Chapter 173 The Final Stand

Leaving Noah, Tanze, and Frederick amidst the ruins, Lynn dashed down, about to call other soldiers to get on the car when he heard Bruhl's startled cry of "enemy." It was too late to signal Wolfroom to use his "deception skills" now; the Soviet soldiers who had arrived unexpectedly opened fire without hesitation upon hearing that one German word. Bruhl immediately returned fire with his assault rifle in a rhythmic burst. Standing beside the barrel car, Lynn saw Bruhl crawling on the opposite ruins, and not far from him, Wolfroom also joined the fight. The situation suddenly changed, disrupting the ambush plan Lynn had just devised. Without time to assess the situation behind, he held onto the hope of taking out the Soviet soldiers with a determined mindset. He immediately turned and shouted to Noah and Tanze, "Rocket launcher fire! Sniper fire!"

The dull whoosh of the 88mm RPzB anti-tank rocket launcher firing echoed, while the monotonous and crisp sound of the Mauser 98k rifle stood out amidst the roar of submachine guns and assault rifles. As the battle began, Lynn was about to retrieve his assault rifle from the car when Wolfroom fired two shots from the opposite side, then ducked down, struggling to turn his head. "Sir, we can handle the enemies here. You guys deal with the Soviet searchlights quickly!"

Without any prior verbal agreement, the veteran's words aligned perfectly with Lynn's thoughts. In a split second decision, he changed the original battle plan. Opening the car door while shouting loudly, "Noah and Grut, get down! Karl, cover Markus!"

Private Teckimel, who had been left by the car, immediately climbed onto the ruins with his brand new MP44 assault rifle. Noah, who had not yet loaded the last rocket into the anti-tank rocket launcher, and loader Frederick quickly descended from above. Seeing Lynn starting the car and calling them to "get in," Noah grabbed the rocket launcher and sat in the front passenger seat, while Frederick swiftly climbed into the back seat with the rocket, deftly loading it into the launcher as Lynn reversed the car.

"Guys, we're taking a risk!"

Securing his helmet, Lynn gritted his teeth and addressed his comrades. The military utility barrel car, with a displacement of less than one liter and a weight of only over 600 kilograms with three occupants, barely had acceleration, but it was enough under the circumstances. However, the intense jolting came along with it. In such a situation, Lynn couldn't fire with his assault rifle or shotgun. Fortunately, the Soviet soldiers in front were disoriented by the sudden rocket attack, momentarily confused. Only a few soldiers from the side, seeing the unidentified vehicle rushing out from the direction of the rocket, instinctively fired their guns. To avoid the bullets, Lynn quickly crouched and reminded Noah to "be careful." In an instant, a barrage of bullets flew towards them, leaving a row of seven or eight bullet holes in the windshield, causing everyone in the car to gasp in shock. Frederick grabbed his assault rifle and tried to shoot out of the car window, but the vehicle hit a large rock, causing it to lift up on the right side. If the impact had been stronger, it might have flipped over. At this moment, the private in the back seat could only hold onto the handle tightly, with no ability to shoot at the Soviet soldiers.

The sudden bounce of the car surprised Lynn, but the right tire soon landed again, and he didn't worry much about it. Seeing several Soviet soldiers who had just fired their guns fall one by one, and the last searchlight extinguished, Lynn felt relieved for Tanze and Teckimel. Passing by the destroyed Soviet truck, he saw a Soviet tank turning its turret on the street ahead, probably preparing to use its vehicle-mounted cannon and machine gun to deal with the attackers behind. He quickly reduced speed and turned right, ordering, "Noah, you take out that tank! Grut, shoot at those trucks!"

As the car slowed down and the shaking reduced, Frederick barely leaned out of the left window, spraying nearby trucks carrying searchlights, while Lynn targeted a truck that had its light extinguished but was still moving forward. He braked gently behind it—Noah aimed the rocket launcher for the final shot, while Lynn quickly opened the car door, stepped out with his right foot, and leaned out from the driver's seat, pulling out his shotgun from the holster. He took down a nearby Soviet soldier armed with a "PPSh" submachine gun, then saw two figures running hurriedly from the side of the truck. He raised his hand and shot them down before firing at the Soviet truck's cargo compartment. The two shotguns in his hands fired alternately, with just as many bullets as Frederick's assault rifle.

