Ambush!

Not long after, the four factions that entered Frevanz converged in an open space on the outskirts of the city.

The four factions formed a circle around the open space, while their four leaders walked to the center.

"Yo! Who do I see, it's Baron Dalami! Looks like you're one of the abandoned ones too!"

The speaker was a man about 1.7 meters tall with a large belly, his words carrying a greasy tone.

He recognized the ancient sword at Dalami's waist at a glance, and it was because of this sword that he identified Dalami's identity beneath his protective suit.

"Hmph! Fat pig, shut your stinking mouth."

Dalami glared at him with disgust. The fat pig, no, Baron Felsi, immediately puffed up his chest in anger, but then sarcastically said with a forced smile:

"Tsk tsk! It seems our Lord Dalami didn't have a pleasant time with the higher-ups!

They even gave you this kind of dirty work!"

The other two present watched the scene like bystanders, uninvolved.

Dalami's face beneath his mask was pitch black, but he said calmly:

"If you have something to say, say it! If not, I have work to do."

Felsi sighed, "This city is very dangerous right now. Our soldiers have been ambushed and they obtained our advanced weapons, especially dangerous explosives like grenades.

I don't believe any of you here can take a bomb head-on and come out unscathed.

If they get close and detonate two or three, will we still be alive?

The answer is... NO!"

Dalami's expression under his mask turned grim. Even with his impressive swordsmanship, even if he could handle a dozen soldiers alone without breaking a sweat.

But to physically withstand a bomb?

That was impossible.

At this moment, another person spoke softly:

"Then why don't we just carpet bomb them inch by inch?"

Hearing this, the last person present let out a scoff:

"Do artillery shells not cost money? Or will your country bear the cost alone?"

He certainly didn't have spare artillery shells.

And his superiors wouldn't approve that many shells for him to waste.

Felsi chuckled, "We can start a fire from the outskirts and burn this city. After all, part of it is already in ruins.

Once we set it ablaze, there won't be much food left here.

Without a food source, they'll have no choice but to be cornered and annihilated."

Dalami said calmly, "There's a complex sewer system here. My men have killed quite a few 'smart' people in the sewers these past few days!"

Felsi smiled maliciously:

"Heh! What a coincidence! I happen to have a batch of poison gas bombs that need testing. If we send them into the sewers, I guarantee not even a cockroach will survive.

Our four factions will advance by setting fires from the four directions of the city. I will send people to your teams to be responsible for launching poison gas bombs to 'exterminate the rats'.

What do you think?"

"Sounds good, acceptable."

"Hehehe, okay."

"Mm, we'll follow your lead."

Leaving a cemetery on the outskirts of Frevanz after paying respects to his parents, Merlin brought Yol and the others to a certain place.

Six in the evening.

In a grove not far from the hospital ruins, Merlin and Yol stood by a small mound with shovels in hand.

Lami, with red eyes, knelt on the ground, her lips quivering as she sobbed:

"Dad, Mom, Brother Merlin and Sister Yol have buried you properly!

Lami will definitely live well, so don't worry about us in heaven. Lami has her brother and sister taking care of her."

Yol moved to kneel on the ground and hugged Lami from behind, gently stroking her head. Lami turned her head and forced a smile:

"Sister Yol, let's go!"

Yol turned to look at Merlin, only to find him staring intently at the distant sky with a solemn expression.

She asked blankly, "Did something happen?"

Under the slightly dim sky, Merlin's pupils dilated as he saw patches of black smoke rising in the distance.

A hint of thought appeared in his eyes. Judging by the situation, the perimeter was on fire. Fire? Merlin felt a growing sense of unease.

"Let's go outside and take a look."

Yol noticed Merlin's unease and stood up with Lami, "Okay!"

A moment later, on a rooftop near the city's outskirts, Merlin looked grimly at the entire perimeter of the city now engulfed in raging flames.

"This is their counterattack. They want to burn this place to ashes."

Yol covered her mouth, her eyes equally solemn. At this moment, she pointed to a patch of ground in the distance, "Look there, why is there a yellow-green mist?"

Merlin's gaze sharpened, and he immediately looked over, a guess forming in his mind.

"I'll go check it out. You wait here for me."

