792: Chapter 783: Who is the Hunter 792: Chapter 783: Who is the Hunter Gao Yang’s gunstock was hit by a bullet at its very edge, leaving a nick.
It didn’t require much deduction to know that the old Tuareg man hadn’t made a mistake in direction nor had he chased in the wrong direction; he had set a trap for Gao Yang.
Gao Yang had set a trap for the Old Fox, and the Old Fox had turned it around on him.
Putting himself in his enemy’s shoes, Gao Yang still greatly admired the Old Fox’s technique.
By then, Gao Yang was sure that after seeing the body and ruling out Mines and checking the tracks, the Old Fox knew he was hiding nearby.
Although he had excellent camouflage and precise gunmanship, if the Old Fox couldn’t be sure of his position and started searching immediately, Gao Yang could have left quietly, but more likely, he would have seized the opportunity to fire a shot.
If Gao Yang were in the Old Fox’s position, he would never agree to search when he might face a hidden, sharp shooter; it would be pointless and dangerous.
Instead, he would leave and find a way to lure the enemy out.
So, the Old Fox had left voluntarily, not searching at all.
After traveling in the wrong direction for a while, he quickly hid, ready to shoot the prey that walked into the trap.
Gao thought he was the hunter, but many times, it was hard to tell who the hunter was and who the prey was.
Gao thought the old Tuareg man was very cunning, and the old man most likely thought the same of Gao.
They both saw each other as extremely dangerous, yet they were both confident in their abilities.
Thus, each of them considered himself the hunter and saw the other as a cunning and dangerous prey.
Who was the hunter and who was the prey could only be determined by the one who survived.
As for now, Gao consciously put himself in the role of the prey, one foot in the trap, but fortunately, like a cunning prey, he sensed the danger in time and didn’t step fully into the trap.
Dragging the barrel of his gun, Gao quickly crawled forward, unaware of how far away the enemy was since he hadn’t been fully focused, so he couldn’t estimate the enemy’s approximate distance.
Gao didn’t know if the Old Fox had realized that he had only hit a false target.
If the Old Fox had figured it out, Gao’s situation was still extremely dangerous.
But if the Old Fox thought he had killed him, Gao could even ambush the Old Fox there and then.
A trap wasn’t just a crisis; it could also turn into an opportunity.
Such was the nature of things.
Gao had only heard one gunshot.
If another shot was fired, it would mean the enemy realized he hadn’t killed him.
If he heard footsteps, it could mean the enemy thought he was dead, and Gao could launch a counter-ambush.
But the problem was, Gao had neither heard more gunshots nor footsteps—it seemed as if the Old Fox who set the trap didn’t care about the prey that had sprung it after firing just one shot.
Gao found it puzzling.
If he had set this trap, he would have made sure to use all his men, at least setting up an ambush circle, but the Old Fox seemed not to do so.
For an experienced veteran, it seemed unlikely to overlook such a simple issue, or to make such an obvious mistake.
After crawling quickly for a while, Gao still hadn’t heard any more gunshots.
Completely baffled, Gao couldn’t help but guess that the Old Fox was extremely eager to finish him off personally, thereby keeping everyone else out of the ambush, coming alone to end everything.
Gao quickly dismissed this possibility because it was unlikely for personal heroics to manifest in a veteran who had survived numerous battles.
People with strong personal heroics tended to die quickly; they hardly had a chance to become an old man.
Just then, Gao heard footsteps.
As he crawled forward, he saw a Tuareg man running towards him.
As the runner rounded a bush and made eye contact with Gao, they drew their guns almost simultaneously.
There was no doubt about who would draw faster, especially since Gao was lying on the ground, and the Tuareg man was standing.
Gao shot down the Tuareg man, who was less than twenty meters away, face-to-face.
After firing a shot, Gao didn’t have time to think.
He stood up and started running.
It was only after he started running that he heard furious shouting behind him.
Looking at the position of the man who had been killed, Gao Yang thought of a possibility.
He understood why the Old Fox had not set up a circular ambush, because the Old Fox had actually set up an ambush line to increase the probability of discovering him.
Gao Yang knew that the Old Fox was the main decision-maker among the Tuareg people, so he could now confidently conclude that the Old Fox was an extremely confident man.
The Old Fox had great confidence in his own and a few other Tuareg people’s gunmanship, so he had deployed his men along a line to utilize a larger observation area with an ambush line.
Although Gao Yang didn’t know if the shooter was the Old Fox himself, he had to admit that the person who had fired was indeed very accurate.
