novelraw Chapter 311: Aria
Chapter 311: Aria
The American cowboy leaned against a half-collapsed angel statue, his chest heaving violently like a bellows.
His pair of silver-plated Colt revolvers felt unusually heavy in his hands.
His palms were slick with cold sweat, to the point he could barely grip the handles.
That brief, sharp scream he heard moments ago was the last sound he had heard.
"That voice... was that Kamiya?!"
That Japanese man's blade was fast, so fast it could slice a fly out of mid-air.
But now, the master of that blade had become a corpse.
This didn't make sense.
This completely defied logic.
That man was clearly already injured.He had clearly been fighting that damn plague monster for so long.
He should have been exhausted, should have been as helpless as a dead dog waiting to be slaughtered.
Why?
Why were they the ones being toyed with as prey now?
"Come out! I know you're there!" The cowboy suddenly spun around, firing three shots in quick succession towards a patch of rustling bushes behind him.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The muzzle flashes tore through the darkness.
The bullets snapped dry branches and kicked up a cloud of dust.
No scream.
No sound of a body hitting the ground.
Only the rustle of wind through leaves, as if mocking his incompetence.
The cowboy swallowed hard.
His throat felt as dry as if he'd swallowed a handful of sand.
He was an experienced hunter.
He had tracked down bounty targets in the wilderness of the West and hunted man-eating bears in the Rocky Mountains.
He never feared a straight-up gunfight.
Even facing that German Iron Cross captain who only knew how to posture with a lousy gun, he was confident he could outdraw the man.
But he feared this kind of "invisible" enemy.
"Damn it..." he cursed under his breath, trying to use the sound to dispel the chill in his heart.
He decided to leave this place.
He didn't want any trophies anymore.
Let that Kraut stay and guard the place if he wanted.
He was going back to that damn carriage.
The cowboy took a deep breath and burst out from behind the statue.
While laying down suppressive fire behind him, he sprinted madly towards the western exit of the cemetery.
However, he had only taken his third step.
An incredibly faint glint of cold light flashed past his ankle.
There wasn't any intense pain.
He only felt a strange, sudden chill at the back of his heel, followed by the sensation of the solid ground beneath him vanishing.
His left foot lost all support the moment it landed.
It felt like stepping into a bottomless void, his body's balance shattered.
The cowboy's eyes widened in terror.
His body, caught in a high-speed sprint, uncontrollably pitched forward.
"Crack!"
He heard the sound of his own nose bridge breaking as it slammed into the base of a tombstone.
The violent pain made stars explode before his eyes, tears flooding out uncontrollably.
He struggled to get up.
As a desperado who had survived countless gunfights, an injury like this wasn't enough to take him out of the fight.
But he found he couldn't.
No matter how frantically his brain sent commands, his feet felt like two lumps of numb, rotten meat, lying limp on the ground.
He looked down, using the pale moonlight to examine the backs of his heels.
There were two hair-thin lines of blood.
Just now, in that single instant, that ghost-like Easterner had precisely severed the Achilles tendons of both his feet.
"Ahhh—!!!"
Despair finally overwhelmed his reason, and he let out a piercing shriek.
"Shut up."
A cold voice sounded above his head.
The cowboy looked up in terror.
He saw a face stained with blood, yet as calm as still water.
The Easterner stood before him, the folding knife in his hand not stained with a single drop of blood.
The cowboy instinctively tried to raise his gun.
But Lin Jie's movements were far faster.
A boot clad in tactical gear stomped down heavily on the cowboy's right wrist.
"Crack."
The sound of bone shattering was clearly audible.
The Colt slipped from the cowboy's hand and clattered to the side.
He opened his mouth to scream again, but Lin Jie's other foot had already kicked him squarely under the chin.
The force of the kick was immense, dislocating his jawbone and kicking all sound back down his throat.
Lin Jie didn't kill him.
For a gunslinger with severed Achilles tendons and a shattered right wrist, living was more despairing than death.
Besides, keeping him alive still had its uses.
Lin Jie bent down and unhooked an alchemical grenade decorated with eagle feathers from the cowboy's belt.
He hefted the grenade's weight, then looked towards the distant bell tower still standing in the darkness.
There, one remained.
The most troublesome one.
The Iron Cross captain stood on the bell tower's balcony, his face so dark it seemed to drip water.
He watched the figure collapse in the cemetery, his eyes holding not a shred of pity, only anger at incompetence.
Three elite hunters.
