Chapter 11: The Divine Mist Heist (Part 2)

The concrete man was a Normal-rank ability user tasked with reconnaissance for Xingtian's raid. His ability let him merge with any medium he touched and travel through it.

It was something like walking through walls, but with a few extra advantages. In a desert, for instance, he could merge with the sand and move through it. Since his body became sand itself, he would no longer feel hot, get hungry, sweat, become dehydrated, and so on.

He could also merge with water and enter someone else's body through their pores or mouth, destroying his enemy from within.

At this point, you might think this guy was pretty much invincible, so before he gets killed off, I have to explain that this ability does have weaknesses.

First, he merged with a medium rather than transforming out of thin air. If he wanted to become earth, he had to touch some earth with part of his body first; he couldn't just change whenever he felt like it. Second, since he had to “merge” with it, the medium had to exceed his own mass and volume. Dipping a finger in a glass of water, for example, wouldn't let him become water, because one glass wasn't enough. Third, he couldn't merge with media such as air or flame. To illustrate all of the above, if he wanted to turn into shit, he'd have to jump into a cesspit...

Originally, I was going to give him a name, but considering he gets killed off within five hundred words of his entrance, and he's already had one respectable line of dialogue, I decided not to bother. He's had his money's worth out of life.

Back to the story. In a flash, Tosaka appeared in front of the man and seized him by the throat with one hand.

“You think an attack like this will work?” Just before getting killed off, he promptly delivered a line that amounted to raising his own death flag.

Tosaka didn't answer. He clenched his other hand into a fist and swung, smashing the concrete man to pieces.

He shook the dust off his hand and sneered. “Up against a Fierce-rank ability user, and you still thought that ability could keep you alive. Ridiculous...”

Meanwhile, in the city, five kilometers from the docks.

A hot-air balloon was tethered by a rope to the top floor of a building. Two people sat in its basket.

One wore a long-sleeved shirt and black trousers, his hair immaculately combed, his expression as lifeless as a coffin-shop owner's. In thirty-degree heat, looking at his face was like catching a glimpse of winter beneath the blazing sun.

The other wore a casual T-shirt, shorts, slippers, and a straw hat. He was looking toward the docks through a pair of binoculars.

“The Celestial Guards really are something! Took him out in one punch, and he looked like an ability user, too.” Gunsmith spoke without turning his head or lowering the binoculars for a second.

Gambling Snake rested with his back against the rim of the basket and his eyes closed. Without opening them, he asked, “Have Xingtian's people started moving?”

“Doesn't look like it. Just that one guy... Wait... Here they come, here they come. They're pouring down the streets from every direction.”

“Oh...” Gambling Snake murmured. “Looks like someone in Xingtian can tell when ability users are fighting without having to see it.”

“Then how does he do it?” Gunsmith asked offhandedly.

“In theory, ability users can sense abnormal changes in ‘energy,’ but...” Gambling Snake stood and squinted toward the distant docks. “Their ambush positions are well outside the cordon. To sense such a fleeting change from that far away... Could it be Xingtian's leader...?”

“What ‘energy’? You've lost me,” Gunsmith said.

“Ask the boss when you get a chance. Just don't tell him I sent you.” Gambling Snake crouched, opened the case at his feet, and took out a barrel, a stock, a scope, a bipod...

As he deftly assembled the sniper rifle, Gambling Snake said, “Tian Yi sounded absolutely certain, but can you really hit a target more than five kilometers away with one shot?” He gave the man beside him, who couldn't even tell north from south, a long look. “It's not that I don't believe you, but this really does go against the basic principles of sniping. After all these years of technological progress, a sniper round's maximum range is still only three kilometers. There's a reason for that design. Firearms with a longer range probably aren't suitable for human use anymore. Even if an ordinary person can see a target five kilometers away through a scope, actually aiming at it is next to impossible.”

Gunsmith still hadn't lowered the binoculars. “I'm going to shoot his left eye.” With that one remark, he made everything Gambling Snake had just said worth about as much as a fart.

That actually made Gambling Snake laugh, though his hands kept assembling the gun. “Heh heh heh... Now that's something to look forward to.”

...

Outside the docks.

The local army's cordon was breached almost instantly. Xingtian had come prepared this time. As a martial organization, it relied little on technological weaponry, depending instead on its members' own skills. Its ranks consequently included many ability users, with considerable strength and extensive combat experience.

Of the five hundred Xingtian members who stormed the docks, over seventy percent were ability users. The remaining thirty percent included quite a few fighters with weapons built into parts of their bodies, though they weren't cyborgs powerful enough to face ability users head-on. The military killing machines officially manufactured by the Empire were stronger, after all.

