Mission Complete

Standing on the left-side weapons rack of an armed helicopter, Gu Xiechen was carried into the fiercely raging battlefield.

The Holsom Family was the Roman people's second Elector Family. The meaning of an Elector Family was that the Roman people's king could only come from the direct descendants of an Elector Family. One could imagine the hidden power possessed by the Holsom Family. Although this was only an ordinary smuggling shipment, there were more than two hundred high-ranking Roman warriors accompanying the spacecraft.

The massive explosion of the spacecraft's rear engines cleanly killed more than seventy high-ranking Roman warriors standing closest to it. Of the remaining hundred or so, more than forty lost their ability to fight. The other eighty-odd were merely blasted away and suffered slight concussions. Protected by their Energy Armor, they still retained full combat capability.

Just as the elite soldiers of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group charged out of the dense forest, the Roman high-ranking warriors immediately launched a storm-like counterattack.

Thick streams of high-energy particles silently shot from the long-handled axe-guns. The comet-like particle streams instantly ionized the surrounding air, each one whipping up an ultra-intense plasma sphere roughly a meter wide. They truly resembled falling meteors as they hurtled toward the soldiers of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group. The mercenaries, who had just rushed out of the forest in full gear, were struck head-on by the particle streams. Plasma spheres erupted, human bodies were torn apart and flung in every direction, and the particle streams detonated the grenades hanging from the mercenaries' bodies and the bullets in their magazines. For a time, explosions crackled through the forest like popping beans.

Several light armored vehicles had just burst out of the woods. The two large-caliber rotary cannons atop them had only fired a dozen or so shells when dozens of particle streams shot toward them head-on. Holes as wide as bowls were punched through the armored hulls, and plasma spheres exploded inside the vehicles. The drivers could only let out one final scream before turning into wisps of smoke amid flashing blue light. The several-ton vehicles were blasted dozens of meters away before exploding, killing and wounding another swath of nearby mercenaries.

More than eighty Roman warriors gathered together while firing with pinpoint accuracy. Using large burning wreckage on the landing field as cover, they forcibly halted the charge of several thousand mercenary soldiers. Whenever exceptionally brave mercenaries managed to rush close, before they could even open fire with their machine guns, the Roman warriors unleashed Mental Shockwaves. The mercenaries bled from all seven orifices and staggered back. Worse still, some had their brains shaken into mush and died on the spot.

A heavy metal plate suddenly rose from the center of the landing field, and a new tunnel entrance slowly appeared. Several hundred mercenaries of the Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group rushed out of the tunnel, pushing heavy mobile tower shields. Each of these specially made tower shields was two meters high, one and a half meters wide, and two feet thick. They were made from laboratory-grade crystalline metal compounds, possessing extraordinary toughness and extreme hardness. Unless struck by specially made high-speed armor-piercing missiles, ordinary heavy artillery shells could do nothing to them.

The mobile tower shields were assembled into bunkers across the landing field, and the Roman warriors slowly moved inside. Relying on these incredibly defensive bunkers, the eighty-odd Roman warriors, along with several hundred Holy Unicorn mercenaries, actually fought with great vigor, pinning several thousand Hell Angels mercenaries in the forest and leaving them unable to move.

Just then, Gu Xiechen arrived, having captured Gilt Holsom.

Eight heavy armed helicopters opened fire simultaneously while still two or three kilometers from the landing field. Ninety-six high-speed missiles screamed toward the constantly shifting tower shields below. Dozens of fireballs engulfed nearly half the landing field. More than a dozen tower shields were blown to pieces, and the mercenaries behind them suffered heavy casualties. Dozens of Roman warriors wreathed in blue flames struggled up from the ground amid thick smoke, shouting curses as they fired wildly at the helicopters.

Hundreds of high-energy particle streams howled toward them. Gu Xiechen kicked Gilt Holsom, along with the strange alloy case, out of the cabin. He free-fell headfirst toward the forest below. Just over ten meters above him, the armed helicopter he had been riding exploded into fragments amid fire. Countless metal shards trailing flames and black smoke shot downward, grazing Gu Xiechen's curled-up body as they flew into the forest. With several sharp hisses, metal fragments sliced several bloody gashes across Gu Xiechen's buttocks and thighs.

"Damn it!"

Gu Xiechen's face twitched in pain. He hurriedly circulated his protective true qi and blasted away several metal sheets as large as human heads, only to suddenly see a metal spike more than two meters long falling neatly from high above and piercing straight through Gilt Holsom's skull with incredible precision. Blood sprayed everywhere. The unconscious Gilt Holsom dazedly went to meet the Roman people's god.

"The battlefield really is dangerous!"

The dead were no longer worth pitying. Gu Xiechen kicked hard off Gilt Holsom's body with his right foot. From more than ten meters above the ground, his body sprang lightly upward, tracing an arc as he charged toward the Roman warriors firing wildly on the landing field. Behind Gu Xiechen, fighters from the Hell Angels Mercenary Group such as Prajna also raced along S-shaped paths, weapons of every kind in hand as they charged toward the Roman warriors.

The Bearded Commander frantically shouted through his headset as he adjusted the mercenary group's deployment. Dozens of electromagnetic shells exploded above the Romans, weakening the energy shields on their armor to their lowest point. Grenades and small-caliber shells kept exploding across the field, and the shrapnel sweeping in every direction inflicted heavy casualties on the Holy Unicorn mercenaries behind the Romans.

Gu Xiechen rushed before a Roman warrior whose armor's energy shield had been depleted by the electromagnetic bombs. He did not use a weapon. The Snow Soul Divine Claw was his strongest weapon.

