Zhang Wei's twin guns roared like fire-spewing dragons as they unleashed an endless stream of large-caliber bullets onto the nearest two all-terrain cars. Within the space of a few seconds, the two cars exploded into balls of flames.
Meanwhile, Lambert was showcasing his skill with the rifle. He remained still as he fired shot after shot of steel core bullets with 100% accuracy to halt the enemy's advance.
"The reinforcements are here!"
Aboard the fleeing car, Ma Qing Yang and his teammates rejoiced. Almost the entire team had sustained injuries and were lying down.
As they neared the hill, Ma Qing Yang stuck his head out from the window of the driver seat and yelled, "Old Zhang, there's too many of them! Quickly flee!"
Right at this moment, a strange gale of wind suddenly descended upon the rescue team's location. The dancing sand began to form the image of a ghostly face. The sight of it was both unnerving and ominous.
"Duck!" bellowed Zhang Wei as he hurriedly dropped to the ground to roll away. As the armored suit was too heavy, he did not have many other choices of movement. Li Ya Lin and Lambert were the quickest to react, and they managed to duck to a side.
As the gale crashed onto the ground, the blast sent a number of field agents flying.
Zhang Wei suddenly felt a sharp pain throughout his mind, and his nose started to bleed. As he looked around, to his horror, the other field agents who had not been able to run away in time were all bleeding profusely from their orifices as they twitched uncontrollably.
"Mental attack!" yelled a shocked Zhang Wei. "The enemy is a superhuman!"
As he looked towards the enemy fleet to find the source of the attack, he noticed the hood of one of the cars open up, and a slender woman in a jet-black leather suit jumped out and started running towards them at an incredible speed. Her headful of red hair floated behind her, making her seem like some kind of red and black flash of lightning.
Hila's eyes were emotionless. With a wave of a hand, another ghostly face appeared in mid-air in front of Zhang Wei. The wind wailed horrifyingly.
No, that's not the wind!
That is the screaming of souls!
Necromastery! This was indeed Hila's ability.
Zhang Wei's consciousness began to grow blurry, causing him to crumple to the ground. If it were not for his strong physique, he would probably have died on the spot.
Back at Division 13, Han Xiao furrowed his brows. Pushing Li Yao to take command, he barked, "She is the Germinal's combat commander! Quickly flee!"
Zhang Wei was about to reprimand Han Xiao for snatching command when, to his surprise, he discovered that Li Ya Lin and Lambert were unhesitatingly retreating. It appeared as though they fully trusted in Han Xiao's judgement!
'Is the new guy that reliable?'
Suppressing his shock, Zhang Wei gritted his teeth and stood up to activate the thrusters by his legs, allowing him to jump 5 to 6 meters a leap. As he bounded after the pair, he continued to fire cover shots towards Hila to slow her down.
Hila reached the hilltop in no time, and with another wave of her hand, a gray light flashed across the entire area. The remaining field agents instantly collapsed to the ground. There was no apparent injury on their bodies, yet all of them had ceased breathing.
Han Xiao's expression was extremely grave. He had known all along of Hila's true strength. It was a thing of fortune that he had not needed to face her during his escape. In Galaxy, her powers were classified as having the exceedingly rare potential of S-Class, surpassing the Heavenly level.
At present, Hila's power was still but a fraction of what she would eventually become capable of, yet even this bit was still too overwhelming.
"She's too fast! Li Ya Lin, it's up to you!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Li Ya Lin turned around to face the incoming Hila. As she kicked towards her direction, a yellow burst of energy shot out that managed to push Hila back a few steps.
"Pugilist?" Hila squinted at Li Ya Lin as she clasped both hands together, conjuring an even larger ghostly face that smashed towards her.
Maintaining her composure, Li Ya Lin ducked underneath the ghostly face with a slide and managed to avoid a direct hit. As she approached Hila, she whipped out the Retractable Knife by her waist and gave a mighty cleave.
Hila's eyes widened at the suddenness of her blow, and she did a tumble on the ground to evade.
Seizing the initiative, Li Ya Lin followed up with a series of powerful strikes with her legs: a stamp, a smash, a sweep, and a kick - the string of attacks flowing beautifully like a dancing swallow. Fast enough to create afterimages, but Li Ya Lin was certainly not just about speed. The force of her blows backed her killing intent.
Swallow Style!
On the receiving end, Hila wrapped her arms with a gray aura to strengthen them, allowing her to block each blow with them. The fact that Hila did not seem to be receiving any damage at all only went to show how far apart they were in terms of strength - Li Ya Lin specialized in close combat yet could not overwhelm her.
The exchange lasted for only a few seconds, but anything could have happened in that short span of time.
"Use the mecha arm! It'll let you help Lambert get a chance to snipe her!"
Biting her lip, Li Ya Lin quickly inserted her left arm into the bag and pulled it out with the Lightweight Mechanical Arm equipped. With a powerful strike combining her own power with that of the mecha arm, she finally managed to break through Hila's defenses by blowing her arms away, leaving her chest exposed.
The mecha arm followed through into her flesh!
A direct hit!
