Chapter 32: Fangs
Su Xiao and the assistant stood against the wall, both inside a collective dormitory. It was eight in the evening, and there were at least several hundred soldiers in the dormitory.
Their unusual behavior immediately drew the attention of nearby soldiers, who rose from their bunks and looked at Su Xiao and the assistant with confusion.
"Hey, you two, what are you doing?"
A soldier picked up a pistol from his bedside, chambering a round. Seeing this, the other soldiers pulled various firearms from under their beds.
At this distance, Su Xiao wasn't afraid of these soldiers holding guns.
"This is the commander's order!" the assistant suddenly shouted.
"Order?"
The soldiers exchanged glances. They had never heard of a custom of standing at attention as punishment in the military camp.
"Don't waste words with them. That guy looks suspicious no matter what."
A soldier aimed his rifle at Su Xiao. Meeting Su Xiao's gaze, at that moment, whether it was an illusion or not, the soldier felt a chill run through his entire body.
"Pumpkin with extra sugar tastes best!" the assistant yelled.
The surrounding soldiers were stunned, suspecting the assistant's head had been hit by a door.
"Commander, I can't hold them off anymore. What should I do~" the assistant whispered, her face bitter.
"Hands on your head. Squat down."
Su Xiao flexed his fingers, scanning the surroundings.
"You two, stop muttering! Hands on your heads! Squat down!"
A soldier carrying a heavy machine gun roared. If Su Xiao and the assistant weren't wearing the military uniforms of the Sun Kingdom, these soldiers would have already opened fire. Killing friendly troops within the fortress was a serious crime, potentially causing panic.
Under the dual commands of Su Xiao and the Sun Kingdom soldiers, the assistant squatted down with her hands on her head, curling up in the corner.
"You squat down too, or I'll shoot," the soldier with the heavy machine gun said, raising his weapon to indicate Su Xiao should comply.
Su Xiao slowly raised his hands, then hooked the index finger of his left hand.
Zzzz~
A metal wire shot out, precisely wrapping around the heavy machine gun. At the same time, Dragon-Slaying Flash appeared in Su Xiao's hand.
Streaks of pale blue blade aura flew out. Before the dozens of soldiers could react, the blade aura had already sliced through their bodies.
With a crash, large sections of bunks collapsed. Severed limbs fell to the ground, blood splattering everywhere.
A soldier in a gray shirt instinctively tried to raise his gun, but there was nothing in his hands—or rather, he no longer had hands as a component.
Zheng.
A silver-blue thread passed before this soldier's eyes, and his vision plunged into complete darkness.
The blade aura flashed. Su Xiao cut down the soldiers surrounding him in a few strokes. Under the edge of a Legendary +13 blade, these men were like chopping vegetables. Large amounts of blood sprayed into the air, and before the blood could even hit the ground, he had already charged through the crowd.
"Enem—"
Swish. The long sword cut through the air. Before the voice could rise, the one who made it fell straight down.
Su Xiao weaved through the crowd, his long sword flipping left and right. Severed limbs and heads flew up. After he sent out streaks of blade aura, the soldiers who had gotten up from their bunks stood frozen in place.
Zheng.
A metal-framed bunk bed was cut in two by the blade aura, the upper half crashing to the ground with a clang.
Cut marks appeared on the surrounding walls. Large amounts of blade aura nearly filled the entire dormitory. Apart from the spiral steel-made firearms, nothing else could block the blade aura.
Bang, bang...
The dense gunfire sounded like popping beans. After a moment, the gunfire stopped.
The assistant remained squatting in the corner with her hands on her head. A long, hard, black object flew toward her, eventually hitting her with a dull thud.
The assistant in the corner groaned in pain. With a bang, the heavy machine gun fell to the ground. The assistant looked up, and after seeing the scene before her, her pupils rapidly contracted.
"Ka~" the assistant made an indistinct sound. With a sizzle, sparks flew as a hanging lamp swung in midair. The collective dormitory looked like it had been hit by a typhoon.
Drip, drip...
Blood dripped from the tip of the blade. Su Xiao flicked his long sword and quickly walked toward the assistant.
"Don't just stand there. Hold this thing and keep squatting with your hands on your head."
"Oh, oh, okay."
The assistant picked up the heavy machine gun with one hand while keeping the other on her head as she squatted in the corner. Although she didn't understand why, her commander, holding a long sword, was definitely dozens of times more terrifying than usual.
Blood spread across the floor. Several hundred soldiers lay dead. If they had formed up and used their firearms, Su Xiao would have been no match. But in close combat, these people couldn't cause any trouble.
Su Xiao tensed his lower abdomen, pressed two fingers hard, and slowly squeezed a bullet out of the wound.
Tink~
The bloodstained bullet casing hit the ground. The shot Su Xiao took was from a pistol, or it would have been a penetrating wound.
Su Xiao held the sword in one hand, standing upright with his back against the wall. Dense footsteps reached his ears.
Buzz, buzz...
A piercing alarm sounded, making Su Xiao think slightly higher of the Sun Kingdom military's alertness. This alarm wasn't due to the situation on the fourth floor but because of the sense of crisis on the second floor.
The footsteps grew closer. The assistant, squatting with one hand on her head, released the safety on the heavy machine gun, ready to spray the reinforcements.
"3, 2, 1."
Su Xiao stepped over to the assistant, extending one hand forward flat. An energy shield with 700 points of strength appeared before him—the strongest energy shield he could form.
This energy shield had a special shape, forming an L, capable of blocking impacts from the front and below.
Just as Su Xiao formed the energy shield, a large group of soldiers assembled on the second floor of Saintly Gate Fortress.
"Hurry, find out what it is!" a sergeant roared, sensing the sense of crisis emanating from Apollo. Even ordinary civilians could feel this sensation—it was Apollo's greatest weakness.
The place where Su Xiao hid Apollo was very secretive, and he had also set up a trap there.
The soldiers on the second floor began searching through boxes and cabinets. The increasingly intense sense of crisis made blood vessels bulge in their eyes. Inside the fortress, fleeing was a capital offense.
A soldier carrying a metal device stood at the bottom of the stairs on the second floor. He glanced at the device in his hand, then looked down the stairs. At the deepest part of the stairwell, a gelatinous substance the size of an apple was gradually expanding and heating up, scorching the surrounding walls.
In front of this gelatinous substance was a bear trap, very obvious. Unless someone was blind, they wouldn't be hurt by this intricately designed "bear trap."
"Found it!" the soldier shouted, having discovered Apollo. Out of caution, he didn't reach out to touch Apollo, but the metal device in his hand brought disaster. This device was a detection apparatus.
Click, click...
The faint sound of mechanisms opening came from the bear trap in front of Apollo. The metal teeth on it stood up one by one. This item was called [Ejecting Fang], Gold quality, with the following effect:
Type: One-time item (Bear Trap)
Effect: Can be placed at any location. Once successfully placed, Ejecting Fang will enter a stealth state. When any target triggers Ejecting Fang (no friendly/enemy distinction), it will deal 600 points of damage to the target and forcibly immobilize them for 2 to 10 seconds, depending on the target's Strength attribute.
Tip: Ejecting Fang can maintain its optimal state for 120 hours after activation.
Tip: If Ejecting Fang is detected, the internal mechanisms will fully activate. Ejecting Fang will explode, shooting metal teeth within a 10-meter radius. There are 31 metal teeth in total, each dealing 120 points of damage. In a sealed environment, all metal teeth can bounce 8 to 9 times, with each bounce increasing the damage value by 30%.