Chapter 615 - Night Combat (2/2)

She pressed an ear against the wall, but all she heard was silence from Zhang Heng’s room next door.

It was so quiet that Wendy wondered if Zhang Heng had left. Soon, though, her thoughts were interrupted by the hooves of horses arriving downstairs. A wave of panic washed over the girl. There was still no sound coming from the room next door.

Zhang Heng did not open fire but waited for Lowe to enter the building.

There were a total of six men. Two guarded the entrance, while another two watched over the first floor, ready to jump in whenever needed. Lowe and another guy walked up to the second floor, terrorizing the stricken innkeeper. Just as one of the men guarding the door made a gesture for him to keep quiet, the poor man collapsed onto the ground.

Wendy saw the men stopping briefly in front of her room through the crack in the door, then walking away. Clearly, Lowe and his men didn’t see her as a threat. In their opinion, once they got rid of the easterner, the battle would be over.

Wendy felt that if she had a gun, she might be able to take the men on the other side of the door by surprise and kill them. Unfortunately, even though her marksmans.h.i.+p had improved, Zhang Heng said that he would not give her a gun to defend herself this time.

And this was actually what worried Zhang Heng the most. He did not care if Wendy could help or not-he was even concerned this kid might be too bold for her own good. If she had a gun, she would indeed allow all h.e.l.l to break loose. It was a common problem amongst most firearms dabblers-once they had a gun in hand, an inconsolable urge to do something would overwhelm them.

Zhang Heng experienced that once in the river valley, he was not about to go through that again.

SCI

Wendy’s heart was in her throat. She kept screaming in her mind for Zhang Heng to start shooting at the men outside her room, but yet, all seemed eerily still next door. Lowe and his companion looked at each other. The latter stepped back, kicked the door open while Lowe prepared to fire his rifle. To their surprise, however, there was no one in the room.

Lowe and his companion entered the room and saw the empty stool by the window. “Where did that b.a.s.t.a.r.d go?”

The answer to his question was a gunshot, followed by Lowe’s companion dropping to the ground with a thud.

Lowe was startled. He wasn’t caught off-guard by the ambush, but by the fact that the gunshot had come from above. By the time he thought of aiming his rifle at the ceiling, it was too late. Zhang Heng released his left hand from the beam and jumped down, firing a shot right in Lowe’s face.

The men downstairs hastily drew their weapons when they heard the gunshots, but Zhang Heng moved quickly. Instead of aiming at his a.s.sailants, he aimed at the kerosene lamp on the table downstairs. The lamp shattered as he pulled the trigger, plunging the entire hotel into complete darkness. Then, abandoning the men downstairs, Zhang Heng repositioned himself by the window again.

When the two men keeping watch outside heard the gunshots, one of them dismounted his horse, and the other scanned the windows, ready to fire.

Instead of opening the window, Zhang Heng fired through the gla.s.s, shattering the window and killing the armed man. The other one, who had just dismounted, crouched down, thinking that the shooter should not be able to see clearly in the darkness. But Zhang Heng pulled down the trigger guard, reloaded his weapon, and then with a click, the hammer was depressed, the trigger returned its position, and the barrel closed. The fourth bullet was discharged, and Zhang Heng had completed three kills.

The other two men downstairs had their weapons drawn, but they were like headless chickens without a source of light.

Zhang Heng leaned against the door, noted their positions, and killed them, one after the other. He had the complete advantage at fights like this. He barely even broke a sweat.