Chapter 808: The Hunt (Part 5)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The night had just begun. The tree leaves rustled in the wind, as if predators were hiding in the shadows, waiting for their prey.
The squad leader stood beside the lifeless body of his member. He calmly examined the corpse with no signs of sadness or grief, as though he was a cold-blooded beast.
In fact, it had only been a week since the formation of the squad. For the past week, they had only been practicing teamwork. Without any personal connections or camaraderie to begin with, they showed no condolences for their dead teammate from another organization.
The leader squatted down for a closer inspection of the corpse. In fact, dead men talked. From the traces left on the man's wounds, he could tell that Lu Shu's instant explosive force was close to that of a Cla.s.s B, and he was incredibly precise in terms of muscular strength. Moreover, the orderly footprints on the ground indicated that the man was very familiar with the effective application of his force.
It seemed that they had once again underestimated their enemy's true power. The squad went into deep thoughts.
The leader suddenly announced, “Confirmed. He is a Cla.s.s B, or even a mid-Cla.s.s B. Fan out and be vigilant… Let's start the hunt!”
There was a tinge of exhilaration in his voice. Before the magical era, every member in the team could be called a war machine, but they were unable to unleash their desires in the peaceful years.
Now was the best time for them. They could run after the strongest opponent in the field of their greatest forte. This was the most enjoyable entertainment ever.
One of them bent down and cut away the body's right ear. Then, he laughed. “He's mine. I won't compete with you for the credits of that boy.”
He looked as if it was natural to do so because that was the last use of his team member in his life.
The leader shot him a frosty look. “Pretty fast when you claim rewards. I'll cut off your ear too when you die.”
The man replied with a grin. “Then wait until I die first.”
In fact, no one questioned him during the entire process. After all, he could exchange the ear for one magical stone after he returned to the camp. That was the value of human lives on the battlefield – one magical stone, or even less.
Of course, they had to behead a key person of the Heavenly Network and bring it back so as to claim higher rewards.
This applied especially for Heavenly Kings.
The squad moved on, following traces left by Lu Shu. With a surveillance specialist on the team, they were fast in picking up Lu Shu's marks.
The specialist squatted down and picked up a wrapper. He studied it and nodded at the leader. “We are on the right track. This wrapper has just been discarded as it is dust-free.”
“Chase on,” ordered the leader calmly.
However, he was confused about the direction the boy was heading to. Instead of the Heavenly Network campsite in the west, he was running northward.
Was he not going back to seek help? Did he want to die in the mountains?
“Where is he going?” asked the leader.
“There's a tributary on the other side of the mountain ahead. If he continued to run in the current direction… He's slowing down. We should be able to stop him before Erdao Baihe if we pursue at top speed!” the specialist a.n.a.lyzed.
There was one more thing on the leader's mind. Currently, they were not far away from the Heavenly Lake. But the vegetation around the lake was spa.r.s.e and scarce, unsuitable for hiding. So why was he heading there? Could there be an ambush set by the Heavenly Network? Not likely either, because the leader knew that two Cla.s.s B's from the Department of Faith Theory and the Phoenix Society had headed towards there just four days ago.
Judging from the timeline, the Cla.s.s B's should have already gone past the Heavenly Lake and continued heading west. Thus, they would not join later.
Although they could not unite with people from the Department of Faith Theory and the Phoenix Society to block the boy together, it was at least certain that no one from the Heavenly Network could be hiding there.
The squad continued with the chase. In fact, some of the traces could have been erased.
When you sped through a forest, you would inevitably break a few twigs or leaves. Therefore, it would be impossible to conceal the broken branches even if you managed to hide your footprints.
Furthermore, in the specialist's eyes, Lu Shu's forest combat experience was too immature. He had hardly erased any of his traces, as if he totally had no idea what could expose his path.
The pursuers laughed arrogantly and coldly. They would never lose such an easy target with their years of experience in the forests.
However, at this moment, a shadow suddenly fell from the tree branches above them with clear intentions to kill!
It was already too late when the man noticed a change in lighting on top of him!
Just like the previous time, Lu Shu attacked bare-handedly. The man tried to dodge and defend himself with his spine, which was the strongest part of the human body.
Nevertheless, the punch on his spine was as powerful as a strike of lightning. Even those at the back of the team heard his bones cracking. At that instant, Lu Shu had fractured a Cla.s.s C's backbone with a single punch!
The man collapsed onto the muddy ground of rotten leaves as he lost his balance. Now he knew that it was a mistake to a.s.sume their enemy was a forest combat newbie!
In fact, he was right that Lu Shu was bad at erasing his traces. Thus, he had resorted to the most tiring yet straightforward method of all. He ran at the top of his speeds before returning through the trees. To him, the distance between the tree branches was just a piece of cake.
Thus, Lu Shu had created an illusion earlier that he was a slow runner, because he was not running at his top speed at all. Actually, their estimate that Lu Shu could be a mid-Cla.s.s B still turned out to be a misjudgment.
But Lu Shu had noticed something strange as well. The Cla.s.s B leader was missing!
All of a sudden, the entire ground caved in where Lu Shu was standing. As an earth-type Metahuman, the leader had hidden himself in the ground and intended to engulf Lu Shu in the quicksand when he was the least prepared.
Right before this moment, the man with the broken spine was still alive, sighing that he could only spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. But now, to his horror, his leader was willing to sacrifice him in the quicksand as well.
On the battlefield, all lives were delicate, and there was no trust to begin with.
The quicksand swirled like a millstone, ready to eat Lu Shu alive. Yet, the Cla.s.s B earth-type Metahuman could stand in close proximity and remained unharmed!
But he had failed. Lu Shu had withdrawn from the site the instant he broke his target's spine. Clearly he had no intention to stay there for even one second!
Furthermore, he had confidently fended off the attacks from the other members before he left. It was as though none of them could pose any resistance to him!
However… why did he have to flee if he was really so powerful?
A bad hunch filled the squad leader's heart. There could only be two possibilities: either the boy was making a false show of his strength at this moment, or he was up to something bigger and bloodier since the very beginning!
