Book 1 Chapter 19.4 - Slaughter
Su heard a familiar sound. Only, when he was on the plane, what he heard was howling and low roars. At this time, what he heard was only pain, howling, and screaming that sounded similar to cursing!
These extremely high frequencies that the human ear couldn’t hear were emitted by the burning shrub in front of him. This existence quickly swung its branches at a speed that didn’t belong to a plant at all and pulled its long and thin roots from the earth. Seeing those broken roots, one could imagine just how much pain it was in. This shrub was just like a burning spider. It began to quickly crawl away, actually trying to escape!
Following its cry for help, Su could hear at least ten furious cries nearby! As he looked at the dense shrubs around him, Su knew that there were at least ten strange strubs nearby. As for the shrub that was quickly crawling away, Su wasn’t worried. Based on the rate it was burning at, it would be burned to ashes after it crawled another ten meters or so. Even though he was inwardly prepared, towards the endurance and movement speed of this shrub, Su still felt shocked. If he wasn’t on his guard, this shrub could easily use its branches to strangle a human fighter.
When he poured the gunpowder on the shrub’s branches, it seemed like it was already getting ready to attack! When Su thought of this, he couldn’t help but thank his luck. It seemed like this shrub didn’t know what was firepowder at all or what he was going to do. Otherwise, it definitely wouldn’t have allowed Su to do something like this.
With a hu sound, Su’s dagger flew out of his hand, accurately passing through the shrub that was violently burning firmly nailing it to the ground!
The shrub immediately released a mournful cry. The burning branches slammed against the ground, but apart from leaving black ashes on the ground, it was completely useless. It cursed madly, and then a string of complicated cries with unknown meaning sounded. This time, a response transmitted over from even further away. Based on what Su sensed, the sources of high frequency had increased to more than forty.
It seemed like this shrub was transmitting its own misfortune and experiences to its companions. However, where was its brain? How could it have such intelligence? Su pondered this as he pulled out his dagger. He placed his gun back on his back, and just when he was going to continue moving, he suddenly heard a mournful shriek sound from the distance! This wasn’t the high frequency of the shrub that couldn’t be heard, and was instead the miserable cry of a human female before death. From the voice, Su recalled that it belonged to a highly capable and careful jungle specialist.
This person might have been like Su, fearing a bullet from the back. She had confidence in her survival skills in the wilderness and as such chose to move alone, but she never thought that she would fall into a fatal trap so quickly in the jungle. The miserable cry of death was mournful and full of suffering. It didn’t disappear for a long time. It was clear that not only did she experience great pain and suffering, the process of her death was especially long as well.
Su quickly moved nimbly and gracefully like a leopard towards the direction where the miserable cry sounded from. In the jungle terrain, the Barrett wasn’t that useful, while the Magnum could display great power.
Along the way, Su could sharply sense that several particularly lively shrubs suddenly became quiet, clearly sensing his arrival. However, how did they sense his whereabouts? Su didn’t know the answer to this question. However, the range in which these shrubs could detect him wasn’t that great, being roughly around six or seven meters before they could sense him. Meanwhile, Su knew that the range in which their high frequency sounds travelled was close to a hundred meters. This was only their whispering. If they cried out or roared, the range would be much greater.
When he was about to approach the place where the female cadet was killed, Su quietly stopped his footsteps. He noticed that there were at least ten shrubs that had gathered in front of him that chattered continuously about something.
For some reason, Su suddenly recalled the living corpses that gathered together to feed.
A light kacha sounded. Su loaded an incendiary device into the Magnum. Then, after taking a deep breath, he bent his body at the waist and silently rushed forward. He already retracted all of his aura, and not even his body heat was leaking out from the bandages. However, when he approached roughly ten meters of the scene, Su still realized that the discussion in front of him had abruptly lessened.
This change was the sign for Su to move. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, he lept into the air, his body immediately closing the distance by two meters! From this height, everything below Su was quickly collected as information.
His body in midair suddenly went rigid!
Several meters ahead, there was a particularly dense thicket. Through the frantically brandishing leaves, he could see the female hunter lying on the ground. Her combat suit had already been torn into pieces, so she was lying practically naked on the ground. Utter fear and suffering were still frozen on her face.
A shrub that had completely extracted its roots from the ground was crawling about her body. Its sharp roots poked her body from time to time to continuously absorb her flesh tissue. The roots were then extracted and inserted again into a place with better ‘flavor’. There was one shrub that directly planted itself on top of her chest, inserting all of its roots into her body. It was sucking extremely vigorously to the point where not only did its bark continuously rise and fall, every single leaf even began to reveal a dark red color!
