So with that determined, the Hinon Federation Forces were preparing for the st push. This time, their target was the true cause of the problem the Federation had experienced.
Along with them was the Royal Guard as well as the organization that Long Wu was part of. The cooperation of the three proved to be effective as they started to surround and encircle the enemy in a few pces.
“Since their action proved that they are desperate. We will make it so that they have no way out.” Long Wu decred confidently.
Bruce nodded. They applied a subtle but real pressure against the Snatcher so that they would slowly deplete all the remaining strength of the enemy. Of course, they did not want to worsen the situation so they did not make the enemy feel desperate as it could be dangerous.
Time passed and then a week after the encirclement had been established, Bruce noticed that Long Wu was preparing himself along with the rest of the group.
“Is it the time?” Bruce asked.
“It is confirmed that the current leader of the Snatcher is in one of the encirclements we have established. We will do the decapitation operation and swiftly bring an end to this.” Long Wu replied while his expression was serious enough that Bruce could not come up with any words.
Bruce took a deep breath and then said, “Dead or alive, bring that person to me. The people on the Comberth Continent need an expnation regarding the Snatcher’s action.”
Long Wu suddenly replied, “I can’t promise that. After all, if that person is someone with Necromancer’s Trait, it will be troublesome to present it to you.”
“That is not a problem that you should be concerned about. We will deal with it when the time comes.” Bruce went silent for a while before he continued, “I wish you luck.”
“Luck, huh? Well, there are always two sides of luck so I hope I can overturn it to my favor.” Long Wu smiled when he heard about it but he replied nonetheless.
Long Wu then led the Royal Guard to come with him. This time, he would become the sharpest spear that would penetrate the enemy’s heart.
-
After arriving at the nearest encirclement, which was also the pce where the leader of the Snatcher was located, Long Wu sensed that there was only one Transcendent from the fluctuation of the Undead Element.
So he headed to the source of it, surpassing the Royal Guard that was moving to attack the inside of the encirclement.
The forces that encircled the city gave way after confirming the identity of the group.
Long Wu then sensed that the Transcendent from the opposite side perceived him and moved closer to him in return. Long Wu then unsheathed a small dagger from the scabbard that was located on his left chest.
This was his main weapon for fighting. Other than that, he was also good at close-quarter combat and barehanded combat.
Bolstered by the Undead Element due to the Necromancer’s Trait, Long Wu’s prowess increased dramatically.
He knew that the battle this time would be the resolution to the entire Heavensend Kingdom and probably, humanity as a whole.
So he focused his gaze on the one figure who got closer and closer to his position.
The figure was a middle-aged man with a white robe and blue lineaments on it. He held a sword and emanated a pressure that ordinary humans would succumb to. It was the pressure that came from being able to reach the Core Formation Realm.
Long Wu had naturally stabilized his core so his foundation was probably stable. He also did not underestimate any enemy he met. He gripped his dagger harder and circuted the Undead Element inside of him.
This was done so that he could face any kind of battle, making his situation favorable in battle. Circuting the Undead Element also empowered him so he did just that.
The middle-aged man then moved fast enough that Long Wu barely caught his movement with his eyes. He raised the dagger as he predicted the trajectory of the sword and preemptively tried to parry it with his dagger.
Cng!
Both the sword and the dagger met and produced a metallic noise. What surprised Long Wu was that the middle-aged man could also coat his Undead Element to the edge of his sword. Long Wu naturally also did the same with the edge of his dagger.
From the first exchange, Long Wu found out that they were equal.
It meant that the opponent was like him in battle prowess at the second heavenstage of the Core Formation Realm.
They did not say a word because they knew that each other was the opponent.
Long Wu then gripped the dagger harder as he pushed it with all the power he could muster. His opponent was doing the same with his sword.
The csh of the two was carrying a strong wind and also made the center of the csh fsh with bck color.
Long Wu then applied one of the things he had learned about the manipution of self-energy and that could be applied to the Undead Element.
Then a change occurred. The bde of the sword was slowly chipped in the interlocked csh of weapons. Long Wu then delivered a kick at the opponent.
The middle-aged man saw this and also raised his leg to intercept the attack. The attack was successfully intercepted. Long Wu saw another opportunity and released the dagger from the direct csh with the sword and sshed at the throat of the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man was also experienced as he quickly pulled back the sword so that the tip deflected the trajectory of the dagger which now changed to ssh at his forehead.
