Chapter 96 - Battle For the World (I)

Chapter 96

Battle for the World (I)

Ethan watched apathetically as a woman on the screen easily killed seven people. Rather than focusing on the tragedy of it like those around him, he was more focused on the woman herself–she was skilled, quick, decisive, and had a Class that complimented that. There were no wasted movements in her actions, there was no hesitation when it came to the killing blow, and she hardly showed anything when it comes to her Class beyond just the fact that it’s assassin-related: something that Ethan already inferred.

Elijah, Mingzhu, Ronald, and even Delilah were all shocked at the sight of someone so easily killing people, and especially so brutally. Rather, it wasn’t just them–the entire world was caught up in the blaze of it. There were righteous calls to hunt her down, and, likely against the woman’s judgement, her actions united people more than they deterred them from doing anything.

Brutality, more often than not, will keep people away–but every once in a while, it ignites the sense of unity, pride, and belonging that somehow manages to overcome terror and fear. Even the four kids next to him, once they’ve calmed down, asked him whether they could come along to fight the woman. Ethan, naturally, rejected them. They had no place in that battlefield.

It had been two days since then, and Ethan had started noticing a pattern–the woman began moving out toward the north, into the open terrain. This left her open to being discovered constantly, but it was impossible to sneak-attack her. It wasn’t as though she was worried about being sneak-attacked by the low-level Awakened that she could kill by the hundreds, but that she’d likely identified that there was someone capable of harming her: him. Just as he recognised that there was something wrong when Ronald and Tara awakened as 4th and 5th, chances are that the woman was equally surprised to have Awakened second.

She’s wary of me, it didn’t matter, however. Being wary of an assassin was an occupational hazard in Ethan’s past life, but people still fell like leaves. If anything, her reckless slaughter helped him a ton.

He continued keeping track of her as he boarded the plane to England arranged by ‘Michael’. She started zig-zagging a bit more, breaking up her previous patterns. Occasionally, she would sweep through the town, but never stay in longer than a few hours. Per Ethan’s calculations, she had barely slept ever since the video went viral. While she’d be fine for a little while longer, eventually, it’d catch up to her.

In the meantime, Ethan began to study the topography and terrain within twenty miles of her location. It was mostly hills and rivers, with occasional forest and sparse towns. Little in the way to give opportunity for ambush, but where there was a will, there was also a way. Ethan could only gamble on one strike to surprise her–not even necessarily kill her, but wound her enough to when she couldn’t run away. If anything, he didn’t plan on ambushing her but ‘stumbling upon her accidentally’--she didn’t know what he looked like, or where he might be.

And though she’d likely be paranoid of all strangers, Ethan already planned on abusing that paranoia. She’d likely attack him if he ‘accidentally got in her way’, more so as an afterthought, which would be a perfect chance to strike. There were still a lot of variables outside of his control–perhaps she had ways of seeing the Levels of the Awakened, in which case he’d be screwed either way, or she had a secret ability that she never displayed thus far that would make her run away quickly.

What Ethan was beyond confident in, however, was that she couldn’t one-shot him. Even if she did discover him and attack him with all she got, she wouldn’t be able to one-shot him. She was also more likely to run away after failing rather than stick around for an encore.

Deboarding the plane, he saw a middle-aged man in a suit waiting for him at the gates. He had black hair and yellowed-out beard, likely due to smoking, and a pair of scrutinising, blue eyes. His gait was one of alertness, arm primed near where a holster would be, a subconscious action long since carved into his psyche.

“Hello, Mr. Flynn,” the man greeted him with a faint smile. “I’m Don Traw. Michael and I did some… travelling together back in the day, and he’s asked me to take care of you while here. Supposedly, you’re on a hunt.”

“Aren’t we all?” Ethan shook the man’s hand, replying with a smile as well. The two slowly moved toward the airport’s exit since all of Ethan’s luggage was neatly stacked in his inventory.

“He’s told me squarely if anyone can hunt her down, it’s you,” the man eyed him sideways as he spoke. “That old bloke hardly ever praises someone. For a moment, I thought you were his bastard.”

“I nearly offed his head once,” Ethan said casually. “He’s been quite respectful ever since.”

“Ah, that ought to do it.” the man chuckled. “Last we heard, she’s crossed the border and got into Bedfordshire county. Lots of open hills there. We have choppers flying the skies overhead, and have even focused what few remaining satellites we’ve got active on the locale. We get her precise location roughly every 20-30 minutes to about 2 hours, depending on foot traffic. From our estimates, there have been an additional 20 dead in the last two days. We’re withholding that information, though.”

