Chapter 122: The Flash's Flanking Is The Deadliest
2023-10-23 Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
"I can do it, I can do it."
Barry muttered softly as if casting a spell, lightning erupting from his eyes.
What followed was a long sprint!
At that moment, on the Street he had locked onto, a group of Gorillas was joyfully smashing, looting, and burning, completely oblivious to the lightning that streaked across the Street.
With a series of thudding blows, he hammered the squad of Gorillas in just a few strikes, sending them tumbling and rolling all over the place.
Then, the Gorilla that looked like a squad leader roared, "It's that Son of Lightning! Get him!"
The Gorillas roared and turned to charge at Barry. But Barry was fearless. Electric light flashed in his eyes, and electric currents radiated from his entire body.
Then he turned and ran!
Leaving a trail of sparks and lightning in his wake, his fleeing back seemed to say, "I'd be a coward to even look back!"
Sure enough, as long as he ran for his life without looking back, the Gorillas' speed was nothing to speak of. In the span of a breath, Barry had left all the pursuing Gorillas in the dust.
"Tch, weak humans," the Gorilla squad leader muttered disdainfully. "A coward who doesn't have the guts to face a fight."
With that, he led the Gorillas to turn back and happily continue their smashing, looting, and burning.
And then Barry came back.
This time, he took a different route, suddenly bursting out from a corner of the Street. The Gorillas, who were in the middle of their gleeful smashing, were caught completely off guard. An electric arc shot through their midst, interspersed with a flurry of superspeed combat that once again sent them into disarray.
The squad's numbers were instantly thinned again. The squad leader, furious, let out a "ROAR" and turned to lead his team in pursuit.
He fled, it pursued, he...
...just got away like that.
After chasing just a few steps, Barry, dragging a trail of lightning, vanished again. The squad leader was so angry he howled, beating his chest and stomping his feet. Standing on the roof of a wrecked car, he pounded his chest frantically with both fists.
"Face me, coward! If you have the guts, face me head-on!"
The troop of Gorillas behind him also beat their chests and roared to express their rage.
However, perhaps because their roars were too loud and drowned out other sounds, not a single Gorilla in the squad noticed that Barry hadn't run far. Instead, he had taken a turn up ahead, circled around a nearby Building, and emerged from behind their asses.
So when the squad leader finished venting his anger and turned his head, he saw that the troop behind him had been silently reduced by half again.
"Ahhhhh, I'll kill you!"
The squad leader, enraged, once again led his team in pursuit. Barry didn't even look back as he turned and ran, vanishing in an instant.
The Gorillas' eyes were wide with fury.
It didn't take high intelligence for them to figure out their opponent's pattern. He was just relying on his speed to flank and isolate the backline. If you turned around to deal with him, he'd run. If you fought him head-on, he'd come back to land a few hits.
If they ignored him, they'd suffer a stealth approach, but if they turned to catch him, they couldn't. The feeling was a bit like being unbearably itchy but unable to find the spot, leading to helpless rage with nothing to be done.
The elders of the tribe had always said humans were all despicable and cunning. Seeing it today, it was clear they lived up to their reputation.
The squad leader's mind raced. With a wave of his large hand, he directly ordered the entire team to halt their operation. They simply decided to wait on the spot, monitoring all surrounding passages and directions, on high alert for the detestable speedster.
Then they waited... and waited...
After waiting for quite a while, no one came.
But during that time, every Gorilla's heart was tense, and they didn't dare to breathe too loudly. The feeling was a bit like sleeping in a dormitory when the guy on the top bunk drops a shoe in the middle of the night, and then you have to lie there with your eyes open, waiting for the second one to drop until dawn...
"Captain... Captain," a Gorilla reported, "Team Three reports they've been attacked by a speedster..."
"How did he get over there?" The squad leader's eyes widened.
So we waited here for nothing?
"..."
The enemy retreats, I advance. The enemy advances, I retreat. The enemy is shamed, I go strip him...
Anyway, that was probably the general idea Orin Vale was trying to convey.
After trying it out in actual combat a few times, Barry was increasingly starting to think that Orin Vale was a genius. He deeply implemented this basic tactical philosophy, employing hit and run tactics, specifically aiming for the backsides of those who had their backs to him. After kicking them, he'd run. It was so damn exciting.
Moreover, every time he turned and fled after a kick, watching those Gorillas in slow motion, stomping their feet and beating their chests in anger, cursing wildly but completely helpless, his heart would feel even more gratified.
Orin Vale was right.
Once you got the hang of it, it was truly addictive.
Barry sped along, dashing down the Street while continuing to search for his next target. A glance from the corner of his eye caught a Building on fire, with thick black smoke billowing from a window where several civilians were trapped, calling for help.
His mind raced. By the time the thought formed, he had already changed direction, altering his target and charging headfirst into the burning Building.
A crackling flash of electric light flickered, and with each flash, a figure was brought out. After several consecutive flashes, all the civilians in the building were astonished to find they had been teleported outside, all of them looking dazed and confused, as if in a dream.
Looking up, they saw a masked young man, lightning crackling around his body, leaning against a wall to catch his breath. He even gave them a thumbs-up.
"Re... relax, you're all safe now. Let me catch my breath first, whoo~"
A little girl opened her mouth to say something, but Barry smiled and waved his hand. "You're welcome, no need to thank me. It was just a small effort, I'm just a kind-hearted passerby..."
"No," the little girl said weakly. "I just wanted to remind you, you seem to be on fire..."
"Pfft, it's no big deal, not worth mentioning..."
Barry narrowed his eyes, suddenly realizing that things were not that simple.
"Wait, what did you say!?"
He turned his head and saw that the back of his clothes was indeed on fire, and the flames were spreading rapidly across his body.
Friction generates heat. He was simply too fast, and during his ability awakening stage, the protective Speed Force energy field around him was not yet fully developed. Therefore, the friction with the air had ignited his clothes.
"Shit!"
Barry's expression changed drastically. With a cry of alarm, he abruptly transformed into a ball of lightning and vanished from everyone's sight.
The rescued bystanders stared blankly for a long while before an old man finally waved in the direction he had disappeared.
"Thanks, young man."
Orin Vale had thought that passing through this layer of the time-space membrane would lead to a place similar to the Speed Force field, like last time.
But he soon discovered that was not the case.
He was currently on a barren mountain, and not far away was a City.
It was filled with towering Buildings, but their style was completely different from human architecture in any country or region. The roads were made of a soft, elastic tree-like material, and the alloy Buildings were entwined with plants and vines, blending natural colors with organic lines.
And the populace moving through the City streets were all Gorillas.
So this was the DC Universe's Gorilla City.
Why would the Speed Force connect to this City?
"Creature reaction detected, within seven hundred meters," Pal reported.
"That close?"
Orin Vale turned his head to scan and soon discovered a heat source behind the dense forest nearby.
It was a group of Gorillas.
Several Gorillas had their hands tied behind their backs, kneeling on the ground. Behind them, a row of Gorillas held some kind of firearm, pointing them at the kneeling group.
It looked like some sort of execution scene.
Two chapters today, with another extra chapter update tomorrow.
(end of chapter)