Chapter 24.2 – Song of the Bloody Moonlit Night
The veteran who was used to seeing blood immediately shifted his eyes to her throat that had been completely sliced open, and then looked at her body.
The black combat suit made of composite material was completely undone, and even her skintight undergarments were completely cut apart, laying her body completely bare. Her skin was extremely rough, with the surface covered, to the point where even a small part of her chest was missing. He could tell that these were all scars left behind by past battles.
The combat suit’s pants were also sliced open, the military boots cut into two pieces and her panties tossed aside. This woman could be said to be completely naked.
However, in this veteran’s eyes, there wasn’t the slightest trace of lewdness. His brain continuously filled in the missing parts of this scene, and he could only see the handsome man named Su expressionlessly slice open her clothes and search through all of her equipment. Then, after taking things that he could use himself, he calmly departed back into the shadows in wait for his next prey.
The veteran had no way of discerning this woman’s identity. As for the various types of equipment and parts that were tossed randomly on the ground, he had seen at least half of them before. As for the other objects, there was no way he could discern their use just from their outer appearances, so he couldn’t tell at all what was missing, and as such, there was no way for him to discern Su’s abilities.
He composed himself and aimed the tactical lens at the female’s face. Then, he pressed a button on the frame.
Within a large classroom on the top floor of the main building were several display screens. When the woman’s face had just appeared in the classroom, several low cries of shock sounded.
“Dry Leaf Butterfly died?”
The classroom was extremely large, big enough for several hundred people to attend the same lecture. The seating were arranged like stairs, and the very top level had been taken apart, replaced with a victorian court style sofa with a tall crown to lean again. Golden embroidery designs covered it, and large numbers of tassels lined the sofa. Sitting on the couch was a middle-aged man with an imposing appearance, and right now, his eyes were closed in rest.
Only after hearing the noise in the room did he open his eyes. He looked at the image of the woman that was displayed on the largest screen and asked in a calm manner, “What is going on? Who is she?”
A Black Dragonrider lieutenant commander that was standing at the side of the couch bowed and said respectfully, “She is called Dry Leaf Butterfly, one of the four wilderness assassins sent by the Cobra Kings. She has just died, and it seems to be the work of the one called Su.”
The middle-aged man didn’t seem to care much about this woman called Dry Leaf Butterfly and said, “I originally wanted to find that Su to chat a bit with him, but now, it seems like I don’t have to. If that woman died, then so be it. Aren’t there still three assassins preceding her as well? Send them all out! Notify everyone below to immediately kill Su upon seeing him!”
“Understood!” The lieutenant commander replied attentively before passing the order down. In front of the temporary operations platform, three tactics commanders looked at the ten or so screens in front of them that showed different scenes. They broke down the lieutenant commander’s order and passed it down to the front line fighters. Meanwhile, the Cobra Kings’ troops were under the command of another. This individual gave a few simple instructions towards the tactical computer on his wrist before once again looking at the six tactical screens hanging in the air with a gloomy expression.
Dry Leaf Butterfly was one of his subordinates. Even though her frontal fighting strength wasn’t that great, her ability to conceal herself, move stealthily, and assassinate a target were all top notch. However, she was actually wordlessly caught by someone, making his heart develop a layer of gloominess.
The middle-aged man seated atop looked at his watch. With a frown, he asked, “What about Ricardo? Why isn’t he here?”
The lieutenant commander hesitated slightly, but when he saw the amount of impatience in the middle-aged man increase as he waited for an answer, he reluctantly braced himself and replied, “Ricardo just sent news back that there he experienced some traffic along the way and will only be able to arrive sometime later.”
The middle-aged man’s face immediately fell, and he was only barely able to stop himself from shouting the word ‘nonsense’. There were less than a hundred thousand individuals in Dragon City, and there were even less people who could drive. Where would there be something like traffic? Of course, he knew that this was just an excuse Ricardo made to not participate in the battle. However, to use such a lousy excuse, wasn’t this a slap to his face?
He quickly calmed down. After pointing at the lieutenant commander and a Cobra Kings commander wearing a brown wind jacket, he said, “It seems Ricardo does not want to come. His intention is quite clear, clearly implying that with the current fighters and cobras under me, it wouldn’t be possible to deal with a little second lieutenant from the Black Dragonriders! Of course, if we suffer a defeat this time, the greatest blame will be placed on me, because I was the one that selected you all to complete this mission.”
