Chapter 77
Ayse's voice sounded somewhat surprised.
Before landing, they had already gathered information on the Erosion Entity here. They counted seven Erosion Entity, and apart from the one they jointly Exile, which was quite large, the others were relatively small. It was just right that each of them was responsible for three, so they split up to carry out their mission.
But five of them appeared on Canary's side.
Naturally, agents may occasionally overlook an inconspicuous target due to obstructed viewpoints, but overlooking two is extremely rare. This equates to a 22.22% error, which is enough to interfere with decision-making.
"Anyway, I've finished clearing this area. Let's meet at the building next to the landing point and search again to make sure we haven't missed anything."
"Hmm! Then please be careful... The 'Defense Line' is part of the Boundary Stele System. It's one thing for the Erosion Entity to appear in the city, but to appear directly from inside the 'Defense Line' is worrying. I'm concerned that something else might happen."
"Don't worry, see you later."
After finishing the communication through the earpiece, Canary glanced around one last time and quickly ran towards the agreed location.
Canary and Ayse joined the organization as agents at the same time. As agents, they were of similar age and had comparable combat experience, so they quickly became friends.
In terms of pure combat strength, Canary is slightly better, but Canary has a rather carefree personality and can be a bit reckless at times. In this respect, Ayse becomes a good mediator.
Agents are not "grouped" or "teamed". For example, although Efnir often acts with Fifina, it does not mean that Efnir and Fifina are agents of the same team. Efnir often acts alone or goes on duty with other agents, and Fifina also goes on missions alone or assists others.
In other words, the teammates of an agent when going on a mission are not strictly fixed. The organization will make appropriate adjustments based on the different roles of each agent and the difficulty of the mission.
But Canary and Ayse are somewhat special – they always act together.
To others, they were simply "from the same group".
The reason for this is naturally related to the tacit understanding they've developed over a long period of time together. They have a set of coordinated offensive tactics that allow their combined attacks to achieve an advantage beyond 1+1=2, greatly increasing their potential. Therefore, the organization intentionally or unintentionally always arranges for them to act together.
Just as Canary was running quickly on the empty road, a dark shadow suddenly flashed in the corner of her vision.
"Um?"
Canary let out a soft exclamation, stopped in her tracks, and took a step back to look in the direction where she had just seen the dark figure.
It was an L-shaped building, and logically it should be empty now, but even though it was only for a moment, Canary was quite certain that a figure had just appeared there.
She stared intently, and sure enough, she saw a figure appear from the side, seemingly preparing to leave.
"Hey! Stop right there!"
Canary drew her weapon and shouted at the figure, who immediately stopped.
She stared at the person's back and walked towards him.
"Hands up, turn around."
She commanded.
The figure paused, then turned around shakily. It was a man, wearing a dirty white work uniform with bloodstains on the cuffs and waist, and a staff member's name tag hanging on his chest.
Canary glanced at him and frowned slightly.
Are you hurt? Are you alright?
"N-nothing... it's not serious..."
The man seemed to wince in pain and gently clutched his waist.
Canary's gaze fell on the man's name tag, and she asked suspiciously, "Why didn't you go to seek refuge?"
"I..."
The man stared directly at Canary, making Canary very uncomfortable.
He paused for a moment, then explained, "I was being chased by the Erosion Entity, so I was hiding here..."
"Erosion Entity?"
Canary raised an eyebrow slightly.
The location of the Erosion Entity is not fixed. Sometimes, some people are unlucky enough to have the Erosion Entity appear nearby after a disaster, cutting off their way to a refuge.
At that time, they could only try their best to save themselves by scattering and hiding.
Even if the Erosion Entity cannot see them, they can still discern the location of those who are hiding through their unique methods. In other words, simply finding a place to hide is merely a low-level strategy to delay death. They will often change their hiding places from time to time to buy themselves more time.
As long as they can wait for the agent to arrive, they will be rescued. Compared to running around aimlessly in the streets, hiding and waiting for rescue actually gives them a much higher chance of survival.
Therefore, many people who are unable to evacuate in time during a disaster will choose to take temporary shelter, and these people are one of the key rescue targets during the mission.
At this point, Canary put away her weapon.
"Don't worry, I'm the agent, I've taken care of them all."
Canary breathed a sigh of relief, looked around, and comforted her, "You're safe now. You're injured, so go and seek refuge quickly."
105. Sneak attack
"You're safe now, but you're injured, so go and seek shelter quickly."
Canary said.
But the man didn't move; instead, he wore a strange expression.
"No, not yet..." the man denied immediately, his voice trembling with fear. "I just saw it with my own eyes..."
Suddenly, he opened his eyes wide, stared straight behind Canary, and cried out in surprise, "Ah! It followed us!!"
"Um?"
Canary frowned alertly. Suddenly, a deep roar came from behind her. She turned around and saw half of the Erosion Entity's body protruding from behind the corner of the building.
"Tsk... There's a sixth one...?"
Canary gritted her teeth, and her twin blades reappeared in her hands. She turned to face the Erosion Entity, shielding the man behind her, and shouted, "Get out of here quickly and head to the refuge! Leave this to me!"
After saying that, Canary gripped her weapon and charged towards the Erosion Entity.
The distance between the Canary and the Erosion Entity was only about twenty meters.
However, just as Canary was about to engage in battle with the Erosion Entity, a deafening gunshot rang out unexpectedly behind her.
"Bang bang bang--"
Three shots rang out in quick succession in the open air.
