Ark Chess Player

The Ark Driver's central core rotated, the class card was inserted into the slot, and abundant power surged into his body.

"Specialist"

Layers of phantoms emerged once more. Amiya had adapted to this power. With a wave of her hand, she completed her transformation.

The heavy armor disappeared, replaced by thin cloth armor draped over her shoulders. A hooded cape covered her head, and long rabbit ears peeked out from an opening specially designed for her outfit. The neck armor fit perfectly with the ring-shaped Oripathy sensor.

Amiya held a curved short sword in each hand, the blades resembling black mirrors with a flowing dark red glow. Even though Amiya didn't know much about blades, she could sense that these black blades were unparalleled weapons; the curves of the blades were like black lines, capable of cutting through metal with ease.

A phantom rhombus pattern floated behind Amiya, swirling like a ghostly undercurrent, with two half-real, half-illusory shadows connecting to the ends of the short blade's hilt. Amiya had a feeling that she could wield these weapons at will, even retrieving them once thrown.

Amiya deftly turned the hilt of her knife, glanced at the location of the shattered bones, and vanished silently from the spot.

Five minutes, countdown begins.

The two were about 300 meters apart, and it took Amiya nearly 15 seconds to appear in the shadow of Shattered Bones!

Amiya had no intention of holding back now. Gavial was fighting the skeletal kidnappers alone, and a slight misstep could result in injury! She couldn't weigh Gavial's life against her own; this was her conviction. If someone had to die, it had to be her enemy.

Kindness is never a reason to be bullied.

"..."

Shattered Bones seemed to sense Amiya's presence behind him, but instead of making any hostile moves, he simply raised his hands. He didn't even remove the musket hanging at his waist; he didn't seem to be there to fight, but rather to die.

"Rhodes Island, I am not here to fight you."

Who would believe that?

"..."

Shattered Bones let out a long sigh, and he slowly turned around, maintaining the French military salute.

Amiya's black blade hovered silently five centimeters from Shattered Bones' heart, a dangerously close distance.

With Amiya's current exceptional combat skills and battlefield mobility, she is definitely faster than Bonebreaker. Once her opponent reveals any signs of preparing for a desperate fight, she will pierce their heart without hesitation.

"Misha."

Shattered Bones spoke, his voice coming through the whaling mask, sounding quite hoarse and low.

"I came here for Misha."

"We are fighting for Misha too." Amiya's tone was unusually cold, and the dark side of her Special Class emerged. She said coldly, "We will not hand Misha over to Reunion, and we don't care what she has. All we want to protect is her."

"Is that so?" Shattered Bones gazed into Amiya's deep blue eyes and said with emotion, "It's so good that Misha has you all by her side."

Amiya asked in confusion, "What did you say?"

Shattered Bones shook his head and slowly placed his hand on the whaling mask.

Amiya instantly moved the black blade forward two centimeters, its sharp edge just three centimeters away from slicing through the clothes that had shattered her bones.

The bone-crushing motion was quite slow, and he even deliberately controlled his breathing to avoid Amiya misunderstanding his actions. When the mask was removed, a handsome face was revealed before Amiya, a face almost identical to Misha's.

"I just want to take my sister away, that's all."

Alex said slowly.

When Chaoshan told Alex everything, the young boy felt utterly devastated, as if the sky had fallen.

His father, Sergei, was not the kind of villain who would betray his colleagues, wife, and children for wealth and glory.

The reason why the Ursus Research Institute was massacred was not because Sergei deliberately betrayed his colleagues, but because the Ursus authorities used Alex's life as a threat to force Sergei to bow down to them.

Sergei has lived in constant agony for years, bearing thirty-three cuts on his wrists. Whenever he attempts suicide, the Ursus authorities always find a way to revive him, forcing him to continue his forbidden experiments. Alex's mother was beaten to death by the Ursus authorities, and young Alex was sent to a mine—all acts of coercion against Sergei.

Alex had escaped from the mines by sheer luck and happened to end up in a village in northern Ursus, where a kind old woman carried him home. Had she not saved him, Alex would likely have become food for wild beasts or nourishment for the fertile snowfields.

The old lady had no children of her own, so she treated Alex as her own grandson.

She has an elderly husband, but he always ignores Alex and scolds him.

