0126 Burning Sergeant Kun to Death (Part I)

In an instant, the scene fell silent. Amidst the crackling of firewood in the bonfire, the eyes of everyone present turned toward Lieutenant Colonel Timo, waiting to see how he would handle the confrontation.

"Second Lieutenant Douglas, Sergeant Kun, you are both valuable talents to the Alliance. I do not wish to see any unpleasantness between you two. How about this: Second Lieutenant Douglas will soon accompany me to the Alliance headquarters, and Sergeant Kun can stay right here to train the child soldiers, how does that sound?" It was a joke; in this territory, no one dared to defy Lieutenant Colonel Timo’s orders. Even though Hou Rui hated Sergeant Kun to the core, he had no choice but to swallow his pride and hold his tongue.

However, when Hou Rui caught the sullen, resentful expression on Sergeant Kun’s face, his eyes narrowed slightly, and a new idea suddenly struck him. Hou Rui weighed the situation for a moment and felt the plan was essentially viable, so he prepared to act on it immediately.

"Lieutenant Colonel Timo, I am willing to reconcile with Sergeant Kun. Let us resolve our differences with a hug!" Hou Rui’s demeanor shifted instantly to one of great magnanimity. After speaking to the Lieutenant Colonel, he didn't wait for a response but opened his arms and walked toward Sergeant Kun with a sincere smile on his face, looking for all the world like a man trying to turn swords into plowshares.

Sergeant Kun, his face livid and his body stiff, stood motionless. He only accepted the hug out of deference to Lieutenant Colonel Timo’s presence and certainly had no intention of reciprocating. To the onlookers, it appeared as though Hou Rui was making a sincere gesture of goodwill, while Sergeant Kun was accepting it with reluctance and disdain.

Just as Hou Rui leaned in close to Sergeant Kun’s neck, and their embrace was at its deepest, Hou Rui whispered into the sergeant’s ear in a voice so soft it was barely audible: "When I get promoted and return, I’m going to kill you, turn your head into a chamber pot, and use your skin to wipe my ass!"

"What? Go to hell, you bastard!" Things went exactly as Hou Rui had predicted. The moment the words left his lips, Sergeant Kun exploded. He shoved Hou Rui away, drew the long hunting knife from his waist, and slashed fiercely at Hou Rui’s face.

"Sergeant Kun, what are you doing? Have you lost your mind?" As Sergeant Kun’s direct superior, Captain Mulu was the first to cry out. But when Mulu moved to have his men restrain the suddenly frenzied sergeant, Lieutenant Colonel Timo abruptly stopped him.

Although the Lieutenant Colonel didn't say anything explicitly, it wasn't hard to guess. Sergeant Kun’s repeated actions had offended the Lieutenant Colonel, and now, after Hou Rui had followed his instructions to reconcile, Kun had responded with a blade. The Lieutenant Colonel’s anger had reached a boiling point. Thus, he stopped Captain Mulu, ready to see if Douglas—or rather, Hou Rui—could take down the sergeant who had so blatantly disrespected him.

"I’m going to kill him! No one stop me!" Sergeant Kun yelled in response to the captain. With the Lieutenant Colonel’s tacit approval, no other Alliance officer dared to intervene, and they all began to watch the one-on-one duel unfold.

*Swish, swish.* Two slashes in a figure-eight pattern flew rapidly toward Hou Rui’s face. Faced with the glinting cold steel of the hunting knife, Hou Rui felt a surge of tension. Although he had been in the organization for over two years, he mostly dealt with adversaries using firearms; this was his first time facing an armed opponent with his bare hands.

Dodging nimbly to the left and right, he barely escaped the two strikes. Sergeant Kun immediately followed up with a thrust aimed straight at Hou Rui’s stomach. Had that blade connected, Hou Rui’s intestines would surely have been laid bare.

Eyes locked on the incoming tip of the blade, Hou Rui waited until it was inches from his abs before darting sharply to the right. As the thrust missed its mark, he spun 180 degrees, wound his arm, and slammed a heavy punch into the back of the overextended sergeant.

*Thud.* Sergeant Kun stumbled forward a few steps from the impact. But when he stopped and turned back to face Hou Rui, he grinned, baring his teeth, and shrugged casually. "That felt like a mosquito bite. Barely felt a thing. Why are your punches as weak as a girl’s, Second Lieutenant Douglas?"

Hou Rui looked at the shirtless sergeant, his eyes lingering on the tough, corded muscles that resembled slabs of beef, and felt speechless. When he looked at the hunting knife in Kun’s hand, he felt even more depressed.

This fight was not going to be easy. If he wasn't careful, he might end up capsizing in the gutter!

But Hou Rui couldn't let the opponent see his internal anxiety. After a moment of worry, he retorted, "Then you’d better be careful, Sergeant Kun. It would be quite embarrassing to be taken down by a girl."

