Warlord: volume 1

by Chen Ran

  The spear released the flame gun and jumped backwards. shadow killer, who had been penetrated by YuanSu's spear, started to burn from the inside out. In the blink of an eye, the high temperature flame released by YuanSu's spear engulfed the corpse of the monster. After five minutes, the monster was turned into a second charred corpse.

  The entire corridor was filled with hair-raising cracks and scorched earth. On the ground and on the walls, there were traces of burning flames left behind by the battle between Soren and the two shadow killer.

  On Soren's body, the Knight of Blood's uniform was torn in many places, all of these places had traces of blood. The Flame Armor on his right elbow was directly shattered by a shadow killer's counterattack right before her death. Soren had even lost a piece of his flesh and one could faintly see the bones in his arms. His handsome face was filled with fatigue. Being in close combat, he was not the director of Element Domain Capable, even though he was a Blood Cavalry, regardless of what abilities he had, he had already gone through the regular close-combat training.

  Frowning, he surveyed the area, Soren felt that he had to re-evaluate the dangers of zero. The trap he set up had a huge target. In such a narrow environment, letting two nimble and nimble shadow killer deal with him, who was not an expert in white combat, could be said to be a painstaking effort. Soren began to think that maybe he should just kill Zero straight away.

  Although a strong follower was not bad, when this follower was strong enough to be a threat to the life of the owner, that was not fun. Soren did not want to keep a dog that would bite the owner to death. Thus, killing intent began to spread in his heart.

  Instead of climbing out of the window, he obediently went up the stairs to the first floor. After using the element arming again and setting up a defensive force field in front of him, Soren finally walked out of the building. He had to be careful. During the entire process, Zero had only fired a single shot at him, but that shot contained too much information. The accurate calculation of the human nature and the points of impact made Soren feel a chill in his heart.

  It was quiet outside the building, and the camp light was coming from far away, but it was obscured by overturned cars and other obstacles. Soren suppressed his moving thoughts of returning to the camp. If he went back now, it would be equivalent to lowering his head towards the direction of the gun. Soren's pride and dignity did not allow him to do so, and no matter how much he admitted defeat, his followers and soldiers would have different intentions, and it would even affect his status in his family or in the Knight of Blood.

  In turbulent times, power represented everything! Strength dominated everything!

  Soren's gaze pierced through the darkness of the night, penetrated through the countless shadows within the building. All the images froze in his mind. Contrast, scout trained him, he was trying to find the zero position.

  Right now, he would not be naive enough to think that Zero was still in his sniper position. The other party was extremely cunning like a fox, it was impossible to give Soren a chance to catch a live target. But that didn't matter. In the shot that had been fired at him, the spear had truly felt his killing intent. If not for this tiny bit of killing intent, Soren would not have noticed in advance. Even if he didn't get headshot on the spot, he would be shot and injured and the two shadow killer s would take his life.

  As long as Zero had killing intent towards him, then he would act again. Soren guaranteed that the moment he fired the second time would be when he lost his life.

  However, it seemed that Soren was not the only living being in the darkness.

  A faint roar could be heard from the ruins in the distance, and the ground began to shake. Soren frowned, judging from the frequency of the ground shaking, there should be a lot of things that could cause such a tremor, and they should have some special abilities in terms of power. These conditions do not correspond to zero data, which means that other organisms are active.

  Judging from the frequency of the vibrations and the strength of the vibrations, the gigantic creature was heading towards Soren's direction. As he reached this conclusion, a car flew toward him from the street to the left.

  Soren did not move, but a scarlet light flashed past his eyes. The car that was in mid air suddenly exploded as broken pieces of glass and wreckage flew around in flames, but not a single piece of the car was able to get close to Soren.

  Amidst the light of the fire, a giant walked over with a hammer tied to a chain. Giant's head was covered by a triangular iron helmet, and nearly three meters long spikes were protruding from his tall body. These metallic objects did not seem to be born of nature. Instead, they were forcefully installed within this body, causing the giant to turn into an Iron Hedgehog.

  There were two holes on the triangle-iron mask, and inside the mask, a pair of bloody red eyes were rolling around. Finally, they landed on Soren's body.

  "Butcher?" Soren surprisingly revealed the identity of a Giant, it was not strange that a butcher would appear in an area of the living corpse. What was strange was that the time this butcher appeared was too coincidental, to the point that Soren thought of zero again.

  Other than the butcher, sounds of heavy breathing could be heard from the surrounding streets. living corpse, shadow killer, Eclipse Insects, Iron Tooth Berserkers … Monsters came from the ruins one after another, causing Soren, who was located in the middle of the street area, to become the target of the crowd.

  Soren's anger was instantly ignited as he shouted loudly, "Zero, are you even a man? "If you have the guts, come out and challenge me. Don't hold a f * cking monster party!"

  With that, the concrete ground beneath Soren's feet suddenly shattered. A bullet struck the ground beside his feet, causing countless of limestone to fly into the air, causing Soren's face to turn ashen.

