The Assassin's Enemy Lover

215 The run-down villa

“How far is it?” asked Yi Chen while rubbing his forehead. He hadn’t been feeling well lately and it only kept getting worse. But because he was determined to finish this he tried to stay strong and keep going.

“Captain, it says it’s a few feet ahead but... something seems off,” replied Shannon. Unlike her brother, she was the only one of the four of them to get into Yi Chen’s team.

Li Ran walked over to him and asked worriedly, “Is the headache still there?”

Yi Chen glanced at him his eyes slightly redder than usual. “The healing patch isn’t working. Let’s get this last one and we can call it quits afterwards.” Li Ran nodded his head and turned to look back at the remaining team members and explain the way forward.

While Li Ran was explaining something behind him Yi Chen’s gaze happened to glance into the distance. Their territory unlike Evan’s team’s was mostly grassland. Except for the first leg of their journey where they were trees the rest of it was vast grasslands.

When Yi Chen looked into the horizon he would see rocky mountains beyond the vast sea of grass but today something was off about the scenic view.

Right above the tall grass were faint luminous waves like there was a protective shield hiding something. It was so faint that if it was anyone else they wouldn’t have seen it.

Yi Chen’s brow furrowed as he took a step forward vigilantly. The closer he got the more prominent the protective shield became.

Yi Chen felt something was seriously wrong thus he took a step back but before he could escape to a safe distance a bright light shone and directly pulled him in.

.....

The rest of the team felt something was very wrong thus they rushed over but before they could grasp Yi Chen the man disappeared and so did the light.

“It’s an illusory shield,” said Li Ran as he tried to touch it and trigger the mechanism to open it. But unlike Yi Chen who got sucked in his body was flung a few feet back as the illusory shield turned on its protective mode.

Some of his team members helped him up while the rest began to attack the shield. But their actions turned out to be futile. That’s because the illusory shield absorbed the energy from their weapons each time it was struck and when it reached maximum saturation it released a massive surge of energy sending the team flying across the grassland.

Soon after peace was restored with the illusory shield as tranquil as a cave pool undisturbed for thousands of years. Occasional muffled groans and grunts could be heard from the injured team members writhing on the ground in pain.

Meanwhile, Yi Chen found himself standing in front of a rundown villa with vines creeping up the walls giving off eerie vibes. How could this be? Who would be foolish enough to build a house in a place like this?

Yi Chen was in awe at this point. He raised his wrist and saw the light from the detector flashing in short intervals. This meant the device was most definitely here.

He took a step forward to determine the direction he should take when he heard howling and growling sounds coming from a short distance.

Yi Chen’s breath hitched as he summoned his mech but the most unexpected thing happened. Raylan wasn’t responding at all.

When he tried to concentrate and summon it again his head that was throbbing amped up the pain level like it was about to explode.

That’s when he realized something was seriously wrong with him. Yi Chen didn’t have time to analyze the situation he was in because the creatures that were howling and growling in the dark corners suddenly decided to show themselves.

In a moment of quick thinking, he sprint towards the run-down villa. Three creatures emerged from the shadows and chased after him. They exuded the exact same characteristics as the creatures that attacked the federation but these ones were much more terrifying, faster, and ugly as fuck.

They had grey leather-like skin and an exoskeleton shaped like that of bats. Their limbs were crooked weirdly with their pair of arms shaped like the frontal legs of a preying mantis.

Their backs and part of their limbs were covered in sharp spikes, sharp enough to slice a mech through.

All this wasn’t even the worst of it. They had triple rows of canine teeth sharp and pointed like spikes. They had two tails shaped like claws with the ability to shoot spikes like missiles.

Yi Chen was clearly in no condition to deal with one let alone three. He managed to kick down the door of the villa in a haste and rush inside.

High-pitched shrieks followed after him as a rain of spikes flew in his direction. Yi Chen flipped backward barely dodging their attacks.

He flung his arm and a series of five black discs flew out attaching to different parts of the perron of the villa.

Yi Chen slid under the staircase as one of the creatures swung its tails trying to catch him. The creatures gathered at the staircase and dug through the gaps trying to get to him.

One of them was even atop the stairs pulling apart the concrete while shrieking in excitement.

As the dust and debris fell on top of Yi Chen, he pressed the button and a series of explosions occurred.

The creatures cried out as they staggered in disorientation. Yi Chen inhaled and exhaled deeply before crawling out from under the staircase. Concealed by the cloud of dust Yi Chen exited the perron and dashed through a passageway that led to another part of the villa.

One of the creatures spotted his disappearing figure thus it let out a deafening cry as it fired a round of spikes. This time Yi Chen wasn’t lucky. Two spikes shot through his back causing him to tumble to the ground.

Yi Chen grimaced as he turned over with his havoc energy rifle weapon drawn. The creature appeared on top of him stomping its limbs to crush his skull. Yi Chen dodged in time and as his gaze glanced at the crooked hideous leg next to him his brows knitted together.

He aimed his weapon at its undulating mid-gut and pulled the trigger. Explosive energy burnt a hole through the creature causing it to stagger backward while letting out a painful shriek.

Yi Chen got up on his feet to get away. Behind him on the ceiling were the other two pursuing him heartily.

Yi Chen skillfully dodged each of their attacks but the villa was further damaged as a consequence thereof.