"Come here, let me show you how I’m going to cut that mouth off your face." Unable to compete with Hou Rui’s sharp tongue, Sergeant Kun launched another assault. This time, his blade trajectory was even more sinister, an upward sweeping strike that forced Hou Rui to tilt his body drastically while keeping a close watch on his footwork, lest he be gutted by the long knife within seconds.

*Swish, swish, swish.*

In Sergeant Kun’s hands, the knife spun faster and faster, eventually resembling a rotating windmill, constantly closing in on Hou Rui. As the saying goes, a long defense eventually leads to a mistake. When Hou Rui’s dodge was a fraction of a second too slow, the tip of the blade sliced across his skin.

Feeling a cold sensation on his chest followed immediately by a sharp, stinging pain, Hou Rui touched the spot and brought his hand before his eyes. His palm was covered in blood. Sergeant Kun’s strike had carved a nine-centimeter-long gash across his chest. Though not deep, the blood began to seep out steadily.

"Ha! Second Lieutenant Douglas, let’s see how much longer you can dodge. No matter how agile a monkey is, it’s never a match for a lion." Having drawn blood, Sergeant Kun became even more excited. With an arrogant tone, he leveled his knife and charged again.

*A monkey?* I’ll be the monkey, and let’s see how I take down a stupid lion like you!

Hou Rui gritted his teeth and resumed his evasive maneuvers. However, over the next minute, the sergeant’s knife left four or five more gashes on his body. The most serious was a cut on his back; had Hou Rui not twisted his shoulder at the critical moment, that strike would have carved away half his shoulder.

*Hoo.*

The continuous, violent exertion accelerated the blood loss from his wounds. Hou Rui began to feel weak and fatigued, but his opponent, Sergeant Kun, appeared as energetic as ever, even finding the leisure to toy with his knife. It seemed the physical constitution of the black man really was superior to his own.

*No, if I keep playing like this, I’ll end up killing myself. It looks like I need to find a way to end this quickly!*

Hou Rui stared at the sergeant’s cruel, sneering face and secretly formulated a new combat strategy. He began to move his feet imperceptibly toward the bonfire, looking for an opportunity to grab a weapon to deal with Kun.

"Second Lieutenant Douglas, I haven't even attacked yet—what are you running around for? Trying to flee? Too late!" With that, the tireless Sergeant Kun charged again. This time, his knife was aimed straight at the space between Hou Rui’s eyebrows. It seemed the sergeant had played enough; he intended to finish Hou Rui with a single strike.

In the blink of an eye, Kun was upon him. Although Hou Rui retreated rapidly, the long knife came down in a crushing overhead arc. Just as it was about to split his skull, Hou Rui suddenly sat down on the ground, causing the sergeant’s confident strike to miss again.

The disheveled Hou Rui didn't waste the moment; he kicked out, landing a blow directly on the sergeant’s shin. It was the second time he had struck Kun’s body, and the kick successfully threw the sergeant off balance, sending him crashing to the ground.

*Opportunity missed is a lost cause!*

Hou Rui rolled on the ground and scrambled up before the sergeant could recover. This time, he launched a decisive counterattack. He sprinted toward the still-rising sergeant and put all his strength into a kick to the opponent’s head. The impact sent Sergeant Kun flying over two meters sideways; he landed with a thud and rolled over.

*Finally!* I finally took down this persistent bastard. Just as the thought surfaced in Hou Rui’s mind, before he could even grin, the sergeant—who had taken a brutal kick to the head—was already crawling back up. Sergeant Kun wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and strolled over as if nothing had happened.

*Damn it! Does he have no sense of pain?* That kick would have seriously injured or killed anyone else, yet this Sergeant Kun had popped back up as if he were fine.

Suddenly, the answer dawned on Hou Rui.

Beyond his superhuman physical constitution, Sergeant Kun had been abusing stimulants for years. Under the influence of these drugs, both his strength and his pain tolerance far exceeded that of a normal person. To take him down for good, Hou Rui would need to deliver a much more devastating blow.

"Ah!" Hou Rui launched another assault. He dipped low to dodge a horizontal sweep, then lunged forward, launching a punch directly into the sergeant’s face, causing him to stagger back. Relentless, Hou Rui pressed the advantage, raining down hammer-like blows on the sergeant’s eye socket, chin, ears, and nose. In just over ten seconds, he landed dozens of punches, turning the sergeant’s face into a bloody mess.

As a final move, his arms exhausted, Hou Rui leaped up, pulled his knees to his chest, and slammed both feet into the sergeant’s chest. The force sent Kun tumbling backward into the crowd of onlookers.

*Hoo.* Less than a minute of intense exertion had drained a huge amount of Hou Rui’s stamina. Just as he stood there gasping for air, the cockroach-like Sergeant Kun stood up yet again. He bared his broken lips and blood-stained teeth and said, "Have you had enough, little girl?"