"One and half more minutes!" One of them even exclaimed happily, eliciting laughter from his friends, discontented grumbling from some others.The fae youths were from two different teams and they were all from the nearest domed city located thirty kilometers northwest, a city conquered by their race one hundred and seventy years ago. The trip here was to train, and for them to have fun battling against the young elites of the opposing camp. Given this mindset, it was obvious that none of them truly thought highly of the people from there. Apart from some powerful experts in the human camps, everyone else was akin to a training dummy to them, if not fodder for their pets.
"Hmm. This group differs greatly from our opponents yesterday. They lasted a bit longer and are faring well against that boy. Perhaps, they might force us to come out to help Gaoli."
"Leader, don"t think highly of them. Even though this place can be considered their home ground, they are only barely holding on. That Gaoli must have been..." "delaying on purpose."
The one who spoke stopped upon being glared at by the leader of the mini group on the left side. The guy spread his arms helplessly and made an "oops" expression upon remembering that their real opponents, the ones who entered a betting game with them, were just a few paces away.
The children of fae were carefree people. Even though they were blessed with intellect, there were just things that they did for the sake of interest, if not for fun. Also, like humans, cliques also formed amidst their ranks and so did rivalry.
They were intricacies and some behind-the-scenes politicking involved in it, but upon running into each other, two teams did not see eye to eye and entered a bet. The bet was whether the next group of scouts would last five minutes against one of them to which the other team betted for "no".
The group of five refrained from giggling and even from turning their heads to look at the other team. Their crew couldn"t just taunt that this very member had long defected on their side, right?
Meanwhile, the team where Gaoli came from looked on with a frown on their faces, certainly not because their comrade appeared to be losing against the "scouts" from the human race, but because by the looks of it, their whole team would lose against their rival.
A male fae stood up from the boulder where he was sitting, his right hand stroking the pendant of the necklace hanging by his neck. The l.u.s.trous grey gem was a precious stone unique to their race, capable of storing living beings. It was where most fae kept their pets for the convenience when on traveling and scouting operations. After all, there was no way they could do reconnaissance or infiltration missions with their huge dinosaurs displayed on the outside. Everyone else in the two teams apart from the person confronting w.a.n.g Yu Yan"s group had their pets hidden using that item.
The male fae gave the opposing team a contemplative look and then turned to his own teammates. "The situation is not favorable to us. Gaoli is losing."
"Hmm." With a grim face, the others nodded to him, feeling annoyed as their pride had been hit.
The male fae who served as the leader of Gaoli"s team felt something was wrong with the situation but he just couldn"t pinpoint it. After watching some more, he judged that the guy fighting the villainess" group would lose and so he shook his head in mild irritation and spoke. "I"ll go and help."
Voices filled with alarm and displeasure immediately turned his way. However, the male lead disregarded them and made his way towards the battlefield. People from behind shouted his name yet he ignored them, and he had the capital to be this arrogant since his and his family"s status transcended everyone there, only beneath the leader of the other team.
In reality, the man was not as slow to realize what was going on. When he neared the battlefield and saw the skills of the ones fighting his subordinate, he already guessed that something was wrong with Gaoli.
u003cOne of them should be a new recruit, the sole female human helping in dealing with Master Gaoli"s mount. The rest are people with at least a year of service in the human military camp but are not worthy of attention since they are only scouts.u003e said the AI through the chip installed in his head after scouring through the information gotten from the main system of the faes.
This was another reason their race had managed to occupy almost seventy percent of the world, superior intelligence network. That they even possessed data of lower-tiered officers of the human race was a testament to this. The only saving grace was that w.a.n.g Yu Yan"s actual status was veiled, ensuring the faes would not pay attention to her for being a "minor" recruit.
u003cI think they have a strategist amidst them.u003e Mohan said as he expressionlessly ran towards the rocky hill in a very fast manner, his figure like an arrow that had been shot by a master archer, unimpeded without losing momentum.
