Chapter 20.4 - Longing
Xie Na was stunned. She never thought that this was even a possible conclusion. Seeing Su’s departing figure, she wanted to call out to him, but no sound came out from her throat.
Pa pa pa! An applause sounded, then Robertson’s deep voice sounded. “Hey, Su! It seems like you truly are a rarely seen good person, and even I’m a bit moved! Unfortunately, your good intentions were wasted on a prostitute. Prostitutes will always be prostitutes, and this will always be true. The black captain has said as soon as we entered the camp that those able to enter this training camp could all be chopped up to be fed to dogs. I believed that he made a mistake, because you might be an exception, the only exception.
Mad Dog Robertson similarly held a compound dagger. Apart from this, there didn’t seem to be any type of weapon on his body. What was noticeably different was that there was a thin strap around his waist, and within the leather case for bullets were a row of teeth. These were all teeth from the natives.
Su stopped his footsteps and slowly turned his body around. He slowly lowered his body and assumed a fighting stance. Su’s gaze was steady and focused. His intuition from his many years in the wilderness told him that this was an extremely dangerous enemy.
“I’ve also received money, but an amount that far surpasses this bitch! Maybe because you are a rarely seen good and honest person, the money I earn this time will be a bit easier.” Robertson laughed and suddenly ran outwards! Even though his acceleration wasn’t as strange and abnormal as Su’s, it was similarly fast to a level that was difficult to react to. When Xie Na saw his malicious gaze, she could only back up two steps before Robertson arrived next to her. A steel like arm wrapped tightly around her neck, and the sharp edge of the dagger stuck close to her ear.
Mad Dog used his empty left hand to tear apart Xie Na’s clothes and combat vest in an unhurried manner, exposing the chest that she was rather proud of. Then, he laughed and said, “Look, what a pretty woman! Right now, toss away the blade in your hand and slowly walk over. Otherwise, I will slice them off!”
Robertson’s arm was bound extremely tightly, to the point where Xie Na couldn’t even make the slightest bit of noise and even breathing was difficult. She could only tightly grab Robertson’s arm to give herself the slightest bit of room to breathe. However, her strength that had experienced three levels of strengthening in front of Robertson was the same as an ant trying to move a large tree, unable to make his arm budge in the slightest. She truly wanted to shout and plead for Su to save her, but she didn’t have this chance.
Su looked at Robertson, and after hesitating for a bit, he walked forward. The smile in Robertson’s eyes became greater, because he enjoyed easy and money-making missions. However, before Su’s foot descended, he suddenly kicked and flipped backwards before running into the forest depths!
“Damn it! The idiotic plots from the olden era’s light novels really can’t be trusted!” After being startled for a moment, Robertson snapped back. He tossed Xie Na away, and while cursing, he gave chase with a speed that wasn’t inferior to Su’s.
Xie Na’s body made a strange spin in the air, and then she fell onto the ground like a broken sack, unable to crawl up again. The instant she was tossed out, Robertson broke her backbone with a strike from his knee.
Su arched his body and used his highest speed possible to run through the forest. His dagger was clenched in his teeth, and the way he ran was extremely strange, completely unlike that of a human and instead a bit similar to the werewolves from olden era fantasies. He often used both his hands and feet to move, and at times, he would jump directly from one tree to the next to cross an obstacle before continuing on foot. As he leapt within the forest, Su also used some techniques similar to what the natives used. Regardless of whether it was combat or running, Su always seemed like a completely mutated creature.
Robertson pursued relentlessly. His speed of acceleration wasn’t comparable to Su’s, but his highest speed wasn’t inferior to Su’s and was even a bit higher. Moreover, his physical strength was incredibly abundant. After running for several minutes, his speed steadied without any signs of exhaustion. When there were obstacles in his way, he would also leap up and then step on a tree to continue rushing forward. Unlike Su, each step would completely shatter the tree trunks, causing fragments to fly everywhere. A deep imprint was left in every tree.
Robertson laughed as he chased in pursuit. The laughter became louder and louder, as well as more and more crazy! His eyes began to become bloodshot, and his breathing became heavier and heavier, as if he was gradually entering a demented excitement. This was where his title ‘Mad Dog’ came from. During an intense battle, Robertson would sink into a psychedelic state of excitement. At that time, his endurance, power, and speed would all greatly increase. Of course, the most evident side effect of this state was that his level of cruelty would increase substantially as well. Once he entered this excited state, what he liked the most was ripping his enemy’s corpse to shreds.
