Chapter 477 A Twisted Reunion (1)

A couple of days later...

The lightning flashed and pushed its inverted limbs down to the battlefield. In three seconds, the loud boom of thunder struck the air. Light and docile raindrops soon turned heavy and violent.

Moments later, the rumbling thunder came, and right on cue, the rain began to fall even more haphazardly from the sky as if it wasn't entirely committed to rain.

"Damn! Just look at that explosion!" Miko, One of the soldiers stationed at the west wing of the Tartarus, said in awe, "I wish I would've been stationed near the north or east wing. The view from there would've been more exciting, don't you think?"

"Oh, just shut up and focus on the task we have been given, understand?" Noel retorted as he took another drag from his cigarette.

It was a wonder his cigarette wasn't going out in such terrible weather. Soon the raindrops began getting heavier and heavier as the clouds raged through the heavens.

"Huh, say whatever you want but isn't our Section Chief the best? He's fighting against those humans by himself!"

"Yeah yeah, he's great and all. But he's still a new fly here." Noel retorted, "Besides, those human bastards deserve a harsher punishment for even thinking about escaping."

"That's true. We got an earful, thanks to those bastards. More so because of the bitch that ran away." The first soldier continued, "I heard she went on a killing spree back in the mainland. It seems, despite her flaws, she was quite strong."

"She is impressive, unlike the twinkie roll between your legs. Now shut the fuck up and focus- wait... did something move there?"

The guy threw his cigarette and grabbed a pair of night vision-enabled binoculars. Despite his high-class equipment, Noel had trouble differentiating the figures in the dark as it was already pitch black, and the rain only made it worse.

​ Then suddenly, a bolt of white-hot lightning broke the utter blackness, cleaving the night in parts and lit up the surface but only for the briefest of moments. In that violent but short period of brightness, Noel saw something their enemy did not want him to.

Miko, who was still busy gazing towards the direction in which the chief was punishing the humans, was utterly oblivious to what his partner saw.

"Aww... you never told me how much you hate my 'twinkie'!" He mindlessly laughed at his partner.

"Q-Quick inform the others we have company! We have to- ugh!" The binoculars slipped from his hands, and he fell backwards with a loud thud... he died instantly.

"Your cheap pranks won't work on me anymore, bastard, haha!" Miko thought Noel was trying to pull off a prank of some sort, as usual, and paid no attention to it.

However, when Noel didn't reply to anything Miko was saying, Miko instantly turned to the other side... only to see Noel's lifeless body near him.

A giant gaping hole had replaced Noel's head, and a pool of blood was subsequently formed due to the bullet. Before he could even realise how it all happened, a shot hit him too, and he fell beside the person who was his partner in the military as well as in life.

It was so dark even their fellow soldier would not have been able to discover their lifeless bodies until it was too late.

Another streak of lightning traced the path of its predecessor and unveiled the ones who attacked the soldiers. Under cover of bad weather, Ashton lay flat on his stomach with a sniper rifle in his hands.

From a distance, it seemed he was flying, but in reality, he had mounted the Giholan ship they had brought along to make a quick escape in case things got ugly.

"West coast is clear." Ashton radioed in the rest of them, "Anna, land the ship two kilometres ahead. We'll proceed by foot from there."

"Roger," Anna replied as Ashton made his way back inside the ship.

Pulling stunts like these had become a hobby of Ashton's, and since Anna was around him most of the time, she had gotten used to it as well. But that wasn't the case for Alina and Viper, who greeted Ashton with wide-open mouths in awe of his abilities.

Stormy weather could be considered a curse for snipers. The raging wind and constant interruption in the form of water drops could throw off even the most seasoned sharpshooters.

However, Ashton almost made it seem too easy by taking down more than twenty soldiers within a few minutes.

Anna's vehicular skills were equally praiseworthy. After all, making the ship stay still during a storm couldn't be easy.

"I'm glad I met them before they turned hostile," Alina muttered in disbelief.

"At least you didn't do what I did," Viper replied, "My stupid ass thought I could take him down. But now I know Ashton had no intention of killing me. If he did, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Before they could continue their fanboying moment, Anna's voice snapped them out of their stupor.

"We're about to land. Get ready!"

The ship touched the ground like a feather. So far, there were no signs suggesting the enemy was aware of their attacks. Once on land, the actual attack would commence.

"Alright, grab your weapons and let's go!" Ashton exclaimed as he walked out.

According to the intel Alina provided, they had a minute before the surveillance team would radio in on the fallen soldiers for attendance. If no one responded to the call, the alarms would go off, making things irreversibly worse for them.

"I'll go ahead and make sure the alarm doesn't go off," Ashton explained as wings materialised on his back, "Viper, you're with me."

"Got it," Viper responded, grabbing onto Ashton's arm.

"Guess we're stuck with each other then," Anna joked while offering her arm to Alina, "Hold tight. Things are about to get rough from here on out."

"I know, I know. Just get me close enough, and I'll make things easier for you." Alina scoffed as she begrudgingly accepted Anna's hand.