Of course, the middle-aged man did not forget to use his other hand to unch a simultaneous attack at Long Wu.
Long Wu managed to injure the middle-aged man but it was not enough. He lunged forward to evade the blow that was coming. Still emanating the Undead Element, the two of them were locked in a tight and fierce combat.
The surrounding scene was actually the private troops of the nobles of the Heavensend Kingdom against the encirclement of the Hinon Federation Forces as well as the Royal Guard.
They knew from the start that the battle between Transcendent would be devastating to the surroundings so they purposefully evaded such pces. They could only look at it from afar.
And that decision was proven to be correct. Air bsts, reverberation, and also the Undead Element emanated from the csh between the two.
As for them, they had to eliminate the enemy. So alongside the battle between the Transcendent, it was accompanied by the sound of various gunshots and screams of agony.
This created a scene in which the people involved shuddered. But they had to do what they had to do as a person, surviving the battle.
No matter what, they tried their best to survive. Some of their comrades were shot right in front of their eyes but they could only take cover and retaliate.
This created a bit of a stalemate where both sides were not able to move to gain an advantage. But that changed when the csh between Transcendents reached them.
Long Wu was pushing his dagger into the chest of the middle-aged man while the tter tried to defend himself with his sword by crossing it in front of his chest.
But Long Wu was unleashing all his might so the force and the sharpness of the dagger was amplified and that caused another nick at the sword of the middle-aged man.
One attacked while the other defended. Long Wu pushed the middle-aged man until they reached the battlefield where the two opposing forces had gathered.
Dust billowed and the Undead Element started to spread but then the Undead Element gathered to form a line that separated the two.
Long Wu pushed a bit more and then the cracking sound could be heard as the middle-aged man's sword started to break down. As its pieces flew to Long Wu, he felt a slight pain in his hand but he did not care at all.
‘Kill!’
That was all he thought as he nded the tip of the dagger into the middle-aged man’s chest. The middle-aged man was unable to resist as he also unleashed all his might to block the dagger.
Sadly, the prized sword that the middle-aged man got was unable to beat the dagger that stabbed into his body. The sword hilt was still being held by the middle-aged man so he stabbed Long Wu with it in his hand.
Long Wu grunted a little but continued to stab the dagger deeper into the middle-aged man’s body.
Of course, the middle-aged man did not give up easily. His hand formed into a knife hand as he directed his attack on Long Wu’s neck.
Long Wu did not mind the attack at all as he started to perceive the Undead Element inside his enemy and tried to make it into his own by yanking some of the Undead Element inside the middle-aged man.
A scream echoed as the middle-aged man felt extreme pain coming and the attack that he unched faltered and nded with only a quarter of its power. That power was not enough to injure Long Wu’s neck and he knew it.
Long Wu then twisted the dagger as flesh and blood sputtered from the middle-aged man along with the Undead Element.
The middle-aged man then unleashed one attack after another, this time the intensity and the frequency increased.
This also caused Long Wu some injuries but he kept absorbing the Undead Element from the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man felt incomparable pain like a hook that stuck to his flesh suddenly got pulled. Or like the internal organs were being squeezed left and right.
Long Wu ignored the injuries he sustained because he absorbed more than half of the Undead Element the middle-aged man possessed. The middle-aged man saw that despite all his efforts to attack Long Wu with his limb, all of it proved to be futile.
He became desperate as he unleashed all of the avaible Undead Element inside of him and tried to do something unimaginable.
Long Wu sensed the anomaly and cursed directly before pushing the middle-aged man into a building. Long Wu himself went as far away as possible.
“Run!” he said loudly. The Royal Guard and the Hinon Federation Forces who recognized Long Wu knew that something was up and retreated while their opponent was stunned.
No sooner they retreated, a rge explosion occurred which caused a lot of the Undead Element to spread around the epicenter of the explosion.
There were casualties but it came from their opponent as they were a bit slow to react. The Royal Guard and the Hinon Federation Forces were able to retreat safely.
After that, they continued marching forward toward the center of the city where a certain building was suspected to be the hideout of the Snatcher.
Long Wu felt goosebumps as he realized that the middle-aged man chose to self-destruct himself in such a manner.
‘Looks like he is a man of pride.’ Long Wu then went to the center of the explosion where a small crater had been formed.
