Chapter 17.5 – Increasingly Lonely
‘Sickle’ Kafen was a Combat Domain ability user with six levels of ability, and his entire body’s strength was even a bit higher than Hanlon’s. It was only due to a moment of carelessness that resulted in being knocked down by Ricardo, Li, and Hanlon’s joint attack. However, his retaliation before death still heavily wounded Hanlon. Li’s blood had long soaked through half her body, and the only reason she was still able to stand was purely due to her great willpower. Meanwhile, Ricardo’s contributions were definitely not as small as it seemed. Ricardo’s shots were incomparably accurate, and if Kafen revealed even the slightest negligence, he would have been heavily wounded by Ricardo’s marksmanship. No matter how powerful his body was, even if it was weak firepower, if it bombarded him continuously, he would still be wounded. This was especially true since ‘sickle’ didn’t excel at defense, and the type three dragon automatic rifles were powerful and known to possess vicious firepower. If he suffered multiple automatic rifle bullets, Kafen might not have even lasted until Li or Hanlon landed their attacks. That was why almost half of Kafen’s attention was placed on Ricardo’s body. Even though this was the case, his left leg had still been heavily wounded.
After releasing the first mouthful of blood, Hanlon forcefully swallowed back the second mouthful of blood and then looked towards Maria’s side of the battlefield. Based on the original plan, the three of them would quickly eliminate Kafen while Su and Li Gaolei would pressure Maria. Then, Ricardo and Hanlon would join Su’s side of the battle and deal with Maria. The critical moment depended on how quickly they eliminated Kafen, because there was still Lynch, the carrion crawler who was hiding who knows where. None of them had any idea when the fatal sniper bullet would fly over, or who it would fly towards.
Hanlon had just gathered his strength and prepared to rush over towards the next battle when he suddenly stopped his movements in shock.
There were three meters separating Su and Maria, and both of them were standing with their back towards each other. Su’s head was hanging a bit low, his several centimeter long light blonde hair softly hanging downwards while slowly dancing about in the night wind. His hands were hanging from his body’s side, loosely holding onto two short blades. The blood on the blades gathered together before scattering onto the ground, It was unknown whether it was Su or Maria who lost more blood.
The ground between Su and Maria was full of horrible redness. This was a carpet made from blood.
Maria’s head was held high with her chest out as she stood there rather proudly. She turned her head to look at Su, but this tiny and slow movement caused her entire body to spout out blood from more than ten different places! Maria’s throat suddenly released an unclear whimpering that was full of unwillingness, anger, and confusion. She then slowly fell.
Meanwhile, Su was still standing.
Hanlon was stunned.
Their bloody battle, if they started counting from when Ricardo opened fire, didn’t last more than ten seconds. He originally thought that they had finished this battle quickly and wanted to turn around to assist Su, yet he noticed that the battle on that side had already ended. Hanlon possessed many years of experience on the battlefield, and he originally thought that Su would have already sunk into a desperate situation with his life hanging between life and death. Even stalling for time should have been a difficult task. Even though he had Li Gaolei helping him, as soon as he engaged Maria with naked blades, the rifle in Li Gaolei’s hands would completely lose its effectiveness.
The battle on Su’s side really did end, moreover ending much sooner than what Hanlon expected. However, the one that fell wasn’t Su but Maria. This went completely against Hanlon’s common sense and his opinion of Su. Based on what he had seen in the past, he didn’t think Su could triumph over Maria at all, and that there wasn’t even the slightest chance of it happening. What exactly happened?
At this moment, Su finally couldn’t hold on any longer and slowly fell to the ground. Hanlon walked over with large steps and lifted Su up. Only now did he notice that Su’s entire body was covered in fine cuts, and many of them were still continuously bleeding. However, when he made contact with Su’s body, Hanlon clearly sensed that his body was still full of vitality. Even though he had suffered serious injuries, none of them were life threatening. Meanwhile, Maria that had fallen onto the ground was already dying.
By now, Ricardo had already hurried over. He gave Su a recovery injection that contained both stimulating and staunching effects. Then, he patted Hanlon’s shoulder and said, “Can’t figure it out either, right? When I first saw Su, I thought the same thing, but I’ve already gotten used to it. Anything is possible with that fellow.”