Hila's face flashed red momentarily, and with a low harrumph brought her palms together and rubbed them slowly, and as soon as she did so, the gray aura wrapping her arms began to revolve faster and faster. Next, she threw down both arms - palms facing the ground - and, from where she stood, powerful winds began to arise, assaulting the entire surrounding!
Li Ya Lin hastily retreated backwards, but even so, her mind was still struck by the mental attack, causing her soul to feel like it was being torn apart. The pain was indescribable, and two streams of blood trickled down from Li Ya Lin's nose as her vision seemed to turn upside-down, causing her to nearly lose her balance and fall over.
As Hila examined the familiar visage of the Lightweight Mecha Arm, she yelled in rage and shock, "How are you related to Zero‽"
'Zero? Who?' Li Ya Lin was bewildered.
Right at this moment, Lambert saw his opportunity and fired a shot! Hila's expression changed at the sound of the sniper rifle, and she immediately lunged sideways to dodge while enveloping her entire body with her gray aura. The large caliber sniper rifle bullet hit her on the shoulder, sending her spinning backwards in the air - as though hit by a train at full speed.
"Zhang Wei, quickly take Li Ya Lin and run!"
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Zhang Wei did not take offense at being directly called by name. It was with Han Xiao's direction that Li Ya Lin and Lambert had managed to injure the scary woman, and he now had some trust in Han Xiao's judgement. He hurriedly lifted Li Ya Lin in his hands and turned around to leap towards Ma Qing Yang's vehicle.
As they retreated, the remainder of the Germinal fleet arrived at the foot of the hill, and they began to open fire. Sparks flew as the bullets deflected off Zhang Wei's armored suit, only leaving dents and marks. Zhang Wei did not even bother to take a look behind him. All that was going through his head was that the armored suit was truly his lucky charm this day. In the past, he had always had grievances over it being too heavy, but now, it was proving to be extremely reliable.
"Get in the car!" yelled an anxious Ma Qing Yang as he hurriedly slowed down for them.
The trio managed to board the vehicle, but it was a close shave. The concentrated fire was nearly enough to penetrate it.
Now that they were in the clear, Zhang Wei finally had time to assess the enemy's status: their fleet was not fast enough to catch up with them, and that powerful superhuman had not gotten up yet. As long as they made it to the aircraft, everything would be fine.
"We're safe now!"
Zhang Wei let out a sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, Han Xiao had bad news for him.
"Look out above."
Above?
Zhang Wei gave a start.
Right, they still have a helicopter!
The Black Harrier finally made its appearance and began to shoot down at their car.
"We have to take that out somehow!" assessed Zhang Wei immediately. "If not, our own aircraft will be in danger. Lambert, it's up to you and your sniper rifle!"
Lambert shook his head plainly.
"I'm all out of armor-piercing shells. Standard bullets won't do against the Black Harrier's thick armor. Even if I had some left, it would take more than 7 shots."
"Are we really going to die here?"
Despair was written all over Ma Qing Yan's face. They were only a kilometer away from their escape plan's extraction point, but it did not seem like they would make it.
Suddenly, Han Xiao spoke, "Did you forget my present?"
Li Ya Lin gave a start and hurriedly took out the four magazines. One of them was filled with rifle bullets.
"What does this do?"
"See for yourself."
Lambert quickly took the magazine from Li Ya Lin and loaded his sniper rifle.
As he readied to fire the shot, everyone watched on in anticipation.
This single bullet was their final hope.
In this critical moment, time seemed to slow down for all of them.
As soon as Lambert pulled the trigger, a brass shell flew out from the chamber, and the crimson bullet was ignited as it accelerated out of the barrel spinning. Whirling, it landed directly on the helicopter's bullet-proof glass.
Suddenly, the crimson bullet opened up like a blooming flower to expose its explosive contents to the air.
"Kaboom!"
The entire helicopter was instantly engulfed in a giant ball of flames. On closer inspection, the fire was actually burning off on the very armor itself - as though it had actually been ignited!
The helicopter began to spin out on control mid-air. The pilot - in his panic - decided to abandon ship.
On board the car, everyone was completely stunned by what they had just witnessed. Slowly, their attention turned towards the magazines that were full of the magic ammo.
Even reinforced armor was ignited!
What the hell is this ammo‽
"Who got their hands on such good treasure?" asked a stupefied Ma Qing Yang.
Li Ya Lin's eyes began to shine. "This stuff is good!"
She immediately loaded up her handgun with one of the magazines and fired a few shots. The pursuing enemy vehicles similarly went up in balls of flames, and even the missed shots were setting the ground ablaze.
As the vehicles' armor heated up, their interiors soon turned into furnaces, and the heat was even causing the engine and other key parts to overheat, putting a halt to their pursuit.
As the gang's car charged into the aircraft hangar, the pilot who had been anxiously observing the situation immediately took flight, and they were soon gone with the wind.
Back on the ground, Hila's face was pale. Where she had been shot at on her shoulder was only a shallow wound. She was using her gray aura to heal it up. As she grudgingly watched the aircraft leave, she made a call to the boss and said through gritted teeth, "We've found Zero's trail!"