Apocalypse Gachapon Chapter 1998: Spike People

Jie Su and his guard stepped into the left passage. His face grew grave right then. He cast a glance at the structure to the right, the ominous hunch in his chest surging ever more intensely.

An incredibly old edifice loomed there. Its great age gave it the signature style of Starshine City, with building techniques and materials identical to those of the survivor bastions.

A structure like this, regardless of its antiquity, lay beyond Jie Su's power to demolish.

Without the means to shatter it, he and Ye Zhongming stood no chance of reuniting before the conference hall.

This passage stretched over a thousand meters, a distance they could blaze through in just over ten seconds at maximum velocity, yet it now seemed like a fatal one-way trap endlessly claiming lives.

Those enemies had deliberately funneled them into this spot, hadn't they?

Jie Su eyed the left side once more; another building of the same kind blocked it. In truth, even if that route were clear, he couldn't simply flee.

What brought him here? To shield Ye Zhongming, of course. Abandoning the path alone would cost him his ally and his convictions.

He had no choice but to speed up, push even harder, skirt past this obstacle, and rush to back up Ye Zhongming.

The lone guard announced.

"Expected that earlier," Jie Su shot back.

The killers had orchestrated every detail with precision, move by calculated move; of course, they'd prevent the Su Clan from summoning aid.

In the midst of his furious sprint, Jie Su came to an abrupt stop, yanking his guard to a standstill beside him.

His gaze locked onto the apparently deserted alley ahead, his expression heavy with dread.

"Clap clap clap!" Applause rang out, chased by a voice laced with amusement.

"Not bad. For a Su Clan heir who doesn't even know his own ranking, to be able to detect me is really not bad."

A shadowy form gradually materialized from empty air right in front of them.

She was a female being, slim and clad in form-fitting leather armor, with two pairs of short wings arrayed evenly across her back, her hands clutching two one-meter steel forks.

Her feet commanded the most notice. Barefoot, they lacked the five toes of Earth humans; instead, more than ten razor-sharp black bone spikes jutted from her ankles, embedding into the ground as she stood.

"Spike People?" Jie Su's shock hit deep. Wasn't this race long extinct? Why surface here?

The Spike People tied closely to the Star-Eye Clan.

Among cosmic races, assassin experts extended beyond the Star-Eye Clan and a handful more. The Spike People surpassed them in renown and skill.

Every member of their kind, male or female, made elite assassins. Scant in numbers, yet each brimmed with power. Even without ambush tactics, in direct clashes they held strong. Their swiftness let them claim battle's first strike every time.

The core of the Spike People's status among cosmic races was their knack for total invisibility over brief spans.

Ye Zhongming had tapped a comparable skill earlier at the Bronze Camp drill field. But that paled utterly against the Spike People's version.

The Spike People's vanishing act achieved perfect concealment. They could shift, strike, execute any action as in visibility. Given enough might, theory allowed lifelong sustainment.

That said, before their race's wipeout, none pulled it off.

As assassins, foes piled up inevitably. One botched job irked a dominant race. In ensuing years, Spike People endured cryptic assaults wherever they hid. Relentless losses ravaged their thin ranks, plunging their overall power into steep decline.

"A tiger fallen to the plains is bullied by dogs." Beasts obey this rule, much less the Spike People riddled with grudges. Weakened, they fell prey to past enemies and greedy interlopers, until total ruin.

In that opening salvo against the Spike People, the Star-Eye Clan ranked among the prime assailants.

A species extinct for ages now stood before him. Jie Su grasped the dire gravity of the day.

These Spike People probably served some hidden faction or acted as a covert tool forged by a mighty race.

No matter which, they'd never permit Jie Su's survival. Secrecy demanded his end.

Besides, a stealth assassin unmasked ought to assail, not converse. This screamed total certainty of his doom.

A throbbing ache gripped Jie Su's head. The mess unfolded far more tangled than he'd foreseen.

"Quite knowledgeable."

The female Spike Person showed no urgency to launch her assault. She advanced toward Jie Su while talking, her steel forks spinning endlessly in her grasp as though fused to her palms.

"Just, it's meaningless now." Halting about ten meters from Jie Su and his group, a dazzling glow abruptly lit up her frame. In the blink of an eye, she materialized right before Jie Su, steel forks aimed straight at his eyes.

Luckily, Jie Su had braced himself. He pulled back rapidly, flinging his hand ahead once more to release the identical light from earlier in the restaurant, halting the Spike Person's steel forks.

"Relying on activating your own Furelai to counter attacks. You Su Clan people are still like this. Without arrays, you are inferior to even some minor races."

"Let me see how many more times you can block!"

The Spike Person assassin burst into sudden speed. Her two pairs of short wings on her back beat furiously, fueling her with explosive velocity. The steel forks clutched in her hands morphed into twin streaks of light, stabbing relentlessly at Jie Su and compelling the slower fighter into constant defense.

"Without arrays, you are trash!" Thrilled by the clash, the female Spike Person's voice sharpened, using these taunts nonstop to rattle Jie Su.

"You go first!"

Noticing the perilous turn, that guard dashed forward at once, aiming to shield Jie Su from the assassin. But Jie Su's face darkened as he yelled, "Don't come over!"

Yet it proved too late. The Su Clan guard's short knife sliced right into the gap between them. It precisely clashed with one steel fork first, while light coiled around his free hand, seizing the other fork outright with bare skin.

"Get back!"

"Childish."

Jie Su and the Spike Person bellowed nearly together, but the deed was done. With zero warning, the Spike Person vaulted upward slightly, then whipped her feet around. The bony spikes sprouting from them tore through the Su Clan guard, shredding his armor and body into chunks.

Jie Su staggered back in torment. His follower had traded his life for a fleeting moment's reprieve.

Truth be told... Jie Su hadn't wanted it.

Still, he wouldn't let that sacrifice go to waste.

This overlooked youth of the Su Clan thrust one hand to the heavens and the other to the ground. Twin surges of power blasted forth above his head and below his feet.

"The Su Clan is no longer the Su Clan you remember."

Jie Su's eyes burned red as he uttered coldly.