At this moment, Su who had a stimulant injected had already regained consciousness. After he heard what Ricardo said, he weakly laughed and said, “Just now… what I competed against her in was just in who could hack apart the other faster and who could take more cuts, just like… just like…”
“Just like when fighting against the mobs of the wilderness?” Ricardo finished Su’s sentence.
“… yes.” Su nodded. He seemed extremely weak.
Ricardo gave Hanlon a look and helplessly shrugged his shoulders. The expression on Hanlon’s face was extremely brilliant as well. When fighting against mobs in the wilderness, there wasn’t any combat abilities to speak of, to the extent where there wasn’t any firearm proficiency to speak of, and even less domain abilities. It was just a competition of whose blade was faster. If a Black Dragonrider lieutenant colonel could just be defeated by a competition of whose blades were faster and who could take more attacks, then this world really was too strange.
When Kafen and Maria fell, the battle had already ended. The two lieutenant colonel’s subordinates had long lost the will to fight and scattered like birds and beasts. However, in this desolate and ice-cold tundra, without a dragonrider guiding them, it was likely that not a single one of these subordinates could walk out from this vast tundra, and as such, Su and Ricardo’s men didn’t decide to pursue them.
From start to finish, Lynch never showed himself.
A tent had already been set up in the tundra, and inside was a temporary medic station. Only now did Ricardo’s medical personnel display their value. After an hour of surgical operation, Li’s injuries finally stabilized, and no residual effects would be left behind from this battle. The other subordinates received treatment one after another as well.
Even though Hanlon’s injuries weren’t light, his outstanding Combat Domain abilities similarly provided him with great recovery skills, so having him treated a bit later wasn’t that big of a deal. As such, he gave the priority of treatment over to the subordinates. Hanlon wasn’t a dragonrider, but he was Ricardo’s friend, and as such, his status was greater than that of a subordinate. In addition, his strength that was comparable to that of a lieutenant colonel made it so that he deserved this higher status as well. In this world where one’s social class was clearly distinguished by one’s strength, Hanlon who didn’t care much about status was quite an oddity.
Hanlon stood alone in the tundra, allowing the cold winds to blow through his slightly rolled up hair. His dark gray eyes gazed into the boundless darkness even though he couldn’t see much at all.
A few sparks that flickered between bright and dark could be seen in the darkness; these came from Ricardo’ cigarette. The ignited cigarette was especially glaring in the darkness, and one might even be able to see it from over ten kilometers away.
With the battle finished, Ricardo once again returned to his frivolous way of carrying himself. He casually walked over to Hanlon’s side and followed his gaze into the darkness. Of course, he couldn’t see anything either.
“Still thinking about that youngster Su?” Ricardo asked.
“He is an interesting guy. I was wondering what the unforgettable lesson he was going to teach the enemy was.” Hanlon said. He then reached out and removed the half smoked cigarette from Ricardo’s mouth before tossing it onto the ground. After putting it out, he said, “Don’t forget that there is still a sniper that hasn’t appeared! You really are making yourself too big of a target. I don’t have any confidence in taking on his shot. What if he takes a shot at us?”
“He’s a smart fellow, and he treasures his life quite a bit. He doesn’t dare open fire. If he does, would he be able to run from your pursuit? We’ve seen many of those types of snipers, and I’ve never seen you defeated by one of them.”
Hanlon suddenly sighed and said, “That’s hard to say. This world is changing too greatly. Who would have expected that a Perception Domain fellow could defeat a lieutenant colonel who excels in Combat Domain in close combat? Right, Ricardo, why have I heard that your family and Su have some deep hatred?”
Ricardo shrugged his shoulders and said, “Family is family, I am myself. You know that I have never taken anything from the family in the past few years. In addition, I like Su’s way of doing things. He is someone that still embodies many of the olden era’s ideals, but he might not have even realized it himself.”
Hanlon said, “That is to say, he is the type of comrade that you can trust your back to?”
“Exactly!”
