Global Awakening: Apocalypse Ender's Chronicle - Chapter 647

Chapter 647: The Grinder
“Ballista Squad Theta, target upper ridges. Flamethrower crew, prepare area denial. Prioritize cluster groups.”

The operators of those weapons swiftly leaped into action as soon as they heard Arial’s command.

The Ballistae, powered by steel bone tension that came from the Anima Store for an upgrade, launched massive silver-tipped bolts!

Boom! Boom!

These bolts pierced through five crawlers at once, pinning their figures to the ground.

Flamethrowers then started lighting up the place, dousing the lower part of the wall… They were treated to napalm as they turned the battlefield into hell…

Bam! Bam!

The main gate shuddered despite the rain of bullets, arrows, and fire… The Zombies were already a lot tougher right now.

Dozens of Crypt Crawler Elites, with extra limbs and plated skulls, rammed the barriers with suicidal strategy. They really wanted to destroy their barriers without care for their safety.

Nonetheless, several more Warden Units emerged from holding bays.

Their eyes glowed with red as they got into their kill mode.

“Warden Squad 3, use seismic fists. Warden Squad 7, switch to rapid-flux cutting blades.” Arial commanded. Although he couldn’t manually control how these Warden Units fight, he could at least give them some simple instructions for their strategy.

Just like that, the Wardens charged into the enemy ranks without hesitation.

Every movement was pre-programmed to perfection with Cloud’s assistance…

Soon, their blades sliced through armor, plasma blades vaporized their flesh and joints, and seismic punches sent crawlers flying like broken kites!

The Warden Units were incredibly strong!

One crawler latched onto one of the Warden Units, attempting to inject a corrosive spore.

[ Counter Acid engaged. ]

It was a protocol to ensure that the Warden Units wouldn’t be easily defeated by Zombies with corrosion abilities like the Spitter Zombies.

Soon, the Warden Unit’s chest flared with fire, incinerating the corrosive spoke and driving its blade into the crawler’s skull…

Thud!

Still more came.

Arial analyzed them quickly as he wanted to ensure that they get the least casualties among all the shelters owned by Shane…

Soon, his link vibrated, and the turret systems were already nearing overheating.

He had to do something about it since he couldn’t let these turrets get destroyed…

“System Override: Vent Turret Core, channel excess heat to plasma canals. Maintain fire.”

The turrets then turned orange-hot but the steam was venting from their sides. All of this was happening while they continued firing, even as their own metal groaned from the heat!

Arial opened his eyes. Not because the threat had ended, but because it was changing.

A new wave of Crypt Crawlers was not climbing, but burrowing beneath.

“What?”

He swiftly used his control of the command center’s system to monitor what was going on. After seeing their movement, Arial smirked.

“Below? You think I wouldn’t plan for that?”

He activated the Sub-Terranean Mines—dozens of explosives planted weeks prior in a trap framework. These Sub-Terraneon Mines were all from Shane’s secret store, Anima.

Supposedly, they were for Earth Zombies who could move through the ground.

However, it seemed that the elite Crypt Crawler Zombies could also move through the surface of the earth, though it was easily detectable.

As the crawlers moved through the ground to bypass the walls, they triggered the mine sensors, and with Arial’s approval, they were detonated!

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Numerous Crypt Crawlers died just like that… However, there were still too many of them and a few Crypt Crawlers were able to surface across their walls! It was a very impressive move…

However, their lives didn’t last long either…

Columns of flame and bone erupted across the inner courtyard as Shenlong, with his flaming prayer beads, made his move…

This Legendary Monk had no issues dealing with these Crypt Crawlers at all.

Seeing that there were still a few strugglers and some other Crypt Crawlers trying to continue using the underground to enter, Arial issued a final command:

“Warden Units: Clean sweep!”

The machines marched forward in unison with their blades and shields raised.

After another half an hour, the last Zombie of this horde was finally killed.

The turrets could finally rest once again… Since this wave would last for a whole day, these turrets must rest every time it had a chance.

***

Within the command center, Arial finally relaxed his back as tubes detached from his spine. These tubes allowed him to get a better understanding of the situation, unlike the normal method of synchronization.

Then, a voice came through the communication relay—Sona’s voice.

“Arial. Status?”

