Bang bang bang…
Rat-tat-tat-tat…
The snow swirled, and bullet after bullet went through the cold air, roaring past the snowflakes to strike at where they landed. Trees, tiles, glass, the wind chime hanging under the eaves, and human flesh.
Most of the deaths were of the thugs Gu Kewen had hired. They charged at Long Bing like a flock of sheep trying to battle with a lion. The Gust assault rifle in Long Bing’s hands was better than a sniper rifle. The recoil was almost zero, and the range was not anything her poor opponents would be able to win against with handguns. She was also much more versed when it came to battle experience. The thugs usually bullied normal folk, so they were no threat at all to an elite agent of China’s Bureau 101. After the blast of gunfire ceased and they awoke from their terror, they found the ground littered with over a dozen bodies.
Red blood stained the pure snow, chilling the heart upon sight.
“Shit! Fuck! Who are these people?!” The leader of the thugs was going crazy. He hid behind a wall, his eyes filled with terror.
“Boss… let’s run away!” The thug’s voice shook. “We’ve been duped! There’s no way we can get that money. We’ll die here!”
“You get the car!” roared the leader. “We’ll cover you!”
The thug talking to the leader nodded, and got ready to charge/
“Kill that bitch!” yelled the leader. He raised his arm and shot in Long Bing’s direction.
Bang bang bang…
Bang bang bang…
The gunshots rang out, and bullets went flying towards Long Bing.
The thug going for the car took a deep breath, and dashed from his hiding place, towards the parking space in front of Heart of Oshino.
Pew! He’d only just emerged from his hiding place when a bullet came zooming over, creating a cavity in his head. His corpse fell to the ground, and rolled for several metres. The blood splattered on the snow behind the corpse, like cherry blossoms on the snowy mountain.
The leader froze. He did not fire his gun.
At that moment, a bullet came zooming over to strike him in the right wrist he had extended from the wall. The instant the bullet went through his wrist, his flesh exploded and his bones shattered. A strong arm was suddenly reduced by half!
“Argh–” Intense pain rolled over him, and the leader lost his balance. He fell over.
Pew! Another bullet came flying, going through the head which had just poked out from behind the wall. A part of his skull was instantly missing, and blood and brain matter splattered. Uncountable little lumps and little dots, all over.
Hundreds of metres away, a cold smile appeared on Long Bing’s lips. “This was for looking at my chest.”
This thug leader had been killed so ruthlessly because he had looked at her with perverted eyes, but the man who had kissed her breasts was still happily alive.
Nothing was fair in this world.
On the other side, up on the hill, was another situation.
The gunmen who had turned up were not many, but every one of them were trained elite, and had training which was not inferior to that of a US Marine. He had only killed two, but each shot he made had drawn fierce fire. He did not have enough distance, and it was just him and a gun, with no way to fight back. The gunmen also had very good armour, and were willing to die for their duty. Xia Lei had no other choice than to retreat to somewhere further up.
Gunfire sounded behind him, and bullets flew through the forest like locusts.
“How is it over there?” came Long Bing’s voice over the communications device.
“It’s okay. These guys are hot on my tail. They have superior firepower but I can pick them off one by one once I get some distance,” said Xia Lei. “You have to be careful about Gu Kewen and that woman. She’s very skilled!”
“You saw her?”
“I did… Hello?”
The sound from the communications device was abruptly cut off.
Xia Lei’s heart sank. The enemy had blocked out wireless communications in the area. What they did cut off not just the communication between himself and Long Bing, but also cut off the residents from alerting the police.
Gunfights had happened in this area, so if anyone called the police, it wouldn’t just be the police turning up but the Defence Forces too!
‘Is she going after Long Bing?’ Xia Lei halted in his tracks at that thought. He looked at the village below him, but trees were blocking his view. He could not see Long Bing.
Bang bang bang!
A spray of bullets came in Xia Lei’s direction all of a sudden and several trees were shaken violently, throwing snow to the ground.
Someone down below shouted in a language Xia Lei did not know. He did not understand, but he knew that that person was telling his colleagues of their target’s position. There was no way he was going to be able to cover all of his tracks in the snow, and there was no need to use sniffer-dogs to search for him to follow him. There was no way to shake them off!
