Chapter 655: Joint Hunt
Rei Ayanami's calm voice was like cold water poured into boiling oil, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
"It is right there." She raised her hand, pointing precisely at a seemingly empty, steep cliff face upstream in the river valley.
Almost the instant her words fell, the light in that space underwent an extremely subtle distortion, like air shimmering under high heat.
Immediately after, a blurred, towering silhouette that nearly blended into the ambient colors flashed past, moving so fast that one could almost mistake it for an illusion.
"Open fire!" Colonel Quaritch's reaction was incredibly swift; he roared almost the moment he spotted the anomaly.
The soldiers of Hellfire Squad were highly trained. Despite the target being blurry, they still poured a dense barrage of plasma beams and live ammunition into that area.
The searing beams and bullets shattered the cliff face, sending gravel flying and filling the air with smoke and dust.
At the same time, the Na'vi also reacted.
Tsu'tey and several of the most elite hunters drew their bows almost the very second they heard Rei Ayanami's warning. Bone arrows containing immense power shot toward that distorted space, tearing through the air.
Their movements were as swift as lightning, displaying the peak combat instincts of Na'vi warriors.
However, the opponent's reaction was even faster, and far more bizarre.
Just a split second before the firepower covered the area, that blurry silhouette sprang backward and to the side with inhuman agility, evading the majority of the attacks.
Even though a few plasma beams grazed its body, they only left faint scorch marks on armor that seemed to be made of a special material, causing no severe damage.
In the process of moving and dodging, the invisible attacker's cloaking field seemed to be briefly disrupted by some energy weapon, making its silhouette slightly clearer for a very short time.
It was an extremely tall, robust, and powerful humanoid creature. Its head appeared to have a bizarre structure, and it wore equipment of unknown purpose.
"Maintain suppressive fire!" Sergeant Reynolds shouted loudly, attempting to restrict the opponent's room to maneuver.
The invisible entity clearly had no intention of a prolonged fight.
With a flick of its arm, its forearm armor deployed, revealing a fiercely shaped, aggressively contoured alien weapon.
Accompanied by a low hum of energy, three searing white, high-speed plasma clusters shot out in a fan shape, landing precisely on the open ground in front of both the Na'vi and RDA camps.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The successive explosions kicked up a sky full of dirt and gravel, and searing shockwaves carrying a burnt smell rushed into their faces.
The blinding flashes forced the front-line warriors to instinctively close their eyes. Na'vi hunters were forced to leap back for cover, and the tactical formation of the RDA soldiers was disrupted by the shockwaves.
This round of fire had clearly been precisely calculated; it caused no major casualties while perfectly achieving tactical suppression.
Amidst this chaos, the blurry silhouette shifted and darted like a phantom.
With agility surpassing biological limits, it made several leaps among the cliffs. While its afterimage still lingered on their retinas, its true body had already vanished deep into the complex stone forest and bioluminescent vegetation upstream in the valley.
In just the blink of an eye, only smoke remained on the battlefield, as if the confrontation just now had been a collective hallucination.
From Rei Ayanami issuing the warning to the target disappearing, the entire process took no more than twenty seconds.
The scene fell dead silent, leaving only the faint hiss of plasma weapons venting excess heat, and the crackling of plants ignited by the explosions.
The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder, ozone, and scorched earth.
Everyone understood that they had just faced an unprecedented enemy equipped with highly advanced technology and formidable individual combat capabilities.
The speed, strength, and that efficient yet cruel plasma weapon it displayed far exceeded conventional understanding.
Jake Sully looked in the direction the figure had vanished, muttering to himself, "What... what the hell was that thing?"
His understanding of human technology was once again overturned, and at the same time, he felt a chill. Pandora seemed far more dangerous than he had imagined.
Neytiri squeezed his hand tightly, whispering, "It... is not part of the forest. There is no such existence... in Eywa's whispers."
Colonel Quaritch's face was livid. He walked up to a scorched crater blasted by the plasma clusters, crouched down to examine the melted edges, then looked up toward where the attacker had disappeared. He said in a deep voice, "This is not Na'vi technology, nor is it any human technology known to us."
He had to admit that Maine and those "Seekers" were correct in their judgment.
Eytukan's expression was equally grave. He looked at Quaritch, then at Maine and Rei Ayanami. His voice was low, carrying a trace of suppressed fury: "It seems we have a common enemy hiding in the shadows. It has played us for fools... using the blood of our warriors from both sides."
A common, powerful, and cruel enemy acted like a bucket of cold water, temporarily extinguishing the imminent flames of war between the Na'vi and the RDA, forcefully redirecting both sides' attention in the same direction.
After a brief period of shock and silence, the atmosphere in the river valley became even more complicated.
Suspicion and hatred had not vanished, but they were indeed temporarily suppressed by a more direct, more bizarre threat.
Colonel Quaritch was the first to break the silence. He walked to the riverbank, his gaze sweeping over Eytukan on the opposite side. His tone was stiff but no longer filled with murderous intent: "It seems we have all been played.
Some reckless bastard is stirring up trouble and treating us all as prey."
He used the word "prey," accurately describing the feeling brought about by that exhibitionist slaughter.
Eytukan took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing his long-accumulated hatred for the Sky People, the sharpness in his golden eyes undiminished: "It desecrated life, and it must pay the price. The warriors of the Omaticaya will not let the murderer who butchered our kin go unpunished."
Although Tsu'tey was still full of hostility toward the Sky People, right now his rage was mostly directed at that invisible killer.
He said sternly, "Track it! Find it, and use its blood to honor our warriors!"
Sutai stepped out from the crowd. Her gaze swept over the ghastly remains in both factions. Forcing down the palpitation in her heart, her voice carried clearly and firmly into everyone's ears: "It is extremely dangerous, and incredibly adept at hiding. Its weapons and abilities exceed the understanding of any of us."
She paused, looked at Eytukan, then turned toward Colonel Quaritch on the opposite bank, her tone growing even more solemn, "If we continue to suspect each other and fight our own battles, the end result will only be us getting picked off one by one by this hunter hiding in the dark, bleeding until the last drop. Neither side alone can handle this threat."
Her words were like a heavy stone thrown into water, stirring deep thoughts among the leaders and warriors of both sides.
The anger permeating the air seemed to be slightly suppressed by this calm and objective analysis; a realistic sense of crisis began to replace pure hatred.