Special Mission

Inside the fully enclosed armored cockpit, the pilot used the targeting program to track the Mad Dog leader.

When that demonic figure appeared on the screen, the pilot sucked in a breath. Even through an image, its evil presence seemed to wash over him. God only knew what had happened in the Inverse Realm to create these nightmares that looked as though they had crawled out of the abyss!

Locking onto the Demon Hound, the pilot pressed the fire button.

In the distance, the Demon Hound was issuing a new command through a series of syllables of varying lengths when both its pointed ears suddenly pricked up.

Then its grotesque, mismatched face turned toward the human defensive line. A flash of fire lit the gloom, followed by a low howl that rang across the battlefield!

Almost the instant it saw the flash, the Demon Hound turned and leaped away, roaring repeatedly as it broke into a sprint.

A dozen or so Mad Dogs charged in the opposite direction, racing toward the fiery streak crossing the battlefield before suddenly leaping at it.

The shell exploded!

Orange flames instantly swallowed the Mad Dogs. Fire and shock waves swept outward, sending the fleeing Demon Hound flying. A paler but still scorching ball of flame engulfed it.

But the Demon Hound quickly lunged out of the flames and rolled across the ground several times, smothering the lingering fire.

Wisps of smoke rose from its body, and several patches were burned, but such injuries barely bothered it.

"Damn it!"

Watching through her binoculars, the bald woman nearly smashed them in frustration. The shell had been intercepted and detonated by the Mad Dogs before reaching its target, allowing the Demon Hound to escape the most destructive part of the blast.

The damage inflicted by the outer shock wave and flames was almost negligible.

That thing was extraordinarily alert and cunning.

Lida contacted the pilot again. "What other weapons do you have?"

The pilot answered with a wry smile, "Commander, the heavy model isn't suited to precision strikes. You should leave this sort of thing to a ranged model."

Lida glanced toward the Spherical Building. "If a ranged model were here, would I still be tearing my hair out? Forget it..."

She shouted, "Don't we have any rank 3 Hunters here?"

Rank 3 of the Hunter class was Sniper Master, which possessed exactly the abilities the commander needed.

Unfortunately, the Hunters here were mostly rank 1 and rank 2.

"Zhou Wang! What's the maximum range of your elemental javelin?" When no one answered, the bald woman had no choice but to turn to the [Fire Support Specialist] in her own squad.

The arrogant young man who had taken an interest in Xun back at the base could no longer muster any arrogance. "Captain, no matter how far I can throw my elemental javelin, I can't hit something eight hundred meters away. Especially when you need a precision strike..."

Lida cradled her bald head in her hands. "Are we really stuck here waiting for them to wear us down? Like hell I'm accepting that..."

"Wait, maybe what we need is an assassin."

Lida picked up her communicator and switched to the relevant private channel. "Tianyang, your name's Tianyang, right? This is the commander. I need you to do something."

Tianyang's reply soon came over the communicator. "Understood. What do you need me to do?"

Tianyang lay prone on the ground. The hard stones scattered across its surface made it an uncomfortable place to lie.

But for an explorer in the Inverse Realm, comfort was a privilege reserved for the dead. Tianyang had no intention of dying so soon, so he did not resent the stones digging into his chest.

After making certain there were no Mad Dogs ahead, he slipped forward like a ghost, using trees, wrecked cars, and streetlights as cover.

Assassin, rank 1 of the Avenger class-this was an entirely new class. Never mind Skyhold; even the great fortress cities, such as Gloryhold, would have no detailed information about it.

So Tianyang had to discover and master the traits and tendencies of the class, and of each rank, himself.

Now he felt certain that the Assassin rank possessed abilities related to speed and stealth. Otherwise, he could never have circled more than half the main battlefield and slipped toward his target beneath the eyes and ears of the scattered Mad Dogs along its fringes.

Lida had given him an almost insane mission: assassinate the Mad Dog leader!

The commander had promised him five hundred contribution points if he succeeded.

Tianyang had agreed partly out of a soldier's instinct and partly because he wanted to test his rank abilities.

Working alone gave him greater freedom and allowed him to gauge those abilities more accurately.

Besides, although Lida's mission was crazy, she had made thorough preparations.

One of those preparations had been to coat Tianyang with a refined spray extracted from the bodily fluids of several kinds of Children of Darkness.

A single whiff of that smell had nearly suffocated him.

But the spray's effects were equally obvious: it fooled the Mad Dogs' keen sense of smell. Several times, the monsters had passed close to Tianyang, only to mistake him for one of their own or some other Child of Darkness.

And so Tianyang advanced without a sound, almost instinctively blending his moving figure into his surroundings.

A little while later, he spotted the Demon Hound. Although the commander had already described it, seeing the evil creature for himself still made Tianyang want to retch.

The Inverse Realm really is a terrifying place, Tianyang reaffirmed to himself.

The youth did not rush to act. A dozen or so Mad Dogs were moving around the Demon Hound. A rash attack would not only ruin the mission but might also cost him his life.

Besides, the other Mad Dogs' cages lay beneath their skulls. Tianyang could not be certain the same was true of the Demon Hound.

He watched that evil figure closely, hoping to find its weakness.

When his gaze fell upon the Demon Hound's rib-protected abdomen, the youth suddenly sensed something. Its ribs and belly faded before his eyes, revealing an organ resembling a placenta that radiated a pale yellow glow.

The will cage!

Tianyang came back to himself. All he could see were ribs and belly once more.

But he was certain that the Demon Hound's will cage lay inside its abdomen!

The youth worked to recall the image he had just seen, calculating the cage's position and repeatedly rehearsing the attack in his mind.

Time slipped by.

Then the Demon Hound looked toward the defensive line and let out a long hiss. Every Mad Dog around it broke into a run at the sound.

This was the signal for an all-out assault. Under wave after wave of attacks from the pack, the convoy's defensive line was finally nearing its breaking point.

Naturally, the Demon Hound would not let this opportunity slip away. It threw every available Mad Dog into the battle.

As for the leader itself, it cunningly stayed well behind the fighting.

But it had not considered that the rear might not be safe either.

Once the guards had left, Tianyang knew his chance had come.

The youth held nothing back. His star essence activity surged to its peak in an instant. Faint light drifted from his hair, the pale silver strands lifted slightly, and Tianyang vanished from the spot.

The Demon Hound seemed to sense something. Without wasting time looking back, it suddenly curled up. The ribs along both sides of its abdomen spread outward, as though to shield its entire body and ward off the impending attack.

Yet the moment that tactic formed in its mind, a pitch-black warblade thrust out of empty space. It passed precisely between two ribs and pierced the tough skin of its belly, plunging deep into its body to impale the placenta-like organ.

A brilliant yellow light suddenly flared in the Demon Hound's belly, then rapidly faded. Its curled body went still.

Its flesh swiftly rotted away, leaving only its individual ribs and two eyeballs.

Everything else, including the will cage, dissolved into a puddle of black sludge.

Only then did Tianyang's figure materialize in the air, turning from a phantom into solid form.

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