The Rose Arms mercenaries staggered towards the direction of the gunfire, all suffering from poison damage. Only Dorothy, with her martial artist physique, could barely endure and charged to the front.
Xiao Han remained calm. He switched to armour-piercing needle rounds and fired methodically, each shot with a steady rhythm, picking off the Rose Arms mercenaries one by one. Their body armour could not withstand the penetration of the rounds. With the bonuses from his various skills, each sniper shot dealt over 130 theoretical damage. These ordinary mercenaries were around level five to eight, with about 150 HP. One shot left them near death. Combined with bleeding, burning, and poison, he did not need a second shot. The kill efficiency was extremely high.
He deliberately left Dorothy for last, eliminating her helpers first. The strongest opponent he would deal with alone.
After killing the last ordinary mercenary, Dorothy finally closed in on him. She raised her modified submachine gun and sprayed bullets in his direction.
Xiao Han ducked his head. The bullets hit the sand dune, kicking up clouds of sand.
Dorothy ran and fired. When her magazine ran empty, she finally reached Xiao Han. A cruel smile spread across her face.
A sniper within melee range of a martial artist had only one fate: death.
Dorothy could not wait to smash Xiao Han's skull, just as she had done dozens of times before.
"Tiger Axe Strike!"
Dorothy swung her elbow horizontally like a battle axe, the wind howling as it headed for Xiao Han's head. She was certain this blow would splatter his brains.
The fierce elbow strike hit nothing. Xiao Han suddenly slid back three metres like a slippery eel.
"Gliding Step Shot!"
Xiao Han drew the Twin Eagles from his back holsters like a phantom. With Overload and rapid fire active, he pumped seven or eight armour-piercing needle rounds into Dorothy's body in an instant.
Dorothy cried out in pain, but a wild look of triumph flashed in her eyes. She suddenly pulled a shotgun from behind her back and fired a blast of pellets, covering Xiao Han's face and body.
"A shotgun deals maximum damage at this range. Whoever you are, you're dead!"
The thought flickered through Dorothy's mind. But in the next moment, she was stunned by what she saw.
A suit of scale-like armour instantly covered Xiao Han's upper body. The pellets struck the armour, throwing off sparks. With his current skills, he could now manufacture magnetic control armour that covered half his body, offering greater protection.
"surprised? I have armour."
The next moment, Xiao Han emptied the rest of his magazine into Dorothy's body. Martial artists at Pan Kuang's level could barely withstand bullets with their bare flesh. Dorothy was far inferior and could not handle the power of large-calibre rounds. She collapsed, bleeding. Her bloodshot eyes stared at Xiao Han. Her lips moved, as if she wanted to say something.
''Bang!'' Xiao Han shot the black woman's head clean off.
Conventional wisdom said snipers were weak in close combat. Pan Kuang had thought the same, and then he died.
[You have killed Dorothy (Lv25). You have earned 7,500 experience.]
In the early stages, snipers had strong ranged suppression, making them very effective for grinding. But only large guilds would train them, because the cost was too high. Even the cheapest sniper rifle cost tens of thousands, and each sniper round was expensive. Every shot cost money. Moreover, ordinary snipers did not have Xiao Han's magnetic control extension armour. Once someone got close, they would be crushed.
Xiao Han searched Dorothy's body and noticed that her firearms showed signs of modification. Judging by the workmanship, Rose Arms probably had a reasonably skilled mechanic.
After killing this group of enemies, he had earned over ten thousand experience. The flames from the toxic burst incendiary mines continued to burn. It would not be long before they attracted other enemies.
He retrieved the EMP jammer, returned to his vehicle, and drove off.
Not long after he left, a group of Gordon's mercenaries arrived at the scene. They were shocked by what they saw.
"These are Rose Arms people."
"Who ambushed them?"
The Gordon mercenaries were about to get out and investigate when Luo Qing, arriving with her armed squad to provide support, reached the scene. She immediately saw her companions lying dead and the Gordon mercenaries parked nearby.
"Open fire!"
The two sides had been in conflict for a long time. The sight of each other made their blood boil. Explanations were out of the question. They would fight first and talk later.
Luo Qing did not hesitate. She gave the order to attack. The Gordon mercenaries immediately returned fire. A fierce gunfight erupted, gunfire and explosions echoing through the night sky.
Soon, teams from other factions were also drawn to the scene. Seeing Rose Arms and Gordon locked in fierce combat, they wanted to play the role of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. They immediately joined the firefight, and the scene descended into a chaotic melee.
After a while, several armed groups from farther away also arrived. They had no idea what was happening, but seeing everyone else already fighting, they figured why be a salted fish and miss out on the fun? They joined in, happily acting as chaos agents in the team battle.
The fighting continued for most of the night. Every faction suffered losses. They eventually withdrew to lick their wounds. The last few groups to arrive had even forgotten why they had started fighting. They just left after the battle.
Rose Arms brought back twenty bodies. Most of them had a single fatal wound caused by a sniper bullet.
"It seems the one who ambushed Dorothy and the others was not Gordon, but a sniper," said Ghost Fox.
Luo Qing's expression was grim. She thought about who could be targeting them. Rose Arms' enemies were all in the Somar Desert. Any battle should have been a direct confrontation. This solo ambush reminded her of the time more than two years ago, shortly after the Cheswold family had placed a bounty on them, when many killers had come alone to take on Rose Arms.
"Another bounty hunter?" Luo Qing frowned. Rose Arms had not been troubled by killers for over a year.
After more than a year, was there another reckless fool who had forgotten the lessons of the past?
Dorothy's death was particularly brutal. She appeared to have been shot at close range, suggesting that this sniper might also have some melee capability.
A small woman walked over, wearing a coat stained with oil marks. She said softly, "I found the tyre tracks of the killer's vehicle. They lead southeast. There are three factions in that direction. The closest is the Farian Group's stronghold."
"Good work, Su Li."
Su Li was Rose Arms' mechanic, responsible for maintaining and modifying firearms, vehicles, and defensive facilities.
"I found fragments of landmines at the scene. This was a premeditated trap. The mine casings are made of Farian Group materials. The killer's base of operations is likely the Farian stronghold. I tried to reconstruct the mine's structure. It seems to be a new type of explosive device I have never seen before. The detonation method is probably gas-related."
Luo Qing narrowed her eyes. This killer seemed troublesome, but she was not worried. She dialled an encrypted number to contact their backer.
"Mr. Sestian, a killer is hunting us. We have lost a twenty-person squad."
A hoarse, aged voice came through the phone. "I will send someone to deal with it."
Whenever a killer appeared, the backer of Rose Arms would dispatch a "professional" to eliminate them. That was why so many killers had met their end in the Somar Desert.
The professional sent to deal with a killer? Another killer.