Chapter 954 Backup Plan
With just one punch, the blade on Ksana's right hand was thrown out, missing the target's neck by less than half an inch.
However, her body was sent flying into the distance, crashing hard into a car aside.
Despite the precarious situation, Ksana still used her last bit of energy to land on her back.
Charleigh was a mortal and didn't possess any spiritual energy. Hence, if she used him as a shield, he wouldn't have any
spiritual energy protecting his organs and would be instantly crushed by the huge impact.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Ksana was leaning against a deeply-dented car, blood sputtering out of her mouth.
The punch had shattered her left shoulder and ribs, with bone fragments piercing through her left lung.
Ksana's body was completely wrecked.
The worst thing was, Ksana's spiritual energy was in disarray, and she couldn't gather them to treat her injuries.
Blood gushed out of Ksana's mouth and nose as she lowered her head to look at her own body.
The four fingers of her left hand were severed, and her left arm was completely shattered, hanging limply from her shoulder.
Despite being badly bashed, Ksana's right hand stubbornly clung to the backpack in her embrace.
Fresh blood dripped on Charleigh's face, and Ksana reached out to wipe away the blood with her right hand.
“You're still alive...”
Charleigh was lying in her embrace, his vacant eyes blinking.
He had witnessed how Ksana fought through the battle.
Despite the fact that Ksana had only fought her opponent twice, and both battles lasted only mere seconds, Charleigh was still
shell-shocked by her vicious moves.
It was apparent that Charleigh was the one being targeted, so Ksana could have escaped unscathed by simply leaving him
behind. Thus, Charleigh was confused as to why she chose to remain and protect him in such a dangerous situation.
Does she think so highly of herself, that she's an indispensable agent of the war?
However, it was implausible that Ksana, a killing machine, would devote her allegiance to Chanaea nor Remdik.
It was also hard for Charleigh to believe that Ksana was blindly following Jonathan's orders.
A slave contract was merely a tool to manipulate someone's life and death, and it had no binding magic that would end their life if
they dared to breach the contract.
Given the circumstances, Charleigh believed that Jonathan would have forgiven Ksana even if she had chosen to abandon the
mission given to her to save him.
It was three against one, and Ksana didn't stand a chance at all.
Moreover, Asura's Office lacked high level cultivators.
Besides, Charleigh had crossed paths with Jonathan, and to his understanding, the latter was no tyrant.
Hence, all factors considered, leaving Charleigh was actually Ksana's best choice.
“Why did you protect me?” Charleigh asked in a hoarse voice.
Ksana did not reply and merely lifted the backpack closer to herself.
“The reason is not important... We're going to die soon. Here, lean on me. We have to die with dignity, holding our heads high
like human beings... We are no robots or mere tools!”
Ksana wiped away the fresh blood on her face with some effort.
She was but an eighteen-year-old girl. If she had to die now, she wanted to die with grace.
Charleigh's eyes were calm as still water as he looked at Ksana.
He slowly parted his lips when he noticed three people approaching them.
“Go tell the tsar that he'd better kill me for good. Otherwise, he'd suffer the full wrath of the Rodunst royals.”
“Don't worry,” a burly man said with a cold chuckle. “The Rodunst royals will not wage war with Remdik because of a lunatic.”
With a loud bang, a giant battle axe slashed down on Ksana and Charleigh.
However, the moment the battle axe dropped, the burly man staggered a few steps back as if sensing something powerful.
As he retrieved the battle axe to protect himself, a bullet hit the giant battle axe and was flicked aside.
The crisp sounds of sniper rifles finally rang out.
The group of men grimaced at the sight of the shell crater.
“Snipers! Kill them first!” the burly man bellowed.
Following the burly man's orders, the injured cultivator held a long sword in his hand, leapt over ten meters in a single bound and
aimed directly at Charleigh's head.
“Open!” Charleigh roared.
A giant crimson arcane array raised around him and materialized into an intricate spirit shield, protecting Charleigh and Ksana
behind it.
The injured cultivator swung his long sword at the spirit shield, but the shield merely trembled slightly before returning to its
stable state.
This thing can withstand the attack of a God Realm cultivator?
Ksana, who was awaiting her doom, widened her eyes in disbelief at Charleigh at the sight of the spirit shield.
“Aren't you stripped of your spiritual energy?”
“I'm a scientist!” Charleigh let out a chortle. “I can design an explosive that responds to voice commands. The button on my shirt
is a switch, and the front of my shirt is inscribed with the arcane array. It's deactivated under normal circumstances. However,
under my command, it will explode and activate the arcane array on the shirt—”
Clang!
Before Charleigh could finish, the giant battle axe had already landed on his formation.
The blow had clearly impacted the efficacy of the arcane array, as it started to show signs of disintegration.
“Hey, didn't we have help? Where are they?” Charleigh yelled anxiously.
The hidden switch was his invention, combining technology and cultivation.
He hadn't even considered employing it when Ksana cut his limbs off. After all, even if he activated the arcane array, it would
have disintegrated following spiritual energy's dissipation, and he would still be left crippled by Ksana.
It would have been meaningless to deploy his hidden switch, even if he was in depths of despair just now.
However, it was different now. There was a beacon of hope for survival. Hence, Charleigh activated the arcane array to buy
some time, all so the reinforcements could make it in time to save them.
However, there was not a single movement after the bullet.
Even a lunatic like Charleigh couldn't accept that the glimmer of hope was gone.
However, Ksana smiled.
The voice that had contacted her previously rang again in her ears through the earpiece.
“Hang in there. We're closing in. Five hundred meters... Three hundred meters... We've spotted you!”
Crack!
As the spirit shield shattered atop Ksana's head, a peculiar-looking long sword swooped in from the side and was thrown right at
the burly man's chest.
A man, dressed in a black fighting robe and a black mask, appeared right in front of Ksana, holding a heavy wooden shield in his
hand.
“Dark Special Forces of Asura's Office, code name Number 1,” Karl announced coldly to the three Remdikians.
Then, he cocked his head sideways to look at Ksana and uttered, “You guys aren't going to die, are you?”