Chapter 21: See and Flee!
A swift figure clad in black, like a wisp of smoke, darted through the cold, desolate mountains of the planar battlefield.
"Hmm?"
This black phantom suddenly halted, quietly gazing into the distance. He had eyes as sharp as an eagle's, but the strangest thing about him was his bald head. His scalp had a dark, metallic sheen, as if coated with a thin layer of black iron, and upon it was a ring-like mark.
"Someone's there?" The bald young man stared into the distance. "An enemy!"
After confirming the identity, the bald young man didn't hesitate. "Whoosh!" With startling suddenness, his speed exploded, and he shot toward the distant black-robed figure like a meteor.
The black-robed man also spun his head around, clearly seeing him. Without a moment's hesitation, the black-robed man immediately fled with a "whoosh."
"You can't escape!" The bald young man's form flickered eerily.
A circular, earthy-yellow halo formed around the surrounding space, directly "trapping" the black-robed man who was trying to flee. Once caught in the earthy-yellow halo, the black-robed man's speed plummeted, and the bald young man seized this moment to catch up in an instant. He showed no mercy as he reached out his right hand.
The bald young man wore a black glove on his right hand.
His hand formed a claw, like a divine dragon's talon. As it cut through the air, it caused space itself to tremble, and in an instant, it landed on the black-robed man's shoulder. "Get lost!" the black-robed man growled, swinging his right leg up in a reverse kick aimed at his opponent.
"Crack!" A very clear sound rang out as the black-robed man's shoulder was shattered by the claw.
"Pretty tough." The bald young man was slightly surprised inwardly, but his hands showed no mercy.
As his right hand crushed the opponent's shoulder, he immediately followed through, grabbing directly at the black-robed man's head. As the claw swung forward, another eerie circular halo appeared around it, binding the surrounding space and preventing the black-robed man's head from dodging significantly.
"Pfft!" The five fingers of the right hand plunged diagonally into the skull, and the black-robed man's head exploded. The bald young man was confident: "Your leg won't reach me in time." In his view, once the black-robed man was dead, the attack would naturally cease.
"Bang!" But the black-robed man's right leg didn't lose any force, slamming directly into the bald young man's abdomen.
The bald young man tumbled and landed on the ground.
"No, it's a puppet!" The bald young man realized with a start. "It's a trap!"
"Pfft!" The bald young man stomped hard on the ground, and a circular halo appeared on his right foot as he did so. His entire body shot forward like an arrow. As he sprinted, he occasionally kicked off the ground, each stomp generating a circular halo and pushing his speed to a terrifying level.
Like lightning, after two or three stomps, he vanished from sight.
"That guy runs too fast!"
When Linley and Bebe emerged from the ground, they only caught a glimpse of the bald young man's retreating figure. Linley and Bebe could only sigh in frustration, leaning against the nearby rocks. "I just discovered him with the Death God Puppet, and in a blink, he realized it was a puppet, a trap! He didn't even stop, just fled immediately. What a shame!" Linley had to shake his head.
"Nothing gained at all." Bebe pouted, then turned his head to look at the headless Death God Puppet in the distance. "And we lost a Death God Puppet. Boss, who was that guy?"
"Koroid! A very powerful commander from the Earth Plane who prefers to work alone." Linley smiled. Through the Death God Puppet, Linley had seen Koroid's moves. From that signature technique alone, Linley could fully identify Koroid. "But this Koroid doesn't even have a single Sovereign Artifact. We could have killed him."
Linley felt a deep regret.
A perfect opportunity, but Koroid was too cautious. The moment he sensed a trap, he fled without a second's hesitation.
"Doesn't have a single Sovereign Artifact and he's still strong?" Bebe frowned.
"According to the intel your Grandpa Beirut gave me, Koroid just doesn't want to be bound or become a Sovereign's emissary, so he has no Sovereign Artifact. But even so, killing him is still an incredibly difficult task." Linley sighed. "A powerhouse of the Laws of the Earth! From what I saw of his Law comprehension, he's fused at least five profound mysteries."
The claw that shattered the Death God Puppet's shoulder contained five profound mysteries.
The Death God Puppet was like mud in his grasp.
Just as Linley and Bebe were communicating telepathically, Linley's peripheral vision caught a figure in the distance. He quickly turned to look—about two or three hundred meters away, a black-clad figure was lurking quietly, seemingly observing the Death God Puppet lying on the ground.
Linley suddenly grew excited. "Bebe, there's a target, about three hundred meters to the right."
"A target?" Bebe also turned to look.
At that moment—
The black-clad figure in the distance also noticed two figures leaning against a rocky crevice not far away. In that instant, the black-clad man and Linley locked eyes.
Linley was startled and immediately sent a mental message to Bebe: "Bebe, this black-clad man—I can't sense any badge aura from him. He's from the enemy camp. Attack!" The closer the badge aura, the clearer the sensation. Linley and the opponent were only about three hundred meters apart.
Normally, even if it wasn't clear, he should have been able to sense some badge aura.
But he sensed nothing—
"Haha, we lost one, but we attracted another. Gaga!" Bebe was ecstatic.
This black-clad man had indeed been drawn by the commotion from the bald young man's stomps. He had been lurking and watching from a distance. Linley and Bebe's position was also quite concealed, and it happened to give them a clear view of the black-clad man's location.
