Another search team consisting of more than ten armed men appeared on the now cleared street. Their fists were wrapped tight around their AK-47s and missile launchers, their firepower was intimidating. They travelled along the streets and peered into the shops that lined its sides.
They were searching for their targets.
The men brought out a bakery owner by force. Their team leader pointed his gun towards the terrified owner. “Tell me, have you seen anyone suspicious?”
The bakery owner trembled, stuttering on his words. “A… A team just passed through this area minutes ago!”
“What team?”
“They looked about the same as you. Other than you, I really have not seen anyone suspicious.” The bakery owner swallowed his spit and proceeded to plead, “I swear to Allah, I’m not lying. They have gone into hiding and I know nothing else. Do you want some bread? Take all you want, it’s on the house.”
The bakery owner was scared shitless.
“If you find anyone suspicious, especially a Native American, contact us immediately!”
“Yes, yes, yes. I will. I swear I will.” The bakery owner nodded fervently.
The team leader pushed the trembling man onto the ground and led his team in the opposite direction.
Since their own men were in the front, there was no need for another team to sweep the same area. He needed to search in another area in hopes that they would find the targets soon and kill them all except for the Native American mentioned.
“Leader, isn’t that part of us?” As they walked, one of the armed members pointed into an alleyway to their side.
The leader followed his finger, immediately spotting a tall and curvy armed member. He was taken aback. Since when had they recruited female fighters?
“Get her!” The leader immediately realized something, picking up his AK-47 and started to shoot at the female fighter.
Bang bang bang…
His aim was extremely weak. Despite the rain of bullets, none of them had hit within the one-metre radius of the woman.
The female fighter quickly ran towards a corner of the alley and disappeared.
Tens of armed men swarmed over. They shot and they screamed. The noises emitted were admittedly terrifying.
But as they all entered the alley, six people appeared from behind them.
Poof poof poof…
The gust assault rifle swept through, causing all of them to fall onto the ground.
The female fighter that disappeared earlier emerged from behind the corner. She was Yelena.
Yelena jogged towards Xia Lei and the team with light steps. It was only when she was needed as a bait that she would remove the binder that held her chest tight. A woman was an obvious disguise flaw to the enemy.
“This should be the last of them in the north. But as soon as we leave this place, we’ll be in the centre of Gaza City. There will be more there and we won’t be able to fight like this,” Sa’im told Xia Lei.
Xia Lei replied, “Then we will return to the east and barge out from there. We’ll head towards our destination from there.”
Under his leadership, the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team had cleared out all enemies in the north. The Gaza Strip armed group would certainly assume that they were trying to enter the city centre through the north. They would not expect them to return to the east again.
In the face of such enemies, even if the commander of the Gaza Strip armed group had ten brains, he would still be fooled.
What was most terrifying about street battles was that there were hiding spots everywhere. Everyone involved needed to practise extreme caution. But now, that wasn’t an issue because no matter where they chose to hide, someone would notice them. How was it possible to continue the battle under such circumstances?
There were more than one hundred armed members dispatched to the north. But once Xia Lei and his team had retreated from the area, the members had collectively lost their lives. A majority of them were killed from a distance. Another portion of them was ambushed and killed by a sweep of bullets.
The lack of surviving enemies in the north made their retreat easier. With their human radar, Xia Lei, the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team members had enjoyed a completely safe route. Within a radius of two kilometres, even dogs with chains around their necks could be spotted, let alone armed men with guns.
“You…” Qian Jun, who was walking to the left of Xia Lei, could no longer suppress his curiosity. He directed a question to Xia Lei. “Xia Lei, can you tell me about the pills…”
Xia Lei nodded. “Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. It’s true.”
“So you’re…”
Xia Lei interjected Qian Jun. “This is not the time to talk. Have you forgotten what happened to our exchange earlier today? You had some reservations against me and yet you’re expecting me to reveal everything to you?”
Qian Jun abruptly neared his side. “If we can escape this place alive, I’ll tell you everything I know.”
Xia Lei was surprised, but still remembered to offer a smile. His father, Xia Changhe, had graced Qian Jun with kindness while he had conquered the snake with his raw capabilities. However, Xia Lei must admit that if he wasn’t Xia Changhe’s son, it would’ve been difficult to handle a man like Qian Jun even if he was Superman.
Soon enough, the team was back in the east.
The armed men that survived the earlier battle had long lost their patience. They had left their hiding spots to head to the north to join the attack on Xia Lei and the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team.
They drove the pickup trucks that were lucky enough to be still functional from the explosion. The machine-gunners on the armed pickup truck kept their eyes peeled. Finger hovered over the trigger, any movement captured would prompt them to open fire. They would destroy all threats with their heavy machine gun!
