“Every one of you, hold the line! Reinforcements are coming!”
Thunder brewed in his palm as the Chief of the Special Services Division slapped away the head of a charging aberrant, sending gore flying.
He shouted the order without even turning his head.
Of the First Rescue Team, only nine members remained besides Lin Mo.
They stood in a tight circle, struggling to endure.
The tide of aberrants surging toward them was more fearless and desperate than ever; before they could even catch a breath after killing one, they had to parry the next one’s strike.
Yet, when they had first set out, this team had consisted of fifteen men.
A member whose combat suit was shredded to rags raised his blade, decapitating a pouncing aberrant.
Gasping for air, he yelled, “Deputy Chief, we can’t hold on… my… my Oracle power is about to freaking dry up!”
“Are we… are we going to check out here?”
In the center of the defensive circle, a severely wounded man whose legs had been severed at the knees asked in a heavy voice.
Everyone present was from the Binhai Branch’s Special Services Division.
They knew all too well that the branch’s resources were completely exhausted.
Right now, the temporary command headquarters… likely couldn’t spare enough reinforcements to help them.
“Stop your damn whining!” Veins bulged on the Chief’s forehead.
The Oracle power within him was nearly depleted, and the fine beads of sweat on his brow fell like a waterfall.
“I’m definitely getting you all out of here!”
“Ugh… ROAR—!!!”
A low, violent growl drifted down from the hillside, echoing through the canyon.
The Chief stumbled, gasping for breath.
The moment he heard that roar, he instinctively looked up, his pupils suddenly shrinking.
“That’s…”
A massive creature, its lines fluid yet filled with the aesthetics of raw violence, leapt down from the hillside.
It was a Type VII Aberrant Variant, a Z01-K3 Special High-Energy Individual.
It had a simple, more widely known nickname—the 【Tyrant】!
Resisting the tide of low-to-mid-tier aberrants had already forced the remaining nine members of the First Rescue Team to overextend their lives just to stay standing.
Now, with a Tyrant—a symbol of power and destruction—entering the field, the last sliver of hope in everyone’s hearts was instantly snuffed out.
The Chief’s face was as grim as stagnant water.
His gaze quickly swept over the exhausted yet resolute faces of his brothers, and he made his final decision.
He took a deep, almost greedy breath of the air that was thick with the scent of blood and char.
Deep within his pupils, a resolute arc of electricity flickered wildly.
“Brothers…”
His voice was hoarse, yet it carried a strange sense of calm.
“Live!”
The next moment—
“Ugh, AHHHH—!!!”
Accompanied by a roar of mingled pain and fury, an unprecedented, nearly uncontrollable burst of violent plasma erupted from every pore of his body.
The blinding blue-white light made him look like a god of thunder descended to earth.
He thrust both fists forward, his rampant lightning power transforming into two raging dragons that slammed into the dense pack of aberrants ahead.
Boom! Boom!
The muffled sounds of flesh being carbonized and torn apart followed one after another.
The stench of blood and charred meat mixed into a nauseating haze.
With just two punches, he had cleared a brief vacuum in front of him.
“Chief!”
“Chief! Don’t!”
…
The Sentinels to the Chief’s left and right turned pale, crying out in shock.
They knew very well that in this state, the Chief was burning his life essence to forcibly stimulate Oracle power far beyond what his body could handle.
In other words… he was using his life to buy them time!
“Shut up! Follow my orders!”
Plasma crackled around the Chief’s body as his aura climbed to an unprecedented peak, even stronger and more violent than when he was in his prime.
“Find an opening to break out… get out of here alive.”
He growled as he took a determined step forward.
The low-tier aberrants closing in couldn’t even get within a meter of him before being instantly turned to ash by the rampaging plasma.
“Help me give my wife a message…”
His voice sounded a bit blurry amidst the roar of thunder, yet it pierced clearly into the ears of every team member.
“Our wedding anniversary… I… won’t be able to spend it with her.”
Just then—
BOOM—!!
The Tyrant’s massive frame slammed onto the ground.
Its heavy mass made the earth tremble violently as a cloud of dust billowed upward.
It threw its head back and released an ear-splitting roar, its crimson pupils instantly locking onto the “ant” standing at the very front, glowing with blinding electrical light as if in provocation.
