Chapter 14.4 - Intercept
What was still currently unknown was how these Hebilu who possessed high levels of intelligence appeared. Did they evolve from the original world’s creatures, or did they have other means of origin? Based on normal reasoning, if they didn’t have any other types of origin, there was no way this type of comprehensively matured, structurally balanced, and highly intelligent new species could have been produced in just a few short decades of time. Forget about a few decades, not even tens of thousands of years were enough.
However, this era was precisely an era that toppled all general knowledge.
At the center of their group, O’Brien who was protected within a faint yellow cover appeared calm. He walked slowly with the rest of the troop instead of leading the way like the first time they entered this forest.
This time, he led an enormous troop of over fifty people. The two people at the front simultaneously supported an enormous protective cover over ten meters in diameter, protecting the dozen or so fully armed companions within. There were similarly people in the back who supported a protective screen. At the center of the screen were two women who carried strange instruments that looked like ventilators. From time to time, they would point the front end of the instrument towards the sky. In the direction where they pointed at, all of the floating flowers within a range of several dozen meters would begin to burn until not even ashes were left. These floating flowers seemed to possess their own intelligence and awareness. Several days after O’Brien entered the forest, they rarely approached their troop again.
O’Brien’s current mood was quite carefree. This 50 member troop seemed to include all of Poseidon’s Trident elites, including all types of talents. Individuals that reached seventh levels in ability alone exceeded ten people, and after experiencing close to a year in reorganization, their coordination with each other was already quite excellent. Together with equipment that were developed specially for them, their fighting prowess far exceeded that of Persephone’s era. When commanding this troop, O’Brien had confidence in fighting against any dragonrider under the general rank.
As he raised his head and looked into the dreamlike forest as well as the countless beautiful flowers floating high up, he inwardly sighed. In this dreamland-like brilliance, O’Brien seemed to have seen his older sister’s appearance. Poseidon’s Trident’s strength had increased substantially under his own command, but this didn’t mean that O’Brien’s talent was greater than Persephone’s. Right now, Poseidon’s Trident’s most powerful individuals were all subordinates O’Brien recruited from outside the family, but if one were to talk about members with the greatest potential, they were almost all old members from Persephone’s era. If one were to ask about the difference between this talented brother and sister pair, one had their eyes set on the long term, while the other needed fighting strength immediately.
Waves of sharp whistling sounds suddenly sounded from within the forest. The criss-crossed vines in the sky began to shake violently. Countless blurry bluish-gray figures flashed about along the vines.
“They are here again? These fellows really don’t learn their lesson!” O’Brien silently thought. Along the way, over 200 Hebilu have died under Poseidon’s Trident’s hands, and over 100 were seriously wounded. From the scale of the primitive tribe, the Hebilu that were hiding in the forest should have had their strength greatly decreased, but now, at least 100 soldiers appeared around them. The past battles already proved that the Hebilu’s most powerful weapon, the electromagnetic stingers, were completely ineffective before the Magic Domain’s powerful protection or Combat Domain’s high level defenses. There was even less of a need to talk about bow and arrows, bone blades, and other primitive weapons.
O’Brien’s mind shifted. He naturally understood that these soldiers might very well be the Hebilu’s last fighting strength. The entire nest’s appearance could only mean that he was closing in on their home, as well as the place where they hid their secrets and treasures.
Without waiting for O’Brien’s order, the soldiers that were already completely accustomed to forest combat instantly arranged themselves into a close formation. The protective cover put up by three Magic Domain ability users seemed to cover all of their members within. Then, the concentrated sound of gunshots ran through the air, most of them from machine guns. Then, three sniper rifles continuously fired, and these gunshots were the truly fatal ones! Every time their distinctive gunshots sounded, it would draw forth the miserable cry of the Hebilu. Sometimes, the Hebilu wouldn’t even have a chance to release a miserable cry, because the oppressive power of the bullets would easily bash their sturdy skulls into a bloody mist. Under the power of these sniper rifles that could blast through thin metal armor, not even the ancient trees’ sturdy and thick trunks were safe. Even though most infantry radars were useless in this forest full of irregular radiation and mental scanning abilities were greatly weakened here, sight, hearing, and passive abilities were still effective. That was why the experienced snipers only needed the slightest trace, and then they could easily determine the location where the Hebilu were hiding. If the ancient trees they were hiding behind were less than a meter in thickness, their bullets would still possess fatal power even after penetrating the tree trunk.
