GDK 820: Come and hit me!
The pharmacy workers and pharmacists were clueless about the situation. Rose, Han Huo, and Han Tu were on high alert. They were silently observing the entire shop from the top floor of the depot.
Rose suddenly felt something strange. While Han Shuo was with her, she had never felt worried about any enemy. It was as though with Han Shuo in the shop, the shop is invulnerable to any attacks. But on that night, when Han Shuo was away and she needed to assume the responsibility alone, Rose felt somewhat anxious.
Suddenly, Rose was astonished for she realized that she had unwittingly become reliant on Han Shuo. When Han Shuo was around her, she would feel that there was nothing that could harm her. But when Han Shuo was not around and she had to fill the role as the leader, she felt exposed and unsheltered.
Knowing that it was no time to lose focus, Rose temporarily cast aside all irrelevant thoughts and placed all her attention on the shadows of the buildings outside the shop, sensing the strength and number of the attackers.
During recent times, Rose had gotten used to taking care of criminals attempting to loot the shop in the middle of the night. The strength and number of the intruders had been steadily increasing ever since the first intrusion. But ever since a highgod intruder was killed, they abruptly stopped trying to sneak into the shop. It had been a while since anyone tried to loot the shop.
Rose thought that the raiders had finally learned to be afraid and won’t be sending themselves to death anymore. She did not foresee that the raiders would again attempt to loot the pharmacy on that night. She was also surprised that the raiders were led by a mid-stage highgod. She knew that a fierce battle would be unavoidable.
“The leader is a mid-stage highgod. I can vaguely sense that he is a cultivator of the lightning energy. I will be keeping his hand tight and you two will have to take care of the rest of them. Be extra careful. He is not around and we can’t afford to make any mistakes,” stressed Rose with her brows slightly bunched.
“Don’t worry about it. We will fight if we can. And if we can’t, we will just run away. It’s no big deal,” said Han Tu laughingly as though the raiders were nothing to be afraid of.
Han Huo nodded in agreement and had a complacent face. He believed that with Han Tu, they can easily escape from any danger, anytime they wanted.
When Rose saw the two kids being so complacent, she wanted to rebuke them but kept to her own counsel. She did not give any more advice and continued to sense the enemies silently.
The dimly lit streets were shrouded by a gray fog. The intruders who had been concealing themselves in dark for some time began approaching the shop. Shadows after shadows nimbly made a beeline for the Celestial Pearl warehouse.
The warehouse was used for storing all kinds of medicines. The raiders thought that all of Han Shuo’s personally refined medicines must be kept in there. The raiders had also sensed the presence of Rose, Han Tu, and Han Huo. They knew that they must get through the three before they could obtain the special medicines of Celestial Pearl Pharmacy.
“Identify yourselves!” cried Rose before the moving shadows got near. At the same instant, she launched her attack. The divine energy of darkness spread out from her body. The element of darkness were gathered and turned into ink-black clouds. Threads of darkness overflowed from the dense dark clouds and silently grew and spread like inks in water.
The sky above the warehouse seemed to have been dyed with black ink. The already faint amount of light at night time was completely consumed. The region plunged into absolute darkness within a few seconds. Threads of darkness divine energy gradually spread in every direction like thousands of tiny water streams.
Those few raiders at the front-most of their group suddenly felt that their arms and legs were incredibly heavy as though they had been filled with lead. Although the threads of darkness divine energy could not kill those raiders, it had severely disrupted the normal circulation of energy in their divine bodies.
Not only that their movement was severely impacted, but those who did not cultivate in the energy of darkness had also become completely blind. Although the raiders were unable to see anything around them and terribly afraid of being assaulted, they continued to march forward cautiously.
Unfortunately for the raiders, their worst fears were realized. There was no way the Han Huo and Han Tu would not make use of this perfect circumstance to strike them.
While Rose was using her darkness divine energy to slow down and blind the raiders, Han Tu and Han Huo had been silently approaching them. Just like their maker, Han Huo and Han Tu could see in the dark, and therefore immune to absolute darkness. As the two were conceived through unique means, they could precisely locate their targets just by sensing the life auras of the raiders and they did not even need to rely on their visions.
Painful cries started playing from within the absolute darkness. Those who were struck by Han Huo and Han Tu’s sneak attacks dared not scream too loud and hastily retreated after suffering great injuries. Two of the raiders who couldn’t react to their sneak attacks in time died on the spot.
The raiders who intend on sneaking into the shop under the cover of darkness, ironically, were being assaulted by Han Huo and Han Tu concealing under Rose’s field of absolute darkness.
