Chapter 13.1 – Rage
Su maintained a sufficient amount of vigilance against Ricardo all the way until they departed. Even though Pendulum City was at the edge of the central region of control and it wasn’t too likely for Ricardo to silently wipe out Su and his troops, there still had to be some wariness.
The checking of soldiers, reorganizing of equipment, and drawing up of the plan of attack were all handled by Li and Ricardo. Su was once again completely cast aside from strategic decisions. Even though he tried his best to listen and understand what they were talking about, there was still no room for him to make a single suggestion.
Ricardo brought over twenty subordinates and over a hundred fifty mercenaries, as well as three resupply vehicles. Even though his army didn’t use heavy armor tanks, they were equipped with enough anti-vehicle armor weapons. For example, they prepared over thirty bronze dragons. As a result, the Scorpions of Disaster were no longer a threat at all. The equipment of Ricardo’s mercenaries was adjusted to uniformity, and all of them carried undisguised chilly killing intent. Even if they were smiling, their eyes were still looking at you coldly. These mercenaries were all killing weapons, and all of them were much stronger than the soldiers under Li or Kane. It was unknown what it was that happened in the northern region that made Ricardo stay there for two whole years and bring back this type of army.
Su began to develop curiosity towards the northern region. Persephone was also fighting there, and she looked like she was always fighting intense battles. However, inside the Black Dragonriders, information was just as precious as equipment, maybe even more expensive. Su did not have the authority to ask about these matters. He had asked Persephone before in the past, but she simply brushed it off, saying that it wasn’t a big deal. Then, she said that when Su’s authority reached a high enough point, she would tell him everything he should know.
Su had tried to probe around Ricardo as well, but he was cleverly and firmly refused by all types of excuses. This fellow seemed extremely happy to see Su asking him for something, and then during that cheerfulness, he gave out his refusal.
Only when they left did Su see the comrade Ricardo talked about. This was a robust male roughly two meters tall with yellow-gray straight, short hair. As they pointed towards the sky one after another, they were like closely packed needles. This male wore extremely simple-looking leather clothes. Even though it was quite cold outside right now, large amounts of skin were still revealed from his chest and arms. His well-developed muscles, as well as his dense body hair, were all signs of a Combat Domain ability user. However, he looked like someone with basic levels of ability and not like someone with six levels of ability at all. If this type of character was inside the dragonrider organization, he would have long reached the standard for lieutenant colonel. An expanse of deathly stillness filled his eyes, as if he didn’t have any interest in his surroundings. Regardless of whether it was the men, weapons, army, or a great beauty like Li in front of him, it didn’t draw an extra look from him. Only when he saw Su did his eyes linger a bit longer, which made Su feel as if his skin was being pricked all over.
This was a dangerous fellow. Su reached this conclusion almost as soon as he saw this male.
Ricardo’s explanation was extremely simple. “This is Hanlon, a comrade of mine. We are brothers that have braved great dangers together.”
“Su.” Su’s self-introduction was even more simple. He reached out his hand, but Hanlon didn’t accept it and instead coldly said, “Shaking hands isn’t a good custom.”
Ricardo roared with laughter. He interrupted and said, “Don’t mind him. That’s just how he is. Come, I’ll tell you about tomorrow’s battle plan.”
After using a rather poor excuse, Ricardo pulled Su into a command vehicle. Ricardo had a command vehicle for his personal use with back seating that was rather spacious. In front of the seat was a large display screen. What was different from normal command vehicles was that there was a seat on the side, and sitting in that seat was a short haired, cold-faced woman who wore a black uniform.
“This is my assistant officer, Shaunie.” Ricardo introduced.
Even though Su wasn’t envious, he still had to admit that even though they were both Black Dragonriders, the distance between Ricardo and himself was still extremely great, at least in terms of authority. If he didn’t receive large amounts of support from his family, then the abundant supplies here signified his illustrious military service. It seemed like Ricardo’s successes in the northern front should be rather outstanding and he should not be as simple as he looked on the surface.
