Chapter 53: The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
Von Kesim clutched his left shoulder, fleeing in panic through the forest, sparks flying from the severed limb.
As a cyborg with extensive cybernetic enhancements, losing an arm was a huge blow to his combat effectiveness.
Of course, he didn’t have time to regret it now. He was filled with fear and urgency from being hunted.
That gunman… he still remembered the terrifying feeling of being continuously locked on, like a mouse being played with by a cat.
Von Kesim was even certain that the other party could have killed him directly from the beginning, but they deliberately delayed each shot, calmly pushing him to the brink of despair.
Damn it! Is this really my retribution? Von Kesim recalled his life as a Templar Knight. In addition to delivering secret information for Emperor Otto, he had also committed his fair share of Templar atrocities.
He remembered that he was once ordered by the Holy See to go to the West Frankish Kingdom to purge the Albigensian heretics.
A small village of perhaps a few hundred people, all believers of the Albigensian sect.
He and his Templar companions killed all the adults, leaving only twelve children.
For fun, they let the children run free into the mountains outside the village.
Half an hour later, the Templar Knights began their hunt and slaughter.
Von Kesim alone killed four children. He liked to suddenly appear in front of the children with his gun and then pull the trigger as they looked at him with despair.
He took perverse pleasure in this feeling of hunting others, and even savored it in his mind at night afterwards.
Now, the hunter of the past had become the prey.
“Backstab!” It was not until the pain in his back that he realized the enemy had caught up to him.
Peggy’s short sword pierced his back, where the flesh had not yet been cybernetically enhanced, causing immense pain.
Von Kesim rolled, first dodging Peggy’s pursuit.
An adrenaline spray popped out of the wrist slot on his right hand. He brought it to his mouth and quickly took a puff. His mind instantly became clear and sharp.
The sound of a sharp weapon cutting through the air rang out. Von Kesim quickly sidestepped, dodging Sidlipha’s flying axe. At the same time, he raised his gun with one hand and aimed at Peggy’s head.
“Bang!”
Peggy tilted her head to dodge in a split second, but a large part of her scalp was still grazed by the bullet, revealing her grayish-white skull.
She turned her neck back expressionlessly, the flesh at the wound wriggling grotesquely, covering the skull again.
A Transcendental of the Flesh Sequence! Damn it! Von Kesim watched in horror as more people appeared from behind the trees, and a thought involuntarily arose in his mind:
Run!
Although his Templar rationality told him that turning to run would only expose his back to the enemy, the fear was so strong that it overwhelmed his reason in an instant.
Von Kesim quickly turned around and began to flee desperately.
Medea behind the tree stared at his back, her slender right hand subtly flicking her fingers in the air, remotely manipulating his fear and desire to escape.
Another gunshot rang out. Von Kesim twisted his body violently while running, taking the bullet that was originally aimed at his heart with his right chest.
The dizziness from excessive blood loss gradually surged, coupled with the nerve stimulation of adrenaline, putting him in a strange state of both unconsciousness and consciousness.
What, what am I doing? Von Kesim suddenly came to his senses.
Blindly running away would only lead to his own demise. Only by turning around and fighting could he have a chance of survival!
He quickly turned around while running, locking onto the target with his gun in one hand.
The gunshot rang out, but the bullet shot into the sky. A hand reached out from the shadows on the ground, grabbing Von Kesim’s ankle as he was sprinting, dragging him to the ground. Peggy took the opportunity to approach, her short sword stabbing fiercely at his chest.
Von Kesim grabbed the short sword with his right hand, his steel cybernetic enhancements creaking and straining, preventing Peggy’s short sword from piercing any further.
Mia’s hand reached out from the shadows again, her short sword pressing against Von Kesim’s throat and beginning to cut forcefully.
Why can’t I cut it! Mia in the shadows was tearful. Von Kesim’s neck had been cybernetically enhanced, the flesh and blood of his throat completely replaced by steel.
The short sword cut futilely on it, making a grating sound like nails on a chalkboard.
“Over there!” Noisy shouts came from behind, it seemed that the people from the Iron Cross had finally found them.
Von Kesim was still resisting the downward pressure of Peggy’s short sword when he suddenly realized that his strength was gradually draining away.
Was it excessive blood loss? No, it was life… steal… In his despairing eyes, the short sword finally slowly pierced into his chest. Von Kesim’s prosthetic eye pupils dilated, completely losing focus.
“Grab the stuff, let’s go!” Asker said quickly, scooping up the Slaughter-III rifle on the ground and throwing it to Mia. Then, with a flick of his spirituality, he sent everyone back to Furnace Island.
Leaving Von Kesim’s half-cybernetic corpse behind, he quickly ran towards the distant cliff.
Ten seconds later, the people from the Iron Cross and Free Wind arrived at the scene.
Matthews drew his greatsword with one hand and tried to turn over Von Kesim’s body, but Andrea blocked him with his sword.
“What do you mean, Andrea?” Matthews narrowed his eyes and said in a dangerous tone. “Do you want to start a war with our Free Wind here?”
“That’s pointless.” Andrea said calmly. “Von Kesim was not killed by our people, so everyone who saw it gets a share. The body will be sent to the Church, you and I split the 500-pound bounty equally.”
