Keran took a deep breath and cranked the power armor arm’s energy output to maximum.
The cold metal surface grew warm to the touch, and the integrated energy emitter hummed to life with a low, thrumming growl.
He lined up his shot on the lead armored truck’s engine bay, holding his breath.
Three seconds later.
Bzzzzt!
A pale blue energy bolt trailed a streak of fire as it cut through the darkness, slamming dead-center into the truck’s hood.
BOOM!
The explosion blasted the entire front end clean off.
Roaring flames engulfed the whole vehicle.
The Operatives inside never even had time to scream before they were consumed by the fireball.
The second armored truck slammed on its brakes.
Its tires skidded across the mud, leaving two long black streaks behind it.
“Ambush!”
The Operatives bailed out fast, taking cover behind the truck in perfect formation.
Zevran was the last one out.
He looked up in the direction of Keran’s ambush, his eyes cold as ice.
“He’s using energy weapons. Spread out. Don’t cluster up.”
“Who the hell is attacking us?” one Operative whispered.
“No idea!”
“It’s pitch black out here. He’s definitely got night vision!”
“What do we do?”
“First, we find his position,” Zevran said, scanning the dark treeline slowly.
“Energy weapons run out of juice fast. Once he’s dry, he’ll have to come in close.”
One Operative gritted his teeth and made a sudden dash, diving to the ground to try and draw fire.
A single, fatal bullet punched through his heart before he even hit the dirt.
Blood exploded from his chest, and the force sent his body flying several meters.
No one else dared try the same trick.
Zevran steeled himself.
That kind of accuracy.
Who the hell was this?
The man hadn’t died for nothing.
The rest of the squad had seen the muzzle flash in the darkness.
Zevran was silent for a few seconds, then made his call.
“Back in the trucks. Ram him. Split his attention.”
Keran watched through his goggles as the remaining Operatives all stood up at once and ran for the truck.
He knew exactly what they were planning.
They were going to use the armor to close the distance.
He couldn’t take them all out before they got there.
He fired two calm, precise shots, dropping two more men, but he could only watch as the rest piled into the truck.
The engine roared to life, and the vehicle came barrelling straight at him.
“Smart move,” Keran said, his voice steady.
“But predictable.”
No one had noticed the thick rope strung between two trees across the road, a string of grenades tied to its center.
The truck slammed into it head-on.
The rope went taut, nearly ripping the two trees straight out of the ground.
The truck jolted to a dead stop so suddenly that it sent everyone inside tumbling head over heels.
Before they could recover, the grenades exploded.
Fire erupted into the sky, and the bulletproof windshield spiderwebbed with massive radial cracks.
It was an ambush.
Keran had planned for this.
He’d strung the rope and used his last remaining grenades to make a simple but deadly roadblock.
The second the grenades went off, Keran ripped off his goggles and opened fire on the windshield.
The recoil from the energy blasts traveled up the mechanical arm and into his shoulder, and even he felt a faint tremor run through him.
That told him just how much power the modified arm was packing.
The cracks spread like lightning across the glass, straight for the driver’s seat.
Zevran grabbed the Operative beside him and hauled him in front of his body just as the glass shattered.
Energy bolts ripped through the man’s torso.
“Abandon the vehicle.”
The remaining Operatives scrambled out, laying down a wild barrage of suppressing fire in Keran’s direction.
Keran stopped firing and pressed himself flat to the ground.
Bullets whistled over his head.
He knew they were panicking.
A full auto burst always meant they were about to reload.
That was his window.
Sure enough, the gunfire cut off all at once.
The crack of energy weapons echoed through the forest again.
One shot after another.
Precise.
Deadly.
Keran picked off the Operatives one by one.
He deliberately avoided Zevran, saving him for last.
One by one, the men around Zevran fell.
But Zevran didn’t panic.
He stood perfectly still, his eyes locked on Keran’s hiding place through the gunfire and smoke, like a coiled viper waiting for his prey to make a mistake.
His voice cut through the silence of the forest, low and clear.
