Chapter 32 : Chapter 32
Chapter 32: The Prey Arrives, Crushed by Overwhelming Force
Ryan and Nika waited quietly atop the great tree for their prey to arrive.
After an unknown length of time, a sound finally came from ahead.
Nika’s ears twitched.
Then she leaned close to Ryan and whispered, “Master, I hear something ahead. It looks like they’ve arrived.”
“Mm.” Ryan nodded. “Get ready.”
Ryan raised the P90, disengaged the safety, and switched it to full-auto mode.
Nika also picked up the Glock 17 and stared ahead nervously.
Ryan noticed her tension and said softly, “Don’t be nervous. These people are enemies. As long as they’re enemies, there’s no need to hold back. Just treat them as monsters that need to be eliminated.”
“Yes, Master. I understand.”
A short while later, Ryan and Nika saw two figures emerging from the distance through the dense mist.
At first, their faces were still unclear.
But once the two figures drew close to the tree where Ryan and Nika were hiding, Ryan recognized them immediately.
Wasn’t one of them the man who had stopped him outside the Slave Merchant Guild that day?
Why was it him?
“Ah! It’s them!”
Beside him, Nika let out a hushed cry of surprise, then quickly covered her mouth.
“Nika, you know them?”
Ryan asked.
“Yes, Master, I do. Back then, when my father was falsely accused of owing money, these two were the ones who came to collect the debt. Later, when my younger sister disappeared and was abducted, I suspected it was those two.”
Nika explained.
After hearing her explanation, Ryan understood that these two really had come for Nika.
After thinking for a moment, he decided to tell her about Gram.
“Nika, before I went to the Slave Merchant Guild, I had already seen one of these two men. The man on the left is called Gram. He stopped me outside the Slave Merchant Guild and said I could buy cheap slaves from him, but I refused. If you’re certain your sister’s disappearance had something to do with the two of them, then right now she has most likely...”
“Master, I understand.”
Nika nodded faintly.
She understood what Ryan meant. Judging from the current situation, her younger sister had almost certainly already been sold as a slave.
Now all she could do was pray that her sister would meet a good master.
Meanwhile, Gram and Rod were drawing closer and closer to Ryan.
“Pah, pah, pah. This place is absolutely awful.”
“What a nuisance. I don’t know why that adventurer came here. Could he be here to hunt monsters?”
“Say, do you think they might have noticed we were following them, so they deliberately came here to hide?”
Rod’s words startled Gram.
“They noticed us?”
But in the next moment, Gram shook his head.
“Not necessarily. They probably just took a quest to come here and hunt monsters.”
“And even taking a step back, even if they did discover us, think about why they came here.”
“You mean...?”
“That’s right. If they noticed us, then coming here must have been an attempt to hide. If that’s the case, then they definitely aren’t as strong as we are, so there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Gram spoke confidently.
“You’re right.”
Rod nodded in agreement.
But as he spoke, his steps slowed slightly, and he gradually shifted behind Gram.
He had a dangerous premonition, a feeling that something unforeseen might happen this time.
He just had no way of knowing what it was.
In that case, the best solution was to use Gram as a shield.
What were brothers for, if not to be betrayed?
Because the two men were so close, their conversation carried up into the tree, and Ryan and Nika heard everything.
“Nika, sense the area and see whether there’s anyone else. Is it really just these two?”
Ryan instructed.
“Yes, Master.”
Nika closed her eyes and focused. She found that only these two voices were present, and there was no sound whatsoever farther away.
A moment later, she opened her eyes and looked at Ryan. “Master, there are only these two. There’s no one else nearby.”
“So that’s how it is.”
Ryan clicked his tongue.
He had not expected that the two gazes Nika sensed really did belong to only two people.
It made him feel as though he had made too much of it.
There were only two of them.
That left Ryan feeling a little regretful. This time, he could only clean up two pieces of scum.
Still, the good news was that with only two enemies, he and Nika could kill them easily enough.
Ryan turned to Nika. “Nika, don’t make a move yet. I’ll go first and cripple their legs, then question them and see whether I can get the location where your sister was sold. In the end, I’ll leave the two of them for you to finish off.”
“Yes, Master. Thank you.”
When Nika heard Ryan’s arrangement, delight appeared on her face.
There was no way she did not care about her sister’s whereabouts.
She simply could not allow her master to be put in danger because of it.
Now that Ryan had taken the initiative to say he would interrogate them about her sister, Nika was overjoyed.
At that moment, she decided that tonight, she would use a few new positions to make Ryan happy.
This was the only thing she had to offer him now.
Fortunately, as a woman of the Fox Tribe, she had a great natural advantage in that regard, and Ryan had been very pleased with her performance at night.
Ryan put away the P90 and took out the Desert Eagle instead.
Aside from the Desert Eagle he had given to Fina before, Ryan had prepared one for himself as well.
Against these two enemies, the Desert Eagle was perfect.
As for its excessive recoil—
After years of diligent training, Ryan could already withstand the Desert Eagle’s recoil.
He pressed his body close to the trunk, bent his legs, and braced the soles of his feet against the protruding knots in the bark to steady himself.
Ryan gripped the Desert Eagle in his right hand. The pistol was black, and its metal surface reflected a cold gleam in the dim light.
