Under the cover of night, the snake-headed convoy was still speeding towards the camp within Sargon, averaging over 100 kilometers per hour, which was almost the limit for these older model vehicles.
"You idiot, hurry up! Gas, gas! Floor it! Don't worry about wear and tear."
Alfonso, in his modified car, kept urging his driver subordinate, his hands trembling, cold sweat drenching him even in the dead of winter.
Sure enough, his premonition of something terrible happening had come true.
Behind him, three dark figures were leaping back and forth between the modified cars, as effortlessly as grasshoppers flitting between blades of grass.
In just a few seconds, a vehicle would be destroyed, either turning into scrap metal in an explosion or having all its occupants killed or wounded.
"Team Three, pull back, pull back! Even crossbow bolts can't penetrate them. These are no ordinary enemies; we need to hit them hard!"
Beside him, the Liberi mercenary leader, Owl Plume, could no longer sit still. He stood at the rear of the car, holding a heavy sniper crossbow the size of half a man, observing the battle through a high-magnification scope, and shouting commands to his remaining subordinates through his earpiece.
"Bring out my heaviest gear! Switch the crossbow bolts to explosive arrows! Forget about equipment integrity! Stay out of her jumping range, fight and run!"
From the start of the attack until now, in less than two minutes, five of his vehicles had been destroyed. Before communication was cut off, each team only left behind terrified and desperate screams.
For a mercenary group, such casualties were already a severe blow. As the leader, although protecting his members wasn't his responsibility, if everyone died, he would be a lone commander.
"But, Boss, even explosive crossbows can't penetrate that woman; she's too tough, and we can't outrun her—wait, she's jumping towards us, Boss! I'm pulling out, I can't stay here anymore!"
But then, another terrified shout came through the earpiece. A jeep belonging to Owl Plume's mercenaries swerved sharply and sped off into the wilderness.
Not far away, illuminated by the moonlight and car headlights, a lithe and petite figure suddenly leaped from a burning car.
Whoosh—
Leaping from a vehicle traveling at 100 kilometers per hour, the white-haired girl with the greatsword crushed the car's roof as she launched herself high into the air, soaring seven or eight meters, and crashed towards the jeep.
Such a scene was something the mercenaries had only ever seen in Columbia action movies.
Bang!
A thud sounded as the jeep's sharp turn seemed to affect the terrifying woman's judgment. She missed her footing, slamming into the sandy ground beside them, kicking up over a meter of dust and pebbles, even creating a large crater.
"We shook her off, Boss! We succeeded, we—"
However, before the surviving mercenary could breathe a sigh of relief, a figure suddenly shot out from the thick dust nearly a hundred meters behind them.
"Cough, cough, former one."
Coughing lightly twice, Skadi took long strides expressionlessly, her muscles tensing. She sprinted a few steps, leaving several afterimages behind her, and easily caught up with the jeep.
Second Captain Gladiia was the fastest of the Abyssal Hunters; her movements could easily Breakthrough the sound barrier—while Skadi could only rely on bursts of strength to catch up to her for short periods.
And if it were Skadi's normal speed during combat, without deliberately expending stamina, it would at most be one-fourth to one-fifth of Gladiia's speed.
And the speed to Breakthrough the sound barrier is—1224 kilometers per hour.
Maintaining a speed of roughly over 200 kilometers per hour, Skadi didn't even breathe heavily. It took her less than ten seconds to easily catch up to the fleeing mercenaries, and then she leaped high again.
"She's coming again! Monster, monster! Is she a Kuranta Knight? Only a Knight's charge can be that fast!"
In despair, the mercenaries could only unleash their metallic firepower upon Skadi, producing clinking sounds, but it couldn't even break her clothes.
"No, no, spare me, ah—"
Accompanied by a few wails, Skadi gently waved her hand, and several mercenaries were directly thrown into the wilderness below the vehicle.
Skadi initially used her greatsword to cut down a few people, but she didn't want the clothes Goki made for her to be stained with blood, so she simply started "throwing people" instead.
After all, this wasn't the bottom of the sea; if her clothes got dirty, she couldn't wash them on the spot.
Meanwhile, from behind Alfonso's vehicle in the distance, Owl Plume aimed the best crossbow bolt he could acquire at the temporarily halted Skadi.
"A Kuranta Knight? Perfect, I have armor-piercing arrows here that are Knight-killers. It wasn't easy to get these."
Whether out of fear or excitement, the mercenary, who liked collecting furs and hats from various beasts and people, suddenly revealed a rather grim smile.
These arrows, brought by the Kazimierz people, were incredibly expensive. They had the effect of destroying Originium Arts, similar to etched bullets, and could also penetrate the armor of Knights. Even a giant Pan Crab could be easily pierced!
He saw the woman's subconscious defensive movements when facing those crossbow bolts, which indicated that her defense had limits.
Whoosh—
Aiming at the white-haired monster woman, he abruptly pressed the crossbow's firing button.
