Not long after, Jiang Feng felt as if a typhoon had swept over his head, carrying debris, leaves, and broken branches all tumbling past the massive boulder where the three of them were hiding.

The dust that blotted out the sky also obscured the moon, like a devil flying overhead, stirring up a storm of death.

Jiang Feng found it difficult to breathe, and he was already over a kilometer away from the center of the explosion. It was unbelievable that he would feel such effects at this distance.

Thermo-baric Bomb, Jiang Feng had encountered them before.

But the thermo-baric bombs he had known were artillery shells and rocket-propelled grenades.

He had never seen a thermo-baric bomb of this magnitude.

Especially a live one exploding nearby, guided to its landing point by himself no less.

He thought this must be a dream!

"Fuck! That was really something!"

A dozen seconds later, the storm subsided.

The temperature around seemed to have risen by a degree or two. Looking up at the trees in front of him, they were all leaning haphazardly, as if a tornado had ravaged a wheat field.

The three crawled out from the boulder and looked toward their target.

The small town, which originally had a dozen buildings, had now vanished.

No buildings were in sight.

Above in the sky, a giant mushroom-like plume of smoke covered the heavens, looking eerily suffocating under the moonlight.

"No wonder they say this thing has just a bit less punch than a 'mushroom egg'..."

Jiang Feng mused, picking up the Night Vision Goggles to take a closer look.

In the center of the explosion, buildings were gone, trees snapped off.

In a massive circular epicenter, nothing remained, while around it lay some rubble and broken walls.

Huge trees lay on the ground like lifeless corpses.

The other two members of the group couldn't find the words to speak.

As ELN militants, they had never seen anything like this in all their lives.

They had heard the leader, Morins, had called in reinforcements, but they didn't believe it.

A couple of bombers, a few bombs, enough to rout the AUC militia?

It sounded as laughable as a tale from the Arabian Nights.

But now, they were unable to laugh.

The AUC had established its command headquarters here, with over two-thirds of its senior officers gathered, and there were two battalions of troops just for security nearby.

Now, after the explosion, not a single AUC survivor had emerged to seek out the living.

Could it be that there were no survivors?

Jiang Feng pointed to the distance, "Let's go and check it out, confirm the extent of the damage."

Team Member A expressed concern, "I think we should just stay here and watch. They had two battalions of people. If even a few of them survived, going there would be asking for death."

Jiang Feng said, "You've been watching here for so long, have you seen anyone alive? If there were survivors, they would have come out long ago to check on their own."

Team Member B's curiosity got the better of him. He hadn't seen anything like this before.

A bomb had flattened a small village in an instant.

And the deployment of two battalions nearby was completely silenced.

It was too damn absurd.

He wanted to take a look, so he said, "I agree with the team leader's suggestion, let's go check it out."

Team Member B spoke in English, Jiang Feng understood and gave him a thumbs up, "GOOD!"

After saying that, he led the way toward the direction of the AUC headquarters.

"Just be careful, keep your eyes wide open, don't let someone really take us down."

The group made their way down the hillside to the bottom of the mountain and slowly approached along the edge of the trees.

When they reached about 600 meters from the command post, they saw corpses.

"There's something in the trees..."

Team Member A was startled.

Jiang Feng raised his gun barrel, aiming it at the treetop.

Then he froze.

A dark, indistinguishable corpse...

No, it shouldn't be called a corpse.

It should be called a fragment.

It hung in the tree in an extremely strange posture.

Bathed in moonlight, its body actually had an oily sheen.

Jiang Feng circled halfway around it and finally saw its "face".

The twisted face was wide open, with two eye sockets deeply sunken; its appearance was so altered it seemed like a cry of horror dragged into Hell by a devil.

The whole carcass had deflated, giving off the impression as if a vacuum bag had suddenly been squeezed flat after being drained of air.

"Ugh—"

The most curious team member B couldn't hold back any longer and vomited on the spot.

Jiang Feng also felt his stomach churning.

Because the air here smelled not only of char, but also—improbably—of the aroma of meat...

The scent of barbecued meat...

There shouldn't be such a sensation, but damn, it did smell somewhat appealing.

This made Jiang Feng feel somewhat perverted.

Suddenly, they heard a groan.

The three of them immediately spread out, guns trained on the source of the sound.

The noise was not far from them, about twenty meters away.

The trio formed a triangulated formation and approached.

There were tent stakes on the ground, indicating there had once been a tent.

The tent was gone.

Instead, the ground was littered with many bodies.

The bodies were numerous and varied.

But they all had one thing in common: their chests had collapsed, and they had turned into charred remains.

Finally, the trio discovered that the sound was coming from a pit.

They approached and witnessed a scene they would never forget.

A figure with half its body charred black, the other half normal, was rolling around in a pit more than a meter deep.

The pit contained some water, about thigh-high.

The creature lay by the muddy water's edge, struggling like a catfish dragged to the shore.

But he couldn't speak; seeing Jiang Feng and his comrades approach, he stretched out a hand, making a "heh-heh" noise from his throat.

The three of them were stunned.

They exchanged glances.

In the end, it was Jiang Feng who pulled out a pistol with a silencer and fired a shot into the man's head.

The man finally grew quiet.

Teammate A made the sign of the cross over his chest, as if saying a silent prayer.

After about fifteen minutes of checking the area, the men had to reload their handguns with new magazines.

There were survivors.

But the living were also close to death.

Jiang Feng took out a satellite phone to call Song Heping.

"Chief, it's too damn shocking..."

Song Heping sounded puzzled on the other end of the line and asked Jiang Feng, "What's shocking?"

Jiang Feng replied, "You should really come here and see for yourself. After seeing this, I feel like I've accumulated a heavy burden of sin. Two battalions, one command center, one thermo-baric bomb, all fucking dead... No, many didn't die but might as well be dead..."

Song Heping asked, "You're sure they're all gone?"

Jiang Feng replied, "I've taken photos. Can't even find bones of the people in command, don't know where they flew off to..."

After a pause, Song Heping on the other end said, "Get out of there quickly and meet up with Anthony and the others in San Rita. Prepare for a major counteroffensive."

"Okay."

In a dense forest of the Tbilisi Mountain Range.

Song Heping hung up the phone and turned to Morins beside him, "Right after the four thermo-baric bombs are deployed, organize an all-out counterattack. Their entire command has been wiped out, and the other units that have seen the thermo-baric bombs will psychologically collapse. Don't let them recover, take this chance, mobilize as many as possible and hit them hard!"

Morins, clearly worried, said, "But they have over thirty thousand men, and we just over three thousand; the scale of..."

Song Heping replied, "Remember, immediately convert any prisoners you capture. Inform them that the AUC's entire command is dead, that there's no longer such an organization as the AUC. If they want to live, they must join you. Win over hearts; you know how to do that, right? I don't need to teach you?! The troops you can incorporate into your forces, let them recognize each other, let them shout out to surrender. If they refuse, tell them planes will come to deliver bombs to them!"

He made an explosion gesture with his hands.

"Really big bombs!"

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com