Fifty meters, thirty meters, fifteen meters, five meters… It was here!
The Chief’s right foot suddenly twisted backward, his heel wedging firmly into a crack in the pavement.
He leaned his body slightly forward, taking a charging stance.
His eyes were completely covered by violent blue plasma.
He raised his arms, his muscles bulging; he intended to use his flesh and blood to clash head-on with that terrifying Tyrant!
The Tyrant let out a low, disdainful hiss from its throat, veins bulging against its ashen-gray skin.
It simply raised a fist and swung it with a savage wind that tore through the air, smashing it toward the plasma-shrouded Chief.
BOOM—!!
A massive explosion rang out, sounding like two high-speed heavy trucks colliding head-on.
Blinding plasma and billowing dust mixed together, instantly swallowing the two figures, one large and one small.
A terrifying shockwave expanded in a ring.
Countless surrounding aberrants lost their balance like wheat being cut down, tumbling over one another.
Despite having prepared themselves mentally, the team members were still shaken by the massive force, stumbling before finally regaining their footing.
“Chief!” A badly injured Sentinel cried out, his eyes bloodshot.
He took a step forward without hesitation and roared at the brothers behind him, “You guys break out! I’ll stay behind with the Chief to cover the rear!”
“Forget about me too…”
The Sentinel whose legs were severed below the knee lay halfway on the ground.
His remaining Oracle power erupted recklessly, forming a weak but steady barrier.
“I’m definitely not getting out… Brothers, if you see my mom… tell her her son… wasn’t a coward!”
Hearing this, a Sentinel with only his right arm left suddenly showed a faint, relieved smile.
He slumped on the ground, and the last of his Oracle power burned without reservation.
“Whoever makes it out alive… remember to look after my wife… she’s timid, and she’s got a big belly right now… I don’t know how hard she’s going to cry…”
“Dammit! You guys think you’re the only ones with a sense of duty?!”
A blood-soaked burly man wiped a smear of either blood or tears from the corner of his eye.
He stepped forward, blocking his brothers with his broad back.
His voice carried a hint of a sob, yet it was exceptionally firm: “I’m an orphan! No ties, no worries! If someone’s gotta die… it’s gonna be me first!”
…
Just as he finished speaking, several aberrants that were the first to recover from the impact hissed and pounced.
The burly man let out a wild roar, his internal Oracle power erupting like the most brilliant flash of a firework before it burns out.
He stopped all defense, allowing the claws and fangs of those aberrants to tear into his flesh.
Growling, he dragged several creatures hanging off him and launched a suicidal charge toward the densest cluster of aberrants.
BOOM—!!!
Another massive explosion!
The violent, out-of-control Oracle power instantly surpassed the critical point.
With the burly man’s broken figure at the center, it turned into a storm of destructive energy, instantly annihilating everything within ten meters—including himself and those aberrants!
The invisible shockwave spread again, knocking over even more surging aberrants.
Severed limbs and broken parts mixed with soil rained down from the sky.
“Da Pang!!”
“Da Pang! Da Pang!!!”
Seeing this, the other Sentinels roared, their voices filled with grief and rage.
“ROAR—!!!”
Before the echoes died down, a thunderous roar filled with pain and fury erupted from the center of the billowing dust.
The next moment, a figure flew out like a broken doll from the clearing haze, tumbling a dozen times on the ground before finally coming to a stop.
It was the Chief.
He struggled to prop up his upper body with his arms, his entire frame shaking violently.
Every breath sounded like a broken bellows, and large mouthfuls of blood coughed uncontrollably from his lips.
“Cough… cough, cough…”
“Chief!”
…
The other Sentinels rushed forward.
At this moment, the violent plasma on the Chief had mostly dimmed, flickering like a candle in the wind.
His combat suit was in tatters, and the exposed skin was covered in fine, bone-deep wounds.
Blood had dyed him into a man of red.
He turned to look at his brothers who hadn’t left yet.
His face was flushed with pain and anger, and he used all his strength to roar, “Didn’t I tell you to… get lost?! Why haven’t you left?!”
“If we go, we go together!”
The one-armed Sentinel, his eyes red, was the first to rush over.
He used his only good arm to strenuously help the Chief up.
