OLD-WORLD EXTRA-Chapter 349: A Short Interruption

"Yeah, it's time, get to it!"

Emir extended his right hand behind him, opening his palm to receive the small tracking device.

"Alright! Give me a second."

Clutching it tightly, he stood up on top of the bike, using his neural network to keep it straight.

'Let's get this over with.'

Eyeing the War Queen, he chanted:

"Flash Step."

Disappearing from his position, he reappeared just above the War Queen's cocoon.

Using Aerialis Aspect, he empowered his body with overflowing strength and assumed a throwing posture.

Whoosh!

Like a bullet, the tracker shot out of his right hand as he swung down, crashing into the ants and wedging itself through them.

They snapped their heads up, eyeing their attacker, about to unleash a wave of sound that would rupture his body from the inside out.

"NOW!"

But as he began to fall, a portal materialized underneath him, and he let it swallow him whole, escaping certain death.

"I'll match your speed!"

He got out of the other portal, just a few meters in front of the motorbike, giving him ample time to land on it.

"Alright!"

And that was what happened, as he slowed his fall with Aether at the last moment and easily reached the motorbike's front, gripping the handles mid-descent as he sat down, fixing his legs around it.

"We leave now."

It roared at his command, accelerating at once and getting them out of there.

[The tracker is set!]

Ragnar calmly reported while Emir focused on driving, zig-zagging his way through the

waves.

Meanwhile, those outside prepared themselves after hearing the signal, making sure their rocket launchers' connection to the tracker was without fault.

[Morgiana, ready.]

[Red Dragon, ready.]

Morgiana and their second in command were done first. The rest reported quickly after them:

[Southern Cross, ready.]

[Phoenix, ready.]

[Maharajah, ready.]

[Lionheart, ready.]

Once everyone confirmed their connection, Judas instructed:

[Judal and I are ready as well; we're waiting on you two. Get out of there now; you've taken long enough.]

That they did, flying out from the ocean of ants and reaching the valley's surface.

[We're here! Give us a few seconds to set up.]

As Ragnar's words echoed, Emir rode the ants like a pro surfer, exiting the inner area in seconds, his bike nearing the cruisers of the group.

And now that they had reached the outer layer, the ants in their path were weaker, making them easy to kill with guns alone.

This gave the others a chance to provide a helping hand by gunning down the monsters and clearing a path for them.

RATATATATATАТАТАТАТ!

Their gunshots drowned out the ants' rumbling chirps, mowing down all that stood between the two groups.

Bullet casings littered the ground as the relentless barrage continued, each shot precise and deadly. The ants fell quickly, their bodies piling up and creating makeshift barriers that further hindered the swarm.

The teamwork was seamless. Those at the back provided cover fire, ensuring no ant could get close enough to pose a threat. Allowing Emir and Ragnar to go through them at a faster pace, without hesitation.

And it didn't take much longer for the two groups to meet.

"Behind me! I've got your back!"

Phoenix bellowed as she kept laying waste, not allowing a single ant to near them.

'Huh... No grudges?'

Emir raised a brow and did as he was told, surprised at how she acted.

She picked up on that, or perhaps she knew that he would think that way, and reassured him:

"Let bygones be bygones, Emir! We're allies now!"

He was even further surprised, his mind automatically trying to match her current personality with the one he experienced.

[Psst... See why I'm chasing her now? She's really wholesome, especially when compared to the average hunter.]

Maharajah, who drove behind the two, sent Emir a private telepathic message, boasting about his obvious crush.

It appeared that he acknowledged Emir's analytical skill, assuming that he had already figured out the connection between them.

'...Hm.'

Thinking about it for a second, Emir replied with a single word, focusing back on killing the

ants:

[No.]

He knew that any comment from him would somehow end up being bad in Lyra's mind, so he preferred to keep quiet instead of risking it.

This 'risk' being the possibility of her believing him to have cheated by commenting... somehow. In turn, killing the girl and possibly herself out of pure jealousy.

[Sure sure~.]

Next to Maharajah's cruiser was Ragnar's motorbike, following them by itself and lining itself

to their left.

Ragnar called it over since they couldn't continue on the same motorbike. Emir's back-blast would severally injure him, scarring his face to oblivion.

"Thanks for the ride!"

He moved over his rocket launcher, let his legs go, and jumped off Emir's motorbike, landing

harshly on top of his own.

It took him a second to stabilize and get his launcher ready, ensuring the tracking was

perfect.

[Ragnar, ready!]

Emir's smile widened even further at those words.

He took out the Fat Man from his motorbike's bag, leaned it on his left shoulder, and aimed it

in the general direction of the queen.

[Emir, ready.]

Just as he said that... all hell went loose. freewebnøvel.com

"FIRE!"

Judas's voice echoed through the valley, heavy and commanding, weighing down on everyone

as they pressed their triggers.

WHOOSH!

That sound repeated seven times, each followed by a powerful thump, that tore through the

air.

The power behind the blast caused Emir to wobble, as did his bike, but he controlled it in seconds, increasing the speed and leaning back, shifting his weight to the rear tire and easily

regaining control of the steering.

Ragnar couldn't control his bike, however, not as skilled.

