet attacks had little effect.

Kaga tried using grenades to blast directly, but because the aiming guidance took a few extra seconds, the ogre on the other side hurled a fireball over.

If it weren't for "Little Baldy" nearby raising a lightweight steel dragon bone heat-resistant material tent to block it, Kaga wouldn't have died but would have lost a layer of skin.

"Little Baldy" was formerly Little Dreadlocks. When Chen Mo selected this combat raid team, this guy trained the hardest and made the most progress, which is how he stood out.

Now, after taking this hit for Kaga, his bald body surface had several large burn patches.

After retreating in embarrassment and treating Little Baldy's injuries with the medical kit, the enraged Little Kaga deployed another set of weapons.

The reason he had been reluctant to use them was because this weapon set had limited quantities. The three centaurs had only brought six rounds total.

This thing's full name was "Red Arrow" anti-tank missile, Starry Continent modified version, with a base weight of twenty kilograms and independently stored combat environment parameters for this local area.

The warhead weighed about five kilograms, had dual-mode guidance, high shooting accuracy, and a maximum attack range of four kilometers.

The two-headed ogre sentry needed to observe the field of vision, so it definitely had to stand on high ground on the dune. Using this thing to blast it was most appropriate.

The projectile shot out like a dragon, the arrow piercing the clear sky.

Although the two-headed ogre's beast instinct made it react immediately, not only applying additional protective magic to itself but also attempting to attack this big guy speeding toward it, it was still hit squarely on the head.

Forget Silver Armor, even a professional Goldscale taking one of these might not survive.

Red Arrow was designed to destroy tanks. Although it preferred attacking tanks' weaker top armor, that was still steel-armored giant beasts, always a bit thicker than an ogre's skull.

The ogre's roar shook the entire sandy battlefield. sand grains rolled down from the dunes like a small sandstorm.

What followed was tremendous commotion in the camp.

The one attacked was the ogre leader.

These six adult ogres were two males and four females. Ogres inherited certain beast characteristics, following the strong-dominate-all principle, so this powerful ogre chief possessed mating rights with all four females, and the three children were all his offspring.

The other, smaller male ogre belonged to the scraps that had temporarily joined this family.

Normally, males unable to obtain mating rights would never willingly submit to other ogres but would independently develop territory and seek to establish their own families.

But ogres in this world were too scarce. If they just wandered in the wild, they'd likely remain bachelors for life.

So it chose to endure humiliation and serve the chief as an underling, hoping that when the chief's daughters matured, it could obtain its own mate.

Even ogres rejected inbreeding. This backup male ogre had some brains, essentially marrying into the family ten-plus years in advance to plan a future reproductive opportunity.

So, after seeing the chief two-headed ogre blown into a headless ogre, after being afraid for an instant, the backup male felt tremendous joy.

Then, its roar was equally earth-shaking.

Grabbing Larila's armor, the ogre's foul-smelling saliva sprayed heavily on the Silver Armor captain's face.

"Humans! You're finished!"

"You have desecrated the great ogre chief. The chief's death gaze will forever watch you!"

"Compensation, you must compensate ten times, no, fifteen times the food!"

"Otherwise, you all must die! Die!"

Larila himself didn't know how he managed to fool the ogre.

When both goblins and ogres refused to serve as sentries, only he and his two accompanying warriors could do this job.

The more times like this, the more one needed to stay calm.

Captain Larila desperately encouraged himself.

We're getting closer and closer to the enemy's camp. The more the enemy struggles, the more it's their final madness before death.

As long as we can enter the enemy's territory, facing absolute strength, these guys who only know how to sneak around and shoot cold arrows will inevitably be crushed to powder.

Repeatedly building up his confidence, Larila designed an elaborate ambush.

He observed the terrain in advance, calculated distance and direction, deliberately left a route that could be used for surprise attacks on the camp, then convinced several great goblins to cooperate with his subordinate warriors and lurk beneath a sand cluster.

As long as the enemy attacked from this direction, it would be a pincer attack from front and back!

"Tonight, we'll feast on roasted horse legs in camp!"

The bandit captain's inspiring mobilization rarely elicited cheers.

Then, the small centaur team indeed came to the route Larila had designed.

