Two in the afternoon, outskirts of Jingdu city.
Having suffered a punctured tire, a container truck was forced to make a stop at the side of the road to Bailu Town. A burly driver emerged from the vehicle and began to change the tire. His pace, however, was excruciatingly slow.
The truck was not transporting any sort of stock. It was carrying humans. All of them were fighters clad in sturdy bulletproof vests armed with American weapons. They were the elites of the FA Organization.
At a distance of two hundred metres behind the truck, a bunch of people hid in the small patch of forests. They were the elites of the Hattori clan. The operation was executed in daylight, forcing the Japanese fighters to change their dark stealth clothes to camouflage wear. Some blended into the tall grasses while the others camouflaged themselves as trees. While they were not armed with firepower, the Hattori clan fighters were still capable of long-distance attacks due to their strong crossbows. The shooting range of the crossbows offered did not pale in comparison to firearms. Aside from that, the tip of the arrows was laced with lethal poison. One drop was enough to kill its intended target in seconds.
Everyone was waiting for Xia Lei’s returning convoy from the wedding venue to the Thunder Horse Organization. As soon as the convoy enters the radius of their ambush ring, they would end the battle within two minutes. With their powerful firepower, it was no doubt that they could easily accomplish that.
In a further spot, located on a slight hill about three hundred metres away, was Sirita. The woman laid flat in the middle of a grass patch. Without careful observation, it was almost impossible to notice her presence.
In her grip was a custom Barrett sniper rifle that provided a shooting range of one thousand and five hundred metres. Combined with her skills, Sirita could hit a one-yuan coin within three hundred metres. As long as Xia Lei’s convoy was forced to stop, Sirita was confident that she could destroy Xia Lei.
There was a photograph on the side of the sniper rifle. Inside of it was a younger Sirita who had her arms around another woman’s shoulder. The woman was taller and bigger, it was Dark Mona.
“Dark Mona… I swear I’ll avenge you. Just a little bit more and you’ll be able to see him in the afterlife. I promise you that.” Sirita mumbled to no one.
Abruptly, light rustling came from behind her.
Sirita alertly flipped over, instantly pulling out her Desert Eagle from its holster and aimed.
An old man emerged from behind a tree. Nonchalantly, he warned, “Be careful, you wouldn’t want to misfire now.”
It was Hattori Hyakusai, the guardian of the Hattori clan. He was probably the only person who had enough stealth to come this close before Sirita’s knowledge. If it were to be anyone else, the poor soul would probably learn of his proximity the moment their skull hit the ground.
Sirita kept away the gun. “You should be at your station. Why are you here?”
Hattori Hyakusai replied calmly, “Xia Lei is not an easy match. We need to cooperate to get rid of him.”
Sirita raised an eyebrow. “I admit Xia Lei is a difficult opponent but you exaggerate. As long as his convoy stops, I’ll be able to lock my aim and pull the trigger.”
“You’re oversimplifying the problem. If Xia Lei was that easy to kill, he would have been dead ten times over. But after everything, Xia Lei is still living and well. Were you involved in the Dawang operation to assassinate Xia Lei? My young master had brought the elite ninjas of the Hattori clan to battle alongside Special forces from the US Navy SEALs and CIA agents, totalling up to more than one hundred involved. None of them survived the battle. Let’s not forget that Xia Lei killed my young master during the battle at the border of India and Pakistan. Do not underestimate this man.” Hattori Hyakusai’s tone was stern.
“I’m a sniper and you’re a ninja. I kill with sniper rifles and you kill with swords. I need to be away from the battle by three hundred metres. How are we supposed to work together?” Sirita cast Hyakusai a cold mocking smirk.
The old man made a move to remove the seemingly ancient longbow off his shoulder. Offering no explanation, he picked out an arrow from the quiver and steadied it on the weapon. Following that, he widened his stance and pulled at the string. The exertion made the veins on the back of his palm pop, his supporting feet on the grass driving itself deeper into the substrate.
Sirita watched Hyakusai in shock. The demonstration alone had made it clear that this was no ordinary bow. Drawing the bow required impeccable strength. Even if Mike Tyson was challenged to draw an arrow from this longbow at the peak of his career, he probably wouldn’t even achieve Hattori Hyakusai’s performance!
Twang! The string was released and the arrow was sent into a raged flurry.
The arrow flew parabolically in the air and then stuck itself onto the door of the container truck.
Sirita quickly went over to the sniper scope of her Barrett rifle, taken aback by the surprising sight. The arrow was completely plunged into the car door, leaving only the feathered end visible from the outside.
The FA fighter tossed a glance in their direction and shrugged, surprised at the sudden intrusion in the middle of his tyre change. Perhaps the man was trying to express his annoyance.
Sirita returned her attention to Hattori Hyakusai. “Why do you not use guns?”
Hattori Hyakusai mused, “Depending on them would make one complacent. Ultimately, it weakens their ability. Aside from that, ancient weapons can achieve the same performance as guns. Might I say, sometimes better even.” His sentence fell and Hyakusai produced another three arrows from the quiver, each with cone-shaped explosive units. The metal surface seemed to be coated with something, probably dangerous toxin.
