Chapter 176: Finally Caught One!

Chapter 176: Finally Nabbed One!

After this round of attacks concluded, the scene fell back into silence.

Peige and Fanni began casting "Order Purification" upon themselves, while Ophelia and the woman warrior, Pamir, bestowed the "Dark Moon Blessing" upon their own forms.

Though the names of the arts differed, their efficacy was much the same: both dissolved any lingering negative afflictions from the self. Even if one had not been contaminated, it remained a prudent, preventative measure taken merely for peace of mind.

Karen had neither entered the black fog nor engaged in close-quarters combat, so he did not bother with purification. Of course, the fundamental reason was his awareness that, owing to that sinister hound at home, his body harbored no fear of pollution at such a meager level.

Yet, when Ophelia stepped before him, she routinely granted Karen a "Dark Moon Blessing" anyway.

In an instant, Karen sensed the "Dark Moon Blade" within his body stirring restlessly once more. Alarmed, he immediately suppressed it.

Fanni returned to the branches of the tree, resuming her watch.

Peige and Pamir moved further out to a more distant position, melting into hiding.

Ophelia sat down, driving her longsword into the earth once more.

Karen stared at the weapon, reflexively licking his lips. To any practitioner of the "Dark Moon Blade," this sword was an exquisite match. He had noticed earlier that Ophelia had hardly exerted herself at all; the moment the power of the Dark Moon entered the blade, it was amplified tremendously.

*Ah.*

Back then, that young clan master had gifted the Dark Moon Blade to Purr. Why hadn't he included a complementary sword? To give a gift without its proper pair—no wonder he was destined to be forgotten across the vast ocean.

"Does Mister Karen fancy this sword?" Ophelia inquired.

"I do."

At a time like this, maintaining a polite veneer was no longer appropriate.

"This is a specialty from the forges of Dark Moon Island, crafted from Dark Moon crystal. Once I return, I can have one sent to you, Mister Karen."

*The one you send definitely won't be as good as the one in your hand.*

"Very well, thank you. I shall send you the latest edition of *The Secret Diary of Luojin* in return."

At the mention of the book, it suddenly occurred to Karen how strikingly similar its author was to Ophelia’s ancestor. One had never imagined that fifty years after his demise, the Queen with whom he shared an extramarital affair would still be drawing breath; the other had never expected that after more than a century, the woman he once adored would still be alive, albeit transformed into a cat.

*Crack!*

A flare was fired by Fanni, illuminating the space ahead. Four figures emerged into the light. One of them was Zema, three chains extending from his body to drag along three grievously wounded teammates. He himself was drenched in blood.

Peige hurried forward at once, settling the three injured men onto the ground while administering purification to each of them in turn.

Karen asked, "How is it up ahead?"

Zema licked his cracked lips and said, "The ambush was repelled by us."

"Where is the Captain and the rest?"

"The Captain took the others to hunt them down proactively."

"Uh..."

Zema smiled faintly. "The Captain said that the target of this ambush wasn't Miss Ophelia. It is more likely that our contact with the other Whiplash of Order squads led the enemy to mistake us for a reinforcement party, prompting their preemptive strike.

"Therefore, the Captain ordered that Zema and the three wounded remain to secure Miss Ophelia’s safety, while the close-protection team rejoins the main force to reinforce the assault."

"I require no protection. I can join you," Ophelia offered.

Zema shook his head. "No, Miss Ophelia. No harm must come to you. We are still counting on collecting our bounty from you once the mission is complete."

Ophelia countered, "If you truly cared only for the mission, your Captain should have come to escort us in retreat instead of launching a counter-pursuit!"

"No, that will not do. They are not the same thing. A lion may disdain the gaze of wild wolves, but if the wolves dare bare their fangs, they must be bitten to death entirely!

"Please put your mind at ease, My Lady. Though these three brothers of mine are severely injured, should danger arise, they can detonate the spirituality within their bodies at any moment to perish together with the enemy. Thus, you remain perfectly safe."

Fanni hoisted her rifle and said, "Peige, Karen, fall in. Support the Captain with me."

"Understood."

"Understood."

Forbidden from joining the reinforcements, Ophelia was already quite vexed.

Seeing even Karen run off to reinforce them, Ophelia felt her irritation deepen further.

***

Running alongside Fanni and Peige, Karen returned to the site of their initial encounter. The luxury carriage remained hoisted aloft. Advancing a short distance further, corpses came into view lining both sides of the road.

Judging by their attire, they should have been members of the other Whiplash of Order squads, yet a charred mark marred the center of every single brow.

"They were lost," Fanni remarked. "Those fools. Knowing they were about to be lost, they still didn't have the sense to commit suicide. As a result, they were controlled, forcing us to expend effort to kill them!"

Peige scoffed with disdain, "Just a flock of ducklings. What sort of reaction did you expect from them?"

Evidently, after these Whiplash of Order members were controlled, they had launched an attack on Neo’s squad, only to encounter a fierce counterattack. They were slaughtered without a shred of hesitation or moral restraint; the manner of death for each corpse was clean and decisive, bearing no trace of reluctance.

