Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

A fist.

A fist, not clenched tightly, like that of a newborn infant, half-clenched yet half-fisted, pierced through the raindrops and struck his unguarded lower abdomen.

"Boom!!!!"

The immense force caused ripples to spread across his clothes and skin, much like the surface of water being broken.

"!?"

However, the executioner could sense that, at the very instant the initial burst of force reached its peak over such a short distance, the opponent subtly twisted his wrist. Using this spiraling force, he "push" an even greater force into his body, rapidly penetrating it. This created a violent tremor within the organs hidden beneath the muscle and fat!

At the first moment, there is no pain, because most organs do not have nerve endings and cannot feel pain.

But this insidious harm caused his pupils to suddenly contract, and he spat out a mouthful of blood into the triangular helmet.

……

"boom------!!"

My perception of time has finally returned to normal.

The executioner's massive body was struck in a straight line, smashing carriages and wooden crates along the path. It wasn't until he slammed heavily into a stone with a loud thud that the attack stopped.

"call……"

Zhang Renfeng took a deep breath, put away his stance, frowned slightly, and looked at the center of the rising dust.

----

"..." Lu Aniu watched this scene from afar, and a hint of surprise finally appeared on his usually calm face.

"what is that?"

----

"ah----!!"

Amidst the smoke and dust, the executioner let out a furious roar of resentment. As he tried to stand, his body tilted slightly, and he nearly lost his balance. The potential damage from that punch had been immense. He clutched his chest; the triangular metal helmet, which he usually didn't feel, now felt strangely heavy.

With his last ounce of strength, he took a step and charged towards Zhang Renfeng.

"..." Zhang Renfeng's eyes narrowed. Instead of colliding with him a second time, he hooked his right leg and delivered a fierce kick to the carriage wheel beside him.

"Thump—!!"

The wheel deformed instantly.

The stationary carriage, imbued with immense kinetic energy, struck the executioner's calf like a billiard ball. He crouched down and, with a shoulder ram, smashed the carriage to pieces, but the splinters and mud temporarily obscured his vision.

When he came to his senses, Zhang Renfeng had already disappeared.

A pair of strong, powerful arms came around from behind and wrapped around his waist.

"Drink it—!!!"

Zhang Renfeng lowered his shoulders and elbows, took an extremely deep horse stance, and with a fierce shout, he used his strength to deliver a brutal headbutt to the butcher who was a head taller than him!

"Thump—!!"

With a deafening crash, the executioner's spine hit the ground first, his body immediately went limp, and he collapsed to the ground. Zhang Renfeng sprang to his feet in a swift motion, straddled him, and with a furious roar, swung his fists, as big as sandbags, and began to smash them against the executioner's helmet!

"when!"

"when!"

"when!"

……

It was clearly the sound of blacksmithing, but Zhang Renfeng was enjoying it immensely, even a smile on his face.

The executioner tilted his head back and used the sharp edge of his helmet to stab at his neck!

"top!"

Zhang Renfeng clenched his teeth, neither dodging nor avoiding the blow. With a clang, he used his Adam's apple, which should have been his most vulnerable spot, to withstand the attack.

"..." Upon seeing this scene, the person under the helmet fell completely silent, even their breathing seemed to stop for a long time.

"What...are you...?"

“Perhaps you’re right, we all live in hell.” Zhang Renfeng gave him a somewhat terrifying smile. “That’s why people like me exist!”

"Clang!"

He gripped the pointed end of the triangular helmet and snapped it in two with a sudden burst of force. Several more powerful punches followed, and after a series of resounding blows, the helmet was completely flattened. Zhang Renfeng, relying on his finger strength, had literally torn this helmet, made of welded sheet metal, apart!

Beneath the sheet metal was a face ravaged by war, almost unrecognizable. It's hard to imagine what he went through to become like this.

Zhang Renfeng tossed the sheet metal aside, picked up half a fragment of the executioner's broadsword, and raised it high.

"go to hell!"

Without a word, the knife fell, and blood splattered.

The black iron blade stood atop his helmet, like a silent tombstone.

