New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤
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Because he knew Chris as one of the franchise’s protagonists, Adrian had badly overestimated his raw combat ability.
In his head, Resident Evil leads were either musclebound men who punched zombies, U.S.
agents who wiped out villages alone, or hand-repairing miracle workers who could survive anything if they rinsed off afterward.
Therefore, Adrian had firmly decided the franchise’s protagonists could survive almost anything, including tearing a B.O.W.
apart barehanded.
Reality was less forgiving.
The truth was that T-Lilith’s glare alone made Chris feel as if every nerve in his body had tightened.
He could sense that this harmless-looking young woman genuinely wanted to kill him.
If he made the wrong move, she would reach him faster than he could react and drive his head into the wall.
In the end, Chris was only a human being.
Probably.
Adrian, on the other hand, had his own problem.
He could not simply let Chris go, but he also could not kill him.
Whether killing Chris was even possible was one question.
The trouble it would bring afterward was another.
Wesker had been absurdly hard to kill and still died only after taking two RPGs.
What gave Adrian the confidence to think he and T-Lilith could casually take down Chris Redfield?
And so the situation froze.
“What happened to the security team?” Adrian asked.
“Norman ran,” T-Lilith said.
“Everyone else is dead.
The people behind them were catching up, so there was no time to chase Mr.
Norman.”
The people behind them.
She probably meant the gangs.
The local gangs had always been violent, and their firepower was excellent.
Anyone who caused trouble openly in their territory was usually turned into a sieve first and identified later.
Even Adrian did not like clashing with them.
T-Lilith avoiding their sight was the best possible outcome.
Now the only problem was the BSAA man in front of him.
“Chris.” Adrian sighed.
“You’re making this very hard for me.
What am I supposed to do with you?”
“I thought you would order her to kill me,” Chris said.
“I can’t.
I want to kill you right now, but I have to admit the world still needs you.”
“That does not sound like something a mercenary would say.”
“I’m selfish, that’s all.
I also want the world to stay…
normal.” Adrian smiled faintly.
“I don’t want to experience another job where two Tyrants pop out of the cargo.
I choose to trust you, Chris.
So what’s your answer?”
“I’m not changing my position.”
“Fine.
If it did, I’d probably find that harder to accept.” Adrian waved a hand.
“I give up.
Go.”
“What?” Chris suspected he had heard wrong.
“Go.
You can’t take her tonight.
Go call for support.
While you do, I’ll take her and leave Loplers.” Adrian looked tired.
“You can’t take her.
I can’t kill you.
So that’s that.”
Chris looked at him for a moment, then said, “I still recommend joining the BSAA.”
I’m too used to doing things my own way.” Adrian turned and looked at the gang members cleaning up the street below.
“Deep down, I’m not that different from the people down there.
You want me to take orders and fight an endless war against monsters?
I can’t do it.
Shooting people is easier.”
Chris said nothing more.
He was preparing to leave when a savage roar rolled through the night.
“T-Lilith!”
“What was that?” Chris spun around.
Adrian stood on the roof and stared at the huge figure walking in from the far end of the street, shock spreading across his face.
“That is…
way too much.”
The gangsters in the street noticed it as well.
They shouted at the figure in words Adrian could not make out, but the monster did not stop.
It kept advancing with heavy steps.
“T-Lilith!”
After that second roar, the gangsters slowly fell silent.
The monster’s presence silenced them.
Then one of them opened fire.
The first shot broke the dam.
Everyone below started shooting.
A dense storm of rounds screamed into the monster, bullets of every caliber striking its black exoskeleton and throwing sparks.
The monster stopped in the gunfire.
A black metal faceplate snapped out of the exoskeleton and locked over its front.
It raised its right arm.
The minigun mounted there spun faster and faster, then erupted into a furious roar.
The metal storm shredded the gangsters’ line in an instant.
Screams rose and overlapped in the street.