The lieutenant commander and Cobra King commander’s expressions all changed. They all knew that this might not be Ricardo’s intention. However, what if it was? Ricardo was one of the family’s highest ranked successors, as well as the Old Fabregas’ own son. Even though being directly related to the head did not necessarily make him superior within the family’s power struggle, at least in this operation, Ricardo already clearly expressed that he stood against them. However, they didn’t know why that was the case. If this operation succeeded, then Ricardo’s prestige would greatly fall, at least to the point where he would become known as someone who was ignorant of the present situation. However, what if the operation failed? It was just like what the middle-aged man said. If they weren’t able to catch a small second lieutenant after moving so many people and utilizing so much resources, then their group really can just go and retire.
From the information he had, Su didn’t reveal any unexpected abilities. However, the current battle told him that Su was exceptionally cunning.
The lieutenant commander and the Cobra King commander gave each other a look. The commander then removed his wind jacket and said in an callous tone, “I will personally capture him.”
The middle-aged man nodded his head in a satisfied manner. He then looked at his watch and said, “Even though we have eight more hours in theory, right now, I only want to give you all an hour. Even if he is a Black Dragonrider general, we cannot necessarily trust him.”
If one turned around the corner after leaving the fifth floor staircase, they would find a restroom. Su was currently sitting next to a sink, licking the blood on his hands. He had just finished cleaning the injury around his abdomen region, and right now, his hand was full of his own blood. He had leaned to the side when he was sliced, so the wound shouldn’t be too great, yet it still pierced several centimeters into him.
When he infiltrated the storage room, Su did not notice that there was a deadly Dry Leaf Butterfly waiting for him. When he stealthily moved into the room, the storage room suddenly lit up with blinding light, and in that moment, Su’s couldn’t use his eyesight or reflexes to defend himself. He could only see an expanse of whiteness in front of him. This type of soundless flash bang was especially effective in small spaces or dark surroundings.
The stabbing pain at his waist immediately told Su that the individual hiding within the room was extremely dangerous, because at the very least until now, he didn’t hear anything or notice any of his opponent’s traces. The injury on his body was the only thing he knew about the enemy on the other end of that weapon.
After sensing her tri-edge dagger slice flesh, Dry Leaf Butterfly couldn’t help but relax slightly. There was no whites in her eyes, and they were instead completely black with no pupils visible. This was her eyes’ special protective mode, allowing her to still observe her surroundings even under extremely powerful rays of light. This soundless flash bang did not affect her sight at all.
In addition, right now, Dry Leaf Butterfly’s upper body was leaned in an extreme manner, almost perpendicular to the ground. This type of strange position had been chosen after careful consideration and included the retaliation one’s body would make after receiving an attack. Not only could it avoid all counterattacks one’s subconscious mind made, it would allow her to stab the army blade even deeper within an enemy, making it so that any movements intended to escape would be at the cost of making the injury deeper.
However, Dry Leaf Butterfly never expected Su to suddenly close his eye, and as if he could see her, his left hand sliced out, its fingernails seeming to accurately tear her throat apart!
She didn’t have the strength to pierce the tri-edge dagger any deeper. With confusion and doubt, she fell onto the ground.
Thinking back to the blinded battle within the storeroom, as well as the thrust and cut that decided life and death, Su once again closed his eye before reaching out with his left hand.
Even though he couldn’t see anything, his consciousness still lit up, forming the outline of the surrounding environment and objects. Only, the scene was put together with green colored pieces of varying depth just like the contaminated waters and soil in the wilderness, giving him an extremely uncomfortable feeling. When his left hand extended, the scenery that could be seen spread outwards a bit.
He carefully adjusted his own senses, and the surrounding scenery suddenly became clearer by a large margin before becoming indistinct. After adjusting back and forth a few times like this, he finally found the optimal point. Green outlines of everything within two meters appeared with varying depth in his consciousness.
Su reached out with his left hand and picked up a cement granule. He moved it about between his fingertips and then was able to clearly determine the small cement granule. During the entire process, Su did not open his eye.
He opened his eye and looked at the small granule and saw that it wasn’t the slightest bit different from what he sensed, causing him to smile. This was the new ability that had formed on its own after investing all of his evolution points into the Perception Domain, long-range sensation.