He spun out, nearly crashing into the ground.

"HAAAAAAA!"

But by sheer luck and Celestial strength, he managed to stay upright, pushing himself and the

motorbike off the ground just as he was about to fall.

"HOOHOHOOLY SHIT!"

Tightening his grip on the handlebars, he let out a few uncontrollable chuckles at that close

call, his breath stuttering.

"H-Huff.... Fuck man..."

Emir glanced at him and snickered, then turned his attention to the rockets high up in the air,

his eyes tracking them through the smoke still coming from his Fat Man's discharge.

[Look at them go Kakakak!] Phoenix's wild laughter echoed as the rockets slowly angled themselves to hit the War Queen

directly, giving the twins a window to attack her without the cocoon's protection.

But her happiness didn't last long.

It died at the next moment.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!

An EMP blast boomed a few hundred meters away from them.

"WE'VE GOT COMPANY YOU IMPURE BASTARDS!"

BANG! BANG!

Alongside Judas's roar and the EMP came two loud shots, heavy with power.

BOOM!

BOOM!

The armature hit their targets almost immediately, exploding the two rockets nearest to the

War Queen.

BANG!

The Ranger didn't stop there, shooting for the third time, and instead of aiming at the rockets, he shot at where Emir threw the tracker, destroying it while taking away a whole

chunk of the cocoon.

BANG!

By the time the fourth shot rang out, the group had already split, not needing their neural network channel to communicate.

With Southern Cross in the lead, protecting the group with his Aetheric Bulwark, the HG

leaders went after the attacking hunters; their faces, still hidden behind masks, were cold, unlike before, showing extreme seriousness.

At the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, a smiling Emir casually reloaded the rocket launcher while checking its Runes.

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'This'll hurt-.'

He ignored the rockets above that went haywire, dodging them without even looking, only

using his Temporal Perception to predict their paths.

They flew randomly, shooting off the clusters within them and destroying his surroundings to

oblivion, digging tens of meters into the ground while also ending the lives of tens of thousands of ants.

A scene of complete and utter chaos.

BANG!

Satisfied with his initial assault and considering Emir and Co's attack to have ended, the Camoflauged Ranger now turned his focus to firing at the team members themselves. His first target was Ragnar.

With a steely gaze, the Ranger took aim, his rifle's scope trained on Ragnar's figure, hidden

behind a portal, waiting for the moment that he would expose himself.

The chaos of the battlefield provided enough cover for him to find a near-perfect vantage

point but that was it, chaos.

Within that chaos, Emir was assumed to have died due to the rockets falling upon him.

But death was far from him now as it was the day that he was born.

In other words, this attack didn't bring him any closer to that outcome.

"Where are you?..."

Emir stood next to his motorbike, hidden by the dust, smoke, and debris.

His inky eyes were locked on to where the shots resounded, scanning the area, and then

slowly...

That genuine smile of his turned creepy. Teeth began to clearly show.

'They're good.'

He casually complimented them as if his life wasn't in any sort of danger.

And if one would take a step back, think objectively, their surprise opponents did indeed know

what they were doing.

They used their Shadow Binder to hide them until they got close, waiting till Emir and Co shot

their first volley.

Once that happened, they had the Technomancer use his Aetheric Pulse, an EMP-like blast

that disrupted everything tech at a three-kilometer radius, shutting off their open channel and disrupting the homing rocket tracking capabilities.

But that wasn't enough, they needed to destroy the tracker so that the rockets wouldn't

recalibrate.

That was where the Ranger came in.

Instead of aiming for the kill, they disrupted their hunt.

It showed overconfidence, and it meant that they had a very high opinion of themselves.

That wouldn't come from nothing. They had something to back that up.

They were strong.

So knowing that, Emir wanted to keep things safer, and slightly more under control.

Even though his Flaw wouldn't be activated, as this wasn't his plan, he still liked to keep his 'strings' within reach.

This meant that he would improvise. Not a task that he was assigned but it didn't matter.

Adaptability was the hunter's motto after all.

Chuck...Zing!

Just as he was done reloading the rocket launcher, he strapped it to his back, its length going

from left to right.

After making sure that it wouldn't fall off, he left his motorbike behind and Flash Stepped to

Ragnar.

BANG!

As his right foot touched the ground, a shot rang out in the distance, heading directly towards

them.

WVOOP!

But it hit no one.

The Ranger saw Emir's movement but couldn't react fast enough, his shot hitting the ground

where Emir passed fractions ago.

A sharp crack resounded as what remained of the armature scattered, with some of the

Aether-infused material heading directly towards the two.

Yet again, they were safe. Protected by the portal that Ragnar had conjured, which opposed

where he assumed the Ranger was.

It sucked up the remains, shooting it off the other portal behind them.

"Hey."

Stepping back in surprise at Emir's sudden arrival, Ragnar's grip tightened on his assault rifle,

barely stopping himself from pressing the trigger. "F-Fucking hell man! You scared the shit out of me!"

Not commenting on his stutter, Emir threw another tracker at him and tapped his shoulder.

"Good luck."

With those words as a short goodbye, he turned and...

"Wait-"

Flash Stepped directly towards the Ranger.