Chapter 24: Chase
Volume 2 – Bloom of the Other Shore Flower, Chapter 24: Chase
A red glow flickered in the old vampire’s eyes, which activated his night vision. He immediately recognized that the projectile coming their way was a grenade commonly used in the army. This kind of crude weapon relied on metal shards and explosions to kill, just barely enough against a rank one Fighter, but of limited efficiency against a real rank two vampire.
However, this grenade was a huge annoyance to them. The ripples of its explosion could possibly trigger the switch inside the suitcase, ruining their transaction.
In such an emergency, the old vampire bellowed and took a step forward, protecting his two underlings behind him.
He was already a high rank four vampire warrior, so the shards of this grenade could at most cause some superficial wounds.
“A pity for this shirt, it’s made by a master!” the old vampire thought as the grenade exploded.
However, the grenade didn’t explode as he thought it would. The iron sheet covering the tip suddenly came off, shooting off a small ball of tin paper, revealing a silver glare in the old vampire’s eyes!
The surprisingly bright light blinded the three vampires momentarily, and as the grenade flew, Qianye jumped out of hiding and kneeled on the ground, holding the Light of Daybreak steadily while aiming at the old vampire. As the silver light appeared, Qianye closed his eyes and aimed with his memory, shooting his infused origin bullet!
Between them was a distance no more than thirty meters, so this shot was unavoidable. With a pained cry, a bundle of faint yellow light exploded on the old man’s chest. Not only did this ruin his clothing, it also opened a bloody, fist-sized hole in his chest. His entire body was sent flying by the collision, causing him to hit the two underlings behind.
The two vampire youths did not react slowly. With the old member to block the bright light, it was weakened considerably, only stopping them momentarily. One charged forward to support the elder as the other turned and ran with the case in his arms. However, to keep the case steady when running, he was forced to keep his speed down.
Qianye rushed forward with the aura of a charging horse, closing the distance to ten meters as he rushed forward, aiming a spike bayonet at the old vampire.
The vampire youth was the descendant of the elder, and in this time of emergency, he immediately moved in front of the elder. Before he could raise his right arm to block, the spike bayonet had already plunged into his chest, and with almost no obstruction, it appeared from his back and stabbed into the elder’s right shoulder.
That vampire youth had a face full of shock. He hadn’t expected the power of the bayonet to be so great that it was actually capable of stabbing through his body!
Qianye did not stop at all. He charged through the last ten meters between them, aiming to eliminate the strongest enemy before the vampire elder regained his sight and mobility.
That young vampire cried out as he pounced towards Qianye, grabbing onto the hand swinging towards him as he started to wrestle with him.
Most bodies of vampire youths didn’t seem to be very fit, but they actually contained abnormal and enormous strength. A human rank three Fighter may not even win against a rank two vampire in a fight.
Qianye suddenly bellowed as his strength busted forth from his entire body, easily suppressing the resistance of the young vampire as he stabbed the dagger in his right hand into the young vampire’s shoulder. The silver-coated dagger immediately started burning the young vampire’s blood and flesh, releasing large amounts of smoke. The young vampire immediately cried out in pain as his right hand lost strength, releasing Qianye’s right hand.
Qianye did not let go of this opportunity and immediately raised the huge Light of Daybreak, harshly slamming the gun barrel into the young vampire’s face. To Qianye’s satisfaction, the face was always weak, no matter the race.
Just this blow fractured his nose and one of his cheekbones. Qianye then threw the partially unconscious vampire to the side.
When Qianye charged in front of the vampire elder, he shockingly noticed that his strongest opponent had already lost his ability to fight, and laid on the ground, dying. In only a little while, the injury on his chest had increased from fist to bowl-sized. One could also see it corroding with the naked eye, releasing dark blood nonstop.
Seeing this sight, Qianye couldn’t help but be shocked. This was the result from that one shot?
Distance had played a role as well. If he had used the Mithril Bullet of Exorcism, it would have undoubtedly killed the vampire elder in one shot. Even if it were a mithril bullet two ranks weaker than its target, it would suffice to create an injury that would be difficult to heal in a short time.
However, this was an origin bullet Qianye had infused personally. It did not contain any exorcism effects and should only have one third of the threat a mithril bullet would posses, and even though Qianye’s origin power was especially mighty, it should only amount to half.
Furthermore, the higher rank a vampire was, the lower the threat of the bullet. Facing the fearsome regenerative abilities of vampires, any injury that failed to kill was merely a superficial wound, and even silver poisoning would not pose a continuous threat to a vampire. If it weren’t for this, it would be a great hazard, even to a rank four vampire warrior.
This was why Qianye would rather fight them head-on and supplement an extra stab. However, looking at the vampire elder’s wounds, it was obvious that his condition was worse than what a mithril bullet would cause; just one shot had forced him to the brink of death.
Qianye remembered the mysterious blood energy that he had mixed in as he was infusing his bullet. Was this because of that?
Qianye was only shocked for a short moment before he moved on from these two dying vampires.
He charged into the night, chasing after the escaping vampire. Qianye did not immediately get into close quarters, but after gauging the distance, he raised his Light of Daybreak yet again, kneeling as he aimed and shot, all within one breath.