Su could hear the breathing behind him become gradually heavier, as well as gradually closer. The distance between the two continuously closed, shrinking from fifty meters down to thirty meters, and then to ten.
Su’s feet suddenly wrapped around the roots of a tree, and his entire body suddenly fell forward. Then, he turned around before springing up in a strange manner. A dagger flew out like lightning towards Robertson’s heart!
Robertson’s left hand held the dagger in reverse and fiercely swung it at Su’s wrist. His right leg stepped on the ground, and his left leg kicked outwards, trampling on a tree trunk to stop his momentum!
With a kacha sound, the tree couldn’t bear Mad Dog’s ferocious charge and broke under the pressure. Meanwhile, Robertson was able to completely stop his charge.
Su’s footwork changed. The dagger brought forth streaks of gray light and continuously hacked at Robertson. Robertson dodged, blocked, and even fiercely counterattacked. The attacks from his dagger were swift and fierce. They came from tricky angles and seemed to be even a bit stronger than Su’s.
The individuals advanced and retreated within this small vacant area in the forest like streaks of lightning. The two daggers interweaved in the sky and continuously intersected. In under a minute, the two had already exchanged several hundred attacks! Su found that Robertson’s footsteps were no longer as flexible as they were at first. It seems like the hurried pursuit just now still damaged his flesh a bit. In reality, Robertson's footwork only became slightly slower, and under normal circumstances, unless an expert had over two levels of combat ability above him, they wouldn’t be able to notice it at all. However, Su’s eyesight was extremely powerful and definitely not something ordinary combat specialists could compare with. When Su noticed this point, he immediately took advantage of it. He erupted with strength and moved backwards. Then, drawing force from a tree trunk, he rushed fiercely into the forest depths like a wolf.
A light shua sounded. Robertson’s dagger flew past Su’s figure, and then he stood in his original location while watching Su escape. Mad Dog looked at the dagger and saw a drop of blood fall off. He knew that the wound created just now on Su’s back should be ten centimeters long and a centimeter deep, no more and no less.
It wasn’t that Robertson’s reactions were slow. The instant Su changed his stance, he captured the opportunity to deliver a wound. However, he still missed the optimum opportunity to continue the pursuit.
Robertson never expected that Su would actually notice that his movement speed had suffered a loss and as a result carry out a tactical retreat. If he continued the chase now, he would only cause even more damage to the muscles in his legs, damage that could not be healed. Robertson only needed an hour to recover the injuries to his muscles, but in this hour, Su would have already fled very, very far. However, as a hunter that specialized in pursuit, patience and endurance were indispensible traits. Robertson had already planned to chase for five days and nights, which was the limit of his abilities. That was why he didn’t mind letting Su run for another hour.
Only when Su acted like this did it truly spark his excitement. Robertson began to laugh. He was going to lick the bead of blood on the dagger. He felt that Su’s blood would definitely be sweet.
However, the instant the bead of blood arrived by his mouth, Robertson who had a beast-like intuition shook off the dagger. He frowned and looked at the bloodstains on his dagger. He didn’t know why, but he suddenly lost his appetite.
Outside the forest, Xie Na lied on the ground, repeatedly breathing in and out. Her body that was becoming more and more numb made her sink into a deep despair. First, the lower half of her body lost feeling, and right now, the ice cold numbness had already crept up to her arms. She would rather it be pain that was crawling up her body instead of numbness that was about to drive her insane.
A pair of thick and heavy military boots appeared in front of her. These were the captain’s boots, boots that the cadets were all extremely familiar with. Xie Na immediately cried out. She used her last bit of strength to turn her face so that she could see the captain’s terrifyingly thick legs.
“Save… save…” Her voice wasn’t much louder than that of a mosquito’s.
The captain squatted down so that Xie Na could see his face. The captain’s shining black, scar riddled, sinister-looking face seemed especially warm, so much so that it made one feel relieved.
The captain flipped her eyelids and patted her face a few times before saying, “Can’t be saved. However, you wouldn’t immediately die. Let me send you along your way.”
The captain lightly tapped on the top of Xie Na’s head. Her entire body trembled, and she slowly closed her eyes.
The captain stood up and gazed into the deep forest. He fiercely spat out a clump of spittle and cursed ‘son of a bitch’ before heading into the depths of the forest.
The clump of spittle struck the ground like a bullet, producing a deep groove.