Chapter 159: Assault of the Evolved Raptors

“Screee—”

A piercing, furious cry from a raptor split through the clouds, slamming into the ears of everyone in the territory below. The rest of the flock screeched along, their cries overlapping in a wild chorus.

The two wolves dragged into the living room snapped their eyes open, struggling to roll them around, searching for the source of that sound.

“Baa—” Boss Sheep immediately stopped chewing, grabbing the brain-evolved wolf by the scruff and dragging it upstairs, hooves thudding across the floor. He tossed it down next to Xia Qing, then darted downstairs to retrieve the wolf with the broken leg and hauled it up too. With both wolves delivered, Boss Sheep curled up at Xia Qing’s feet and resumed chewing.

Up in the sky, the evolved raptors circled, their shrill cries echoing down.

Xia Qing could only set her gun aside, yank the wolves by their scruffs to the most hidden corner of the attic, then dash back to the window and line up her sights again.

The flock of raptors circling high above began to lower their altitude, slowly but steadily.

Once they dipped below a thousand meters, Tan Junjie gave the order: “Plot Seven, lock onto the Evolved Simian Hawk with the laser cannon! Everyone else, defend your territory!”

“Bang!”

“Rat-a-tat-tat!”

The boom of the sniper rifle and the chattering stutter of the machine gun erupted, chaos tangled up with the bird cries. Xia Qing fired a shot, snapping the neck of an evolved sea eagle lunging at her house, its talons extended. She nudged Boss Sheep aside with her foot. “Move it! Stop crowding me, I’m busy here!”

“Bang!”

Xia Qing squeezed off another shot, but this time she missed the vital spot. Feathers burst into the air, but the raptor slashed its talons again, zeroed in on Xia Qing’s house.

These birds had obviously tangled with humans before. They knew exactly where people would hide. Once the roof came off, any human inside was just a helpless worm at their mercy.

Damn it!

She dropped her sniper rifle, grabbed her submachine pistol and rattled off a burst, shredding a raptor in mid-air. She snatched up her sniper again, taking aim at a high-flying threat.

“Bang!”

“Baa~” Boss Sheep nestled quietly next to Xia Qing’s leg, giving her a tinny, nervous little cheer.

Over by the farmland of Territory Three, Hu Zifeng’s squad was also letting loose, riddling the evolved birds clawing at their greenhouse with gunfire.

Maybe the Evolved Simian Hawk had given some kind of command, because Plot Seven and the surrounding areas had suddenly become ground zero for the raptor assault.

“Captain Tan! The greenhouse in Plot Five is under attack by evolved birds, requesting assistance!” Yuan Yan from Plot Five was the first to call for help.

“Copy that, help is on the way. Everyone in the territory, keep your heads down and take cover.” Tan Junjie replied cool and steady, his voice was exactly what everyone needed to hear.

“Captain Tan, Territory Six is also under attack!”

“Roger.”

“Territory Four’s been hit!” Zhao Ze’s voice trembled. “Please, get over here, Xia Qing, I’m begging you—save me!”

Busy defending her territory, Xia Qing didn’t have the time or patience to answer that kind of nonsense on the walkie-talkie.

Plot Seven broadcasted on the Lord’s Channel: “Plot Seven hit the left talon of the Evolved Simian Hawk again. No real damage inflicted.”

The ringleader, the Evolved Simian Hawk, had been pinned in high altitude by Plot Seven’s laser cannon. No matter how fierce the other two hundred or so raptors were, they just couldn’t handle a barrage of bullets.

Fifteen minutes later, humans had taken the upper hand. Over two hundred evolved raptors—some gunned down, some fleeing. Only forty-odd circled high above, too scared to swoop down.

“Screee—”

Another sharp cry from the Evolved Simian Hawk cut down from the sky. Xia Qing heard the subtle difference from its earlier calls, but she wasn’t a bird—she couldn’t make out its meaning.

“Screee—Screee—”

Two more strange bird cries followed. Unease scratched at Xia Qing’s heart. She turned to her companion, “Boss, any idea what that bird’s saying?”

