Free Web NovelChapter 277: Chapter 265: Siege
By the time Yvonne Lynch realized she was being carried along in the jaws of a large tiger and the scenery had finally stopped moving, more than three minutes had passed before her vision swam from a white blur into focus.
A white tiger named Snowy dropped Yvonne Lynch in front of Flora Bloom, then docilely crouched beside her and nuzzled her hand.
"Snowy! How many times have I told you? Stop carrying people around in your mouth for fun!" Flora Bloom remembered the last time she’d needed to see Shelly. Snowy had brought Shelly to her in the same fashion, and the poor girl had fainted.
"Are you okay, Yvonne Lynch?"
Yvonne Lynch stared at the pair of fair, slender legs before her and unsteadily pushed herself to her feet. She gave her ringing head a shake.
"Miss Flora Bloom, your pet is certainly... unique." Yvonne Lynch still felt weak all over, and the look she gave Snowy was filled with horror.
Flora Bloom gave Snowy a light kick on the rump. "Go on, shoo! Go play with Vert!"
"Haha, Snowy’s just mischievous and was playing around. I hope you don’t mind. You can just call me Flora Bloom. What did you come to see me for?"
"Oh, right. The base is preparing to besiege a monster. My subordinates reported that it... it looks a lot like Annelise Locke, the one who came back with you last time!"
Flora Bloom’s brow furrowed, her expression growing serious. "So, the monster the base has been trying to corner for the past few days... is Annelise Locke?"
Yvonne Lynch nodded. "There’s no mistaking it!"
"Come on, I’ll go with you!"
Annelise Locke had disappeared three days ago after leaving a note. The note said she was going to find her brother, Jack Locke.
The very night they returned from the Eye of Earthly Fire, Three-Eyes had torn down over half the base. Annelise Locke had gone to the civilian district to look for her brother, but he was long gone; she couldn’t find him.
To Flora Bloom, Annelise Locke’s awakened Beast Ability seemed incredibly powerful, but to others, it was just freakish. Even though the apocalypse had been raging for over two months, the form of a human-serpent hybrid was still more than most people could accept.
Yvonne Lynch’s news was timely. Flora Bloom made a snap decision and rushed toward the base with her.
By the time they arrived, Quinn was leading his fully-armed team. Alongside squads from three other factions, they were poised for action, cautiously approaching the dilapidated low-rise building.
Flora Bloom quietly slipped into Quinn’s squad. She shrouded her face in a translucent water mist, the refraction of light obscuring her features from anyone who looked her way.
"What’s the situation? Are we sure it’s Annelise Locke? Or her brother?" Flora Bloom asked in a low voice.
"We can’t be sure. All we know is that it has the body of a human and the tail of a serpent. We can’t confirm its identity," Quinn said flatly.
Just then, Sepherdine walked over to Quinn’s squad to coordinate the attack. He noticed an unfamiliar figure join them but couldn’t make out their face.
By the time he drew closer and stepped among Quinn’s men, the figure had vanished without a trace.
"Captain Lawson, we’re about to start the attack. Are your snipers in position?"
"Mhm, they’re in position at the highest surrounding vantage points."
Sepherdine glanced around, puzzled, but he still couldn’t spot the person who had just slipped into Quinn’s squad. "Strange. Captain Lawson, did you bring in reinforcements? Why not introduce them?"
Quinn knew Sepherdine must have seen Flora Bloom, but he remained outwardly indifferent. "No, you must have seen wrong. Captain Sepherdine, how are we deploying for the attack?"
"Oh, I was thinking we’d select a group from each of our four squads to form a vanguard and scout things out."
Before he could finish his sentence, Quinn cut him off. "My people will not be the vanguard."
Sepherdine frowned. "Everyone else is contributing people from their squads to scout ahead. If you’re not willing, Captain Lawson, that’s not fair to the others. It also puts me in a very difficult position."
"My people are all ordinary humans without superpowers. It’s ridiculous for you to talk about fairness, Captain Sepherdine."
"But since you’ve joined this roundup operation, I don’t think you can afford to be so uncooperative, can you, Captain Lawson?"
Quinn hadn’t wanted to participate in this operation in the first place. He only joined because he received intel that the target was a "human-serpent" monster.
’If I don’t cooperate now, it will likely disrupt Flora Bloom’s plan.’
"In that case, I’ll take Yvonne Lynch with me."
As Quinn spoke, his team members immediately objected.
"Captain, we’ll go with you!"
"Yeah, Captain! We don’t know where that monster is hiding, and it’s extremely dangerous. We can’t let you and Yvonne Lynch go by yourselves!"
Quinn shook his head. "Don’t worry, everyone. I know what I’m doing. Amos Rooney, have the snipers ready. Prepare to act on my hand signal!"
Amos Rooney was in on the plan, so he understood Quinn’s intentions. ’That Flora Bloom woman is something else. She might have come alone, but you never know when one of her giant pets might leap out from some corner. And especially not Isla Preston.’
Amos Rooney and the others didn’t know Isla Preston’s true identity. But a few days ago, when Flora Bloom had led them on a clearing operation in Villa District 3, they had witnessed Isla Preston tear zombies apart with her bare hands and crack their skulls open. The sight had filled them with dread. It was also why they’d ranked Flora Bloom second on their list of People Not To Be Messed With.
As for number one on that list... that was the man who, upon seeing them talking with Flora Bloom, had glanced back at them with a cold, piercing gaze. He had unleashed a massive wave of his Thunder Ability into the zombie horde, instantly annihilating dozens of them. The lightning seemed to follow his gaze, as if it could strike them next, and it sent a chill down their spines. That day, they had hastily wrapped up their conversation with Flora Bloom and fled the villa district.
"Without my command, you are not to act, even if you see me in danger. Understand?"
After a moment’s hesitation, the men nodded in acknowledgment and watched as Quinn and Yvonne Lynch departed with Sepherdine. freewēbnoveℓ.com
After just a few sentences of dialogue, seeing the ordinary people loyal to Quinn standing by with guns in hand—looking as if they would execute anyone who crossed their leader—Sepherdine couldn’t help but be impressed. ’The man knows how to command his subordinates,’ he thought. ’To get these regular humans fully armed and so devoted to him in such a short time, to display such unity... This Quinn is a rare talent. He can’t be underestimated.’
Meanwhile, Flora Bloom, shrouded in a white mist that concealed her from everyone’s sight, had already slipped into the dilapidated building first.
The dilapidated structure had once been an old residential building, aged and with small windows. Outside, the ever-rising Eye of Earthly Fire blotted out half the sun. Only a few meager shafts of light managed to pierce through the largest breach in the wall.
This was all thanks to Three-Eyes, who had trampled these old buildings, leaving only these two condemned structures that were barely two stories high.
"Annelise, are you in here?"
The sound of falling debris, CRUMBLE... CLATTER..., echoed around her as she ventured deeper inside. The farther she went, the more Flora Bloom felt a sinister presence lurking nearby, watching her.
"Annelise? Is that you?" Flora Bloom wasn’t sure if this unfamiliar aura belonged to Annelise or her brother. Ever since Annelise Locke had reached the Middle Level, her aura had been highly unstable. One moment, it resembled the superpower of a human user; the next, it would shift into a purely Beast Type presence—cold and sinister.