“What’s her moving pattern?” Ethan probed further.

“Inconsistent,” the man said as they left the airport with a black SUV waiting for them just upfront. The driver opened the rear doors and let the two men in before closing them and moving to the wheel. “She was moving directly north initially–quite literally a straight line–but once got to Rutland, she bounced back south in an irregular pattern. She’d move westward and eastward in increments. We’re still not that experienced with tracking people that move as fast as vehicles, so we’re a bit behind.” The car engine revved as the SUV began moving. The man took out a tablet and pulled up a map of England, with a red line erratically drawn around Bedfordshire county, likely indicating her movements.

“Any successes in predicting her movement?”

“None, I’m afraid. It truly seems like she’s moving at random.”

“No,” Ethan quickly dismissed the notion. “Even cornered beasts rarely move truly ‘at random’. If I’m to venture a guess, she’s looking for something.”

“Oh?”

“Pardon my bluntness, but she likely doesn’t truly care that she’s being hunted down,” Ethan said. “As she could kill those 20, she could kill hundreds–unless you’re willing to bomb her into the underworld, and with her thousands of your own citizens, you won’t be able to kill her. The reason why she left London in the first place was probably because she was looking for something,” Ethan skirted around the issue of ‘him’ and how she might be aware that someone out there possessed the ability to kill her. “Now, what could a person on the run–a temporary one, even, that ends in about 40 days–be looking for so erratically?”

“... a place to hide?” Don ventured a guess.

“Yup,” Ethan nodded. “Not necessarily hide permanently. She’s probably aware that as the days tick by, and the deadline approaches, governments would grow madder and madder. Eventually, she would get bombed into the underworld. What she’s looking for is a way to leave the country without being seen.”

“Uh…”

“She’s looking for a Tunnel,” Ethan’s words seemed to jolt the man as his brows curled up into a frown. “From the look on your face, you might even know what Tunnel she’s looking for.”

“... about three months ago,” the man spoke after a brief hesitation. “We got the wing of a Tunnel that she could likely use. It’s a two-way Tunnel–once inside, there’s the option to both start the trial as well as take the other Tunnel in there, which leads to southern Chile.”

“There you go,” Ethan shrugged, maintaining a placid expression though panicking a bit inside. If she actually got to the Tunnel, that might complicate things a bit too much.

“If that’s the one she’s looking for, she went the wrong direction though,” Don smiled smugly.

“Oh?”

“She should have gone South, into Surrey.”

“Ain’t we lucky, then?”

“What do you need us to do?” the man asked. “I promised Michael we’d give you full support. In return–”

“--I don’t care what you do with her body or her items,” Ethan already expected it. “I just need the item to close the Tunnel in the U.S. As for what you can do, not much, to be frank. I’m not confident in fighting her directly either, so if we tried to set up a trap, it might be too obvious. However, I do have a plan in mind that we can try.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“Find a smallish town somewhere in Bedfordshire county,” Ethan said. “A few thousand people max. I’ll sneak in and assume a random role, while you try and ‘guide’ her to sweep through the town. Don’t be too obvious, however–so, don’t guide her in a straight line. It’d be best if the town was somewhere in the northern end of the county–that way, you can make it seem like you’re desperately trying to drag and guide her down south, indirectly driving her to the town. Once she’s there, all you have to do is stand back and make sure that you can track her if she slips by.”

“... honestly–how confident are you?” the man asked after a brief pause, his sky-blue eyes staring intently at Ethan.

“I won’t die,” Ethan said. “But that’s about as much as I can promise. If I get to surprise her, I might be able to wound her. So long as I do wound her and make sure she can’t run away, I’m confident in being able to kill her no matter what. The problem is that I’m fairly certain her Class is really good at slipping away.”

“So, you’re confident in facing her if she can’t run away?”

“... why does it sound like you, now, have a plan?” Ethan asked, arching his brows.

“This,” the man suddenly took out something from the seeming nowhere–it was a tattered parchment with burnt edges–a scroll. “We looted it from one of the Tunnels we cleared recently. It’s called ‘Scroll of Imprisonment’. I can mark an area roughly the size of a small town and lock it down for approximately 10 minutes. It says that those locked in the area can’t leave it either physically or relying on movement abilities.”

“...” Ethan eyed the parchment with passion–it was the kind of windfall that a man wandering the desert experienced upon finding an oasis. A drop of rain from heaven to answer the desperate desire, providing the solution to the biggest problem he was facing at the moment. “All that’s left,” Ethan said as his lips widened out into a smile. “Is to get her into town.”