Sona was curious about this since she knew that she would only make her move with Otto, the Fire Magician, once the Warden Units or even their ammunition were at 50% capacity.

“Secure. No losses on this wave… 200 out of 200 Wardens are operational. Turrets have 73% capacity. Ammunition stock, 68%. They’ll send more next time.”

“Good… It’s quite in our area… I wonder why the Zombies aren’t attacking from this side.” Sona replied as she was guarding the western gate of the shelter together with Otto, Kain, Jafal, and Kaelira, but they weren’t getting any action at all.

***

In the meantime, within the Silver Mine, Camp hidden within the unnamed mountain range, and one of Shane’s most vital strongholds, the Zombie Wave they had faced wasn’t as strong as the other shelters.

Under Shane’s guidance, the camp had become a fortress.

However, most of the people were still miners. There were only a few strong Survivors that Shane sent to ensure Diana’s safety.

Nonetheless, despite facing five Zombie Hordes so far, its walls weren’t badly damaged yet… The Barriers were still active and strong…

“We’re doing well so far… I wonder what the situation is in other Shelters.” Diana muttered to herself.

Their population had swelled to nearly a thousand. Most of them were crafters, miners, and even farmers… Aside from their small unit of fighters, the ordinary Survivors were only trained in simple drills, evacuation protocols, and basic self-defense.

Soon, Aeolorion, the captain of the second Elven Squad, gave a signal about the appearance of the Sixth Zombie Wave. Once again, no Zombie Lord was detected.

“Good… This should be doable.” Diana muttered to herself.

Although she was confident in their abilities to defeat a Zombie Lord, it was still better not to face one to ensure that there wouldn’t be any casualties on their side…

***

Soon, the zombie horde finally came to their vision…

Diana used her binoculars to swiftly confirm the absence of the Zombie Lord.

“Mhmm… What do we have here?” She muttered.

After confirming that there weren’t any Zombie Lords present, she analyzed the present Zombies.

Apparently, the horde was composed of Hollow-Eyes Zombies, Howler Zombies, Fiend Zombies, and Bloated Zombies!

“Wait… What? Aren’t all of these Zombies new?!” Diana was shocked. These Mid-Tier to High-Tier Zombies weren’t common at all.

Most of them only exist in the far north of the continent, according to the Survivors in the World Chat.

The Hallow-Eyes seemed to be starved, almost skeletal Zombies with toxic claws.

The Howlers, on the other hand, were long-necked creatures that screamed to disrupt barriers, minds, and could even make you pass out.

As for the Fiends, they were faster than Runner and Sprinter Zombies. Furthermore, they had bone blades protruding from their backs, so it was quite easy to recognize them.

Finally, the Bloated Zombies. As the name implied, they were bloated tanks filled with rotting meat and plague gas. Their appearance was quite similar to Spitter Zombies but they weren’t spitting any form or acid at all.

Soon, they confirmed their number.

Thousands. All charging toward the outer barricades of Silver Mine Camp.

In the central command platform, Diana stood with her hands behind her back. Various information was being relayed to her, and thanks to Shane’s devices, they had monitors and devices that helped them assess the situation a lot faster.

“We’re being surrounded… What’s the position of those Elite Members that we have?” She asked.

“Tundra is on the southeast gate,” reported by one of the comms officers.

“Zephyrion had moved from the eastern gate to support the northern gate after the Warden Units were destroyed in that area… Lysandra, Minerva, and Tieria are all in formation with the First Response Corps.”

“Good. Prepare the Grinder.”

The Zombie Grinder, Shane’s personal invention, was the pride of the camp.

You could see massive rotating drums filled with silver spikes, rotating at high speeds.

Any low-tier zombie that dared breach the outer trenches that they built would be pulled in by steam attraction nodes and get pulverized.

Indeed, this Zombie Grinder was still working, and it was a death sentence for the mindless zombies who only knew how to move forward.

As expected, the first wave of Hollow Eyes reached the outer fence.

They were indeed not thinking at all…

CHURNNNNK-KRRAAK-KKRRRCH!

Just like that, the Zombie Grinder activated. The metal soon screamed as the limbs and bones of the Zombies were sucked into the grinding array.

Blood mist sprayed into the air as the Grinder continued on its work!

“The Grinder’s working perfectly,” Diana confirmed.

“Begin ranged fire.”