The female hunter’s body seemed to have countless bugs wriggling about within her. It was clear that these were the shrubs’ roots that were piercing about, trying to absorb even more flesh.
The surrounding shrubs were currently peeling at her pants and trying to tear apart her sturdy military boots to find new areas to penetrate. Su noticed that these shrubs tore off all metal parts and twisted them about before throwing them far into the distance. Not even the metal threading at the bottom of her pants could escape their detection. The female hunter’s gun had long been torn apart into countless warped components and tossed several dozens of meters out.
Bang bang bang! The Magnum continuously fired. Five continuous gunshots converged to form a single loud noise. The five shrubs were immediately struck and set aflame! The shrubs immediately released screams of panic. Even though their reactions were fast and they noticed Su’s arrival, their nimbleness of their movements still couldn’t compare to Su’s. They weren’t able to avoid the bullets that Su released from several meters away at all!
When Su landed, he immediately rolled several times until he retreated ten meters away. He then got up, and in a half kneeling stance, he fired the once again fully loaded Magnum. The bullets seemed to brush past the female cadet’s corpse as they flew past. This time, these five bullets ignited seven shrubs, and one of shrubs that was previously ignited began to burn even more furiously!
In that split second, most of the shrubs that had gathered to feed were set ablaze. The three or four stalks that were lucky enough to outlive the others wanted to flee, but how could they escape now that they were targeted by Su? A cross formed in Su’s green eye, and the fleeing shrubs were set aflame one after another.
Five or six shrubs fell on on top of the female cadet’s body that was already riddled with gaping wounds, starting a raging fire. Su silently gave her a look. He then lowered his body to pick up a bottle of nutrient-filled food before turning around to leave. Having her body cremated by the flames that took down her enemies wasn’t that terrible of a conclusion.
Su felt a faint sadness inside. He had never thought of this woman as his companion, and he also knew that if she didn’t meet this type of conclusion, she would have most likely died under his hands. A lone wolf like him would definitely prioritize killing her, a solo hunter like himself. The only other way was if she completely surrendered herself and made Su believe her.
However, she was also a wolf, a lone wolf. Being able to survive the training camp until now and even endure the captain’s violations three times made Su feel a fundamental level of respect for her.
Seeing her end today left Su with a faint sadness. Whenever he saw dried up bones or corpses that had just perished, Su would always begin to think about how one day, he will become just like them. Survival meant that one needed to constantly worry from the day one developed a consciousness.
Su had heard that in the olden era, as long as people completed the work they were assigned, they no longer had to worry about survival. Back then, food was extremely cheap and so abundant that it was tossed out!
Su refocused his train of thought that had become a bit disarrayed and began to think about his current situation. Were these shrubs the natives the captain was talking about? Su firmly rejected that thought. Even though they were dangerous, they weren’t enough to be a threat. It was rather easy to kill or even wipe them out. All it would take would be a few dozen flame users or some fire bombs to completely burn down the forest. These shrubs greatly feared fire, and they seemed to loathe metal, which they were extremely sensitive towards. Apart from this, they didn’t seem to have any unique ability. No one knows what they would evolve into in ten years, but at least right now, they didn’t deserve to be described by the Black Dragonriders’ dictionaries as ‘natives’.
Su suddenly stopped his footsteps. He reached out his hand, and with a flick, a bullet flew several dozen meters out before landing on the ground. Following a hu la sound, a shrub ten meters away suddenly turned its body around. Most of its branches began to point towards the bullet lying on the ground.
“It seems like they are extremely sensitive to metal as expected.” Su began to quietly contemplate. The amount of information the captain gave them was extremely limited. It seemed like they had to explore themselves.
Su wasn’t in a rush to continue his search. Instead, he sat down beside a large tree and began to think carefully. If he was a native that was multiplying and surviving here, what would he do?
He would definitely have to take advantage of the shrubs’ exceptional sensitivity towards metal! This line of thinking floated into Su’s mind.
He stood up. Then, he dug a hole underneath the large tree and used waterproof combat cloth to wrap up both the Barrett, Magnum, their bullets, and all other metal items in the hole. He even removed the dagger formed from metal alloy as well as the gloves that had metal inside of them. Then, he covered his hands in a layer of bandages.
After making his preparations, Su stood up. Suddenly, a sense of danger crept up from the depths of his mind! This kind of feeling was the same as being locked on by a natural predator! Su’s light blonde hair stood up straight and then began to float down. He immediately moved behind the tree, just in time to see a pair of dark green eyes peering through the shrubbery’s leaves. The deep gaze was staring right at him!