Mercenaries, I Will Be King Chapter 279 - 234: See Who Crumbles First

About thirty minutes after Song Heping and his team had left, a group of exhausted Revolutionary Brigade soldiers stumbled into the area where they had just been resting.

"Wait!"

The leading scout raised his hand, signaling everyone to stop.

He went to where Song Heping and the others had just been staying, looked around, turned on his flashlight, and shone it on the ground.

Then, he saw a large area of the sandy ground had been wiped clean of sothing.

The scout squatted down, sweeping the flashlight back and forth across the ground.

He had followed the footprints all the way here and then noticed a patch of grass flattened ahead, realizing soone had stopped here.

However, in such a place, it could also be one of their own.

After a careful inspection, he concluded that those who had stopped here were not their own people but the two Aricans and the traitor Rabbani.

Because the footprints were different.

Such traces couldn't fool the highland scouts skilled in tracking.

"Boss, they stopped here."

The scout stood up and shouted to the people behind him.

Soon, a guy with a floating gait and a face full of stubble ca forward.

He was sweating profusely, his robe soaked through at the back, dripping water.

He looked like soone who had run himself ragged, lips turned white.

"They... they rested here?"

Even though he had stopped for a while, Sandeik, the little leader, still hadn't recovered to a normal heart rate, still a bit out of breath.

"That's right, I can't be wrong."

The scout pointed in another direction, "They've headed that way now."

Following where the scout pointed, Sandeik frowned.

He really didn't want to keep running.

It was too tiring.

Those guys were like highland hares, running devilishly fast.

They just couldn't be caught...

This annoyed Sandeik considerably.

No.

More precisely, it annoyed all the Revolutionary Brigade soldiers and leaders on the highland.

Especially the captain of the Revolutionary Brigade's assault team, Azhar's confidant Kawasi, who was furious, cursing fools repeatedly.

But what use was cursing?

Those guys never engaged the main force directly.

Whenever they were encountered, they'd take a couple of sneaky shots and then imdiately take to their heels.

The main force did give chase.

Alas, the main force chasing a small squad had no advantage at all.

Chasing wasn't like fighting; it was all about the legs, all about endurance.

Sandeik saw for the first ti soone who could run like this.

The radios were in chaos, calls coming through the channels, one mont they found the other side, the next mont they were gone again, now heading north, then south...

So much so that now Sandeik himself was a bit confused.

In the end, where did those guys want to run to?

"This is west, are you sure they ran west?"

Suddenly, Sandeik rembered that these people had run west before.

And then he heard from another search team that they had gone north...

What now?

Have they switched back to west again?

Sandeik had to be clear about it because reporting a sighting ant he had to notify Kawasi, and he felt that Kawasi would definitely curse him out when he heard the news.

No one would run like this.

It was just aimless running!

"That's right, judging from the footprints, they ran westward, right there—"

The scout was very confident, pointing westward.

The expression on Sandeik's face imdiately turned bitterer than a bitter gourd.

He reluctantly called the radio operator over, took the walkie-talkie, and then started calling Kawasi.

He then relayed the situation here to his superior.

As he had guessed, Kawasi, upon hearing that Song Heping and his team had headed west, started cursing on the other end.

"West?! Are you sure it's west?! I just ca from the west, and now you're telling they've gone through again to the west?! You're sure it's west?! Sandeik, you need to stand by your words! Do you think it's possible?! West?!"

Kawasi's voice over the radio channel sounded sowhat hysterical.

That's right.

It was indeed a bit hysterical.

It was also quite understandable.

Anyone dragged around the highland all night would not be in a good mood, anyone would want to break down.

Sandeik quickly turned and asked the scout again, "Are you sure they went west?! If you're wrong, I'll shoot you myself!"

His fierce tone startled the scout.

"It seems..."

"I don't want 'seems like'! I need certainty!"

Sandek barked like a mad dog whose tail had been stepped on.

"Yes... they did head west."

The scout was an experienced tracker after all, otherwise he wouldn't have been assigned the team's reconnaissance duties.

Sandek had no choice but to inform Kawasi, "Captain, they indeed went west."

