Chapter 487 - 433 Annihilation (2)

Boom—

Boom—

Boom—

With the detonation of several more IEDs, shrapnel from hand grenades and steel balls whipped across the entire highway in a terrifying metal storm.

People screamed, blood splattered, and everything in the path of the steel rain, whether man or vehicle, was riddled with holes, the mountain path strewn with flesh and blood, bloodstains everywhere, a sight too horrible to endure.

Two firepower teams, positioned on both sides, continuously fired rifles and machine guns, spewing flames wildly.

Another truck exploded in the crossfire.

Some AUC militants who thought they found a temporary refuge under a truck didn't expect that, with the explosion, they too would be turned into minced meat.

The explosion of the ammunition truck plunged the accompanying soldiers further into confusion. With the road so narrow and ELN trainees ambushing from both sides, there was no place to hide. They could only aim their guns into the trees on both sides and fire wildly, hitting someone by sheer luck.

An officer tried to send out a distress signal over the radio but before he could receive a response, his skull was blown away. The communications soldier beside him, scared out of his mind, wet his pants and tried to flee, but Anthony fired two short bursts at him. The poor fellow crashed headfirst into the truck's tire and slowly slid to the ground beside it, breathless.

On a hillside not far away, Jiang Feng watched the one-sided massacre and shook his head, saying with deep emotion, "Song Heping, do you know what the most profound quote I've heard during my years as a mercenary is?"

Song Heping, holding night vision goggles, kept his eye on the firefight on the road and asked, "What is it?"

Jiang Feng sighed slightly and said, "Money is no longer money in a casino, life is not considered life on the battlefield."

Song Heping was momentarily stunned.

The ambush was a success, and the gunfire on the highway gradually died down.

The entire stretch of the road, over a hundred meters long, was pitted with craters from explosions, destroyed vehicle wreckage, and of course, bodies and fresh blood strewn all over the ground.

Anthony had already begun to organize the cleanup.

Song Heping said to Jiang Feng, "Let's go, check it out."

Actually, he wanted to see the trucks that hadn't exploded.

They were supposed to be arms.

If the munitions were good, Song Heping planned to let the ELN men take them back themselves as a gift for Morins.

The two men, guns in hand, walked down the slope and onto the highway littered with bodies.

They approached the battlefield warily, one on the left and one on the right. They didn't care whether the bodies were truly dead or feigning death, they shot them all in the head regardless. In these circumstances, you couldn't afford to be merciful. If an enemy were still breathing, he might just give you one last bullet to drag you down to Hell with him.

After finishing off several AUC militants, a faint moan reached Jiang Feng's ears.

Although he was wearing noise-canceling headphones, the tactical headphones had an amplification feature that, when activated, picked up ambient sounds more sensitively—a piece of high-tech equipment, like cheating in CS to hear footsteps.

He was startled, and before his brain had a chance to react, his gun swung right towards the source of the groaning.

As his gun aimed at the target, a frail body appeared in the night vision goggles, and Jiang Feng's heart lurched, his finger on the trigger not pressing down immediately.

It was a teenager, thin, about in his teens.

Jiang Feng approached with his gun aimed and soon saw more clearly.

The teen had been shot in the waist and lung, leaning against a truck's tire, blood oozing continuously from his mouth.

Even through the night vision device, one could see the fear and pleading piled upon his somewhat youthful face, along with a strong desire for life.

The teenager's breathing became rapid. He saw Jiang Feng and fear instinctively made him want to move back, but as soon as he did, the pain from his wounds caused him to moan violently again.

That look made Jiang Feng's chest feel suddenly congested. He stood there, gun raised, unable to pull the trigger.

Child soldiers were common in civilian military organizations.

It was nothing new.

But he hadn't expected to come face-to-face with a dying child soldier at such close range.

Let him go...

As if a voice rang out beside Jiang Feng's ear.

He was just a child, his life having barely begun.

As long as he was willing to repent...

Hiss, hiss, hiss—

Shooting sounds suddenly came from behind Jiang Feng.

It was the noise of an M4A1 assault rifle with a silencer firing bullets.

The burst was very accurate, hitting the youth squarely in the chest, his body jerking a few times before finally coming to a complete stop.

"Old squad leader!"

Jiang Feng spun around and saw Song Heping standing less than two meters behind him.

"He—"

He had intended to say "He's still a child."

But after a second thought, he swallowed his words.

He was a mercenary.

This sort of thing would be encountered sooner or later; one should be mentally prepared for it from the day they joined this line of work.

Why play the saint? Compassion was never a characteristic of a mercenary, or else the Grim Reaper would punish them.

Song Heping came over and patted Jiang Feng on the shoulder.

"Go check his hand first, then feel guilty!"

He said, pointing to the body of the boy who had lost all signs of life.

Jiang Feng, with a puzzled face, walked over and crouched beside the youth.

He noticed the boy's right hand was swollen, holding something.

Jiang Feng's complexion turned pale in an instant.

He carefully pried open the boy's fingers, and inside the gradually loosening right hand was a hand grenade yet to have its safety pin pulled out!

It was a so-called "lemon grenade," an American-made M26 hand grenade, with an effective lethal radius of 15 meters.

If Song Heping hadn't fired and killed him just now, and if there had been a slight delay, maybe this kid would have taken the chance to pull the pin of the hand grenade hidden in his palm and blow them up together!

Song Heping walked over and carefully took the hand grenade, clipping it onto his bulletproof vest.

Jiang Feng stood in place, a sense of inexplicable rage burning in his chest.

Once Song Heping walked away, he couldn't help but let out a wild roar, pushed down the barrel, and squeezed the trigger all the way down at six or seven bodies, unleashing all the bullets in a scream, leaving the corpses utterly torn with flesh and organs flying, the magazine emptied, covering Jiang Feng in blood.

"Peel back the tarp and take a look, be careful!"

Song Heping approached a truck that hadn't exploded and directed two trainees.

"Inside might be all munitions."

"Yes, Instructor!"

Two ELN trainees, one on each side, lifted the canvas covering the truck's carriage.

Song Heping turned on the tactical flashlight mounted on his weapon.

A bright beam instantly illuminated the interior of the carriage.

The inside was filled with green boxes, the very common type of equipment cases.

But as Song Heping's light moved, he gradually made out the writing on them...

When he saw the model of the equipment, even Song Heping couldn't help but exclaim in a low voice, "Damn, we've struck it rich!"