Because the enemies appearing at the time were not limited to the two crippled Whiplash of Order squads, there had been no leeway to attempt to subdue them or seek a way to snap them out of it. Treating them entirely as enemies to be slain was the simplest recourse.

Such was the conduct of Neo's squad.

In his heart, Karen offered a silent eulogy for the fallen colleagues on the ground, thinking it rather unprincipled to speak ill of the dead, before silently retrieving a sword and a shield from beside two of the corpses.

Peige said, "What are you in such a hurry for? We will clean up the battlefield after the fight is done. Anything useful will be taken; what we cannot use can be sold on the black market. We will pocket the vouchers from their wallets too, though we will leave the photographs of their wives and children behind."

"I lack equipment," Karen explained.

"Oh, right." Peige seemed to recall only just then how Karen had been aiming that little revolver around earlier. "My oversight."

After running a further distance, a massive centipede materialized ahead. The creature was silver in color, its proportions far grander than the one that had attacked Karen’s side before. Upon the centipede’s head, a hideous human face was clearly discernible.

More corpses littered the ground, comprised of centipedes as well as other human bodies. By now, this centipede had been suppressed. Its massive frame was forcibly confined within a space by Marlo’s formation array. Two teammates were bombarding its body with spells, but its carapace was unyielding, and the black mist exuded from its form served to mitigate the damage of the arts, resulting in a temporary stalemate.

There was another teammate whose chest was pierced by a centipede leg, leaning against a boulder as he applied a scroll to heal himself.

Karen remembered him; his name was Quincy.

The scroll in Quincy’s hand burned away, channeling healing arts into his body. He then quietly applied a purification spell to himself. Catching sight of Fanni and the others arriving as reinforcements, he pointed toward the west:

"The Captain took Wind and Gray to pursue them up ahead. Go reinforce the Captain and don't let the leader escape. You aren't needed here. Let Marlo and the other two wear down its vitality slowly. I won't die either."

As he spoke, he pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it for himself. Exhaling a ring of smoke, he reached out to touch the sharp appendage impaling his chest.

He cursed, "Damn it, I’ve never been penetrated this deep in my entire life."

Since Quincy said to leave him be, Fanni and Peige truly paid him no further heed. Karen could only follow and continue running forward, passing right by the trapped titan centipede. One could see that although the great beast still appeared ferocious, beneath the hideous human face on its head, exhaustion and despair had already surfaced.

Marlo spotted Karen and the others arriving to reinforce them. While continuing to manipulate and mend the formation array, he called out with a laugh:

"Karen, hurry up and call the police! Hahaha!"

"..." Karen.

It had to be said that this bunch were truly madmen. Though each bore injuries upon their bodies, what overflowed upon their faces was an enjoyment akin to playing a game.

They genuinely relished such spectacles and experiences, taking immense pleasure in them.

They cherished their lives, yet it was not out of a simple fear of death, but rather because keeping their lives meant they could continue to gamble them away next time.

Karen felt as though his legs could scarcely carry him further, yet Fanni and Peige remained as fleet-footed as ever. Several times, Karen truly wished to utilize the Dark Moon Blade or the Sea God’s Armor to grant himself a burst of speed.

For he was an anomaly: his physical conditioning was not particularly outstanding, yet the spiritual power stored within his body was exceedingly abundant. But after a moment's thought, he endured it, gritting his teeth as he closely followed behind.

Ahead, the figure of an old man clad in a grey robe lay pinned to the rock, his body transfixed by a black spear.

Gerry seemed to be exerting his strength to wrench the spear free, but upon seeing Fannie and the others arrive with reinforcements, he simply abandoned the endeavor, sitting cross-legged to enter a state of meditative recovery.

Though he had successfully slain this adversary, his spiritual energy was utterly depleted, and given the arrival of aid, he chose to take a moment's respite.

At long last, Karen caught sight of the battlefield where the fierce struggle still raged.

A woman bearing the visage of an old crone was whipping up one yellow tempest after another about her person in a state of sheer madness; with her body as the epicenter, a vast swath of the surrounding mountainous terrain had been leveled flat.

Yet at her flank, a black silhouette continued to vanish and reappear without cease, like an experienced hunter toying with his prey.

Streams of fresh blood trickled from the crone's eyes—her sight must have been pierced and ruined—and now, driven by terror and despair, she could only lose herself to this state of blind fury, relying on brute force to compel that figure's retreat and grant herself a barrier of safety.

But it was clear to everyone that her strength would inevitably run dry.

Fannie raised her rifle and began to take aim, saying swiftly, "The distance is too great. Peige, fling me over."

"Very well."

Strand upon strand of silken thread manifested about Peige's arms—no, they were not threads, but entities akin to black vines; these vines entwined themselves around Fannie's body, and while helping Fannie maintain her aiming posture, Peige began to sprint, carrying Fannie aloft through the air like a kite being flown.