"Damn it!"

Kawasi cursed, then gave the order, "Keep pursuing to the west! I'll have others coordinate with you to encircle them. This ti we must trap them all inside the net!"

To the west, 50 kiloters away from Salbic, on the side of a mountain.

Song Heping looked back at Rabbani, who was crouched on the ground, vomiting bile.

"Steady your breathing, I'm about to make a move. When the gun fires, we run."

"...We're... running again..."

Rabbani almost knelt on the ground.

He had probably run all the steps he would take in his lifeti tonight.

No one had ever seen such running.

How many kiloters?

Rabbani himself couldn't rember anymore.

He felt like a wild boar dashing chaotically on a mountain, in a dizzy flight from the hunters.

Song Heping decided not to waste more ti with him and said, "When the gun fires, run with us. If you really don't want to run, I can give you a bullet and help you out. It's better than falling into their hands."

Rabbani suddenly didn't feel so tired anymore, and he stood up from the ground.

Song Heping held the AK47 steady and perford a sustained fire at several enemies guarding a valley pass in the moonlight.

Ratatatatatata—

After a burst of gunfire, two of the soldiers from the Revolutionary Brigade guarding the pass fell, and the others scattered like frightened rabbits.

"Run!"

Song Heping turned and bolted.

Rabbani and Mist exchanged glances and laughed.

But their laughter looked even uglier than crying.

The entire Revolutionary Brigade's search troops from the highland between Awaz and the Salbic Region had been mobilized.

Kawasi had originally divided his force of over a thousand n into two, with one part responsible for holding all the key passages and the other forming eight search squads, conducting grid searches on the highland.

The plan had seed perfect.

But since last night, several soldiers guarding the key passageways had been attacked.

After an attack, the nearby squad would be mobilized imdiately, with the original guard troop also joining the search party.

So far, a whole eight hours had passed.

For eight hours, the entire highland area was in utter chaos.

Even Kawasi was beginning to feel that the situation was sowhat out of control.

Just now, the valley pass guards near Salbic had been attacked again: two dead, one wounded.

That pass was a critical route to Salbic Town. Fifty kiloters westward from there would lead out of the highland mountain area and into the urban area.

Now, after the attack, the squad stationed there had also joined the pursuit team.

Kawasi was entirely filled with rage, the burning sensation almost driving him mad.

He felt like a dog.

Being led by the nose and dragged into a mad dash.

These eight hours, his troops were being worn down.

Nobody could endure for so long.

How did those three manage it?

He simply couldn't describe their physical stamina; how could it be so formidable!

The most critical issue was that the highland mountain terrain made it impossible to use motor vehicles; they could only rely on their legs.

The faster one ran, the stronger one was.

"Captain, I... I feel sothing is not right..."

A confidant finally couldn't bear it anymore, stepped forward, and vomited bile as soon as he opened his mouth to speak.

Many had vomited tonight.

And whatever they ate or drank was vomited out completely.

Now, all they could do was vomit bile.

It wasn't just himself; his n were also close to collapsing.

"What do you an 'sothing is not right'?!" Kawasi demanded.

The confidant said, "I think... they're deliberately mobilizing us, leading us on a wild cross-country marathon in these mountains..."

"So what of it?" Kawasi snapped. "Do you think I don't know that?! But when we find their tracks, should we not chase them?"

The confidant said, "If we keep running, the brothers are going to break..."

Kawasi glanced back at his people and then ahead, everyone moved as if they were sleepwalking. Under the moonlight, they resembled a group of expressionless zombies, all run to the point of numbness.

"Everyone, stop!"

Upon hearing they could stop, each person acted as if granted amnesty and halted in their tracks, with so sitting directly on the ground.

Kawasi picked up the radio and began to call the various squads.

"All search squads, pay attention. We've been too passive tonight, we've been had! We shouldn't have been moved by them. From this mont on, stop the search. Every squad, return and secure every pass leading to Awaz and Salbic. We're not searching any longer; we'll just hold our ground. I refuse to believe they want to spend their lives up here on the highland! I'll starve them out!"