The Highest Bounty

Chapter 86: Lex’s Purpose

Although Blood Sac Pirates was a weird name, they were quite a strong unit. Captain Lex and Vice-captain Ulrif both had a Rank 8 Gene Body, and the bounties on their heads were each over ten billion Star Credits. Their military advisor, Alcher, had a Rank 7 Gene Body, and the rest of the members in the group all had gene bodies of at least Rank 6. The strength of the group was within the top twenty of the Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation.

However, this team’s luck was not good. Every time anything significant occurred, they would arrive late due to various reasons. This caused them to be underexposed in the media, and not many people knew of them.

“Hey, shouldn’t you guys jump in to help? Your vice-captain seems to be getting badly thrashed.” Gu Ding pointed at the two people engaged in fierce combat on the battlefield.

Although the phrase used was “engaged in fierce combat”, it was more of Ulrif getting beaten to a pulp.

Numerous thick, large vines with thorns were summoned by Lancelot. They sprouted from the sandy terrain, attacking Ulrif like vicious pythons.

According to information from Neptune’s search, that species of vine was known as the Desert Poison Dragon. Its barbs were coated in a large dose of neurotoxins. The moment a regular being makes contact with the barbs, the piece of flesh that makes contact will be sliced off. To make matters worse, their nervous system will be severely damaged, rendering them completely paralyzed.

Ulrif, against Gu Ding’s expectations, did not make any attempt to dodge. He was completely relying on brute strength to defend himself, letting those unrelenting barbed vines whip him.

Before a minute had passed, he was reduced to blood and flesh.

“Do you know what my favorite combat environment is?” Lancelot smiled as he controlled the vines whipping Ulrif. “One is the desert. Another is the ocean. It’s because these two environments let me summon the largest vines. The vines are unbreakable, and they have poisonous thorns as well as venom...”

One strong vine wrapped around Ulrif’s calf then scaled up his body. Very quickly, it had Ulrif tightly bound. The barbed thorns sank deep into Ulrif’s skin, embedding itself in his flesh. Then, the vines coiled around him, slowly encasing Ulrif; all while making deep slices across his body like gullies in the land.

A second and third vine followed suit in binding him. In an instant, Ulrif’s body had not a single piece of untouched flesh.

Still, the rest of the Blood Sac Pirates stood and watched in silence. Lex did not look at Ulrif’s battle at all. He was still offering Liliath candy.

Seeing Gu Ding pointing at the battlefield with a look of horror on his face, Alcher smiled and shook his head, explaining, “Our vice captain’s ability is very special. He can absorb the pain inflicted upon him and utilize it as his own before then releasing it onto his opponent several times over.”

“Are you saying he can replicate the opponents’ moves?” Gu Ding was a little curious about this ability.

“Not the moves, the effects of the moves.” Alcher shook his head. “What the opponent is using now is a vine attack. Even if Vice-Captain uses his fists to retaliate, when the time comes, the effect produced on the opponent’s body will also be a vine attack.”

“Using a fist to produce the effect of a vine...” Gu Ding felt this ability was very special.

“This ability is actually a type of cursing ability. The more damage is done on the person, the stronger the curse on the attacker becomes. When the damage received reaches a certain point, the curse will be complete, and the power of the curse will be unleashed on the attacker, dealing loads of damage instantaneously.” Neptune’s explanation cleared up any confusion Gu Ding had on how this ability worked.

After the bloodied Ulrif had been attacked by Lancelot for close to ten minutes, his body was trembling, but he still stood tall. No matter what Lancelot did to him, he did not fall.

On the other hand, Lancelot was growing increasingly impatient. He had a feeling of dread that there was something off about the situation as the other party was also a Rank 8 Gene Body like himself. Moreover, he had only just entered the Rank 8 Gene Body. For the opponent to have no way to retaliate, logically speaking, this was a little suspicious. After not being able to make his opponent fall after ages of fighting, his suspicion that the opponent was baiting him into attacking grew stronger.

With this thought in mind, he secretly summoned a few vines which were hidden beneath the sand and attacked the weakest of the group, Liliath. He already decided to stop his tussle with Ulrif. As for the Interstellar Pirates present, he would kill as many as he could before going down.

The moment the vines appeared, Gu Ding seemed to see Lex move slightly, and all the vines splintered in an instant. “What did your captain just do?”

“Our captain is a swordsman. Apart from that, he has a special ability—speed,” Alcher said simply, not giving a detailed explanation on this ability.

“Speed ability. He can increase his speed as well as lower the speed of other things within a certain range.” Neptune provided Gu Ding an explanation. “This is an advanced ability and is exceptionally difficult to awaken. What you saw just now was him speeding up his movement sevenfold while simultaneously decreasing the speed of the vines’ sevenfold before he sliced the vines into pieces in an instant.”

As none of Lancelot’s attack seemed to be hitting his intended target, he finally realized that in this group, the strongest was not the guy he was stuck in battle with, but someone else. He recognized the magnitude of danger that the other party posed from just a single display of their abilities. He looked somewhat cautiously at Lex. The power that the other party displayed earlier was a sign of already being at the peak of Rank 8 Gene Body. He was no weaker than the Army’s colonel general-level powerhouses.

Having witnessed Lex’s power, Gu Ding was slightly relieved. With him to protect Liliath, there would probably not be any issues regarding her safety.

After eliminating the threat to Liliath, Lex slowly stood up and turned around, his gaze landing on Lancelot. “You’re dead!”

“Muscle Man, this is my battle!” Ulrif’s head did not even turn, but he seemed to sense Lex’s killing intent, so he opened his mouth to deter him from interfering.

“I’ll give you three minutes final. If you don’t get rid of this bastard by then, I’ll personally take his head.” After saying this, Lex turned away, smiling yet again at Liliath. “Little girl, I’ll chase off these bad uncles for you.”

Liliath looked at Gu Ding helplessly, then seemed to think of something. “Uncle, are you guys also going to where the superweapons are?”

“That’s right. Uncle is going to challenge Sharp to make himself stronger!” Lex nodded.

“You guys didn’t come for the superweapons?” Gu Ding looked at Alcher.

“Although our team isn’t weak, the difficulty of obtaining something like that is still a little too high for us. We have self-awareness in this regard. Boss’s main purpose of coming this time is to challenge the Army’s general, Sharp, to increase his understanding of swordsmanship as well as increase our exposure in the media,” Alcher explained patiently. He glanced at Gu Ding and expressed a sincere opinion. “I think with your strength at its the current level, it’s best you don’t make this trip. There are many Rank 9 and even Rank 10 Gene Body powerhouses who have their eyes on these superweapons. There’s no way the two of you can get your hands on them.”

“I didn’t want to be involved either. But in some instances, it doesn’t matter what you want.” Gu Ding shook his head and smiled bitterly.

Shortly after, Liliath made a request to Lex. “Uncle, bring us to the superweapons!”