Book 19, Metamorphosis – Chapter 21, Flee on Sight

A short, black-robed figure flew out, moving like dark smoke through the cold, clammy underground earth of the Planar Battlefield.

“Eh?”

The figure suddenly came to a halt, staring stealthily into the distance. His eyes were as sharp as an eagle’s, but the strange thing was that he was bald, but a layer of dark black light was atop his bald head, like a thin layer of black metal. This dark black scalp also had a round rune atop it.

“Someone is actually here?” The bald youth stared into the distance. “An enemy!”

After ascertaining the enemy’s status, the bald youth didn’t hesitate at all. “Swoosh!” Very suddenly, the bald youth accelerated explosively, shooting out like a meteor towards the black-robed man.

The black-robed man suddenly turned his head, clearly seeing him. Not hesitating at all, the black-robed man immediately fled with a ‘whoosh’.

“You won’t be able to escape!” The bald youth’s body flashed forward bizarrely.

The surrounding area saw the formation of a spherical, earthen yellow glow which completely ‘surrounded’ the black-robed man, who was trying to flee. Stuck within the earthen yellow light, the black-robed man’s speed dropped dramatically. The bald youth seized the chance to immediately charge forwards, mercilessly striking out with his right hand.

The bald youth was wearing a black glove on his right hand.

His hand stretched out like the claws of a divine dragon, and as the space it passed through rippled and trembled. His claws instantly landed on the black-robed figure’s shoulder. “F*ck off!” The black-robed man growled, and then he struck back with his right leg, kicking towards the youth.

“Crunch!” A very clear sound. The black-robed man’s shoulder was completely ripped apart.

“How tough.” The bald youth felt slightly startled, but he didn’t show any mercy.

As the right hand claw smashed down against the shoulder, it also then struck directly towards the black-robed man’s head. As the right claw struck out, it actually formed a bizarre, spherical ball of light, causing even the nearby space to be bound, making it impossible for the black-robed man’s head to dodge to any great degree.

“Slash!” The five fingers of the bald youth’s right hand pierced directly into the black-robed man’s skull, and the man’s head immediately exploded. The bald youth was very confident. “This kick of yours won’t be able to land on me.” As the bald youth saw it, once the black-robed man died, he naturally wouldn’t be able to continue to attack.

“BANG!” The force of the black-robed man’s right kick didn’t lessen at all, crashing straight against the chest of the bald youth.

The bald youth was knocked backwards, and he landed on the ground.

“Wait. That’s a Deathgod Golem!” The bald youth came to a shocked awareness. “This is a trap!”

“Bang!” The bald youth kicked off furiously from the ground, and as he did, that spherical glow emanated from his right foot, the foot which kicked downwards. Instantly, he rocketed away, moving at high speed. As he moved, he would occasionally kick off from the ground again, each time creating that spherical glow, causing his speed to rise to a terrifying level.

Moving as fast as lightning, in two or three leaps, he disappeared from the field of view.

“This fellow ran too fast!”

By the time Linley and Bebe emerged from the ground, all they could see was the departing back of the bald youth. Linley and Bebe had no choice but to vent their anger on a nearby boulder. “As soon as the Deathgod Golem discovered him, he almost instantly discovered that it was a Deathgod Golem and that it was a trap! After discovering it was a Deathgod Golem, he didn’t even pause and instead immediately fled. Jeeze!” Linley couldn’t help but shake his head.

“Nothing to show for it.” Bebe pursed his lips and said, then turned to look at the distant, headless Deathgod Golem. “And we even lost a Deathgod Golem. Boss, who was that person?”

“Cloyd [Ke’luo’yi’de]! An extremely strong commander who belongs to the Divine Earth Plane. He likes to travel alone.” Linley said with a laugh. Through the Deathgod Golem, Linley saw Cloyd’s attack, and just by seeing Cloyd’s attack, Linley became completely certain of who Cloyd was. “However, Cloyd doesn’t have a single Sovereign artifact. We are completely capable of killing him.”

