Book 3 Chapter 13.3 - Awakening
That was why Ricardo felt exceptionally upset. With a pah sound, he hatefully spat out a clump of sandy soil that carried blood, and then he forcefully shook his head, sending out bits of dust from his ears. After shaking his head that seemed to have swelled quite a bit a few more times, he crawled out from the dirt. The entire lower half of his body sank into the dirt, as if he had been half buried alive.
Ricardo's ears continued to rumble with a low humming sound, as if the great explosion that erupted just now was still ringing through the air. Within the rising smoke and falling debris, he sharply noticed that at the head of a street several tens of streets out were two Scorpions of Disaster soldiers who were currently struggling to crawl up. Under his powerful five levels of weapon control ability, the type 3 dragon model assault rifle in Ricardo's hands was like an extension of his arm. There was no need for him to make any aiming motions, and with a casual pull on the trigger, six rounds of bullets accurately entered the bodies of these two little scorpions, completely ending all of their efforts of crawling up.
Ricardo stood up, standing at the center of the street among the endlessly rising smoke and flying streams of bullets. Concentrated gunshots sounded from all directions; it seemed like intense battles were happening in every direction. He wanted to take a step towards the head of the street, but he felt as if his thigh was a bit numb. When he reached down and rubbed it, he unexpectedly touched blood. He had unknowingly when been injured.
"These blasted scorpions!" Ricardo hatefully cursed. At the same time, he pulled the trigger, instantly releasing over twenty rounds of bullets from the assault rifle, blasting through a wall on the other side of the street, as well as blasting the Scorpion of Disaster soldier hiding behind the wall into two pieces. However, when the numbness of his thigh faded, the pain it brought Ricardo made him feel as if something wasn't right. The injury was larger than what he expected, and there was a piece of shrapnel that wasn't small inside. Ricardo only had three levels of defensive strength, which wasn't enough to maintain his original level of movement under this type of injured state. He missed his mobile armor, because that was something that could turn a single soldier into a human shaped tank! However, that thing also drained energy like a bottomless pit. The first day their resupply lines were cut, Ricardo had no choice but to cast aside this energy draining mobile armor.
He cursed while dragging his injured leg to the nearby abandoned city. Standing in the middle of the street with decreased mobility was not much different from seeking death. Right at that moment, a feeling of alarm suddenly crept up within Ricardo's heart. He immediately turned around, just in time to see that an incomparably deep gun muzzle was currently aimed at him!
The instant he detected this danger, that muzzle released a scorching flame. With less than 100 meters of distance between them, Ricardo was already powerless to avoid this attack. He could only do his best to tighten his muscles and then roll to the side to lessen the number of bullets he was struck by.
During this process, a faint force field suddenly covered Ricardo, and it also allowed his flesh to contract even closer. The bullets landed ruthlessly on Ricardo's body, but they were all blocked by his tough body, in the end only leaving some superficial wounds.
Then, a figure rushed out like a leopard, fiercely sending Ricardo onto the ground! Bullets continued to fly from both sides of the street, with two of them landing on her body, releasing muffled pu pu sounds. The one that knocked down Ricardo was a maroon-haired young girl. One hand pressing down Ricardo, her other raising a large pistol that was over 50 centimeters in size before pressing down on the trigger!
The pistol released a rumbling sound similar to that of a machine gun. The shooter a hundred meters out didn't even have the time to reveal an expression of fear before his head and a small half of his chest were blasted to pieces! Blood sprayed high into the air.
After blasting the shooter dead, the young girl jumped up, and like carrying a rabbit, she lifted Ricardo up and disappeared into the nearby ruin's building in a flash. As she took off and landed, over ten muzzles extended out from the various buildings in the ruins, and then they sent a concentrated hail of bullets onto the building that the young girl disappeared into. However, by then, there was already not a soul in sight.
With a plop sound, inside of an abandoned house four blocks away, Ricardo was tossed onto the ground that was covered in dust. This greatly affected the injury on his leg, causing him to release a miserable cry and turn his face pale. His forehead was covered in cold sweat.
