Get Up!

"The Heart of Steel is in danger?!" Inside the Enterprise's embassy to the Alliance. Staring at Eclipse's expressionless face in the holographic window, Yi Chuan planted both hands on his desk and shot to his feet, mouth agape. His imagination failed him; he simply could not fathom what could possibly threaten that airborne steel fortress. Standing amidst pale blue particles of light, Eclipse merely gave a slight nod. Extending her index finger, she traced an arc in midair, forwarding the radar feed transmitted from the Heart of Steel to Yi Chuan. Looking at the dense swarm of red dots covering the screen, Yi Chuan felt his scalp tingle. Seeing him struck speechless, Eclipse continued. "The Church of the Torch has mobilized a biological force exceeding ten thousand units. They take the specific form of humanoid mutants capable of flight, suspected to be an upgraded variant of mutants, employing swarm tactics. According to comprehensive battlefield situational analysis, the probability of them breaching the defensive barrage has reached 83 percent. The Heart of Steel is currently preparing for deck combat." "The Alliance's Administrator hopes we can honor our treaty and dispatch immediate reinforcements." Looking at the flickering imagery on the holographic screen, Yi Chuan was burning with anxiety, yet vaguely felt something was off. If the situation was truly that dire, why hadn't Chu Guang evacuated from the airship? That man had to know what he meant to the Alliance. He could not possibly be clinging to vanity at a critical juncture like this, could he? Still, now was not the time to ponder that. By the time he figured it out, the man might already be dead! Yi Chuan looked straight into Eclipse's eyes. "Can you get in touch with Chu Guang?" Eclipse shook her head. "He is commanding the battle on the front lines. I cannot reach him from here." Yi Chuan cursed under his breath, but had no other choice. Taking a deep breath, he said, "All right, understood." Ending the call, he tapped his index finger lightly on the desk. Once his thoughts cleared, he immediately dialed the Enterprise air base situated in the northern reaches of the Alliance. The moment the call connected, Yi Chuan cut in before the other party could exchange pleasantries. "Our allies are in trouble. I am requesting that the 26th Strike Team be dispatched to Jinchuan Province to handle an emergency." The commander of the air base frowned slightly. "The Council has not authorized military operations in Jinchuan Province. The relevant motion should still be under discussion. Your request does not comply with protocol." Unsurprised by the refusal, Yi Chuan patiently pressed on. "According to the security protocol regulations and their interpretative clauses, when a critical crisis threatening the survival of the Alliance's government occurs, the Council's authorization may be bypassed to activate contingency protocols... I will submit a report shortly to explain the necessity to the Council." With that, he dumped all the imagery Eclipse had sent him, along with the battlefield situational assessment report, onto the officer in the holographic projection. However, after reviewing the report, the commander's brow knitted even tighter. He naturally knew this clause existed in the security protocol, but the problem was that just yesterday, he had heard the front-line advance was carrying all before it... How could things have become so precarious in a single day? "I understand the basic situation... but does the current state of affairs meet the criteria of that clause?" he asked in an uncertain tone. "The only thing in danger is the Heart of Steel." Yi Chuan spoke in a grave tone. "The Administrator of the Alliance is on that airship! You should know what that man means to the current Alliance—and even to the entire River Valley Province. Under no circumstances can we lose this ally! Now is not the time for hesitation. I need your men deployed immediately!" Hearing this, the officer's expression finally shifted, and he nodded with a solemn look. "Understood." Slumping back into his chair, Yi Chuan let out a breath of relief. "Good that you understand!" Almost the instant he hung up, alarm sirens wailed across the air base on the southern bank of the Tianshui tributary. The entire base sprang into motion like tightly wound clockwork gears. Two Orca transports parked on the apron ignited their engines. Strike team soldiers clad in power armor and exoskeletons jogged up the ramps and boarded the cabins. Brought aboard along with them were ground fire-support platforms, including