Book 3 Chapter 14.5 - Intercept
O'Brien stood in this forest that flowed with brilliance, deep in thought towards the past. At his side were the ten ice sculptures of different postures. The Hebilu that O'Brien froze maintained the most basic level of vitality, but their life force already suffered severe damage. Only if they were immediately defrosted and given treatment would they have a chance of survival.
The forest was currently still negative twenty degrees, so the ice wouldn't melt at all. The Hebilu warriors could only exhaust their last bit of life force within these coffins of ice.
The family's communications ended a few minutes later. The research manager's face immediately changed. He hurried to O'Brien's side and said, "Your distinguished self, top secret intelligence from the family."
O'Brien received the optical screen. Then, with his own genes as the passcode, he unlocked the layers of seals placed on this intelligence. As he read it, his face gradually fell. The research manager that stood next to him didn't show any changes in his expression, but his palms were covered in sweat, and he was inwardly grumbling. In the Arthur family, his level of authority was quite high, second only to some great figures with directly related bloodlines. In this type of situation where it was of the utmost secrecy, he could also use his authority to infer some key parts and help make a decision. However, this time, the first keywords that popped up were the Town of Trials!
The research manager immediately closed the report and gave it to O'Brien. However, he couldn't remove the mark left behind after he saw the key words. As O'Brien silently read the contents, every change in expression this gray-haired young man made would scare this nearly fifty year old research manager witless! This was the first time in his life that he felt his own level of authority might be a bit too high.
After reading the report, O'Brien's face instead returned to normal. It was already time to set off. O'Brien silently walked towards the center of the forest. Even though there were no orders, this experienced group had long finished their preparations to depart, so they followed him into the forest depths.
O'Brien's gray hair suddenly fluttered about! His left hand extended straight out, and then it fiercely grabbed outwards! A clear ka cha sounded. An ancient tree more than ten meters out shattered. A small and delicate bluish gray figure tumbled out in a sorry state, and in an instant, it floated two meters in front of O'Brien's face!
At this moment, O'Brien already switched to his right hand, the five fingers that were unfolded producing a small ball of flame within. The fireball's surface was covered in a purplish black color, and the core of the sphere was actually a blazing white! Even with several meters separating them, the Poseidon's Trident soldiers could still feel the burning heat that assaulted their senses. Meanwhile, the crazy power stored within even more so made the many Magic Domain ability users present turn pale! Even the soldiers that had always followed O'Brien thought that he was only good at the cold domain, never expecting that he could condense a fireball of such power!
If this ball of flame flew out, even a main battle tank would have half its body melted!
The one that had been grabbed was a Hebilu girl, her body that was only two-thirds the size of a mature fighter indicated that she was still quite a ways off from reaching adulthood. With only a meter between herself and this fireball that could burn her into ashes, the girl's bluish gray hair was already starting to burn, and her large eyes were even more so burned until they almost couldn't open. However, she still struggled with everything she had and cried out angrily, not fearing O'Brien's violent methods.
O'Brien released a cold laugh. The fireball slightly restrained itself, waiting to blast out!
During this past year, O'Brien had always been gentle-mannered, and just like how Su acted extremely cowardly, these became the two most well-known lies of the Black Dragonriders.
The moment the fireball's faint radiance illuminated the Hebilu girl's appearance, it was unknown what O'Brien thought of, but his eyes immediately became dim. His right hand moved slightly upwards, and then the fireball drew out an arc, almost brushing past the girl's hair as it flew out!
The further the fireball flew, the faster it went. In the blink of an eye, it already penetrated through layers of treetops, disappearing into the lush and exuberant leaves. A strand of fiery light suddenly rose from an ancient tree's trunk, and then it swept outwards in a slanted manner. The further up it burned, the more ferocious it raged. It was like a long path of flames, drawing out the fireball's flight trajectory! In the blink of an eye, the burning treetops already spread to a several dozen meter perimeter!
O'Brien waved his hand and calmly said to the girl, "Get out of here! Go back and tell your clansmen to stop treating children like instruments of war. Next time, I might not be able to control myself."
After a moment of sluggishness, the girl who had just escaped from the brink of death turned towards the forest and ran. After running a few steps, she then turned around towards O'Brien and shouted a few times with some random noises before heading into the forest depths.
Of course, no one understood what the Hebilu girl said to O'Brien.
O'Brien continued to head into the depths of the forest. He already felt that not far away, there was copious amounts of life force rippling about, as if it was this forest's heart.
Before proceeding, O'Brien had felt a brief moment of hesitation. It went without saying that making this forest his enemy was extremely dangerous. Perhaps continuing further would result in his entire troop being forever buried here. However, O'Brien still chose to continue as they originally planned. He had also thought about returning to Dragon City and then leading Poseidon's Trident into a life and death fight against Mitchels, but this plan was immediately tossed aside. The current Poseidon's Trident wouldn't unconditionally obey his orders. In addition, with O'Brien's pride, he would much rather personally remove that person's head!
