Chapter 12.3 - Lightning
The William family youngster clearly recognized Ricardo, and immediately roared with anger. “Ricardo! You are insulting the entire William family!”
Ricardo began to chuckle. His face was filled with clear ridicule and disdain. “Is that so? I am familiar with all of the William family’s ranked inheritors, but there isn’t someone like you among them. Even some garbage like you from who knows what branch family dares to represent the William family?! You can only show off in front of people who have never entered Dragon City, but a piece of shit like you dares to try this against me? Don’t forget that this old one came from the battlefield, while you are a little flower that was grown inside of a greenhouse. Could it be that you want to try me?”
A wave of redness immediately covered the William family youngster’s face. He never thought that the Fabregas family’s first rank inheritor would be so vulgar, harsh, and ruthless. He stood there in a stupor for several seconds. Then, he said angrily, “Ricardo, don’t forget the words you said today! You will pay the price for these words!”
Rigardo tossed the cigarette butt that had already reached its end onto the ground. He took a breath and said, “is that so? I really can’t wait. Do you want me to pay the price right now? Please don’t treat me too politely!”
At this moment, the originally silent Su frowned. Tough, brave, and not going back on one’s words were all qualities he appreciated, but when it appeared on an enemy, it was no longer that joyous of an event. Su calmly interrupted, “It seems like blasting your butt apart last time wasn’t enough to make you a bit smarter. Perhaps your memory will be a bit better when you are no longer a man.”
The William family youngster’s face changed several times, but he finally no longer dared to say any more hateful words. He turned around and left, not even having the time to worry about the unconscious captain. Perhaps in his eyes, this older cousin captain didn’t have any value anymore.
When he looked at the unconscious youngsters that were lying about at odd angles, Ricardo spat out and cursed as well. “A pile of trash!”
When Su looked at Ricardo, he had an extremely strange expression on his face. This was Su’s matter, but even though his actions were extremely fierce, his expression still remained indifferent without too much fluctuations. If he only judged by facial expressions, then Ricardo seemed to be carrying much more resentment, as if the ones that were insulted were his women.
When Ricardo saw Su’s expression, he chuckled and said, “Don’t look at me like that. Even though we aren’t friends, we aren’t enemies either. In the future, we might even be battle comrades! At the very least, I despise this group of garbage, this group of trash that has never been on the battlefield, never slaughtered powerful enemies and only know how to spout bullshit!”
Su carefully gave Ricardo a look, and then he walked towards the weapons stores by the side of the road.
There was no way the grudge between the Fabregas family and himself would be so easily resolved. Ricardo was just a member of the family’s younger generation and didn’t have much vocal authority, even if he was the rank one successor of the family. Moreover, if he thought one step further, Su in fact didn’t know anything about Ricardo at all. Remaining vigilant against unknown people or things was the most basic requirement of survival.
The military region’s main street was completely silent. When the shop assistants and customers inside the stores at both sides of the road silently looked at the six individuals that were lying on the ground without getting up, as well as the blood all over the floor, their faces no longer showed their contempt and delight towards this disaster and instead contained shock and fear. The video devices by the streets had long recorded everything that had taken place. Not long after, there will naturally be people coming here to bring back these unlucky people away and clean up the streets.
Fights in Dragon City weren’t all that rare, especially since they were in this age of turmoil without any standardized system of laws, so everyone was already used to seeing fights that used power to decide the result. However, there was still basic order and fairness in Dragon City, as well as a certain degree of protection for the weaker party, so this type of public bloody battle was still rather rare. When Su trampled down on the area between that youngster’s legs, almost everyone felt a faint throbbing pain in their own corresponding area.
Moreover, the battle that was related to Su last time also happened here, with the time and distance from the original event not that far apart.
Ricardo followed Su into a weapons store, as if he didn’t mind Su’s clearly cold attitude at all. While Su browsed through the weapons, Ricardo moved over to Su’s side and leaned on the counter and said, “Lieutenant Su… no, you should be a captain now! Damn it, you really are climbing fast! If you climb one more rank, you’ll be the same as me. You know, I had to fight an entire two years of war before muddling my way up to lieutenant commander… The heavens really are fucking unfair!”
Su didn’t pay him any attention. His lowered his head and carefully compared the three different brands of bullets’ functions, workmanship, and price. Ricardo brought out another cigarette and lit it. Smoking in a weapons store was pretty much a suicidal action, but Ricardo didn’t care about that at all. Su ignored this too, so only the weapons store manager’s face became a bit green. The new era firearms were already no longer as dangerous as the olden era’s, but there was some special gunpowder inside special ammunition that were even more dangerous when exposed to a flame. However, the manager kept his mouth tightly shut without saying a single thing. Of course he recognized Ricardo, and as for Su, his reputation on this street right now was even a bit greater than Ricardo’s right now.
“You know, even though you climbed extremely quickly, there really isn’t that much unfairness to it.” Ricardo blew out a puff of smoke and spoke in an unhurried manner. “If it was me that accepted the missions you took on, I might even be sending my life away. I believe those old fellow back at headquarters still have that little bit of eyesight.”
Su continued to pretend as if he didn’t hear anything. He quickly finished selecting his items, and after deciding on a time and place for the goods to be delivered, he paid for the items and prepared to leave.