Boss Sheep, dozing by Xia Qing’s side, acted like he hadn’t heard a thing.

But unexpectedly, Xin Yu, lord of Plot Eight, spoke up on the Lord’s Channel: “Captain Tan, that Evolved Simian Hawk must be calling for reinforcements. One of the injured evolved sea eagles in my territory just started getting restless, flapping its wings to take off.”

Calling for reinforcements?

There are evolved sea eagles recuperating in Plot Eight?

Panic ripped through the minds of the lords. For a moment, they couldn’t figure out which crisis to worry about more.

Plot One reported in: “Captain Tan, there are at least a hundred large birds taking off from the northern Evolver Forest, seen from the top of Mountain 49.”

With the firepower available in these territories, there was no way they could stand against a massive wave of evolved birds. They couldn’t let the Evolved Simian Hawk summon its reinforcements!

Brows furrowed, Xia Qing quickly fitted a scope onto her sniper rifle and scanned for the Evolved Simian Hawk hiding among the clouds. She caught a fleeting glimpse of a shadow through her sights and gritted her teeth.

That was far beyond the reach of even a laser cannon, let alone a sniper rifle with a two and a half kilometer range. This time, her territory was probably about to be shredded by the incoming raptors.

Never give up until the very last second—that’s the cardinal rule for surviving a catastrophe. Xia Qing swung her sniper around, targeting a raptor spiraling closer, and brought it down with a single shot.

“I can’t take it anymore! Forget the territory, forget the food, I’m going back to the Safe Zone!” Zhao Ze completely lost it, bawling into the Lord’s Channel.

“Situation has been reported to the Safe Zone. Reinforcements are on the way. Nobody leaves your shelter. In three minutes, we’ll start using ultrasonic pulses at 24,000 Hz and above to disrupt the flock. Duration will depend on the battle, but plan on at least ten minutes. All Hearing Evolvers, ready your personal protection now.” Through all the chaos, Tan Junjie’s voice remained steady as ever.

Three minutes!

As a Hearing Evolver herself, Xia Qing immediately set her gun aside, shut the window, and bolted downstairs. Boss Sheep, seeing her take off, started bleating and dashed after her.

Xia Qing raced into the room where she kept her chickens and geese, quickly tethered their cages with rope, and lowered them into the freshly dug cellar. She slammed the hatch shut and piled grass mats on top, hoping it would muffle the worst of the ultrasonic pulses for her poultry.

“Baa—”

Boss Sheep, having chased her down, had no clue what Xia Qing was up to. But he could sense the urgency in her movements, so he opened his mouth as if to ask.

“It’s fine, Boss, just stick with me.” Xia Qing worked fast but kept her tone calm, soothing Boss Sheep’s nerves as she led him upstairs to the second-floor storage room to grab every protective mask in the house.

There were three protective suits in the storage room—one for Boss Sheep, two for Xia Qing, plus the set Xia Qing was already wearing. That made four in all. But what she needed now were the masks, not the full suits.

Xia Qing strapped a mask onto Boss Sheep, snatched up the other two, and raced back up to the attic. The masks could shield against physical attacks, filter the air, and dampen incoming sound waves.

With Boss Sheep’s mask in place, Xia Qing took off her own and donned the one that belonged to the silver airtight suit—it offered the best protection, and as the main fighter in the house, she needed the best.

The mask Xia Qing took off was a camo-patterned one from the Azure Dragon Unit. She fastened that onto the brain-evolved wolf and tightened the straps. That wolf was clever—and the alpha’s favorite—so it got special protection.

The third mask came from an exchange with Zhong Tao—a standard mask from the Safe Zone, not as soundproof but better than nothing. She put it on the wolf with the broken leg, patting its back. “Hang in there, tough guy. You can take it!”

Neither wolf had ever worn a mask before. With their heads suddenly caged, they stared around in unease. But all the sedatives Xia Qing had dosed them with earlier meant they didn’t have the energy to resist. At this point, Xia Qing was incredibly grateful she’d given them the medicine that morning.

From the walkie-talkie, Tan Junjie’s calm voice came through: “Half a minute to the start of ultrasonic pulse attacks.”