Dragon Raja 5; Chapter 397: For Your Majesty (212)

Dragon Raja 5

It was a tough race; the pack of hellhounds was getting close, their barking and the roar of the hovercraft mingling together, as if hope and death were approaching side by side.

Giovanni knelt on one knee on the ice, panting heavily. She was exhausted. Lu Mingfei hadn’t had a chance to ask his mother what kind of hybrid race she was and what type of Yanling Word of Power she possessed, but she didn’t seem to be a typical combat type. Her physical strength was even inferior to Nono’s, but she had the advantage of rich experience, after all, she had neglected cooking for so many years.

“Mom, give me your gun,” Lu Mingfei said softly, handing over his Breta.

He knew very well that the Breta pistol was useless against the Hellhound. Giovanni gave him these two guns less as a sign of expectation that he would achieve something, and more as a comforting treat for the child, to give him a little sense of involvement.

“It’s not your turn to go on stage,” Giovanni said coldly. “Do you think you’ve grown up? Just because you’re grown up, does that give you the right to talk to me?”

She crouched down and stroked Lyudmila’s head. The Saint Bernard was terrified; if it hadn’t been tied to the sled, it probably would have run away long ago. It seemed particularly familiar with Giovanni, as it calmed down slightly when Giovanni stroked its head, though it still whimpered, likely trying to warn its owner that something dangerous was following them. Giovanni opened its muzzle and generously stuffed a handful of beef jerky into its mouth. In this place, people could only eat real meat once a week, making beef jerky a luxury.

“Some people say that parents are always the barrier between their children and death, until both parents are dead, and then the children have to face death on their own,” Giovanni said softly. “In the eyes of parents, their children are always children, no matter how old they are.”

She untied Lyudmila’s collar, slapped it on the head, and said, “Run.”

Lyudmila ran a short distance, then stared blankly back at her master, wondering why he wasn’t running. Giovanni grabbed Lu Mingfei’s Breta and, without hesitation, fired a shot right in front of Lyudmila. Ice shards flew everywhere, startling the dazed dog.

Giovanni fired continuously, and Lyudmila hopped and skipped, finally tucked her tail between her legs and ran away, quickly disappearing into the darkness.

“I hope it’s alright,” Lu Mingfei said.

“It’s impossible for it to be alright,” Giovanni said coldly. “It will definitely be surrounded and killed by those hellhounds. The speed of the two sides is not on the same level, but that will buy us some time.”

Lu Mingfei gasped sharply. He had always thought that the petting was his mother’s tenderness towards the dog, but it turned out she was preparing to sacrifice that life to buy time. She was calm, experienced, and ruthless, completely different from the mother Lu Mingfei had always thought he knew.

“Life is a long journey. At the beginning, you add things, carrying more and more on your back. Later, you subtract things, and in the end, the only thing left is the most important,” Giovanni said. “Between sacrificing you and Lyudmila, of course, you sacrifice it.”

She squatted down next to Lu Mingfei and took out a syringe from her bag. “The blood vessels, nerves and muscles in your legs are dying, but they’re not completely unusable. This contains a strong sedative and stimulant that will allow you to stand up again in a short time. Of course, the aftereffects will be severe. You may really have to spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair. But you have no choice. You’ll have to walk the rest of the way with your mother.”

“Will something really terrible happen if we stay in this safe haven?” Lu Mingfei asked.

“If you’re scared, it’s not too late to go back now. They won’t do anything to you. With your dad here, I won’t be in any serious trouble. I just took you out for some fresh air and we went a little too far. We killed a few dogs on the way,” Giovanni said. “The choice is yours.”

Lu Mingfei took the syringe from her hand, stuck it into his thigh, and was about to inject when Giovanni grabbed his hand tightly.

“I’ve made my choice, and of course I have to trust my mom,” Lu Mingfei said.

“No, this medicine can’t injected into the thigh, it needs to inject next to the lumbar spine.” Giovanni deftly injected the medicine through his clothes.

The drug took effect very quickly. Lu Mingfei felt excruciating pain in his legs, so intense it could make him faint, but his stiff muscles also trembled, as if he had been awakened from a dream.

Giovanni helped him slowly to his feet, the pain of his feet sinking into the ground feeling like countless needles pricking the soles of his feet. They walked slowly, but still much faster than Giovanni pulling the sled.

“Damn it.” Giovanni’s expression changed slightly.

“The pursuit team?”

“And it’s your dad who led the pursuit team; only he could guess that accurate.” Giovanni gritted her teeth. “Let’s get going! I don’t want to gamble with his conscience!”

“Over there!” Lu Mingfei pointed ahead, where there was a narrow pass in the snow-capped mountains, where a hazy light always flickered.

Gunfire erupted, and it seemed to be a continuous barrage, as if the pursuing team was engaged in combat with someone.

***

“We can’t get any closer!” Natasha exclaimed, her face pale. “We can’t handle so many hellhounds!”

The machine gun on the snowmobile kept firing three-round bursts, each time sending a hellhound that tried to approach rolling on the ice, leaving a pool of blood, before retreating angrily to a distance.

They didn’t carry bullets made from the Philosopher’s Stone, so even if the machine guns fired continuously, they might not actually kill these vicious dogs. However, the gunfire still had a deterrent effect on the hellhounds. They had already penetrated deep into the hellhounds’ hunting grounds, and countless hellhounds were roaming around nearby.

“Retreating at this point would make the hellhounds think we’re running away. For a lone lion to pass through hyena territory, the most important thing is to stay calm, take it one step at a time, and scare away any hyenas that approach.” Lu Lincheng’s tone was surprisingly calm, unlike that of a researcher.

“I think you’re just eager to get your wife and children back, aren’t you?” Natasha said coldly. “But can they really be considered your wife and child?”

“It’s for our great cause. Mingfei is our cause. Only he can kill that devil. For him, I can sacrifice you without hesitation, and I can sacrifice myself without hesitation.”

Natasha stared at the man’s profile for a while, then raised her sniper rifle and fired in all directions. Through the infrared scope, she saw countless ghostly shadows—these were the assembled hellhounds, hidden in the darkness beyond the reach of the car headlights, waiting to launch a large-scale hunt.

The prey could be Giovanni and Lu Mingfei, or it could be Lu Lincheng and Natasha.