Chapter 45: Pursuit

　　"What are you looking at?"

　　The moon was in the middle of the sky, tonight the moon only shyly showed a small half crescent, a few floating clouds floating around it, letting the silver veil sprinkled to the ground appear and disappear, flowing with the clouds. Alan was standing on the edge of a cliff that sloped out into the void, and from this direction he could, with the help of the moonlight, see the large lake that served as a gladiatorial arena not far away.

　　Lucy sat next to her, having already switched to a new magazine, she looked over at Alan with a puzzled look in her eyes. The night breeze blew a few strands of her hair, stretching it in the wind as if it were long golden sleeves.

　　"Look there." Alan pointed to the west side of the large lake, "The dangerous species have started to leave, but they're deliberately avoiding that area."

　　"So what?"

　　"Anse and Lucien have gotten together." Allen said.

　　Lucy narrowed her eyes and peered carefully toward the spot. The lake was refilling in the moonlight. The surrounding dangerous species of various colors were also retreating, but they naturally avoided the mountains and forests that were heading west. Lucy nodded, ''It seems you were right, the dangerous species are only avoiding one direction. In other words, those two are leaving in pairs."

　　This was of course, if one left in two directions, then the dangerous species would avoid the other direction again. Alan sat down and said, "What did you think of Anse's performance earlier?"

　　"Swimming." Lucy commented succinctly, "He's so nimble, Venn has trouble locking onto him."

　　"What about you?"

　　"At full strength, I can still suppress him." Lucy shrugged her shoulders, her turquoise eyes filled with confidence.

　　Alan nodded, "I was just thinking that maybe Anse simply ended up doing his best in the previous fight. Otherwise, your fight with Venn should have ended earlier."

　　"If you put it that way ...," Lucy recalled the images of the previous battle, "Indeed, Anse had several chances to take Vine down, but he always backed down when it mattered. I originally thought that he was cautious by nature, but now that you've said that, it looks like he's deliberately letting Vine off the hook. What was his purpose in doing so?"

　　"For Fatty to take out Mike." Alan shook his head, "In the end, it's just a matter of choice. Four people were eliminated this time, leaving a few of us. You and I are bound to be in a group, so for the rest, Anse can only pick another person for the alliance. Obviously, he gave up on Mike. From his standpoint, this is indeed a wise choice, Lucien can be a bit harder to deal with than Mike."

　　"Just difficult?" Lucy asked suddenly.

　　Alan showed a mouthful of snow-white teeth, "Of course, only difficult."

　　He patted Lucy on the shoulder, "Come on, we can't afford to waste time here."

　　"What for?"

　　"Go after both of them."

　　"What?" Lucy looked at Alan with some surprise, "I thought you'd want to rest, after all we have a day to ignore the dangerous species."

　　"That's right, and as you know the nanobots have a 24 hour time limit. In that time limit, we don't have to worry about being targeted by dangerous species, and what better time to go after those two?"

　　"So what's your plan?"

　　Alan spread his hands, "Track, and when you find them. I'll pounce on Fatty with all my might, you just keep pressure on Anse. When we're done with Fatty, we'll go back to Anse."

　　"That's it?"

　　"That's it! Let's go, if we dawdle any longer maybe we won't be able to keep up with them."

　　The two figures quickly left the cliff, and the cliff rocks were bleak under the moonlight. This night was going to be very long.

　　Soon, Alan and Lucy returned to the lake where they had been before. Following the shore of the lake around to the west side, they passed a sloping sandstone slope and entered a dense forest through a row of coconut trees. The forest was somewhat dimly lit, and Alan dared not flash any light sources for fear of attracting the attention of the two Ans. He circled around the entry point first, and a few moments later found a pair of shallow footprints on the ground.

　　Looking at the size of the footprints should be the fat man's, with the footprints, the next tracking would be very smooth. Alan has been living in the wild for many years, and learning the skills of catching prey with snow wolves, he naturally has a knack for tracking traces. So Lucy watched curiously as he sometimes touched the ground, occasionally sniffed at the edge of the shrubs, and then led himself on a long drive.

　　Meanwhile, the two Ans, who were about a kilometer away from the two Allens, stopped. They found a campsite, which was next to a couple of low peaks, with a couple of caves on the side that had been eroded out by the wind and rain. One of them was nearly a meter deep and was perfect for spending the night. Lucien dug in first, occupying a dry area deep within the cave.

　　Fatty sat down on his butt, patted his stomach and said, "Do you have any food on you, I'm hungry."

　　Lucien's size, sat down next to the mountain wall, almost took up half of the cave. Ans had no choice but to find a position with a back wind and sit down. He smiled bitterly and said, "I was driven by those Steel Plume War Eagles to the point where I almost even dropped my pants, and I originally had a bag of compressed cookies, but I dropped them halfway through."

　　"What then?" Lucien rolled his eyes.

　　Anse looked at the sky and said, "Let's just make do for the night and make plans for tomorrow."

　　"Bullshit, how can I sleep when I'm hungry. You, go to the forest and hunt a few random beavers or something, roast them and eat them first. I'll be in charge of making the fire." Lu Sen patted his stomach and said.