The man did not stray his eyes off of the battle ahead and the more he observed, the more he felt that Gaoli had met some tough opponents, his gaze flitting onto the ice G.o.ddess-like woman who looked so eye-catchy even though her uniform suggested she should be a minor officer.
By the looks of it, in just a minute, the male lead would arrive to join his subordinate. The experts of the human side were not blind to not see this. Their faces paled. The villainess gritted her teeth to command everyone to finish off the current one as soon as possible. Fighting two at once would be asking for death after all.
u003cDon"t delay anymore! Unleash your strongest attacks! We can"t let that other fae joined hands with this b.a.s.t.a.r.d!u003e w.a.n.g Yu Yan did not have to say this as the actual leader of the scouts, the middle-aged man, roared through their communication device.
Everyone else sported a grave expression and became fiercer with their blows.
"Die for me!"
"a.s.sume formation!"
"Xu ZhengKang, a.s.sist Yu Yan in crippling the lizard! Everyone else, focus on the gigolo b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
A thousand meters away, against the backdrop of the blackish, lifeless ruins victimized by nuclear warfare and all sorts of skirmishes for centuries, the male lead summoned his own pet, another giant bipedal monster looking like a hybrid of a lizard and a bull. In terms of imposing aura, it was only slightly better than Gaoli"s mount yet the lethality was on an entirely different level as it was one which had the advantage in size, speed, and strength. A mount truly befitting of a n.o.ble clan"s scion.
In just ten seconds, the large carnotaurus carrying Mohan traversed five hundred meters.
This actually marked the start of the actual plot. It was on this battlefield that the male lead and the villainess would meet, the latter falling for the former at first sight despite their differences and circ.u.mstances.
"This is bad…" w.a.n.g Yu Yan"s pupils constricted at the gradually nearing silhouette as her hand reached for an emergency token in her pocket.
Mohan stood tall like a G.o.d atop the giant monster that was now making the earth quake under its quick thunderous steps.
One could imagine the pressure and fear that enveloped the scouts" team and the laughter that burst out of the mouth of one of the fae teams.
The thumping of the hearts of the scouts kept getting faster the louder and closer the footsteps of the carnotaurus were. Every human in the vicinity wore a grim face and were secretly panicking. Well, that was, except for one. A man wearing the uniform of a new recruit hidden somewhere nearby appreciating the appearance of the legendary dinosaurs. He had also paid some attention to the villainess whose face was actually very different from the one in the database.
When this person saw Mohan drawing closer and closer to them, he finally turned his head in that direction, an intrigued expression emerging on his face. Then without anyone knowing, he vanished from his spot and reappeared a hundred meters away.
A moment later, something unbelievable appeared to force the charging dinosaur pet of the male lead into a halt.
"What?" A dumbfounded look flashed across Mohan"s face.
A five-meter thick, fifty meters tall barrier made entirely of ice, erected in just a few seconds. And none of them saw who did it or how it was done.
Of course, the sudden turn of events elicited shock from everyone who witnessed it.
"Dammit!" A moment later, all of Gaoli and Moyan"s teammates dashed and summoned their mounts. "Our intel failed us! There"s a human expert not recalled for the summit meeting!"
"No good! Charge! Save Gaoli!"
"Mohan is in danger too!"
On w.a.n.g Yu Yan"s side, everyone was shocked at first then jubilant as they knew n.o.body but somebody on their camp would erect a barrier to save them.
Despite remembering that there was no extremely powerful ice expert in their city, even the villainess subconsciously sighed in relief despite the doubts that sprouted in her heart.
Her eyes then searched around for a few seconds and when she saw that the fae before them were distracted and in a panic, gaze flickered and she immediately roared in the channel.
u003cOpportunity!u003e
u003cResume the attack now! Hurry, before the enemy thought of fleeing!u003e
The immediate response that she garnered caused some profane words to rain down on them from the mouth of the fae boy.
