Chapter 96: Blood Raiders
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Xia Fei sniffed at the blood on his finger. “It couldn’t have been thirty minutes since this person died.”
Xia Haili silently nodded. He pulled out a single-edged knife, taking a step back as he faced the door, ready to strike.
Queiroz pushed the b.u.t.ton, and the E131 pressurized door opened. Xia Fei and Xia Haili rushed through the door at the same time, each of them taking the left and right respectively.
However, the hallway was empty, and a blood trail suggested that the corpse had been dragged into the right hallway.
“After them.”
Xia Haili was taking the lead with a knife in hand, followed closely by Xia Fei. Queiroz used his protection ability to protect their flanks and rear.
The group discovered another blood trail as they rounded a corner. This time, it came from another direction, and it seemed quite fresh, too. The death toll was now at least two, and they had most likely died around the same time they entered the s.p.a.ce station.
The blood trails ended at a huge metal door, and by the looks of it, the corpses should have been dragged behind this door. Based on the writing on it, this was the storage warehouse of the s.p.a.ce station.
Xia Haili gestured at Xia Fei to follow behind him, leaving Queiroz by the entrance to guard their escape route.
Xia Fei and Xia Haili carefully entered the warehouse. As the s.p.a.ce station had been long abandoned, there was not much in here other than the various metal containers scattered across the room.
Xia Fei counted five different trails of blood from different entrances leading into the warehouse; all of which were gathered around the few metal containers in the middle of the warehouse.
Xiao Haili and Xia Fei slowly approached the metal containers to find five, abandoned corpses, which were letting out the strong smell of blood. All these corpses sported more than a dozen spherical wounds.
Judging from the wounds, these people were probably pierced through by something round. Moreover, all of the wounds were in critical areas, such as the heart, brain, or lungs. The wounds seemed to be incredibly precise, each calculated to the point where there was no room for error.
The victims all wore the same black combat suits. Xia Fei looked at the interior of one of these combat suits, only to discover that they had a silver two-star Adjudicator badge.
“Could they be Adjudicators?” Xia Fei suspected. He and Xia Haili both looked at the insides of the others’ suits. Indeed, all had an Adjudicator badge—two silvers and three bronzes.
“Kevin Hanting, cla.s.sifieds investigation department.” Xia Haili quietly read out the words at the back of the badges.
All the five Adjudicators were all from the cla.s.sifieds investigation department. Still, why were they here, and who killed them?
Xia Fei’s eyebrows buckled. Someone that could kill two silver and three bronze Adjudicators must not have been someone normal, and considering the time of these people’s death, the killer should still be inside the s.p.a.ce station.
This was when the heavy metal door leading into the warehouse closed unexpectedly, trapping Xia Fei and Xia Haili inside. The sand particles protecting them fell to the ground soon after. Evidently, the enemy had used some method to cut off the protection that Quicksand Defense provided to Xia Fei and Xia Haili.
“Shoot, we fell into their trap,” Xia Fei said under his breath.
Xia Fei exerted strength to his legs and quickly reached the door in an attempt to open it.
If Xia Fei was the one planning the attack, he would surely try to eliminate Queiroz first, as he possessed Quicksand Defense, which could be used offensively and defensively. It was the best weapon a small team could have.
Queiroz, who was on the other side of the door, was most certainly in danger.
He tried to use Chasing Light and hack at the huge metal door several times.
The metal door was over ten centimeters thick. Although Xia Fei’s Chasing Light damaged it, it was not destroyed.
At this moment, a set of footsteps approached them.
“Someone’s coming.” Xia Fei turned around and entered a defensive stance with Chasing Light in front of him, all the while keeping his eyes trained on the other side of the warehouse.
Xia Haili also retreated toward Xia Fei with a heavy look on his face.
They saw four different people walk in from the other side of the warehouse. They were tightly wrapped in beige coats, appearing to be weirdly crouched as they walked, like four walking lobsters.
Xia Fei’s pupils constricted; he was utterly surprised by what he saw.
The four had scales all over their faces, and their mouths were filled with hideous teeth, each having a pair of black protruding eyes. They looked like four lizards that could walk on two legs, with their ma.s.sive tails trailing behind them.
They had five fingers in each hand, and each appendage looked like steel rebars that had incredible sharp tips. The wounds on the dead Adjudicators were clearly caused by those very fingers.
“Blood Raiders. They are the high-ranking insectoids,” muttered Phantom under his breath.
Xia Fei was shocked, “Could they be shapes.h.i.+fters? I think I’ve come across someone with the shapes.h.i.+fting ability during my crisis grade a.s.sessment.”
Phantom shook his head. “While they do seem similar, take a good look at their eyes. Shapes.h.i.+fters are indeed able to change their appearances to closely resemble exotic beasts, but they can’t change their eyes, whereas the eyes of insectoids are all of one color. That’s the difference between them.”