There, he did not even see the remains of the middle-aged man but a lot of bck ashes were at the center of the crater. There, he saw his dagger unharmed from the explosion.
He grabbed the dagger as he checked for damage. But he did not even see a tiny crack on it. He was surprised to see that his dagger was durable enough to withstand an explosion from the Core Formation Realm Transcendent.
As for the building, it directly colpsed due to the explosion and the crater was all that remained.
The rest of the group could only stare at the devastation with mouths agape and eyes wide open. They could not believe that there was such a destructive power other than bombs and artillery shells.
This was beyond their comprehension so they could only imprinted the scene deep into their minds.
Long Wu looked at the city center where another battle happened. He directly went there and found out that there were several people he knew through the description of his subordinates.
They were trying to escape!
He had to stop them. That was why he sprinted so fast that people mistakenly saw him flying low near the ground.
Through the small street, Long Wu managed to get a shortcut through the buildings, reaching the specific buildings where the top members of the Snatcher resided.
Long Wu spread his sense with the help of the Undead Element. With it, he could detect the life element of a person clearly and perceived several of the life elements were going away.
He pursued the escaping people with haste.
“We managed to escape from there, but where should we go?” among the escapee, one of them asked the leader in front. They were running in the small street which could only contain two people at most.
The leader of the escapee was someone shifty, he kept looking around before he replied, “Wherever there is opportunity of course. Look at this pce, it doesn’t have any more opportunities for us. We might as well leave.”
But then the leader felt something was approaching. Something that held malice toward them!
But the moment the leader perceived that it was too te!
They saw a bck mist approaching them at high speed. Then it stopped right in front of them, obstructing their escape route.
They could also feel that something terrifying was right in front of them. Of course, they were all familiar with this pressure.
‘A Transcendent!?’
That term was the first one to bre in their mind the moment they felt the pressure. This pressure was due to the difference in strength between them. Their mind perceived it as a great threat to the preservation of life.
That was why their legs were having difficulties moving unlike the usual. Some of them even fell on their knees, unable to bear the natural pressure that the Transcendent gave them.
The second thing on their mind was actually that they were in deep trouble. Because the strongest Transcendent in their group went to intercept what was probably the strongest Transcendent from the opponent.
From the looks of it, that person was defeated.
They could only stay in their pces, unable to come up with words. Their words were stuck in their throat, slowly choking them.
“From the looks of it, you all realize what my presence here means. I will cut it short, surrender!” Long Wu loudly procimed which caused cracks to appear on the nearby buildings.
The group closed their ears because the noise being generated was not friendly to their ears. Long Wu stood still as he saw the escapee unable to mount any sort of resistance.
“We surrender! Don’t-don’t kill me!” one of the people then said as loud as possible, afraid that Long Wu would kill him if he did not state it.
Then the rest of the people also said something to that effect. One of them even pissed himself due to the great fear he had experienced.
Someone who could defeat the strongest Transcendent from their side was probably equal to or stronger than him. Of course, they also smelled a slight iron odor.
Then they realized that it was the injury the Transcendent in front of them had sustained. That did not make him look weak, instead, it made him look ferocious.
Long Wu nodded before he got a familiar blue-colored rope from his small bag. He tied all of the people in the group with it.
He then directed them to the familiar buildings. It was the base that the group had decided to abandon.
There, Long Wu interrogated them thoroughly.
“Are you saying that the leader of the Snatcher has been missing since the incident at the Nine Suns City?” Long Wu asked to be sure.
“Yes, after a rge explosion occurred at that pce we have never seen him since. He’s probably dead.” The leader of the group said ingratiatingly.
“Hmm, good. One st question, who is the Right Hand?” Long Wu threw one more question.
“I don’t know. All I know is that he is the one in charge of the affairs at the Comberth Continent. Believe me, please!”
Long Wu realized that some things were done with the help of the Hinon Federation while the rest happened due to happenstances. But he still did not find out about the Right Hand.
That codename was important to Long Wu because everything he had experienced in his life was because of that person.
Long Wu sighed in helplessness. Then he went outside the room and he made a gesture to the Royal Guard to detain those who were in the room.
They were probably going to be sentenced with the ws of the Heavensend Kingdom. This was the first step for the Heavensend Kingdom to reform from the inside out. Long Wu would like to see a better homend where he was born.
He hoped that no other people had to experience what he had gone through.