Every Xingtian contingent swept through the regular troops trying to stop them, eventually joining forces at the water's edge without trouble. But at that very moment, they all stopped. Their leader, who had been charging at the front, had suddenly halted.

“So it's you, Cao Shuo. I never expected to run into one of the celebrities on the wanted list here.” Tosaka greeted the man before him calmly.

His outward composure, however, didn't mean Tosaka wasn't worried. In fact, he already felt things were going badly. He had never imagined Xingtian's leader would personally lead so many ability users in a charge to seize the Divine Mist. If he wanted to get out in one piece today, he might well have to abandon the Divine Mist and all six ships.

Cao Shuo didn't answer Tosaka. He was a man of few words, with little talent for conversation. In situations like this, there was usually someone specifically responsible for doing the talking.

Zhuge Zhai stepped out of the crowd with a woven grass fan in hand and addressed Tosaka. “Your good self has a mighty fleet behind you, but you've seen what we've brought along, too. If we really start hacking away at each other, both sides are bound to take a beating, and that wouldn't be very proper. In this humble scholar's poor opinion, how about we make a deal? As for this Divine Mist... we'll take eighty percent and leave you twenty. That way, you'll have something to show when you get back.”

The captain who had just been given command was aboard his ship, watching the situation at the docks. Though he couldn't hear what Zhuge Zhai was saying, he could more or less guess they were negotiating with the Celestial Guard, so he hadn't yet given the order to fire. But if anything changed, he would immediately order every kind of advanced weapon aboard the ships brought to bear on them. It wouldn't matter if they destroyed the docks, so long as they managed to kill a hundred or two of these fiends before they charged aboard.

“Those terms...” Tosaka remained impassive and offered an ambiguous reply. Outwardly, he seemed to be considering the offer and stalling for time, but in truth, Zhuge Zhai really had persuaded him. That Cao Shuo would be difficult to handle, and judging by Xingtian's turnout, they had brought at least an entire large commandery's worth of manpower. How many of them could his little fleet take down? Even if he sacrificed the whole fleet and managed to escape, wouldn't the Divine Mist still fall into their hands? Whether he settled things now or fled home after enormous losses, the only difference would be a few more dead Xingtian members. What good would that do him...?

Watching his expression, Zhuge Zhai knew the plan had worked. As the saying went, with ten times their strength, surround them; with five times, attack them; with twice, engage them. The stronger side held the initiative in choosing the strategy and manner of battle. In circumstances like these, the weaker side would certainly welcome negotiations.

In this age, when morality, righteousness, and integrity imposed so little restraint, who cared whether they were the Ten Celestial Guards or the Eight Celestial Guards? Did anyone really think they were loyal to His Imperial Majesty? Their loyalty was to power and strength. If another force surpassed the Empire in both, they could quite easily defect. Their loyalty was only an illusion maintained while their own lives were safe. Because these people were so powerful that their lives were rarely threatened, there had simply been no cases of betrayal.

But a deal like this wasn't betrayal. It was a win for both sides, with only the Empire losing out, and was therefore perfectly acceptable.

“Remember your duty and your position, Marble Man.” A man walked up beside Tosaka and spoke, regarding him with contempt.

Tosaka immediately flared up, his tone turning forceful again. “I don't need you to remind me.” He glared at Time Attendant and snorted, thinking to himself, That was close... I almost agreed. Good thing I hadn't said it aloud, or this bastard would've put all sorts of things in his report. Wait... what's he doing here?

Cao Shuo said quietly to Zhuge Zhai, “This man's martial prowess... exceeds my own...”

Zhuge Zhai was inwardly shocked. The situation had completely reversed. Their boss could handle one of the Ten Celestial Guards, but now this unidentified man had appeared, and he too possessed astonishing strength. Against two supreme fighters and six warships, the outcome of this battle would be hard to predict...

At this delicate moment, the situation reversed once again.

There was a strange, soft pop.

One second later, both Time Attendant and Cao Shuo looked aghast. A few more seconds passed, and everyone on the docks was staring wide-eyed, unable to believe what they saw.

“What's wrong?” Tosaka asked instinctively, noticing that everyone's eyes were on his face. Suddenly, something felt wrong. There was a cool sensation on his cheek and the back of his head, as though liquid were trickling down.

He wiped his cheek. There was red liquid on his hand. Blood...

Only then did Tosaka realize that he could no longer see out of his left eye.

“How... is that possible...” Tosaka murmured. He couldn't understand how someone with the strength of a Celestial Guard could have taken so long to notice that his left eye was already blind.

Turning unsteadily, Tosaka lowered his head and saw liquid, red mixed with white, on the ground behind him. It had sprayed out in a straight line.

He seemed to understand something, but by then his brain had almost ceased to function. Death came quietly...

!@#

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