Canary felt a huge, sharp force pierce her back. She knew her skin had been torn open by the scalding bullet. Her center of gravity was thrown off balance by the sudden gunshot, and the Erosion Entity in front of her raised its huge, thick tail high, sweeping fiercely towards her.
It was too late— Canary used all her strength to forcefully flip her body, barely dodging the sweeping attack from the Erosion Entity's tail.
Forcibly mobilizing enormous strength to evade the attack, the immense strain on her body caused blood to spill from Canary's lips and nose—her lungs had already been damaged.
She slashed at the Erosion Entity with all her might, but she couldn't muster enough strength. The Erosion Entity wasn't seriously damaged. She then used the momentum to turn around and look behind her. She finally saw the person who had shot her.
It was that man in the white uniform.
At this moment, the man held a pistol in both hands, staring intently at Canary. There was no trace of tension or fear in his eyes, only a cold killing intent.
Canary suddenly understood.
The bloodstains on the man may not even be his own.
The handgun in the man's hand was no ordinary weapon either; it had a larger caliber than standard firearms and considerable power.
This is why Canary, with her formidable physique as an agent, was injured at this moment. Generally speaking, agents have an incredibly strong physical defense; such a gunshot to an ordinary person would kill them instantly, yet Canary managed to withstand three shots and still maintain her mobility.
But she was injured after all, and Canary's strength was greatly reduced at this time.
"Ayse!! Can you hear me! Quickly ask Elincia for backup... There's more to this than just..."
Canary tried to contact Ayse, but the man adjusted his elbow slightly and pulled the trigger again.
"Bang bang bang..."
Five shots were fired in total, emptying all the remaining bullets from the magazine.
Canary gritted her teeth, which were already stained with blood, and behind her were three shocking bloody holes.
"Damn it!!"
Faced with the man's attack, Canary reacted quickly, dodging two shots while simultaneously slashing a bullet with her knife. However, her strength had diminished too much, and she was unfortunately hit in the abdomen by a bullet.
At that moment, the Erosion Entity behind them swung its tail again.
"Canary? What's wrong? What happened to you?"
At that moment, Ayse's voice came through the earpiece, but Canary was too preoccupied to pay attention to anything else.
Faced with the massive tail of the Erosion Entity sweeping towards her, Canary no longer had the strength to resist and could only barely raise her twin swords to block it.
A dull thud filled her eardrums, and the world spun around her. Canary only knew that she had completely lost her balance. She and half of the wall beside her were simultaneously blown away by the huge and heavy impact. Her body crashed through the wall on the opposite side of the street, then smashed a terrible Fracture in the heavy load-bearing wall before collapsing helplessly to the ground. Her twin swords also clattered to the ground not far away before turning into a faint light and disappearing.
She was engulfed by the rising dust.
"Cough cough..."
Canary struggled to sit up, spitting out another mouthful of blood. Her back and chest were now completely stained with blood.
"Canary!!! What happened to you!?"
Ayse immediately realized that something was wrong with Canary. Canary was lying on the ground, using her arms to support herself, and slowly stood up.
"Ayse... quickly request assistance from Elincia... and also tell the Special Disaster Division that they've discovered people suspected to be from the 'Apostle' side here..."
Her head felt as heavy as lead. She breathed rapidly, struggling to lift her eyes and look out over the large hole she had smashed open. Through the rising dust, she saw the man's retreating figure as he fled into the distance.
"He's trying to run away... I'm going after him..."
"Wait!! Canary!! You're all alone..."
"It's okay... I'm fine, I can't let him get away!"
"I'll be there to help you soon!"
Canary said nothing more, abandoning the pursuing Erosion Entity. A silver light flashed in Canary's hands, and her twin swords reappeared. She dragged her injured body and ran in the direction the man had fled.
She was undoubtedly seriously injured, but as an agent, her physical strength was not limited to that.
That man cannot be ignored; in fact, he might be a very important clue. Canary had this intuition.
Just then, a third person's voice suddenly came through Canary's earpiece.
"Canary, I order you to cease pursuit and retreat towards Ayse."
The sudden appearance of a third person in her earpiece startled Canary.
The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.
"Ayse, prioritize protecting Canary, then eliminate that Erosion Entity."
The voice continued to command.
"Wait, wait a minute, who are you...? Why should I listen to you?"
Canary gritted her teeth and asked the question.
She could tell that the person opposite her was neither Efnir nor Elincia.
The person who would be connecting to their communications at this point must be nearby, but they were completely unaware that anyone else had been sent to provide support.
Although being able to access this communication channel already proves that the other party is on their side, Canary must ensure that nothing goes wrong.
There was a moment of silence on the other end, then a name slowly floated over.
"Masaki Hina."
Canary was quite familiar with Masaki Hina's voice, and upon hearing this, she recognized it immediately. This unique voice, both soft and surprisingly authoritative, was indeed Masaki Hina's.
But...
Since Masaki Hina appeared in their communications, it means that Masaki Hina is somewhere not far from them, which means that Masaki Hina has come to the battlefield of the disaster.
The thought that her commander was nearby made Canary choke.
This operation was entirely handled by the Special Disaster Division, and Canary never expected to encounter her commander here. Moreover, the current overall commander is Fushihara Ayaka, and the battlefield commanders are Efnir and Elincia. So, should she carry out Masaki Hina's orders or not?
"These are your orders. You are injured," Masaki Hina's voice came through the earpiece. "This mission ends here. Reunite with Ayse and leave this place. Someone will meet you outside."