Ricardo then followed Su out from the weapons store. When they left the military district and arrived in a relatively remote and quiet place, Su stopped moving and looked at Ricardo. “If you have something to say, you should just say it.”
Ricardo first handed Su a cigarette and said, “This stuff isn’t bad want to give it a try?”
Su didn’t bat an eyelid as he directly grabbed the cigarette and lit it. He took a deep breath. He didn't find any harmful components from the smoke.
This old-fashioned trick of developing friendship was extremely cliche, but it was quite effective most of the time. Su was quite fond of smoking, especially good tobacco. His body was extremely sensitive, so the effects of good smoke were much more stimulating.
Ricardo gave Su’s expression a look. He laughed and said, “If I didn’t run into you here out of coincidence, I would have had to make an extra trip. In reality, I wanted to discuss matters regarding the Scorpions of Disaster with you.”
“Scorpions of Disaster? What about them do you wanna talk about?” Su’s expression was still completely calm.
Ricardo tossed the cigarette butt onto the ground and brought out a new one. However, he wasn’t in a rush to light it. Instead, he looked at Su and said, “I’ve looked at your recent battle reports, as well as Malim’s corpse you just submitted. Don’t ask me how I saw it. I believe someone as smart as you wouldn’t mention a question as stupid as that. In my opinion, the Scorpions of Disaster are an extremely profitable, but at the same time an extremely dangerous enemy. Those that are jealous of you might feel that the Scorpions of Disaster are just ordinary opponents and that you were lucky to stumble upon this cheap chance, but that isn’t what I think.”
“Then what are you thinking?” Su asked in a rather interested manner, as he was also quite interested in listening to others talk. This was the most basic and straightforward way of understanding others better.
“From the experiences I’ve gained from the battlefield, all of the actions of the Scorpions of Disaster were just tests for the sake of understanding our real situation. Once the feeling out ends, the attack that follows will be exceptionally fierce. However, before this, we still have a chance, an extremely excellent chance.” Ricardo said.
Su was extremely interested in this topic of discussion. He was quite willing to listen to other people’s way of thinking, even if that person was an enemy from another family. “What kind of opportunity?”
“Let’s ally ourselves and seize back Pendulum City!” Ricardo struck a match with a sa sound and ignited the cigar that he had been holding onto this entire time.
“Just with the two of us?” Su felt that this was a bit of a joke.
“If it is just seizing back Pendulum City, the two of us are already enough. The Black Dragonriders’ strength isn’t decided by the number of dragonriders, as each dragonrider is basically an army. For example, don’t you yourself already have three official subordinates, several dozen soldiers, and roughly the same number of researchers and engineering staff? Then, there are those old fellows back in headquarters whose strengths are individually equal to several dozen dragonriders like me and you.” Ricardo gave a rather thorough explanation. Even though Su’s suspicion seemed a bit lacking in knowledge for a normal dragonrider officer, Ricardo didn’t show the slightest bit of contempt and instead responded seriously.
Su became silent for a while. In the end, he decided to divulge a bit of information. “There is an extremely powerful opponent in Pendulum City, one who I have no certainty of defeating. He is extremely strong, and is not someone who we can defeat just by relying on subordinates and soldiers.”
“High level ability user? One even you can’t defeat?” This was the first time a serious expression showed up on Ricardo’s face. He thought for a bit and then said, “Let me deal with him then. Of course, if you have anyone on your side that can deal with that fellow, you guys have priority.”
The only one that Su had on his side that could deal with Martham was probably Persephone, and there was no way she would come. That was why Su shook his head, expressing that he didn’t have anyone suitable on his side.
“This matter isn’t that hard to deal with. I have a comrade in the northern side, one that I’ve fought more than two years with. You shouldn’t look at him as someone whose highest level of ability in the combat domain is only six levels, but rather as a freak that has numerous different types of abilities, moreover all abilities trained inside life and death struggles. His abilities are completely different from those obtained from injections. If we bring him along, we should be able to deal with the fellow you are talking about.” Ricardo spoke quite a bit.
“I don’t recall there being a reason for us to work together? The relationship between your family and myself is not something that can be so easily settled.” Su frowned. He really couldn’t understand what this Ricardo was thinking.
“Benefits. When there are enough benefits, that is enough of a reason to work together. Without me, you cannot seize back Pendulum City.” Ricardo began to laugh loudly, and then he continued, “The family is the family, while I am myself. A dragonrider is a dragonrider first of all, and only after that are they a dragonrider of the family. Perhaps the hatred between my family and yourself can only be settled with blood, but so what? Who knows when the day will come when we meet each other on the battlefield, and at that time, we’ll just fight to the death like men. As for right now, let’s join hands and make some dough first! I reckon that the chances of success of the surprise attack on Pendulum City are quite high, so this is a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered. Right now, the other dragonrider troops are mostly scattered further away and temporarily cannot be transferred back. As long as we initiate the attack within three days, they won’t catch this bus. After Pendulum City is captured, the next goal is the forward operating base. However, I do not want to touch that rock, so those red-eyed greedy fellows can go, haha!” When he spoke up to this point, Ricardo began to arrogantly roar with laughter.
Su thought for a bit, and then he finally said, “Can we initiate the attack within two days?”
Ricardo’s eyes lit up, and he immediately said, “No problem! My troops will be in position tomorrow! In my opinion, we should just code name this Operation Lightning!”