Xia Lei looked at the XL2500 in his hands. He regretted it now. He should have brought two Gust assault rifles. The Gust assault rifle would have been much more effective in this short-distance shooting than a sniper rifle.
Below the forest, over a dozen gunmen in full military-grade gear formed pairs and fanned out to surround him.
Right ahead was a cliff, dozens of metres high and at an angle of nearly 90 degree. Even professional climbers would take half an hour to go up this cliff face, but Xia Lei could do it in an estimated ten minutes. Ten minutes – he could be shot full of holes before he made it to the top!
It was a dead-end ahead, and he had pursuers behind him. Communications had been cut off too. Xia Lei was in despair.
“Surrender!” A voice suddenly came from below. The person was shouting in English. “You can’t escape!”
Xia Lei understood him now, and he pressed himself against a tree trunk. He stretched the muzzle of the XL2500 out from behind the tree and looked out. Two seconds later, he spotted the man who had shouted out to him with his X-ray vision. It was a white gunman, with paint across his face. He looked as strong as an ox.
The gunman who had shouted was very sly. He had gone behind a tree trunk after shouting out, and hid himself. He seemed to sense Xia Lei aiming at him, and he hid before Xia Lei shot at him.
Xia Lei wrinkled his brows. This man must have had a lot of combat training. Just one was difficult enough to deal with – multiply by dozens and it was much worse. This team they had formed was entirely enough to launch a raid in a small country, or head an attack.
“Who are you guys?” Xia Lei shouted down at them after a bit of silence. “Why do you want to kill me?”
“You will know, but it is not time yet,” replied the white man who had shouted. “Surrender. I can guarantee that no one will harm you. Your companion too. We can let her go.”
“Are you CIA?”
“CIA? Hahaha! You’re comparing us to that garbage?” The white gunman laughed, then stuck half his head out from behind the tree trunk to look up at Xia Lei.
Xia Lei squeezed the trigger in that instant.
A bullet came charging angrily out from the muzzle of the XL2500, and in almost the same instant, the head of the white gunman who had poked his head out was blasted apart. Blood and brain matter splattered in all directions.
Surrender?
This was Xia Lei’s response!
Bang bang bang…
Rat-tat-tat-tat...
Gunfire rang out from below, and bullets came like rain. The trees by Xia Lei splintered, and the trunk he was hiding behind was rapidly diminished.
Peng!
A strange sound rang out.
Xia Lei tensed abruptly when he heard that sound, then dived to the side. He used the momentum of his lunge to roll further away.
BOOM! A grenade exploded where Xia Lei had been hiding earlier. The tree was blasted by the explosion and it fell to the ground.
Xia Lei rolled to his feet and brought the XL2500 up to his shoulder. He took the handgun from his waist and started dashing into the lower parts of the forest.
If these gunmen wanted close combat, then he was going to give them close combat!
Bang bang bang…
Bullets fell like rain and the gunfire echoed out in the mountain forest. These gunmen could not see Xia Lei in the dark forest but they were equipped with night-vision equipment. What was a bigger threat was their battle experience and their battle reactions. They could discern Xia Lei’s position from the sounds of his movement, and send bullets after him to claim his life.
However, Xia Lei was just too quick – quick as a beast in the forest!
Additionally, these gunmen had not expected that Xia Lei would bring the fight to them, and charge towards them. This looked entirely like a suicide charge to them!
But they quickly found that they had been wrong.
The inky black forest was as clear as day in Xia Lei’s eyes. He could see everything clearly, be it the positions of the gunmen firing at him, the trees close to them and the trees close to himself. More importantly, his brain was whirring and analysing everything which his left eye saw. The distances of the gunmen, their locations and the distances between the trees were all being calculated and analysed, even including how many times each gunman had fired, and how many bullets they had left!
Of course, the most important was still his speed. His body was also working at its limit – Tang Qinggong, Wing Chun techniques… He was like a cheetah, speeding down the mountain, flashing from tree to tree like a ghost, and dodging the bullets which came at him.
Bang!
A gunshot.
A gunman who had been reloading his gun was falling to the ground. His eyes were wide as he saw Xia Lei go by like the wind. He did not see the hole in his forehead, and he did not believe that it was true even up till he died.
As his body hit the ground, spasming, his teammate met the same fate. He was shot through the head by Xia Lei at close distance!