His ice cold reasoning told O'Brien that if he wanted to accomplish this objective, the fastest method was the carry out the pre-established plan, this enormous, precise, complex, and perfect plan he created himself.
"Madeline, wait for me. Even if you are already in the underworld, I will still bring you out…"
Right now, Su was currently sitting in the second floor of a building that had its rooftop completely removed, arrogantly smoking a cigarette. In the deep night, the continuously flickering cigarette end was like a lighthouse in a dark night, unspeakably eye-grabbing and dazzling. Within a kilometer of distance, snipers with good enough sight could even see just how slender and white the two fingers that held the cigarette were.
In this darkness where one's sight became limited, there should be over a thousand enemies within just a few dozen kilometers of distance. They were either moving stealthily, resting, lying in ambush, or making preparations.
In this era where abilities were becoming more and more common, darkness was already no longer a limiting factor for everyone. Human's innate tendency to wage war was the first to be unearthed, and when taken to the furthest extent, one would touch upon various talents related to night combat. If one's luck was sufficiently bad, this bit of cigarette embers would make over a thousand Scorpions of Disaster soldiers simultaneously lock their sights onto Su.
By now, the number of Scorpions of Disaster soldiers that died under Su's hands already exceeded three hundred. Even though his current mood was plain like water without any taste, the excessive slaughter also made him feel a bit strange. His body seemed to constantly be releasing an infantile like aura. That was an aura of life, a flourishing, surging aura that was thick to the point of making Su want to vomit.
Su seemed to be slaughtering towards the center of the battlefield in a strange line, but he still never encountered a powerful opponent like Martham. Not encountering any didn't mean they didn't exist. Su believed those chosen Pandora spoke about were definitely hiding in some dark corner, grinding their teeth, ready to get a fierce bite out of him.
What was strange was that these fellas were hiding exceptionally well, as well as being exceptionally patient. Su could already smell their scent, but he just couldn't draw them away from their nest.
The night was dark, but there were still weak sources of light. The low hanging clouds full of radiation covered the world in a faint green color. Su breathed in the cold, acrid air full of radiation and smoke, unexpectedly feeling a moment of great calmness. He knew that once he finished this cigarette, he would have nothing to do with tonight's peacefulness.
Since the day he could remember within the last twenty years, Su had never acted so recklessly self-indulgent. While faced against the thousand soldiers, as well as the restlessly stirring so-called chosens, it wasn't that Su didn't feel any fear.
His heart was deep like a great sea. These enemies weren't even there to begin with.
Su sighed lightly. His body slightly leaned back, lying on the broken wall as if he was relaxing his somewhat exhausted back. A peng sounded. A sphere of smoke and dust suddenly exploded less than two meters from Su's position. A large hole suddenly appeared on the wall that was originally already on the verge of collapse!
Su's light blonde hair gently fluttered about. The end of his nose sniffed a clear burnt scent. The moment he leaned backwards, a large caliber sniper bullet seemed to brush past the tip of Su's nose as it flew past, fiercely embedding itself into the opposing wall!
Su took one last hit of the cigarette and then tossed the cigarette butt that had already burned to its end onto the ground. Then, he leaned over his body, bending at the waist. While standing up, he picked up the assault rifle at his side and brushed away the dust that had landed on his body along the way. More than ten rounds of bullets of varying calibers flew over, all of them seemingly passing right next to Su's body, blasting this incomparably tattered little house until dust flew everywhere and debris rushed into the air! It was to the extent where a sniper bullet accurately struck the cigarette butt Su flung away! As a result, the embers that flew outwards illuminated this dark and gloomy night ever so slightly.
Immediately after, there were no signs of anyone in this building anymore. Soon after, a rocket artillery with a blue flame tail streaked across the sky. Not only did it blast this small building into the skies, everything in a range of more than ten meters was razed to the ground!
In the deep darkness, there was more than one existence that inwardly snorted, somewhat angrily thinking, "What kind of idiots are these? Don't they know that no matter how advanced their firearms are, they can't deal with true expert? Fellas that are produced quickly just don't have any brains!"
Su moved in the darkness in a carefree manner, moving between abandoned buildings one after another. An enormous sniper rifle rested on his back, while what rested in his right hand was still the Scorpions of Disaster's standard assault rifle. Through the incomparably sensitive skin on his fingertips, he stroked the assault rifle, feeling its rough surface that clearly carried signs of mass production. For the sake of lowering manufacturing costs and increasing its use expectancy, the gun's body was clearly excessively thick and heavy. Su smiled and thought, "In the past, I truly didn't realize it, but turns out these things are actually pretty useful."