Pfoo…
Garen took a deep breath before exhaling it slowly.
“Come and look quickly, that’s a Black Cloud Level Advanced Mech!!” the sound of joyful childish squeals echoed behind him suddenly.
“Hmm?”
Garen turned his head and looked at a group of passing school children on the road who were looking fervently at the gigantic Mechs here now. All of them were clearly fanatical Mech enthusiasts.
However, their initially enthusiastic expressions froze instantly when they saw him turn his head suddenly.
A few elementary school students who were carrying their bags took a few steps back when they were scared off by his “fierce” face.
“So… So cool!! No wonder he’s the man who can pilot the Black Cloud!!” said a little boy loudly while pointing at him.
“Little guys…” Garen opened his mouth and smile. However, his smile clearly made him look fiercer, vaguely making it seem as if he was sneering ferociously.
“Run, quick!!” the group of school children scattered and disappeared without a trace instantly.
Garen stroked his face wordlessly. No wonder Vera had shrunk so fearfully even though he had just said a few words to her. Apparently, he had grown an extremely deterrent face without even realizing.
“I should continue patrolling…” Garen exhaled and got into his cockpit again.
Time ticked by slowly. His Potential Points continued to accumulate but Garen did not plan on using them. His greatest problem now was his lack of a solid foundation. After completing his tasks every day, he would hone particular aspects of the Crouched Eagle Talon’s Training Methods as well as the functions and means of response to their various Techniques.
His patrolling days passed day by day. Every day fell into the same old schedule and he would inspect the condition of his team members’ tasks. In reality, Garen would just choose the patrol areas of a random team member to observe. He would be too lazy to visit the others. Therefore, most of his time was spent on the heavy platform by the river where he would rest and enjoy the cool breeze while breathing in the fresh air.
The elementary and junior high school students who passed by when they were either going to or leaving school daily would always give him a calming atmosphere.
As time passed, Garen’s understanding of the Crouched Eagle Talon’s abilities allowed him to catch up to the other advanced students in the Eagle’s Nest quickly. The initial lack of foundation that was caused by his speedy upgrades was offset quickly.
More than ten days passed in the blink of an eye.
The weather gradually turned colder. Although the faint morning sunlight was still present, the temperature had definitely lowered. The sunlight could not be felt even when it was shining down on his body directly.
Garen stood beside the heavy platform as usual and gazed at the faraway scenery.
Beep beep, beep beep…
The noise of a ringing phone call could be sounded from his watch slowly.
He pressed it to answer the call.
“I’ve found some information about your little brother,” Celine’s first words gave Garen a jolt. “Nothing out of the ordinary. He was pulled aside by the big explosion by the river. Also, he may have been involved with the White Light Terrorist Organization so you’ll need to be prepared.”
“In other words, both of these events are actually the same thing?” Garen furrowed his eyebrows.
“That may be the case. Although the superiors have released the ten of your patrol team members all over that region to capture the Red-White Mech, no one is actually expecting you to seize it. From the information I gathered, you just need to find an extremely dilapidated, pieced together black Mech to find the Forbidden Core.”
“Old black-colored Mech?” Garen repeated. “What about my brother?”
“I’m unclear about the full situation, but I can give you an address I obtained from the information at the intelligence department. The other person’s place of refuge is probably there.”
The information was transmitted over quickly. Garen opened it and glanced through while his gaze flickered.
“From the looks of it, it’s very likely that this place is in the area where I’m stationed.”
“That’s true. Although we don’t know the reason behind it, it’s true that the other person is currently fleeing towards your area,” said Celine certainly. “You should be careful of your surrounding situation at all times.”
“Yeah.”
“Then will be all. I’ll be here to assist you at any time. Call this number during critical moments.”
“Got it.”
After ending the call, Garen’s mind became more solemn. He could now confirm that his little brother Baylon was related to this incident.
“If Lon was really involved in this, there should be an important reason why the culprit would be rushing over in this direction. They would probably be coming here to visit their parents or family. This reasoning is somewhat plausible. Except that… How would they be able to escape successfully in the situation that their tracks are exposed?”
Garen concluded that the other party definitely possessed exceptionally strong escape measures that other people did not know of.
He got into the Mech again. There was a sputtering noise before blue flames were released from the back of the Mech and it flew upwards slowly. He began his investigation along the fixed patrolling roadmap.
Time continued to pass slowly from mid-morning to noon. The place remained calm even after he ate his lunch. However, Garen sensed that something was amiss when he patrolled the fifth district.
The fifth district was filled with factories, warehouses, storehouses and the likes. There were few signs of human habitation while the area was full of tall “alleys” that were formed by the spaces between factories. Cars could be seen passing through this area occasionally.
There were even fewer people to be seen during the late afternoon.
Garen landed on the heavy platform slowly. His extremely acute senses allowed him to detect that something was not quite right although he was still inside the Mech.
Garen furrowed his eyebrows slightly and began to use his senses to carefully distinguish the source of the abnormalities.
Tch!
He opened the cockpit and jumped right out before landing on the ground.
“It’s shaking!”
Both of his eyes were narrowed.
