In the dense darkness, Song Heping pressed his back tightly against the slope's mound of earth, concealing his figure and even carefully controlling his breathing to avoid releasing heat sources.
The residual heat from the M249 barrel was dissipating, and he could clearly feel the scorching pain from the bullet-proof plate on his left ribs—proof of being hit repeatedly by 5.56mm steel core bullets.
After all, he was wounded.
He reached out to the painful spot and touched it.
He didn't feel any sticky liquid.
Luckily, he had stripped a bullet-proof vest off a corpse earlier; otherwise, he would definitely be dead by now.
Fifty meters away, six dark red human figures formed a fan-shaped advancing formation in the thermal imaging device.
The leading mercenary wore an American-made AN/PVS-15 night vision device, with lenses emitting a ghostly green light. They paused after every three steps, their gun barrels sweeping out precise 120-degree scanning arcs in sync with their head movements.
Song Heping lay behind the mound of earth, trying to be as silent as a corpse.
He was waiting.
Because there was a simple tripwire trap mine just ten meters ahead.
It was a makeshift device strung together from hand grenades picked up from bodies—not a sophisticated trap mine due to time constraints.
When the enemy is strong and we are weak, guerrilla tactics must be employed.
We must drag them down, even if it means dragging them to death.
Every time the enemy pursues, they must pay some price.
Slowly torment them in the darkness, until they collapse.
Click—
Song Heping's pupils suddenly contracted.
A metal spring clip's distinctive vibrations sounded ahead—the moment the M67 defensive hand grenade's safety pin fell off.
This device is a standard spherical shape, utilizing a flip-lever detonating pin design. It has a 63.5mm diameter, total length of 89.7mm, and 184 grams of high-performance explosive B. Its kill radius reaches 15 meters, with fragments flying up to 250 meters.
As soon as the sound reached his ears, Song Heping threw another M67 hand grenade, which he had been holding in his hand with the safety pin already pulled out.
"Trap mine!"
Several of the surrounding "Satan" mercenaries also heard the sound of the grenade fragments rising, and one shouted a warning.
A few immediately turned and sought cover, diving to the ground in the shortest time possible.
All of this was within Song Heping's expectations.
Relying on a simple trap mine device to eliminate these elite mercenaries would be nothing short of wishful thinking.
The main act was the M67 grenade.
Bang—
Bang—
Bang—
Several grenades hanging simply among the bushes exploded simultaneously, igniting nearby dry branches with high temperatures. The flames drew eerie blue streaks in the night sky, just enough to interfere with the "Big Crow" drone providing aerial surveillance.
The drone's screen went blank.
"He's creating a heat source cover!"
Before the voice finished, the other M67 grenade thrown by Song Heping exploded amid the chaos.
This grenade fell near several mercenaries, making it impossible for them to escape—getting up to run would be injured by the grenades linked to the trap mine device, staying on the ground still risked getting hurt by the thrown grenade.
So they could only roll on the spot to dodge.
Nonetheless, one unlucky person got struck.
Due to the proximity, the blast wave flipped him over, smashing him heavily against the nearby tree trunk.
The intense blast wave enveloped many prefabricated fragments, over a dozen of which pierced his body where there was no bullet-proof plate, causing him to scream in pain.
"Ah—damn it! It hurts!"
The screams echoed through the forest.
Every "Satan" mercenary who heard the screams inexplicably began to feel a tremor.
It was as if they were battling a devil in this forest.
The enemy seemed to have merged with the darkness; any slight carelessness would result in severe consequences.
The team leader of the second group ripped off his shattered mask and roared into the earpiece: "Switch to low light mode! Encircle towards the ten o'clock position at the blast site!"
By the time they reacted, Song Heping had already relocated, wasting not a second in the original spot.
Before leaving, he took off the tactical strap he had retrieved from a fallen mercenary and linked two VOG-25P bouncing grenades into a trap mine array.
As the pursuit's heavy military boots broke the twigs serving as triggers, the prefabricated fragments from the 0.3-second delay detonation would pierce through the jaw and reach the cranial cavity.
Bang Bang—
The crisp sound of HK416 assault rifles suddenly echoed from the northwest.