“Come out.”
Keran stepped slowly from his hiding place, his face cold.
Zevran’s eyes locked onto him.
He froze for a split second. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“It’s you.”
“Surprised? I came to collect what you owe me.”
Zevran had clearly never expected Keran to have grown this strong.
He bent down and opened the black case he’d been carrying this entire time.
“Looks like I’ll have to stop playing around if I want to leave here alive,” he said calmly.
He pressed a hidden indentation on the side of the case.
Click.
The black metal case unfolded automatically.
Mechanical skeleton arms extended from inside.
Layers of folded metal plating unfurled like petals.
Six blade-like segmented legs touched down one by one.
An over two-meter-tall Mantis slowly rose from the case.
Most of its body was covered in thick metal armor, but pulsing flesh and nerve tissue could still be seen between the plates.
Its scarlet compound eyes flickered to life, locking onto Keran instantly.
A low, guttural hiss escaped its jaws.
At the same time, Keran’s System Panel popped up automatically.
Name: Zevran
Class: Inspector
Discipline: Bio
Level: 20
Health Points: 560/560
[Biological Weapon]
Name: Crimson Mantis
Level: 26
Health Points: 1200/1200
Attributes: Strength 58, Agility 37, Endurance 43, Intelligence 1, Spirit 1
Type: Bio-Engineered Beast
Note: Modified from a native crimson mantis.
Retains original nervous system and combat instincts.
Exoskeleton reinforced with alloy.
Far more dangerous than standard mutated beasts of the same level.
Keran’s pupils contracted to pinpricks.
It was a biological weapon.
Five hundred and sixty health points.
That was already more than any Undercurrent Operative he’d fought so far.
And that Crimson Mantis?
It had a ridiculous twelve hundred health points.
Now he understood why Zevran had stood there so calmly while his entire squad died.
“I spent three years building this,” Zevran said, and for the first time, there was clear contempt in his voice.
“Enjoy.”
Hissssss!
The Crimson Mantis let out a piercing shriek.
All eight legs pushed off hard, and it charged straight at Keran.
It sliced through tree trunks as thick as a man’s waist like butter as it ran, leaving deep gouges in the earth behind it.
Keran threw himself sideways purely on instinct.
The next second, a massive tree trunk crashed down where he’d been standing.
The cut was so clean it looked like it had been made with a laser.
It was the Crimson Mantis’s front scythe legs.
He hadn’t even seen the attack coming.
That speed and power were on a whole different level from anything he’d faced before.
Keran didn’t hesitate.
He turned and ran.
This wasn’t cowardice.
It was common sense.
Standing and fighting head-on was suicide.
He needed terrain.
He needed time.
“Chase him down. Cut off his escape,” Zevran ordered.
The Crimson Mantis adjusted course instantly.
One of its scythe legs swept out horizontally, cutting off the path Keran had been planning to take.
Keran was forced to veer sharply and dive into the denser part of the forest.
“Force him into the open. Don’t let him stay near the trees.”
The Crimson Mantis pursued relentlessly, cutting down trees left and right.
The sound of crashing timber echoed through the forest.
Keran wove between the trunks, deliberately heading for the thickest, most tangled part of the woods.
The massive creature’s turning speed dropped noticeably in the tight quarters.
“Think you can stall me with terrain?” Zevran snorted from where he stood, watching.
“Let’s see how long you can keep this up.”
Keran’s mind raced as he ran.
He’d used all his grenades on the roadblock.
All he had left was this modified armor arm and the last of its energy charge.
He was outmatched in armor and firepower.
But he knew this terrain better than they did.
Keran spotted a steep, rocky slope ahead, covered in loose gravel and shifting stones.
He deliberately slowed down, letting the Crimson Mantis gain on him, leading it straight for the slope.
The Crimson Mantis, seeing its prey slowing, pushed off hard with all eight legs and lunged forward.
It hit the loose gravel and its front legs slipped out from under it.