Cerberus unmanned ground vehicles, as well as various new gadgets sent over from Ideal City. Once the 26th Strike Team finished boarding, the two Orcas throttled up their engines, lifting off on jets of azure arc-light and streaking into the pitch-black night sky. Watching the cargo ramp slowly close, Su Ming, seated in the cabin, looked toward Captain Yun Song beside him, his face filled with bewilderment. "Do those guys even need our help?" Back in the Great Desert, he had seen firsthand the combat prowess of those ruthless fighters. If even they found the situation tricky, he doubted a single strike team could accomplish much. Eyes fixed on the mission briefing on his tablet, Yun Song replied casually, "That's not for us to worry about." In truth, a trace of doubt lingered in his own heart as well. A distance of over eight hundred kilometers... Even at full throttle, by the time they arrived, everything would probably already be over. It was hard to imagine that man would just be waiting there calmly for them to show up... ... Outside the Heart of Steel. Howling through the air was not just the frigid high-altitude slipstream, but also mutants flapping fleshy wings, baring razor-sharp fangs. They looked like gargoyles from ancient legends, or unmounted Batriders from Warcraft III. Their heavily fibrotic pectoral muscles and keratinous armor could withstand ordinary rifle bullets. Although the head was their sole weak point, their hardened skulls were by no means easy to pierce. However— The eyes were an exception. Even Ye Shi had not expected his instinctual dagger throw to score a critical hit, plunging straight into the beast's eye socket. Driven by the power of his exoskeleton combined with his own modest strength, the dagger drove into the monster's brain like a steel spike. Watching the silhouette plummet into the dark clouds below, Ye Shi strained with every ounce of strength he had and finally hauled himself back into the jolting cabin. He felt like poking fun at a certain D-rank researcher with a sarcastic remark or two, but seeing her pale, terror-stricken face, he held his tongue. Looking at it from another perspective, if he only had one life to live, he probably would not fare much better in a situation like this. When all was said and done, she was just a student ordered about by her mentor. Perhaps seeing a kindred status burdened with a different fate, Ye Shi suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for her. "You all right?" Jiang Xuezhou bit her pale lip. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, a shrill shriek pierced one side of the cabin. Gazing instinctively in that direction, sheer terror instantly flooded her eyes. This time, however, was much better than before—she did not freeze up to issue commands in her head, but screamed aloud, "To your left!" Almost the moment the words left her mouth, Ye Shi had already brought his muzzle around, aiming at the left hatch. Rat-tat-tat—! Brass casings spewed continuously from the ejection port as a thick tongue of flame leaped from the barrel. The fanged mutant took a full burst square-on. Splatters of blood stitched across its chest straight up to its forehead, and its talons lost their grip as it plunged into the dark sea of clouds beneath the transport. Yet that was clearly not the only beast that had targeted this transport. Having finally latched onto a Viper, the winged mutants naturally refused to let it slip away. They swarmed over the metal hunk like bees. A portion surged toward the cabin, while others scrambled toward the dual pairs of engines on the belly, clawing and battering wildly at the fiery thrusters. Listening to the non-stop rattle of gunfire from the cabin, the pilot gripping the control stick turned deathly pale. Stomping hard on the rudder pedals, he rolled the craft violently, trying to shake loose the creatures clinging to the fuselage. Yet their talons acted like grapples, locking firmly onto the hull plates without budging. Even if one was dislodged, a few beats of its wings brought it clinging right back. Meanwhile, Ye Shi, standing inside the cabin, was tossed around wildly. Fortunately, quick reflexes allowed him to latch the grapple cable on his exoskeleton onto a handrail inside the hold; otherwise, that violent roll would have thrown him straight out. "Fuck me!" Cursing furiously, Ye Shi started to scramble up from under a seat when the aircraft shuddered violently. An instant later, his rear lifted right off the cold metal deck. Jiang Xuezhou sat strapped into the opposite seat, face white as a sheet, the tightly