Chapter 590: Cannon Fodder
The team members exchanged small smiles. They had watched Moon fight throughout the day. They had seen him take down two Surpasser assassins with one arm.
They had seen him identify the dark organisation’s true objective multiple times before anyone else in the arena. Whatever respect Alaric was giving him wasn’t mere courtesy. It was earned.
Moon reminded them of the man they had chosen to follow.
Seeing the two of them get along wasn’t a bad thing at all.
Alaric extended his hand.
Moon shook it firmly.
After the brief handshake, they let go of each other’s hands and held eye contact for a moment.
"Take care of yourself. And take care of Selene, she’s under your protection now." Moon paused. "We’ll be in touch soon."
"I will."
Alaric nodded once.
With that, Moon and Kael turned and stepped out of the orbital.
As they cleared the hatch, Emma leaned out slightly, with a confident smile on her face, "The gate’s guards aren’t responding to our call. That usually means an infestation of rats has already moved in. Do you need help clearing it?"
Moon shook his head with a small smile.
"We’ll take care of it."
Emma held his gaze for a moment longer, then nodded and retreated back into the cabin. The hatch sealed with a soft click. The orbital lifted off the ground and shot into the sky at a speed that erased it from view within three seconds.
Moon and Kael turned toward the Second Order gate facility.
The building sat quiet at the end of the walkway. Its outer lights were still on, but the security kiosk at the entrance was empty. There was no staff in view or patrols in the surrounding perimeter.
Nothing but the soft flickering of light overhead.
Moon began moving towards the gate.
Kael fell into step beside him.
Moon’s only hand tightened slightly on the hilt of his sword. He wasn’t afraid of using his remaining mana without restraint, even if that meant the entire building was destroyed. He had less than a minute left on his Life-Burn.
Moon’s voice cut across the empty walkway.
"So. Are you going to show yourself, or am I going to drag you out of your hiding spot?"
There was no response.
Moon kept moving towards the gate as he said, "Yes. I’m talking to you. The one hiding behind the blue wall on the south side."
Barely moments after saying this, a figure emerged from behind the exact section of wall Moon had indicated.
He was tall, lanky, dressed in the same black tactical gear as the elites Moon had been cutting down inside the arena. His hood was pulled low. His staff rested gently in his hands.
The swagger of his gait suggested he was confident in his strength and combat prowess.
"You have quite the sharp senses..." His voice caught mid-sentence as his eyes spotted Moon as the speaker. His shoulders visibly stiffened, whether out of excitement or fear remained unknown.
Every elite in the organization knew Moon’s face. He had been a priority target since before the operation began. Every briefing they had received in the past two days had included his image, his strengths, possible weaknesses, and the standing order to eliminate him on sight if the opportunity arose.
Based on his knowledge, Moon’s combat prowess was at most low end of five-star, and that was being very generous and cautious.
Seeing him here meant one of two things.
Either the situation inside the dome had gone catastrophically wrong for the organization, which the elite didn’t want to believe.
Or Moon had somehow escaped, which meant he had allies significant enough to punch him out of an active warzone.
The elite scanned the surrounding area.
He saw only Kael, which he deemed as a weakling that had no power to stop him if he moved.
His expression twisted into something between confusion and amusement.
"Coming here alone? Where are the idiots who escorted you out? Also, you seemed to have lost a big part." His eyes landed on Moon’s missing arm, and his confidence rose greatly.
Losing an arm was not a small advantage. Whether it was mental or physical, it played a massive role.
His aura flared to prove his dominance over Moon.
Five-Star Evolver power spread across the walkway, pressing against Moon and Kael’s positions. He was trying to submit Moon and intimidate him.
Force the target to feel their inferiority before the engagement began. Break their composure. Make them hesitate.
Moon gently countered the aura that tried to attack him and Kael.
Kael’s eyes fixed on the elite with a flat, almost pitying expression.
’This man doesn’t know what happened inside the dome. He genuinely thinks Moon is a normal Evolver who escaped by luck with a few injuries.’
The realization was almost funny.
’Information is a currency worth more than gold during the time of war.’
The phrase his father had always drilled into him surfaced in Kael’s mind. Tom Glassy had built his fortune on knowing things before other people did, and had watched countless rivals collapse because they had failed to update their understanding of the world in real time.
This elite had failed to update.
He had no idea of what Moon had done inside the dome, or what he was capable of doing. And he was about to pay full price for that ignorance... with his life.
Kael took a small step backward, giving Moon space to do his work. Unfortunately, he was unable to deal with a Five-Star Evolver, especially so, after the long battles he had inside the dome.
Moon did not waste any more time, he needed to enter the gate within the next ten seconds. He didn’t want any problems to arise at the last moment.
His remaining hand rose and the aura he still carried strongly pressed back against the elite’s attempt at intimidation.
The elite’s aura crumpled, his confident stance stuttered and his face went pale beneath the hood.
He took an involuntary step backward.
Moon smiled.
"Wrong."
His sword rose and he disappeared from his position.