Light of Daybreak was already filled to the brim with origin power, condensing a new origin bullet. With a pull of the trigger, a bright light was ejected from the gun’s barrel, hitting that young vampire’s heart from behind!
The vampire cried out but actually did not collapse, running a few steps forward. At that moment, Qianye’s voice suddenly appeared next to his ear, “You can rest.”
A silver-coated dagger pierced deeply into his heart, allowing for the briefcase to steadily drop into Qianye’s hands.
Qianye simply checked the case once and noticed the complexity of the lock. This wasn’t something he could unlock. It seemed that he could only wait.
However, he still had other unfinished business. It was Sir Qi, of course.
He turned and sprinted towards Blackflow City, stopping only momentarily to find a hidden spot to hide the briefcase.
The truck was stuck at a place seventy kilometers away from Blackflow City. Qi Yue stood with the old man at the side of the road, while the guard lay under the car, changing between a few tools in his hands as if examining something.
After a while, his head popped out. “Young master, this is a problem in the transmission line! There’s a crack there, and all the steam has escaped, it’s no wonder it doesn’t move.”
Qi Yue furrowed his brows. “Was it sabotaged by someone?”
“That’s unlikely, it seems like it was scratched by a rock on the road.”
“Fuck! Those damned quartermasters! Couldn’t they have been less selfish!” After cursing, Qi Yue seemed to feel better as he asked again, “How long does it take to repair?”
“This is a small problem. Twenty minutes is enough, at most thirty.”
Hearing this, Qi Yue decided on waiting for the truck to be repaired.
This place was still quite far from Blackflow City. Walking would take two hours as well as a lot of energy, while waiting for the truck to be fixed and then driving back would also take two hours.
However, Qi Yue was still rather depressed. This mission was very important and the truck had been picked out carefully.. This model was supposed to be very good in tough wildlands, so he didn’t expect there to be a problem in just one trip.
Despite this, his overall mood was still not bad. He had completed an extremely important transaction that would not only increase his family position when he got back, but would also please that influential fellow.
That man was the top superior of his father. After establishing this relationship and completing training at the expeditionary army, he could surpass his father in the future. If he were lucky, he could possibly even climb a few levels and move to the upper continents.
Thinking about the future possibilities, Qi Yue did not feel upset anymore.
The guard had started repairing the truck after having moved some tools.
As Qianye moved closer under the cover of night, he saw exactly what he expected, the best result he could have.
The bottom of the truck’s transmission line was ruined by him. Such a little trick was nothing thanks to his background as a Red Scorpion; it was natural and seemed unlikely to be man made. What Qianye worried the most about was Qi Yue leaving the truck and walking back to the city, which would make him more troublesome to chase down and kill.
Luckily, Qi Yue was a lazy man just as described, and he had indeed chosen to wait for the the truck to be repaired.
Light of Daybreak was already recharged with origin power. This was the last origin bullet Qianye could fire tonight. Holding his breath, he patiently approached Qi Yue.
A hundred meters, ninety meters… all the way to thirty meters, Qianye still went unnoticed.
“Young master! The truck has been repaired!” the guard shouted as he climbed from underneath the truck.
Qianye immediately threw the grenade in his hands towards when he saw Qi Yue and the elder turned to the guard He then aimed his Light of Daybreak at the guard and pulled the trigger.
Seeing a black item flying their way, Qi Yue and the elder’s faces changed as he shouted “Grenade!” before the both of them leaped to the sides.
As they retreated, both stared at where the grenade landed. The body of a Fighter would always be stronger than a mortal’s, so this old method of using grenades was useful against normal people only. As such, if Qi Yue were to retreat five meters, he would at most suffer from superficial wounds without affecting his combat abilities.
The grenade landed and then rebounded up, shooting a ball of tin foil before becoming a bright light.
Without any chance of retaliation, the vision of both Qi Yue and the old man turned white as everything disappeared. The special flash grenade was useful against vampires, but at night, it could also be used against humans. This unexpected ploy was hard to counter.
Qianye shot his last origin bullet straight into the guard’s face, blowing up the guard’s face as he swung his Light of Daybreak.
The ten kilogram, old-style gun changed into a weapon in the air. It directly collided with the head of the blinded old man, causing blood to spill from his face, as he fell to the ground.
After that, Qianye moved in front of Qi Yue as though he were a ghost.
Only at this moment could Qi Yue forcefully open his eyes. They were red, swollen, and tearing up. Qianye’s fist heavily landed onto his abdomen, causing his body to curl up as he vomited, spilling undigested food mixed with sour water onto the ground
Qianye landed yet another fist on Qi Yue’s back. It was as though raging horses stampeded on him, smashing him to the ground. Qianye kicked Qi Yue in his face, using his full strength to send him flying along with his spilling blood and a dozen of teeth that also shot out.
With the enormous strength that seemed unfitting for Qianye’s body shape, only three attacks had completely destroyed Qi Yue’s ability to retaliate, causing this rank two Fighter to collapse on the ground, groaning.
Qianye slowly walked toward Qi Yue, squatted down, and patted his face. “Sir Qi, we meet again.”