Mohan too, on the other side of the ice wall, felt his heart drop, discovering a tough opponent was nearby. Even though the male lead was also an arrogant fae who thought of humans as nothing but parasites encroaching on Earth"s surface, as a youth, he knew that he could be potentially injured or even killed by the powerful experts of the humanity.
Mohan instantly asked his AI about his companions as he stared with extreme vigilance at the man who slowly materialized atop the ice wall.
He felt more unnerved because a smile appeared on this person"s face and he a.s.sumed it was a smile of a predator. Mohan as somebody from a superior race, although stunned at first, felt angry after for it seemed like a blatant provocation.
"d.a.m.n parasite!" His face warped.
However, without his knowledge, his body and mount were honest and instinctively backed away.
Also, he didn"t know the person he was cursing in his mind, Jiang Li, was not really smiling to annoy him.
The man sat down on the icy wall, seemingly not minding the cold. He slightly leaned forward to take a good look at the carnotaurus, this so-called giant meat-eating bull, which had a short skull, spiked armor on the top and a pair of k.n.o.bby horns over its small eyes. Its neck and shoulder blades were well developed, and arms incredibly short. Needless to say, it appeared bizarre, yet also very ferocious, especially with its enormous jaw that exposed the sharp intimidating teeth within.
It was as interesting as the smaller-looking lizard behind him.
Speaking of the giant lizard, he looked back to the scouts fighting the incensed traitor fae.
The monster seemed very injured after a dozen or so minutes of consistent battering from the cunning human army patrollers rendering the handsome fae very furious.
Jiang Li laughed.
"You insects! I"ll kill you all!" roared the enraged Gaoli.
In the plot, this minor character joined forces with the rival team and forced the male lead to be trapped and injured in this human territory when the middle-aged man did some self-destructive explosion technique.
There were a few funny coincidences that happened after that, leading to the injured male lead somehow being found by the villainess and nursed to health by her. However, the matter was really brain-frying. Given the villainess" spec and intelligence, it was impossible for her to not know the other party"s ident.i.ty. With that said, it was not hard to guess that her action could only be attributed to momentary confusion forced by the plot.
His gaze lingered briefly at the face of the villainess.
In line with his expectations, the girl looked beautiful, like a white flower atop a snowy mountain. Since the appearance was different from the one in the database, it only meant that she was that valued by the military. In fact, he felt that even the nasty rumors circulating within their ranks were also a form of protecting her which was not really unthinkable considering her countless unpublicized contributions.
Truly, worthy of being the original female lead.
The first time he laid eyes upon the woman and remembered that she was supposed to be paired with Mohan, this was the first thing that came to Jiang Li"s mind.
"It"s probably a Romeo x Juliet plot."
With a laugh, he thought, "But at this rate, the infiltration that would result in the male lead"s captivity by the humans would not happen."
On one of the ice wall, the battle still raged on and now it showed signs of tilting towards the human scouts. The fae youth who was not really blind to not see it stared nervously in Jiang Li"s direction before his expression dimmed seeing how st.u.r.dy and intimidating the tall ice all looked. On the other side, angry shouts from fae people speaking alien language rang by Jiang Li"s ears.
Prompted by the shaking ground, Jiang Li looked at the rus.h.i.+ng groups of dinosaurs and fae. The curious expression did not leave his face.
Probably in all humanity, he was the only one who would think of the sight of large, dangerous monstrosities coming towards him interesting. Aside from this, he was also somewhat curious about the fae race, specifically their method of taming and rearing dinosaurs.
"Now that the fatal first meeting between them would not take place today, my job here is done."
"But I"m interested in the beast-taming method."
Jiang Li"s bright eyes were on the mounts on the male lead"s side since they were still all in perfect condition, unlike the one besieged by the patrollers. "Should I first test how resilient these mythical creatures are?"