In less than five short minutes, two dead, one crippled.
And the opponent was just one person. One person who was already at the end of his rope.
This was utter disgrace.
"Very well." The Iron Cross captain ground out the words between his teeth.
He slowly raised the pistol wrapped in barbed wire, Discipline, in his hand. "You've succeeded in angering me."
In this hunting game, the hider had already lost.
Now was the time for the duel.
He leaped down from the balcony.
His black trench coat flapped violently in the night wind like a giant bat swooping down on its prey, landing steadily on the open ground in the center of the cemetery.
"Come out." The Iron Cross captain's voice was icy. "I know you're watching me."
No response.
Only the alchemical grenade decorated with eagle feathers flew out from the darkness and landed at the Iron Cross captain's feet.
The Iron Cross captain's pupils contracted slightly.
But he didn't dodge.
"Boom!"
The grenade exploded.
Flames and shrapnel engulfed the spot where he stood.
Dust and smoke billowed, obscuring vision.
Lin Jie hid behind a withered tree thick enough for three men to embrace, his Serene Heart already locked onto the center of the smoke cloud.
He hadn't expected a single grenade to finish this opponent.
But he needed to confirm one thing.
The smoke cleared.
A pale golden spherical barrier slowly dissipated around the Iron Cross captain's body.
He stood there completely unscathed, not even the hem of his trench coat singed.
"A defensive-type armament? No."
Lin Jie keenly caught the spiritual energy fluctuation as the barrier dissipated.
That was some kind of one-use alchemical protective talisman.
"Don't embarrass yourself by bringing out such childish toys." The Iron Cross captain sneered, suddenly raising Discipline in his hand and aiming it at the large tree where Lin Jie was hiding.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Three gunshots rang out almost simultaneously.
Lin Jie dove sideways the instant the shots were fired.
A bizarre scene unfolded.
The three bullets, which should have embedded themselves in the tree trunk, traced an arc in the air!
They were like venomous snakes with eyes, curving around the obstruction of the trunk to bite precisely at Lin Jie's moving body!
This was the core ability of Discipline.
Once locked on, the bullets would ignore cover until they hit their target or ran out of kinetic energy.
Lin Jie, mid-air with no leverage, could only twist his body as best he could.
"Thud!"
One bullet grazed his left shoulder, sending a spray of blood into the air.
Another struck the outside of his thigh; despite the protective layer of his hunting gear, it still embedded itself in the muscle.
Excruciating pain shot through him. Lin Jie staggered upon landing, nearly falling.
"Damn it," he muttered under his breath.
Law-based weapons like this were the most troublesome.
He quickly rolled into a sunken grave pit, temporarily evading follow-up shots.
"Run! Keep running!" The Iron Cross captain strode towards Lin Jie's position, his gun continuously spitting tongues of flame.
Every bullet curved in the air, compressing Lin Jie's space to survive.
Lin Jie swiftly weaved between tombstones while trying to find an opening to counterattack.
He raised his hand and fired two shots.
The bullets from Serene Heart shot silently towards the Iron Cross captain's chest.
But the Iron Cross captain reacted with extreme speed.
With just a slight shift of his body, he avoided the vital spots.
Furthermore, his trench coat seemed to be made of specially treated bulletproof material; bullets striking it merely caused his body to sway.
"Useless!" The Iron Cross captain laughed maniacally. "At this range, your little tricks can't save you!"
Lin Jie was being suppressed.
Discipline's suppressing power was too strong.
That cover-ignoring tracking ability made it impossible for him to stay in one place for more than two seconds.
"I have to break this rhythm."
Lin Jie's gaze sharpened.
He glanced at a marble mausoleum not far ahead. It was the sturdiest structure in the entire cemetery.
He took a deep breath, mustering his last reserves of strength, and charged towards that mausoleum.
"Trying to hide in a turtle shell?" The Iron Cross captain saw through his intent. "Dream on!"
He increased his firing rate, trying to gun Lin Jie down before he reached the mausoleum.
Several more bullets struck Lin Jie's back and arm, blood staining his clothes.
But he gritted his teeth against the impact and threw himself into the mausoleum's shadow.
The Iron Cross captain chased him to the mausoleum entrance. He didn't rush in recklessly but stopped at the doorway.
"You think you're safe hiding in there?" He pulled a black metal cylinder from his waist—a specially made high-explosive incendiary grenade. "Let's see how long you can hold your breath."
Just as he was about to throw the incendiary grenade into the mausoleum.
