CH 49

"Canyue, come up! The Darklings sent a big monster," Dondon shouted.

"Darkling? What race is that?" asked the prince.

"Your so-called Eternals. We know them as Darklings," said Titan.

At this time, a loud sound came from outside. Old Du, the prince, and I climbed to the lookout window. A massive beast that looked like a manatee appeared before us. The beast was filled with octopus-like tentacles that were glowing purple, and it was scanning the surrounding buildings with the purple glow. 

Every time the purple glow turned red, the guards would break the door down and enter to search the property. With its four thick and short limbs, the beast slowly moved forward. Wherever it went, chaos broke out. It would seem like Lidu was truly a planet filled with a lot of criminal elements.

"The Eternals are actually using the juxi beast just to look for me?" said the prince in astonishment.

"Juxi beast?" I asked.

"A magical animal that, with a powerful scanning ability, can record all things that have left a mark in the passage of time. For the information it has not personally recorded, one can provide it a search target in advance. It will still be able to locate the target," said the prince.

"That is way too magical. How did this animal obtain a brain with such powerful capacity?" I asked.

"That's why the juxi beast is so precious. A female will take 1,000 years to give birth to a little beast. In the entire Orion Constellation, there are no more than ten of them," said the prince.

"Canyue, when the beast arrives, we will be exposed. We can't delay anymore. Time to retreat," said Old Du.

"Prince Toruse, are there any other exits?" I asked.

"There's one. Come with me," said the prince.

We then followed the prince out. We entered a tunnel and went deeper underground.

"Canyue, what should we do next?" asked Zhang Xingxing when we were fleeing.

"I want to meet the emperor. Only by meeting the emperor and helping the prince solve his current predicament can we stop an interstellar war. A major accomplishment like that is required to offset his charges of defection," I said.

"We need the golden pass to meet the emperor. Where are we supposed to get one of those?" said Zhang Bao'er.

"There are three golden passes on Lidu. The governor, the fleet admiral, and the Imperial College's representative each hold a pass," said the prince.

"Then we'll think of a way to get a pass from one of them," I said.

Under the prince's guidance, we came to an ascending tunnel. After about 20 minutes, we reached the end of the sewer. An iron stairway lay before us.

The prince nodded at us. "This is the exit. I'll go first."

"I'll go. I have my defensive shield. You can go after me, prince," said Old Du.

He then climbed upward. After several minutes, his voice came above us, telling us to climb up as well. The prince, Zhang Bao'er, Dondon, Amethyst, and I climbed up one after another. The exit was within a small alley. It was a rather hidden location. Just as I was about to turn around and help Zhang Xingxing up, a guided missile dropped down beside me. A massive blast sent all of us flying. Dazed, I only felt my head buzzing. After several seconds, I saw a juxi beast scanning us incessantly beside a collapsed building.

"Canyue, Bao'er, are you fine," asked Old Du while he fought the Eternals.

"Thanks to Old Du's timely activation of his shield, the prince and Amethyst were protected. Otherwise, both of them would have been killed by that blast," said Zhang Bao'er after recovering. He stood up and joined the battle.

After several seconds, I recovered enough to hear Zhang Xingxing's voice coming from the communicator.

"Canyue, Canyue, how is it up there? The exit has collapsed," she said.

Only then did I realize that Zhang Xingxing, Titan, and Dodo were still trapped in the sewer.

"Xingxing, there's a juxi beast here. We have engaged the Eternals in combat. Are you fine down there?" I asked.

"We're fine. Dodo is looking for a new exit," said Zhang Xingxing.

"We will try to retreat with the prince. The tunnel you're in is a dead end. Leave as soon as possible. Let's meet at the crossing. Keep in touch," I said.

More than ten Eternal guards were attacking us with energy weapons, and they were leaving numerous charred holes in the buildings around us. Old Du, Zhang Bao'er, and I activated our shields. To avoid creating a big enmity with them, we used our paralyzing bullets. Each dose of one of these bullets would cause one to lose consciousness for 24 hours. And thus, we started exchanging bullets.

The Eternals' light beams were extremely powerful. However, our laser-guided bullets were far more accurate than their ray guns. After downing around six or seven guards, sounds of a flying machine came from the sky.

"Canyue, watch out. Their reinforcements are above us," said Zhang Bao'er.

When I raised my head, I saw two small flying air defense drones above us. Each air defense drone was hovering with the help of four circular installations. They were currently unleashing energy beams upon us.

"Be careful! Those beams are very powerful," warned Prince Toruse behind us.