  The meaning of zero was very clear. He would not show himself, but he did not intend to leave either. The monster that had appeared out of nowhere would become the cannon fodder to deal with Soren, while he himself was hiding in the shadows. When Soren revealed his weak point, he would give Soren a pleasant surprise as if he was hit by a spear. Just that, the next bullet point should not be on the ground, but somewhere on Soren's body.

  This kind of invisible threat was far heavier than the monsters that surrounded Soren. Soren gnashed his teeth in anger, but he couldn't do anything about it.

  The battle proceeded without any warning.

  The butcher, with an indescribable hatred towards the human, first made it attack Soren. Giant rushed forward while dragging his copper hammer. When he was about three meters away from Soren, the butcher jumped high in the air and rushed forward. It raised its bronze hammer, and without any skill, lowered it towards Soren who was on the ground.

  The power of a butcher could split mountains, Soren was not naive enough to think that he could block the shadow killer's sharp shears and create a miracle again. With a shift, Soren was pushed back several meters, allowing the butcher's sledgehammer to smash onto the ground. The ground shook, and the cement fragments that jumped up were almost a meter wide. Soren raised his right hand and the flame gun in his hand pierced through the air, transforming into a blazing stream of flames that passed through the barrier and landed on the butcher's body, causing the giant to instantly become a huge fireball.

  Soren's movements did not stop, the flame shield in his left hand moved back a step, and a sharp rubbing sound immediately sounded, but it blocked the sharp blade of a shadow killer sneak attack.

  Even more monsters rushed up from the corner of the street, Soren gritted his teeth, ready to fight to the death.

  At this moment, the sound of a machine gun rang out. However, the bullets did not land on Soren's body. Instead, they shot towards the monsters around him. Soren didn't need to look to know that his own soldiers were here. Although he didn't need to fight alone anymore, Soren's complexion was extremely bad.

  Chapter 73 - Threats

  When Soren's troops i
ntervened, Zero quietly retreated.

  Not every plan was uneventful, Zero knew that. However, since Soren's troops were able to join the battle at such a crucial time, it seemed that he had quite a good assistant. At least this man was not afraid to be blamed for interfering with Soren's battle. He also knew that interfering with the army's actions had indeed given Soren an opportunity to save face and go down the stairs.

  The one who transferred the troops was none other than himself. Although he did not belong to the Parkland family, his parents had served him during his generation, and his loyalty towards the family was unquestionable. Kabu was no exception. Relying on his status as a Level 3 Huntress, he quickly took a whiff of danger.

  After Soren left the camp, he looked around and noticed that the monsters hidden in the ruins seemed to be attracted to something. During this time, Kabu discovered a faint trace of blood. Fresh blood was enough to move the bloodthirsty monster's heart, but from the faintly discernible smell in the air, Kabu could sense that these monsters were not only tempted, they were even driven mad.

  The smell was due to the smell of mutated organism's body which was unconsciously discharged into the air due to his excitement. If it wasn't for the fact that he was an experienced Huntress, it would be difficult to notice it. These body odors were similar to those emitted by the wild beasts of the old days when they were looking for a mate. However, to the mutated beasts of this age, it meant that they had a strong appetite for something.

  Gluttony was not a rare occurrence in this era. Surprisingly, there were many different types of organisms that stimulated the appetite to a great degree. That was a huge problem. At least in Kabu's knowledge system, there were drugs that were developed against mutated organism to stimulate their appetite for research and observation. However, Kabu had never heard of anything that could affect different types of living things at the same time.

  Compared to this, Soren was even more worried about the danger. Amongst the monster tracks he found, there were already vicious beasts like the butcher and shadow killer, and deeper in the ruins, there were also signs that some of the stronger existences were about to make a move. However, they were of a higher rank and possessed a higher intelligence. Thus, their self-control allowed them to remain in the darkness, acting as silent observers.

  It was not unusual for high level entities to have human-like intelligence. At the very least, Kabu had heard from his father that there were still some strange species that could change between humans and wild beasts in the dark Northwest Region of Mainland China that had yet to be conquered by humans. There were also quite a few mutated beasts that possessed intelligence not inferior to humans. In the turbulent times, all living creatures were naturally reshuffled. Humans were no longer the only living creatures with wisdom.

  Returning to the camp, Kabu made a decision on the spot. With his authority, he ordered the troops to head towards the direction of Soren's battlefield. Just in case, he even brought Lea along as well. This also made Zero's original plan to lure him out of the mountain go down the drain.

  He found a secluded place. This was a machine tool processing plant. Lala, who was standing next to Zero, was thrilled by the amount of metal equipment piled up in the factory. Looking at the Gold Devourer's cub, Zero revealed a pondering expression. The reason he could attract all kinds of monsters, with high level goods like the butcher and shadow killer, wasn't something that could be done with just his own blood.

  More importantly, it was due to Lala. At first, Zero only wanted to attract some ordinary low level monsters, but it turned out that there was a monster like the shadow killer that was attracted to it. In the process, after repeated testing, they learned that the monsters were attracted to the smell of Lala. And judging from the movements of the monsters, what they most wanted to do was to devour Lara in one bite.