His claw tips trailed wisps of hazy frost through the air. With a brilliant smile, Gu Xiechen tore open the Roman's armor. His right claw struck heavily into the Roman's lower abdomen. A muffled sound like a leather sack bursting rang out, and a thick golden column of blood suddenly sprayed from the horrified Roman's back. His violent true qi swept up hundreds of bead-sized droplets of blood. The freezing Snow Soul True Qi turned the Roman's steaming blood into pellets harder than steel. Like a machine gun firing at close range, hundreds of blood pellets swept across the Roman warriors before Gu Xiechen.

The blood pellets pierced through the Roman warriors with unstoppable force. Their energy-depleted armor could no longer protect their fragile bodies. Golden blood sprayed through the air, and the Snow Soul True Qi contained within the blood pellets froze their bodies. More than thirty Roman warriors turned blue-faced and stiffened to death on the spot.

Prajna and the other fighters also charged into the battle. Whether Roman warriors or Holy Unicorn mercenaries, none of them could withstand the assault of innate-level experts. Their weapons could not threaten Prajna and the others, whose figures flashed everywhere like Ghosts and Specters. The resisting mercenaries held out for less than a minute before completely collapsing. Large groups scattered in flight, only to be shot down one by one by the Hell Angels mercenaries in the forest.

The Hell Angels mercenaries stormed into the underground base, clearing out the remaining Holy Unicorn troops and confiscating all kinds of spoils and important documents.

Once everything had been settled, three cigar-shaped spacecraft nearly two hundred meters long descended from the sky with piercing shrieks. Their entirely black surfaces were covered in fish-scale-like outer armor, and more than a hundred tiny points of light flickered intermittently across their hulls. These were indicator lights for the external probes of the ships' various detection instruments. Near the tail engines was painted a shield-shaped emblem nearly ten meters across—a two-headed wyvern wreathed in black flames, its claws gripping a shield and a sword respectively. This was the military insignia of the Earth Federation Army.

The spacecraft landed steadily on the landing field, and nearly a thousand fully armed regular Earth Federation Army soldiers poured from their cabins. The well-trained troops quickly occupied key positions around the landing field.

The mercenaries of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group withdrew from the underground base, every one of them carrying an armful of assorted items. Federation soldiers took over from the mercenaries and assumed control of the entire base.

The Bearded Commander led Gu Xiechen, the other senior leaders of the mercenary group, and its fighter-level experts toward one of the spacecraft. A middle-aged man in an Earth Federation Army major general's uniform strode down the gangway with several field-grade officers, his face piled with smiles.

The Bearded Commander warmly exchanged a few words with the Federation major general named Smith. Gu Xiechen was surprised to discover that the Bearded Commander and Smith appeared to be extremely close. After only a few sentences, they reached some kind of agreement—the mercenary group would keep all the spoils, while Major General Smith would additionally provide the Hell Angels Mercenary Group with a batch of standard-issue weapons. The credit for this operation, meanwhile, would go to the Federation Army. They had annihilated several hundred Roman warriors, wiped out a large number of armed smugglers conducting private dealings with the Roman people, and even destroyed a Roman first-class warship. It was a weighty achievement, enough to add a glorious entry to General Smith's military evaluation record.

Watching the Bearded Commander and Major General Smith throw their arms around each other in great intimacy, Gu Xiechen finally understood why military satellites from the African Military District had guided the mercenary group's missiles.

The transfer of benefits took less than an hour. An hour later, the elite soldiers of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group boarded transport aircraft and left the Black Forest.

Gu Xiechen sat atop the metal case seized from Gilt Holsom, a cigar clenched between his teeth as he rested with his eyes closed.

Beside him, Prajna carried a laptop and calculated Gu Xiechen's achievements in this battle. After muttering and working at it for a while, Prajna gave Gu Xiechen's shoulder a hard shove and placed the laptop in front of him.

"Nicely done, Evil Dragon. This was your first time on a battlefield, right?"

Thick cigar smoke streamed from Gu Xiechen's nostrils. He immensely enjoyed the unique laziness and comfort that followed bloody slaughter.

Gu Xiechen nodded lightly and leaned comfortably against the transport cabin wall. He asked vaguely, "Yes. What's wrong?"

"Congratulations. You personally killed thirty-eight Roman people this time." Prajna looked at Gu Xiechen with envy. "When we get back, you have to treat us to a good meal."

"Thirty-eight Roman people? How much are they worth?" Gu Xiechen was interested now.

"Well, the price is clearly listed: fifty thousand each! If captured alive, five hundred thousand each!" Prajna tapped the laptop casing and sighed regretfully. "It's a pity that leader died by accident. Judging by the grade of armor he wore, if we'd captured him alive, he'd have been worth at least ten million!"

"Wow! That's valuable!"

Gu Xiechen immediately perked up. He sat upright and patted the metal case beneath him hard.

"Heh, then I'm really curious. What kind of treasure could make a Roman expert abandon all his attendants and flee with it the moment he realized things had gone wrong?"

Prajna's eyes gleamed—the green light unique to a hungry wolf!

"It looks like a coffin!" Prajna nodded solemnly. "Could there be a great beauty inside?"

A thick leg stomped heavily onto the metal case. The Bearded Commander, also chewing on a huge cigar and constantly blowing clouds of smoke, looked down at them from above and roared, "No matter what it is! If it's valuable, hand over half according to the group's rules, and the other half belongs to Evil Dragon! If it's a great beauty, though, heh, then she'll belong entirely to Evil Dragon!"

Gu Xiechen knocked hard against the sturdy metal case, his curiosity growing greater and greater.

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