Chapter Ninety-Four: Battle Against Gale Wind

Falk and the others had gathered together. After letting Xie Liu and the rest slip away, they had successfully rejoined their two remaining teammates. The five stood in a huddle, staring at the albatross lying on the ground. Falk’s face was as dark as thunder.

“Monkey, do you have any thoughts?”

Falk’s mood was abysmal. They had only just entered the battlefield, and their most important member, Albatross, was already gravely injured. They did not even know who their opponents were.

At that moment, all eyes turned to Monkey, the strategist of the team. After a brief silence, he said, “I think they may be the Doom Squad.”

“The Doom Squad? That bottom-ranker?” The only woman voiced her doubt.

Monkey nodded. “We can analyze it this way: they chose to land at the same location as we did, which suggests their overall strength is not especially great. At the very least, they are not a top-ten team.”

“But that alone still isn’t enough to prove it’s the Doom Squad,” Falk said. Though he agreed with Monkey’s reasoning, he still had questions.

Monkey explained, “That is true. On its own, that clue is not enough. But based on your description, the two people you fought were one man and one woman, correct?”

“Right. But I’ve never heard of a woman in the Doom Squad. I think you may be wrong,” Tiger Roar challenged.

Monkey was unconcerned. “I looked into the personnel records of the new hunting teams this year, and I found that the Doom Squad has a new female member this year. Her codename is Phoenix Woman. As for her ability, it’s still unknown. Based on your earlier analysis, I think those two were probably Phoenix Woman and Dead Eye.”

“Dead Eye? You’re sure?” Falk was intrigued by Monkey’s words.

Monkey scratched at his hair. “Albatross was injured by a wind arrow. Normally, someone capable of drawing that bow would either be a wind-power user or a physical enhancer. But we know the Doom Squad’s Power God—he has nothing but brute strength. And you said that shot came from a kilometer away and still struck Albatross dead on. I think the only one who could do that is Dead Eye.”

“Dead Eye, huh? Good.”

Falk’s thoughts seemed to drift elsewhere. Monkey looked at his captain and let out a helpless sigh. There was nothing wrong with this captain except that he was far too prone to acting on impulse. From the information he had found, this Dead Eye was an extremely dangerous opponent.

What made him formidable was not raw power, but his ghostlike combat style, a way of fighting that never followed any set pattern. The Doom Squad had always been a team people overlooked, but Monkey knew their combat strength could not be ignored. Especially in a small-team battle like this, their threat was terrifying.

One line in the资料 had particularly caught his attention: during the Azure Dragon Operation, the Doom Squad had defeated an S-rank special operative from the Special Alliance. They knew what S-rank operatives meant. During the Azure Dragon Operation, their own team had run into one halfway through the route and suffered a crushing defeat within minutes, losing four men.

Thinking of facing a team like that made Monkey’s head ache. The best course would be to avoid battle altogether, but judging from their captain’s attitude, he intended to fight this team to the bitter end.

Elsewhere, Xie Liu’s group had gathered together. They had already located the Gale Team and were tightly following their trail.

“From the intelligence we have so far, aside from their captain, the Gale Team also has one level-eight silicate controller. Beyond that, it doesn’t seem like they have any other particularly formidable combatants,” Xu Xiong said, sharing the information with everyone.

All eyes turned to Lin Yang, waiting to see whether he intended to take the team down.

“I think there’s no need to fight them directly,” Lin Yang said. “This competition is about who survives the longest, not about who kills the most. What do you think? Our combat strength isn’t stronger than theirs. If we want to beat them, we’ll likely lose strength in the process, and that would put us at a disadvantage.”

Ye Leng nodded, agreeing. “By your logic, we should stay put and wait for others to clash first?”

“Exactly,” Lin Yang said, holding up a finger. “I don’t think this fight is necessary.”

At that moment, Xie Liu raised his hand.

“May I say a few words?” he asked in a low voice. Everyone turned to look at him.

“I think not only should we fight, we should crush them head-on.”

His gaze swept across the stunned faces of his teammates. “Maybe you think I’m crazy. But what I want to say is this: when we chose to enter this competition, weren’t we already crazy?”

“What we need is not strategy, not planning. There is only one thing we want: victory. That is the thing we have always longed for, the reason we came here, isn’t it? And when what we have been fighting for is right before us, why should we retreat?”

Silence fell over them all. Their eyes on Xie Liu were filled with disbelief.

“Yes, we are fools. We have been fools from beginning to end.”

With that, Xie Liu grinned, baring his teeth. “Crush the Gale Team, then tell those who look down on us that their judgment is terrible.”

Silence moved among them all. After a long moment, Lin Yang sighed and said, “Xie Liu, you’re right.”

...

Falk led his teammates toward the southeast. The six of them moved along the grass beside the road. After the initial injury, Albatross had gradually recovered. It had to be said that bringing the parrot had been a very wise choice.

After walking about two kilometers along the highway, they saw a town neither too big nor too small in the distance. But when they saw the flames towering into the sky above it, Falk knew fighting had already broken out there.

They did not want to join the fray at this moment, so they headed toward a nearby farm instead. But just then, Albatross suddenly spoke.

“Captain, we’re being watched!”

“By whom?” Falk was startled, but the answer came at once, because he saw Xie Liu rushing swiftly through the woods off to their side. Falk exclaimed, “They still dare come after us?”

“Prepare to fight! Prepare to fight!” At Falk’s order, the six of them left the road and all crouched in the grass beside it.

