Chapter 1878 - 586: This Is My Escape Route! (6k)_3
Chapter 1878: Chapter 586: This Is My Escape Route! (6k)_3
He really couldn’t say it was because he’d felt the believers would appear from this direction, ignored the command, and concentrated everyone here that he’d let the enemy slip away...
Knowing it was his own mistake, he didn’t plan to directly admit it, but he didn’t intend to deny it either.
"I’ll take people and give chase right now!"
Leaving that sentence on the comms, the captain looked back at the teammates catching up behind him, made a hand gesture to the Martial Artist he’d spoken to before the battle, then was the first to strap on a pile of mechanical gear and charge toward the direction the believers had retreated.
The Transcendents in the squad varied in strength; he couldn’t slow himself down for the sake of his teammates.
The only one who could keep up with him was that Martial Artist who was also 4th Rank.
Just as they reached the blasted-out crater, two other Transcendents appeared at the edge as well and dashed out together with him.
With one glance, the captain recognized them as the two 4th Rank from the Gemini Empire’s 5th District squad next door.
"How come you Empire guys are this slow too? Didn’t you have people over there?"
The captain frowned, but there was no intent to blame in his tone.
After all, he was the one who’d screwed up; he had no grounds to sound tough.
"The strike coordinates were on the fringe, we only assigned Tier Three there." Even if we’d sent higher, it would’ve just been sending them to die.
The captain mentally filled in that last sentence for them, and didn’t question it.
This was the proper deployment: when the location of the surprise attack was unknown, only by placing the main Combat Power in the center where the probability was highest could they respond to the surroundings faster.
Though because of this reasonable arrangement, combined with his mistake, they’d happened to miss the chance to block the believers at the first moment.
Relying on 4th Rank speed, the four quickly caught up to the believer squad that still had ordinary people mixed in, and once again came under fire from that strange Firearms.
Only now did the captain truly understand what his friend had meant by "troublesome."
Not a single Attack was aimed directly at them; every shot just randomly exploded in front of them.
But the effects of those Attacks were no longer simple explosions.
Some made everything around them viscous, some forcibly froze them, some even unleashed poison mist so nasty even they had to be careful, and some built up huge rocky Creations like buildings...
Every single Potion Spell was different, but each one was a pain in the ass, seriously dragging down their speed.
Not only did they fail to catch up to the believers, the distance between them was steadily widening.
"Damn it, that direction—that’s a ground Star Port!"
Bursting out from an iceberg made of frost, the captain recognized the shape of the building in the distance.
"I’ve got a Spell that can Attack from long range and destroy the Star Port’s structures."
The captain from the Gemini Empire next door raised his gaze to the distance and suggested.
"Then it’s on you. We have to stall them!" the captain said in a low voice.
It wasn’t that he had some deep grudge against the Church; he’d simply been played once just now. If they really got away like this, his pride would be in shreds.
The Empire captain glanced over, a strange look flashing in his eyes.
His movement Casting the flight Spell suddenly halted in mid-air; a second later, a powerful Light Cannon roared past the captain’s side and slammed straight into the Star Port’s outer buildings.
The buildings in the city had never been built to withstand war. No one would spend dozens of times the cost to reinforce some ordinary construction that would never see use.
Under a 4th Rank offensive Spell, it was no different from a controlled demolition; it collapsed in an instant.
"What’s with those Transcendents? With that kind of Attack, why not just blast us? What’s the point of taking down a tower?"
The Tier Three believer being chased in front grumbled in confusion.
He’d indeed been startled when the high-rise collapsed, but it wasn’t the kind of crisis he couldn’t handle—he actually had more than one way to deal with it.
Which was exactly why he couldn’t understand why they were doing it this way.
"Unless..." The Tier Three believer’s eyes lit up. "This is that deliberate opportunity the Archbishops were talking about?"
The rumor that in the Three Great Civilizations’ encirclement there would be insiders deliberately creating gaps had already spread throughout the Red Moon Church.
If he hadn’t run into it today, he wouldn’t have believed that people from the Three Great Civilizations would purposely let them go.
Settling his thoughts, the believer decisively grabbed the "Water gun" in his hands, loaded a Potion, and fired it into the sky.
The ice-blue Magic Power struck the collapsing structure and instantly turned into a curtain of hanging frost, forming a forest of ice beneath the falling building to prop it up.
As ice pillars, there was no way they could truly support a tumbling high-rise, but buying some time was doable.
And while that brief interval lasted, the believers surged past under the still-active acceleration Spell; only then did the ice shatter, mingling with the collapsing building as it came crashing down in front of the four pursuing Transcendents.
By the time the four Transcendents finally clambered over the fallen building and reached the top of the rubble, a ship was already rising into the sky, quickly pulling away.
"The believers we were chasing have seized a ship—get the planetary defense system to intercept, fast!"
The captain of the Radiant Federation reported urgently over comms.
He understood as well: once they were aboard a ship, the odds of the planetary defenses shooting it down were already slim. This was more of a token attempt than anything.
"Radiant Federation curse, didn’t think they’d have this move up their sleeve!"
"Combat changes in an instant, and those believers’ Divine Arts are especially varied. First contact—no one could’ve predicted this."
The Gemini Empire captain patted his shoulder in consolation.
"No need to sugarcoat it. This time it’s my fault—I misjudged and left a hole for them to break through.
I won’t deny it. Once we’re back, I’ll write a self-critique report."