Before Yol could speak, Merlin had already turned and leaped off the ten-meter-high building.

He landed lightly, his figure quickly disappearing into the streets.

As he ran, Merlin glanced at the grenades tied to his waist and the dagger on his right leg.

You could call it skill and boldness.

Because over the past three days, with high-intensity skirmishes against these soldiers in the city every day, the Synchronization Value for both of Merlin's pieces of equipment had increased by 1%.

Although it was only 1%, it made Merlin more proficient in using both items.

As the duration of using the equipment increased, not to mention the Calamity Fruit, just the Lynx, Merlin felt his body undergoing a subtle transformation.

His muscles became more flexible, his endurance constantly strengthened, and his senses and physical reactions were all improving.

He vaguely felt that he was becoming increasingly adapted to the environment of the night.

"Is this synchronization? My living habits are also becoming more aligned with those of a lynx, a nocturnal creature."

He didn't know if it was good or bad. Since he had no choice, and the benefits outweighed the drawbacks, it was fine.

Before long, Merlin passed through the burning buildings and crouched down in a half-burnt, abandoned ruin, observing a troop of over two hundred soldiers in an open space a hundred meters away.

He watched them with a faint gaze and soon spotted a figure in the crowd that was clearly different.

Unlike the surrounding soldiers who carried guns and wore backpacks, this person only had a simple, ancient sword at their waist.

Furthermore, the surrounding soldiers clearly maintained some distance from him, as if forming a protective circle around him.

Something was fishy.

Merlin instinctively felt that this must be the leader of this group of soldiers.

He listened intently. His keen hearing caught snippets of their conversation.

"It's good to have so many people. Ever since noon, those Infected haven't dared to attack us. As expected, this is Lord Dalami's idea."

"Who would have thought? Our Poison Gas Bombs exploded in the sewers. I heard they've captured quite a few Infected in the other three units!"

"This should solve the problem once and for all. Can't these dead rats in the sewers just die obediently?"

"Haha, once this mission is complete, we can go home. We'll get a big reward this time. We have to go out and have some fun!"

"Let's go together! Count me in."

At a distance of a hundred meters, the trajectory of a grenade should be able to reach them.

Merlin's body in this life was much stronger than in his previous one. He had been learning combat techniques under his father since he was six years old.

Although he was only taught for three years, Merlin hadn't slacked off in the following five years.

His physical fitness was much stronger than that of an average adult. Coupled with his current [Equipment], Merlin was confident he could easily take down more than a dozen ordinary adults by himself.

He felt the hard texture of the grenades in the backpack on his chest.

Over these three days, he had accumulated eighty-seven grenades, and he had exchanged them for twenty-five more with gunfire from other survivors.

Eighty of them were stored in the cave where he lived.

He currently had fifteen in his backpack, seven on his waist, and Yol had ten.

He slowly took a deep breath, his pupils dilating. He took out four grenades from his backpack and placed them in front of him.

Then, he held one grenade in each hand and bit down on the pull rings of the other two.

With a strong pull of both hands, click!

Suddenly, Merlin half-knelt up from the ruins, leaning back slightly. He swung out with both hands, and two grenades flew in parabolic arcs, landing in the distant crowd.

Thud! The sound of them hitting the ground echoed.

Boom! Boom!!

Two explosions suddenly bloomed.

Merlin watched as screams erupted from the crowd, and without hesitation, he quickly ducked down, grabbed the other two grenades, and threw them in the same manner.

At this moment, bang bang! A dense burst of gunfire suddenly erupted from another direction, and streaks of fire shot towards him.

However, as Merlin threw the grenades, he immediately rolled to the side.

And then, as two fierce explosions occurred again, interspersed with several other explosions.

was a secondary explosion triggered by the blast.

Merlin quickly escaped the ruins.

He ran towards another location.

Meanwhile, as the smoke cleared, Dalami, covered in dust and grime, crawled up from the ground on the outskirts of the explosion, his ears ringing incessantly.

Just as the grenades landed, his hair stood on end, and he violently rolled backward, using a fallen soldier to shield himself.

At this moment, he looked at the soldier on top of him, whose chest was a bloody, mangled mess. He was dead.

A thick, chilling sensation shot up from his tailbone like an electric shock, reaching all the way to the crown of his head.