Chapter 119: Hammer
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Xia Fei came pouncing on Scar with his 800m/s speed, his right hand’s Chasing Light unsheathed.
Covering these dozen meters was no more than a mere instant to Xia Fei, but what was inconceivable was that Scar had actually managed to react in that short timeframe.
At that moment, the thick hair all over his body stood up, with each akin to a steel needle, sharp and pointed.
Now, Scar was like a porcupine, and from head to toe, he was heavily defended. This was his special ability’s skill, Thousand Thorns, where he could freely control the hair on his body, turning it soft like silk at times or as tough as nails.
Those steel needles were almost fifty centimeters in length, much longer than Chasing Light’s length. This meant that Xia Fei had no way of penetrating Scar’s body with his blade without injuring himself in the process.
These sharp steel needles were strong enough to penetrate Windshade Mark IV combat suit’s defense, so unless Xia Fei was willing to put his life on the line, not hesitating to sacrifice his arm to kill the man, Xia Fei would be all but helpless in dealing with Scar.
Xia Fei had no intention of heavily injuring Scar at the cost of risking grievous wounds himself, so seeing as his arm was about to come into contact with the steel needles growing out of Scar, he forcibly retracted his attack, inexplicably twisting his body to the side and going for Bannon, instead.
Chasing Light created a beautiful arc in the air as it slashed down at Bannon’s two legs, creating a neat and singular cut. Before Bannon could realize what was going on, the calves below his knees had already been cleanly separated from his body.
He only felt himself suddenly dip as the rest of his body came falling down.
*Whoosh whoosh whoos.h.!.+*
Scar reacted quickly as well; an uncountable number of steel needles suddenly ejected from his skin like bullets.
This attack was similar to a grenade’s shrapnel; because the fired steel needles covered a full three hundred sixty degrees of Scar, the entire room was effectively covered by his AoE attack.
*Ping ping ping ping!*
A series of crisp sounds rang, and the entire command center changed in appearance. Steel needles were now embedded into the walls and equipment. The one thousand square meters of s.p.a.ce now resembled a jungle—a jungle that was made up of cacti thorns.
Poor Bannon was completely unaware of what had just happened. Having just been rendered calf-less by Xia Fei’s Chasing Light, he barely had the time to react when he was perforated by Scar’s steel needles, becoming a casualty in the span of a few seconds.
Xia Fei originally planned to leave Bannon alive and did not wish to kill him off immediately. That was because he felt that there was still some benefits to this sonic special ability user remaining alive, but this plan changed especially fast due to Scar overreacting when he got spooked by Xia Fei, inadvertently implicating that unfortunate man in the process.
Some unknown equipment abruptly exploded due to Scar’s retaliation, erupting into beautiful sparks of flames. The shockwave of which caused several smaller apparatuses to crash to the ground and for the entire command room to become a mess. The other equipment and devices, which had not exploded, sustained heavy damage, causing the lights to be extinguished inside the command center, plunging it into darkness.
The atmosphere a.n.a.lyzer was made with metal plates several meters thick; Xia Fei, who had managed to avoid being severely injured, astutely hid behind it.
“This guy has quite the fast reaction,” Xia Fei muttered to himself in the dark.
The skill Thousand Thorns of morph special ability users was decent in both offense and defense, and Xia Fei’s failure to take the man down with that single blow meant that he had lost his best chance to kill the latter.
The lights in the room flickered. The six luminescence lamps, powered by the generator, automatically activated once the regular lights went out, and the command center was flooded in blue light.
“Who are you?!” Scar growled, his voice incendiary.
He was like a huge cactus, rooted to where he was standing. He looked around amid the dim lights. “Come out if you’ve got the guts!”
Though his Thousand Thorns was quite a decent skill, its shortcomings were fairly obvious. Scar would be like a tree stump, unable to move an inch, when he unleashed his needles. All he could do was remain where he was and use his steel-needle-like hair to attack.
Xia Fei hid behind the atmosphere a.n.a.lyzer as he kept an eye on Scar, barely reacting to his challenge.
“If you’re a true warrior, I dare you to come out and fight with me!” Scar was trying to goad Xia Fei out from his hiding spot, except he was already completely ready to unleash his needles, so Xia Fei was not about to walk out before finding a suitable method of attack.
Taking a good look at his surroundings, Xia Fei suddenly realized that there was a big hammer lying in the corner of the room. It was roughly four or five meters long and looked to be quite heavy.
Xia Fei quickly came up with an idea.
Putting both his legs onto that atmosphere a.n.a.lyzer and exerting some force to it, the almost four-meter tall and 1.8-meter wide apparatus went sliding on the ground straight toward Scar.
Scar, who was unable to move, having already activated his ability, ended up taking the brunt of that crash and being sent rolling into one corner. Now, he was on his back, completely immobile with the apparatus pinning him down.
Xia Fei chuckled as he picked up that big hammer and weighed it in his hands. It was at least three kilograms heavy.
Dragging this hammer behind him, Xia Fei made his way to the corner, intentionally letting it sc.r.a.pe on the metal floor, creating a frighteningly screeching sound.
Scar’s expression changed. That unnerving noise caused his scalp to turn numb. He was now caged in that corner with his face against the wall, unable to find out what was going on behind him.
