Chapter 834: One Against Six

After Xia Qing landed, she flicked her wrist to retract the rope, and as she ran toward the sniping point on another peak, she quickly reported the situation to Seeing Xin Yu: "The enemy helicopter has been shot down. I'll cover the rear from behind you. Leave all the enemies to me. Don't expose your position—just report to me any enemies that enter within fifty meters of your location. Reinforcements will definitely arrive within half an hour."

"Understood."

The four captured men were well-equipped, so the people coming were very likely carrying advanced infrared monitoring or radar equipment. Although the protective suits worn by Seeing Xin Yu and Xia Qing were made of new materials, they couldn't achieve perfect stealth under advanced detection equipment.

What's more, Seeing Xin Yu still had the unconscious brown bear and monk-faced monkey beside her, neither of which was wearing any protective equipment. If Seeing Xin Yu dragged them while moving, she would definitely be detected by radar.

If the enemy happened to be carrying heavy weapons, a single shell would finish them all off.

So if the enemy came looking, no matter how many there were, Xia Qing had to draw the fire toward herself.

A brightly colored venomous snake swallowed a poisonous frog two meters in front of Xia Qing, and just as it was about to slither away, a goshawk swooped down silently, snatched it up, and flew into the sky.

After the goshawk flew off, a porcupine that had been driven out of its home by a bear, having evaded the goshawk, took a liking to the thicket where Xia Qing was hiding. It approached, caught the bear's scent, and could only bristle its quills, curse and grumble, and continue fleeing for its life with its young.

Xia Qing stayed perfectly still. Her hearing was disrupted by the sound of flowing water, but she still had her sight.

A branch on a large pine tree a thousand meters ahead trembled unnaturally. A few seconds later, a short, pitch-black, non-reflective gun barrel poked out, searching for a target.

From that gun barrel alone, Xia Qing recognized the enemy's weapon—a CM82, the same model as her own.

Xia Qing lowered her voice and reported to Seeing Xin Yu: "An enemy sniper has appeared a thousand meters to the north."

"Copy." Seeing Xin Yu replied calmly.

Five minutes after the enemy sniper took position, Xia Qing located five search team members one after another. They were all wearing Level-3 field protective suits; two carried shoulder-fired rocket launchers, and three held automatic pistols. Such elite equipment, along with a helicopter, indicated they were the core combat squad of a top-ten team from some base.

The enemy was a combat squad of two ranged attackers, three close-combat fighters, and one sniper—a configuration that gave Xia Qing trouble.

The enemy was somewhat impatient, very likely wanting to kill the Hui-3 evolvers guarding this evolution forest and escape with the already anesthetized evolution bear before Hui-3's reinforcements arrived.

Today was the fifth day after the Deadly Rain. The lush, overgrown evolution forest was still damp, and the traces left by humans and animals were clearly distinguishable.

Even if this squad had no smell or vision evolvers, they could judge from the footprints on the ground, the trampled fallen leaves, and the grass that their opponents numbered only two. So they wanted to use their numerical advantage to quickly find the drugged brown bear, then escape by helicopter before Hui-3's reinforcements arrived.

The premise for this plan to work was that their helicopter could be repaired within half an hour.

It seemed there were still one or two people repairing the helicopter.

Xia Qing's mind spun rapidly as she quickly told Seeing Xin Yu her battle plan.

"Copy. Be careful."

"Don't worry." After Xia Qing finished speaking, without waiting for the squad to enter within 800 meters of Seeing Xin Yu, she launched the first attack.

The first and second shots took out the enemy's two ranged gunners.

Then immediately came the third shot—she intended to take out the enemy sniper.

Her sniper rifle's bullets had a muzzle velocity of 1000 meters per second. Having seized the initiative, within 1000 meters, even if the enemy sniper was a speed evolver, her odds of winning were still sixty percent.

Because although the sniping point the enemy had chosen offered a good view, his position was already exposed, and there were only two escape routes on the tree: up or down.

But Xia Qing had misjudged the enemy sniper's strength. After the two gunners fell, the enemy also spotted Xia Qing's position. Finding he couldn't counterattack, he quickly sprang away to relocate before Xia Qing could fire at him.

The enemy sniper's ability was Elasticity Evolution! He had chosen the big tree as his sniping point not out of overconfidence, but because the tree best allowed him to leverage his advantage.

After taking out the enemy's gunners, it became a duel between the two snipers. The situation was unfavorable for Xia Qing, because the enemy was a four-person squad.

This was Xia Qing's first time facing a sniper in real combat. She kept firmly in mind the combat essentials Luo Pei had taught her: give the enemy no time to react. Upon spotting the sniper spring away to dodge, she swiftly moved her rifle and fired the fourth shot.

As the sniper who had laid the ambush first, one should be thoroughly familiar with every spot within a 1500-meter radius that could serve as cover, and have a plan ready to snipe an enemy hiding behind cover.

Xia Qing had just swept the area where the enemy was hiding twice, and combined with her observation from a high vantage point, every hiding spot was already etched into her mind.

This bullet, Xia Qing wasn't aiming at the enemy sniper, but at a protruding rock. Once this rock was shot away, the three massive boulders above would fall and pin the enemy hiding behind the rock below.

"Ah—"

"Ah—"

Luck was on her side this time—that spot actually had two enemy squad members hiding there.

The enemy was down to two.

"Bang!"

The enemy sniper hit the rock in front of Xia Qing. Xia Qing immediately ducked to dodge, rolled quickly to switch positions. When she raised her head, she knew things were bad.

The remaining enemy close-combat fighter was definitely a speed evolver, because during Xia Qing's roll just now, he had already taken the shoulder-fired rocket launcher from beside the gunner!

Xia Qing immediately abandoned sniping, and using the rocks and trees as cover, swiftly relocated.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Boom—"

After two shots from the enemy sniper, the new gunner fired accurately, and the shell landed five meters from Xia Qing. If she hadn't already possessed a running speed of Level 4.5, that hit would have finished her.

Utterly calm, Xia Qing stopped, raised her rifle to counter-fire at the enemy sniper, then kept running.

"Boom—"

Having dodged the second shell, Xia Qing once again raised her rifle to snipe the gunner.

"Bang!"

"Bang!" The instant Xia Qing's bullet left the barrel, the enemy sniper immediately fired back.

"Boom—" The gunner's attack arrived three seconds later.

Having already withdrawn several hundred meters, Xia Qing attacked again. The enemy pressed their pursuit relentlessly. Although it was extremely dangerous, Xia Qing had achieved her goal of drawing the fire onto herself. "Seeing Xin Yu, I'm leading the enemy away. From here on, you're in charge of contacting the reinforcements. My hearing is damaged—I can't hear sounds for now."

"Understood."

Even though Xia Qing couldn't hear, Seeing Xin Yu still responded. She gripped her grenade tightly, silently praying for the reinforcements to come faster, faster. She also regretted why she hadn't brought Xiao Yu along.

If Xiao Yu were here, she could have directed Xiao Yu to blow up the enemy gunner!

In the darkness, Seeing Xin Yu didn't notice the unconscious brown bear's large paw twitch slightly.