“Return!” Just when Han Huo and Han Tu were starting to have fun, the voice of a middle-aged man suddenly commanded the raiders to fall back. The raiders immediately complied and retreated from the region of absolute darkness that Rose formed.
A man with a tall, big build and broad shoulders came into appearance. His face was hidden under a crude, gray-white mask that had two holes just wide enough to reveal his glistening eyes. He seemed surprised that the Celestial Pearl had another expert at the level of Rose other than Han Shuo. After commanding his mob who were also wearing strange-looking masks to retreat, his eyes turned to Rose who was in the center of the dissipating dark clouds.
Rose needed to spend divine energy to maintain the absolute darkness. Seeing that the raiders had retreated, she did not waste her divine energy on maintaining the field of absolute darkness. She looked at the raiders apathetically and shouted in an ice-cold voice, “No matter who you are, leave! You won’t get anything from here!”
“This is more than just looting. You have killed my younger brother. I’ve come to kill all of you!” replied the raider wearing a grey-white mask in an angry voice.
Rose’s heart sank after hearing those words because she realized that the threat cannot be easily resolved. If their only intention was to loot the pharmacy, they would most likely retreat out of fear of her mighty strength. But as this raider was here for vengeance, he was highly motivated to have an all-out fight!
With Han Shuo not around, against such a large group of powerful experts led by a ferocious mid-stage highgod, Rose was uncertain if she could defend the pharmacy. If this mid-stage highgod was to retreat, Rose would let him leave. Otherwise, Rose would have no choice but to fight.
“Who’s your brother? Many have died in our shop recently. We have no clue which is which!” Han Huo still wore boldface even when confronting this highgod expert. He even taunted the raider.
“He came here ten days ago. The one with early-stage highgod strength. He’s my younger brother!” The man gestured, commanding his gang to spread apart as he marched towards Rose step by step.
“Oh! That dumdum! I remember him! He kept on fighting instead of escaping after we broke his legs. Haha! What a fucking idiot!” said Han Huo laughingly and condescendingly.
“Kill!” shouted the grey masked raider and he charged straight at Han Huo. A thick column of thunderbolt made using pure energy of lightning grew from his palm. Simultaneously, his domain of divinity was deployed. Tiny little lightning bolts meandered around his domain like millions of fry.
“What the fuck, don’t look for me!” cursed Han Huo loudly as he hastily flew towards Rose. Although Han Huo was aggressive and arrogant in character, he was not a fool. He was prepared to scuttle before he ridiculed the highgod raider.
Rose no longer hesitated and she flew down from the top of the building like a dark spirit. A lump of the aura of darkness rapidly came covering down at the highgod of thunder.
As both of them were mid-stage highgods, they had to use their full strength when fighting. A ferocious battle instantly started. The two highgod were so occupied with each other that they had no time to mind anything else.
Han Huo and Han Tu dodged the two battling highgod and went to fight with the other raiders.
Although the two were just mid-stage midgods, their comprehension of the energy of fire and earth exceeded those of highgods. Even when pitted against a dozen or more experts who were around the same realm they were at, the duo did not show any sign of being on the back foot.
Han Huo took out his Fire Lotus and it covered him with its petals. He was glowing bright red from head to toe like heated steel. An enormous amount of heat was emanating from his body.
The raiders fighting Han Huo felt rather helpless. As he was covered with fire, they couldn’t make any melee attacks or even get close to him. They could only launch ineffective ranged attacks at him.
Those fighting Han Tu felt even more helpless and unbearable. They lost track of him right from the start of the battle.
A hand or an earth spike might suddenly emerge from underground, which could amputate them if they were not careful enough. As they could not locate Han Tu, they could only take defensive measures.
Fighting against Han Huo and Han Tu who employed extraordinary tricks were tormenting. One can’t be touched, and another can’t be even be seen. How do they even fight against that?
“Haha! Come and hit me, stupid!” Han Huo was laughing and mocking the raiders while weaving crisscrossed through them. He would throw the raging balls of flames from his palms left and right, or perhaps spit fire at them, reducing the raiders’ hair and clothes to dust. He had also been greeting their female relatives with foul language.
<i>Chut!</i> An iced arrow that came out of nowhere suddenly landed on Han Huo’s back. The arrow clearly came from a highgod. The complacent and arrogant Han Huo suddenly stumbled. The ice-cold aura invading his body made him shiver. His mouth was too busy chattering to continue greeting the raiders with vulgarities.