Chapter 3.6 - Soldier
“What type of unusual characteristics do you think the Blue Scorpions possess?” Su asked.
“They were either disciplined strictly, or they do not have any genitals like gelded warhorses, tools purely used for war. I am personally leaning towards the latter.” After speaking, Enzo’s face became even more downcast.
Su silently nodded. A portion of Enzo’s words validated the scenes shown through the void world, but he still wasn’t willing to admit that everything that happened in the void world was reality, a type of reality that he currently didn’t have any explanations for.
“Let’s take a look up there.” Su pointed towards a five floor apartment building on the other side and said, “We have to be careful. At the rooftop, we should be able to see Blue Scorpion’s current camp.”
Su ran up and passed through the wide street in a fast and nimble manner. Then, as if he was a gecko without any weight, he crawled straight up the side of the apartment building facing the street. In just a few seconds, he already disappeared over the apartment building rooftop. During this entire process, Su didn’t release the slightest bit of sound.
In Enzo’s eyes, Su simply became a ghost without any weight or substance. He was even willing to bet that after seeing Su’s current performance, even within the Black Dragonriders, there weren’t many officers who would be willing to fight to the death against Su in a city or ruin environment. Of course, there was no way Curtis would allow just anyone to become an officer. He was a monster.
Climbing five floors was quite easy for Enzo during normal training, to the point where he would only release an insignificant amount of noise while doing so, just like the sound a cat made when landing on the ground. However, most of his stamina had been consumed, and many of his movements were starting to show slight deviations. As such, climbing this apartment building was already quite a difficult task.
Enzo still began to increase his speed, and he used this momentum to jump to the fourth floor. Then, his entire body leapt up and caught the edge of the roof before flipping himself over.
Enzo tried to slow down his breathing as much as possible. He crawled over to the edge of roof and moved next to Su. He gazed over the other side, and his expression involuntarily changed greatly. In a low voice, he said, “What is that?!”
“I do not know either. Li never mentioned that thing. It seems like it had just recently arrived.” Su replied in a soft voice.
The other side of the apartment building was the central plaza of Pendulum City. Blue Scorpion’s camp was located precisely in this central plaza. Over ten large military tents had been raised in the plaza; it seemed like Blue Scorpion didn’t seem to like occupying abandoned buildings. Five tanks of various models were parked on one side of the camp, and among them, there was even a main battle tank. However, what almost made Enzo cry out were not these tanks, but instead a strange vehicle on the other side of the plaza.
It used the chassis of a main battle tank, but it wasn’t one completely continuous track, and instead, there were three individual smaller scale continuous tracks on each of its sides. With the suspension system that the Black Dragonriders used as comparison, it wasn’t hard to imagine that when necessary, it was quite possible for it to ‘walk’ with those six leg-like parts.
On top of its base was not a cannon, but instead an enormous mechanical body that was shaped like the upper body of a human! The dark black body was filled with mechanical aesthetics, and at the end of its arms were a six-barrelled machine cannon and a large caliber recoilless gun. Its mechanical body was covered in shiny alloy armor, and the shining Blue Scorpion design on its back was extremely eye-catching. On its head were eight electronic eyes, and each of them released different types of radiance, clearly equipped with different probing capabilities.
Its head continuously turned about, coldly inspecting the surroundings of the plaza. It didn’t seem like this half machine body had any room for a person to sit in, and the outer shell didn’t have any observation windows or passage installations. It didn’t seem like there was anyone operating it from the inside either. Could it be that this was a fully intelligent war machine?
“This fellow looks extremely troublesome. Can the ‘bronze dragon’ defeat it?” Su asked.
At this moment, Enzo did everything he could to slow down his body’s activity. Each time that strange and sinister looking mechanical figure’s head turned this way, he always had a feeling as if he had been locked on by someone.
“I don’t know either. It should be effective, so let’s try it first. I say that we should leave. We’ll be discovered if we stay any longer.” Enzo said.
“You leave first. I’ll follow soon after.” Su said.
Enzo didn’t try to persuade him otherwise and backed up in a slow and careful manner. When he was looking for a place to place his feet on, a fist sized metal sphere suddenly appeared in front of him. Eight fine blasts of blue flames were released from the sphere’s body, allowing it to float in the air. At the center of the sphere was a red electronic eye, and at this moment, its field of view currently covered Enzo’s head!
At that instant, a shrill alarm sound tore through Pendulum City’s peace! Enzo’s response was extremely decisive, directly jumping off the fifth floor building. While still in midair, a shot was fired as soon as his arm was raised! The bullets of the rapid-fire pistol accurately struck down on the detector sphere’s electronic eye, blasting it into components in midair.
Enzo’s left hand pulled on the window sill, slightly buffering his falling momentum. When he landed on the ground, he tumbled several times in succession to completely neutralize the kinetic energy. Then, he immediately leapt up and dashed towards the pre-planned route of retreat.
Su was like a dead leaf as he lightly fell onto the ground as light as a feather. The momentum was neutralized with just a squat, and then he chased after Enzo. In just a few steps, he was already running shoulder to shoulder with Enzo.
At this moment, a bizarre screaming sound tore through the air behind them. The two dragonriders who possessed ample battlefield experience could tell without looking that what flew over wasn’t a highly explosive shell but a high speed guided missile.
Su suddenly pushed down on Enzo’s body, pressing him onto the ground with overwhelming force. Who would have expected that Enzo would suddenly exert force and flip around to press Su against the floor?!
A ferocious explosion erupted less than twenty meters away from them. The high apartment building they had just stood on collapsed, and several meters long chunks of cement flew through the air. Countless fragments of brick and wood smashed downwards from the skies!
The explosion had just ended when Enzo immediately stood up in spite of the falling bricks. Su bounced up from the ground as well, his movements strange and agile almost unlike those of a human’s.
“Hurry!” Enzo released a low roar and rushed towards the end of the alley after grabbing Su.
A tremendous hong sounded. A six meter long cement pillar fell down from the sky, smashing down perfectly on the spot the two were just lying down on.
After running out just a few steps, Su turned his hand around and grabbed Enzo’s right upper arm, supporting him before increasing his speed to rush out! Enzo felt as if his body immediately became much lighter, and his speed immediately increased by at least half. Even though having Su carry him by his right arm was a bit inappropriate, blood was pouring out from his left arm and shoulder and they couldn’t be moved at all. He had no way of struggling his arm free to begin with.
Within the depths of Su’s green pupil, light continuously flickered. The power concealed within his body was displayed bit by bit as he ran faster and faster while carrying Enzo. Concentrated explosion sounds continuously rang out behind him, but it was getting further and further away from them.
“Why did you press me down just now? My body is clearly stronger than yours.” With the dangers slowly becoming more distant, Su finally asked this question that he had already endured for a long time.
“Because my equipment is better than yours! I have protection, while you don’t. Second Lieutenant Su, you can’t truly believe that your body is stronger than my armor, right?” Enzo’s tone was just as cold and stiff as before, even though right now, there was an unconcealable weakness present in his voice. The two of them were still speeding along, and the edge of Pendulum City was right in front of them. However, the Blue Scorpions were still chasing quite closely behind them, not seeming to give Su and Enzo the time to treat their injuries.
“I originally thought that there wouldn’t be anyone who was truly willing to help me within the Black Dragonriders.” Su laughed and said.
Lieutenant Enzo frowned and said seriously, “This is the battlefield, and right now, we are comrades-in-arms! Second Lieutenant Su, I’ve heard about your matters, but the Fabregas only represents themselves. In the Black Dragonriders, there are still quite a few true soldiers!