Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 64 - 64 53 The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

64: Chapter 53: The Hunter Becomes the Hunted 64: Chapter 53: The Hunter Becomes the Hunted Fengkexim clutched his left shoulder as he fled in a panic through the jungle, sparks flying from where his arm had been severed.

As a bio-enhanced person heavily modified with cybernetic prosthetics, losing an arm dealt a significant blow to his combat capabilities.

Of course, he no longer had the luxury of regret at this point—what overwhelmed him now was the fear of being hunted and his desperation to survive.

That gunner…

He still remembered the terror of being continuously targeted, like a maggot boring into bone, much like a mouse being toyed with by cat paws.

Fengkexim could even be certain the opponent had the ability to kill him outright from the beginning, yet chose to shoot half a beat too slow each time, deliberately pushing him to the brink of despair.

Damn it!

Is this really my retribution?

Fengkexim recalled his life as a Temple Knight, delivering secret intelligence for Emperor Otto and partaking in the Temple Knights’ atrocities.

He remembered being dispatched by the Holy See to purge the Albigensian heretics in the West Frank Kingdom.

A small mountain village, likely of a few hundred people—all followers of the Albigensian sect.

He and his fellow Temple Knights slaughtered all the adults, sparing only twelve children.

To amuse themselves, they let the children freely run into the mountains outside the village.

Half an hour later, the Temple Knights began their lethal hunt.

Fengkexim alone killed four children; he reveled in appearing suddenly before them with his gun and squeezing the trigger amidst their expressions of despair.

He found an abnormal pleasure in hunting others and would often savor the memory at night.

But now, the former hunter had become the hunted.

“Backstabbing!” He realized in shock that his enemy had caught up to him only when a sharp pain pierced his back.

Peggy’s short sword sank into his back, a part which had not yet been cybernetically enhanced, and caused immense pain.

Fengkexim rolled away, dodging Peggy’s follow-up attack.

Adrenaline spray popped out from his right wrist socket; he pulled it to his mouth for a quick inhale, and instantly his mind sharpened.

The sound of a weapon slicing through the air, Fengkexim quickly sidestepped, evading Sigrdrifa’s flying axe, while raising his gun with one hand to aim at Peggy’s head.

“Bang!”

Peggy shifted her head to dodge in the blink of an eye, but the bullet grazed a large swath of her scalp, revealing the gray-white skull beneath.

She turned her neck back expressionlessly, the flesh around the wound bizarrely writhing to cover the bone once again.

A Transcendent of the Flesh Sequence!

Damn it!

Fengkexim, panicked, saw more people emerging from the forest and a thought uncontrollably surfaced in his mind:

Run away!

Though his rationality as a Temple Knight told him that turning his back to flee would only expose him to his enemies, his fear was so overpowering that it crushed his reason in an instant.

Fengkexim quickly turned around and started running wildly.

From behind a tree, Medea watched his figure with a faint gaze, her slender right hand subtly flicking through the air, remotely manipulating his feelings of fear and the urge to flee.

Another gunshot rang out; Fengkexim violently twisted his body mid-sprint, taking a bullet aimed at his heart in his right chest instead.

The sensation of dizziness from excessive blood loss began to rise, and combined with the stimulating effect of adrenaline on his nerves, put him in a bizarre state of being both unconscious and alert.

What…

what am I doing?

Fengkexim suddenly snapped back to reality.

Fleeing mindlessly meant certain death.

Only by turning and fighting could there be a glimmer of hope for survival!

He spun around in his high-speed run, his hand with the gun again locking onto the target.

The gunshot fired, but the bullet flew into the skies.

A hand emerged from the shadows on the ground, gripping the racing Fengkexim’s ankle, pulling him down to the earth.

Peggy took the opportunity to close in, her short sword thrusting fiercely towards his chest.

Fengkexim’s right hand grabbed the short sword; his steel cybernetic body creaked and strained, preventing Peggy’s blade from piercing further.

Mia’s hand reached out again from the shadows, pressing the short sword against Fengkexim’s throat, starting to saw forcefully.

Why isn’t it cutting?

Tears streamed down Mia’s face in the shadows, as Fengkexim’s neck had already been cybernetically enhanced, with the flesh of his throat entirely replaced by steel.

The short sword scratched futilely over it, emitting an ear-piercing screech like nails on a chalkboard.

“Over there!” A tumultuous crowd’s shouts approached from the rear, signaling that Steel Cross had finally been guided by the noise.

Fengkexim was still resisting Peggy’s sword bearing down on him when he suddenly realized his strength was waning.

Was it the excessive blood loss?

No, it was life…

being stolen…

As despair filled his eyes, the short sword slowly plunged into his chest, Fengkexim’s cybernetic eyes’ pupils dilated, losing focus entirely.

“Grab the stuff, let’s go!” Aske quickly uttered, picking up the Slaughterer III rifle from the ground and tossing it to Mia, then his spiritual power expanded and contracted, teleporting everyone back to Fire Island.

Leaving behind Fengkexim’s half-cybernetic corpse, he swiftly ran towards the distant cliffs.

Within seconds, both Steel Cross and Free Wind’s forces arrived at the scene.

Matthews drew his great sword with one hand, trying to move Fengkexim’s body, but Andrea parried it with his drawn sword.

“What do you mean by this, Andrea?” Matthews squinted his eyes, his voice bearing a dangerous tone, “Are you looking to wage a war with us, the Free Wind, right here?”

“No meaning,” Andrea calmly replied, “Fengkexim wasn’t killed by our people, so let’s share the find.