Pffft—
The crossbow bolt, arriving in an instant, plunged into a body, but it wasn't the white-haired monster, but... a man, and a Sarkaz mercenary.
"Cough—pfft."
In the jeep, a Sarkaz mercenary had originally used his sole remaining arm to tightly choke the black-clad Hunter, but the sharp pain in his abdomen, along with the Spell effect attached to the crossbow bolt, completely extinguished his last shred of life.
"This one was killed by your own people—goodness, I almost got choked to death. Sarkaz are truly monsters."
The hands around his neck slowly loosened. Goki exerted force with both hands, pulling out the large crossbow bolt that had skewered him and the Sarkaz.
blood echoes + 648
"Well, that's one order complete."
The dead Sarkaz mercenary fell, lying beside the bodies of two other Liberi mercenaries. He was stronger, and dropped more blood echoes.
"Actually, I don't even need to breathe, and my body structure is already different from a normal person's. Even if you broke my spine, I could still move—ouch, ouch."
The Sarkaz mercenaries were the fewest in number, less than ten, but both their swordsmanship and physical prowess far surpassed everyone else's. According to Goki's estimation, his own Strength would need to be at 25 to simply match these Sarkaz in raw power.
So, when he encountered this Sarkaz, Goki immediately dislocated one of his shoulders with his Saw Cleaver, while also taking out the other vehicle crew members, but he was still controlled by the Sarkaz's brute force.
"Good thing I've watched Uncle Long's movies, otherwise I'd have to self-detonate with a gasoline bomb."
Although his physical qualities were inferior to superhuman races like the Sarkaz, Goki's combat awareness and keenness for attacks were top-notch.
To put it bluntly, he had been driven to paranoia by Miyazaki's schemes.
As an Old Hunter who had been tempered in Yharnam, where there were always enemies ambushing around every corner, snipers in the distance, and even a crow comparable to the Ashina Chicken God appearing from under a box to deliver a six-hit combo, with an endless variety of deaths, he would never miss any kind of sneak attack!
The moment he was choked by the Sarkaz and realized someone was aiming at Skadi, Goki had already used his foot to turn the steering wheel.
"I feel like an action superstar—what a pity, after being in Terra for so long, I still haven't seen a single Spellcaster, all of them are just brutes."
Sighing with some regret, Goki still hadn't seen a Spellcaster up to this point, otherwise, the scene could have been even more intense.
If only these Sarkaz had brought a Spellcaster, then they could have given Titi a bondage play... *cough* *cough*.
"Skadi, one more time! I'll go for the decapitation."
Reaching out to Skadi in another car, Goki injected another needle into his thigh.
"Okay, be careful. I'll catch up right away."
Looking at Goki's face, Skadi nodded happily, her smile particularly beautiful under the moonlight.
With a sudden leap, the Orca landed on the jeep, took Goki's hand, and hoisted him onto her shoulder.
The two Hunters narrowed their eyes, looking towards Alfonso's vehicle not far away. Goki even gave them a double thumbs-up.
"Let's go!"
The next second, Skadi exerted force with both hands, precisely throwing Goki towards the vehicle.
This was their latest tactic—the Human Cannon!
"—These are the three people you mentioned, Alfonso? These are three monsters."
Loudly questioning his employer, the Liberi mercenary leader was also panicking, while the other Sarkaz leader and Aegir leader were one calm and one excited.
"He is indeed strong, a worthy opponent to fight, as for that woman... she's beyond my limits."
"Two, very strong! Kill them all!"
And Alfonso, looking at the two bounty Hunters huddled together, and the black monster that burst out of a burning car, bit his tongue and said with a fierce yet timid tone:
"This is the mission you accepted. I've already explained the risks! This is your choice. Now all we can do is escape from them to my camp! There are heavy weapons there!"
Although he said this, Alfonso still turned his back and quietly opened a small metal box that he had been carrying with him in the car since the beginning.
"That adult said that in a desperate situation, I could use this."
While the others were intently watching the battlefield, Alfonso opened the box, and a stream of white cold air instantly began to dissipate into the surrounding atmosphere.
Inside the box, there was a small syringe.
The solution inside was originally deep black, but as it left the refrigerated box, it began to surge like rekindled flames, turning into a vibrant, flowing red.
It was like a tube of scorching, surging magma, its heat palpable even through the syringe.
This item was given to him as insurance by a big shot from that large Columbia company. It was a military-grade reagent that had reportedly passed monitoring and was about to be approved for production. It was said that after use, one could immediately gain powerful flame Originium Arts.
"Pyroclasm III"—this was the name of the reagent.
Whether he could defeat those monsters or not, Alfonso felt that he could definitely escape from here.
Thinking this, Alfonso injected the reagent directly into his body, biting his lip involuntarily due to the intense, scorching pain.
The next second, a pure black figure was smashed into the car compartment, easily pinning down the Liberi who had just attacked Skadi, and looked at the few people in front of him.
"Hey, everyone, are you enjoying tonight's hunt—I mean, as the prey?"
Goki felt it was time to put an end to this farce.
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