Its massive center of gravity shifted, and it went sprawling face-first down the slope, crashing hard into the rocks at the bottom.
Keran raised his mechanical arm instantly and fired two energy bolts point-blank into the exposed joint on its underbelly.
The bolts hit home, sending sparks flying and burning two blackened craters into the armor.
[Crimson Mantis Health: 980/1200]
The certainty on Zevran’s face froze.
He had personally calibrated this bio-weapon’s reaction modules.
It was his pride and joy.
It should never have slipped on something as simple as loose gravel.
“Luck,” he muttered, his voice tight.
“Nothing more.”
The Crimson Mantis screeched in pain.
Red glowing circuit patterns flared to life across its metal armor.
[Crimson Mantis has entered Berserk state! Attack +40%, Attack Speed +30%, Intelligence threshold reduced]
Zevran’s jaw clenched.
Berserk meant the creature would be outside his direct control.
He hated using such a crude solution.
But Keran had left him no choice.
“Just lie down and die now,” he said coldly.
“It’ll be less painful.”
The Crimson Mantis pushed itself back up.
It launched itself at Keran with terrifying speed, both front scythe legs slashing in a perfect X pattern.
Keran knew he couldn’t dodge this one.
He raised his modified power armor arm and took the hit head-on.
The hydraulic lines screamed under the strain.
The shield deflection effect activated instantly, and a faint blue energy membrane spread across the arm’s surface.
CLANG!
The scythe leg slammed into the shield.
The force of the impact traveled all the way up Keran’s arm and into his body, sending him sliding backward three full steps.
His boots dug two deep furrows in the dirt beneath him.
[Shield Deflection triggered! Damage reduced by 32%]
[You have taken 54 damage!]
[Armor Durability -40]
It had hurt.
It had hurt a lot.
But he had taken it.
This was the first time he had stood his ground against an attack and not been broken.
The true power of the power armor arm finally revealed itself.
The second scythe leg came down an instant later.
This time, Keran didn’t block.
He twisted sideways to absorb the force, then brought the other side of his mechanical arm around and fired two more energy bolts into the Crimson Mantis’s body.
The bolts hit the armor and sparked, but they barely scratched it.
The outer plating was still too thick.
[Crimson Mantis Health: 820/1200]
He was still a long way from killing it.
And his energy was almost gone.
He had no margin for error left.
The Crimson Mantis struck again, fast and brutal.
One of its scythe legs stabbed straight for Keran’s heart.
At the last possible second, Keran didn’t dodge.
He lunged forward instead, grabbing the scythe leg at its base with his mechanical arm.
The hydraulic system kicked into full overdrive.
The lines screamed under the strain, and the metal casing bulged slightly from the immense internal pressure.
SNAP!
The entire scythe leg was torn clean off at the joint.
The Crimson Mantis let out an ear-splitting mechanical shriek.
Sparks erupted from the severed stump.
“NO!” Zevran took a step forward, all his calm composure finally breaking.
“The core! Protect the core!”
It was too late.
Keran didn’t give the creature a single second to recover.
He used the momentum to leap forward, landing on top of its back.
He jammed the energy emitter of his mechanical arm straight into the crater he’d burned into its underbelly earlier.
That was where the core drive module was located.
“Die.”
The energy emitter unleashed every last bit of its remaining charge at point-blank range.
The Crimson Mantis’s entire body convulsed violently.
Blinding blue-white light exploded from every crack and seam in its armor.
Its remaining legs twitched and spasmed wildly for a few seconds, then went completely still.
It crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom.
[Crimson Mantis Health reached zero. Unit destroyed]
[You have destroyed the Crimson Mantis Bio-Weapon. Gained 1200 experience points]
The forest fell silent again.
The only sound was the occasional crackle of electricity from the wreckage.
Zevran stood frozen in place, staring at the smoldering heap of scrap metal.
His chest rose and fell rapidly.
That was his life’s work.
Three years of constant modification and tuning.
One of the most elite combat units in the entire organization.
His trump card.
And now it was just a pile of smoking junk.