Karen took a deep breath, and holding his sword and shield, ran close behind Peige.

He did not know what he was running toward, nor did he understand the tactics he was participating in; strictly speaking, this was his first time joining a joint drill as an external member, and this drill happened to be an actual battle.

Yet Karen felt he could hardly just stand at the rear and watch.

Wind also sensed the arrival of the reinforcements and, without any need for communication, instantly closed the distance between himself and the crone; though blind, the crone could perceive his aura and immediately intensified the release of her tempests, which grazed Wind's body several times, yet Wind continued to hold her attention.

At that moment, they reached the required distance!

With a violent swing of her vines, Peige threw Fannie forward, and while suspended in midair, a sudden radiance of black light erupted from Fannie's body, converging into her rifle:

"Bang!"

A single bullet fired.

"Crack!"

The crone's head was struck, and everything above her neck erupted into a violent explosion.

The kill achieved, a tug of Peige's vines reined the airborne Fannie back; Karen had intended to catch her, but another twist of Peige's vines guided Fannie clear of him, and with one hand pressed against the earth, she slid across the ground for some distance to dissipate her momentum.

Wind drew near to inspect the crone's corpse, but at that precise moment, a fleshy tumor suddenly emerged from within the headless body, possessing both a mouth and a solitary eye.

In the next instant, the yellow tempest unleashed once more; a barrier manifested before Wind, yet it was pierced straight through, sending him flying backward through the air, though his silhouette vanished again upon landing as he forced his way back up.

"Ahhhh!!!"

The tumor let out a piercing shriek, and then, the headless hands of the crone seized it, raised it high, and hurled it fiercely into the distance.

Witnessing this spectacle, Karen could not help but marvel at this literal act of a cicada shedding its skin to escape.

Yet it was accompanied by the sound of another gunshot:

"Bang!"

The tumor burst midair, dissolving into a pool of foul fluid, and the crone's headless corpse finally collapsed heavily to the ground.

But this was not yet the end; Wind spread his arms wide and bellowed:

"Order—Cage!"

Hidden within the ruptured tumor were unexpectedly numerous entities resembling black beetles.

Wind shouted, "Peige, kill the insects!"

The vines upon Peige's body shot out unceasingly, seeking out and crushing those beetles one by one.

Fannie lowered her rifle and pressed onward, leaving Karen with no choice but to follow with his sword and shield in hand.

The entire state of the battle had been fragmented; from the initial ambush wherein they were surrounded to this present relentless pursuit at all costs, the Neo squad had actually severed themselves into separate segments, utterly discarding caution in favor of ensuring not a single enemy escaped, behaving precisely like a pack of mad dogs with bloodshot eyes, intent only on tearing apart every foe before them.

Before they had run very far, at the foot of a slope, Karen finally caught sight of Neo.

Before Neo stood a middle-aged man, bare-chested and covered in flowing, obscure, and mysterious runes, wielding an axe in his grasp.

The environment where the two fought was thick with dense dust, a scene born from fragments of rock ground into fine powder.

Fannie immediately readied her rifle, preparing to take aim.

Yet below, Neo had already locked horns with his opponent once more; the axe in the man's hand hacked toward Neo time and again, but Neo's form shifted rapidly, evading the attacks continuously while refusing to let the man establish any distance between them.

Simultaneously, although Neo held no weapon in his hands, each time his fingertips brushed across the man's body, a cluster of black sparks would ignite upon him, causing the man to unleash roars of fury throughout the encounter.

Contrasted with his opponent's frantic rage, Neo resembled an elegant pianist delivering a musical performance, unhurried and composed, merely waiting for the performance to conclude before taking his bow.

"The distance is too great, we must descend."

Having spoken, Fannie leapt directly down the slope, bending her body to slide sideways down the incline.

Karen hesitated for a brief moment before running down after her, but because the slope was too steep, he could only rely on his sword to maintain his balance and control his speed.

Ahead, Fannie, who had slid down first, had already chambered a blue purification bullet; the moment Captain Neo opened up an appropriate distance, two successive shots from Fannie struck the man, causing the runes upon his body to twist violently.

Neo also seized the moment of hesitation brought by each impact to close in rapidly, his hands frictioning even more black flames against the opponent's flesh, causing the man's aura to wither continuously.

Yet just then, Karen suddenly saw a stone ahead of Fannie's descent abruptly "stand up"—it was no stone at all, but a youth likewise covered in runes and devoid of clothing; no, not a youth, for his face looked mature with a beard; he was a dwarf.

Previously, he had lain there like a camouflaged lizard, his presence entirely unnoticed by anyone.

In truth, his younger brother had originally bidden him to remain hidden here and not emerge, but on one hand, the enemy had

"Smack!"

Finally,

it pierced through, and with it, his head slid right off.

Karen crawled and sat up,

at this moment, his heart bore not the slightest worry about having played his trump card, because only a single thought occupied his mind:

"After running for such a long way, I finally hauled one in."