cinched safety harness digging deep into her shoulders. Her voice trembled. "We're falling..." Practically the moment the words left her lips, the pilot's roar came from the cockpit. "Engine failure! Loss of thrust!" Clinging to a seat with one hand and aiming his rifle out the hatch with the other, Ye Shi yelled frantically, "What the hell happened?!" Drenched in sweat, the pilot wrestled with the stick and yelled back over his shoulder, "Something clogged our plasma nozzles!" Ye Shi panicked instantly. "Can you fix it?!" The pilot in the cockpit was panicking even more, staring in utter despair at the dials jumping erratically across his console. The plasma engines on the underbelly were the most fragile components on the entire aircraft. That was definitely not the kind of damage one could fix from the cockpit. "The acceleration coils are damaged! They need replacement! No... it's over! We're done for!" "Fuck!!!" Looking through the hatch as the flight deck rapidly receded upward, Ye Shi gritted his teeth, made up his mind, and tossed his rifle to Jiang Xuezhou. "Catch!!" Jiang Xuezhou clumsily caught the rifle slammed against her chest, letting out a muffled gasp. Before she could catch her breath, she saw Ye Shi scrambling on all fours toward the open hatch. She asked in astonishment, "What are you doing?!" Ye Shi did not answer her. His hands were already gripping the hatch frame, poking his head out, his right foot planted on the threshold. "...Can't just wait around to die!" He was not afraid of dying. It was just a three-day respawn timer anyway. However— He could respawn, but the pilot could not. Even if he did not know the guy's name, the pilot likely had a family back in Boulder City. And then there was a certain D-rank researcher. She had worked so hard to get admitted into the Academy, carrying the hopes of her whole family. Dying here pointlessly would be far too tragic. His mind was extraordinarily calm. Everything around him, along with himself, formed a crystal-clear image in his head. Beneath the deck lay the gun bays. The 20mm and 37mm barrels were too thin, but a 155mm should be sturdy enough. That long, thick barrel had already appeared before his eyes. Ye Shi played out the cable harness at his waist to its maximum length, gritted his teeth, and leaped out violently. If this damn trick actually works... Newton is going to crawl right out of his grave. Guess I just have to trust the quality of this exoskeleton! "Aaargh!" Leaping downward, he landed straddling the base of the gun barrel. Clamping his arms and legs tight, he wrapped himself around it, simultaneously locking the joint actuators and motors of his Type 5 exoskeleton. Almost the instant he did, an immense tearing force ripped through his waist, squeezing virtually all the air straight out of his lungs. Even with the exoskeleton bearing over ninety percent of the tension, nearly a ton of weight carrying the kinetic energy of a dozen-meter plunge slammed right into his torso. An ear-splitting screech of grinding steel tore through his ears. The barrel bent downward along its entire length, but fortunately did not snap. Pinned against the bent barrel under the weight of the entire transport aircraft, Ye Shi felt like an ant being crushed flat, his eyes bulging so hard they nearly popped from their sockets. To his surprise, however, the process was not painful. At first, he assumed his helmet had severed pain signals exceeding the threshold, but he quickly realized he had completely lost all sensation below his waist. Fuck! My spine is definitely broken. Still— Cursing inwardly, Ye Shi strained to shift his gaze downward. When he saw the massive iron lump hanging securely below, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. The cable was plenty sturdy. Word had it that it could support a Type 1 tank, let alone a light transport like the Viper that weighed under ten tons. As for his exoskeleton, pre-war materials science was clearly no joke. Catching an aircraft plummeting from a kilometer up through sheer individual effort—having pulled off a badass stunt like this in one lifetime, he could die satisfied. As for his next life... He would worry about that in three days. As he closed his eyes and logged off, the gun crew inside the gun bay watched through the porthole with tear-filled eyes at the warrior who had sacrificed himself. Though they could not see his eyes, they could feel the burning sincerity and resolve emanating from him. They had not the slightest doubt— He was a true hero! The pilot from Boulder City in the cockpit felt the same, staring blankly