The body goes to Church Court—500 pounds reward split between you and me.”

“Moreover, his Slaughterer III rifle is cutting-edge technology, can sell for around 500 pounds on the market, and it seems that one named Aske took it.

Aren’t you going after him?”

“Chase?

Of course,” Matthews sneered, “Fourth Squad, catch that guy!”

Accordingly, a squad of Sword and Shield Warriors left on their orders.

Andrea also turned his head to give a few instructions, sending out a squad of Gothic Knights to pursue Aske.

Afterward, the two fell silent, glancing down at the corpse of Fengkexim.

“Missing an arm,” Andrea noted.

“Perhaps it dropped somewhere,” Matthews said.

“Why don’t you look for it?

I’ll watch over the body in the meantime.”

“What if you take the body and run?” Andrea countered.

“Then you can go after that Aske and get hold of the Slaughterer III Rifle, which is worth 500 pounds,” Matthews said.

“Heh,” Andrea shook his head and remained silent.

“What, you don’t trust me?” Matthews said mockingly.

“How about this: you chase Aske, and I’ll keep watch over this body?” Andrea offered coldly, sneering, “We’ve dealt with each other for so many years, haven’t we?

Let’s not play these mind games, it’s pointless.”

“In that case,” Matthews fell silent for a moment, “how about we each send out ten men to deliver his head back to the Church Court to collect the bounty?”

“That’s fine,” Andrea said, “but I want to escort him personally.”

…

Aske was running swiftly ahead, with the mercenaries in hot pursuit behind him, not bothering with any meaningless shouts like “Stop!”

Everyone was well aware that if they caught up, it’d come to a life-or-death fight.

Ahead was the cliff’s edge; Aske dashed to the brink, turned around, and saw the mercenaries blocking his path, sighing with internal relief.

No matter what, he now had his back against the wall.

“Give my regards to the two Squad Leaders,” Aske said leisurely.

“Also, what the Church Court truly wants is the external implant chip behind Fengkexim’s right neck.”

After stating this indifferently, he spread his arms and leaned outward, tumbling off the cliff.

Down he went.

The mercenaries exchanged glances, some rushing to the edge to peer below, but Aske’s shadow was nowhere to be seen.

After a brief discussion, these mercenaries could only choose to swiftly return to report to Matthews and Andrea.

The Church Court wants the external implant chip behind Fengkexim’s right neck—this was an important secret.

Aske had divulged it publicly only to incite infighting between the Steel Cross and Free Wind, so they’d be too preoccupied to chase after him.

It was a blatant scheme, but even though the mercenaries were fully aware, they had no choice but to go back and inform their leaders in haste.

While falling through the air, Aske activated his Spirituality, teleporting his body back to Fire Island.

Thus, only the book “Absurd Dreams” remained in his original spot, tumbling and rolling down the cliffside until finally, with a snap, it landed at the bottom of the valley.

A few minutes later, Aske teleported back, picked up “Absurd Dreams” from the ground, and indeed found not a single page damaged.

For an artifact capable of Sealing a Half-plane Fragment, such durability was to be expected.

At this moment, he was deep in the Rhodope Mountain, clearly unable to return to Stanimaka Town via the north; it was out of the question that Steel Cross and Free Wind wouldn’t set ambushes along the way.

Now, it seemed his only option was to take the southern mountain path to reach Legki and then turn eastward back to Constantinople.

Carefully calculating, he figured he’d arrive in Constantinople at just about the right time.

Just as Aske was trekking through the Rhodope Mountain, a Venetian fleet carrying five thousand Frank Knights, along with ten thousand knight attendants, had already entered the Aegean Sea.

Leading them was Marquis Bernifax from Mongphilat, heeding the call of the Church Court to aid the East Solomon Empire in Anatolia, against the invading Seljuk forces.

Knowing they were going to slaughter infidels, the devout Frank Knights, though nearly sick to death from the turbulent long sea voyage, still persisted in cleaning their Long Spears and armor every day.

Until Marquis Bernifax announced on deck, “We are not going to Anatolia anymore; we’re changing course for Constantinople.”

“What?” the Frank Knights were startled.

Wasn’t the agreement to go to Anatolia and slay the infidels?

“Because we haven’t received the money,” Governor Enrique of Venice interjected, “The agreed transport fee was 50,000 silver marks, to be paid in four installments.”

“However, the message from our bank is that we’ve only received 5,000 of the 15,000 marks due for the first installment.”

The Frank Knights began to stir upon hearing this.

Their only responsibility was to fight; they had no concept of financial matters, so their attention uniformly turned to their leader, Marquis Mongphilat.

The latter coughed and said,

“Here’s the situation.

Since Constantinople sent out a distress signal to the West, although the Holy Throne couldn’t send the Temple Knights, he called upon the lords who are devout believers of God to generously donate funds for support.”

“In the end, we collected 5,000 silver marks, and we agreed with Constantinople that for the remaining 10,000 silver marks, they would pay the equivalent amount in gold…”

“Governor Enrique, could you please confirm that Constantinople indeed did not deliver the upfront payment to you?”

“Indeed they did not,” Governor Enrique replied.

Being an old man in his eighties and blind, his words immediately gained the trust of the Frank Knights.

“That’s strange,” Marquis Mongphilat said, “Logically, since we’re going to rescue Constantinople, they should naturally pay the transportation costs.”

“There must be some misunderstanding.

How about we head to Constantinople first and clear things up with the two Your Majesties?”

Thus, the Frank Knights began to clamor in agreement, saying all right, let’s go to Constantinople to settle the debt owed to the Venetians before anything else.