Chapter 747: Inside the Culvert

Zhang Renfeng picked up the Fish Gut Sword and suddenly noticed that there was another private soldier sitting not far away. He was leaning against a rock, his expression blank, his eyes wooden, no different from a withered piece of wood.

A cone-shaped wooden splinter was embedded in his chest, perhaps from the fight when he carelessly smashed the carriage, and the flying splinter struck his vitals. Blood flowed freely, and his face was deathly pale, yet the man clutched the fragments of the Sacred Heart Necklace tightly, chanting prayers incessantly, appearing somewhat out of place in this world littered with corpses.

"Isn't it a bit too late to do this now?" Zhang Renfeng flicked the blood off his sword and said sarcastically, "You all know what's on the carriage."

"It's still no use doing this..." the man murmured as if in a dream.

"What?" Zhang Renfeng was immediately shocked, his brows furrowing. He grabbed the man's collar and lifted him up. "Why? Explain yourself!"

"The original plan was to split into two teams... The dam is very wide, and if we only detonate it from one side, the higher-ups were worried that it wouldn't break through, or that the breach would be too small to serve its purpose of flood discharge. They had someone calculate that we had to detonate it simultaneously from both directions to create a sufficiently large breach..."

The man's expression was empty and numb as he told everything truthfully, as if doing so would lighten the burden on his heart. "We're just in the center of the explosion site, which is why there are so many people here. And... another group, carrying almost a truckload of explosives, is heading to the connection point of the culvert in the middle of the dam, doing the same thing as us."

"As agreed beforehand, five minutes after they hear the explosion here, their explosives will also be detonated."

"But... if it drags on too long and we don't hear any explosions, they'll inevitably become suspicious and might take matters into their own hands and start acting on their own..."

After explaining everything, he let out a long breath and closed his eyes.

"..."

Zhang Renfeng bit his lip, threw him to the ground, picked up the longsword, and ran wildly towards the middle of the embankment without looking back.

His figure quickly disappeared into the rain.

The man finally stopped praying; the wound on his chest still wouldn't stop bleeding. His breathing gradually weakened, his gaze became somewhat unfocused, and he unconsciously clenched the crumbs of the Sacred Heart in his hand tighter and tighter.

----

"Crack!"

"Crack!"

"Crack!"

……

The second hand on the pocket watch ticked away, one tick at a time.

"Captain, 25 points!" The private soldier standing to the side stared at the pocket watch, practically wanting to embed his eyeballs into it.

He didn't use a loud voice; at this moment, the team was inside a culvert in the middle of the dam. The echo was quite significant; even without a loud voice, everyone could still hear it.

Ten minutes had passed since the agreed-upon detonation time, and the area above the dam was completely quiet.

When there is a huge gap between plans and reality, it puts a leader's adaptability to the test.

From God's perspective, the executioner's team was completely wiped out and incapable of carrying out the mission. At this point, the captain was the de facto highest-ranking person in charge of the operation. How well the plan was executed depended entirely on his assessment of the situation and the decisions he made.

Everyone held their breath, awaiting the final command.

Every second was flying by, and he didn't really have much time to think.

"..." The captain sniffed, then suddenly shouted angrily, "Who? Who's smoking?"

The crowd exchanged glances and consciously made way for him, while the private soldier who was halfway through his cigarette looked somewhat embarrassed.

"Sorry, Captain, I... I'm just a little nervous..."

"You didn't notice? There are over a dozen boxes of explosives piled up around us, did you? Even the slightest spark could cause them to explode, leaving no trace of the bodies!" The captain roared, waving his hand angrily. "Take them out immediately!"

The private soldiers sheepishly complied.

"Hey mathematician, come here for a second!"

The advisor was intimidated by his strong military bearing and, not daring to be negligent, jogged over. Before he could even speak, he was already wiping away sweat.

There's a difference between placing explosives in a culvert and detonating them directly on a dam; it requires a certain level of technical skill. Therefore, their team also includes an advisor with relevant knowledge.

This advisor had thought he was just there to coast along and maybe even collect some money from the mayor. Who could have imagined the situation would actually become so tense? He had a premonition that something was wrong, but now, he couldn't extricate himself.