out the right-hand window at the figure suspended in midair. Even though the cable had practically severed the man's torso in two, the limbs locked around the barrel had not yielded in the slightest. What loyalty! What heroism! His lips twitched slightly, and tears hot with emotion welled in the corners of his eyes. Gritting his teeth, he wiped them away with his sleeve. Rest in peace, brother! Your will and your ideals— I will carry them forward for you! In the cabin behind him, Jiang Xuezhou slumped against her seat, weeping inconsolably, tearful eyes fixed upon the figure hanging outside. "No—no!" Clutching the rifle to her chest, she hated how useless she was. Without her high-tech equipment, she was good for nothing, incapable of doing anything except dragging others down. If only she were stronger... If she had not been so terrified of heights that she did not even dare leave her seat, maybe things might have turned out differently... Bean-sized tears rolled down one after another onto the deck. Filled with remorse, heartbroken sobs squeezed through her trembling lips. At that same moment, Gahn, standing beside the 400mm main turret, was looking in the direction the transport had fallen. Wearing a satisfied, sinister grin, he casually flicked his curled index finger to the side. Like a chef waving a ladle, that thick finger signaled more than a dozen flapping Batwings to leap clear of the transport plunging toward the clouds. In a seamless motion, they landed on the steel deck and charged without pause toward the nearest Alliance soldiers. Though clumsy at first, with time, he had gradually mastered the power of this biomass armor. With a simple flick of his finger or even a single glance, he could command these clawing Batwings to throw themselves forward in waves and tear his enemies to pieces. To him, it was as effortless as breathing. After being tormented for so long by the Alliance's planes and artillery, and losing several warriors he had personally named, he had finally vindicated himself and reclaimed all the face he had lost. And he had reclaimed it with his own hands! Yet right then, Gahn remembered that these ugly, ape-faced wretches were all transformed from the tribe's children. His cruel grin immediately twisted with hatred and anguish. "Aaaagh! Gomo! It's you, isn't it?! It has to be you! I should've known back on the ground... Only you, the one I trusted most, could pull this off without anyone noticing!" Breeding was work every mutant did, but delivering births was the purview of the tribal priests. As the High Priest of the tribe, only that old bastard could have made ten thousand newborns vanish from the Qi Tribe without a trace. Maybe even more than ten thousand! Otherwise, why was it that no matter how hard they rutted and mated day and night with those two-legged beasts in the pens, the tribe's numbers never grew?! That shameful traitor— He claimed to stand with the mutants, yet his allegiance had remained with the old humans all along! He had never considered the Qi Tribe his own people! Gahn should have recognized long ago that all those old relics were cut from the same cloth. All that talk about honoring the Ancestor's teachings was pure deceit! Once he returned, he would crush that old man's skull! He would find someone else to renegotiate with those two-legged zealots! But before that— He had to make these poor children's deaths count. "Go! Tear them apart! Tear apart everyone you see!!!" He roared in fury, clenching his outstretched talons into fists. Under the siege of countless Batwings, another fireball spun down from the night sky, smashing violently into one side of the deck. It was a W-2 attack aircraft with a sheared-off wing. Having expended all its ammunition, the pilot had chosen not to make a forced landing on the ground. Instead, after drawing a swarm of Batwings into pursuit, the pilot fired on them with a pistol and slammed directly into the deck, taking them down with him. Flames roiled across the steel deck as nearby soldiers scrambled for cover. Seeing their terrified reactions, Gahn's face twisted into maniacal laughter. "Hahaha! Die! All of you, die—" While he was throwing his fit, the players had also noticed this peculiar monster. Other mutants had fleshy wings connecting their arms to their flanks, but this creature had wings sprouting directly from its back. "Holy shit?! Illidan?!" Where are your Warglaives, you bastard?! Locking eyes with the boss, Silver Sword froze in shock, so stunned that his rifle jammed. Just as he cleared the jammed round from the receiver, Silver Dad, encased in