Chapter 575 - Nascent IV
Chapter 575: Nascent IV
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Rui Bing deployed Guardian immediately. She had watched Sang Kan the last few days and was confident of his abilities. Sang Kan saw Guardian, and quickly hid behind Rui Bing, carrying Aried in his arms.
Guardian was infamous amongst the Sang Tribe members. It was one of the most well known mechs for the Sang Tribe. Its capabilities were described to epic proportions. However, few had ever seen Rui Bing use it. As the Sang Tribe members were all deeply respectful of Rui Bing, no one dared to request a demonstration from her.
"It's all worth it if I can see Ma'am use Guardian," Sang Kan thought to himself delightfully. Once he returned, this would be quite the story to impress his friends. However, the thought reminded him of how the three of them had gone missing. Sang Pu and others must be searching for them by now.
The honest young man turned anxious. Their young teacher was still missing, and now even his wife was gone. What would happen now?
Sang Kan could imagine the chaos that transpired in Yi Ju right now. The more he thought about it, the more anxious he got. However, there was nothing he could do. He looked at Aried in his arms, deep in a trance, and sighed. If only it was just them. With Ma'am Rui Bing gone missing too, the situation had worsened many times over.
Rui Bing did not know how unsettled Sang Kan was right now. She was focused entirely on Guardian's black and white vision.
When Rui Bing entered Guardian, her vision was all white for a moment. Then, numbers began to run on the top right corner of her vision. Soon, Guardian's vision cleared up and became normal again.
Rui Bing relaxed. If Guardian could not be used in the purple mist, she would have to work with Sang Kan to kill the red-tailed best.
The statistics shown to her did not help her at all. Rui Bing focused on the white lines in her vision. There was purple mist everywhere around them, but through Guardian's eyes, the environment around her looked simple and clearer.
Soon, Rui Bing located the enemy.
As expected, it was a red-tailed beast!
Rui Bing's eyes flashed dangerously. She charged towards the creature fearlessly.
Guardian's dagger was a mighty weapon, but it had a silly name - Number Two's Dagger. However, every time she used this weapon, Rui Bing could feel the emotions behind these plain words. She did not know Gu Shaoze, but had heard of the miniature mech's origin from Ye Chong.
"I am your Guardian!" Rui Bing felt more confident every time she used this mech.
The wind whispered in her ears as Rui Bing charged towards the red-tailed beast like a gold asteroid. Her expression was focused, and her clear eyes hid a softness behind them.
Here in the purple mist, the red-tailed beast was highly sensitive of its surroundings. It noticed Rui Bing as well. The gold figure gave off an enticing smell. Its eyes glowed with want and hunger.
Red-tailed beasts loved metals. The better the properties of the metal, they more they liked it.
Rui Bing moved quickly. It was only expected from Jie experts. With Guardian amplifying her strength, Rui Bing was now as fast as the red-tailed beast.
Rui Bing stepped lightly. She was next to the red-tailed beast in an instant.
…
Appilok panted heavily. The comms was flooded with the sound of heavy breathing. Even the likes of Duan Qian, who had better stamina than most of the students, were also breathing heavily.
This was their fifth battle. The 151 metalbeak falcons looked almost skeletal, but they were surprisingly tough, and more resilient than the gold-striped black dragons, which looked tougher than they actually were. None of the metalbeak falcons tried to escape, right until the last one that died in their hands.
This was the hardest battle they had so far. The four battles before this were all on a smaller scale. This time, even with Ye Chong dealing with 40 metalbeak falcons all by himself, leaving only 111 of them to the students, they still had a hard time dealing with the creatures.
They won in the end, but no one was cheering. They had suffered their first casualties. Five were dead, and seven heavily injured. Most of the students led normal lives before this. They had never been subjected to such as cruel experience.
They watched their comrades exploding into balls of fire, listened to their pained shrieks in the comms channel - these young men experienced the harsh reality of battle for the very first time. The ones who died were alive only yesterday, but were now irreversibly lost to them. The students grieved. Many of them began to cry.
Everyone was breathing heavily. They needed to recover quickly. Who knew when the next battle was coming.
No one blamed Ye Chong. He had done all he could. If he had not dealt with the 40 metalbeak falcons by himself, the commando troop would have lost at least a fifth of its members. They all understood that this was something they had to endure, having chosen their path as a soldier. Besides, they were mostly people of great determination, and had eventually adapted to their situation.
The students looked at Celest. Their commander was strong! If they could all be as strong as their commander, this would never happen again! This was what the students thought as they gripped hands tightly into fists.
The students all believed that their commander was worth their loyalty. No one would have chosen this useless bunch of youngsters for this ambitious training. There were plenty of people just like them in Su City. They were scorned by others, and led mediocre lives. Even the nobles amongst them lacked a decent future because they did not have talent in parapsychic control.
It was their commander who changed their fates, who trained them and fitted them with mechs.
Who would want to train someone useless? Who would equip them with such luxurious weapons that rival even the equipment of the Royal Guards? As a descendant of the Bayer Family, placed in charge of Eastern Cloud's military logistics, Darren Bayer once did the math and concluded that the combined cost of all the standard equipment provided to a Royal Guard was not even enough to afford their laser gun. It showed how much importance their commander had placed in them.
Most of them even believed that their commander had brought them here into the never-ending darkness of Darkniss with the sole purpose of training them.
The commander had given the best gear, the best training, and had even led them personally into battles with all kinds of powerful creatures. That they could now be strong enough to fight against the creatures of Darkniss was all thanks to their commander.