Before the Hebilu even launched their assault, close to half of the Hebilu soldiers dropped from above. The metal stingers and sharp arrows couldn’t penetrate through the three ability users’ defensive cover at all. The sharp stingers could penetrate a meter into the defensive cover, but those arrows that were as light as a feather were bounced back out as soon as they hit the outer layer.
More than ten vicious Hebilu soldiers jumped down from the trees, and then with speeds that were not the slightest bit inferior to leopards, they rushed towards the troop! They ingeniously borrowed the various terrain and towering trees to hide themselves, quickly closing in on O’Brien’s troop! This several hundred meters of distance that should have have brought disastrous damages to these soldiers unexpectedly didn’t inflict damage that was too severe. Almost half of these natives actually managed to rush within a five meter radius of this troop!
In reality, for an assault with this much distance between them, these rapid-fire machine guns that fired 1000 rounds a minute and could even intercept high speed guided missiles could be considered their natural predator. No matter how nimble these Hebilu were, it was still impossible for them to rush through the concentrated hail of bullets only by relying on their flesh. However, these furious Hebilu soldiers didn’t notice that of the four rapid-fire machine guns, only one was firing. The other three shooters were leisurely scanning the brilliant forest depths, not placing much importance on them at all.
The surviving Hebilu soldiers tacitly agreed to rush towards O’Brien who was at the center of this troop. Even though the gray-haired gray-eyed O’Brien looked a bit too young, with that calm and unhurried attitude, it was evident with a glance that he was the leader of this troop.
O’Brien’s right hand moved horizontally, producing a horizontal streak before his chest. Then, in front of the rushing Hebilu soldiers, a thin and faint layer of mist suddenly appeared, blocking their way. Their sharp senses immediately told these Hebilu soldiers that the mist contained unimaginable energy. However, their courageous nature and resolution to protect their holy land made them rush into the mist without looking back.
“Courage alone is far from enough…” When the mist scattered, ten ice sculptures of varying postures appeared. O’Brien silently sighed.
Being able to accurately freeze ten enemies coming from various directions with varying speeds, moreover with nearly uniform freezing thickness signified that O’Brien’s control over coldness already reached a shocking level. Perhaps there were many people within the dragonriders that possessed higher level Magic Domain abilities higher than O’Brien did, but unless their abilities reached a degree that can absolutely crush O’Brien, in a one on one fight, they will likely fall under his myriad of ability manipulations.
If one wanted to suppress O’Brien who already had seven levels of deep freezing ability, perhaps only those with nine levels of Magic Domain abilities would be able to do so!
The conclusion of the battle was already set. Of the hundred Hebilu soldiers that attacked, the death rate was close to 90%. Apart from the ten ice sculptures in front of O’Brien, there were only two or three soldiers who didn’t suffer too heavy injuries too and who were able to return. Meanwhile, from start to finish, the battle only took three minutes. This already couldn’t be considered a battle, but instead a one-sided massacre!
The troop’s research personnel arrived in front of the ice sculptures and began to scan the Hebilu soldiers’ bodies. They needed to determine whether there were any specimen among these people that was special enough or worth capturing to bring back alive. If they were not much different from the specimen back in the Arthur family’s laboratory, then they would be left here until the ice slowly melted. Those that dared to unleash a surprise attack at O’Brien on the ground were all the Hebilu’s brave warriors. What they used were long blades and stingers that were similarly loaded with electromagnetic energy. The unfortunate thing was that this type of primitive electromagnetic energy wasn’t any secret to the Arthur family, so two young Hebilu specimen were already enough. As long as they had the complete genome, cloning technology could provide endless Hebilu individuals.
