PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

488 Chapter 488 The Lost Bait

On the inner edge of the sector classified as B-3 by the military forces of Country C, Desmond’s squad was slowly retreating; while they dealt with an unexpected group of mutated beasts, a motley group of soldiers awaited them in an ambush.

From a large bush, a male voice of someone in middle age began to speak softly. “Boss, are you sure this isn’t dangerous?”

From another bush of equal size, an aggressive young voice answered. “Don’t be an idiot, of course; it’s dangerous, but it’s less dangerous than following our orders.”

A somewhat unpleasant female voice came from the top of a tree and immediately questioned the man who spoke earlier. “I don’t understand why we came all the way here. We even went to the trouble of running all the way to get here before the forces of Country F withdrew. We’re not a real fighting force; we’re just scouts. Worse yet, we’re not even good at our jobs; we’re just a gang of renegades; Why the hell make an effort?”

The female voice caused much murmuring among the rest of the squad members who were waiting hidden in the bushes, but these people were quickly silenced by the man they called boss.

“You said it yourself, Susan; we’re just a gang of renegades. Saying we’re criminals in uniform isn’t too far from the truth. That’s why it’s so suspicious that we were assigned a special mission and sent to the outer edge of this sector. I still have some contacts in the command center. When I asked a friend on the radio, he confessed that we were sent here as bait.”

The sudden revelation that their lives had been thrown into the flames like nothing made all the members of this squad of misfits furious, but seeing that their leader still had more to say, they all fell silent.

Although no one could see him because he was still hidden in a bush, the leader was quite satisfied seeing his subordinates’ respect for him. As the leader of the soldiers had said, his group was no different from a group of criminals, but it still brought him a sense of arrogance to stand above the surrounding bandit gang.

“Don’t worry, my contact told me that our target was moving towards the outer perimeter of sector B-3, so I made the decision to avoid that area but not to leave the sector completely so as not to violate our orders. We are going to hunt down this small squad of soldiers from Country F to get some merit, so we don’t get too much blame for not being able to attract our target’s attention.”

.....

The plan presented by his leader was not perfect, but, being a less than brilliant group, everyone agreed to follow his lead; some even praised his boss for being so wise.

While the group of bandits/soldiers were entertaining themselves with their conversation, about twenty meters away, the group of Claire, Silvia, and company waited with a strange expression on their faces.

While it was true that they had some trouble crossing the forest on their way back due to some mutated beasts, their group wasn’t that late, so their arrival took place amidst the conversation of the bandits waiting in the bushes.

Because the bandits/soldiers were so focused on their conversation, no one was really paying attention to realize that the target of their ambush was right in front of them.

On Claire and Silvia’s side, neither of them quite knew how to respond to this obviously hostile but highly incompetent group, while, from the shadows, Revna couldn’t help but roll her eyes at such a lousy ambush.

Stupidity aside, the people in the talking bushes were still, obviously, soldiers of some kind from C Country, so comical as the situation was, that Desmond’s squad wasn’t planning on showing any mercy.

With weapons raised, Claire, Silvia, and the rest opened fire with their assault rifles into the bushes. Showing the survivability of cockroaches and the reflexes of a weasel, the gang was adept at dodging and reacting. Quite surprisingly, the soldiers in the bushes jumped out of the way and instantly took cover from the sudden hail of bullets.

In a matter of seconds, the bushes were torn to pieces, and the trees with which the bandits sought cover were full of holes, but not a single soldier was killed, only a few wounded.

Showing their inexperience in combat against other armed humans, Desmond’s squad ran out of ammunition simultaneously. Due to the massive window of time in which Desmond’s unit was looking to reload, the enemy soldiers came out of hiding and responded with their own volley of bullets.

Fortunately, Desmond’s squad had taken cover before they started shooting, so they weren’t sitting like ducks waiting for their dead. However, perhaps, such a thing was not even necessary since the aim of the group of bandits/soldiers was horrible to witness.

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Inside Claire’s shadow, Revna was stunned; she had never seen a group so undisciplined and incapable. To begin with, unlike an average squad, this group of soldiers was quite large, numbering nearly thirty men, of whom none even took aim before firing.

To say that they were shooting blind was more than an understatement; these people genuinely didn’t stick their heads out of hiding. They just stretched out their arms with their ill-held weapons and, without looking, opened fire.

Forget the not aiming or looking part; the recoil would have prevented them from hitting whatever their target was just because of the ridiculous and impractical way they were holding their weapons.

Jokes aside, Revna had never seen so many people shoot so many bullets and still manage to not hit a dam thing.

However, even a blind cat could catch a mouse from time to time; some of the stray bullets actually managed to scratch a few people on Claire and Silvia’s side.

Painful enough to watch, the bandit/soldier side made the same rookie mistake Desmond’s squad did, where they all ran out of ammo simultaneously. At that point, Revna couldn’t even bother to have a reaction; she just stayed silent inside Claire’s shadow and waited until she was needed.

This time, Desmond’s squad was better prepared and less inexperienced, as they began to fight using the abilities at their disposal more intelligently.

Silvia took the lead as the highest ranking officer. Being one of the most experienced people due to her gang-related missions, she quickly showed a pretty mature and tactical judgment.

Being aware that the numbers were not on her side, Silvia prioritized reducing the enemy forces with as little ammunition as possible. Repeating the trick she used last time, one she had practiced for some time, Silvia threw a spear of frost right behind some of the trees the other side was using as cover.

As expected, when the spear exploded into icy shrapnel, screams of pain were followed by several individuals who came out of hiding, reeling from their injuries. Following the signal given by Silvia, almost a dozen shots felled the people who went out of their hiding places.

The same tactic was repeated a couple of times, with Silvia throwing her ice spears or Morales tearing apart entire trees with his sonic revolver.

Within a minute or two, half of the bandits/soldiers had died directly from Silvia and Morales’ attacks or under a hail of bullets.

During that time, Claire remained on the defensive, occasionally using force fields to protect a squad member when facing heavy fire or sending back grenades.

Although the confrontation was short, the stress and fatigue were not easy to avoid, especially for Silvia and Morales, the main assault force. No matter how incompetent her opponents were, firearms were still a genuine threat to Silvia and her group.

Feeling that it might be dangerous to prolong the match too long, as it was unknown if the other party might have reinforcements on the way, Silvia pressed past her limits, summoning four ice spears.

The icy pressure around Silvia became almost painful for those close to her, not only was summoning four spears something beyond what she was used to, but these spears also contained much more power than usual.

Silvia had to bite her lip hard to keep her concentration long enough, leaving a small trail of blood. Feeling that she was reaching her limit, with her papery white face covered in sweat, Silvia released her attack.

What happened next can only be described with the word: Annihilation. If the expression, until hell freezes over, was authentic, it would look like what Silvia created. The burst of frost and shrapnel was devastating, destroying everything within ten meters of each spear.

As deadly as the explosion itself, a freezing mist formed in the area, and from the way, Silvia threw her four spears; this area of ??deadly ice filled the entire place where the enemy forces were.

When Claire and the rest regained the ability to see into the area beyond the mist, it was like seeing an ice sculpture exhibit, that is, under the premise that such presentations included broken pieces.