...
Shin continued running down the mountain while fighting the enemies that were trying to obstruct his path.
His speed was quite fast, but his pursuers were not that slow either. And given the fact that there were a lot of them swarming in every direction, he had to slow down a little to properly deal with them.
Boom!
Bang! Bang!
While he was running, he could hear the loud explosions from the distance, which gave him a rough idea of how intense the battle between Old Man Roger and Coffin Maker was.
As he ran, Shin suddenly thought of something and quickly removed the communication device from the lobule off his ear and attached it behind his ear instead. Even though such a small item could easily be overlooked, it would never hurt to be extra careful.
The device had a built-in tracking feature, so John could always keep track of their location. Even if they were to enter a place with an isolation barrier, recording the coordinates where the signal was last seen could help a lot in finding the general area of the base of the opposing side.
As he was about to reach the bottom of the mountain, Shin suddenly sensed an immense threat coming from the front.
He did not hesitate even for a moment and abruptly halted his steps and jumped to the side. And right after he did that, something flew past his previous location. When glanced at it, he saw a two-meter spear with a pitch-black color.
Bang!
An explosion erupted behind him, throwing dust and rock fragments to be thrown in the air.
He did not have the time to check how strong the impact was since there was a swooshing sound coming from ahead and charging straight at him with unstoppable momentum.
Shin grabbed the hilt of the black Kanata without any hesitation and quickly unsheathed it and swung forward.
Shing!
Bang!
In the next instant, another black spear arrived before colliding with the black katana, producing a strong shockwave upon impact.
Shin raised his brows as he was pushed skidding back. He put additional strength on his arm and forced the spear away from him. It flew in the air and flipped a couple of times before landing on the hand of a young man.
Shin already noticed the presence of this person since the first attack earlier and knew that his current strength was inferior to the latter.
"Middle phase of Ethereal Opening Stage at the very least, late phase at the very most," he muttered as he observed this newcomer.
It was a young man that seemed to be a few years older than him. From what he could guess, this guy should be at least the same age as David and Shiella.
The young man was wearing a pair of glasses which made him look like an intelligent person. Coupled with the laboratory gown that he was wearing, most people would think that it was most likely the case.
But contrary to his appearance, the aura dangerous aura that was coming from him clearly indicated that he was someone who was not new in combat. At the very least, he should be a veteran fighter based on his aura alone.
The young man stretched his left hand forward before a suction force came out from it. It did not generate a strong force that could pull everything toward him. Instead, it only affected the black spear that he had thrown earlier.
Swoosh!
After catching the spear, he rested it over his shoulder while the other one was pointed at the ground as he gently gripped it.
He then looked at Shin and muttered. "I don't know who you are, but since you are already here, you can forget about coming down the mountain."
It was at that moment when Shin noticed the bloodstains on the laboratory gown and on the face of the young man. He could also see the nameplate attached to it as the latter did not bother to hide anything.
"Shaun Livingstone," muttered Shin. He seemed to be talking to himself, but he was actually informing John about the name of the young man.
The latter quickly get into work and started tapping consciously on the keyboard, looking for relevant information about the young man from their database.
Not long after, the results immediately came out and John summarized and read it to Shin. "Shaun Livingstone – previously a second-year college student and studying in the Magic Ace Academy."
"He is from the Science Research Department under the World Research Center. Based on the data that we have, he seemed to be a genius student that is one of the promising figures that will potentially join the research center once he graduated."
"But he was immediately outshined by his younger brother, who was an accelerated student in the Magic Ace Academy and also the current president of the Student Council, Silver Livingstone."
"He suddenly disappeared after a certain incident during one of the field activities of the academy. He has been reported missing and could not be found for almost a year since that incident alongside a couple of students and researchers."
"Who would have thought that he is actually in here? Is he from the organization? Or did he become a part of it just recently?"
Shin hid his mouth behind his arm, pretending to wipe away the sweat under his nose, before whispering. "Report it to the others. I think he will be an important clue for this case."
After that, he suddenly disappeared from his current location and reappeared a few distance away. And quickly after his feet touched the ground, an explosion suddenly erupted in his previous location.
Bang!
"You are quite fast on your feet, huh?" commented Shaun as he walked forward in a casual manner before picking up the spear that he had just thrown.
He squinted his eyes and stared at Shin dangerously before asking. "Who are you? Where did you come from? Who sent you? What is your purpose in coming here?"
He asked those questions but did not expect any answer. He could roughly guess about it already. "Are you from the academy? Or did the military send you?"
"You don't actually have to answer since your purpose is obviously to look for us either way," he added before quickly kicking the ground and charging forward.
Shin drew a circle in the air with the tip of his sword as mental energy was released from it. And when he was done, he gently pushed with his other hand while channeling more energy into it.
Within an instant, a thick wall of mental energy appeared in front of him.
Bang!
Shaun raised his brows a little as he saw that the tip of his spear was being blocked by the wall of mental energy. He stared at Shin, who was standing on the other side, and muttered. "Such a dense mental energy. Just how much purity does it have to be able to solidify to such a degree?"
He was clear about the strength of his opponent. This unknown young man should be at least in the early to middle phase of the Grandmaster Realm, which was underneath him when it came to energy, strength, and power.
But after having a closer look at the Mental Energy that Shin was releasing, Shaun quickly noticed some of its peculiarities that it had. He instantly knew that the grade in Mental Energy was beyond the ones that he had encountered before.
He then stared smiling sinisterly as he realized that he caught a big fish this time. He then commanded the others. "Leave this one to me. Chase after the other guy and don't let him reach the bottom of the mountain."
The others did not hesitate and quickly disappeared as they ran toward the direction where Leonard was.
Shaun was thinking that since this guy in front of him had a peculiar mental energy, then the other person who was with him earlier would most likely be the same. He could not help but become overjoyed when thought about it.
"The professor will be overjoyed when he learns about this! This will surely accelerate the pace of our plan!" he muttered, not caring whether Shin had heard him or not.
In his eyes, there was no way for Shin to escape since he was already there. He did not believe that this person would be able to run away from him given the gap between their strengths.
Shin, on the other hand, could not help but knit his brows a little when he heard those words. It turned out that their suspicions were right. These guys were doing research here in the mountains and required them some talented individuals to experiment on or something similar.
When he thought about it, a dangerous idea suddenly crossed his mind. He was thinking about letting himself get captured and be dragged to their main base.
It will take quite some time for them to figure out the main location of this mysterious organization. And they did not know if these guys would still be in there when they arrive, especially now that the opposing side was already aware of their activities.
Compared to that, if he purposely let himself be taken away, he would be able to infiltrate their base while also giving John and the others the general direction to figure out the main location of the opposing side.
After a quick thought, Shin finally decided to take the risk. 'But before that, I first have to put up some resistance, so that this guy will not suspect my intention.'
...…
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