Global Beast Mastery: Only I Can See the Hints - Chapter 686 686: Harassing the Enemy’s Main City

Out in the vast desert beyond the Gold Fortress, a group of Stellar Empire patrol soldiers was conducting their daily rounds.

It was midday, and the scorching sun beat down mercilessly on every soldier, making them all wish they could finish their patrol and return to the safety of the Gold Fortress as quickly as possible.

As they hurried over a sand dune, the soldier at the back of the line suddenly vanished without a trace.

The others only heard a blood-curdling scream.

Immediately, they stopped and quickly formed a defensive formation.

The captain, his weapon gripped tightly in his hand, scanned the surrounding area warily.

Their location wasn’t far from the Gold Fortress, so the soldiers assumed that whatever had attacked them was simply a monster from the desert.

Naturally, they saw no reason to send anyone back to the Fortress to report the incident.

But as the patrol soldiers stood in their defensive formation under the harsh sun, their conditions grew worse by the minute.

One soldier, unable to take the heat any longer, dryly muttered to the captain, “Captain, maybe the attack was just from a desert scorpion. It probably ate one of us and is full now. It won’t bother us again.”

The captain shot him a glance but didn’t respond.

The other soldiers remained silent as well, though in their hearts, they too began to feel that it was time to leave.

Minutes ticked by, and the captain couldn’t bear it any longer. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he ordered, “It seems the desert scorpion really has left. Let’s resume our patrol.”

The patrolmen breathed a sigh of relief and quickly reformed their line.

Just then, the ground beneath them trembled violently.

Suddenly, a massive beast, shining with metallic light, emerged from deep beneath the desert sands.

Before the soldiers could react, the metallic monster devoured them all in a single swoop.

Only the captain barely managed to evade the attack.

“I must admit, you’re quite strong,” a voice rang out from behind the shining beast. “So, you must hold a high position, right? You must know quite a bit of information, don’t you?”

The captain turned toward the source of the voice and saw a young, handsome human male slowly stepping into view.

This young man was none other than Charles.

And the massive, metallic beast was none other than the winged Savage Gold-Eater Beast.

Charles appeared here to carry out the plan he had set for himself.

After discussing things with the Serpents the night before, Charles had finally decided to harass the Gold Fortress directly.

Of course, he wasn’t foolish enough to launch an all-out attack on the fortress itself. Instead, he planned to continually strike at the Stellar Empire’s patrols around the fortress.

Once the patrols had suffered enough casualties, the elite forces inside the Gold Fortress would have no choice but to intervene. At that point, he could ambush them in the desert.

The main reason he didn’t go straight for an attack on the fortress was simple: the Gold Fortress still posed a certain risk to him.

Although his strength surpassed that of Harbor and the Stellar Empire’s crown prince, the fortress itself had solid defenses.

And besides the two powerful experts previously mentioned, there were many other formidable warriors within the fortress. When these strong individuals gathered, they could pose a significant threat to Charles.

Furthermore, the truce with Harbor had not yet ended.

If he recklessly attacked the Gold Fortress now, even if he succeeded, the contract’s backlash would hurt him. That would be a huge loss for Charles, so he had to be cautious.

The patrol captain lying on the ground certainly didn’t recognize Charles.

However, from Charles’ behavior, he could tell that the man was extraordinarily powerful.

So, at that moment, the captain didn’t consider running.

As the leader of the patrol, he had been involved in several fierce battles in the Atacama Desert. He knew that those who tried to flee when facing a strong opponent never ended well.

He was quickly thinking through how to handle the current situation in his mind.

Charles approached him.

“Stop playing dumb! Didn’t you hear my question?”

As he spoke, he gave a look to the winged Savage Gold-Eater Beast.

The beast immediately stomped on the patrol captain’s arm with one of its massive feet.

The captain cried out in pain.

Then, he shouted loudly, “I heard your question! I’m not playing dumb! I was just a little scared!”

Charles smiled.

“Fear is natural. I was originally going to kill all of you, but if you can provide me with enough information, I might consider letting you go.”