K10 heavy exoskeleton armor, let out an excited roar. Tossing his rifle aside, he drew the [Jungle Corps-Model Chainsaw] he had bought from Boulder Armory just yesterday and charged forward. "Haha, come at me!" Facing that four-meter-tall behemoth, Silver Dad felt like an attacking dwarf. But he believed that before a chainsaw capable of cleaving through anything, all beings were equal! The wide blade whirred, kicking up a gale as it slashed toward the boss's chest. However, the expected shower of gore never occurred. The screeching blade failed to shave off even a single chest hair before a force like a speeding locomotive slammed into his chest. Coughing up a mouthful of blood, three deeply indented claw marks gouged into his breastplate, Silver Dad flew backward like a broken kite. He slammed heavily onto the edge of the flight deck, smashed through a damaged railing, and tumbled overboard. "Aaaagh—!" His fading scream trailed into the distance. "Dad!!!" Watching Silver Dad plunge into the abyss, Silver Hand let out an anguished howl, then whipped around to glare at the monster with venomous hatred. Silver Sword had already cleared the jam and raised his rifle again, venting his fury through a spitting tongue of muzzle fire. "I'll take you down with me, you bastard!!!" The two charged forward together. And then— The pair, who had only recently respawned, promptly fed another two kills. Thick blood dripped from his fingertips. Chewing on crushed bone, Gahn was drenched in blood from head to toe, an eerie, feral glint in his eyes. His bloodlust aroused, he was no longer content with merely directing the battle from the rear. He actively charged into the thickest clusters of people, his slashing talons unleashing a storm of blood and gore. Pushing toward the midsection of the deck, Lao Bai and his group witnessed this spectacle, their faces flashing with astonishment. Corner Camper swallowed hard and turned to Prop Master beside him. "Did you bring an RPG?" Prop Master did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Who the hell brings a rocket launcher to this?!" "Where's that grandson Ye Shi?" Finally realizing someone was missing, Jieyan quickly scanned their surroundings for Ye Shi, but found no sign of him. He remembered Ye Shi carried a Gauss rifle, which should work wonders against that boss—assuming he had it on him. Kuang Feng said solemnly, "No idea. I got off the plane ahead of him... Wait, did he even get off?" Jieyan froze, recalling that Kuang Feng seemed to be the last one out of their transport, and his jaw dropped in horror. "Holy crap! He wouldn't happen to be on that transport that just went down, would he?!" While they were speaking, a smoking aircraft suddenly crash-landed sideways onto the flight deck. Its landing gear snapped, and it tumbled across the plating. Looking closely at the aircraft, half of its left wing had already been torn away. Several mutants pounced upon it, gnawing and ripping at the cockpit canopy, followed immediately by several muffled gunshots from inside. Leaving no time to worry about the distant boss, saving lives took priority. Seeing this, Fang Chang instantly nocked an explosive arrow to his bowstring and loosed it at the closest mutant. Flashing fire detonated across the creature's back. Several nearby mutants caught the blast shrapnel in their faces as well, their backs and the fleshy wings connecting to their arms shredded into bloody ruin. The intense pain halted their gnawing as they threw their heads back in pained shrieks. Right then, streaks of orange tracer fire converged on them, blowing their heads apart one after another. Lao Bai charged ahead of everyone, swinging his thermal cutter ax to split open the fanged head pinned against the cockpit. Seated inside the cockpit, Luo Yu panted weakly. His chest and shoulders were mangled and bleeding profusely from bite wounds; he looked on the verge of death. Yet he did not expire immediately. Scarlet tendrils writhed from his wounds, stitching his damaged flesh together, healing him at a visible rate. "Th—" Before his "Thanks" could leave his lips, Lao Bai swung his thermal cutter ax again and slammed it down onto the nose of the plane. Watching sparks fly, the barely conscious Luo Yu jumped out of his skin, instantly jolted wide awake and horrified. "Fuck?! What are you doing?!" "Borrowing this for a sec!" Stowing the ax, Lao Bai gripped the underside of the nose with both hands and wrenched violently, ripping the 20mm autocannon and its feed mechanism clean off the airframe. Watching Lao Bai dismantle his ride with his bare