"What is this thing?!"
The agent whose leg had been caught realized the danger, but he failed to put up any effective resistance.
The World Government was enormous. From CP1 to CP9, along with the special CP0, it commanded a massive corps of agents. But not every agent specialized in combat.
The CP0 agents in white suits were undoubtedly among the strongest, even known as the shields of the Celestial Dragons. But such agents did not appear in this hunting game. At the very least, they did not need to play the role of hunting hounds.
These agents were undoubtedly the lowest-ranking sort, only slightly stronger than Spandam, the ultimate nepotism hire. They were basically cannon fodder among agents.
Though they had received combat training, handled firearms proficiently, and were loyal enough to the Celestial Dragons, they were still made of flesh and blood.
They were good at bullying unarmed people, but when they truly encountered danger, that was another matter entirely.
"What are you staring at? Hurry up and help me get this off!!"
The metal petals had already sliced into his flesh. Pain drove him to struggle desperately, but no one dared help him. The rotating purple glow beneath those petals looked like nothing good.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out behind the agent. Elatin mercilessly shot the man who had stepped on the trap dead.
"You talk too much. You're annoying."
"Saint Elatin, you..."
The remaining agents nearby were startled. They wanted to say something, yet feared becoming the next one. They did not even dare touch their dead colleague.
After hesitating for a moment, they ultimately shrank back.
"You stupid lowlife! You actually dared use such inferior tools to obstruct my path! I don't want the points for a one-hit kill anymore. I'm going to torture him properly!"
In the eyes of the Celestial Dragons, resistance was a grave crime of disrespect. Rather than consider what the presence of traps meant, Elatin cared more about that attitude. He had no intention of turning back.
Perhaps, in his eyes, that lotus was merely an ordinary animal trap.
Not only Elatin—even Ivankov and the others had not understood what was happening. Though one guard had already been taken out, the Celestial Dragon had done it himself.
"Oran, it looks like your device malfunctioned. What do we do next?"
"Malfunctioned? My work would never make such a low-level mistake. Forget me—even Kada Jin wouldn't have an accident. His pursuit of artistry in this regard is somewhat pathological."
Kada Jin, the Fate Weaver, regarded killing as art. Oran had once participated in the hunt for him, and these things had been developed from confiscated weapons.
These Lotus Traps were tools for completing art in King's mind. For a pathological "artist," there could be no mistakes in his art of killing.
Oran had further improved upon them. After all, he never minded learning what others excelled at to make up for his own weaknesses.
Especially with external tools. Power itself was neither right nor wrong. Whether it was Shimmer or the Hex Core, what mattered was how it was used.
For example, with the Lotus Trap that had just been stepped on, Oran had lengthened the explosive fuse. If the people around it went to rescue him, it would create an even greater effect.
It was just that Oran had ultimately underestimated how low the Celestial Dragons could sink.
Boom!
After a considerable delay, the Lotus Trap detonated as expected—and it went off in a rapid chain of explosions.
Pressure triggers, timed triggers, manual detonation—traps could be activated in far more than one way. The blooming of the first lotus was merely the beginning. Once the positions had been confirmed, mechanical lotuses throughout the canyon began blooming one after another.
Purple smoke instantly flooded the surrounding area. Explosions tore through flesh, while the anesthetic inside the lotuses began to take effect as well.
"Protect Saint Elatin!"
"Saint Elatin, it's an ambush! Run!"
To capture them alive, the amount of explosives in the Lotus Traps had been reduced, and they had not been laid too densely. Otherwise, that one strike would have been enough to wipe out everyone here.
A few agents still remained alive, but they did not dare run. If they died here, only they themselves would die. But if anything happened to Elatin, their entire families would suffer.
Yet Elatin did not listen to them at all. Unlike those Celestial Dragons who wore glass helmets, Elatin was accustomed to wearing a gas mask. It filtered the air while preventing harmful gases from entering his lungs, and by sheer coincidence, it allowed him to avoid the anesthetic.
Moreover, unlike ordinary Celestial Dragons, he was not merely useless. At this moment, Elatin realized that this was not a tool Bear had used to stop him, but a premeditated trap.
"Move! You worthless trash! You actually let these lowlifes get their hands on explosives. The Marines are getting more useless by the day..."
Boom!
Before Elatin could finish, another explosion thundered beside his ear. The agent who had just been shouting for Elatin to run was now left with only his lower body. His upper half seemed to have vanished into thin air, and only the blood left behind proved that he had once been whole.
"Bastard... bastard... You actually let these people's filthy blood splash onto me..."
The goggles of his mask were stained red. Rage nearly overwhelmed Elatin's reason, yet the attacks did not stop.
Boom!
Another explosion rang out, blasting a huge crater into the ground. At the same time, the last agent still standing beside Elatin fell.
"It's this way, isn't it? Damn lowlife, just wait..."
The agents' deaths did not frighten him. Elatin drew his weapons, holding a blade in each hand as he ran toward the source of the sound.
Meanwhile, atop a hill not far away, a group of people stared blankly at Oran.
"What? Never seen a sniper before? If something can be solved with guns and cannons, why bother with blades and swords?"
Whatever reasons those agents had for serving the Celestial Dragons, once they landed on this island and began aiding them in their atrocities, they were no different from the Celestial Dragons in essence. Oran had no intention of showing mercy.
"No... this thing... you call it a gun?"
The technology tree on the seas had developed in a rather skewed direction. Repeating flintlock guns that fired round bullets were mainstream weapons.
Though there were plenty of people on the seas who called themselves snipers, they relied on their own marksmanship rather than any advantage in equipment. Even scopes were rare equipment on the seas.
Looking at the enormous thing Oran had braced on his shoulder, its barrel as thick as a fist, Ivankov simply could not connect it with sniping.
"One shot, one kill. Of course it's a sniper."
"What kind of bad joke is that... Oran, watch out!!"
"I found you, you sneaky bastard!"
As he spoke, Elatin charged straight out of the smoke in the canyon below. His blades glinted coldly as he slashed at Oran without pausing.
According to Elatin's understanding, someone who only knew how to hide far away and play with guns had to be weak in close combat. As long as he reached him, he could easily seize his opponent and make him experience the fury of a Celestial Dragon.
Seeing this unexpected development, Ivankov and the others were about to rush forward to help, only to discover that Elatin's weapons had been firmly held in midair.
At some point, Oran had also produced two blades in his hands.
"You've misunderstood one more thing. I never said I couldn't use a blade."
Before you continue