Chapter 8.4 - Scorpions of the Night
Su seemed to have just emerged from the mountain ridge when his muzzle turned around to aim in that direction. Then, three shots were fired in succession. The first forced Su to hide again, and the other two flew past his right and left side. If Su shifted his head to the side, he definitely would have been hit. Fortunately, Su only moved backwards.
Peng! The Blue Scorpion sniper’s sharp and clear gunshot tore through the air. It was completely different from the Black Dragonriders’ style of weapons. From the direction the gunshot sounded from, it seemed like he unexpectedly still remained in the same place!
The miserable cries of one of his soldiers didn’t affect Su’s mood. Similarly, the Blue Scorpion sniper’s arrogance didn’t make Su angry. He suddenly recalled that at this place, there was a mountain area where he had an advantage over Blue Scorpion: heavy artillery!
Su immediately opened the tactical tablet and connected to the heavy artillery shooter. He briefly said, “Target at coordinates 1592, 735. Immediately cover this area with ten rounds!” After the officer in charge of the heavy artillery repeated this order in confirmation, the communications were cut off. He just had to shoot, and every single shot earned him 300 yuan, so the more he fired, the better. Apart from Persephone herself and some people under her, regardless of whether it was the subordinates or ordinary low-level officers, there were practically no male individuals that had good intentions towards Su. Apart from the few far-sighted individuals, everyone else was hoping that Su went completely bankrupt.
Not long after, an oppressive feeling filled the night sky. Almost all creatures began to scatter in all directions. Su once again stretched his body out from another mountain ridge, and as expected, the Blue Scorpion sniper was still at his original location, and his muzzle had already moved over and pointed towards Su’s head.
However, this time, he didn’t fire and instead raised his head, looking at the sky in a somewhat confused manner. He suddenly pressed the trigger, hastily firing a shot towards Su. Then, his entire body leapt up, flashing behind the mountain with a speed that didn’t seem any inferior to Su’s!
Bang! Su finally returned his first shot.
The Blue Scorpion sniper suddenly stopped his charge and shot towards the side, leaping out twenty meters! As a result, Su’s shot only struck empty air. However, the Blue Scorpion sniper didn’t do this to avoid Su’s shot. In his original position, a wave of world-shaking explosions sounded, to the extent where even Su, who was a thousand meters away could feel the ground shaking below him.
It was just one shot, yet the explosive force covered the entire hilltop! The heat wave that resulted overturned the Blue Scorpion sniper several dozen meters out. Su never expected that the power of the Black Dragonrider artillery was actually so great, and that a single shot would cover the entire hilltop with smoke and dust. If ten shots continuously covered this place, what kind of scene would that then produce? As for the level of defense Blue Scorpion’s armored fleet had, if the heavy artillery landed within ten meters, apart from the main battle tank, all of the other tanks would be completely destroyed. The main battle tank would only be able to receive one more blast.
The Blue Scorpion sniper did not have the time to climb up from the ground yet when two artillery shells continuously descended. One of them landed even closer than the first one, and he was directly sent several dozen meters into the air from the explosion and flung towards the bottom of the hill. Then, like a ragged sack, he heavily slammed onto the ground.
Su’s patiently aiming rifle lowered slightly.
The great earth continued to tremble. Heavy artillery shots continuously exploded on top of the hill, sending several dozen tons of earth flying into the sky. At this moment, the tremendous power of steel and flames was fully displayed!
Less than a minute later, ten rounds of heavy artillery fire already finished firing. However, this short period of time felt extremely long in the hearts of the soldiers that had never seen new era heavy weaponry. Even Su was left extremely speechless when he saw the hill that had a complete meter shaved off from the bombardment.
From within the tactical tablet, a brash laughter sounded from the officer in charge of firing the heavy artillery. “So, Lieutenant, what do you think about the heavy artillery bombardment?”