“Besides, his Slaughter-III rifle is also cutting-edge technology, which can be sold for about 500 pounds on the market. It seems to have been taken by that guy named Asker. Aren’t you going to chase him?”
“Chase? Of course.” Matthews sneered. “Fourth Squad, chase that guy!”
So a team of sword and shield warriors left on orders. Andrea also turned his head and gave a few instructions, sending a team of Gothic swordsmen to chase Asker.
Then the two looked at Von Kesim’s body on the ground in silence.
“Missing an arm.” Andrea said.
“Maybe it fell off somewhere.” Matthews said, “Why don’t you go look for it? I’ll watch over the body here first.”
“What if you run away with the body?” Andrea asked back.
“Then you can go after that Asker and get the Slaughter-III rifle, which is also worth 500 pounds.” Matthews said.
“Hehe.” Andrea shook his head without speaking.
“What, you don’t believe me?” Matthews said sarcastically.
“How about this, you go after that Asker, and I’ll watch over the body here?” Andrea sneered. “We’ve known each other for so many years, don’t play these mind games, it’s pointless.”
“In that case.” Matthews was silent for a moment. “Then each of us sends 10 people to send his head back to the Church and claim the bounty?”
“Sure.” Andrea said, “But I’ll personally escort it.”
…
Asker ran swiftly ahead, the mercenaries chasing behind him, not shouting any meaningless words like “Stop.”
Once they caught up, it would be a life-or-death battle, everyone knew it very well.
The cliff was ahead. Asker rushed to the edge of the cliff and turned around. The mercenaries behind him blocked his way, secretly relieved.
No matter what, he couldn’t fly now.
“Give my regards to your two captains.” Asker said leisurely. “Also, what the Church really wants is the external chip on the back of Von Kesim’s right neck.”
After calmly saying this, he spread his arms and leaned towards the outside of the cliff.
He fell.
The mercenaries looked at each other. Someone rushed to the edge of the cliff and looked down, but they could no longer see Asker.
After discussing for a while, these mercenaries could only choose to quickly return and report to Matthews and Andrea.
What the Church wanted was the external chip on the back of Von Kesim’s right neck – this was an important secret.
The reason why Asker said it publicly was just to provoke the Iron Cross and Free Wind to fight each other, so that they wouldn’t have time to chase him.
This was a blatant scheme. Although the mercenaries all knew this, they had to go back and report to their captains quickly.
As he was falling through the air, Asker manipulated his spirituality and teleported back to Furnace Island.
So only the book “Absurd Dreams” was left in his original position, bumping and rolling on the cliff a few times, and finally falling to the bottom of the valley with a “thud.”
A few minutes later, Asker teleported back again, picked up “Absurd Dreams” on the ground, and found that it wasn’t even torn.
For a treasure that could seal a semi-plane fragment, this level of durability was naturally expected.
He was now deep in the Rhodope Mountains. It was impossible to go back north to the town of Stanimaka. The people from the Iron Cross and Free Wind would definitely set up ambushes on the original route.
Now it seemed that he could only go south through the mountains to reach Lekh, and then turn east to return to Constantinople.
After careful calculation, by the time he returned to Constantinople, it would be almost the perfect time.
While Asker was trekking through the Rhodope Mountains, the Venetian fleet, carrying 5,000 Frankish knights and 10,000 knight retinues, had already sailed into the Aegean Sea.
Leading them was Marquis Boniface of Montferrat, responding to the Church’s call to support the Eastern Solomon Empire in Anatolia and fight against the invading Seljuks.
Because they knew they were going to slaughter heretics, the devout Frankish knights, although almost half-dead from the violent bumps of the long voyage, still insisted on coming out every day to wipe their spears and armor.
Until Marquis Boniface announced on the deck: “We are not going to Anatolia anymore, we are going to Constantinople.”
“What?” The Frankish knights were all shocked. Didn’t we agree to go to Anatolia to kill heretics?
“Because we haven’t received the money.” Doge Enrico of Venice came out and said, “The agreed shipping fee was 50,000 silver marks, to be paid in four installments.”
“However, the information from our bank is that only 5,000 marks have been received for the first installment of 15,000 marks.”
The Frankish knights were all in an uproar upon hearing this. They were only responsible for fighting this time and had no concept of money, so they all looked at their leader, Marquis Boniface.
The latter coughed and said:
“It’s like this. Since Constantinople sent a distress signal to the West, although His Holiness could not send Templar Knights, he called on the lords who believe in God to donate money to support them.”
“In the end, we raised 5,000 silver marks and agreed with Constantinople that they would pay the remaining 10,000 silver marks in gold of equal value…”
“Doge Enrico, please confirm, Constantinople really hasn’t paid you the down payment?”
“Indeed, they haven’t.” Doge Enrico replied. He was a blind old man in his 80s, so his words immediately won the trust of the Frankish knights.
“That’s strange.” Marquis Boniface said, “Logically speaking, we are going to rescue Constantinople, and they should naturally pay for the shipping in between.”
“There must be some misunderstanding. Why don’t we go to Constantinople first and ask the two Majesties for clarification?”
So the Frankish knights started to clamor, all saying okay, then let’s go to Constantinople to find the Solomon Emperor and pay off the debt owed to the Venetians.
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