Seeing this, the others didn’t hesitate.
They crowded around—even the brother who had lost his legs was hoisted up by two companions, one on each side, as they gathered around the Chief.
“You… you bunch of bastards…”
The Chief muttered as he was supported.
Looking at the faces around him, all prepared for death, the curses stayed in his throat and turned into a more violent coughing fit.
“Don’t say it, Chief,” the one-armed Sentinel said, managing a smile that looked more painful than crying.
“You nag all day long… at the very end, let your brothers have some peace and quiet.”
Hearing this, the Chief was stunned for a moment.
Then, he cracked a grin, revealing a blood-stained, hearty yet incredibly sorrowful smile.
He looked down, spat a mouthful of bloody phlegm onto the ground, and laughed as he cursed, “You little brats!”
The dust finally began to settle.
That hideous, terrifying figure became clear once more.
The Tyrant stumbled for a moment before quickly steadying itself.
Its absurdly thick arms were now charred and mangled, with writhing muscle tissue visible beneath the skin—clearly, it had paid a significant price in the head-on collision with the Chief.
However, the violent crimson light in its eyes hadn’t dimmed in the slightest; instead, it grew even more vicious due to its injuries.
It growled low and took a slow step forward.
“Brothers, don’t be afraid… we’ll have company on the road to the underworld. We won’t be lonely!”
“In this life… I’ve killed enough to break even!”
“In the next life…”
“In the next life, I’ll be your father and teach you disobedient brats some manners!”
“Screw you! I’ll be your father in the next life!”
“ROAR—!!!”
Looking at the tiny, broken humans ahead who were still laughing and joking, the Tyrant’s fury finally reached its peak.
These ants dared to mock its majesty?
Its muscles tightened and bulged like steel cables.
Its massive frame suddenly blurred, launching a destructive charge toward the gathered humans with a speed even more terrifying than the Agility-type aberrants.
Watching the terrifying shadow that quickly blotted out the sun, bearing down on them like a collapsing mountain, the Sentinels leaning on each other showed no fear—only serenity and resolve.
They each squeezed out the last drop of power in their bodies.
The light of their Oracle power flared up one last time like a final glow before death, preparing to welcome this final moment of brilliance and ending.
At that critical juncture…
A sharp, panicked, and voice-cracking scream came without warning from high above their heads, rapidly growing louder as it approached: “HOLY~ CRAP!! AHHHHH!!”
High in the sky, a petite figure fell like a meteor.
Carrying a scalp-numbing whistle, it descended with a speed and precision that completely defied the laws of physics.
BOOM——!!!
A muffled, shocking explosion erupted, far louder than anything before.
That figure landed—unerringly and with absolute precision—right on top of the hideous head of the Tyrant in the middle of its full-tilt charge.
Thump!
The Tyrant’s massive forward momentum was violently halted as if a giant invisible hand had pressed down on it.
Its hard skull even made an ear-grating sound of bone cracking.
The enormous body was forced to collapse forward by the inconceivable, heaven-sent force, slamming heavily onto the ground and kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
…
The swirling dust slowly settled.
An abrupt, eye-catching shade of bright pink appeared against the hazy brown-gray background, looking exceptionally clear.
That petite figure lightly hopped off the Tyrant’s temporarily motionless head, landing on the ground with graceful movements.
She brushed the dust off her hands and walked through the dissipating smoke, coming to a stop before the group of rescue workers who had completely turned to stone, their expressions vacant.
All the surviving Sentinels looked in a daze at this savior who had fallen from the sky.
She wasn’t tall; she actually looked quite petite.
She had two high, energetic pink twin-tails.
She wore a modified combat suit that was slightly oversized but somehow perfectly suited her vibe.
But the most eye-catching thing was the exaggerated, violent, and terrifyingly large-caliber custom grenade launcher slung over her shoulder.
Wh-What kind of crazy combination was this?
A descending… Heavy Artillery Lolita?!
The girl with the pink twin-tails squinted and smiled.
She casually took the heavy launcher off her shoulder and held it with both hands with effortless ease, the muzzle pointing diagonally at the ground.
“Beifu Headquarters, Seventh Tactical Squad—Night Hunt. Heavy Fire Specialist, Qing Luan!”
“Reporting for support!”