An intangible, obscure wave of power suddenly erupted from within the mausoleum!
It was the Cursebreaker Vambrace's Mode One: Curse Storm!
This curse power, specifically targeting precision machinery, pierced through the air and enveloped the Iron Cross captain's entire body.
The intricate mechanical delay fuse inside the alchemical incendiary grenade in his hand, which had been rapidly activating, instantly broke down under the curse's erosion; gears misaligned and jammed!
"Click."
Instead of the expected sound of the fuse igniting, there was only an awkward, brittle snap of a mechanism breaking.
Simultaneously, the revolving cylinder structure on Discipline in his other hand emitted a grating friction sound.
"Huh?"
The dual malfunction of his weapons caused a fatal pause in the Iron Cross captain's fluid movements.
He instinctively looked down at the incendiary grenade that had turned to scrap in his hand.
In that split second, Lin Jie burst out from the mausoleum!
His right fist slammed into the Iron Cross captain's chest.
But this punch wasn't meant to cause physical damage; it was to trigger a mechanism.
The probes inside the knuckleduster pierced Lin Jie's palm, completing the spiritual energy circuit.
White's Airspace!
While this pressure wasn't as effective as it was against UMAs, for hunters sensitive to spiritual perception, it was still a heavy blow.
The Iron Cross captain's body stiffened, his mind going momentarily blank.
Lin Jie seized this opportunity.
He pressed Serene Heart in his left hand against the Iron Cross captain's abdomen and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
"Bang!"
The bullet pierced through the Iron Cross captain's trench coat at close range and burrowed into his gut.
The Iron Cross captain grunted in pain, but he was, after all, an Iron Cross elite, with astonishingly formidable physical prowess.
Stimulated by the intense pain, he actually managed to forcibly break free from the pressure's restraint.
"Get off!"
He roared, swinging his left fist and smashing it into Lin Jie's shoulder.
The force of this punch was absurdly strong, actually sending Lin Jie flying backward to crash heavily against a tombstone.
Lin Jie felt as if his shoulder had shattered; a coppery, bloody taste surged up his throat.
"This guy's strength... is off."
The Iron Cross captain clutched his bleeding abdomen, taking a few steps back.
A savage grin spread across his face.
"Good... you're really good." He panted heavily, pulling a glass syringe filled with a dark red liquid from an inside pocket of his trench coat.
The liquid was as deep red as blood, and something seemed to be swimming inside it.
"Originally meant to save this for dealing with that monster." The Iron Cross captain looked at the syringe in his hand, a flash of madness in his eyes. "Since you're so eager to die, I'll let you witness... what true power is."
He plunged the syringe into his own carotid artery!
"Grrraaahhh—!"
Accompanied by a bone-chilling roar, the Iron Cross captain's body began to undergo violent changes.
The veins in his neck bulged, turning an eerie dark purple.
His eyes flooded with blood, becoming crimson red.
White steam erupted from his pores.
Grotesque Armament—Indulgence!
This was an extremely dangerous weapon, derived from the core extract of some Blood-sucking Species UMA.
It had only one ability: by injecting highly active, alien blood into the user's body, it forcibly accelerated the user's blood circulation and metabolism for a short period.
Threefold.
Fivefold.
Tenfold!
This terrifying acceleration granted the user strength, speed, and reflexes surpassing human limits.
Of course, the cost was burning the user's life force.
The Iron Cross captain's muscles bulged beneath his trench coat, straining the fabric taut.
His wounds were visibly stopping their bleeding and healing.
He raised his head, those crimson eyes fixed dead on Lin Jie.
"Now... round two begins."
His figure instantly vanished from his spot.
Fast! Too fast!
Lin Jie only had time to raise his arm.
"Thud!"
The Iron Cross captain's whip kick had already slammed into his arm.
Lin Jie felt as if he'd been hit by a high-speed train. His entire body was sent flying sideways seven or eight meters, crashing hard to the ground and tumbling several times before stopping.
His left arm was broken.
"What's wrong? Weren't you running around just fine earlier?" The Iron Cross captain laughed maniacally, charging forward again.
His speed was so fast it left afterimages in the air.
Although Discipline in his hand was no longer firing, he himself had become an even more lethal weapon.
Lin Jie could only dodge in a panic.
With the aid of Mental Staircase, he could barely track the trajectory of the other's movements.
But his body's reactions couldn't keep up with his consciousness.