hands, Luo Yu's eyes nearly bugged out. "What the fuck?! I'm already out of ammo—" Before he could finish, Fang Chang, clad in an exoskeleton, came sprinting over from the hangar carrying a crate of supplies on his shoulder. "Catch!" Yelling as he ran, Fang Chang hurled the crate toward Lao Bai. "Thanks, bro!" Catching it with practiced ease, Lao Bai smashed the latch with a fist and jammed the linked belt of orange-tipped rounds into the feeder. Holding the barrel in one hand and the receiver in the other, he leveled the gun at the distant, claw-flailing boss, a ferocious grin spreading across his face. "Die, motherfucker!!" With that, he pulled the trigger. A roaring tongue of fire spewed forward as the autocannon thundered across the deck, sending a cascade of orange tracers hammering into Gahn. Clad in power armor, Lao Bai looked like a walking humanoid tank, the muzzle flash illuminating his polished chestplate. Taking a solid burst of autocannon rounds straight on, the boss's flesh tore open, blood and gore flying everywhere, as it bellowed in agony. Astonishingly, however, it did not collapse. It absorbed the barrage with its organic flesh! Jieyan's eyes went wide, and he gulped down a mouthful of spit. "Holy shit?! Is he hacking?!" Lao Bai was equally stunned, clearly shaken by this absurd defense. What kind of monster was this?! Standing nearby, Kuang Feng showed no surprise. Tapping the bridge of his nose, he said calmly, "Let's break this down rationally... He weighs at least half a ton. To reach maximum flight speeds of nearly a hundred miles per hour on those wings, his muscle density is probably greater than steel." "He might even have regenerative capabilities..." Fang Chang glanced at the nearly healed wounds on Luo Yu's chest, then narrowed his eyes at the winged beast ahead. Mutant slime mold was itself a genetic repository holding massive amounts of DNA, and Na fruit was synthesized by the Church of the Torch by extracting certain genes from it. Since this creature was also the work of the Church of the Torch, similar gene fragments could easily have been spliced into it... if conditions permitted. Seeing their leader focused by the autocannon, the surrounding winged mutants went berserk, lunging en masse toward Lao Bai. Unable to spare attention for the boss, Lao Bai gritted his teeth. Seeing that he could not penetrate the beast's armor, he swung the barrel toward the incoming swarm instead. These lesser minions did not possess such absurd durability; against 20mm aerial rounds, they were shredded into mincemeat instantly. Watching the suit of power armor mow down his minions one after another, Gahn let out a furious roar and charged toward him. Yet before taking two steps, an ominous premonition shot through his spine. Almost instinctively, he shifted an inch to the side. Agonizing pain tore through flesh and bone as a round punched clean through his back and out his chest. Gahn bellowed in pain. Carried forward two stumbling steps by the immense kinetic impact, he whipped around. Standing at the exit of the lift stood a suit of azure power armor, cradling a rifle whose barrel split in the middle like a tuning fork. Gahn's pupils contracted instantly. Azure-painted power armor! There was no mistaking it! "It's you!! The leader of the Alliance! Hahaha!!!" His face, twisted in agony, morphed into ecstatic fury. He burst into uproarious laughter, his feet kicking violently against the deck as he vaulted into the air. His beating wings whipped up powerful air currents, tossing the approaching players and Guards Corps soldiers off balance. In that raging gale, taking aim and shooting was out of the question. Without heavy exoskeletons, even maintaining their footing would have been nearly impossible! Standing by the lift, Chu Guang merely watched the airborne creature with an impassive expression. Stowing the charged Gauss rifle, he slowly unhooked the Nitrogen Power Hammer mounted on his back. Simple penetrating trauma likely would not kill it. Through the visor of his power armor, he had witnessed with his own eyes that the hole punched by the Gauss rifle was already closing at a visible rate. Furthermore, there was more to this creature's oddity. He had aimed squarely for the left chest, yet the point of impact had drifted to the right chest. The monster might possess an ability akin to a Perception-type Awakened. "What a grotesque creature." "Does seeing me make you that excited?" His steady voice carried into the air through the external speakers. Hearing the man below confirm his identity, Gahn's grin grew even more euphoric, every