Chapter 14

'I didn't expect to bring back a treasure; Marcus is quite a talent."

Henry observed everything closely, secretly approving. If Marcus continued to perform so impressively, he wouldn't mind developing another tool for his purposes.

The convoy had been traveling north for over three hours. As they were about to enter the highway, Annie furrowed her brow at a shadow that flashed across the sky.

'Is it just my imagination? Why do I feel like something is flying up there?"

Annie rubbed her eyes and shrank back into the car, uncertainly asking, 'Can blood corpses fly?"

'Whoa!"

Henry slammed on the brakes, and Annie nearly lost her balance and fell.

'What did you see?"

Henry had been focused on driving and hadn't noticed what was happening in the sky.

'I'm not sure what it is, but if it's a bat, it shouldn't be that big."

Annie described the creature she had seen.

Henry's scalp tingled.

Winged demons…?

It had only been a few days, and winged demons were already appearing?

Winged demons weren't terrifying in themselves; what was frightening was that wherever there were winged demons, there would certainly be a ‘Black Blood Heart' nearby!

Winged demons were the sentinels of the Black Blood Heart!

'Something's wrong; we need to turn back!"

Henry grabbed the walkie-talkie to inform Marcus.

Marcus didn't dare to take it lightly and quickly waved his hands for everyone to turn the vehicles around.

'Ahhh!"

In the distance, a piercing scream echoed.

That was clearly the sound made by the Blood Heart, the welcome song from hell!

They had been discovered!

Henry took out his rifle and climbed onto the roof of the car to steady himself.

With his night vision ability, he was unaffected by the dim environment. As he looked up, he saw seven or eight winged demons soaring through the sky.

These winged demons were only half the size of blood corpses, and they looked extremely ugly, resembling giant bats. Their greatest advantage was their incredible flying speed, while their defensive and offensive capabilities were average.

'Looking for death!"

Henry activated ‘Sharpshooter' and began to pull the trigger in quick succession.

'Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap…"

One after another, the seven winged demons were all shot in the head and fell into the nearby wheat field.

'Boss, what's going on?" Marcus asked, his expression tense. He couldn't see anything, and people were always filled with fear of the unknown.

'Everyone, get ready; we're about to go to war."

Henry tossed a rifle, some bullets, and a Molotov cocktail card to Marcus, then tore off another rifle card for himself. 'Protect your people."

'Got it, boss."

Marcus gently patted Matthew's head; the little boy looked fearful and said, 'Uncle, I'm scared."

Marcus smiled reassuringly, 'Don't be afraid. Uncle is here, and I will protect you."

'…"

There was a dead silence before the storm arrived.

Annie's body trembled with anxiety until a warm hand gently patted her back, which helped her calm down a little.

'You should go back to the car; it's not safe here," Henry said with a smile.

'No, I want to fight with you," Annie shook her head firmly. 'If it gets too dangerous, I'll go back."

Annie had learned several silver card-level aura support skills, and as long as she was within ten meters, all allies could benefit from the aura boosts.

'Don't push yourself too hard… they're coming."

Henry's pupils contracted as he spotted a large crowd of blood corpses at the end of the road, densely packed and seemingly endless, all making strange cries as they surged forward.

Among the blood corpses, several night demons mixed in, seemingly their leaders, following the horde of blood corpses at a leisurely pace.

'Damn it… how are we supposed to fight this?" Marcus exclaimed as he looked through the military binoculars at the scene ahead, unable to hold back an expletive. However, when he saw that Henry on the roof of the car showed no signs of fear and held his heavy rifle firmly, he felt a bit more at ease.

All fear stemmed from a lack of firepower!

He has a gun, so what is there to fear?

'Come on, come on, I'll take you all down!" Marcus licked his lips with determination.

'Ahhh!!!"

Suddenly, a scream pierced the air; a man in his forties from the team had been ambushed by a winged demon, his skull cracked open, and his brain was gouged out.

They had been so focused on what was in front of them that they had neglected the sky, where dozens of winged demons were lurking menacingly.

'Fire!"

Marcus shouted, raising his gun and shooting, while the women in the team equipped with mechanical bows also aimed at the dark winged demons in the sky.

The winged demons had very limited lethality, and with everyone on guard, they found it hard to get close. However, their flying speed was too fast. Even Marcus, after expending an entire magazine, could barely take down one.