  In that monster notebook, Zero had seen the record of mutated organism hunting the same kind of monsters. That was usually out of the desire to repair their own genes, or because they couldn't endure the hunger and didn't have any food at the same time. However, the mutated organism would usually not prey on other types of life forms, as completely different gene fragments would cause the Predator's body to collapse.

  Of course, this meat-like human food is in the recipe of all known monsters.

  Therefore, the fact that different species of monsters had developed an appetite for Lara forced Zero to re-evaluate the cub. This meant that there was something in Lara that these monsters couldn't take. When monsters ate monsters, there was only one possibility for them to do so, and that was to make up for it and evolve!

  He shook his head as he watched Lara use her toothless mouth to swallow pieces of scrap steel into her bottomless belly. This gluttonous guy was simply a monster version of the evolution potion. If he were to sell it to other organizations or research institutes, he would probably be able to sell it for a good price.

  Lala, who was happily eating, suddenly shivered.

  As long as one was not blind, one would be able to see that Soren was filled with anger.

  The army led by Kabu had appeared in time. The metal torrent of machine guns and rapid-fire cannons intimidated all the monsters present, and the strong smell of gunpowder on the battlefield made all the monsters nearby retreat. Soren was successfully saved, but he was still furious when he was saved. The source of his rage was naturally the 0 who had never revealed it before. Kabu also felt that it was unexpected. In his eyes, zero could only be considered outstanding, but it was far from enough to be considered powerful.

  However, this kind of fellow who only had the ability of a Level 2, had actually almost caused Soren to suffer a huge loss. But in Kabu's opinion, there was no need for Soren to confront Zero. As long as they brought Lea back to the Dark Council, Soren's mission would be completed. As for Zero, there were plenty of other Blood Knights in the council to deal with him, if he was determined to save the girl.

  However, when Kabu gave the suggestion of leaving tomorrow morning, he roared and rejected it.

  Soren's reason was very simple, if they let go of Zero, the face he and the Parkland family had left behind would completely disappear. Regarding the honor of the ancient family, heirs like Soren didn't need to think about it before taking action, and when it came to the honor of the family, Kabu couldn't get Soren to give up.

  However, he was also not in favor of wasting too much time on zero. Therefore, a suggestion that Soren could reluctantly accept came out of Kabu's mouth.

  "Take that girl as a hostage and force Zero to show himself?" Soren frowned, this method was undoubtedly direct and useful. Judging from how highly Su Yun regarded the girl, Soren was certain that he would reveal himself. However, he was not without doubts in his heart.

  Kabu was very clear about the dignity of the Blood Knights and the reputation of the ancient clans. These things that were not important to the hunters were the things that restricted Soren's movements, the Yuan Su. However, Kabu pointed out that if Soren was not able to take zero in a short period of time, then it would be a huge blow to the clan's reputation. After weighing the pros and cons, Soren finally accepted Kabu's suggestion.

  Thus, a threat that caused zero to have no choice but to surrender took shape.

  Chapter 74 - Sorrow

  When the sky slowly brightened, Zero was lying on the water tower on the roof of a building. From this direction, he could see Soren's campsite not far away.

  The radiating clouds in the firmament seem thinner today, so there is more light on the earth than usual. Even if it was just before six o'clock in the morning, you didn't have to expect the warm breeze of the old days and the good mood, even if the sun began to burn from just a little light, it would push all the good mood to the bottom.

  Even the mutated beasts with the highest resistance to radiation did not want to be exposed to the sun for an entire day. As for Zero, who was lying on the water tower, the steel plate of the water tower was shining with s
unlight. The high temperature emitted by the steel plate was enough to roast an ordinary person. However, Zero did not seem to have realized it. Even though the tactical suit was dressed in a thin set of clothes, not a single drop of sweat flowed down.

  The body's strict allocation of energy automatically lowered the temperature to zero at this moment of high temperature.

  After last night's plan was declared bankrupt, Zero had no choice but to observe Soren's group again. He had to reformulate his plan, and find a chance to save Lea. Based on his evaluation of Soren's personality, the arrogant Yun Che would not easily leave this ruin. After all, last night, he had given him a huge slap across the face. People like him would only think of killing those who caught them.

  However, finding zeros was not an easy matter, even though Soren himself had a certain amount of scouting ability, but that ability was not enough to find him in the eyes of zero. The only one who had the qualifications was a Tracing Specialist among Soren's followers. Zero did not mind the follower coming after him, that way, he might be able to use the environment to kill off Soren's right-hand man.

  However, Zero knew that Soren had another way to find him. Zero only hopes that Soren will not use this method because of his own dignity.

  However, Zero seemed to have overestimated Soren's dignity. Thus, when he saw Lea being brought out of the camp, her face was exceptionally pale.

  As expected, he still used this method. It was simple, but effective. But that was the last thing Zero wanted to see.

  "Zero!"

  In the morning, Soren's voice had a strong penetrating power. There was no doubt that within a kilometer at least, as long as they weren't deaf, they would be heard. And the echo of the empty buildings above the ruins would make the sound travel further.