HCB Chapter 213 Taking the bait
Chapter 213 Taking the bait
"Blah, blah..."
The scarlet blood dripped from Howard's fingertips onto the ground drop by drop.
His life was fading fast.
Even with the protection of the Goddess of Life, he couldn't commit suicide indefinitely. He had no soul, couldn't absorb spiritual energy, and the only thing he relied on to repair his body was the substances already in his body.
If we could weigh ourselves before and after, even if Howard's wound healed, his body weight would not change, and might even decrease a little, because the energy used for repairing was not generated out of thin air.
After trekking through the desert and repairing the wounds caused by the laser gun, his body's functions had almost reached their limits. Now he had dealt himself another major blow, and this time the power of the Goddess of Life was beginning to struggle to sustain.
Howard's senses were rapidly fading. He felt Gloria laying him flat on the ground, and then he felt a slight tingling in his thigh. It was Gloria injecting him with an injection, trying to save him.
However, Gloria was obviously a little panicked when she did this, because she injected Howard with the resuscitation needle in her armor. This injection is a good first aid medicine for 40k superheroes like the Battle Sister, but not for Howard. This dose of resuscitation needle would kill a 3k cow, not to mention Howard, a mortal in the 3k era.
After one injection, Howard's blood pressure soared. The wound on his chest, which had been bleeding, now spurted out a small stream of blood, which was blocked by the flustered Gloria.
Gloria's actions weren't necessarily inadequate, but they were also reckless. However, that wasn't her fault. Her training had focused solely on combat and devotion to the Emperor. Field rescue and the like were never part of their curriculum, and they even loathed such knowledge. They believed the Emperor blessed the devout, and if a soldier died from a bullet on the battlefield, it meant they weren't devout enough.
Gloria's reckless actions made Howard's condition worse, but this was also in line with Howard's wishes. He did not want to be healed by humans casually, otherwise his method of forcing the spirit out with his life would be invalid.
On the scale of life and death, he was now accelerating towards death.
On the invisible gambling table, he bet all and only chips he had - his life, while other gamblers at the table were still watching.
It's like the game of catch-a-stick. Howard once played this game during a boring team building event. The rules are simple: a stick is painted different colors from bottom to top, then dropped vertically from the air. The challenge is to see who can catch the stick. The higher the part of the stick they catch, the higher the score. Players must resist their instincts and not wait to catch the stick as soon as it falls, as that would result in a low score. However, they can't wait too long, as if they haven't caught it by the time it hits the ground, they'll get zero points.
Now the other members at the gambling table all have this mentality. On the one hand, they hope that they will make a move later than other gamblers, but they also don't want to let the opportunity slip away, so they are all holding on to see who will give up first.
This was a tough situation for Howard. He knew he would not die, but that didn't mean he liked the feeling of being on the verge of death.
After a heart shatters, unless death occurs immediately, the effects of adrenaline and residual blood oxygen allow a person to maintain consciousness for approximately thirty seconds. During these thirty long seconds, Howard could clearly feel everything rapidly leaking out of the hole in his chest. He lost sensation first in his extremities. The wounds on his chest and face no longer hurt due to blood loss, leaving him feeling only cold.
Gloria, who was unaware of the truth, was still trying to rescue Howard, but she didn't dare to inject him with drugs anymore, so she began to press Howard and kept slapping his face in an attempt to wake him up.
Howard just lay there, letting her do whatever she wanted. He had already done everything he could, and the rest was beyond his control. If someone came to save him, then the game could continue. If he really died...
I'd rather die then. This shitty world is really not likable at all. Screw it!
The bored little man in my mind whistled the ninth symphony by a certain music master.
While Gloria was busy rescuing Howard, unusual movements occurred on the other side of the battlefield. Some ghostly shadows began to appear. These shadows moved silently and quickly among the dense orcs, but no orc noticed them.
These shadows will not attack the orcs directly, but they can accurately find those orcs with the most firepower and the most ammunition. They will attack in an instant, or cut the orcs' ammunition belts, or sprinkle some strange powder upwards, and the orcs are completely unaware of this until the tampered ammunition explodes and kills it and the orcs around it.
The pressure on the human troops who were in desperate situation and ready to fight to the death was suddenly relieved a lot. Many soldiers raised their guns, but before they could fire, the orcs they were aiming at fell down or were swallowed up by the explosion from nowhere. However, the commanders of each combat team did not slack off. These lowest-level commanders on the battlefield were still commanding their few remaining men to clear out and block the remaining orcs.
The first person to discover these ghosts moving around was a combat nun with a lily mark on her face. She immediately raised her weapon and aimed it at these suspicious visitors. Even though these ghosts seemed to be attacking the orcs from their actions, the combat nun did not hastily assume that these ghosts were friendly forces.
The enemy of my enemy may be a more difficult enemy.
After realizing that they had been discovered—or perhaps these ghosts had no intention of hiding themselves from this group of humans, which is why they were discovered so easily—these ghosts stopped in groups of three or two at a safe distance, and completely removed the optical camouflage covering their bodies.
There were a dozen or so tall and thin humanoid creatures wearing close-fitting light armor and masks.
"Elves?!" The battle nun immediately identified these ghostly races.
These ghosts also took off their masks, and their appearance under the masks was almost the same as that of humans, except that they were more handsome, proving that the battle nun's guess was correct.
"Human friends, you have encountered some troubles. Please come with us. Maybe we can help each other in some things." The leading elf did not waste any words, but directly stated his purpose.
The captain of the Sisters of Silence did not want to have anything to do with this group of bean sprouts. She raised her weapon and planned to answer with bullets.
But just before she fired, another ghost came up from behind her and stabbed a sharp dagger into the weak part of her armor. The dagger was coated with an unknown poison. The moment the dagger pierced the body of the Silent Sister, the poison took effect. The nun immediately lost her strength and was crushed to the ground by the heavy armor on her body, unable to move.
Soon, using the same method, all the higher-end combat forces on the human team were knocked down one by one, including Gloria.
Then an Eldar picked up Howard from the ground and injected a light golden potion into him to maintain his vital signs.
The Eldar saw Howard's lips moving slightly, and out of curiosity, she put her ear closer to listen to what this mortal was saying.
Then, beneath the invisible mask, the Eldar's eyes suddenly widened.
This mortal is saying:
"I got you."