'You go help Marcus; I'll handle the front."

Henry instructed Annie, raising his rifle. The horde of corpses in front had already entered the effective range of his rifle, and he couldn't afford to worry about what was behind him.

From his elevated position, Henry pulled the trigger, and bullets rained down like a storm, taking down a large number of blood corpses in the front row.

However, there were too many blood corpses; a single rifle could not hold them back. But he was prepared. He pulled out grenades and explosives from his spatial ring and threw them far into the horde.

The deafening roar echoed through the air as fire erupted, sending hundreds of blood corpses flying. The densely packed horde was forcibly blown apart, creating patches of crimson space.

'That's our boss! So fierce!"

Marcus took a deep breath, his eyes blazing with excitement.

With Annie, the sharpshooter, assisting him, they quickly repelled the winged demons attempting to sneak attack. They turned their fire towards the front, with two rifles, eight mechanical bows, and with Henry occasionally throwing grenades, explosives, and Molotov cocktails, the horde was held back fifty meters away, unable to advance even an inch.

'Roar!!!"

Suddenly, two night demons from the horde charged forward, deflecting bullets and arrows as they lunged towards Henry on the roof of the car, moving at incredible speed like two speeding cars.

'Watch out!" Annie shouted in alarm.

'Bring it on!"

Henry showed no fear as he drew his black blade!

Slash!

'Thud!"

With a flash of light, nearly half a ton of night demon was cleaved in two, a torrent of blood gushing from its severed body. Its limbs twitched a few times before going still.

With one successful strike, Henry didn't hesitate. He stepped forward and swung his blade horizontally. The night demon sensed the danger and tried to dodge, but it was too late; Henry's swing was too fast, and half of the demon's head was severed.

In the blink of an eye, he had taken down two night demons, his face showing no emotion as he picked up his rifle again, skillfully reloading a new magazine and sweeping the horde with gunfire.

The standoff continued for another seven or eight minutes.

'Hey, it looks like the horde is retreating."

The people noticed that the corpses were no longer advancing and began to slowly fall back.

'Everyone stop, don't waste bullets."

Henry raised his hand to signal everyone to cease fire.

He scanned the crowd behind him and felt relieved to see that aside from the man who had been ambushed at the beginning, there were no other casualties in Marcus's team. Not only that, but they had also eliminated over a hundred blood corpses.

This was the advantage of having numbers.

If he hadn't brought Marcus's team along this time, encountering a horde of this scale would have definitely made Henry choose to flee at the first opportunity.

Henry jumped down from the roof of the car and began to loot the cards from the night demons.

Each of the two night demons yielded a gold card.

'Profit!"

Henry tucked the gold cards away. Before he could even give instructions, Marcus had already called a few young men to help him clean up the battlefield.

A little over ten minutes later, Marcus handed a large stack of cards to Henry, containing at least two to three hundred cards.

'This place isn't safe; let's head back."

Henry turned the vehicle around and retraced their route.

After driving for more than half an hour and ensuring they were far from the influence of the Black Blood Heart, he finally stopped.

'Everyone's tired. We'll rest here for the night."

After the skirmish, everyone was physically and mentally exhausted, but their eyes were much brighter than the day before.

Compared to the earlier battle in the community, tonight's fight was on an entirely different scale, yet the casualties were negligible.

'Marcus was absolutely right; only by following the boss do we have a chance to survive."

'We killed hundreds of blood corpses. I can't believe this is real."

'That's what happens when you follow the right person. Did you see that? The boss was incredible; he took down those huge monsters with a single slash."

'I heard Marcus say those things are called night demons…"

The morale was high as people cooked and chatted around the campfire, naturally centering their conversation around Henry.

To celebrate their victory, Henry pulled out a lot of green resource cards to treat them, including items like sausages, canned meat, instant noodles, and plenty of marinated eggs.

They hadn't eaten these foods since the apocalypse began.

After a week without them, many were moved to tears when they tasted these 'junk foods" that experts from peaceful times had once praised.

'I can finally eat meat! Who would believe this if I told them?" a burly man cried as he devoured a can of luncheon meat.

'Eat more; I'll just have some soup," a man affectionately pushed a bowl of instant noodles toward his girlfriend.

She wiped her eyes and stubbornly shook her head, 'No, Pierce, we'll eat together."

'…"