Chapter 17: Surrounded

Alarmed, the knights scattered and threw themselves flat. He Yi took the opportunity to retreat nearly ten meters, then leaped through the hole in the ceiling and returned to the machine room on floor thirteen and a half.

“What's happening down there?” Hearing the explosions below and surveying the shrapnel and dust at his feet, Feng Bu'er seriously wondered how many people they were up against. What shocked him most wasn't even the racket of battle downstairs, but the fact that someone had shaved a bald patch on He Yi's head.

He Yi glanced at him. Realizing he couldn't spare the time to pursue the other two under these circumstances, he said, “I'll trust you one more time. The two who escaped just now went to the ninth floor. Take this floor's hidden elevator down and go after them. The building's stairs and regular elevators have all been sealed off, which should hold them up for a while.” He turned to the two knights he had left behind. “Go to my office and activate the base's emergency destruction procedure. Wipe all the computers on this floor and Apostle's data.” As he spoke, he tossed his access card to one of them.

With that done, He Yi jumped back down to the thirteenth floor. Feng Bu'er leaped over the hole in the floor and set off in pursuit.

Between dodging the grenades, going upstairs to talk, and coming back down, He Yi had been gone for only about a minute. Yet when he returned to the thirteenth floor, all ten knights had vanished without a trace.

Had they jumped down to give chase? Impossible. Had the explosions killed them? There would at least be bodies. Besides, judging by their distance from the blasts and the room they'd had to maneuver, the ten men should have suffered no more than minor injuries.

He Yi advanced with slow, wary steps, looking around for some sign of his subordinates. He drew closer to the shattered floor-to-ceiling window. Still shaken by Gambling Snake's surprise attack, he didn't dare stick his head out again and approached the edge cautiously.

But a hidden blade slithered like a deadly snake from behind He Yi's neck to his throat, its cold edge resting against his skin. Like a terrifying shadow that could never be shaken off, its owner had appeared silently behind his target.

“The fact that I haven't slit your throat is a gesture of goodwill.” Gambling Snake's chilling voice sounded right beside He Yi's ear. “Nor were those grenades thrown to kill.”

“Those ten men are lying nearby. They're only unconscious. Look a little harder and you'll find them. But if you insist on fighting me to the death... believe me, leaving eleven corpses is far easier for me than leaving survivors.”

Cold sweat already covered He Yi's forehead. The hopelessness of his position sent a chill through him. Against Gambling Snake, he had no chance even to face his opponent in a fight. Forget using his ability; before he'd so much as seen the man, there was already a hidden blade at his neck.

It was like a duel between two snipers of the same caliber. Before either had fired a shot, one had closed to within a meter of the other and pressed a pistol to the back of his head. Victory and defeat were decided that simply.

In battles between ability users, ability rank certainly mattered, but much could still change the outcome. On a large battlefield, He Yi might kill more people in a short time than Gambling Snake could, but in rooms and alleys like these, Gambling Snake's assassination skills let him subdue He Yi with ease.

An ability user whose actual ability had little to do with combat, Gambling Snake had honed the art of killing almost to its limit. It was what he did best. If Tian Yi hadn't told him over the phone to avoid killing or seriously injuring the opposition as far as possible, he would already have severed every one of these bastards' Achilles tendons and given each a stab under the armpit for good measure.

“Who exactly are you people? The Empire's dogs? Or some new department of HL?” He Yi demanded, glaring at Gambling Snake. This knight captain was one of Steel Commandment's more fanatical loyalists, and he still had a trump card: a Commandment pocket watch. Put plainly, it was an extraordinarily powerful self-destruct device. If He Yi judged that an enemy posed a major threat to the organization, he would activate it without hesitation and take them down with him.

Rather than answering directly, Gambling Snake said, “You'll understand when you leave.”

As He Yi heard this, he felt something prick the back of his neck. Two seconds later, his awareness began to fade, until he passed out...

...

Feng Bu'er ran all the way to the elevator on floor thirteen and a half and pressed the button. After a wait of a little over ten seconds, it arrived...

He rushed inside as soon as the doors opened. Just as he was about to insert his access card for the iris scan, he noticed something was wrong. Looking down, he found a man lying at his feet.

He crouched and checked for a pulse. The man was still alive. Feng Bu'er shook him awake. “Hey! Hey! What happened?!”

The man was a Steel Commandment member from the ninth floor. Coming around, he replied in some confusion, “I think the intruders took me hostage, and then...”

“Damn it!” Feng Bu'er cursed under his breath. He knew perfectly well that this elevator had already carried the two men away.

A little before the elevator came up, Spayton had already been waiting on the ground floor for several minutes, but the regular elevator hadn't budged. He was considering forcing its doors open and climbing straight up the shaft when Accountant came running out of a door at the end of the corridor, supporting Gu Wen.

Gu Wen had regained consciousness by now, though he still needed support to walk at any speed. Perhaps because his complexion had been so pale to begin with, he didn't look too badly hurt.

“Oh?” Spayton said. “So you managed to get yourselves out after all.”

Gu Wen's voice was a little weak. “Obviously. Gambling Snake got here to help before you did.”

“Gambling Snake? The target of that ‘Revenge Fund’?” Spayton asked.

Accountant asked Gu Wen, “And who's this?”

“One of us. Mark Spayton,” Gu Wen said. “I asked him beforehand to help us get out.”

Accountant asked, “Then what was Gambling Snake doing here?”

Gu Wen gave a cold snort. “What do you think? Tian Yi must have arranged it. I don't even know when he contacted Gambling Snake. A week ago we were still discussing how to recruit the man, and today he ends up saving me.”

By this point in their conversation, the three men had reached the lobby entrance.

Just then, Meng Qi leaped from the second floor and attacked Spayton with a furious shout. The blades on his forearms had torn through half his suit sleeves and developed sharp, serrated edges.

A dark figure landed at the building's entrance at the same moment. Turning, he flung two throwing knives, which plunged diagonally upward into Meng Qi's shoulders on either side of his back.

Shock flashed across Meng Qi's face as the knives struck, and his arms instantly dropped limp at his sides. By the time he reached Accountant, he was practically falling face-first. Accountant showed no restraint either, driving an elbow into him and sending him flying back to the second floor.

The three men walked out of the building. Spayton looked Gambling Snake up and down. “You're with Qianming?”

Gambling Snake gave him an indifferent glance. “Not anymore.” He paused. “I now stand under the banner of the Inverted Cross.”

While they spoke, police cars had arrived and filled the space in front of them. The officers raised their guns, countless weapons trained on the four suspicious men.

“Put your hands up and get on your knees immediately! Don't bother resisting!” An officer with a megaphone began issuing a final warning.

.