Most insectoids were low-IQ crawlers. Their numbers were astronomical, and they also happened to be decent at combat. However, they were cannon fodders at best and hardly posed a threat.
The real leaders of the insectoids were intelligent bugs that could think like humans, capable of walking on their hind legs; they could even make wars.h.i.+ps and weapons.
Blood Raiders were a type of insectoids that possessed intelligence. They were considered to have above-average intelligence among insectoids and were often tasked with brutal cla.s.sified missions, which was why they came to be known as Blood Raiders by humans.
The last war between the human alliance and the insectoid species was over two thousand years ago, and both sides had signed a peace treaty, too, so why would these Blood Raiders appear in an Alliance-controlled territory?
The four Blood Raiders surrounded Xia Fei and Xia Haili.
“Are we fighting?” asked Xia Fei.
Due to the relations.h.i.+p between Ye Xiaohan and Xia Yong, Xiao Haili had harbored deep hatred against Xia Fei. In fact, he had Xia Fei come with him to this s.p.a.ce station to teach the latter a lesson.
Right now, a perfect opportunity presented itself. Queiroz was on the other side of the door, the surveillance system of the s.p.a.ce station was down, and the connection to the life detection system was also cut off. n.o.body would know if he killed Xia Fei right here and now.
Suddenly inspired, Xiao Haili pulled out a weird-looking communicator from his s.p.a.cial ring and handed it to Xia Fei. “This is a communicator specially used to contact the headquarters directly. We’ll split up, and whoever leaves this jammed area first will use it to get help from HQ.”
Xia Fei nodded and reached out with his left hand.
However, just as their hands were about to touch, Xiao Haili revealed a sinister smile and turned his palm to grab Xia Fei’s wrist.
Xiao Haili was an expert at the Legendary rank. He was among the highest-ranked intermediate Adjudicators in the Endaro Star Region’s Adjudicator Union, and his abilities greatly surpa.s.sed Xia Fei’s. If he grabbed Xia Fei’s wrist, there was no way the latter could use his speed ability, and he would be as good as dead.
But at this moment, Xia Fei’s superhuman reflex came into play. When he saw that Xiao Haili’s palm was about to touch him, Xia Fei abruptly withdrew his hand as fast as he could and, at the same time, retreated in a burst of speed by going along the walls of the warehouse at eight hundred meters a second without any hesitation.
By the time Xiao Haili realized what had just happened, Xia Fei was already hundreds of meters away from him, who proceeded to very deftly used his speed advantage to bolt past the Blood Raiders and did not even consider looking back.
The four Blood Raiders turned around and knew that they could not catch up to Xia Fei, so they decided to let him go; instead, they hastened to surround Xiao Haili. As a result, it was Xiao Haili who ended up becoming surrounded by Blood Raiders all by himself.
Xiao Haili was now panicking. If Xia Fei escaped and reported this to the Union, his future and reputation would all go down the drain. This was a conclusion he could never accept.
Xiao Haili let out an angry growl. Huge flames came out of his hands and enveloped the dagger he was holding.
The four Blood Raiders and Xiao Haili pretty much sprang to attack one another at the same time.
Xiai Haili was in possession of a nature-type special ability, Flames. It was a powerful ability that let him control fire.
Unfortunately, the four Blood Raiders had thick, protective scales. Although Xiao Haili’s flames were excruciatingly painful, it was not enough to kill them.
An intense battle ensued. Xiao Haili’s dagger was glowing red as if it had just come out of a furnace. Every time the dagger dug into a Blood Raider, puffs of steam would appear, leaving behind terrible wounds all over their bodies.
As the insectoids were not human, they did not understand the meaning of fear or have the desire to back off. Xiao Haili’s ruthless attacks ended up triggering the inherent perchance for violence in the Blood Raiders.
The Blood Raiders became even more frenzied, ignoring their burns and pain as they persisted in attacking Xia Haili with reckless abandon, almost with the intention of peris.h.i.+ng together.
Xia Fei hid behind a container and saw all this. Xiao Haili was a Legendary rank expert, so it was not much for him to face four foes alone. However, the crux of the matter was that these Blood Raiders were not afraid of his strongest weapon—Flames. They were not even afraid of death.
This exchange became extremely worrisome for Xiao Haili; although he held the slight upper hand in this fight, he was ultimately having difficulties ending the battle.
Xia Fei surmised that it was quite likely that both parties would end up suffering heavy losses.
He was silently waiting with his legs tensed, ready to deliver Xiao Haili the killing blow anytime. He did not have any compa.s.sion for an enemy who wanted to kill him. As the man had already displayed his killing intent, there was no reason for Xia Fei to let him live to see another day.
Suddenly, countless red, warning lights around the warehouse lit up. “Warning, warning! The s.p.a.ce station’s self-destruct sequence has been initiated. The s.p.a.ce station will now self-destruct in thirty minutes. All staff at hand, please evacuate from the s.p.a.ce station immediately.”