Linley felt rather regretful.

It was an excellent opportunity. Unfortunately, Cloyd was too cautious. Upon discovering that it was a trap, he had immediately fled without hesitating at all.

“He doesn’t have a single Sovereign artifact, and yet he’s strong?” Bebe said with a frown.

“That’s what the intelligence reports your Grandpa Beirut provided to me said. Cloyd simply doesn’t wish to be restricted and so doesn’t wish to become a Sovereign’s Emissary, which is why he has no Sovereign artifacts. But despite that...killing him is extremely difficult.” Linley let out a sigh. “An expert of the Laws of the Earth! He must have fused at least five of the profound mysteries.”

The clawing blow he had delivered which had shattered the Deathgod Golem’s shoulder contained five profound mysteries.

The Deathgod Golem was torn through like mud.

Just as Linley and Bebe were chatting mentally, from the corner of his eyes, Linley saw a distant figure suddenly appear. He immediately turned to look...only to see that roughly two or three hundred meters away, a black figure was lying in hiding, seeming to inspect the Deathgod Golem that was lying on the ground.

Linley suddenly grew excited. “Bebe, we have a target. Three hundred meters to our left.”

“Target?” Bebe turned to look as well.

Just at this moment...

The distant black-robed figure, also vigilant, discovered that there were two figures not far away who were lying against the corner of a mountain boulder. Right at this moment...the gazes of Linley and the black-robed man met.

Linley was suddenly startled, and he immediately sent through divine sense to Bebe, “Bebe, this black-robed man...I can’t sense the badge aura on him. He is an enemy. Let’s attack!” The closer one was, the more easily one could sense the badge aura. Linley and the enemy were less than three hundred meters away.

Logically speaking, even if he didn’t have a clear sense, he should still sense a bit of the badge’s aura.

But if he didn’t sense anything at all...

“Haha, one ran away, but another one was drawn close. Haha.” Bebe was extremely excited.

This black-robed person was indeed drawn here by the earlier actions of the bald youth. He had snuck over and watched quietly to the side. But Linley and Bebe were in a fairly hidden location, from which they just so happened to be able to clearly see the black-robed figure.

“Hmph.” The black-robed figure very calmly turned and fled.

“He’s running?”

Linley’s first reaction was to unleash his Blackstone Field. An enormous earthen yellow aura instantly sprang out, with Linley at the center, expanding to a radius of five hundred meters. This Blackstone Space spread out far faster than the black-robed man ran; as soon as the man moved, he fell within the Blackstone Space.

The gravity pulling was towards Linley!

“Gravitational Space? What a powerful gravity, and it is pulling to the rear!”

The black-robed man was now shocked. He couldn’t help but turn to look, and the already Dragonformed Linley and Bebe had transformed into a pair of azure and black blurs, advancing towards him rapidly.

“Pursuing me?” The black-robed man didn’t resist, instead choosing to flee.

But attempting to flee while completely pulling against the gravitational force...how fast could he move?

“You want to run?” Linley stared fixedly at the black-robed man, pursuing at high speed. In Linley’s eyes, this black-robed man definitely had a gold badge. Every single gold badge represented that he would be able to save another one of his family or friends. While in hot pursuit, the distance between the two quickly shrank to less than a few dozen meters.

In the Blackstone Space, the black-robed man’s speed was reduced by simply too much.

The black-robed man was angry now!

“I don’t want to fight with you two. Let me leave.” A divine sense rang out, echoing in Linley and Bebe’s minds. “Otherwise, don’t blame me for being discourteous!”

“You want to leave? And be discourteous?” Linley laughed.

“Bebe, you can act now. He won’t be able to escape at this distance.” Linley sent mentally.

“Don’t worry, Boss.” Bebe laughed delightedly.

Right at this moment...

“You are looking for death.” The black-robed man, who had been suppressing his temper, suddenly stabbed backwards with a dagger.

“Swoosh!”

A black light suddenly shot out, shooting towards Linley, so fast...that Linley wasn’t able to dodge at all.

