The man screamed out in anguish. His voice was already dying down, but Jean didn't stop. She didn't stop until she was holding the huntsman’s eyeballs into her palm.
The man hit the ground.
The two Voyagers rose their eyebrows. To them, the huntsman was no different from a tree or a stone. He was a local, and locals and Voyagers were two different species. All them wanted to know was why Jean did what she did.
“He’s a puppet. He might be a former soldier or something.” Jean gestured for the dying man. “Someone inserted a fake identity into his brain and sent him in as a spy. He himself might not even know it. It’s most likely a Voyager. Of course, the spy can’t report back, which is why he implanted this.”
She opened her hands and picked out a tiny, almost invisible device.
A camera that has been transmitting information to the mastermind behind this the entire time.
Suddenly, the camera exploded in Jean’s palm. The flames barely broke through her fingers before being crushed.
Jean took a few seconds to develop a theory.
“One of the other Voyagers wanted to gather some intel on my base. For the purpose of staying covert, he used this man as a puppet. He implanted false memory so even if he was caught, he would be treated as a nobody and terminated.”
Demon and Blink bit their lips. That was what they would’ve done if Jean hasn’t stopped them. It wasn’t their fault. Each of them has been in situations like this hundreds, if not thousands of times. The possibility of foul play was just too low for them to waste the time and energy to examine every single local they were about to kill carefully.
The mastermind behind this knew this mentality very well, and he abused it.
“So we don’t know who it is?”
Blink was visibly unsatisfied. She was an assassin. That was it. For most of her previous missions, she seized victory simply by killing everyone in her path. A situation where she didn't know who to kill was always annoying.
“It can be anyone.” Jean waved her hand and ordered the Wardens to deal with the body. “Any Voyager might try to take the Empire of the Moon from us. It’s an asset to whatever goal or interest they have in mind.”
“In that case, it will be risky to make a move on the Shieldbearers and leave the Empire unprotected.”
“The Shieldbearers must be exterminated. They know way too much.” Jean decided as she glanced at her comrades. “How about this? You two stay at Throne’s City and ready the empire’s forces. We still need them to deal with that traitor Adam. I will take my army into the mountains and exterminate those Shieldbearers.”
Demon was the first to say yes. As a summoner, his greatest power laid in his army of the dead, but moving thousands of corpses across countless miles of mountains wasn’t exactly the easiest. Unlike Jean’s Warden and Purifier units, reanimated corpses were considered as biological and couldn’t be put into his watches. By himself, fighting would be risky.
Blink took a few more seconds, but in the end, just like Demon, she agreed. Her set of skills have proven very useful, especially after how easily she identified the spy.
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The Chain Mountains has established a No man’s land between the two empires since the dawn of time. Legend says that hundreds of years ago, a general from the Empire of the Sun attempted to take the Moon Empire by surprise by marching an army through the mountains.
No one has ever heard of him or his army of 8,000 strong ever since.
Jean Turner made her way across the woods. A plasma blade was ignited, except the weapon of destruction wasn’t used to kill. It was used to cut down trees in her way.
As Jean stepped onto a tree branch, a flash of green suddenly snatched forward from the side. Jean didn't flinch. A flash of white cut the green into two.
A severed serpent few down onto the ground. A drop of venom dripped down its sharp teeth, burning a hole through layers of leaves.
Jean knelt down beside the serpent and touched the serpent. She slowly sucked whatever essence the serpent had into herself. The primals have been absorbing the essence of their preys ever since they were created. That was how they got stronger. Jean could do the same thing. Most enemies she previously countered couldn’t provide too much essence because they relied mostly on runes, but inside the mountains...she could be the ultimate hunter.
Throughout her voyage, she has already slaughtered at least two dozens beasts. The essence increased her CAS by merely 2, changing it from 259 to 261, but that was still quite significant. If she could find a time to cleanse the entire mountain range, then her powers would be even more amplified.
These beasts were sly hunters. In their homefront, they could gradually wear down an army. But Jean wasn’t an army. The majority of the power of these forest hunters resided in their ability to strike unnoticed. Their victims might be heavily armed and armored, but the moment they take their armors off for a break, they would be hit. And when they were, they could guarantee it was a fatal strike.
Jean was different.
She took ten more steps before pausing. A flash of gold escaped her eye. Instantly, she saw everything around a fifteen-meter radius, including the three serpents in the trees, a wolf-like creature approaching her from the back, and a falcon-like bird circling in the air.
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The Eye of the Seeker. Jean paid 500 coins for that, it was has proven to be more than helpful. The item was evaluated to add 25 CAS upon installation. All it could do was increase vision, and that field alone was worth 25 CAS.
Even if those beasts had been practicing camouflage since birth, they would still be as bright to Jean as the sun was to a normal human being.
Suddenly, through the Eyes of the Seeker, she saw something.
Something far more dangerous than those wild animals.
Something golden.
A giant golden sword came out of nowhere, slammed into her, and exploded into a cloud of destructive energy.
On the side, the three serpents turned and fled the scene as quickly as possible. Its adrenaline spiking, the wolf-like creature leaped onto a tree before jumping from tree branch to tree branch. The falcon dove down and disappeared in the trees.