cell in his body trembling with excitement. He was not the only one excited— So were the observers far outside the battlefield. Watching the aerial drone feed, Yang Kai, seated inside the research vessel, was utterly dumbfounded, not even noticing the coffee spilling all over his pants. "Have you lost your mind?!" He muttered under his breath, caught completely flat-footed and bewildered by a variable Doctor Conclusion had failed to account for. A hundred kilometers away, Arzu was the same. Sensing Chu Guang's presence through Gahn's biomass armor, his eyes first widened in disbelief, followed immediately by unrestrained ecstasy. His heart thumped so violently it practically leaped into his throat. He cheered aloud into the pitch-black night, "Kill him! Do it now!" To think the Alliance's Administrator was actually on that airship! This was hitting the jackpot! As long as that man died— Every problem would be solved! Even without the voice in his head urging him on, Gahn fully intended to do just that. Although that azure power armor gave him a subtle sense of danger, he did not take the inexplicable threat seriously. He had gathered intelligence on the Alliance's Administrator—both on the man himself and on the armor he always wore. When all was said and done, it was nothing more than a security-model power armor manufactured by Carlos Industrial. While its protection was undeniably solid, its combat performance and mobility were nothing exceptional. And what did high defense matter? He could simply fling that iron hunk right off the deck, smashing it to pieces the way an eagle breaks a turtle! "Ah... I am thrilled! So thrilled my muscles are trembling! To think tonight's hunt would yield a prize like this..." Looking down at the armored figure on the deck, Gahn licked his dry lips, every muscle coiling tight. "I hear you're the strongest warrior in the Alliance. I hope your blood is different from those weak sheep—give me some amusement, will you?" "I'm going to savor you slowly." Poised like a predator coiled to strike, he was fully primed. Even as he taunted, his eyes carefully searched for an opening in his prey. Standing on the deck, Chu Guang did the same, keeping his eyes locked on the airborne beast. The warhammer held in his hands was gathering violent power, compressing the circulating air into an invisible wall. Though it had been some time since he last fought, he had never neglected the tempering of his flesh. Not to mention the countless deaths he had experienced in his dreams... Combat was like an instinct, long engraved into his DNA and unleashed across his successive Awakenings. "Xiao Qi." The dependable voice sounded by his ear. "On it, Master!" Their tacit understanding needed no elaboration. Hearing that ever-enthusiastic voice, a faint smile touched the corner of Chu Guang's mouth. At that exact moment, Gahn seemed to have finally found the opening he was looking for, stooping from the sky like a hurtling vulture. "Die for me!" Boosted by his wings, the four-meter-tall bulk dove like an artillery shell, hurtling straight down toward Chu Guang before the lift. Gahn had no doubt. Even without using his steel-shredding talons, the raw kinetic energy alone would be enough to smash the azure power armor into scrap metal. However— Something he could never have imagined occurred. The man stood right there, not taking a single step from start to finish, yet an irresistible traction wrenched Gahn's dive completely off course. The more he resisted that force, beating his wings to accelerate and break free, the firmer and more unyielding it grew, pinning down his head as he tried to look up. "Aaaagh!!" Gahn let out a defiant roar before crashing headfirst into the deck like an uprooted leek, hitting with a thunderous boom barely a step in front of Chu Guang. His skull was undeniably hard; his face and the bridge of his nose smashed a crater into the steel deck, and both arms held in front of him were buried deep in the plating. Gahn's head spun violently, swimming with dizzy confusion, unable to tell whether he had crushed that metal hunk or not. Just then— Footsteps stepping right in front of him sent his heart plunging to the abyss. An endless dread crept from the back of his upturned head across his entire body. He struggled desperately to push himself up, but it was already too late. A commanding voice drifted into his ears. "Who gave you permission to kneel?" Looking down at the creature squirming like a maggot before him, Chu Guang gripped the hammer's haft with both hands and swung it upward in a vicious arc. "—Get up!"