O’Brien looked towards the sky out of habit, but what he saw was only layer up layer of endless treetops, unable to see the slightest trace of the sky. Within this forest, there was no such thing as a sky. However, the endless floating flowers and plants that shone with a diverse brilliance sent continuously changing radiance into every corner of this forest. Regardless of whether it was day or night, this forest would never lack light.
It was already six o’clock. If it was the world outside the forest, the world would already have been long covered in darkness. However, in this forest, it wasn’t much different than how it was early in the morning. The short battle just now gave O’Brien’s troops almost no burden, just wasting a bit of ammunition. The three Magic Domain ability users were almost spent from supporting the defensive cover, but among this fifty man troop, there were twelve Magic Domain users, and nine of them could support the defensive cover. That was why even if there were more battles down the line, they had more than enough replacements, let alone the fact that O’Brien could personally carry out this task.
“Record the terrain and send the data. Prepare all the goods. Combat personnel will use this time to rest. In thirty-five minutes, we will proceed towards the forest’s central district.” O’Brien gave concise orders. This troop was made up of experienced individuals, so they immediately moved out according to this order in a clear and orderly manner.
Those that were also research personnel supported mapping instruments and began to record all of the data regarding the surrounding forest. In addition, they set up a metal platform on the ground, at the same time placing a half meter long tubular object into the platform. Then, the research manager began to tap about on the optical screen. Ten minutes later, the data collection was complete. Small support frames reached out from the platform. The end of the tubular object released a fiercely burning blue flame. It quickly rose, piercing through layers of treetops and flying close to a kilometer into the sky before suspending itself there. Half a minute later, using this strange guided missile as an intermediary, a large stream of data began to move from the portable intelligence system the troop carried on them to the Arthur family’s laboratory.
And just like that, this mysterious forest couldn’t stop the troop’s communications any longer. Large amounts of data containing this entire forest’s secrets were sent out. With the Arthur family laboratory operating ability not any weaker than the Blood Parliament’s core intelligence system operating centers, with enough time, the secrets of this forest would definitely be unraveled.
Each time they entered ten kilometers, they would carry out this procedure once. Even though this used up quite a bit of resources, because that small rocket temporary communications satellite was a one time use item, if the troop encountered true danger and was completely wiped out, the Arthur family could rely on the data sent in advance to easily determine O’Brien’s current whereabouts.
This was O’Brien’s contribution to his family. Even if he died here, the next family inheritor could also step over his corpse into the heart of the forest. The value of a mysterious forest like this was too great. Just from the current things that they discovered, if they could find out the secrets stored within, in a few years of time, they might be able to bring the Arthur family over the other two great influential families and stand proud within the Blood Parliament. Of course, there was a chance that the secrets contained within this forest would be far greater than what the Arthur family’s current level of research could handle. If that was the case, it might take several decades to crack.
O’Brien made the most thorough preparations, and he didn’t believe that he would die in this forest either. However, he still prepared himself mentally for dying in battle. After all, it was normal for unexpected things to happen. It was more unusual for things to actually proceed according to plan.
From this gray-haired and handsome male’s perspective, the value of a genius like himself shouldn’t be lower than this mysterious forest. There were more than one method for the Arthur family to trump over the other families. Increasing his own strength was, of course, one way, for example, exploring this forest’s hidden secrets, especially the origins and applications of these electromagnetic weapons. Weakening the strength of competing families was another way. O’Brien believed that if given time, there would be a day when he would become a powerful existence like the Spider Empress. When that time came, he only needed to personally take action and kill someone like Rudolph, and that would greatly harm the William Family’s strength.
However, whenever he thought up to here, O’Brien would always feel a trace of sadness, because he wasn’t the only genius in the Arthur family. Persephone had similar potential.