Book 3 Chapter 10.1 - Net
Su was sprinting in the darkness. There was already no way to stop his aura from leaking out. The injury at his waist ruptured as he ran, wisps of blood soaking through the cloth strips tightly binding the wound. Behind him, the black chain continued to hack at him from all types of inconceivable angles like a specter, hacking towards Su's vital areas.
Su was in quite a difficult situation. He couldn't break free from the black chain's pursuit, but the black chain no longer had the unstoppable power it had when the intense battle first began. Regardless of whether it was speed or power, they both became a bit weaker. After all, this was already a mountain region fifty or so kilometers away from the Town of Trials, and since the battle first began, three hours and twenty-one minutes had passed!
Even though the power had decreased by a whole 20%, the black chains could still easily tear through concrete and frozen soil. Its power was still enough to send Su to the underworld.
After experiencing this pursuit battle for so long, Su's dodging and escaping speed decreased a bit as well, so the attacks of the black chain were still extremely dangerous. However, he would still always be able to escape the black chain's attacks at the last moment.
Sarton appeared more and more often from the darkness. Most of the dark stripes on his body had already disappeared, and the few that remained were clearly lighter in color now as well. The muscles that bulged in front of his chest had already calmed down quite a bit. That crystal had almost buried itself back into his chest, without a bit being exposed outwards. It was already dim to the point of almost losing all luster.
Sarton silently calculated his reserve power. 35% didn't look bad, but in reality, around 25% couldn't even be used, because those were the reserves needed to maintain life and internal organ activity. When his stamina was exhausted below 30%, it would lead to excessive fatigue, and his movements would become seriously affected. This was why the amount which Sarton could still use, was just 5% of remaining physical strength. This amount of stamina would allow him to continue this type of intense pursuit for another ten minutes.
Ten minutes was an extremely long time. If dragonriders were fighting a life and death battle, a close combat struggle would often be finished in a split second. If they used firearms and ammunition, it would perhaps be a bit longer, but it still wouldn't take up ten minutes. The black chain was like Sarton's eyes. He knew that Su's stamina was reaching its limit, and that he was about to collapse at any moment. This incomparably slippery mouse would fall under the chain any minute now.
However, Sarton also knew that this was quite likely an illusion as well. An hour before, he already had the feeling that Su might fall in a few minutes.
If a normal person exhausted 30% of their stamina, they would already be paralyzed on the ground and unable to move a finger. The Black Dragonriders naturally weren't normal people, but most lower ranked dragonriders wouldn't be able to continue on after exhausting about 50% of their stamina. High ranked dragonriders, if they experienced special training and had firm wills, might be able to fight until they only had 40% stamina remaining.
The freedom for development in the dragonriders was great. It could be said that every single person's path was different. Apart from providing resources and selling ability formulations, dragonrider general headquarters didn't give the dragonriders any training. Only where there was a special need would general headquarters carry out special ability training in a certain direction. However, the Trials Division was different.
Upon entering the Trials Division, every single low level probational arbitration official would be told their route of ability development. As an infrastructure that was born roughly the same time as the Blood Parliament and Black Dragonriders, the Trials Division similarly had a long tradition. Even though it was just a few decades of tradition, in this short short era where turmoil was ever present, it can definitely be considered long. The Trials Division had accumulated many unique ability formulations, as well as a few secret ability methods. For example, after experiencing long term special training that was difficult to the point of being considered cruel, one could extract strength from their bodies all the way until they had around 38% power left; this was a number that already exceeded most higher ranked dragonrider officials. Meanwhile Sarton, as a high ranking punisher, could even fight without much harm to his power down to 30%. This was why when fighting with similar strength, arbitration officials often had a high chance of defeating a dragonrider.
Of course, this didn't mean that the Trials Divisions' strength exceeded that of the Black Dragonriders. Even though they could squeeze out more strength from their bodies, any limitation was still a limitation. In addition, the amount of time needed to study this type of secret method required a long time. Within a time frame of several years, a dragonrider with potential could obtain more evolutionary points from battles and training, which meant that their stamina would comprehensively increase.
However, 35%, for Sarton, was an important dividing line. Once he reached below this boundary, he wouldn't be able to fight without suffering any losses. Every bit of stamina he used up from this point out would bring some damage to his body, and the more he used, the more severe the damage would be. That was why even though Sarton's fighting strength wouldn't suffer even when he reached 30% of his strength, he had never tried to reach that dangerous of a number.
A cold smile had hung from Sarton's face this entire time. In his field of view, Su was a green light that flickered between bright and dark, becoming almost one with the night at its darkest moment. However, when he was probing or moving at high speed, the light would become more prominent. Even though the radiance was dim and even had a bit of deviation, as long as he knew the general direction and swept out with the black chain, he would find Su again, albeit with a bit more exhaustion of stamina.
Not far away, the green light lit up again. Su seemed to have brushed past the black chain as he moved. He continued to run into the darkness.
While dragging his legs that were starting to become heavy, Sarton firmly locked onto Su's figure. When he left the Town of Trials, he had tested Su out, claiming that he wouldn't pay him any attention. Either way, as long as the twelve hours were up, nothing could be changed. Sarton didn't know where this fellow that was entirely wrapped in cloth strips came from, why he came, or what he learned from eavesdropping. However, those that dared to investigate the Town of Trials, if they weren't crazy, they they had to come from some powers with truly great backing. At this extremely critical moment, if he claimed to not have come for Madeline, then it would be too hard to believe.
Sarton didn't expect Su to treat his questioning as air and instead flee even quicker. When forced to make a choice, Sarton still decided to pursue him.
He didn't dare to gamble on this.
Even if this mouse truly was just passing by, it still had to be eliminated.
Information of them digging up Madeline's body had to be kept an absolute secret. There couldn't be any clues left behind, and it was even more imperative that no outsiders knew about it. After tonight's matters, everyone that appeared in the Town of Trials would be eliminated, including executioner Guile. Otherwise, if the Spider Empress Lanaxis looked into this and found out, perhaps nothing would happen to Mitchels, but Sarton himself would definitely be eliminated. If things were done cleanly without leaving behind any evidence, even if the entire world knew that this matter was done by Mitchels, they could only treat it as if they didn't know about it. Not even the Spider Empress would be able to say much.