“So fast!” Frantically, Linley stabbed out powerfully with the godspark sword, ‘Mirage’, which was in his hands.

“BANG!”

The tip of Mirage collided with the tip of the dagger.

Linley only felt a terrifying powerful force press towards him, going through Mirage and into his arms. “Crackle...” The draconic scales covering his right arm, which was gripping Mirage, instantly shattered. Blood began to flow out, and Linley was knocked backwards as well.

When Linley retreated, the Blackstone Field centered around him moved backwards as well, allowing the black-robed man to escape the perimeter of the Blackstone Field!

“A Sovereign artifact!” Linley was shocked.

The black-robed man had pulled away from Linley, but not from Bebe!

“Boss!” Bebe was instantly enraged.

Immediately, a colossal phantom of a Godeater Rat once more appeared behind Bebe. The black-robed man turned to look, and what he saw terrified him so greatly, his face changed. “How...how can this be?! Beirut’s innate divine ability!!!” Beirut’s technique was famous throughout the universe. Even many people who had never seen Beirut use this technique in person had seen scryer recordings of Beirut using his supreme attack.

“No....!” The black-robed man wanted to once more speak with his divine sense.

Unfortunately, the speed of an innate divine ability was comparable to the speed of using divine sense to communication.

As for Bebe, he used his innate divine ability first, and so the black-robed man didn’t even have a chance to plead his case!

“Rumble...”

A strange ripple wrapped around the black-robed man’s head, and immediately, a divine spark floated out from it. As for the black-robed man, he lifelessly slumped downwards, while the black dagger that had been flying back towards him fell to the ground as well. At the same time, a white badge fell out of his body.

“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!”

Linley and Bebe landed before his body.

Linley was stupefied. “What? A white badge?” Linley stared at the white badge, not daring to believe it.

Of the two sides in this battle, the Divine Light Plane had gold badges for commanders and white badges for soldiers.

“It’s actually a soldier badge?” Linley couldn’t believe it.

A person who had a Sovereign artifact...was a soldier?

“Boss, hurry up and leave. We can’t stay here any longer.” Bebe said hurriedly.

Only now did Linley come to his senses. Not hesitating any further, Linley and Bebe hurriedly collected the interspatial ring, Sovereign dagger, and white badge, then immediately flew away.

Within a cave that was inside a large mountain.

“All of these people have divine clones outside. Even though we killed them, we still aren’t able to bind their interspatial rings or Sovereign artifacts with blood.” Bebe said, angry and helpless. “The Sovereign artifact is one thing; the Sovereign will take it back eventually, after all. But the interspatial ring definitely has quite a few things inside. What a pity, what a pity.”

Linley just stared at the white badge. “He was actually a soldier!”

“It really is very odd. A soldier who had a Sovereign artifact?” Bebe muttered.

Linley suddenly had a thought, and many things instantly made sense. He couldn’t help but shake his head resignedly and say, “Bebe, I understand now. We found the wrong target.”

“What is it?” Bebe said, puzzled.

Linley sighed. “Bebe, didn’t you notice? When the black-robed person discovered us, his first reaction was to flee. When we pursued him, his second reaction was to warn us that he didn’t want to fight us, and that if we kept on bothering him, he would attack. Why didn’t he want to fight? He had a Sovereign artifact, so why flee? I think...the reason was because he was on our side.”

“On our side?” Bebe was stunned.

“Right.” Linley said helplessly. “I think this person should be a commander on our side, but he removed his commander badge and instead bound with blood this enemy’s soldier badge and became an enemy ‘soldier’. He bound an enemy’s soldier badge by blood. Once he gets close to an enemy commander, he would sense their aura, and so find them easily. In addition, he would be able to launch an ambush attack. Two birds with one stone! The only flaw, however, is that he will be attacked by the people on his own side!”

Disguising one’s self as the enemy had benefits but also costs.

That poor, black-robed man. He fell to Linley and Bebe’s deadly hands.