He finished speaking, then smiled at the patrol captain.

The patrol captain’s forehead was covered in beads of sweat.

He could feel Charles’ murderous intent, and driven by the instinct to survive, his brain was working at full speed, even temporarily ignoring the pain in his arm and the scorching sun above.

Several seconds passed, and Charles’ smile slowly faded.

He had given the patrol captain more than enough time to think.

Since the captain hadn’t provided any useful information so far, it seemed like he no longer held any value.

The captain, catching the change in Charles’ expression out of the corner of his eye, realized things were going terribly wrong.

Quickly, he spoke up.

“I know a lot of information, both about the Imperial army and about Gold Fortress. Which one do you want to know about?”

The patrol captain’s response clearly pleased Charles.

And in Charles’ view, both of the topics the captain mentioned were exactly what he was interested in.

“The information about the Stellar Empire’s army really catches my interest, and the information about Gold Fortress does as well. Think carefully. Of the intel you know, which one is the most valuable?”

Charles didn’t directly state his intentions, because he knew that if he asked outright, the captain might catch on.

By making the captain think about which information was the most valuable, Charles ensured that the captain wouldn’t hide any useful details.

After saying this, Charles applied more pressure.

At his command, the winged Savage Gold-Eater Beast placed its foot on the patrol captain’s other arm.

Though the beast didn’t press down yet, the captain was already filled with panic.

Under the intense pressure, he quickly shouted, “I believe the most valuable information I have is about the troop movements.”

After saying that, the captain cautiously observed Charles’ expression.

Charles didn’t show any change on his face.

He simply kept his focused gaze fixed on the captain.

At that moment, the patrol captain finally relaxed a bit.

At least from Charles’ expression, he could tell he hadn’t angered him.

“In the past few days, at least five different units have been transferred from the Empire to Gold Fortress. These five units are all extremely powerful, and each one carries secret weapons.”

The patrol captain paused here, and Charles’ expression turned cold.

“Why did you stop talking? Are you testing me?”

Realizing the captain was trying to test him, Charles clearly grew irritated.

This time, he didn’t let the winged Savage Gold-Eater Beast take action. He decided to handle it himself.

In the blink of an eye, the black gold long knife was in Charles’ hand.

The sharp wind from the blade sliced through the air, grazing the patrol captain’s ear. The wind was so intense that half of his right ear was severed by it.

The patrol captain froze, completely stunned.

He couldn’t even focus on the searing pain coming from his ear anymore.

At that moment, he realized that he could not afford any more unnecessary movements.

“I-I won’t do it again! I’ll tell you everything I know!”

Terrified, the patrol captain immediately began spilling every bit of information he had.

He went into detail about what the five units had brought with them — the secret weapons they carried.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have the clearance to know this information.

But he just happened to be the patrol captain during this time, and his patrol was in charge of guarding the gates of Gold Fortress when the five units entered.

This fortuitous timing gave Charles access to critical intelligence.

The five units, secretly transferred to Gold Fortress, were part of the Stellar Empire crown prince’s preparations for the upcoming battle at Serpent’s Eye Lake Oasis.

The patrol captain laid out everything he knew.

After sharing the military intel, he moved on to the information about Gold Fortress.

But the details he knew about Gold Fortress weren’t as significant.

As a patrol captain, he wasn’t authorized to know the secrets of the fortress.

Once Charles was certain that the captain hadn’t concealed anything, he smiled and spoke to him.

“The information you provided is very important, and I’m quite interested in it. You may leave now.”

Upon hearing this, the patrol captain felt as if a great weight had been lifted. He immediately stood up and ran towards the depths of the desert.

The winged Savage Gold-Eater Beast, still confused, turned to Charles and asked,

“Master, are you really going to let him go? Aren’t you worried about your information being leaked?”

Charles, watching the captain flee, smiled faintly and replied,

“He won’t get far. The desert scorpion is still out there.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the desert scorpion burst from the ground and devoured the fleeing patrol captain.