*Whoosh whoosh whoos.h.!.+*
Scar kept shooting steel needles as he sensed danger, but the angle of his shots was being limited by the apparatus. Thus, all he ended up hitting was the ceiling, and that was hardly a threat to Xia Fei.
Xia Fei spat on his hands and slammed that heavy hammer onto Scar. “How arrogant.”
As the saying went, ‘there is always something that conquers another.’ Though Xia Fei could not stab through the fifty-centimeter steel needles with his Chasing Light, the hammer had a length of over four meters, meaning that it was completely able to reach Scar’s body without getting anywhere near the needles.
A cry, akin to the squeals of a pig being slaughtered, sounded, growing weaker as more hammer blows landed on Scar. Xia Fei did not let up after he heard it turn into a guttural whimper, only stopping after giving the man several dozen more whacks.
Xia Fei threw the now bloodied hammer to the side, while Scar had been reduced into a ma.s.s of meat paste mixed in with those strong steel needles on his body, impossible to distinguish which was which.
“Looks like I’d better prepare a hammer in my spatial ring next time. Having something like that is a lot more useful than carrying a blade,” commented Xia Fei as he lit a cigarette.
“This is an exception. You’re a speed ability user who is also learning a.s.sa.s.sination techniques. How are you going to look if you use a hammer as your main weapon?” Phantom furrowed his brows. He felt that it was a terrible idea.
Approximately sixty or so of Scar’s men successfully lured the coalition army all the way to the final level, going through that entrance they had prepared an ambush. Many of these men were heavily wounded, cursing about how Scar had sent them to their deaths.
The four snipers pa.s.sively remained in their corners, their eyes locked onto the entrance to the final level, covering the retreat of these underlings who had been used as bait.
Supporting one another as they trudged their way back to their base entrance, that was when they made the abrupt realization that the metal door, which ought to have received their victorious homecoming, had all been locked from the inside. There was no way for them to get in.
“F*ck, we got screwed over by Scar!”
“What nonsense! Why would our boss sell us out?”
“Then, why is the door locked?”
These underlings began to really panic. Thousands of soldiers were about to reach the level below, and they would come charging in on this place in a matter of minutes. Death would be all that awaited them if they failed to take cover and hide in their base.
A pirate wearing an earring raised the weapon in his hand and wildly shot at that door. The others came to their senses and did the same as well, firing their weapons on that door in hopes of blowing it open.
After doing so for a good while, the pirates realized that there was no way to get in that way. In order to pull off this operation, which took on the seven major forces, every door and window had been recently reinforced, and even thermal weapons might not be enough to destroy them.
“We’re doomed; what now?”
“Why don’t we charge out again? The terrain below is at least more complicated, so there’s still hope of us making it out alive by taking advantage of that,” suggested another pirate who was a bit more clear-headed.
“Don’t be silly; the enemies will be upon us, beating us into pulp, if we try to charge down now. Look at the thousands of men they have on their side.”
Xia Fei, who was hiding behind a thick metal-plated door, created a peephole. He was grinning as he watched these desperate men get fl.u.s.tered. Indeed, he was the one who had locked all these doors, and since he was the only one alive inside the command center, he was simply waiting for the show to unfold.
It was around this time when the vanguard troops of the coalition army came charging in, randomly shooting in the general direction of the pirates who were unable to get past the doors. The sound of the laser fire was beautiful, just like the fly zapper Xia Fei regularly used; he could hear the irregular buzz of electricity from the other side.
The retreat route that the snipers planned to use had also been sealed. Helpless, these pirates could only fight back, reluctantly firing at the coalition army at large.
Of course, such retaliation was pointless. After all, the coalition army numbered in the thousands, and the numerical superiority here was simply far too great. In just a span of a few seconds, those unfortunate pirates had all been reduced to corpses.
Ning Baichen instantly realized that something was wrong the moment he reached the highest level of Owl’s Sanctuary. Scar’s men were just p.a.w.ns who were tasked with luring the coalition army, and since a majority of them had been successfully pulled into the trap he had set up, there was no reason for those men to remain outside, for only death awaited them here.
Suspicions swam vividly in his mind, but Ning Baichen did not show any of these outwardly.
The ever-cautious Huang Bocheng was the second to realize that something was strange here. “Old Ning, something about this place seems off. These rooms have all been sealed with metal alloy plates. Could this be a trap?”
Liu Jian, someone who had never seen eye to eye with Huang Bocheng, scoffed. “Look at you and your cowardice in full display. What if they’re sealed? We’ll just get our men to blow these doors up.”
He then turned around and signaled his men. “Quick, find a way to open a path for us; rush in and kill off Scar, including all his men!”
Ning Baichen was getting more and more thrown off with each pa.s.sing second. According to the plan, they were supposed to shut the entrance at once as Bannon unleashed his sonic ability from inside the room, killing off all the weaker warriors in the coalition army first before cleaning up those who were left standing.
Most of the soldiers from the coalition army had been in the rooms for quite some time at this point, yet there was still no movement coming from Scar’s end. Could something unexpected have occurred?
With this thought in mind, Ning Baichen’s expression turned ugly, while the warriors of the Ning clan were feeling even more panicky. Realizing that what was transpiring differed greatly from what their boss had told them, they were all at a loss on what to do next.
Xia Fei could tell that it was about time for him to act. He lightly tapped on the control console with his finger and the pa.s.sages leading to the top level of the base promptly closed behind the coalition army.