Gun of Ashes

Red Falcon yearned for the world in books, to personally experience those beautiful stories, but he knew clearly that it was impossible. The stories in books were just a sanctuary that allowed him to briefly escape reality; he couldn’t hide in them forever. One must face these things eventually.

Red Falcon hated reality; he detested everything about it because it owed nothing to logic, with every minute and second possibly bringing dreadful surprises, like what he had recently encountered.

Thinking of this made Red Falcon’s heart ache. This wasn’t about logic anymore. If he were a character in a story, he felt the author must have some grudge against him, endlessly toying with him.

Thinking it was a government-sponsored vacation, it suddenly turned into life-threatening work, with the risk of losing his life unintentionally. He finally met a compatible partner, but she seemed to deliberately get close to him. Moreover, by now, he was just here to fetch something, only to encounter enemies pushed to the brink of life and death.

Thinking about it was truly miserable.

Red Falcon pondered, since life made no sense, wouldn’t it be possible for a strong man to suddenly appear and save him in the next second?

Red Falcon wasn’t sure, because the intense pain interrupted his wild thoughts, causing him to fall back and knock over a wooden cabinet. Luckily, he didn’t fall and quickly stabilized his stance with the Folding Blade.

This was a very unfavorable beginning for Red Falcon; the enemy had first taken advantageous terrain, and even shot him, plus the enemy was far more powerful than he was.

Red Falcon spat a blood-tipped spittle, looking displeased at the enemy in front of him.

”Are you waiting for them to rescue you? This location is very remote, and the gunshot will be covered by the sound of the sea wind and the roar of the machines.”

The man loosened his collar; both sides had just run out of bullets, and at this close range, there was no time for them to reload.

”Erin is very smart. She chose this secluded room; even if she murders here, no one would notice, but accordingly, if she dies here, no one would notice either.”

Damn Erin.

Upon hearing this, Red Falcon cursed once more in his heart.

”One shouldn’t be too hopeful about others, let alone expect anything from a lunatic.”

Red Falcon rubbed his chin, which had just been punched, causing his teeth to bite his tongue, making his voice somewhat strange, ”You’re different from those dead guys... oh, so they were your ’mantis,’ and you’re the real ’oriole.’”

Through the short battle, Red Falcon barely guessed these insights from the man’s words.

”Sort of, if they had managed to eliminate Erin, I wouldn’t have appeared. Unfortunately, they failed.” The man replied.

”Backup plan?” Red Falcon asked.

”Not quite, more accurately a supervisor; we can’t just let that kind of monster out of sight.”

Oddly enough, the man in front also cared about the threat of Secret Blood; he had been supervising those guys in the dark to prevent them from being completely devoured by the power of Secret Blood.

”This is an experiment?”

Red Falcon continued from the man’s words.

”Yes.”

The man nodded silently, as Red Falcon gasped for air.

This wasn’t good; in this view, the man in front of him was undoubtedly more powerful than those guys Lorenzo had killed before, since he was the supervisor and they were being supervised.

”Can you resist the temptation of Secret Blood?”

Red Falcon continued to speak nonsense; he needed to buy time to recover his strength.

”To some extent, yes.” The man replied.

Gradually tightening his grip on the Folding Blade, Red Falcon recalled the information Lorenzo had mentioned before.

Army.

An army of Secret Blood.

No matter how Secret Blood might degrade, in large-scale usage, inherently unstable individuals would inevitably emerge.

”Oh... so is this what you’re worried about?”

Red Falcon continued speaking, but this time he attacked again while speaking, the Folding Blade swiftly springing forth, surprising everyone that this weak fellow dared to counterattack at this moment.

Although the man’s arm was cut, he still had a portion of Secret Blood in him; this was pure strength, far superior to Red Falcon.

The short blade easily intercepted the Folding Blade; this scenario had repeated many times in their past combats, and the man didn’t understand why Red Falcon refused to give up.

With great force, Red Falcon was knocked down again; this time, he might not be able to get back up, lying amid the chaotic debris, looking at the ceiling and gasping, his back feeling painful, possibly stabbed by a broken wooden shard.

”Do you dare to kill me?”

Red Falcon slowly sat up, with a cunning smile on his face, just as he suspected, the man was still guarding the door, afraid to attack reckless.

He held absolute dominance, completely capable of killing Red Falcon, yet he refrained from doing so.

”Are you worried about this?”

Red Falcon took out the vial from his pocket, filled with rolling crimson blood.

Through previous probing, this was the reason the man delayed killing Red Falcon.

”I thought there was some secret about this Secret Blood, worth your pursuit, but upon closer thought, it doesn’t quite add up. No matter how cunning Erin is, she wouldn’t possibly steal something crucial. Otherwise, as our enemy, you’d seem too dumb... you wouldn’t be that dumb.

You’re afraid, afraid of pushing me to use Secret Blood, right?”

The man fell silent this time, perhaps not expecting Red Falcon to react so quickly and swiftly guess everything.