"Stop making noise! Do you want to die?" The girl berated with a suppressed voice while observing the outside situation through a crack in the wall.
"Fine! I'm a gentleman and have to treat pretty girls with manners, especially a girl that just saved my life. Li, thanks!" Ricardo blurted out. He struggled to a seated position, and then with his military blade, he cut open his trousers to inspect the injury on his thigh.
The injury was quite large. Even though it was no longer bleeding due to his defensive and regenerative abilities, this abnormally large injury still required cleaning, disinfecting, and the shrapnel inside had to be removed as well before he could recover his mobility. Ricardo pulled out a medical kit, and inside this expensive high level medical kit, not only were there all types of essential drugs, there was a set of precise battlefield surgical tools. However, because the injury wasn't on the outer parts of his thigh, it wasn't too convenient for him to complete the operation himself.
After seeing that the enemies outside didn't immediately follow them, Li hurriedly reached Ricardo's side and said, "We can rest here for five minutes tops, or else we will be surrounded again!"
Without waiting for Ricardo's opposition, Li squatted down. She pressed down on his wound, and then grabbed the fine blade from his hands.
"Oh, wait! My dear Li, you can't be like this… no!"
Following Ricardo's miserable cry, Li already forcibly pulled out that piece of shrapnel from deep within his thigh. What followed was cleaning, disinfecting, spraying medications, and sealing this injury. Li completed this process in a direct and efficient manner, finishing it in one go. She only used a minute and a half.
Li stood up and stretched her hand towards Ricardo. Ricardo grabbed her hand, and then a great strength was exerted from Li, whose physique was much more fine and petite, directly picking up the tall and sturdy Ricardo from the ground. He tried to walk a few steps, and then he discovered that it was much easier, to the point where his mobility wasn't affected much anymore. It seemed like Li's first aid skills were quite excellent. There was only one thing bad about it, and it was that she didn't seem to care how much pain the person she was saving felt.
"My dear Li, I truly never expected that apart from valiant strength, your first aid skills are also so outstanding. Sigh, that Su fellow really makes others jealous!"
Li didn't pay the jabbering Ricardo much attention and instead lowered her head to inspect that shockingly large pistol. This 15mm caliber weapon used special ammunition. Its close range power was shockingly powerful to the extent where it couldn't even be considered a pistol anymore and was instead more like a miniature hand cannon. Along with its shocking power came an extremely great recoil force. If it wasn't someone like Li who had close to five levels of strength, it was simply impossible to use. Its other disadvantage was that its ammunition was few and expensive. After three days of intense combat, Li only had less than twenty rounds left for her pistol.
She carried a Scorpions of Disaster standard issue assault rifle in her left hand, and then she tossed a dozen or so magazines she gathered into her backpack. She looked outside and then said to Ricardo, "Can you move? If you can, then we should set out right now."
As soon as Ricardo said 'of course I can', Li rushed out ahead of him, and then loud gunshots sounded outside the room. After a moment of shock, Ricardo immediately rushed out as well, just in time to see Li's figure enter an abandoned building on the other side of the street. Meanwhile, on the roof of a building on the side, two Scorpions of Disaster soldiers whose life forces were quickly fading away slowly dropped down, their powerless bodies sliding down the inclined rooftop and dropping heavily onto the floor.
Ricardo sprinted a few steps and finally caught up to Li. Before he could say anything, he saw Li turn her body and rush in the direction where the gunshots were most intense.
Ricardo was immediately frightened and hurriedly said, "Hey, pretty girl! There are too many enemies on that side! The two of us can't go there! Ah, damn it!" A string of bullets flew over from the side, almost brushing past Ricardo's body as it shot into the walls and floors. As a Black Dragonrider lieutenant commander, Ricardo wasn't someone good to provoke. His body leaned to the side, using fast, slight, and precise movements to aim at his opponent. Then, with a few burst shots, the hiding shooter's chest was blasted apart.