Chapter 10 - The Underground Lake (1/2)

Chapter 10 - The Underground Lake

Every foot soldier was equipped with a standard German hand grenade. They were comprised of three parts: the upper part was made of a sheet of iron shaped of a cylinder and the lower part was a handle made of wood. Once triggered, the gunpowder inside would ignite the iron fragments that would slaughter enemies. However, it wasn't very powerful.

Giant left behind a single hand grenade while I grabbed another. Seeing that there were quite a few fireb.a.l.l.s already rus.h.i.+ng towards us, I pulled the pin. The wooden handle started to tick and white smoke filled the air as I threw the grenade.

Having detonated in billows of white smoke, thousands of blue fireb.a.l.l.s that flew towards us exploded against the iron fragments. The fireb.a.l.l.s fell to the ground, extinguished. However, even more waves of fireb.a.l.l.s followed soon after.

With Luo Ning ahead, and us three at the back, we retreated whilst shooting off our semi-automatic rifles. The twenty or so bullets we each had were completely gone in less than two minutes.

Only gunshots worked against these strange blue fireball-looking ladybugs. With just a touch, the ladybugs had the potential to ignite entire bodies, so it was futile to use empty rifles. We might as well set ourselves aflame and attack them with our flaming bodies.

Giant threw his rifle away, pulled out his last hand grenade, and screamed to me: “Old Hu, it's about time. Go for it?”

Luo Ning and I carried Ga Wa. The four of us huddled around Giant's hand grenade. I eyed the hand grenade in front of me. If Giant pulled the pin, it would destroy everything in a matter of seconds. The end was in sight.

At a time like this, I didn't spare time to think about much else, as those fireb.a.l.l.s were already closing in. There was just no time to overthink things. Not only that, but worrying too much about life and death would only have made me weak. I'd always wanted to be like the special forces hero, Yang Gen Si. But now, rather than having died on the battlefield, I would meet my end at the bottom of Mount Kun Lun for unknown reasons. I didn't want to go like that. I crossed my heart as Giant was about to trigger the hand grenade.

Luo Ning, who had already tightly closed her eyes, suddenly realized something. In the next instant, she pulled us aside. “You guys hear the stream? Below us, there's a river nearby. We have to quickly jump into the river.”

I was too busy just now shooting off my rifle and  was about to commit suicide with the hand grenade, so the whole underground river thing was at the back of my mind. Amidst the chaos, I didn't hear the sound of the stream. It was not until Luo Ning mentioned it that I realized there was still a way out. If we jumped into the river in time, it didn’t matter how strong those fireb.a.l.l.s were, they wouldn't be able to touch us.

Before we knew it, thousands of blue fireb.a.l.l.s had already approached us. The four desperate survivors hastily ran towards the roaring stream.

Listening closely, it sounded like the water was tens of meters away. After taking just a few steps forward, past the dead end in the underground tunnel, a large waterfall appeared around the corner. There was a large natural underground lake beneath the waterfall.

Before I could take a closer look, a heat surged from behind – a heart wrenching, stomach wrenching type of pain spread. A fireball had probably struck my back. With just a single touch by these firebugs, it would engulf my body in flames. In a life or death situation like this, who had the time to think? I threw myself into the lake.

In the chaos of it all, Giant and two others were also on fire, screaming frantically as they leapt into the lake. I dove hurriedly into the water, instantly extinguis.h.i.+ng the blue flames on my body.

Water and fire never mixed. It seemed as though the remaining ladybugs understood just how dangerous the water was, so they hovered two to three meters from the lake. They didn't dare charge forward.

I lifted my head up for air to find Giant had also resurfaced, but there was no sight of Luo Ning and Ga Wa. I was worried that they’d drowned in the lake. Taking a deep breath, I prepared to enter the water again to save them. Just then, Luo Ning emerged from the lake carrying Ga Wa.

As it turns out, Ga Wa had never swam a day in his life. After he had jumped into the lake, he choked and fainted. Luo Ning saw everything just in time and dove in to save him. Thankfully, Ga Wa had only spent a short time under. He coughed up some water and woke up.

It was Tibetan custom to not take baths in the lake. Ga Wa recited prayers and begged for the Buddha's forgiveness.

Blazing glows from the endless fireb.a.l.l.s shone brightly above the surface of the lake. The four of them huddled together. Even though it was early spring, the water underground wasn't cold at all. It was rather warm as the geothermal energy had heated up the lake.

“F*ck! The rifle's gone! It sunk to the bottom of the lake!” shouted Giant.

“We don't have any bullets, so there's no point in having rifles. Right now, we have to quickly think of an escape plan. Keep your head down and keep an eye out for charging bugs.” I reminded him.