Chapter 165 Attack from the Sky <TOC> Chapter 167 Harvest
Translator: SumTLMan
Algernon leaped from the hovercraft, trudging through waist-high weeds, and discovered a plume of feathers that had been knocked down.
It was a wing feather as long as a forearm, reflecting a dazzling, metallic blue sheen. There was a bullet hole left by a railgun round.
The railgun he used came from the Scarmaggio family, employing advanced pre-cataclysm technology. The tungsten alloy bullets it fired could easily penetrate light armor.
Now, a tungsten alloy round was lodged in the feather, its rigid casing twisted and distorted, still faintly warm to the touch.
This feather was even more resilient than armor of the same thickness.
Aerial psychic creatures capable of flight usually didn’t possess strong defenses due to their weight, but clearly, the ones they encountered this time were no ordinary creatures.
“It’s a giant bird, likely from the falconiformes order.”
Algernon collected the feather.
“Light control, based on its size, one person’s worth of meat won’t be enough to satiate it. After finishing its prey, it will return to hunt again.”
Everyone on the hovercraft immediately extinguished all lights, even putting out their cigarette butts.
A supersonic psychic creature was the last enemy any traveler in the wilderness would want to face. Lacking mobility advantages and anti-air weaponry, they could only passively endure attacks from aerial psychic creatures.
“Who was taken?”
“The navigator. We might get lost in the swamp now.”
They were at least eighty kilometers away from Raginbeard. Although heading north would undoubtedly lead them to the Xindu Federation, doing so would be too dangerous. It was easy to lose one’s way in the swamp, and if the hovercraft’s electric power was depleted, everyone would be trapped in the vast marsh.
A silence fell over the group. Having been targeted by a terrifying flying psychic creature and losing their way in the great swamp, they hadn’t anticipated such misfortune upon leaving Raginbeard.
This was not a good omen.
A sense of unease rose within everyone.
“We should return to Raginbeard and find another navigator.”
Someone suggested.
Although the Scarmaggio family was powerful and wealthy, it wasn’t worth risking their lives for. Besides, going back to find another navigator didn’t mean giving up the mission.
Besame and Alfred hesitated. As people who had watched Miss Demos grow up, they knew her character all too well.
Demos is highly assertive and impetuous; she desires immediate gratification and anyone who disappoints her ultimately faces dire consequences. Even they cannot guarantee that they will not face Demos’ wrath upon their return.
Without a navigator, traveling to the Orissa jurisdiction is indeed extremely perilous.
Given their statuses, it is impossible for the two of them to force the assassins to take such considerable risks and continue onward. If they were to do so, it would only result in a mutiny among the assassins, causing the situation to spiral out of control.
No one had anticipated that this seemingly foolproof assignment would lead to a dilemma right from the start.
The swamp in the darkness resembled the lightless depths of the ocean, thoroughly trapping them.
“I believe the situation is not that simple. There are nearly thirty people on the hovercraft, and the psychic creature very precisely targeted the navigator. Clearly, someone is orchestrating this from behind the scenes and is highly familiar with our personnel.”
A voice chimed in.
“Are you the one called Viper? A mere star-level assassin, do you have any right to speak here?”
An irritable assassin retorted, only wanting to return to Raginbeard, uninterested in hearing any analysis.
“No, his point is valid. Zefenaya is an experienced, cautious old navigator. Before the attack, he was deliberately hiding behind me and Kite. If the psychic creature were merely hunting, it would not have targeted him among the numerous simpler targets.”
Ralph, a manipulator-type awakened individual with a modified mechanical arm, remarked.
If an assassin had a simplistic mindset, they would not survive for long. Everyone felt an ominous premonition. The Scarmaggio family was known for manipulating various awakened individuals and psychic creatures.
Even if the psychic creature were to land on the ground, not all of the assassins present could guarantee their victory against it. An ordinary manipulator-type awakened individual would be incapable of freely controlling such a powerful psychic creature, let alone directing it to target specific individuals from a distance.
“It appears we have become entangled in the Scarmaggio family’s internal strife. The enemy might have already set up an ambush on our return route.”
Algernon remarked somewhat helplessly.
“What should we do then, just wait to die in the swamp? If you ask me, we should just disperse, each relying on their own abilities. Those who want to return to Raginbeard can do so, while those who want to continue the assignment can do that.”
An impatient assassin suggested.
“I think you’re the mole. It’s better for everyone to stay together. If we split up, who can withstand the aerial hunting of that flying psychic creature?!”
Someone immediately disagreed.
“Blame your bad luck if you get killed.”
The assassin is particularly confident in his own stealth capabilities and is unwilling to follow the majority in their actions.
Soon, a trend towards internal strife emerged among the assassins on the hovercraft. Marauders inherently possess a selfish nature, and now that the risks of the mission have exceeded some people’s expectations, they don’t want to get involved in the Scarmaggio family’s affairs.
The Shen siblings were dumbfounded, not expecting the favorable situation to disintegrate in an instant. They didn’t have much time left, as the intel on the Ore could be exposed at any moment.
The thought of the Sun God’s Light possibly falling into the hands of others made Shen Xingyu feel as if his heart was being bitten by a snake.
“Perhaps I have a solution,” Viper stepped forward and said.
“What solution could you possibly have?”
“I possess a holy relic – Danger Intuition, which allows me to sense imminent lethal threats in advance. Although I can’t determine the correct route as directly as a navigator, I can avoid those fatal threats without a problem.”
“Danger Intuition?! So that’s where the descender’s holy relic ended up,” an assassin exclaimed.
Last year, there was an incident involving the infiltration of the descender in Raginbeard. A member of the descenders disguised himself as a human and tried to sabotage the radiation generator within the city.
He possessed the ability to foresee danger, and the Scarmaggio family exhausted a considerable amount of resources but still failed to capture him. It was said that the descender eventually escaped into the sewer system of Raginbeard, only to astonishingly end up in the hands of the lucky Viper.
Danger Intuition was an extremely valuable holy relic.
“Bang!”
A sudden gunshot rang out, and an assassin quickly drew his gun, firing directly at the back of Li Mu’s head.