Even so, Alex felt the warmth of family from the elderly couple. Recalling his past belief that his father had sold him and his mother, he longed for kinship even more and regarded the couple as his own grandparents.

Unfortunately, his good fortune didn't last long. Alex contracted Oripathy in the mines. In Ursus, those with Oripathy were treated like pariahs, hated by everyone. It seemed that a good life was destined not to be for Alex. He later learned that the old woman also had Oripathy. The reason the old man disliked Alex was because the old woman had boiled all her expensive herbs used to treat Oripathy into a soup and fed it to Alex.

This made Alex feel like he had personally pushed his loved one to her death. Living with guilt, the young boy refused to take his medicine no matter what he was told. He wanted to leave the medicine for the old woman, but she told him that she had lived long enough and wanted to give the hope of life to the younger generation.

The old lady's carbide disease didn't develop overnight.

She had no children because she was very weak when she was young and couldn't withstand the process of passing on life. The old man loved her very much and didn't care that there was no heir. He spent the rest of his life watching over his wife.

The old woman was acutely aware that her time was slipping away, and she had very little left. Her kindness towards Alex was tinged with a touch of selfishness; she hoped that after she passed away, Alex would take good care of this old man. If no one cared for him, this old smoker with his lungs already rotten would surely die surrounded by smoke.

Alex agreed to her request, but he didn't expect that the old lady's time would come to an end prematurely.

Five years ago, the Ursus picket team arrived at this border village, North.

The Ursus Scouts' first task was to clear the village of Oripathy infected people. To protect Alex, the old woman stepped forward and admitted to being infected. Despite her advanced age and impending death, she did not receive the Ursus Scouts' forgiveness. That night, she was hung on a wooden frame, and flames burned throughout the night.

Alex hid in the closet, weeping but afraid to make a sound. In the cold night, he felt the Oripathy coursing through his body, felt the pain of losing another loved one, and the feeling of helplessness was driving him almost insane. But he was just a child then, and he had no choice.

The old man smoked a cigarette. That night, he used everything he had in the house to make a coffin.

He wanted to avenge his wife, but before she passed away, she told him to take good care of Alex.

For the old man, this was the most painful curse in the world.

The next day, the person who would change Alex's life arrived.

Lin Lu appeared in this village.

He also influenced the future of the village.

To evade capture by the Ursus Police, Lin Lu hid in a coffin made by the old man, making him seem more like the old man's grandson than Alex. The two chatted happily; Alex had never seen the old man smile before, but the appearance of this man made the old man extremely happy.

The old man was naturally delighted.

He made an agreement with Lawyer Lin.

He told Lin Lu to take Alex away, the farther the better, while the old man himself would stay behind to deal with the Ursus picket team.

The old man was once a seasoned hunter, but years of fighting left him with countless hidden wounds, forcing him to retire. He and his beloved wife came to this remote village hoping to live a peaceful life and wash away the blood debts of the past. Unfortunately, he could escape for a time, but not forever. In the end, he was caught and his happiness was taken away.

Gehman Donpson was once considered on par with Patriot Bojocasti.

The old man left the weapon that had accompanied him in battle for many years, the Bone-Crushing Gunblade, to Alex, while he himself picked up a black crossbow to cover their retreat.

The battle was extremely fierce; even Lin Lu was injured while protecting Alex. Ultimately, the Ursus Police were completely wiped out, and the old man died from exhaustion. Before his death, his former comrade-in-arms, Bozokasti, lit him a cigarette, granting him his wish. A great fire engulfed the entire village, and anyone seeking revenge against Donpson met with Bozokasti's wrath.

Clutching the Bone-Crushing Blade, Alex followed Lin Lu's footsteps to the Reunion Movement.

What happened next was not a good thing either.

Lin Lu left the Reunion Movement as its new leader, and Talulah succeeded him.

Under Talulah's leadership, the Reunion Movement continues to expand, saving more and more infected people.

Alex believed Talulah's words and the successor Lin Lu had chosen, so he followed Talulah and obeyed her commands. From an unknown nobody, he rose step by step to become a cadre of the Reunion Movement—Bonebreaker.