“The executioner has never delayed a single time, not even once. Something must have gone wrong above. I’ve decided to detonate the explosives immediately,” the captain said in a deep voice. “Now I ask you, if we only detonate the explosives in the culvert, will it achieve the same effect?”

“Well, theoretically it is certainly feasible.” The consultant swallowed hard, his brain working at lightning speed, and immediately said, “As long as the explosion is detonated along the culvert axis, the explosive energy can be guided and released along the path through the embankment, concentrating the energy together and improving the efficiency of the blasting.”

“The inside of a culvert is essentially a cavity. If the placement is correct, the reflection and superposition effect of the shock wave within the confined space will increase the peak pressure by 2 to 3 times. The detonator needs to be longer, and the detonation should be initiated at the culvert entrance to give us time to retreat.”

"Okay." The captain nodded and raised his voice, "Do as he says. Everyone, get moving and adjust the positions of the explosives!"

Watching the crowd get to work, the advisor swallowed hard, seemingly gaining a deeper understanding of what he was doing.

For a fleeting moment, he was horrified to discover that he was deeply involved in the massacre of more than 3800 people.

"Captain, I mean, is there a possibility..." the advisor swallowed hard, speaking cautiously... "That the operation was canceled, which is why it didn't explode on the dam? After all, 3872 people isn't a small number. Perhaps the mayor reconsidered and felt the pressure was too great, so he canceled it?"

"You don't understand the mayor. He's never the type to regret things," the captain said in a deep voice. "Just keep going. If anything goes wrong, I'll take responsibility..."

"laugh!"

After a sharp, piercing sound, came the sound of flesh being pierced.

The captain turned around sharply and saw a young girl leap into the culvert entrance. With a flick of her wrist, she hurled several short spikes like a shower of petals. The private soldiers at the entrance were busy setting up the detonators and wiring for explosives; their hands were occupied, and they couldn't retaliate. The spikes were immediately pierced through the throats, and the captain died quickly, choking on blood.

The girl spun around, cut the detonator's wiring with a short spike, and kicked it out of the culvert.

"No---!!"

The captain roared and swung his hand violently, "Stop her—!!"

Chapter 748: The Divine Man

The narrow, cold, and damp terrain seemed to perfectly match her relentless training regimen.

Sofia took a deep breath. She didn't even have time to be afraid; the enemy was right in front of her, and their reaction was far faster than expected. Faced with her sudden attack, several people's hands were already reaching for their belts, some touching knives, others for guns, preparing to retaliate.

Time is everything.

In this life-or-death struggle, I must be faster than all of them!

Instead of using the short spikes as a throwing weapon, she held them in reverse and lunged forward, lowering her body to its lowest point.

If it were a direct contest of strength, Sofia would definitely be no match for these burly men, especially in such a narrow culvert with little room to maneuver. Once grabbed, she would be virtually unable to escape. This would be a considerable test of her dodging skills.

Conversely, it was precisely because of her slender and petite figure that she came in handy at this time.

With a swift and clean forward roll, she rapidly approached a man's legs, her wrist flashing as she mercilessly plunged the short spike into his ankle.

"Pfft!"

The moment it was pulled out, blood splattered.

"ah----!!"

Even the toughest man would scream if struck like that. Taking advantage of the moment he bent his head down, Sofia thrust her short dagger, piercing his throat with pinpoint accuracy. Using this unfortunate man as a human shield, she gritted her teeth and charged forward, pressing against his corpse.

Blood flowed continuously from the piercing wound in her throat, splashing onto the girl's shoulder, but she was completely unaware. Only after charging into the enemy ranks did she, like a dancer, continuously swing her short daggers, piercing one vital spot after another in the enemy's body.

The men, already wary and hesitant to fire, attempted to win through hand-to-hand combat. However, Sofia's training regimen included a series of joint locks and thrusting techniques. Coupled with the scene of flying blood and gore... this naturally added a layer of fear, causing the private soldiers, who had a numerical advantage, to fall into a disadvantageous position.

……

"when!"

The dagger parried the short dagger, and the hilt was used to wed it into a position where it could not exert force.