He took another two punches and a kick. At least two ribs were broken, and his internal organs suffered severe concussive damage.
This was completely a one-sided slaughter.
"Die!"
The Iron Cross captain leaped high, bringing his foot down to stomp on Lin Jie's chest.
If this stomp landed squarely, Lin Jie's heart would be crushed instantly.
Lin Jie rolled on the ground, barely avoiding the stomp.
The Iron Cross captain's foot slammed into the ground, cratering the hard rock surface.
Flying stone chips cut Lin Jie's cheek.
Gasping for breath, Lin Jie leaned back against the base of a statue.
His vision was starting to blur. The disparity in strength was too great.
With the boost from Indulgence, the Iron Cross captain's physical capabilities had reached inhuman levels.
"I have to think of a way. I have to find the key to breaking this situation."
Lin Jie's mind remained coldly analytical even amidst the intense pain. His gaze fell on Silencer in his right hand.
"The speed at which the sensory-deprivation toxin takes effect depends on how fast it spreads through the bloodstream. Normally, the toxin needs a few seconds to circulate throughout the body."
"But now... this guy's blood flow rate must be several times faster than a normal person's under this intense activity. If... if I can get a single cut into him."
"Even just a small wound, the toxin will quickly circulate through his entire body! This double-edged sword will become the key to killing him!"
A flash of resolve passed through Lin Jie's eyes. He had no chance to attack proactively.
The only way was... bait.
Using the most fatal bait to buy that one single cut.
The Iron Cross captain charged again.
He was tired of this cat-and-mouse game; he wanted to end it.
Seeing Lin Jie pinned against the statue with no room to move, he aimed the butt of Discipline in his right hand and smashed it viciously towards Lin Jie's head!
This strike carried immense force and the determination to kill.
Lin Jie didn't dodge.
He even actively moved forward to meet it.
He raised his already broken left arm, forcefully intercepting the descending gun butt!
"Crack!"
His left arm screamed with the sound of bone shattering again. The intense pain made Lin Jie's vision go dark.
But he didn't fall.
Because his left hand had desperately grabbed the collar of the Iron Cross captain's trench coat!
At this moment, the distance between them was less than ten centimeters.
The Iron Cross captain was stunned for a moment.
He didn't understand why this Easterner would make such a suicidal move.
But the next second, he saw Lin Jie's pitch-black eyes.
Those eyes held no fear, only a sharpness like that of a scalpel.
"Got you."
Lin Jie whispered.
His right hand, Silencer, which had been hidden in the shadows all along, shot out like a venomous snake striking.
Not towards the heart, nor towards the throat.
At such close range, in this posture, the easiest place to attack was...
The Iron Cross captain's arm holding the gun, bulging with bluish-purple veins!
"Schlick!"
The sharp scalpel sliced open the major artery on his forearm.
The wound wasn't deep. Under normal circumstances, a wound like this would mean nothing to the Iron Cross captain.
But under the effects of Indulgence...
"Pssssh—!!!"
A jet of dark red blood shot out from the wound like a high-pressure water cannon!
It was a terrifying volume of hemorrhage caused by excessively high blood pressure.
But even more terrifying was that, along with the gushing blood, came the neurotoxin that had seeped into the wound.
In just an instant.
Not even a full second.
That tenfold-accelerated blood circulation acted like a highly efficient transport pump, delivering the toxin to every corner of the Iron Cross captain's body!
The savage grin on the Iron Cross captain's face suddenly froze.
His arm, raised high for a second strike, stiffened and halted mid-air.
He wanted to roar, to struggle.
But he found he could no longer feel his own body.
Sight, hearing, touch...
All his senses were forcibly severed in that instant.
Like a machine running at high speed suddenly having all its power cords yanked out.
"Wh...at... is... th..."
He couldn't even control his vocal cords to form words.
His massive body swayed from inertia, then toppled heavily forward.
He fell straight down, collapsing right on top of Lin Jie.
Those crimson eyes still held traces of the previous madness and disbelief.
But he had become a living dead man without sensation.
The hyper-metabolism brought by Indulgence had now become his most fatal executioner.
Lin Jie gasped for air, struggling to push the heavy body off him.
With trembling hands, he wiped the blood off Silencer on the Iron Cross captain's trench coat.
"Surgery... complete."
He leaned against the cold base of the statue, looking up at the clear moon overhead.
His body had reached its limit; every cell was screaming in protest.
But he had survived.
In this death game between vultures and hunters, he was the one who laughed last.