Su didn’t pay any mind to this question that carried a bit of provocation and closed the tactical tablet. He walked down the hill and walked towards the Blue Scorpion sniper that was lying on the ground without getting up. In Su’s eyes, this sniper who could be dead or alive was the most troublesome opponent he had faced so far. Meanwhile, the heavy artillery officer who was only a subordinate couldn’t even be an opponent for Su before joining the Black Dragonriders.
The face of the Blue Scorpion sniper was aimed upwards, his eyes gazing into the night sky as he laid on the ground. He was currently breathing with difficulty. After experiencing the bombardment and fall, he actually didn’t die yet. It truly was shocking. When Su thought of how fast this individual evaded the explosion of heavy artillery, Su didn’t doubt the power of his body in the slightest.
The sniper’s left arm had already disappeared, and the portion of his body below both knees had already been blasted flying. His eyes were already starting to become a bit absent-minded. His face was gray, and only the blue scorpion on his forehead remained sinister looking. Only when he saw Su did color return to his eyes.
The sniper raised his right hand with difficulty. He pointed at Su and said in a somewhat inarticulate manner, “You… Your…”
Su was a bit astonished. This dying sniper’s face was full of expression, making him quite different from the others. “You aren’t a puppet?” Su asked in a testing manner.
Bloody suds continuously emerged from the corner of the sniper’s lips. What was a bit strange was that these bloody suds were red when they first came out, but they slowly turned blue. In addition, the new blood that came out was a similar color. Su obviously wouldn’t let these details go. He slightly frowned, and green light continuously flickered from the depths of his pupils. He used different frequencies to analyze the changes taking place in the composition of the sniper’s blood.
“How could I… be a puppet? I… am a chosen!” Even though every single word was spoken with extreme difficulty, pride could still be seen on the sniper’s face.
“Whose chosen?” Su asked patiently to try and get a bit more information out of him. He even took out the life-saving injection from the medical kit and pierced it into the sniper’s neck, shooting its contents directly into his bloodstream.
After this injection, this sniper was clearly filled with more vigor. While gazing into the night sky, his eyes flickered with a fanatical radiance. “Apostle! ... a powerful apostle’s chosen!”
“Apostle?” This was an answer that left Su rather startled. However, when he recalled Blue Scorpion’s style of doing things and their methods of controlling people’s emotions, Su doubted whether these so-called apostles even existed or if they were just an image formed through the computer chip to control these soldiers. From Blue Scorpion’s forward operating base, Su already noticed that the way those puppets did things was extremely strict and inflexible. However, using religion to control a person wasn’t that bad of an idea. This had already been a convention several thousands of years ago in the olden era.
The sniper grabbed towards Su’s throat and said, “Right… a powerful apostle! He predicted your existence and told us to catch you and offer you to him! You… you can’t escape. There will be a day when you are caught and used as a sacrifice in front of the apostle’s holy altar! We… will catch you, Su!”
The last word he spoke made Su’s body shiver slightly. He almost couldn’t avoid the sniper’s grip!
How could Blue Scorpion know his name?! Su never recalled mentioning his own name in front of Blue Scorpion’s soldiers in any situation. Could it be that there truly was an apostle capable of foresight?
Just as Su’s mind was shaking, the sniper suddenly laughed and said, “I won’t… reveal any secrets to you. The apostle is waiting for you!”
The sniper’s body temperature suddenly rose. Su immediately felt something and backed up a step. The sniper suddenly released a miserable scream, and a wave of blue flames was released from his mouth. Then, flames were released from his nose and ears as well. His body, ground, and any place that was contaminated with his blood began to burn ferociously. The fire was incredibly intense, as if in just a minute, the sniper would be burned into charred coke!
His military uniform and equipment were both burned up in the flames. If there was a computer chip inside of his body, it would definitely have been destroyed as well. Su never expected that his blood could actually turn into such a powerful fuel. Was this sniper really a human?
Su stood there silently for a few minutes. Only then did he reach into the ashes and remove a copper name tag. This was something every Blue Scorpion soldier had, and it wouldn’t be burned down.
What was carved on top was not a serial number like what other soldiers had, and instead a name, a real name: O’Sullivan Morgan.