Five minutes later, the convoy of trucks passed through a street and took a turn at a crossroad to enter the north region. At that moment, a rain of bullets came flying out of the houses around the crossroad. Taken by surprise, the armed members in the trucks had no way to run. Worse, their cheap trucks were not equipped with bulletproof properties. Forget about the XL2500 sniper rifle or gust assault rifle, even a bullet from a Viper pistol could pierce through the vulnerable chunk of metal.
This was yet another massacre. They had entered a trap ring formed by Xia Lei and the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team members and were completely wiped out.
Losing control, the armed pickup truck zoomed towards the buildings by the road. It broke through a wall and lodged itself in the hole. Some of it had hit the trees, causing the urgent impact to send its front-row passengers flying onto the ground tens of metres away. Some were even flipped over by the curb.
Xia Lei exited from one of the buildings and went towards the truck that hit the tree. He opened the door, reached in and pulled out a communicator from its late driver.
As if on cue, a deep male voice rumbling with rage rang through the device. “Where the fuck are they? Who the fuck are they?! I don’t care about the cost, destroy them all!”
Xia Lei muted the device. “Sa’im, do you know who this is?”
“That voice…” Sa’im jogged his memories. “He’s probably the second leader of the Gaza Strip armed group, Guliasa. Do you wish to kill him off? If you want that, I can make it happen.”
Xia Lei shook his head. “Our conflict had only happened because they did not keep their end of the deal. We’ve killed many of his men and gave them the payback they deserved. So I hope the conflict between us and him could end here before things get worse.”
“What if they find out who we are?” asked Sa’im.
Xia Lei replied, “That possibility is low. If that really happened, I guess I’d use my ways to solve the issue. Have your informants collect their information and observe their activities. If they find out who we are, we’ll attempt a negotiation. I’m willing to solve it with money and weapons. If that doesn’t solve it, we’d just have to get rid of them.”
“I know what to do now,” said Sa’im.
“Alright, we should take our leave. Let’s head to…” At that point, Xia Lei abruptly lifted his chin. He stared ahead into the direction of Jerusalem.
Two kilometres away, a Heron 2 drone was zooming over at light’s speed. It had an altitude of three thousand metres and there were four air-to-surface missiles attached to the underside of its body.
Xia Lei could notice it but the other members of the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team couldn’t. They too had looked into the same direction but all they could see was a span of the blue sky.
“Take cover!” Xia Lei exclaimed out of the blue.
While they remain clueless about the situation, the members quickly heeded his warning out of respect and admiration. Their bodies came in contact with the ground.
“Don’t move!” Xia Lei warned again.
Aside from Qian Jun, everyone else had fallen to the ground and faked death.
Qian Jun hesitated but followed suit eventually.
He did so just in time. The drone with the missile had plunged from its three thousand metres altitude to nine hundred metres above ground sharply. Two seconds later, even Qian Jun could finally make out the shape of the four missiles attached to the hovering unmanned aircraft.
To Israel, launching an air attack on Gaza was just a walk in the park. But this time, their target was not any of the authority figures of the Gaza Strip armed groups. Instead, it was Xia Lei and Qian Jun, along with the other members of the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team.
Despite the lack of confirmation that Xia Lei was behind the rescue effort of Qian Jun, Mossad was not willing to let loose that possibility. After all, America was its ally. Protecting the strategic interests of America was equivalent to protecting their own. With their intention and goals, Israel had to investigate the current ongoing conflict in the Gaza region.
The drone flew past them in the air, then it made a U-turn. It hovered over the corpse-filled ground and circled it once before it took its leave towards the north.
Once the danger had left, Xia Lei sat up from the ground.
“Haha!” Sa’im cackled. “Boss, fighting with you is always a pleasure. This is better than sex!”
Xia Lei could only return him a wry smile. After he and Tsukino Kyoko had something slight going on in the background, Sa’im was already making his true colours obvious.
Doot doot doot… Doot doot doot…
Sa’im’s phone rang out of nowhere. He pulled out the device and pulled an exaggerated face. “Ah, jeez. Women sure are fussy. Can’t she leave me alone for a while?”
Xia Lei urged, “Don’t mind it, I think you should answer the call. Your woman had probably settled the boat arrangements.”
It was only then that Sa’im was willing to pick up her call. “Hello? Yeah… I got it. Be careful, we’ll be joining you soon.”
Tsukino Kyoko walked over and joined Xia Lei by his side. She reached an arm over and wiped away a drop of blood that clung to the side of Xia Lei’s neck.
Xia Lei smiled at her faintly.
He sure was weak against kindness from beauties.