“The ground is shaking…”
These tremors were extremely weak as the sensors could not detect them as well. However, Garen’s exceptionally strong five senses allowed him to feel these things clearly. It seemed as if a heavy object was running around underground.
“It’s a Mech!!” he figured out the answer immediately. “The sewers!”
He somersaulted instantly and got into the Mech. He piloted it towards the nearest entrance to the sewers. These few days of patrolling and his prior memories of the map of this area had allowed him to be familiarized with the topography here much earlier on.
He quickly obtained the blueprints of the sewers from their website off the internet and tried to memorize it while flying towards the entrance rapidly.
He could already see the entrance to the sewers moments after he arrived there. The cover that was specially provided for the engineering Mechs had been removed. The insides of the sewers were completely dark while a trail of wet footprints was left at the side of the road. They were clearly Mech footprints.
“It’s really here!!”
Garen picked up the communication device quickly. He was about to call his group members but immediately halted further actions. Instead, he dialed the number that Celine had given him directly.
“How is everything?!”
“Bring your people over here. Determine my location and hurry!”
“Understood!”
Without saying anything else, the phone call was disconnected.
Garen pursued the footprints carefully with his full attention. The factory area was extremely huge, but no one knew where the guard who had been stationed here had run off to. Hardly anybody was here and even the garrison’s Spider Mechs were nowhere to be seen.
Garen piloted his Mech quickly in pursuit before passing through an open area instantly. He made a sharp left turn and entered an alley between factory buildings.
Coincidentally, a damaged black Mech currently had its back to him and was dashing into a different entrance of the alley. Strangely enough, this Mech did not have a flight engine. However, it was almost silent whenever its feet stepped on the ground.
“I’ve caught you!”
Garen’s engine roared suddenly while his Mech charged over at once. Swords appeared in both of its hands instantly.
Clint was scared out of his wits when he noticed the Black Mech charging up behind him through the sensor on his back.
“I’m going to die!!” he yelled loudly.
“I can still help you make a short distance leap! Be careful!” roared Red Moon. “Duck!”
Tch!
The moment Garen sliced at his opponent, the old Black Mech spun and disappeared from its original spot as if it had completely dispersed in thin air. A tornado spun out from its initial position.
Garen’s face remained unchanged as he had expected earlier on that his opponent would have troublesome escape measures like these.
His Mech squatted on the ground and used the sensors on its head to listen carefully after prostrating there.
Moments later, the Mech rose up and flew off speedily in a different direction.
*******************
Clint fled between the warehouses quickly while panting and sweating profusely.
Bang!
An exquisite Black Mech landed in front of him suddenly and obstructed his path. His violent Dual Blades swept over like two shrouds of silvery grey mist.
“Duck!!” without saying another word, Red Moon flickered and leaped away.
Tch!
Clint was blinded before he appeared in a different alley.
“That guy… Too scary… At least I managed to counter a few of that Red-White guy’s moves. How was it impossible that I didn’t have any strength to resist this guy at all?!” said Clint with a confused look on his face.
“It’s different! The White Light’s Mech didn’t even have a solid foundation. Other than its strength, everything else about it was rubbish. It’s obvious that this current Mech has an extremely solid foundation and exceptionally incredible techniques and combat abilities. It’s completely unlike most of the others that only rely on Willpower abilities,” explained Red Moon quickly.
A shroud of silvery grey mist shot over suddenly and appeared in front of his eyes instantly.
“Be careful!!” Red Moon could not even yell in time.
Clint could only feel a tremor running through the body of his Mech suddenly. His shoulder was directly pierced by a long sword that split it open. After that, the sword crashed violently against the ground behind his body and stabbed into it deeply while releasing a brief scratching noise.
Electric sparks illuminated the Mech’s damaged body. Before he could even think, a black Mech descended from the sky and a sword was placed right over his head.
Clang!!
During a moment when his life was in imminent peril, Clint raised his right arm to block the attack while kicking his right leg outwards towards his opponent’s lower body simultaneously.
“Behold my ultimate move!” Bang!!
The leg of Clint’s Mech separated itself automatically at once and turned into a rocket that shot outwards. It flew towards the fork of Garen’s Mech’s legs. Unfortunately, Garen lifted his knee at the key moment and kicked it towards the other side.
“How is that possible?!! Even Red-White fell for this trick!!” Clint yelled in disbelief.
“Escape quickly! This guy isn’t someone you can handle!!” Red Moon moved and flickered again.
During these dangerous instances, the light that reflected off a silvery grey blade only sliced through thin air.
“You fled really quickly,” Garen sheathed his sword and stood still while red light shined out of his Mech’s eyes.
“Has everyone arrived?” he asked softly while raising his watch.
“Yes, sir. Mistress told us to listen to all of your instructions,” answered the man on the other line.
“Be careful when you disperse and separate from one another. Move out within five hundred meters of my surroundings. That guy could not have leaped much further. His energy is depleting too and his distance gets shorter each time,” instructed Garen.
“Understood.”
The Mech Pilots that were sent from Celine’s household operated super-miniature Mechs to avoid bringing attention to themselves. The military and garrison were the only ones who were allowed to operate Mechs in the districts publicly. Therefore, Garen was able to use his status as part of the military to patrol openly.