Chapter 1385: First Battle!
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Full speed ahead!
On discovering that he had been surrounded, the first reaction Xia Fan had was not to retreat, but to speed up even more!
The corners of the lips of the bald man curled into a smirk.
In the same moment, the three airborne falcons also sped up, diving to the ground at reckless speeds. The momentum of this action was great, and the falcons, their minds completely under control, did not fear that they would be smashed into pieces upon impact. Their only goal was to ambush Xia Fan from the air!
Meanwhile, that cheetah that had been eyeing Xia Fan ferociously also charged forward, opening its jaws menacingly.
!!
‘Not good!’, Cheyenne shouted inwardly. She had tried to catch up with Xia Fan from far away. One of the strongest points a beast tamer had was how they could activate the latent potential of their beasts.
Take the spotted cheetah, for example: originally, even if it had run with all its might, there was no way for it to catch up to Xia Fan’s speed. But a beast tamer could make them spend their very lifeforce to grant themselves explosive speed and combat strength that surpa.s.sed their own limits for a short period of time.
Such a forceful activation of the beast’s potential would put great pressure on these beasts, overloading their internal organs and bringing about irreparable damage to their bodies. Simply put, the moment these beasts made the exchange of their lifeforce for greater power, the wild beasts would put themselves on a clock and die in a matter of minutes.
Despite how diabolical this method was, the beasts would be granted strength several times greater than they naturally possessed, and it was this very situation that Xia Fan found himself facing. While he was a speed-type special ability user, at this very moment, Xia Fan and his speed of 550 kph did not hold an advantage in any way. The four ferocious beasts closed in on him at crazy speeds, the spotted cheetah snarling while the falcons had their sharp talons on full display, ready to deal a killing blow to their enemy.
‘Go to h.e.l.l!’, that bald ability user bellowed to himself.
He did not care if some beasts died. If they died, he could just as easily find a few more to take control of again. In any case, he happened to be in a nature preserve, a region that was teeming with plenty of savage beasts. The bald man already had his eye on plenty of choice targets.
Seeing the beasts pouncing on him from four different angles and having him surrounded, Xia Fan was sure to be subjected to a fatal a.s.sault.
But it was at that point something unexpected occurred!
Xia Fan suddenly rolled up his tongue as he maintained his full sprint, and from his mouth came an ultra-high frequency sound wave that humans could not hear!
The bald special ability user never expected that the young Xia Fan was actually also a beast tamer!
While the beast tamer Xia Fan did not have a special ability in this venue, and was instead controlling the sound waves that were a bit weaker than special ability, it was the moment when Xia Fan suddenly let loose that ultra frequency sound wave that troubled these beasts greatly.
It was as if the brains of these four wild beasts were now hearing completely different voices at the same time. One was stronger than the other; the intelligence these beasts had could not compare to humans. Having these two voices echo in their heads at once caused them to freeze up for a crucial moment.
But for a speed-type special ability user, freezing for a moment was already time enough!
Suddenly, Xia Fan executed a seemingly impossible tilt of his body, and accelerated in an oblique path!
Everyone was well aware that it was very difficult to overcome physical limitations during high-speed motion. But Xia Fan was a Skywing!
While he did not receive a day of education from his father, the blood of the Fiends ran in his very essence!
This super-difficult oblique acceleration was practically his innate talent!
There was no need for anyone to teach him this. Xia Fan already knew it from the moment he was born!
Accelerating from an angle allowed Xia Fan to inexplicably evade the encirclement from four sides. On top of that, he even took the opportunity to cut that spotted cheetah!
The set of thin scalpels that doctor grandpa had gifted Xia Fan had no name, but it could be said to be top-grade surgery scalpels that were not only sharp, but extremely hidden and sinister!
The sharp edge slashed across the spotted cheetah’s throat, but the beast did not react at all. Its head was promptly separated from its body without any drop of blood leaking out. It just went to show just how sharp the scalpel was.
