Chapter 19.2 – Crushed
When she saw Persephone’s distressed expression, as if to increase her persuasiveness, Helen added, “With Su’s nature, if you have this type of substantial relationship, then he will shoulder the duty of protecting you on his own regardless of whether you need it or not. This is the most simple and direct way, as well as the least costly way of obtaining him. I’m going to use a phrase from the olden era here. Su, this person, is rather sensitive and overly sentimental.”
Persephone was a bit stuck between laughter and tears. She displayed a charming expression and said, “My dear Helen, let’s not talk about those men. The one I like the most is you.”
Helen revealed a rare smile and said, “My dear Persephone, your charm is effective against men and women, so how do you know that I don’t have other thoughts about you? If you want to play, then you can’t be scared of playing with fire! You know that I frequently give your body examinations. I can change this into an extremely enjoyable process…”
Persephone’s smile immediately became rigid.
Helen gave her a look, and in a rather meaningful way, she said, “Phoney, no matter what I do, it is all for your good. You have to remember this point.”
Persephone felt as if Helen’s words were a bit strange, but she didn’t think too much about it. She felt a strange uneasiness towards her future, but thinking too much about it was useless too. Those with high levels of ability in the mysterious fields often had confidence in their intuition, because their intuition was much more accurate than that of ordinary people. Apart from the mysterious fields, Persephone also had high levels of accomplishments in other domains, to the extent where their levels were even higher than that of the Mysterious Fields. That was why she didn’t pay all of her attention on her intuition, but she would always attach significant importance to it.
The vehicle fleet gradually slowed down. Indistinct mountain peaks appeared in the distance again. During this time where there was no dawn to speak of, the mountains were all submerged under darkness. No one knew exactly what kind of stuff was hiding inside of those mountains.
The communication device inside of the communications vehicle began to flash. Persephone pressed down on the connecting key, and then the voice of one of her subordinates sounded. “General, the mountains ahead are giving off a rather strange feeling. I reckon that there might be an ambush waiting for us.”
“What are their ranks?” Persephone asked.
“Around Colonel rank, three of them in total. Their subordinates number around a hundred.” The subordinate leader replied.
Persephone was quite confident in this subordinate leader’s scouting and perception abilities. She immediately replied, “Stop the vehicles at the edge of the other party’s range of firepower. Order all personnel to be on standby for attack!”
The vehicle fleet slowly came to a stop at the edge of the hills. Persephone stepped out from the command vehicle and gazed into the mountains shrouded under darkness. She could clearly feel three powerful auras within the mountain peaks even without any special devices. Her subordinate leader was already over forty years old, and during his long battle career of over thirty years, he had only been mistaken a few times.
The six off-road vehicles behind them stopped one after another. The people inside got out, and without any orders given, began to carry out battle preparations on their own. These soldiers that had been sharpened in the northern battlefield knew exactly what to do during these types of circumstances. Renfell walked over to Persephone’s side and stood at her side. His light blue eyes gazed into the mountains shrouded in darkness and said with a smile, “Phoney, there are three fellows that are quite strong ahead of us. I can deal with one, or maybe hold back two until you get rid of the third and come help me. You can choose whichever of the two you like.”
Even though she could sense from the other sides’ auras that their strength were around that of a Black Dragonrider colonel, Renfell still maintained the same amount of confidence. He was either going to defeat one or hold back two. During this period of time in the northern front, Persephone had fought side by side with Renfell before, to the extent where they had even cooperated closely. She knew that this man wasn’t just talking big, and that he would never promise to do something he couldn’t accomplish. Those that survived the northern battlefield couldn’t be judged purely by their outwards appearances and all possessed abnormal levels of ability.
Renfell’s information quickly flashed through Persephone’s mind.
Renfell, orphan, thirty-two years of age, twenty years of battlefield experience, all of it gained from the northern battlefront. He had joined the Black Dragonriders at the age of sixteen. The main difference between himself and the other high ranking dragonriders was that he didn’t have a single family behind him. However, his optimistic and warm nature, was a bit different from the gloominess often seen from those who crawled out from the bottom.