A jeep fitted with a heavy machine gun was torn apart and then exploded, a fireball rising high enough for the heat to slap Adrian’s face.
Within a few breaths, the whole street fell silent.
Blood, limbs, and torn bodies covered the ground.
What an efficient killing machine.
The gunfire stopped.
The reddened barrels smoked.
The monster released another deafening roar, then turned its gaze toward Adrian’s position.
Its left hand brought the rocket launcher forward.
Adrian’s pupils shrank.
“Run!
Move!” he shouted at Chris, grabbing T-Lilith’s hand and jumping from the roof.
Chris reacted almost as fast and leaped after them.
A heartbeat later, the rocket screamed into the building’s outer wall.
The explosion tore the second floor apart.
Chunks of masonry rained down.
Adrian wrapped himself around T-Lilith and pressed her beneath him, while Chris hit the ground with his arms over his head.
The debris finally stopped falling.
Adrian pushed himself up, shaking dust from his shoulders.
“T-Lilith, are you hurt?”
“No.”
She shook her head, then noticed blood running from Adrian’s head down his cheek.
Adrian followed her gaze, wiped his face, saw the blood on his hand, and felt the pain in his scalp.
“Damn it.
That hurt.”
Chris crawled out from a pile of rubble nearby.
He looked just as rough, covered in dust and scrapes.
He tucked behind a building at the edge of the street and peeked out.
The minigun roared immediately, chewing chunks out of his cover and forcing him back.
Adrian gritted his teeth and looked at Chris.
“No question.
It’s a Nemesis-type B.O.W.”
Chris knew the name.
Jill had told him many times about that terrible night in Raccoon City, about the pursuer built from a Tyrant base, a creature that never stopped hunting its target.
“What now?”
“Gang reinforcements will be here soon.
Let them hold that thing down.
The local military will probably arrive too.
You contact the BSAA and call in support.
I’ll run with T-Lilith.”
Based on what Adrian remembered, taking down a Nemesis-class threat required at least a company-size regular force and heavy weapons.
The monster in front of them looked worse than the one from Raccoon City.
Adrian had no faith in local forces or gangs stopping it.
Chris shook his head.
“No.
I’m staying with you.
I cannot let that organization take her back.”
He pressed his earpiece and connected to the temporary command post.
“Command, this is Chris.
Repeat, this is Chris.
Bioterror incident inside Loplers.
An extremely dangerous B.O.W.
has appeared within the town.
I will provide coordinates shortly.
Target is highly dangerous.
We need heavy weapons support.
Repeat, we need heavy weapons support.”
“Command copies.
We will immediately negotiate with Loplers military command.
Hold out until then, Chris.”
Chris turned to Adrian.
“BSAA reinforcements need local authorization to enter Loplers.
Command will handle the negotiations.”
“Then let’s move, Chris.
Time to run for our lives.”
Gang members were already flooding back into the street with every kind of weapon they could carry, opening fire on Nemesis.
Local military transports arrived almost at the same time.
A patrol unit had gone silent, and the local forces responded fast.
Soldiers in uniform jumped from green transport vehicles and, with surprising coordination, fired alongside the gangs.
They had no idea what they were facing.
Another rocket flew out and blew a transport vehicle, nearby soldiers, and gang members into the air.
Then the minigun swept across the street.
People fell like wheat before a scythe.
Even transports could not withstand that firepower.
The soldiers’ and gangsters’ bullets merely dented the black armor.
RPGs skipped away.
Explosions failed to shake the monster.
“T-Lilith!”
Its instruments told it the target was moving.
The monster began to run.
The heavy exoskeleton and all that mounted weaponry could not slow it.
It charged into the incoming storm, smashed vehicles aside, and sent blood-red tentacles lashing from the armor’s gaps.
Anything in its way was pierced, ripped apart, and thrown aside.
The soldiers broke.
The remaining gangsters roared and charged anyway.
The monstrous tank crushed them all.
No one could stop it now.
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Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.