Qin Feng and Green Dragon leaped into a nearby grove of trees. They huddled behind a thick tree trunk, gasping, "What’s happening? Can you see them?"
Qin Feng cried out, "They came well-prepared. With that kind of firepower, they must be pro mercs."
"Could it be Shark Kun's men?"
Green Dragon avoided saying anything suspicious relating to Gu Shaoyun. Although he changed his mind in the last minute about conspiring with Gu Shaoyun to harm Qin Feng, his mind had wavered before.
"Probably. All this firepower reminds me of the One-eyed Dragon."
Qin Feng peeked at the lake through a gap in the trees. Two speedboats had already beached themselves on the sand and about seven or eight people had jumped ashore. They were dressed in civilian clothes and he could not make out their faces in the dark.
The two men looked at each other and immediately disappeared into the undergrowth. After so many years of fighting together, they had already forged a perfect coordination and a tacit understanding of each other. A short glance was enough for them to determine where to take up position to support each other and set up an ambush, waiting for the arrival of the enemy. Their team wasn’t called the “Golden Four” for nothing.
Eight experienced killers, armed with the most advanced weaponry in the world, entered the grove. Their gear was ideal for a medium-range assault.
After the small group’s leader walked ahead and observed the quiet undergrowth, he signaled two people to the left and two to the right. The remaining four, headed by him, crept ahead, closing in on their targets.
This is a common tactic in modern warfare. It is relatively conservative, but shows reliable results. The three fronts support each other at a distance not exceeding 30 meters. In the event of an attack on one section, the other two can quickly wheel around to provide support. This increases the area a small unit can cover and spreads out the targets an enemy might fire at.
Soon, three lines spread out through the grove.
Qin Feng hid in the branches of a tall tree. Under the cover of night, it wasn’t difficult to avoid discovery, but that was not his intention. If they wanted to escape, he and Green Dragon could have disappeared before the enemy ever made it ashore.
He wanted to find out who these people were; who was so bold as to use heavy weapons in the interior of China. This was in complete defiance of the Tianhe public security forces, and Qin Feng had an idea of who would have the guts and the resources to pull something like this off. He just wanted to take a few prisoners and ask them what they were planning.
Of course, he also wanted to see how Green Dragon performed. This was the best way to ascertain whether he had really betrayed Qin Feng.
As long as Green Dragon did not point a gun at him, Qin Feng was willing to believe that this was all a misunderstanding and Green Dragon was still his good comrade.
The two men of the left flank advanced cautiously shoulder-to-shoulder, scanning the foliage through the scopes of their rifles. Qin Feng could easily approximate their fighting ability through their behavior, and judged that they were better than the mercenaries from the Golden Triangle, but not by much.
A chilly gust of wind swept through, swirling the dead leaves on the ground. Qin Feng watched the four people advancing up the middle. The distance between them and the left flank was about 30 meters. He would have about two or three seconds to complete his attack. Within five seconds, whether he hit or missed, he had to escape the scene and find a new hiding position.
Whoosh!
A black shadow leaped from above. In the dense forest cover, the two careful and alert killers did not notice Qin Feng as he dropped to the ground.
This was the difference between the ordinary and the elite. Qin Feng's methods of attack were unpredictable and very subtle. Most importantly, he could relax his body in midair so that he hardly made any sound as he landed.
Such balanced, gliding motions required extreme skill. In order to practice this skill, Qin Feng was tied upside down during Spec Ops training and hung from a cliff for three days and three nights. In the end, he could dive as smoothly as any Olympic diver. There would be practically no splash when he hit the water.
This extraordinary skill was developed specifically to counter such search & destroy tactics, and it enabled Qin Feng to deal with hundreds of enemy mercenaries over the course of several days during his mission in the Golden Triangle. If it weren’t for the One-eyed Dragon tearing up an entire hillside with heavy weapons, the "Golden Four" would have had a good chance of getting away unscathed.
Qin Feng appeared before their eyes seemingly out of thin air. Although he didn’t have a gun, the utility knife he kept with him on a daily basis was his favorite weapon.
When the blade flashed, the two men reacted. They leaned back and dodged and instinctively lifted their rifles, but Qin Feng was faster. One sweep of his knife tore through one man’s carotid artery, and a column of blood sprayed out several feet. His trigger finger went limp as he twitched and fell to the ground, staring incredulously at Qin Feng.
At the same time, Qin Feng swung his elbow into the second man’s temple. He had no time to react before he found himself flat on the ground.
Qin Feng twisted his body and dropped knee-first onto the man’s neck. If successful, such a move could crush the target’s windpipe and cause them to quickly asphyxiate to death.
Qin Feng would only use such close-combat techniques in military operations. He’d never used them in Tianhe, because he knew that would leave a trail of corpses in his wake.
Obviously, the guy on the ground was not your average killer-for-hire. He rolled away from Qin Feng in the last moment and escaped the range of his short knife with a somersault. A trace of fear flashed across his face.
The mercenary never expected that his target would be so bold. Instead of escaping from his team’s superior firepower, Qin Feng took the initiative to launch a counterattack. Moreover, he was impossibly deadly, tearing through his enemies like an angel of death. In a one-on-one fight, the odds were entirely in Qin Feng’s favor.
If he wanted to survive, he had to call his teammates.