It was only then that Sirita relented. “Very well, let’s work together. But you need to pick another location. Once they locate us, we’ll be within the shooting range of their Gust assault rifle. That rifle can shoot at a radius of a kilometre and we’re only three hundred metres away from the road.”
Hattori Hyakusai nodded silently, quickly disappearing towards a big tree.
Sirita watched him approach the tree. With an effortless leap, the old man placed himself on top of a branch two meters from the ground.
It took him a few more climbs to completely disappear into the lush green crown.
Sirita scoffed under her breath. “Don’t take me for a dummy, I know what you’re up to. After I get rid of Xia Lei, you’ll kill me and my people. The responsibility of this operation will be shifted onto the FA Organization while you and the Americans will feign innocence. Anyone who tries to make the FA their cannon fodder will get their payback.”
The woman returned to her position among the grass, watching the road through the sniper scope of her weapon. She waited patiently for the appearance of Xia Lei’s returning convoy.
The container truck that would act as a road obstruction carried two Minigun multi-barreled heavy machine guns. Once Xia Lei’s convoy entered their radius, the container doors would open and allow the machine gunners inside to fire at them. Under the cover of the machine gun’s fire, the assaulters hidden inside the container would spring to action. They would be tasked with cleaning up the targets. At that time, Xia Lei’s last resort would be to reverse his vehicle to safety. However, what awaits him in the forest a distance away was the Hattori clan fighters. Even if Xia Lei was lucky enough to escape the first two rounds of attacks, Sirita and Hattori Hyakusai would be waiting for him.
This was the collaborative assassination masterplan that the Hattori clan and the FA had concocted together. Judging by the scale of firepower and personnel involved, their determination to kill Xia Lei was outright obvious.
“The convoy has appeared! They’re going at fifty miles per hour.” A masculine voice rang through the communicator. He was the planted informant outside the ambush ring, located approximately two kilometres away.
“Got it!” Sirita asked, “Did you see Xia Lei?”
“Yes, he’s in the bridal car in the middle of the convoy.”
“What about his woman?”
“In the same car,” said the informant.
“How many people are armed in his convoy?” questioned Sirita.
“I spot no one with weapons and all the cars are regular models. None of them is made to be bulletproof.”
“Very well, continue to keep an eye out on the situation.” Sirita quickly instructed, “Everyone, standby. The target has appeared! ETA five minutes.”
“Roger!” A round of responses erupted from the communicator.
Sirita inhaled deeply, picking up the photograph of her and Dark Mona. She gave it a kiss and stuffed it deep into the pocket of her shirt.
On the tree, Hattori Hyakusai picked up another communicator. He whispered silently into the device, “The battle has ended, retreat.”
The FA members were targets to the Hattori clan fighters and Sirita was Hyakusai’s target. This was the main reason why he had suggested they work together.
With Xia Lei dead, what was the point of leaving the FA members alive?
Two minutes later, a convoy appeared on their horizon. The leading vehicle was a Ford Raptor, which was driven by Lu Sheng. Trailing behind the Ford Raptor was a long line of vehicles. Surprisingly, there weren’t any luxurious sports cars in sight. The worth of this convoy made it seem implausible to be for the wedding of the Thunder Horse Organization’s director, it was extremely commoner-like.
One word to describe Xia Lei’s wedding convoy was humble. It was ridiculously humble.
At that moment, something weird happened out of the blue. The convoy stopped before it even came near to the patch of forest. Before anyone could make sense of the situation, two domestic produced Great Wall H9 off-road vehicles stopped beside Lu Sheng’s vehicle to form a steel wall.
On the road, the tyre-changing FA member lifted his head to study the situation. On his side, the container doors rattled faintly, but the action was quick to stop.
Lu Sheng exited the car, careful to not expose his body. Both drivers of the Great Wall H9 did the same. They exited the vehicle body to open up the boot. To everyone’s utmost bewilderment, the boot was filled to the brim with almost every weapon Thunder Horse Organization had produced. There was the XL2500, the Gust assault rifle and even the Hell-bound One Soldier Cannon!
“This is a trap!” Hattori Hyakusai roared urgently as he watched the scene unfold with his telescope. “That bastard is aware of our plan!”
“How?” Sirita couldn’t believe what she was hearing. In fact, she didn’t wish to acknowledge the fact.
“The people stationed on the road cannot escape. Have them attack and distract them while everyone else retreats!” Hattori Hyakusai leapt off the tree.
Sirita tossed a pointed glare at Hattori Hyakusai, gritting her teeth. She screamed into her communicator, “Charge!”
The container doors opened to reveal two men behind the double Minigun multi-barrel heavy machine gun.
Before they could even pull the trigger, a Sweeper infantry fighting vehicle came roaring out of the sugar cane field by the road. Without pausing for a moment, the vehicle delivered a truckload of Hell-bound One Soldier Cannon artillery to the container truck!