After firing, the discoverer stayed where he was, allowing others from different positions to quickly converge.
Even if the first shot hadn’t killed him, there was a great chance of completely surrounding him.
Unfortunately for them, while Gao Yang feared ambushes, he was never afraid of facing someone in a gunfight.
He might not be able to dodge a shot in the dark, but when it came to shooting face-to-face, Gao Yang had never lost.
Having triggered a trap but relying on his superior gunmanship to forcefully break through the encirclement, Gao Yang no longer wanted to stay.
All he wanted now was to flee far away, and before he could drink water, he wouldn’t consider dealing with the Old Fox anymore.
It had been proven that although the number of Tuareg people was dwindling, those remaining were all elite.
And after eliminating the weaker members, though fewer in number, the few more experienced and better-coordinated individuals posed a greater threat.
Gao Yang now regarded the remaining men as qualified to be called old Tuareg men, and that Old Fox, who he greatly dreaded, should be called a super Tuareg elder.
Determined to rely on his young, fit body to definitively shake off the few Tuareg elders, Gao Yang had no more superfluous thoughts; he just kept his head down and ran.
While not very fast, he was certainly fast enough to outpace the elders, who definitely had less stamina and endurance than him.
After running for an hour straight, Gao Yang took a big turn and headed towards the river.
As he ran, he noticed that the trees around him were getting sparser.
After running a bit further, the terrain shifted mainly to a mix of forests and shrubs.
In areas dominated by shrubs which offered a clearer view, Gao Yang could still see the small hill.
Knowing that he was not far from the river, Gao Yang sped up his steps.
When he finally heard the faint sound of flowing water, he discovered a dense thicket of thorny bushes ahead.
Gao Yang knew he had reached the border between the forest and the grassland again.
Such thorny bushes wouldn’t appear in the forest but only grew in the grasslands.
Although called bushes, they were denser than ordinary shrubs.
Looking out from the base of the thorny bushes, Gao Yang could barely see anything clearly.
He randomly chose a direction, attempting to bypass the thicket of thorns.
The thorny thicket covered a vast area.
As he ran by, the sound of flowing water grew fainter.
Eager to drink, Gao Yang finally reached the edge of the thicket.
When the landscape opened up before him, revealing a grassland, Gao Yang continued running until he reached the edge of the thorny thicket again, ready to change direction to head towards the river.
Gao Yang turned left, but suddenly, he stopped in his tracks.
Gao Yang’s mind went blank.
There was a vast open area in front of him.
About three hundred meters away, he could see a river, and across the river, there were over a dozen vehicles.
At the parking spot, some people were walking into the river, while on this side, there were already at least thirty to forty people standing.
Gao Yang reacted quickly.
He immediately ducked back behind the thorny bushes.
But just as he was retreating, he saw a black man pointing at him and shouting loudly.
He had barely shown his face when he was discovered.
Filled with indescribable grief and anger, Gao Yang could only turn around and run back.
He hadn’t run far when Gao Yang heard intense gunfire.
As he lay on the ground, he saw the branches of the thorny bushes behind him continuously being broken by bullets, and the leaves were flying everywhere.
12.7 mm machine guns, 7.62 mm machine guns, and rifles, the sounds of various guns firing never ceased.
Gao Yang, who had been hoping to lure Captain Sadik back, now felt tearfully helpless.
He wasn’t afraid to draw Captain Sadik back, but only if it wasn’t in a sudden encounter with the enemy.
Moreover, even if they encountered the enemy, he at least wished he could have had a drink of water.
Soon, Gao Yang realized that the situation was getting dire because he heard footsteps, and they were too numerous.
Captain Sadik had finally arrived with his men, and they quickly caught up to Gao Yang.
Although Gao Yang was profoundly upset about his luck, the arrival of the men wasn’t entirely bad news; at least the relentless machine gun fire had stopped.
The machine gun was just blindly firing into the thorny bushes, but luckily it didn’t hit him, so Gao Yang had no choice but to crawl on the ground.
When a large group of men ran over, the machine gun had to stop firing to prevent friendly fire, and at last Gao Yang could stand up and run.
Left with no other choice, Gao Yang could only run back along the edge of the thorny thicket.
Not long ago, he had been relieved to have finally left the annoying forest, but now he only regretted why he wasn’t in the forest.
He couldn’t enter the thorny thicket; going in would leave him bloody and tangled in the bushes with no alternatives, and he was still two to three hundred meters away from the edge of the forest.
Gao Yang seriously doubted whether he could make it back into the woods in time.(To be continued.
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