“This is bad for us, Captain. The opponent over there is Dead Eye. In this place, we’re completely exposed to his line of sight,” Monkey shouted. Then his gaze swept around and landed on the farm. “We’re going there.” Having said that, he pointed toward it.

“Fine, I’ll cover you,” Falk said. Wind surged around him, whipping countless weeds into the air in an attempt to block Xie Liu’s view.

Xie Liu charged ahead, the world before him jolting and shaking under his sprinting gaze. He flashed through the small woods in front of him, then saw a storm of weeds blasted up ahead. Xie Liu gave a cold laugh. His level-five ability activated, and with a backward motion he drew the sniper rifle from behind him. The round was chambered; then, seizing the moment, Xie Liu slid to the ground and aimed the muzzle at the only woman among them.

“Watch out!” Rattlesnake shoved Parrot aside. After the shot rang out, Rattlesnake clutched his shoulder and fell to the ground.

“Tch. Missed?” Xie Liu quickly shifted position with the sniper rifle in hand. At this distance, he held a huge advantage, but once they entered the farm, that advantage would vanish. He had to take down one or two of them before they got there.

Yet things seemed destined to go against him. Xie Liu fired three shots in a row, only for his opponents to anticipate them in advance and evade every one.

“There must be a danger-sensing ability user among them.”

The six on the other side kept running until they reached the edge of the farm, and only then did Falk look back. “Rattlesnake, locate that bastard for me. Take him out!”

The man who had just been wounded by Xie Liu stood up, clutching his shoulder, his eyes narrow as a viper’s.

Xie Liu had just ejected the shell when a warning suddenly rang in his mind from Xu Xiong: “Xie Liu, move away from your position now.”

Xie Liu’s brows rose. A sudden surge of danger flooded his heart. Without a word, he clamped the sniper rifle under his arm and burst into a sprint. Less than a second after he moved, the space at his original position suddenly warped, followed by a violent explosion. The shockwave hurled Xie Liu several meters away, and he crashed hard to the ground.

“Damn it, it’s Particle Collapse.”

Xie Liu lifted his head from the dirt and saw that the six before him were already almost at the farm’s edge. “I can’t stop them anymore. Gong Hou, Lin Yang, make your move!”

“Roger that!”

Gong Hou laughed heartily, then came roaring over on that three-wheeled motorcycle, barreling straight into the six members of the Gale Team from the side. Falk rose up behind Gong Hou, the light sword in his hand flashing brilliantly.

“They’ve gone mad!” Falk roared. With a backward sweep of his hand, four wind blades coiled into the sharpest of edges and surged toward the two of them. Then Lin Yang vanished from behind Gong Hou. Gong Hou, in turn, sneered. The moment the three-wheeled motorcycle was sent flying, he leaped into the air, hurling both himself and the bike toward the six ahead.

“It’s the Power God, everyone be careful!” Monkey shouted. Suddenly his eyes widened, then he clutched his head and screamed in agony. “Aaaah... their psychic ability user is attacking me!”

“You two take Monkey and go first.”

Tiger Roar stepped forward, placing himself before the others. Both hands pressed to the ground, he sent up a massive wall of earth with a thunderous rumble, blocking Gong Hou’s path.

“No one can break through my defense!” Tiger Roar laughed proudly. “You all go first...”

Then his enormous earthen wall was smashed to pieces. To Tiger Roar’s astonishment, Gong Hou sneered as he broke through his defense and shattered the wall he was so proud of.

Rubble and dirt scattered everywhere. With a single punch, Gong Hou reduced the obstacle before him to fragments.

“This is impossible!” Tiger Roar cried, staggering backward.

Gong Hou landed on the ground. The flung three-wheeled motorcycle, trailing black smoke and dust, came crashing down behind him and exploded, but Gong Hou paid it no mind. He immediately lunged forward and threw a punch at Tiger Roar.

“This is impossible!” Tiger Roar refused to accept it. He crouched and slammed his hands to the ground once more, raising three stone walls in front of himself in one breath.

But it made no difference. Gong Hou charged straight through again, and with one blow the three walls collapsed with a boom, turning to fragments. Tiger Roar retreated in shock. The moment he left his position, the ground where he had stood suddenly caved in, as though crushed by overwhelming force.

Tiger Roar stumbled backward repeatedly, tripped over a stone behind him, and fell to the ground. Struggling to rise, he then saw that a towering man had already appeared in the place that had caved in.

The man flexed his fist, flicked the dirt from his hand aside, and looked at Tiger Roar with a wicked grin.

“Power God...” Tiger Roar swallowed hard. The pressure this man gave him was simply immense.

He glanced at his teammates, who had already run far ahead, and gave a bitter laugh. This was as good as burying himself here. Power God’s strength had exceeded his expectations.

“Could it be that this guy leveled up recently?” he muttered.

What he did not know was that after fighting Ace, Gong Hou had already reached level nine. In pure strength alone, even Ace and Wendy could only bow in admiration.

“It’s fine. As long as my teammates can escape into the farm, we can still turn the situation around.”

Tiger Roar watched Gong Hou warily. Though he was no match for him, stalling for a while was still possible.

Just then, Falk was about to lead the others to the entrance of the farm.

And then a red light sword flew in from afar, blocking their way. Lin Yang’s figure appeared before them. Beautiful as a woman, his luminous eyes turned slightly as he lifted the light sword in front of him and pointed it at the members of the Gale Team.

“Come then. Speak your final words.”