　　Anse narrowed his eyes, a sneer tugging at the corner of his mouth, "You have to understand, I'm not Verne."

　　"Nonsense, I know you're Anse."

　　"I mean, I'm not one of your men, understand?" Anse emphasized, "We're working together now."

　　Lucien said with a leathery smile, "So it's not a division of labor for you to hunt and me to build the fire?"

　　Ans finally realized that when Fatty was rogue, he could be so shameless. He was clearly taking the easiest part towards himself, how much better could the efficiency be when working with such a person? Just now is not the time to tear his face, Ans nodded: "Don't make the fire too strong, it's better to make it in the cave, don't attract some unnecessary trouble ..."

　　"Come on, don't I know it?" Lucien waved his fat hand impatiently.

　　Anse grunted coldly and burrowed out of the cave. Lucien hemmed and hawed and laughed dryly, also going outside to gather dead branches in order to build a fire. Shortly after Anse burrowed into the forest, two bright red lights lit up behind a patch of bushes. Alan pointed in Anse's direction, and Lucy nodded and catapulted away quietly. Alan stayed still, his hand gently holding the cold grip of the Mad Butcher, and quietly watched Lucien gradually move in his direction.

　　A wolf's pounce didn't require much sophistication; often life and death were decided in a split second. Allen waited for that moment to occur, he was quiet, his breathing gentle. His body even subtly adjusted its orientation with the moonlight, so that he blended in perfectly with his environment. Lucien didn't realize anything, and was even happy to be able to instruct this guy Anse, as a way to satisfy his small vanity.

　　Lucien came from a family of butchers and he was the eldest son of the family. From a very young age, the fat man had to help his father, who had a short temper, a bad personality, and a penchant for drinking bad wine, with his work. When he learned that he would be given the chance to participate in this edition of the Death Ring by Wise Brain Pumping, Lucien felt as if he saw God smiling down on him.

　　He could finally get out of that damn, dirty, pigsty-like room. No more pulling his father out of bed at three in the morning every day, no more being beaten up as a punching bag when his father was in a bad mood. All this, only to be able to live to the end.

　　Lucien understood what he wanted when he was at training camp, so he worked extra hard. He wasn't the first to light the fire, but he was the only guy to walk out of the training camp. And now, all he had to do was take out three more people and he'd be living in paradise.

　　Upon stepping out of Yellowstone, the first thing Lucien does is beat up the man he calls his father. Or even, kill him?

　　The fat man whistled in a happy mood, unknowingly having picked up a bundle of dead branches. One of them, was picked up near the shrub where Allen was hiding. But even at such a close distance, Lucien did not realize that the dead god was hiding in the shadows behind the shrub. As he whistled some sort of ditty from his home town, he turned around, exposing his fat-filled back to Allen's gaze.

　　Alan knew that the moment he had been waiting for had come.

　　Raising his sword and leaping up, his source power whistled!

　　In a split second's effort, though, Alan's eyes were illuminated by the rays of rushing source power. The Mad Butcher trembled sharply and hummed. The patterns on the blade were activated and lit up. When the pitch-black blade arced behind Lu Sen, it was like the God of Death had unveiled his curved scythe that took away people's lives. With a snort, the front end of the Mad Butcher popped out an energy blade, illuminating Lucien's face, which was full of shock as he looked back!

　　"Alan?" Fatty screamed.

　　Alan chopped down with force, and the vortexes of physical source power chased and collided with each other. Five consecutive vortexes collided, erupting a huge force that pushed the Mad Butcher down like a mountain! Withered branches fell all over the ground, and at the moment of life and death, Lucien inhaled and fired his energy. He transformed all of his source power into a source power shield, and when Mad Butcher chopped into the shield, it was like chopping into a quagmire. Alan stifled a grunt and pushed his source power with all his might, pushing Mad Butcher forward.

　　Lucien's fat face turned pale, then flushed with an unnatural redness, and finally turned iron blue. The source power shield was cut open by the mad slaughter, Lucien shouted, and his fist condensed the only remaining source power, and smashed heavily into Allen's chest, deciding to fight to the death.

　　Alan's eyes were awe-inspiring, not retreating but advancing. After chopping through the Source Force Protection Slaughter, the Mad Slaughter made a turn and picked up again, pulling out another string moon. The moonlight swept past Lu Sen's neck, and at the same time, the fat man's heavy fist smashed into Allen's chest. With a loud muffled sound, the light armor on his chest immediately dented and burst, Allen sprayed a mist of blood from his mouth and nose, and flew down with his sword. Lu Sen, on the other hand, kept retreating backward and took six steps before stopping.

　　The fat man stared at Allen with rounded eyes, like an evil ghost. At that moment, the fat flesh of the clapboard between the neck flooded with a red line, and the fat flesh suddenly cracked on both sides, spurting out an arrow of blood. Lucien reached out to try to press his neck, but his hand reached the middle of the road, and finally fell down without power.

　　Lucien's eyes widened and to his death he couldn't believe that he had stopped there!