After all, the blades that came from doctor grandpa, someone who was acknowledged as a notorious apex killer in the Ashen Moon Universe, were not used for surgery in the first place, but used to slice at his enemies’ throats!
In the next second, Xia Fan’s figure blurred like he was a ghost, and he proceeded to appear on the left side of the bald ability user, hurtling right toward him like a cannonball that could turn!
The bald ability user originally thought that victory was within his grasp, but at this moment, his eyes were wider than saucers, his mouth hanging completely agape, and his heart was beating rapidly.
Speed ability users were natural born killers!
The moment a speed ability user closed in and brought the fight into close quarters, the outcome could be foretold!
The superhuman speed they had meant that there was no way they would let their opponents have even the slightest opportunity at all!
The speed special ability was simply too tyrannical. In the span of a second, Xia Fan stabbed that bald man several dozen times! It would be hard for him to stay alive!
“Ahh!”
At the last moment, the bald man let out a cry of despair. He did not dodge, but instead adopted a desperate stance, opening up his arms to launch a counterattack on Xia Fan!
*whoosh…*
Xia Fan’s saw out of the corner of his eye that two very small snakes had suddenly come flying out from the man’s sleeves. One was a Three Inch Skull, having a white pattern on its head that looked like a skull.
The other was the extremely venomous Golden Thread Snake. There was a golden line running across its belly which was its poison sac. The moment its golden liquid was mixed into blood, even an immortal could not be saved!
This man had six beasts. It turned out that he had actually already reached Advanced Starbase rank, while Xia Fan was just at Primary Starbase rank. The gap between the two was huge!
Furthermore, the courage of this bald man was even greater than Xia Fan had expected. Xia Fan was already about to reach him, but he still dared to risk it.
If Xia Fan’s scalpel cut past, this bald man would surely die, but if Xia Fan ended up bitten by those two venomous snakes, he would also die!
This was mutually a.s.sured destruction!
A real killer would never be caught; even if they found themselves with no escape, they would rather bite down on the hidden cyanide pill in their molars so as to preserve their final dignity. This was clearly the decision that the bald man had made.
Danger was imminent. The sharp fangs of the venomous snakes were already less than a meter away from Xia Fan’s shoulders!
It was at this critical moment that Xia Fan’s arms suddenly moved!
His arms pushed upward sharply!
One, two, three!
Dozens of silvery bullets shot forth!
At the last second, Xia Fan had tossed out the entire set of scalpels, big and small alike, that the doctor had given him, like they were flying daggers!
Xia Fan’s speed had originally been at its max. The explosive force from his arms was added on top of that, those scalpels essentially went blasting out like they had exploded! It was like he had just unleashed a ma.s.s of silver lasers!
Amid the rich flora and fauna around them, the silver beams flashed past. The two venomous snakes were caught in the deluge, as well as the bald ability user. Like being sliced with a knife, the body of the bald man was nothing more than tofu after the blades found their mark!
*Squelch*
…
Cheyenne was pale. She was panting hard, but she had still failed to catch up to Xia Fan.
Lifting his head up, she saw the bald ability user laying on the ground, his head and body skewered with dozens of scalpels of varying sizes, quite dead.
Meanwhile, Xia Fan’s actions left Cheyenne absolutely astounded. He was digging a hole, helping to bury the two snakes and the cheetah. He then covered them with a layer of soil and stuck a wooden stake on top of them, turning the hole into a grave.
Getting up, Xia Fan held both hands together and shut his eyes, silently murmuring some words.
“What are you doing?” Cheyenne asked, perplexed.
“Offering them prayers. It’s a pity that they died,” Xia Fan replied as he smiled at Cheyenne.
“Praying for the beasts?” Cheyenne was bewildered.
Xia Fan nodded earnestly, “But of course. They were innocent, and only attacked me because they were under his control.
“These beasts were like that bald ability user’s weapons. Weapons don’t kill people. People kill people.”
Cheyenne gulped. Not only was young Xia Fan’s background strange, even his way of thinking was strange.
