Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 279: A Friend of Justice (15)

Dragon Raja 3

“That guy is irritating. He seems easygoing, but he’s incredibly self-centered. Once he decides something, no one can change it,” Caesar muttered. “Like just now, acting like he’s the leader of our group. That’s the type of person I can’t stand.”

“Sounds like an unlikable personality, but your dislike doesn’t seem as strong as the rumors suggest.”

“It’s just annoyance. No one truly hates someone who’s so similar to themselves, right?”

Chisei was taken aback.

“I’m self-centered too. When I make a decision, no one can change it. If I weren’t like that, how could we be rivals?” Caesar continued, loading bullets into the submachine gun. “If you’ve got a worthy opponent, you’ll understand—don’t ruin them, because finding another good one is hard. But you’ll never understand that. You’re the mighty emperor—invincible across the world!”

The sound of clashing metal echoed from the fire. It was unclear whether Chu Zihang was slashing at Death Servitor bones or dueling with that blade-wielding serpent-man. Caesar leaped up, firing his Sten submachine gun into the air. The gunfire was a signal for Chu Zihang to retreat. The freight elevator would arrive in about thirty seconds, but Caesar couldn’t wait any longer. Chu Zihang was getting farther away, and it looked like he was entangled in battle. Caesar squinted into the depths of the fire, but Chu Zihang was nowhere to be seen. He wouldn’t be foolish enough to push deeper into the fire, so the only explanation was that he was surrounded by Death Servitors. Perhaps he had already lost his sense of direction, and Caesar was using the gunfire to guide him back.

“Damn it!” Caesar roared, hearing the continued clash of swords from the fire. Clearly, Chu Zihang had not escaped yet. In this situation, the Sten submachine gun Caesar had prepared was useless—random firing might hit Chu Zihang.

Sweat poured down Caesar’s face, quickly evaporating in the heat of the fire. His eyes twitched, and his expression grew increasingly ferocious. Every second of delay meant greater danger. Inside the firestorm, 15 pounds of C4 were burning!

With a “ding,” the elevator finally arrived. As the doors opened, countless sheets of paper fluttered out. The elevator was empty except for fifty crates of documents. The paper caught the firestorm immediately, burning fiercely as glowing embers danced in the air. The temperature inside the fire had long surpassed what ordinary people could tolerate. If it weren’t for the three of them, anyone else—like Sakura or Yasha—would have already passed out from lack of oxygen. Chu Zihang’s situation was even worse, as the oxygen in his area was likely already depleted.

“Chu Zihang!” Caesar shouted.

A powerful shockwave slammed Caesar and Chisei against the wall, raising the temperature by several more degrees. The instant heat scorched them both. It was Chu Zihang’s King’s Blaze—in a desperate moment, he had finally used this dangerous Yanling, but as he had said before, using King’s Blaze in a confined space was asking for disaster. The fiery winds and shockwave would rebound, overwhelming the user. But Chu Zihang had no choice—this level of King’s Blaze wasn’t enough to kill the Death Servitors, but at least it pushed them back with the force of the blast. Caesar spotted a familiar dark figure leaping over the burning remains of Death Servitors—Chu Zihang had broken free! Overjoyed, Caesar leveled his submachine gun and laid down suppressing fire, accurately covering Chu Zihang’s rear. Any Death Servitors attempting to pursue him would meet a barrage of bullets.

“Go! Go! Go!” Caesar shouted as he continued shooting.

Chu Zihang sprinted almost parallel to the ground, knowing that the higher the altitude, the hotter the air. The lower areas near the ground, however, might still have some oxygen. Death Servitors, still aflame and writhing, reached out with their claws to grab at Chu Zihang as they burned. Even in their dying moments, they couldn’t resist the lure of emperor’s blood. Chu Zihang slashed rapidly to the left and right with his blades, severing arms or slashing throats, while cutting off the armor straps as he ran. Piece by piece, he threw the blood-soaked armor into the heart of the fire.

“If you can still move, pick up a gun and start shooting!” Caesar turned angrily toward Chisei, only to find him trying to lift a Sten submachine gun. But Chisei was too weak to aim properly.

The toll that Kingship took on Chisei was clear. The man who could once shatter bronze with his fists now couldn’t even lift a simple Sten submachine gun.

“Then get into the elevator! Now!” Caesar shouted. “Don’t just stand here in the way.”

Chu Zihang pushed past a burning corpse, just a few meters away now, while Caesar fired and waved him over anxiously. Suddenly, a foul wind swept down from above, and a twisted serpent shadow slammed into Chu Zihang from behind, forcing him down onto the burning corpse. His coat immediately caught fire.

Caesar couldn’t believe his eyes. This Death Servitor had appeared out of nowhere, evading his bullet barrage. Glancing upward, Caesar quickly understood. The ceiling of the hall was designed like an ancient Buddhist temple, with large beams and rafters. Just as Chisei had hidden above earlier, releasing Kingship into the center of the Death Servitor swarm, this one must have climbed onto the roof. No one would have believed these massive creatures could be so agile, like small snakes. The Death Servitor coiled its long tail tightly around Chu Zihang, yanking his upper body backward in a clear attempt to snap his spine with brute force.

Chu Zihang’s golden eyes turned blood red, a sign of brain congestion. His hand fumbled for Kumogiri, which had fallen to the ground. Though the sword was just within reach, his vision was too blurred to locate it properly, and his fingers repeatedly missed it.

Caesar’s hand trembled on the trigger. He couldn’t fire. He was hoping for Chu Zihang to suddenly break free so that he could unload an entire magazine into the Death Servitor’s head.

But then, the burning serpent deity Naga appeared behind Chu Zihang, plunging its scorching blade through his body. The dual-wielding serpent-man cut through the tail of the creature holding Chu Zihang and grabbed him by the head, lifting him into the air. It sniffed Chu Zihang, puzzled by why the delicious blood scent had suddenly weakened. With a powerful flick of its tail, the serpent dragged Chu Zihang deeper into the flames, his blood-red eyes locked onto Caesar, commanding him to leave.

Caesar hated that look—the kind of gaze that said whatever he decided couldn’t be changed. Chu Zihang dared to give orders to him, Caesar Gattuso, as if he were the leader. Commanding him to retreat!

With fury in his heart, Caesar grabbed all the Sten submachine guns he could find, slinging five or six over his shoulder, and charged toward the fire. “You want to die, huh?”

Just then, the elevator doors behind him chimed. Caesar turned in shock to see Chisei had already crawled into the elevator, shakily pressing the button to close the doors.

“Go! We can’t save him!” Chisei said weakly. “The explosives are about to go off! How could you possibly save him from a horde of Death Servitors on your own?”

Caesar froze, astonished that someone so regal would say such a thing. What kind of situation was this? Leave? Abandon a comrade in the fire and leave? Even in the most clichéd of movies, only second-rate soldiers would say something like that. Nobles rarely said “Go,” and when they did, it was always to others while they stayed behind, drawing their family’s ancestral sword. How could someone as high and mighty as this emperor say something like “Let’s leave”? This had to be wrong—maybe the legends of the super hybrids were lies. No real super hybrid should be this sneaky or treacherous.

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