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Anything the red beams touched would be sliced into two. It was obvious that the moment it reached us, we would also be split into two.

"Bao'er, Old Du, shoot freely at the air defense drones!" I said.

I then adjusted the automatic rifle attached to my back and fired at the air defense drones with everything I had.

"Prince, look for a way out immediately," I yelled while shooting.

Our bullets struck the drones, creating numerous sparks. However, the air defense drones remained undamaged. Obviously, the two drones were also protected by shields.

"Canyue, their reinforcements have arrived," said Old Du calmly.

I saw over 20 newly arrived Eternals join the battle. With a high concentration of beams, they were able to strike our shields repeatedly despite their weapons' low accuracy. I could see my energy draining rapidly. We couldn't afford to let this drag on.

"Prince, did you find anything?" I yelled.

"Yes. Right ahead of us. It's a dead end behind us," said the prince.

"Canyue, looks like we need to break through from the front this time. How thrilling. I have been itching to go crazy," said Zhang Bao'er in excitement.

"The three of us will be fine. You guys, stick to our shields. We need to break free. The energy is draining too quickly," said Old Du.

We continued desperately dodging the beams from the air defense drones. The red beams looked powerful enough that we did not dare to try taking them on with our shields. The encirclement around us slowly closed in. At this point, about 50 of them had already gathered. In a semi-circular formation, they slowly pushed in on us.

Furthermore, the attacks from the two air defense drones increased in strength, but we were still able to avoid the beams because their speed didn't change. But because we were forced to focus on the air defense drones, the ray guns struck us more and more.

"Every two hits will reduce our energy by an hour. If this continues, we won't be able to last long," said Old Du.

Instantly, a wave of green light swept through all of us. I could see the juxi beast performing a detailed scan of the area. After the light wave swept through us, red projections appeared around us.

The scan revealed the prince and the others hiding behind us. Thus, the air defense drones changed direction and attacked them instead. The ruined building the prince was hiding in was split into two, causing the building to crumble loudly. The prince, Amethyst, and Dondon rushed out of the building and hid behind Old Du. 

Fortunately, they had not received any serious injury from the attack. The juxi beast continued scanning us. It constantly guided the attacks, sending a concentrated hail of beams toward us.

"Old Du, get rid of this goddamned juxi beast," I roared.

Old Du immediately adjusted the riffle attached to his back and aimed the muzzle at the juxi beast. With a roar, a torrent of over 10,000 bullets shot out. At that exact moment, one of the air defense drones returned and hovered above the juxi beast. It activated its shield, blocking all the bullets.

When the Eternals saw that we were aiming for the juxi beast, they increased the intensity of their attacks. The persistent battle seemed to have triggered Zhang Bao'er’s bloodlust; I saw him furiously down over a dozen Eternals in a row with his gun.

"Canyue, we're trying to not kill them, but these bastards are aiming to kill with each attack," he yelled.

"Our defensive line is on the verge of collapse. I'm protecting four people with the energy supply for one. If this continues, all of us will die here," said Old Du.

"Let's use the nuclear warhead," said Zhang Bao'er as he gnashed his teeth in fury.

"If we use nuclear weapons, we will truly become the enemies of the Divine Empire," I said.

The situation was critical, but we couldn't decide what to do. Suddenly, a red beam struck the ground about half a meter away from Dondon. The ground exploded, instantly blasting Dondon's tiny body away.

"Dondon!" A roar akin to a beast's came out of my mouth when I saw Dondon injured. 

"Old Du, fire the nuclear warhead. Shields to maximum output. We'll blast them to death!" I roared.

Then, I jumped out and caught Dondon. The little fellow had scraped against the ground, tearing his tiny limbs and covering the ground with blue blood.

"Dondon, are you fine?" I shouted with the little fellow in my arms.

"I'm fine. My limbs hurt badly, but my body is not hurting. I probably won't die," said Dondon as he looked at me with his big eyes.

Only then did I notice that the little fellow's torso seemed fine. Plum's suit had protected his torso perfectly.

'Thank god for Plum and everything he did to protect the Storm race's inheritance,' I thought to myself.

Seeing that Dondon was fine, I was relieved. At this time, Old Du and Bao'er had set their shields to maximum output and protected everyone else in the shield. Then, Old Du activated the nuclear warhead firing system. The nearest Eternal to us was less than a meter away. I knocked him down with my hands before nodding at Old Du.

"Since there is no escaping, fire the nuclear warhead," I said.

Yes, with the possibility of death, who couldn't we offend? Just as Old Du was about to press the launch button, massive sounds of explosion erupted from behind the juxi beast.