Weapons don’t kill people. People kill people…
‘What a philosophical mindset. Could he be a philosopher?’, Cheyenne wondered.
Seeing how young Xia Fan looked, and how radiant a smile he had, Cheyenne swore that she had never once met someone as strange as him, not even in rumors.
Xia Fan told Cheyenne what had happened during the battle, and she agreed with his killing of the bald man. After all, during such critical moments when lives hung in the balance, Xia Fan completely had no choice. Had she been in his shoes, there was even a possibility that the result would have been worse. No matter what, at least Xia Fan had managed to keep his life intact!
The police arrived only after some time. After them came Cheyenne’s partner, the Special Bureau member Qin Zimo, the seemingly unsmiling man with his high cheekbones.
The body of the killer was sent to the Special Bureau’s laboratory, where he would undergo an autopsy to determine his ident.i.ty so as to find out who his employer was.
“Sorry, I still can’t let you leave. Special ability users in the Starcloud Union need to be registered. It’s a rule of the Union,” Cheyenne said to Xia Fan. “After all, the number of cases of supervillains has intensified.
“With their choice to leverage the special privileges they possess and their powerful combat strength, many special ability users end up doing whatever they want, oppressing and killing poor ordinary folks. In order to stop such things from happening, it is imperative for special abilities to be registered, all for the sake of containing potential criminals.”
Though that was what she said, Cheyenne’s att.i.tude toward Xia Fan had changed a lot from when she first met him. She admired him, and she also found that genial smile of his very friendly, feeling that he was someone easy to get along with.
“Alright, looks like I don’t have any other choice,” Xia Fan shrugged with a chuckle.
…
The Chief’s office…
After returning to the station, Cheyenne reported everything that had happened to Chief Jerry.
This fat man with the sweet tooth kept gasping in shock as he listened to Cheyenne’s report, all while licking the chocolate ice cream he was holding in his hand.
Once he was done with her report, Jerry broke into a wide smile, “Cheyenne, you’ve been with the Bureau for three years already, and this is the first time I’ve heard you praise someone so much.”
Cheyenne replied in a serious voice, “Chief, what I spoke is just the facts, and there was no exaggeration on my part. Xia Fan is really impressive. He dug a grave for the dead animals, and fed the rats in the hospital, even praising them. It can be seen just how kind he is as a person.
“That is why, Chief, I feel that even if Xia Fan has an unknown background, it shouldn’t bring too much of a threat to the Union. Don’t you think we can forgive him and not send him to the concentration camp?”
In recent years, the supervillain situation had been a huge threat to society; everyone in the Union was extremely wary towards a special ability user like Xia Fan who had an unknown background. They had constructed quite a few concentration camps to contain them as a result.
If they were to follow standard procedure, Xia Fan would have to be sent to one such camp and subjected to strict investigation and re-education, only being released after they could confirm that he would not be a threat to society.
This process would take one or two years at the shortest, extending up to eight or ten years at the longest. Xia Fan was still young and was in the prime of his youth. Cheyenne was simply unwilling to send him off to a concentration camp and waste his precious time.
Jerry heaved a sigh and said sorrowfully, “I don’t have such authority. Actually, what’s even more troublesome isn’t whether we’re sending Xia Fan off to a concentration camp, but the death of Inspector Roten!
“I’ve only just learned this myself, but since Roten was of the Ro Family, the people there are already making their way to Brenia, and will be here at any minute!”
Cheyenne was stunned. “Ro family? Which one?”
Jerry spread his arms, “Which other Ro Family could it be? Member of the Generational Union, the Inferno Rohan Clan, of course! Why else would the headquarters put so much pressure on us to crack this case?”
Cheyenne sucked in a mouthful of cold air and her expression changed. “So it’s someone from that family. Well, looks like we’re really in trouble now…”
“Right?” Jerry picked up the chocolate ice cream cup, half of it still left. “Xia Fan can’t leave until the people from the Ro Family arrive!”