"Hmph." The black-clad man calmly turned to flee.
"Run?"
Linley's first reaction was to release the "Gravitational Space." A massive, earthy-yellow light shield instantly expanded outward, covering a radius of five hundred meters centered on Linley. The Gravitational Space spread far faster than the black-clad man could run. The moment he moved, he was caught in the Gravitational Space.
Maximum gravity, pulling toward Linley!
"Gravity space? Such strong gravity. And it's pulling me backward!"
The black-clad man was shocked and turned to look. Linley, already dragonformed, and Bebe had turned into a cyan and a black blur, shooting toward him at incredible speed.
"Chasing me?" The black-clad man didn't resist but chose to flee.
Going directly against the gravity, trying to escape—how could he be fast?
"Trying to run?" Linley stared intently at the black-clad man, pursuing at top speed. In Linley's eyes, this black-clad man was equivalent to a gold badge. Every gold badge could save one of his father or brothers. In the pursuit, in just the blink of an eye, the distance between them had shrunk to a few dozen meters.
Within the Gravitational Space, the black-clad man's speed was severely hampered.
The black-clad man was also enraged!
"I don't want to fight the two of you. Let me leave." A mental message echoed in Linley and Bebe's minds. "Or don't blame me for being rude!"
"You still want to leave? And be rude?" Linley smiled.
"Bebe, we can attack now. At this distance, he can't escape." Linley sent a mental message.
"Don't worry, Boss." Bebe smiled confidently.
At that moment—
"You're asking for death!" The patient black-clad man suddenly whipped out a dagger in a reverse grip.
"Whoosh!"
A black light shot toward Linley at terrifying speed—so fast that Linley couldn't dodge in time.
"So fast!" In desperation, Linley thrust his Mirage Divine Sword straight forward—
"Pfft!"
The tip of the Mirage Divine Sword collided with the tip of the dagger.
Linley felt a terrifyingly powerful force transmit from the point of impact, through the Mirage Divine Sword, and into his arm. "Crackle~" The dragon scales on his right hand, which gripped the sword, were shattered by the shock, and blood seeped out. Linley himself was knocked backward by the force.
As Linley retreated, the Gravitational Space centered on him naturally moved back as well, allowing the black-clad man to break free from its range!
"Sovereign Artifact!" Linley was shocked.
The distance between the black-clad man and Linley had increased, but not between him and Bebe!
"Boss!" Bebe was instantly enraged.
A hazy, enormous phantom of a Soul-Purging Rat appeared behind Bebe once again. The black-clad man turned to look and was terrified, his face turning pale. "How... how is this possible? Beirut's innate divine ability!!!" Beirut's name was known across all planes. Even if one had never seen Beirut use this move, many had seen recordings of his signature technique.
"No—" The black-clad man tried to send another mental message.
But the speed of the innate divine ability was comparable to the speed of mental communication.
And Bebe had activated his innate divine ability first, so the black-clad man didn't even have a chance to plead!
"Hum~"
A strange wave swept through the black-clad man's mind, and a divine spark floated out from his head. His entire body collapsed weakly. The black dagger, which had been flying back to him, fell to the ground, along with a white badge that dropped from his body.
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!"
Linley and Bebe landed directly in front of the black-clad man's corpse.
Linley was dumbfounded. "What? A white badge?" He stared at the white badge on the ground, unable to believe it.
In this battle, the two major camps were the Radiant Divine Realm, whose commanders had gold badges, and whose soldiers had white ones.
"He was a soldier?" Linley couldn't comprehend it.
Someone with a Sovereign Artifact could be a soldier?
"Boss, we need to leave. This place is too dangerous." Bebe urged.
Linley snapped back to reality. Without hesitation, Linley and Bebe quickly collected the spatial ring, the Sovereign Artifact dagger, and the white badge, then flew away.
Inside a cave hidden halfway up a large mountain.
"These people all have avatars outside. Killing him, we can't blood-bond the Sovereign Artifact or the spatial ring." Bebe said angrily and helplessly. "But forget the Sovereign Artifact—the Sovereign will take it back anyway. The spatial ring, though, must have had a lot of stuff inside. What a shame. What a shame."
Linley stared at the white badge. "He was a soldier!"
"That's really weird. Having a Sovereign Artifact and being a soldier?" Bebe muttered.
Linley's mind suddenly stirred, and he understood many things. He shook his head helplessly. "Bebe, I get it now. We targeted the wrong person."
"What do you mean?" Bebe asked, puzzled.
Linley sighed. "Bebe, didn't you notice? When that black-clad man saw us, his first reaction was to leave immediately. When we chased him, his second reaction was to warn us, saying he didn't want to fight and that if we kept pushing, he'd attack. Why didn't he want to fight? With a Sovereign Artifact, why run? I think... it's because he was on our side."
"Our side?" Bebe was stunned.
"Yes." Linley said helplessly. "I think this guy was a commander from our camp. But he removed his commander badge and blood-bonded an enemy soldier's badge instead, becoming an enemy soldier. By blood-bonding the enemy soldier's badge, once he got close to an enemy commander, he could sense their aura, easily find them, and even ambush them—killing two birds with one stone! But the only downside is that he'd be attacked by people from his own camp!"
Disguising as an enemy had its benefits, but also its drawbacks.
Poor black-clad man. He had fallen victim to Linley and Bebe's hands.