The Imperial Hunter Chapter 48 - El Maestre (3)

As the late afternoon arrived, the British military’s pursuit of the Knights Templar neared its conclusion. To the south, a mobile unit, including armored vehicles, blocked their path, while to the north, another special forces unit traveled on foot along the river, effectively cutting them off. The main pursuit force directly chased the prey westward. At this point, it was easy to guess how exceptional their surveillance capabilities were, given that they were using only a few hundred troops to block such a vast area. This conclusion was drawn from various pieces of evidence obtained through Suyeon’s measures.

Truly, my secretary’s simple measures had yielded results beyond my expectations. People who had received proposals from “Korean broadcasting companies” shared the work with those they knew. Thus, residents who were trying to make ends meet by fishing in the river, working as caretakers in the deep valleys, managing orchards, or struggling to survive in a collapsed economy had contributed their information. Even in places where it didn’t make sense for anyone to be, diverse tips poured in.

‘They’re probably farmers growing illegal crops.’

Farmers who entered the mountains at this hour, planting marijuana or coca trees sparsely, monitoring and preventing theft every day to earn a meager few hundred pesos a day. For these people at the lowest rungs of the drug production pyramid, Suyeon’s reward money seemed like a charm.

Furthermore, this was partly because the British had kept their information thoroughly hidden. Otherwise, would the farmers have ventured into the mountains at this time, into the mountains where the Cartel Knights and foreign military superhumans were engaged in gunfire and sword clash?

This development was a compromise between the best and second-best options for me. The mountainous area, roughly 11 km wide by 9 km long, where the Los Caballeros Templarios Cartel was being hunted, was only about 20 km from the outskirts of Puerto Vallarta. If I exerted my full power, I could reach it in less than half an hour.

Hold on just a little longer, you bastards.

I silently sent a heartfelt cheer to the cartel novices who were imitating knights.

It was 6:18 PM. The sea beyond the terrace was bathed in the colors of the sunset, and the edge of the sky was turning purple. The long-awaited hunting time was approaching. I had already taken off the businessman’s clothes and put on the outfit and equipment of a hunter while waiting. I took one more stimulant pill and slung the hunting rifle, which had been discreetly brought in by the security team, over my shoulder. Other items that needed to be moved were already relocated. For example, glass jars containing the queens of crazy ants.

“Kyung-tae.”

“Yes, Hyungnim.”

“We should check out now.”

As I spoke, Kyung-tae nodded to my subordinates. The hunting dogs under my command were the first to exit the room.

“Huh?”

Tatatat!

Dull gunshots echoed within the room. The two city police officers guarding the top floor suite collapsed. They appeared to be protecting Huang, but in reality, Chellino, the mayor, had stationed them here as observers in case Huang changed his mind. They could have strangled them, but my men intentionally used guns. According to the plan, evidence of Huang’s kidnapping needed to remain.

I moved through the lifeless eyes of the police officers’ corpses and proceeded into the corridor. All the CCTV cameras illuminating the corridor had already been turned off. By the time I reached the emergency staircase, a deafening fire alarm rang out, and all the sprinklers in the corridor sprayed torrents of water. The several floors of fire I had conjured were the cause.

The streams of water sprayed from the ceiling slid away from our heads, unseen thanks to our binding forces.

“Just wait a little longer.”

I spoke while monitoring what was happening below.

“We’ll finish off those coming up as well.”

The individuals currently riding the elevator were sicarios (officially armed cartel members) stationed in the hotel lobby by El Juego. They were the mayor and the cartel regional lord doing whatever they were doing.

Ding!

The electronic sound signaling their arrival rang out as the elevator doors split open at a nerve-wracking pace. Within mere seconds, hundreds of rifle shots tore through the corridor. The men inside had all turned into mincemeat before they could even catch a glimpse of our faces. Among them, there were even three young boys who didn’t look like they had reached adulthood yet.

What did age matter when it came to killing people, was the cartel’s mentality. If you were old enough to point a gun at someone, that was good enough for them.

I despised those who use child soldiers, but I despised child soldiers who aimed guns at me even more.

Creak, creak…

The two-door panels, riddled with bullet holes, groaned and opened slowly, revealing the inside filled with blood. The elevator carrying a pile of corpses began its descent. The humans with lingering regrets who had pressed the buttons for each floor before rolling on the floor, staring at the blood-filled interior without even glimpsing the outside, would soon be in a state of unconsciousness.

“Let’s go.”

With my signal, the men responsible for the front moved down one floor. From now on, anyone witnessing my checkout had to be killed without exception. The previously set off fire alarms, the sicarios who had been waiting as if to say they would handle them, and the gunshots I had spread without using telekinesis were the maximum mercy I could afford to innocent people.

“P-Please, spare us!”

Twang! One of my subordinates shot a hotelier with a single shot. It was the end of a timid life that, despite hearing the noisy fire sirens and tumultuous gunshots, had not fled but cowered in a corner of the corridor. Stupid guy. If you’re going to cower, at least don’t keep your head down. The broom and dustpan he had been clutching tightly until the end was now soaked in blood and brain matter.

I would go so far as to use my telekinesis to knock out a fool like this if there were only one. We were at a point where there were no awakened individuals with abilities beyond physical enhancement. Therefore, it was difficult to have too many unnatural faintings.

So, what could I do? I had to kill them. I was wary of too much spilled blood, as even these scattered puddles could corrode the minds of my subordinates below.

The accumulated murders until reaching the first floor totaled nine. As we left the emergency staircase, the air became humid again, filled with the stench of hydrogen sulfide created by bacteria corroding the water pipes.