After entering the command vehicle, the troops began to depart according to plan. The plan was to reach Su’s base at the edge of the central region by evening and then attack Pendulum City the next morning.
The command vehicle lightly swayed back and forth. Its shock absorption seemed to be adjusting meticulously, making it rather comfortable sitting inside. There was quite a bit of space inside the vehicle, so the three people didn’t feel cramped at all. After the vehicle took off, Shaunie brought out an aged bottle of brandy from the side compartment and poured a cup for both Su and Ricardo.
The alcohol was quite excellent. Ricardo drained it in one gulp, seemingly extremely satisfied. Meanwhile, Su smiled and refused in a tactful yet firm manner.
Along the way, as future combat comrades, Ricardo explained his own abilities a bit more. He was a Mental Domain weapon control and Magic Domain ability user. This was a rather uncommon combination. The highest level of ability in both of these domains was five levels, but he stopped it right there and didn’t speak any further. Abilities were each individual’s greatest secrets, so exposing it was the same as revealing everything about himself to someone else. Ricardo definitely wouldn’t do something like this, and Su didn’t ask him to continue either.
“Your main ability is in the Perception Domain? What level?” Ricardo asked. He didn’t beat around the bush, because he needed to know a bit more about Su as well. The main ability domain Su reported to Black Dragonrider headquarters was Perception Domain.
Su hesitated for a bit, but he still said, “Sixth level.”
“Sixth level!” Ricardo was greatly shocked. This completely exceeded his expectations! After all, when Su entered Black Dragonriders several months ago, he only had four levels of ability. Su’s speed of advancement was freakishly fast. However, there were still quite a few examples in the past like him, and there were even those who were even greater of a monster than he was. Forget about what happened a long time ago, when the spider empress brought Madeline back seven years ago, no one thought that five years later, that little girl who was beautiful to an almost ridiculous level would enter the Town of Trials alone and slaughter the dark saint Velfuran, one of the three giants, while he was sitting in his own seat. She then stripped him of his dark saint title and self-proclaimed herself to be one of the three giants.
Afterwards, the internal influence and structure of the Town of Trials were completely reformed by her in a domineering manner, forcing the other two giants to almost vanish from the public eye. At that time, Madeline had just turned fifteen years old. From the moment Madeline walked into the Town of Trials, all other geniuses inside the Black Dragonriders seemed completely insignificant. Su’s fast rise could only barely be considered better than the other geniuses, but he still wasn’t anything incredible. Moreover, there were two standards for geniuses. The first was their speed of promotion, and the other was the depth of one’s potential. Su’s original level of ability wasn’t that high, so there weren’t a lot of people that attached importance to him. However, now that Su already reached sixth level, even if it was six levels in the Perception Domain, that meant that he was already powerful enough to touch the boundaries of lieutenant colonel rank. The most important thing was that from Su’s attitude, it seemed like he still had the chance to break through even further.
“Fine, six levels it is. I’ll accept it. Fuck! This era really has a lot of freaks.” Ricardo adjusted his mental state a bit, and then he stared at Su with a burning gaze. “I don’t care what ability you obtained. Either way, all the six level abilities on the list are extremely powerful! How about this. Tomorrow, you will be the one to locate the important target and then lead him into our heavy firepower!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Ricardo looked at Su again and asked rather fervently, “Ah, this, Su, curiosity kills the cat, but can you slightly point me towards what this sixth level ability of yours is on the list? Even a few clues is fine.”
This time, Su hesitated for quite a while before saying, “My ability isn’t recorded on the list.”
Ricardo’s expression immediately became extremely strange. If it wasn’t on the list, that could only mean two things. One was that it was an ability he created himself, and the other was that it was a rare ability. Regardless of which one it was, as long as it was above six levels, it was enough to make Ricardo’s expression become extremely strange.