All of them could sense the threat from that golden sword. If they were the target, they would have been fried already.
But Jean wasn’t some native animals.
As the smoke cleared, a figure in black armor emerged. At the last moment, Jean put her Voyager armor on. The blow was premeditated and extremely powerful, but her armor took care of most of the blow.
In front of her, a figure in matching suit stood strong.
Jean immediately recognized him.
“Adam.” She stated. “What are you doing here?”
The traitor of the Voyagers didn't answer. He was still holding onto his giant double-edged sword. His face couldn’t be seen under the dark Voyager mask.
For some reason, he didn't follow up the surprise attack immediately. This gave Jean the time to take a breather. Her mutated body healed whatever injury she sustained from the blast.
On the other side, Adam tried to cover up a deep frown. The explosion caused by the blast was just a decoy for the real killing blow. Right now, a tiny strand of his energy should be infiltrating Jean’s mind and numbing her soul, rendering her defenseless. It was what made his backstab of Voyager Hendrick so successful.
Well, that did not work. Something must be altered with the girl’s soul.
It doesn’t matter. Jean was a Voyager, and all the Voyagers must die.
Adam charged forward. His sword was as bright as the sun, lightening up everything within a five-kilometer radius. Just the light was enough to blind any locals around him.
He was giving it his best. There could be no compromise between the two. If anyone tried to preserve their power, they might never have the opportunity to bring up their power when they needed to.
Jean didn't snap out her forces. A handful of Wardens would be useless against Adam. A full army might be able to do something, but the nature of the battlefield restricted them from using their full firepower like they could on a flat field.
Without suppressing firepower, Jean’s units would do more harm than good. That was why she simply ignited her Voyager blade and ran into Adam head on.
The double edged sword clashed with the Voyager blade in the middle of the air. Gold met with red.
Jean kept on the pressure with her right arm. Enough force to rip open layers of metal pushed down on the handle of the Voyager blade. At the same time, her Voyager rifle took the form of a handgun and appeared in her left hand.
Within two seconds, she landed a dozen rounds on Adam’s armor.
Adam responded quickly. He couldn’t just let Jean wear his armor down like this. After the initial shots, he raised his left hand in front of Jean’s rifle. A golden circle of energy formed in his palm. The red blasts landed in the circle, drawing nothing but a few ripples.
Adam rammed his left hand into Jean’s chest. Before she could respond, one-third of the red crystal powering her armor was gone.
Jean started stepping back. Energy was drained from a red crystal, transformed into volatile blasts, and sent flying toward Adam. Pzzz. Pzzz. Pzzz. Adam’s golden shield stood strong. Every time a blast hit, the golden circle rotated slightly, as if it was absorbing the attack.
Things weren’t going well for the female Voyager. As a ranged unit, she could fire all she wanted, but as long as she didn't have a mean to smash through Adam’s defenses, it would all be futile. All Adam had to do was strike her a couple of times, and her armor would have crumbled.
Suddenly, she made up a decision.
When Adam was on top of her again, she didn't move. She raised her blade as if she was going to stand her ground, but just before the two blades made contact, something appeared in Jean’s free hand.
A silver grenade.
A Hellfire Trap.
Adam stopped in his track, but it was too late. Jean tossed the grenade into him before dashing to as far away as possible.
A flash of determination flew across Adam’s covered eyes.
The grenade blew up into a sea of blue flames. Inside a fifteen meter radius, everything burned. Bushes and trees were reduced to nothing in less than a second. A hive of ants disappeared before they even realized what happened. Their bodies and souls evaporated. Even the environment outside the radius wasn’t guaranteed to survive. A few drops of blue flame spread like, well, fire. Everything they licked was reduced to ashes, which were then reduced to nothingness.
But as Jean watched with the Eyes of the Seeker, she realized she might need to find an escape.
At first, it was just a dot. A candle in front of a star. But that golden dot quickly expanded. Blue flames were put down by overwhelming golden energy.
Within a minute, the Hellfire Trap that could burn for ten minutes was put down.
Adam emerged from the energy, unscratched.
At this point, Jean really didn't want to keep fighting. Adam was good. Really good. It shouldn’t be a surprise considering that he was going against almost eighty Voyagers and he was still alive.
Even if she could win, it would be costly. Adam was an enemy to all the Voyagers. There was no need for her to take him down alone.
She raised a hand.
“A truce?”
Adam smirked.
“Truce? You and your people have slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent people in this world. Why would I spare your life?” He gripped onto his blade. “You don’t deserve to live.”
Jean tilted her head. Perhaps she didn't have the strength to beat Adam, but sometimes, knowledge is power, and she had quite the knowledge…
That was when both Voyagers suddenly looked to the side. While they were focused on each other, dozens of figures have taken up positions around them. Crossbows were loaded. Swords were ready.
Jean scanned these men. They had purple armors on, and the engravings on their armors and weapons were much more complex and powerful than those of the two Empires. More importantly, they had runes all over their skin.
Shieldbearers.
So much for infiltrating and taking them by surprise.