Chapter 66: Pursuit
"It seems it really isn't Ranzo."
From beneath the black hood, a low male voice emerged. The light distorted, and the hooded man vanished—coming and going without a trace, striking only with storm-like attacks to kill the enemy. This was the true art of stealth.
Thunder, shield walls, a black shadow darted through. Ranzo and his two companions had already broken out of the tavern. In truth, not too many lone wolves were surrounding them. A third of the lone wolves were fixated on Babatray, another third had already left to chase Su Xiao, and the remaining third were torn between attacking Ranzo and just going through the motions.
After Babatray was taken down in an instant, the lone wolves in the tavern understood what had happened. Either Ranzo had taken Roger's sidearm, or the sniper who fired first had gotten it. There was no other possibility.
"It's the sniper."
"I think it's more like Ranzo's sob story."
"That guy... can he really pull off a sob story?"
The contractors in the tavern flashed away, and moments later, only Babatray remained, lying on the ground, twitching, black blood spurting from his entire body.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle...
Babatray's muscles writhed. With a crack, his back split open, and a pair of claws—skinless, with exposed muscle—thrust out, dripping with gore.
"Poison Serpent! Sniper!!"
The roar spread outward from the tavern as its epicenter. The glass windows of surrounding buildings shattered instantly. The stealth-type contractor who had fled the tavern smirked.
"Babatray... seems pissed."
The stealth-type contractor glanced at the two Soul Crystals (Large) in his hand, feeling some admiration for Ranzo's decisiveness. If he had been the one taking the blame and getting surrounded, he might have escaped, but he definitely couldn't have pulled it off as perfectly as Ranzo—getting away cleanly while shifting the blame and gaining a temporary ally.
Outside the tavern, Ranzo and his two companions stood atop a residential building.
"Chase my ass. We're not running."
Ranzo cursed under his breath at the lone wolves behind him. These lone wolves weren't exactly easygoing either. Some flipped him off, while others cursed out over a dozen generations of his female direct-line relatives.
"Let them follow. If you really didn't take the sidearm, they're all helpers."
Mask spoke up. The reason she chose to cooperate with Ranzo was to guard against the possibility that he had taken Roger's sidearm. Sometimes, staying close to the enemy wasn't a bad thing. With so many lone wolves behind them, Mask wasn't afraid that Ranzo and Iron Tank would team up against her.
Iron Tank remained silent. He was the type who said little but was ruthless. His cooperation with Ranzo wasn't for profit but to honor some promise.
"Tank, how many shots can you block from that guy?"
Ranzo looked at Iron Tank.
"Three."
"Enough." Ranzo shifted his gaze to Mask. "Little wildcat, no problem tracking him?"
Hearing the nickname "little wildcat," Mask's eyes narrowed.
"Call me a cat again, and I'll make that video public. I'm a leopard."
The black tight suit at Mask's neck spread upward over her head. This was actually a set of soft-metal light exo-armor.
The soft metal enveloped Mask's head, forming a tech-heavy helmet. The two cat ears on top were especially conspicuous. This was a wildcat longing to be a leopard.
Once the head armor appeared, the exo-armor at Mask's tailbone generated a tail that looked like it belonged to a feline.
The black cat tail swayed. The detection device in front of Mask's eyes activated. The world turned black and white, with only living beings showing up in red.
Beep, beep, beep...
An electronic tone came through, and red light flickered in Mask's eyes.
"Twelve humans are moving toward the outskirts of Sector 21. Excluding eight of them, the remaining four have bio-energy readings of: 26, 35, 43, 279. That's him, no mistake. Moving fast, now stopped. This guy sensed me detecting him, but he didn't pinpoint my location."
"That's him. Chase!"
Ranzo cracked his knuckles, and the lightning around him grew even more violent.
"Then let's roll."
The ground beneath Mask's feet cracked in a wide web. With a boom, she shot out like a black shadow.
Whoosh, whoosh...
Mask leaped between buildings like a black cat. An arc of electricity flashed beside her—it was Ranzo, moving even faster.
"You even know the way?!"
Mask called out as she charged ahead, her tone teasing.
"Of course... I don't."
Ranzo sped up even more. He didn't know exactly where the target was, but he could judge the direction Mask was heading.
Whoosh, whoosh...
Figures darted between the buildings. By now, any lone wolf who wasn't brain-dead had figured out what was going on.
Thud, thud, thud...
Heavy footsteps came. Iron Tank was strong, but his speed was a weakness. Each step he took felt like the ground was shaking.
With a splat, a monster covered in blood and gore leaped near Iron Tank. It looked like a lizard standing upright, reeking of sour, bloody flesh.
"Calm down."
Iron Tank was as sparing with words as ever, but unfortunately, this monster was furious to the point of losing its mind and lunged straight at him.
...
On the east side of Sector 21, atop a domed building, Su Xiao gripped the spire with one hand, his gaze fixed westward. Enemies were coming.
Though Su Xiao couldn't tell who was chasing him, about a dozen seconds ago, he felt someone observing him. That prickling sensation on his spine was impossible to ignore, and it was persistent.
"Already found, huh."
Su Xiao pulled out a remote device, roughly calculated the time, and after entering a complex code, crushed the remote in his hand.
Two kilometers from Su Xiao, Ranzo and Mask were heading straight for him, both moving at high speed.
Mask stepped lightly on a glass skylight. Without the glass breaking, she had already leaped far ahead.
Mid-leap, Mask raised her arm. A virtual screen popped up from her left forearm, displaying a map of the entire Shampoo Islands.
There were six points on the map. Gold represented her, blue was Ranzo, cyan was Iron Tank, black was a certain stealth-type contractor, gray was Babatray, and blood-red was Su Xiao.
"He's stopped."
Mask's marking ability was some kind of rare skill. As long as she detected an enemy remotely and they were within 20 kilometers of her, she could mark their location and track them.
"Good."
Ranzo only wanted one thing now: kill that sniper and get out.
"Babatray, after going berserk, is fighting Iron Tank. Iron Tank's not in a good spot."
Mask tried to zoom in on the map, but the distance was too great to get an image of that area. She had only launched a small satellite above the Shampoo Islands, and its detection range was limited.
"Don't worry about it. He's asking for it."
Ranzo's face was expressionless.
"Ungrateful bastard. Iron Tank was so sincere, and you're abandoning him?"
Mask taunted. As a solo player, she wasn't afraid of the brigade at all.
"I said Babatray was asking for it."
...
Near the Gunpowder Tavern, the thick smell of gunpowder hung in the air. A man wrapped entirely in steel, about two meters tall, stood atop a pile of rubble—it was Iron Tank.
Hum~
A powerful suction force erupted from Iron Tank's hand. With a crash, debris flew everywhere, and a longsword—more like a bladed spike—shot toward him.
The spike-sword was sucked into Iron Tank's left hand. His right arm was encased in a massive gauntlet with a hole in the center.
Iron Tank loaded the spike-sword into the gauntlet. The gauntlet bent back, and with a crisp click, a shell casing ejected from it.
"One piece... gold set... and we'll pretend... today never happened."
A fragmented voice came from the rubble.
Boom!
The spike-sword pierced through the rubble, and a mangled claw flew up.
"Die."
After Iron Tank uttered the word "die," he collapsed to the ground with a thud.