Chapter 172 One of My Men

Mag was a Cannon Master, a second-tier class of the basic Mechanic class with very high damage. The better the weapon was, the greater the advantage they had. This was the first time that Han Xiao had fought a high-level enemy of his own class.

Every meter from a Cannon Master was a wall of obstruction, and the enemy was at the top of the building while Han Xiao was at the ground.

In the blink of an eye, Han Xiao completed the analysis of the situation, the enemy, the nearby terrain, and the escape route.

Cannon Master, level 56, high damage but low HP. I have one chance of dealing explosively high damage, but killing him will not be easy. Their backup will arrive in no time if I'm stalled, and I don't have enough supplies to deal with an outnumbered fight. I need to use the opportunity created by damaging him to escape, Han Xiao thought.

Blue lights flashed from his shoes, and he slid away.

"Trying to run?" Mag remained expressionless as Han Xiao ran away. He had noticed much earlier that the speed Han Xiao had was from his shoes, so he used his RX-108 assault rifle and shot with high accuracy. He knew that Han Xiao would not be able to escape if his shoes were broken.

However, a piece of magnetically-controlled retractable armor quickly covered the shoes and blocked the bullets.

That was close. Han Xiao was shocked. Luckily, he had been prepared and was able to react in time. Had his shoes been destroyed, the difficulty to escape would have been many times higher. Being attacked and not fighting back was not Han Xiao's style. Whilst tactically retreating, he fired back at Mag with high accuracy on par with the latter, and three high caliber bullets hit Mag's chest. Physical fitness was not Mag's strength, and he could barely handle the power from the bullets. He endured the pain and followed after Han Xiao using his Grappling Hook Gun to move between buildings.

Mag had an advantage of having the high ground, so he used [Explosive Shooting] with his Tiger Claw shotgun and fired another shot at Han Xiao. The force of the explosion knocked Han Xiao into the wall once again.

Before Han Xiao could pull himself out of the wall, he felt a sense of danger and immediately covered his entire body with armor.

Mag stood on the ceiling with one assault rifle in each hand. He used [Moving Snipe] and [Pouring Ammunition] at the same time. The increased fire rate from both skills together turned the bullets into a storm raining down on Han Xiao, keeping him stuck on the wall. The holes in the wall turned to waves of dust, and the cracks grew even larger.

"He should be almost dead." Mag was confident, this round of explosive damage that he had dealt with the combination of abilities and hundreds of bullets should have left the target almost dead, if not dead.

Dust filled the air and blocked the view inside the pit.

Hum—

A loud and weird sound appeared.

Suddenly, an invisible force field exploded on the wall, pushing away the rain and bullets, creating an area of empty space.

Field Repulsive Machine!

Using the repulsion from the machine, Han Xiao jumped out of the pit and remained stagnant in the air for a short moment. He held up the Phantom Ghost Sniper with one hand and aimed at Mag from afar, locking onto his position.

Time seemed to have slowed down.

Mag felt a chill down his spine. The gun gave him a piercing sense of coldness, and his intuition told him that it was extremely deadly. He tried to dodge as soon as he could, but Han Xiao fired his shot before he could dodge fully.

In the flash of blue light, Mag felt an irresistible force bursting on his chest. He was knocked into the air and rolled to the other side of the roof, barely grabbing the edge of the rooftop in the last second before falling down.

The pain from his chest hurt like hell. He looked down and saw a bloody hole on his right chest that penetrated his body through the bulletproof vest. Blood was gushing from within.

He shot through my lung… Mag was sweating heavily from the pain of the wound. Every time he took a breath, it felt like a knife was carving back and forth in his lung. He was shocked and frightened; the power from this shot was stronger than one of his even when he was at peak performance!

Where the hell did this extremely strong guy come from? And who was he? His explosive power was even superior to the Ace of Ordina, but Mag had never seen him before!

Had Mag not dodged, the bullet would have hit his eye.

He had ended up in this state even with a bulletproof vest. If he had been even half a second slower when he dodged…

Mag's fear toward Han Xiao peaked.

_____________________

You destroyed Mag • Lesley's [Synthetic Ceramic Bulletproof Vest].

You dealt 772 points of damage to Mag • Lesley.

Mag • Lesley has entered Moderate Bleeding state, losing 5 health/s for 60s.

Mag • Lesley has entered Penetrated Lung state, -10% Dexterity, -15% Movement Speed.

_____________________

This explosive shot was used with [Flaming Will] and [Overload], so the damage was frightening.

Han Xiao took a deep breath. For the first time, his Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor was close to being destroyed; the damage from Mag's storm of bullets had decreased it's durability to the alarming zone of 100 points. If he had still been wearing the first version of it without all the improvements that he had made, it would have been destroyed.

Cannon Masters were known for their firepower. If Mag could get better firearms, his damage would have further increased.

To Mag, the fact that Han Xiao was still standing after all the bullets he had fired was already quite unbelievable.

If Han Xiao were to stay and continue the fight, he would almost certainly win, but he heard the engines from afar—their backup was here.

This is Ordina's territory. I'll be outnumbered easily by their countless men. Mag already knew my explosive damage, so his plan from now on will definitely be stalling me. I have already got my thing, so there's no need for me to stay and fight. Running away now is the priority, Han Xiao thought to himself and retreated without hesitation.

Mag was still horrified by that shot from Han Xiao, so he acted with a lot of caution, firing a few shots and hiding into cover straight after. He seemed like a different man.

Han Xiao's pressure decreased tremendously. While Mag was being cautious, he used [Overload] on his skating shoes, accelerating rapidly in a split second and disappearing from Mag's sights.

Mag lost Han Xiao completely in the complicated streets of the city. He called his colleagues instantly to check on the cameras in the city, but Han Xiao was nowhere to be found. It was like he had vaporized.

The mission target was the seller, who was experienced in escaping after so many years of being chased, and because this buyer reminded the seller a second earlier, he had found a chance to escape from the agents. Thus, Mag could only go after the buyer, but despite being the Ace, not only did he not catch the target, he was even badly damaged. Anger and dismay filled his chest; failing the mission was like a slap on his face.

Ordina agents started searching the area, which expectedly lead to no result. They could only pass their recorded fighting video to the intelligence unit for analysis. However, although they did not have any hope that doing this would give them any valuable information, they surprisingly found someone who's fighting style was the same as the buyer's.

Black Phantom!

"They look completely different, but he might have worn a skin mask."

"It all makes sense now. Only Black Phantom could disappear like a ghost!"

In the action command room, Mag was being treated by the doctor. His face was gloomy. He had heard of Black Phantom before, but as an Ace agent of an intelligence organization, he had looked down on assassins like Black Phantom. However, through this accidental clash with Black Phantom, despite being the pursuer, he had been defeated and critically damaged, unable to even follow the target. Mag felt ashamed.

No wonder he is a legend. The action commander did not blame Mag as failure was not unacceptable when the opponent was Black Phantom. The question was, why did Black Phantom come to the Western Continent? Did he have a deal with the outlaw they were following?

Ordina's intelligence unit took the appearance of Black Phantom very seriously. They opened a meeting and told the hacker unit to play with the source of this information, which was the short call Han Xiao had with the seller about the deal location.

"Greetings."

"How are we going to carry out the deal?"

"In three days. In a moment, I will send you the location. Bring your money, and I will bring the stuff."

"Okay, I will get one of my men to carry out the deal."

The last sentence was the key. The person that the buyer sent was astonishingly Black Phantom, which meant that the identity of the buyer was clear!