If Su didn’t exist, perhaps Renfell would have a chance. Persephone had this type of thoughts before.
“Phoney?” Renfell called out to her.
Persephone recollected her thoughts. She gave Renfell a look, and then she revealed a smile that was as dazzling as multicolored clouds. “For these types of opponents, me alone is already enough!”
It was deep into the night. The cold winds that stirred about always carried a faint bloody scent.
Su slowly bent his body, slowly lowering the corpse in his hands onto the ground. When the warm blood flowed through his fingers, he could almost feel a bit of a burning sensation.
Su ran his fingers over his own ribs, and then he used his fingers to grab a metal piece that was protruded from that area before tearing it out. This was was a four centimeter long sharp blade, and around it were barbed tips and sawteeth. Due to this ingenious design, even though Su had already done his best to loosen the flesh around the wound, he still couldn’t avoid worsening the injury when the blade was removed.
Su carefully inspected this metal piece that was only four centimeters in length. Through the weak glimmer of the radiation around him, he saw a small L character engraved onto the metal piece. He had no idea what this meant. The L was carved into the blade, and the paint that filled it flickered with red radiance in the darkness. After being soaked in blood, the paint seemed to have boiled and unknowingly when released scorching hot drops of liquid. The inside of Su’s injury had already completely lost feeling. That area felt numb and rigid. The poison on the metal fragment wasn’t a nerve type, but when it acted out, it was especially quick and violent. In the age of turmoil, all creatures were rapidly changing, and it might oftentimes not show any efficacy. The poison that had been smeared over this metal fragment leaned towards one that brought about a powerful pain, relying on its destructive power against flesh to inflict more damage instead of delivering fatal damage in one go.
When he lightly pressed on the flesh around the wound, Su noticed that about a third of the flesh had already become as hard as wood. These pieces of flesh had already completely undergone necrosis. If he didn’t quickly dispose of them, the poison would reach even further. Su had already closed off all of his blood vessels around that area, but he could still feel some of the nearby tissues gradually dying. If even he had trouble dealing with this type of poison, it would naturally be even more difficult for normal people.
After searching through the dead enemy and properly dealing with the corpse, he covered the body and traces of blood with the scattered frozen tundra to avoid the aura of blood from spreading through the cold night. These tasks only took two minutes to complete. All of his movements were accurate and meticulous, as if it was a machine at work.
This was the third enemy he had buried tonight. These individuals’ strength weren’t great with only one or two abilities that were a bit more outstanding. Their overall levels of strength were even a bit worse than Li Gaolei’s. However, they were quite adept at hiding and especially patient. Their tolerance towards injuries and suffering was astonishingly high and they didn’t understand fear at all. These people were different from the Scorpions of Disaster. The Scorpions of Disasters’ soldiers had their emotions restricted by computer chips, and the negative effects of that was that regardless of whether it was combat or ordinary activity, they all appeared to be rather inflexible. Their computer chips weren’t perfect, so the restriction of emotions affected their intelligence as well. However, the enemies tonight were flexible, crafty, and didn’t fear death. They didn’t hesitate in the slightest in exchanging their lives for the slightest injury on Su’s body.
It was unknown where these individuals came from, but the calmness and craziness in their eyes before death left Su with a very deep impression. They were scattered within the boundless mountains and fields. These individuals were equipped with a level of concealment comparable to seasoned snipers. They could remain unmoving for an entire night, and it was clear that they received special training in concealing their traces. If their locations weren’t relatively close and Su didn’t carefully observe the surroundings, even he would have difficulty locating them.
This was a group of well-trained assassins. Su already came to this conclusion after killing the first individual. Even though Su eliminated his opponent, even while his throat was being sliced apart, at the moment of death, he was still able to turn his hand to stab Su’s thigh. The dagger he used had special barbed tips that, upon inserting into the body, the front part would automatically separate and even penetrate even deeper into the body by following the movements of the injured muscles.
These assassins only had normal levels of ability and should be easy to kill, yet after eliminating just three of them, Su already had two extra wounds on his body, and he even began to feel fatigue. However, the night had only begun, and the road ahead was long. Su couldn’t rest yet.