“Come in.”

A radio message from Kyung-tae. Right after that, the revolving door in front of us shattered and crashed inwards. Broken glass spread like waves, and the crumpled frame lurched inward. The vehicles that entered the entrance slid on the wet floor and screeched to a sudden stop.

Clang. Kyung-tae opened the rear door of the nearby car.

“Get in, Hyungnim.”

The SUV had bulletproof panels attached inside. It was a conversion kit that the organization favored. It was a product in demand in the security industry and could be used for most of vehicles.

Before getting into the car, I looked at Suyeon.

“You take command.”

Suyeon accepted her role with a nod. By now, there shouldn’t be any need to worry about a retreat. If I entrusted it to this guy and the way out was blocked, then I would simply blame it on extraordinarily bad luck.

My subordinates and I removed the back seats in the car before getting in. They did this to access the hidden weapons and ammunition beyond. The weapons used in the hotel and the weapons we would use from now on had to be different. More accurately, the firing pin marks of the guns shouldn’t overlap, but the guns themselves must not be the same.

The firing pin marks were traces engraved on bullets, and since they differed slightly for each gun, they were treated like a gun’s fingerprint. I had to pay attention to even such delicate details to deceive the British guys.

I also packed extra magazines, explosives, and additional supplies in a combat backpack.

‘It’s an expensive hunt.’

Unlike the cargo going to “Cartel del Noreste,” the supplies for me and my subordinates were outsourced to reputable aviation companies. The result was transportation costs of around $3,000 per fully loaded magazine. The pilots, of various nationalities, who took off and landed in places without even runways, were personal businessmen who were treated very well in this industry.

Outside the window, the green fence of the naval base passed by. The military facility was right next to the pier where my goods would be unloaded.

The line of vehicles turned right from the main road. As we entered the poverty-stricken alley, we occasionally saw heavily armed police officers, almost at a military level. However, they showed no interest in vehicles with accident traces. There were sicarios with automatic rifles on the other side, and unregistered cars were a common sight in this country.

We passed through a residential area with roads that weren’t even paved and stopped near the military checkpoint that blocked entry and exit to the city. It was somewhat close but not too conspicuous – a hidden corner. Here, there was an underground drainage pipe leading to the river. The river called Ameca, which formed a natural boundary between the states of Jalisco and Nayarit upstream, was also the route the British forces were using for blocking operations. The branching waterway in the middle was a strategic point that could take us either north or south from the hunting scene.

Click –

The rusty lock on the drainage grate made a grinding sound as it opened by itself. After all my subordinates passed through, I locked the grate back in place. After that, I erased fingerprints or any traces that would be left behind.

“That should be enough here. Toss it.”

At Kyung-tae’s words, my subordinates threw the firearms they had used at the hotel into the muddy water. Even if someone luckily retrieves them in the near future, the corrosion in the barrel that had already begun would never produce the same firing pin marks as before.

In a country where ten thousand guns were confiscated every year, this was enough. Destroying them with telekinesis or smashing them into bits would only make them more suspicious as evidence.

As we passed through the drainage pipe, the dark and murky river welcomed us. There was no lighting on the impoverished riverbank, and water-loving trees lined up, providing a discreet path in the darkness after sunset.

“From now on, we’ll run until we’re about to die.”

I stated.

“I hope there’s no one here to disappoint me.”

Those who fall behind need to be crushed into a mangled mass.

64 kilometers per hour. The scientifically defined human maximum running speed. Scientists had said that with human muscles, it was impossible to exceed that limit. No matter how strong or agile someone was, there was a physical limit to the speed at which muscles contracted.

Therefore, the speed we were running at now was clearly animalistic. Calculated from the changing numbers on the GPS device strapped to our wrists, our speed was nearly 70 kilometers per hour. This was despite each of us carrying equipment weighing around 50 kilograms and mainly stepping on tree roots and protruding rocks to leave fewer footprints, making it a highly demanding sprint.

But it wasn’t enough. We could still go faster.

I used my telekinesis to pull my subordinates, who were already having a hard time keeping up. Even as I pushed the limits of physical enhancement, I had the capacity to activate multiple techniques in my circuits. However, the intense heat building in my bones, the skyrocketing heart rate, the muscle fatigue that felt like it was about to give out, and the dulled senses were all starting to interfere with my concentration.

After about ten minutes of running, there was finally a loud noise coming from behind. One of my subordinates stumbled and fell, causing my telekinesis technique to momentarily lose its focus due to the disrupted wind. With the speed and momentum we were running at, the subordinate was tossed and tumbled almost like a ragdoll.

“Get up! No…w!”

Damn it. Even my breath was too labored to form a complete sentence. I had no time to admit my mistake. The hunt was urgent, and responsibility could be discussed later. I lifted the groaning subordinate to his feet.

“Can you, run?”

The injured subordinate rolled his foot a few times and then nodded, panting. If he had been an ordinary person, the shock alone would have killed him, but apart from a slightly swollen wrist and a minor abrasion, there were no visible injuries. It was the result of physical enhancement and the resilience it provided.

Gunshots of various calibers, explosions, and various loud noises mixed together and echoed from across the clearer valley downstream. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and compared our current coordinates with the memorized coordinates.

“Just 4 more kilometers ahead, and we’ll be there.”

From that point on, we needed to slow down to neutralize the heat tracking, so the breakneck pace we had been maintaining for a few minutes would be enough. So,

“Move.”

My subordinates immediately responded to my command. The point where the waterway split was approaching. All the water here had flowed down from the battlefield.