Talulah tells Bonebreaker what his father, Sergei, did to deserve such unfair treatment of him and his mother! Talulah's lie successfully deceives Bonebreaker. During the siege of Chernobog, Bonebreaker's assault team is unstoppable, and his rage becomes an invincible weapon for the Reunion Movement. Later, Talulah even arranges for him to infiltrate Lungmen to hunt down his biological father, Sergei, and his older sister, Misha.

Only now, until today, does Broken Bones understand the truth of the matter.

Talulah's lies, the Reunion Movement's hollowed-out beliefs, and Misha's years of suffering.

This made Shattered Bones take off his mask; he was Alex, no longer Shattered Bones.

The Bonebreaker is just a pair of gunblades, just a weapon.

This time, he wants to fight for himself.

"I will not allow anyone to take advantage of my father anymore."

Alex gazed at Amiya, a detached smile playing on his lips. "My only family member. I want to see her one more time."

"..."

Amiya burst into tears.

Alex was completely unguarded; he laid his heart bare to Amiya, and these were the evidence, the facts. He hadn't lied, nor could he fake anything on a spiritual level.

"If you still don't believe me..."

Alex suddenly stepped forward, actually using his chest to meet the deadly black blade in Amiya's hand! Just as he was about to collide with the blade, Amiya panicked and fell backward. With Alex's reckless momentum, she could only avoid it with this dangerous move in her haste.

Amiya, as light as a moonlight sprite, glared at Alex and snapped, "Are you out of your mind?!"

Alex looked at the crack that had appeared in his light armor and the fine beads of blood flowing out. The wound was minor, not penetrating deep into the flesh. Merely glancing at the edge of a blade had shattered his armor; what kind of sharp weapon was this?

"Now, are you willing to believe me?"

Chapter 341 The Old Hunter (4K)

Gavial watched the skeleton kidnapper's every move intently. The kidnapper's movements seemed to move in slow motion to her, completely unaware of her presence.

The wind whipped her long hair, lifting her bangs to reveal a firm and composed gaze.

She was no longer as reckless as before; having made the same mistake once, she had already given Amiya enough to worry about.

Amiya's current task for her is to confront the Bone Holders alone, giving her five minutes to deal with the Reunion Movement's leaders.

To be honest, Gavial had a strong urge right now. She wanted to tear this monster apart in five minutes, then help Amiya deal with the enemy, and finally take Misha back to Rhodes Island.

Unfortunately, since contracting Oripathy, her physical abilities have declined considerably from their peak, and she is constantly plagued by a sense of weakness. She can no longer tear through steel with a flick of her wrist or carve through mountains with a single, serious punch, as she once did.

Otherwise, a monster of the level of the Bone Heist would be nothing more than a beginner's gift compared to the monsters near the coast of her hometown.

"Phew...that's enough!!"

A surge of anger welled up within Gavial, and she once again dodged the seemingly straightforward iron fist. In reality, the skeletal hostage-taker raised a cloud of dust as he swung his arm, bone spikes hidden in the thick layer of ash and sand rushing towards her.

Each of these bone spurs appeared to be ten centimeters long, with extremely sharp ends and hollowed-out blood grooves in the middle, like thorns wrapped around a tree branch. Under the skeletal hijacker's momentum, like a train traveling at full speed, each bone spur carried the speed of a cannonball leaving the barrel. If Gavial hadn't dodged in time, he would probably have had all his blood pierced and carried away by the bone spurs.

Gavial's impatience stemmed not from how difficult the opponent was, but from the fact that this monster, despite its strength, always resorted to these underhanded tactics. Couldn't it have a fair and square duel?

Skeleton kidnapper, you are truly despicable now!

How many monsters has Gavial defeated in the past? What kind of enemy hasn't she seen?

Some monsters will even self-destruct when they are on the verge of death. Once someone gets their hands on this flesh and blood, which is full of special pheromones, they will be hunted down by all the monsters within a ten-mile radius who can smell this pungent odor.

The Adaklis people strictly forbid hunting this monster alone; one must be fully prepared before engaging it, and no one knows what kind of monster it will attract.

However, when Gavial was fourteen, she would often go to the beach to catch these monsters when she had nothing better to do. Because their population was small, she maintained a cyclical and sustainable approach, not going all out to kill them. Each time, she would cripple the monsters and collect some of their flesh and blood to smear on her flagpole. She would then plant the flag in the ground and sit there waiting for wave after wave of monsters to attack, turning into a merciless grass-cutting machine.