While Lynn was shooting smoothly, Noah fired the rocket. The last rocket flew straight towards the T-34 several tens of meters away. As this Soviet tank had just fired a shot towards the ruins ahead, its machine gun also roaring, and the vehicle was turning with different speeds of the tracks—suddenly, a violent explosion on the side of the tank extinguished the flames of the machine gun, and the engine, along with the tracks, continued to rotate, but soon produced an unusual sound, as if a machine was suffering from serious gear failure, producing a particularly difficult whine... There was not just one Soviet tank nearby—when the searchlights were on earlier, Lynn saw at least four T-34s and three infantry anti-tank guns, with several cars and at least two platoons of infantry hidden in the ruins. However, this T-34 in front was the most threatening to them. After Noah took it out, Lynn inserted the shotgun back into the holster, quickly got back into the car, and drove the military utility barrel car forward again. Frederick had already emptied a magazine, while Noah stood the rocket launcher between his legs, swiftly pulled out a long-handled grenade from his ammo belt, pulled the pin, and used his upper body strength to throw it towards a Soviet car parked on the left side of the road. It looked like an ordinary Gaz four-wheel car, and there were no Soviet soldiers inside at the moment. The grenade landed squarely under the car, flipping it over in an instant upon explosion.

If the battle were to end there, Lynn and his soldiers would have achieved their goal. With the extinguishing of the searchlights, the temporarily reversed battlefield situation was once again under the control of the advancing German armored units. The "Panthers" were systematically clearing the Soviet tanks and anti-tank gun groups in the ruins within the effective range of their infrared night vision devices. Their shells almost weakened the blocking power of the Soviet soldiers with each shot. The German infantrymen carried by the half-track armored vehicles had already dismounted, some closely following behind the "Black Panther" and the No. 4 massage truck in action, shooting down those Soviet infantrymen attempting to attack with anti-tank grenades and Molotov cocktails, while others established temporary machine gun fire points with MG42s along the roadside. Although such a combat pattern was always accompanied by high casualties, it ensured the smooth advance of this elite armored unit.

The perfection the Chinese seek is rare in this world after all. The sudden explosion caused a slight deviation in Lynn's plan to turn back—he had to duck his head and turn sharply to the left to avoid the nearby explosion and the accompanying shrapnel. The car's left side was on the ground, the right side facing upwards, and it slid forward a short distance before coming to a complete stop. Lynn smoothly opened the car door, but the bullets flying past outside instantly dispelled his idea of crawling out from this side. With the car roof covered by a tarp, although it had many bullet holes, it didn't seem to be completely torn apart. Lynn, in a horizontal position, supported himself with the steering wheel and pulled his body out from the seat with a very strange and awkward posture. He kicked the seat with his left foot, kicked the windshield with his right foot. In a moment, the shattered windshield flew out. Lynn easily crawled out, then dragged out the somewhat dazed Noah. Frederick, sitting in the back seat, was still relatively clear-minded. Not only did he crawl out of the car, but he also took two assault rifles from the back seat. One was his own, brand new and ordinary; the other was Lynn's, half old and equipped with an infrared telescopic sight.

In just the past few minutes, these three German soldiers had successively destroyed a T-34 tank, two trucks, and their searchlights, and wounded or killed multiple Soviet soldiers. If they were immediately subjected to a fierce barrage of Soviet gunfire after the car overturned, Lynn would not have been surprised. However, the environment of night combat was always filled with chaos and contingency. Many Soviet soldiers probably still didn't understand what had happened. Some continued to fight against the formidable German armored unit on the street, while others turned around to attack the ruins area with gunfire. Only a few Soviet infantrymen belatedly aimed their submachine guns at them, but the military utility barrel car's body blocked most of the few bullets aimed at them.

Lynn aimed at the remaining rubble of a collapsed building on the roadside, lowly shouting, "One, two, three... Go!" With Noah and Frederick, he dashed straight towards it, feeling bullets whizzing past, but they dared not stop. They stumbled and fell behind the low brick wall, and for a moment, Lynn's mind went blank.