They were only normal people, not even shooters. How could they not be grateful for him? How could they not love him?
It would be unforgivable for any of them to not train seriously, or to treat their duties lightly. Casualties were to be expected. Everyone knew how often shooters were hurt or killed. To have 10 Level 6 shooters born out of 100 Level 4 shooters was already considered remarkable. Of the remaining shooters, 40 would remain as Level 4, while the other 40 would die in combat. Shooters had to fight to improve themselves, and casualties were inevitable in combat.
"We're going to back to base."
Ye Chong's plain announcement was like music to their ears.
…
The red-tailed beast lay dead on the ground, a thin line of blood on its throat. Blood was slowly pooling around its neck.
Sang Kan was full of admiration for Rui Bing. As expected, Ma'am was as strong as their young teacher. What an impressive strike of the blade!
Rui Bing stored Guardian as Sang Kan quickly approached the red-tailed beast to study it.
The faint red tail told him that this was a young red-tailed beast, not yet evolved. It only had three fingers.
"No wonder it fell so easily," Rui Bing thought to herself.
Sang Kan took out his own dagger. Due to Ye Chong's influence, daggers became a popular weapon for the Sang Tribe members. However, they would only ever carry one made out of lavagold, mined from the Sang Village. Sang Kan began to dissect the red-tailed beast. He knew which parts were edible, and which parts were not. According to his experience, meat from the red-tailed beast was obviously edible, and should taste just fine.
Rui Bing was not used to the bloody scene. She quickly stepped aside.
Sang Kan worked through the flesh of the red-tailed beast, feeling regret for not bringing his Collision mech with him. With his mech, the red-tailed beast would not have been a threat. He had not kept the Collision mech's dimension keystone on him to prevent it from affecting the spatial stability in the laboratory.
Huh? Wait a second! Sang Kan's hands stopped moving. He felt like he had just realized something, but could not quite get a hold of it.
The dimension keystone! That was it! He finally knew why they were now in this strange new world! It was the dimension keystone! Rui Bing was wearing Guardian's dimension keystone! That must be the reason. Sang Kan was overjoyed by this realization.
Beside him, Aried was still in a trance. Sang Kan quickly went to him and shook him strongly, but the old man did not come out of it. Nevertheless, Sang Kan was experienced with this. He took the water container off his waist and splashed Aried on his head, ignoring the waste of drinkable water. Rui Bing watched him in puzzlement.
The trick worked.
Aried's eyes cleared up. He felt himself wet, and raged, "You monkey, Kan, you ruined my hair!" He self-consciously combed through the few remaining patches of blonde hair on his head.
"Old man, I figured out what went wrong with the experiment," Sang Kan offered excitedly.
"What?" Aried was surprised. "What was it?"
"The dimension keystone! That's why!" Sang Kan explained to Aried. "Madam Rui Bing had her dimension keystone with her. It must be the dimension keystone that affected the spatial window."
"Dimension keystone?" Aried gaped at Rui Bing. "Lady Bing, did you have your dimension keystone on you?"
Rui Bing nodded.
"Sigh, it's all my fault, I forgot to tell you. The dimension keystone is based on similar principles with the spatial window, but if they got too close with one another, there would be abnormalities. It's my fault for not telling you this." Aried looked vexed and dejected.
The three of them finally realized what went wrong. Even so, there remained the problem of getting back.
"D*mn! Something's headed our way again!" Sang Kan said in alarm. "It's too dangerous here, we must leave quickly."
There were 11 red-tailed beasts coming towards them.
Rui Bing took out Guardian again and charged towards the enemies. Sang Kan carried Aried on his back and followed from behind.
The gold miniature mech enveloped Rui Bing within. Her every movement was a blur of gold coloured shadow. Rui Bing knew that now was not the time to hold back. Besides, she felt nothing but hatred towards the red-tailed beasts.
Rui Bing rarely had to fight herself, whether it was when she was beside Ye Chong or on Yi Ju. Her strength was a mystery to most. Now that she was fighting with reserve, Sang Kan could only watch to his great astonishment.
She moved with the intent to kill.
11 red-tailed beasts were not too much of a strain on her. The dagger in her hand moved with a life of its own. If Ye Chong wielded his dagger like a venomous serpent, patient but deadly and with no stylish moves, then Rui Bing wielded her dagger like a swan flying across a lake, close to the water's surface, with effortless ease and grace.
These were two different styles, but with equal deadliness.
In just a short moment, all 11 red-tailed beasts had the same bloody line on their throats. As Sang Kan followed Guardian from behind, the 11 red-tailed beasts fell to the ground, blood spraying from their necks.
The three of them continued running through the purple mist, with Sang Kan leading the way. Rui Bing could not understand how he could figure out directions in this place.
Soon, Rui Bing and Sang Kan noticed something. The red-tailed beasts here were much weaker than the ones they encountered near Yi Ju. The creatures here were mostly three-fingered, with some two- and single fingered exceptions. The armor on their backs were a light gray, no the shiny black they were used to seeing. The flesh nests here looked like they were dying from a lack of water and nutrition. The skin on the flesh columns wrinkled from the lack of moisture. There were no flesh vesicles like the ones they saw in the holographic feed.
Rui Bing and Sang Kan did not understand the flesh nests well enough. If Ye Chong or Fei Si was here, they might have been able to glean something useful.
However, it was certainly good news that the red-tailed beasts here were weak.
Despite not encountering any strong red-tailed beasts, the three of them still decided to leave this place as soon as possible.