Book 4 Chapter 4.5 - Bloody Path
The night quickly passed. Su shifted their camp 40 kilometers west, and then stopped to rest and reorganize. This was a hilly region with undulating terrain, a battlefield Su selected for himself. He already had a feeling that the battle would happen tonight.
At dusk, a crack opened up in the low hanging clouds full of radiation at the horizon. The blood-like radiance of the setting sun illuminated the great earth, its powerful rays ruthlessly scorching all living things and painting the beautiful yet desolate great earth a thick crimson.
Above the spacious and desolate great earth, waves of rhythmic metal sounds gradually sounded. Claudia, with her half-sided hair, slowly walked over from the horizon. She wore a rather simple-looking set of heavy armor, and with every step she took, there would always be a deep footprint left in the ground. As pieces of her armor made contact, it sounded as if the bells of a funeral were being rung.
The armor was red and golden in color and made of copper. There were many complicated coats of arms engraved on its surface that did not merely serve as decorations. However, the copper material itself determined that apart from its heavy weight, it didn’t offer much defensive characteristics. Compared to the heavy armor Madeline used to wear, it was practically a different type of item. It really was unknown why Claudia would wear this seemingly completely cumbersome set of heavy armor.
The heavy armor was terrifyingly red, the red color on its surface still continuously flowing downwards, forming a small puddle beneath Claudia’s feet. However, the distance between each footprint was 10 meters! That was why one could only see a bloody trail formed from droplets of blood that led towards where the sun set. Meanwhile, behind Claudia, if one followed this trail of blood, one would see at the end of their line of sight a medium size inhabited area. Everything in the inhabited area looked fine, except for the blood, the endless blood that continuously spread in all directions!
The curtain of night finally fell. Everyone fell asleep one after another, and eventually, only Madeline and Su were still awake. Madeline still sat in the off-road vehicle, while Su wandered about alone around the camp’s surroundings. He already had an extremely clear feeling that something would definitely happen tonight. This feeling didn’t come from the Perception Domain, and instead the Mysterious Fields, a feeling similar to an intuition. Su’s intuition was extremely accurate, and the clearer the feeling, the more accurate it would become. He didn’t understand why this was the case, because he didn’t invest that many evolutionary points into the Mysterious Fields. Sharp intuition was normally a talent only ability users with high levels in Mysterious Fields had.
Su carried the fully loaded electromagnetic rifle while walking about the camp in a seemingly extremely carefree manner. No matter where he went, Su would never be more than 60 meters from the camp. If one observed from above, they wound find that Su was walking in a 60 meter radius circle.
The night was quite cold, and winds stirred about as well. Whistling wind that was both harsh and cold occasionally swept through the great earth.
On the rocks outside the camp, a fluctuation that was difficult to detect suddenly appeared, and then it returned to normal. However, on top of those seemingly empty rocks stood Claudia who had chased them all the way here. She stood in an absolutely unrestrained manner on the rocks, but not only was there not a silhouette in sight, not even a bit of aura was released. She was already completely invisible, moreover invisible while wearing an entire set of copper heavy armor!
Within her eyes, Su continued to walk slowly in a circle. Behind him, places he passed through would burn with a reddish-golden flame trail. More and more of these trails appeared, forming a large circle. Claudia already saw that the radius of the flame ring was 60 meters.
Inside the camp, Li, Li Gaolei, and Kane were currently asleep. Their bodies shone and then dimmed one after another, indicating that they weren’t faking their sleep. Meanwhile, Madeline’s figure who was inside the off-road vehicle was extremely clear. It looked like she hadn’t slept yet, but she wasn’t thinking too deeply about anything.
After sweeping her sight over the camp for the third time, Claudia cast her eyes back onto Su’s body. It didn’t matter whether the three subordinates were sleeping or not, and the light seeping out from Madeline’s body meant that she only had two levels of Combat Domain ability. This type of fighting strength was pretty much negligible. That was why her only enemy right now, was the only one left here, Su.
“Space probe is it? Crafty youngster…” A faintly discernible smile appeared on the corner of Claudia’s lips, one that was not lacking in mockery.
Su was walking around the camp clearly to put his space probe ability to use and scan the surrounding environment. If others who didn’t know about his ability tried to sneak over to laugh a close range attack, they would likely fall into Su’s trap. However, Claudia was different from those useless assassins. Perhaps her many seventh level Combat Domain abilities couldn’t be considered all that prominent, and her supplementary Magic Domain abilities were worth even less, but together with the rare eighth level ability invisibility she produced herself, it was enough to make her the queen of the night!
The information the Black Dragonriders had on the space probe ability was that it covered a range of 50 meters. This was information only a general could access, but that woman Persephone didn’t seem like someone who would inflexibly comply with regulations. It seemed like the 60 meter radius of the circle was the true range of the space probe ability. However, Claudia wasn’t stupid. She knew that information would only be information in the end. It could be used as a reference, but if it was treated like the bible, then that would be true stupidity. From Su’s past performances, the abilities he produced in the Perception Domain often exceeded normal levels, and this space probe ability was no exception. The reason why Su did not choose a larger circle to maximize his space probe’s distance was most likely done so as a trap.
Meanwhile, it was Claudia’s habit to never underestimate her opponents. That was why she decided Su’s space probe ability should be… double that of an ordinary ability! Claudia was extremely clear on the fact that as another eighth level ability, her own invisibility might not necessarily escape space probe’s detection. However, since she discovered Su’s trap, she obviously wouldn’t be fooled. Apart from invisibility, she had another rare ability that, even though it was eighth level, in actual combat, had effects that did not lose to ninth level abilities: extreme assault!
However, when she saw how carefully Su held the electromagnetic rifle in his hands, Claudia still couldn’t help but feel a bit of contempt. She obviously understood how terrifying the electromagnetic rifle was, and also knew that if one was blasted by it, even a ninth level defense ability user would suffer greatly. However, the electromagnetic rifle and other gunpowder weapons had a similar weakness, and that was that its attack had to land. Just like how a sniper couldn’t do anything against a high level dragonrider, the electromagnetic rifle in Su’s arms, in the eyes of Claudia, was nothing more than a slightly more advanced steel rod.
Her standing figure produced a western-styled thin blade. Her left arm stretched forward, holding the edge of the blade with her thumb and forefinger, pointing the blade’s tip at Su! Claudia waited extremely patiently. Finally, Su reached the point of the circle closest to her current location. The distance between Su and herself was a whole 480 meters!
The time was now! Killing intent abruptly erupted between Claudia’s brows!