His finger rested on the trigger, and his knuckles were faintly white.
His left hand supported his right wrist. Both arms were bent, and his elbows pressed against the trunk, forming a stable support.
He lifted his head slightly, his eyes fixed on the mist ahead.
Gram and Rod emerged from the mist, about eight meters from the tree where Ryan was hidden.
The enemies wore leather armor and held longswords in their hands, their steps disorderly.
Ryan adjusted his breathing. His right wrist turned, and the muzzle slowly lowered, aiming at Gram’s left thigh.
His gaze shifted from Gram’s head to his thigh, his pupils narrowing as he locked onto the front of it.
At that moment, Gram’s left leg was forward and his right leg behind, caught in the middle of a step. The muscles in his thigh were taut with movement, and the area covered by the leather armor showed obvious folds.
Ryan tightened his right index finger, and the trigger moved backward.
Bang!
The bullet shot out of the barrel, tore through the green mist, and struck Gram in the left thigh.
Gram’s whole body jerked violently. His left leg instantly lost all strength, his knee buckled, and he pitched forward. The longsword in his right hand flew from his grasp and clattered to the ground.
Gram’s mouth fell open as a scream of agony burst from him, echoing through the forest.
“Urgh! Aah!!!”
Almost at the same moment, Ryan’s left hand steadied his right hand, his wrist turning to the right as the muzzle shifted sideways and aimed at Rod’s right thigh.
Hearing the gunshot and Gram’s scream, Rod’s body froze for an instant. He instinctively turned his head to the left, and his right leg was still fully extended.
Ryan tightened his finger again, pulling the trigger a second time. The second bullet flew out and struck Rod in the right thigh.
“Urgh...”
Rod let out a muffled grunt. His right leg jerked backward, his body lost balance, and he crashed to the ground on his right side, snapping several dead branches beneath him.
His right hand clutched at the thigh that had been hit, and his body curled up. His cry was deeper and lower than Gram’s, but no less full of pain.
“Urgh... it hurts so much!!!”
Ryan maintained his firing posture, eyes fixed on the two fallen enemies as he observed their movements.
Gram rolled on the ground, the leg of his trousers soaked through with blood, red staining spreading across the green fallen leaves.
Rod lay on the ground twitching, blood continuously seeping from the wound in his right thigh and soaking into the soil.
The mist continued to drift, swirling around the fallen enemies and the great tree where Ryan was hiding.
Ryan’s breathing was a little quickened, but the pistol in his right hand remained aimed forward, and his finger never left the trigger.
His ears listened carefully to the sounds around him. Aside from the screams of the two enemies, there was only the rustling of wind through the leaves and the faint chirping of insects in the distance.
After a while, Ryan confirmed that neither enemy could move anymore. He released his right wrist with his left hand, shifted backward, and leaned against the trunk.
He raised the muzzle of the Desert Eagle upward and held it at his side, his eyes still alert as they remained fixed on the mist ahead, guarding against the appearance of any other enemies.
His thighs had grown slightly sore from remaining bent for so long, so he adjusted his posture a little and shifted his footing on the trunk.
“Nika, watch the surroundings and confirm whether there are any other enemies.”
“Yes, Master.”
With that, Nika carefully surveyed the area.
A moment later, she said quietly, “Master, there’s no one else around.”
“Good. Let’s go down and see what last words they have to say.”
“Yes, Master.”
Nika looked at Ryan with admiration.
She had gained a completely new understanding of Ryan’s strength.
In just a brief moment, he had severely wounded two men who looked quite powerful.
Calling that the strength of an A-rank Adventurer would not have been an exaggeration.
Moreover, she noticed that the Magic Tool Ryan had used, while different from the gun in her hand, was largely the same in principle.
At that thought, Nika was overwhelmed with emotion.
Ryan had entrusted the Glock 17 to her for use. To her, that was an immense honor and proof of his trust.
Ryan and Nika climbed down from the tree and slowly walked over to Gram and Rod.
At that moment, the two men were still clutching the wounds in their thighs and screaming miserably.
Ryan said coldly, “Quiet.”
It was as though Gram had not heard Ryan at all, but Rod had.
Rod immediately covered his mouth.
Ryan raised the Desert Eagle and fired another shot into Gram’s other thigh.
Bang!
“Urgh! Aah!!!”
The gunshot rang out together with Gram’s scream.
Ryan spoke again. “Quiet.”
This time, Gram had learned his lesson. His ears were working just fine now, and he heard Ryan’s command.
Forcing himself to endure the pain, he did not cry out again.
“Mm. That’s better. All right, now I’m going to ask you a few questions. If you answer well, you get to live. If you answer poorly, then you know what the consequences will be.”
Ryan’s voice was icy.
“Hm? Why aren’t you answering?”
Gram and Rod looked at Ryan resentfully.
Come on.
He had just ordered the two of them to be quiet, and now he wanted them to answer. What exactly was he expecting them to do?
Ryan could not care less what the two of them were thinking. Seeing that they still did not answer, he raised the Desert Eagle again and aimed it at them.
“No, no, I understand. Ask whatever you want.”
“Yes, yes, yes. As long as I know it, I’ll definitely tell you everything.”
Gram and Rod nodded frantically like pecking chickens.
Only then did Ryan nod in satisfaction and lower the Desert Eagle.