Just as those four-hooved bastards launched their attack on the camp, Larila's brave warriors leaped from the sand piles and charged from behind the enemy.

Then, then there was nothing more.

Little Kaga had biological detection radar in his hands.

He deliberately circled around to the enemy's front, while placing a row of sensor-activated directional anti-personnel mines in the sand behind him.

These were enhanced Claymore versions. Each mine contained twelve hundred steel balls. On the side marked "This side toward enemy," there was a light-sound sensing system that required no tripwire. As long as enemies entered the sensing range, they could enjoy dense steel ball showers.

Little Kaga calmly fired rifle grenades into the bandit camp, didn't even look at the several "sieves" behind him, and rode away.

On the fourteenth day, the bandits, forcibly enduring casualties and continuing forward in a daze, suffered another major blow.

The sand people found a small desert lake. The goblins who had endured so many days of torment screamed with joy as they jumped into the water, excitedly splashing water all over their heads and bodies. Some impatient great goblins cupped water into their mouths in big gulps.

Ten-plus minutes later, the shore was littered with goblins.

Kaga had poisoned the water.

With radar allowing the centaur team to roam freely, predicting the enemy's route was all too simple. The centaurs had no psychological burden about poisoning.

The water-soluble cyanide they deployed quickly dispatched thirty to forty goblins.

The only regret was that they carried limited toxins, and this lake's area was slightly too large, so it didn't achieve the expected full effect.

The physically resilient warriors and great goblins were also affected but not fatally.

That night, Little Kaga used loitering munitions against the bandit camp.

As loitering munitions that Chen Mo had high hopes for, their actual combat effectiveness was relatively limited. The main issue was that loitering munitions attacked from the air and made obvious sounds.

In a desert environment with such visibility, and with sand people who were exceptionally sensitive to sounds, they could easily be discovered by enemies in advance.

Once enemies figured out the explosive pattern, they just needed to scatter on the spot, and the loitering munitions' killing efficiency would drop significantly.

No matter how miniaturized, loitering munitions weighed at least several kilograms. Compared to rifle grenades, their killing efficiency was indeed lower.

However, now the camp was filled with wounded who had difficulty moving, so the loitering munitions' explosive effect was much more significant.

That night, after another bombing, the bandits finally exploded.

No matter what conditions Larila proposed, the great goblins firmly refused to take another step forward. They demanded to go back, immediately.

"Half of our good children are already dead, half!"

"Wars with orcs never caused us such losses. This isn't an attack, it's suicide!"

"We can't all perish in this damned place. Otherwise, the little cubs at home will be roasted like little lambs and eaten piece by piece!"

"Go back, we want to go back now, and no one can stop us!"

As for the sand people, they had already scattered and fled when they discovered the water was poisoned during the day.

After all, they were the ones who found the water source. Seeing the goblins' furious glares, they'd rather die at enemy hands than become goblin food.

The ogres huddled together tightly, using magic for defense. The newly appointed chief was busy venting long-suppressed frustrations, seeing if he could leave behind some offspring.

He couldn't be bothered with other matters now.

Larila, already like a walking corpse, despairingly climbed to the top of that highest dune.

"Come out, you sneaky bastards, you cowards, centaur mongrels, despicable four-legged trash, come out!"

"Come out and fight me with real weapons!"

His voice was shrill and desolate, filled with boundless resentment.

Then, an armor-piercing round came through the air, cleanly tearing apart Larila's skull.

Little Kaga clumsily imitated the lord's manner, blowing on his gun muzzle, even though there was no gunpowder smoke there.

"Sick bastard, I have a gun, why would I fight you!"

Little Baldy, wrapped in bandages beside him, attentively offered a bag of electrolyte water, "Right, right, Kaga is the best! You're a natural leader!"

With Larila's death, this force that was already riddled with holes and held together only by the last threads of fear and greed instantly collapsed.

Having lost the sand people' guidance, the surviving great goblins, goblins, and ogres lost their direction.

When fear overwhelmed greed, they began desperate, aimless flight like headless flies toward whatever direction they each felt was the "way back," only hoping to quickly escape this death desert that had devoured countless companions and buried greedy dreams.

The golden desert resumed its silence once again, as if nothing had ever happened.

Only the wind swept up sand grains, slowly burying those scattered remains and congealed bloodstains.

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