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Chapter 161: Flames of Hell
🕑 Added 2025-01-03 16:31:48 +0000 UTCIt was quite the normal day.
Hua was stationed along with three other newly-joined high-level MANTISes. It was a part of the agreement between Mobius and the councilors.
They would not mind several high-level MANTISes turning into their personal bodyguards. In turn, they would assign other high-level MANTISes on the field.
The three other high-level MANTISes accompanying her were the assigned combatants. Their strengths and skills weren’t bad. Having enough honkai resistance already puts them ahead of others when using honkai weapons, more so with combat reflexes and the likes.
Boom-!
‘Hm..?!’
A huge explosion disturbed the stadium’s peace. They were only mere minutes away from starting the concert.
A brief silence fell before murmurs superimposed one another, creating a kind of chaotic noise that became a fuel for the impending chaos.
Beep-!
“—mmand. A large explosion occurred on the East Wing.”
“Roger that. Squadron One to Three, do you copy? Check the statuses of the delegates.”
A continuous yet organized command came from Hua’s earpiece one after another.
“Delegates… The officials from Fire MOTH..!”
Apparently, the Fire MOTH guests was at the East Wing when the explosion occurred. This immediately changed the explosion's nature into a terrorist attack.
She immediately tapped a section of her earpiece several times until she reached the channel of the high-level MANTIS deployed for these delegates.
“—one’s dead. Was this the Herrscher? Is this…”
A series of abrupt words greeted Hua's ears.
Psshk-!
Thud-!
The next thing that greeted her ears was a sharp sound and a thud. Moments later, the radio was cut off.
“East wing, east wing.”
Her mind acted swiftly. One decision after another popped up in her mind.
The first thing she did was to contact the headquarters—the Fire MOTH branch in this city.
“I need one other combatant with me. Deploy the other to lead the evacuation.”
“U-understood!”
A sigh escaped her lips. Never had she expected she would become a leader figure like Major Himeko one day.
Boom-!
Boom-!
Boom-!
Several explosions occurred in the span of the next minute. The people in the stadium are already running towards the eight exits.
“Terrorists! There are terrorists!”
“What?! They’re here?!”
“Someone… It could be someone!”
“A bomb! Was that a bomb? That man is carrying a bomb!”
Fire MOTH personnel are trying to control the chaotic crowd. The other lower-leveled MANTISes stationed did not have much trouble, but there were already staff being overwhelmed by the stampede.
A minute had passed by. Hua and the other high-level combatant arrived at the scene.
“...Shit.” A curse came out of the other high-level MANTIS' mouth.
It was a crimson hell. Everything within the East Wing was burning. The special-grade steel bars are melting like butter to a fire.
They could already tell its severity based on the increasing temperature of the stadium itself. It was a foregone conclusion that the majority of the people inside would be inflicted with intense heatstroke.
“Should we..?”
“No.” Hua shook her head. “This kind of occurrence could only be caused…”
“...There.”
The man cut off her words. He already saw the rising honkai energy levels at one place.
The thing they feared the most occurred—
A Herrscher.
“Ivan is an ice-type MANTIS.”
He pertained to the high-level MANTIS left behind to preside over the evacuation. At the very least, the heat stroke could be mitigated.
Hua’s ‘eyes’ extended to the surroundings. Her senses were enhanced to the point she could hear a drop of water from far away.
It was a mix of her martial arts and the effects brought by her ICHOR, Garuda.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
She precisely locked onto the presumed Herrscher’s location.
Honkai energy gathered on her fist as waves of impact were sent straight to the Herrscher's.
Bam-!
Rumble-!
Amidst the sea of flames, a lone figure was revealed. It was a red-haired woman with a lab coat. The temperature around her rose up extremely high, yet her clothes weren’t affected.
The other MANTIS, Mark, knew exactly what he had to do.
Zoom-!
His entire figure turned into a blur. Viridescent winds created a vacuum on the sea of flames, extinguishing them in his path.
‘I’ll close the distance..!’
Just as he was only several meters away from the red-haired woman, alarm bells rang in his mind—but it was too late.
Tchk-!
A curved sharp object struck at his back. It came out of nowhere.
Sou-!
Bam-!
His body was sent flying to the sea of flames, his status unknown. Things happened extremely fast that even Hua was caught off guard by it.
‘Another enemy..?!’
Hua saw another silhouette of a ‘girl’. She wielded an extremely large scythe. It was the weapon used to instantly deal with a high-level MANTIS instantly.
In the next moment, that figure disappeared. It was as if that suspected Herrscher did not exist.
Her mind acted extremely fast. While she uncovered the identity of the extra enemy, she began to avoid the attacks made of flames.
Consequently, she could also feel her surroundings turning extremely hot. If it wasn’t for her battlesuit, she would’ve had to expend more energy to deal with it.
For the next five minutes, she played a game of tag with the Herrscher of Flames.
Every time she was about to get attacked, Hua would dodge it.
If the Herrscher of Flames moved away from Hua, the latter would close the distance and attack at close range.
This made it so that the two of them maintained a considerable distance to each other.
It placed Hua at a great disadvantage as most of her combat power relied on close combat.
‘This level of attack…’
Murky thoughts began filling Hua’s mind. The condition of the people inside the city concerned her, yet all she could do was to put the Herrscher into a stalemate.
Moreover…
‘Where was she..?’
Hua was still wary of the other ‘enemy’. She waited for a long time, even showing several openings intentionally, yet the girl never came again. She kept her strongest ace card—Meta-Morph—to her sleeves just for this.
A total of six minutes had passed since the beginning of the incident. Several emergency measures were forced out of Hua’s battlesuit. Its extreme capabilities were built with Herrscher battles in mind.
Nevertheless, three months wasn’t long enough to formulate a mature technology for it.
‘I should—’
Just as Hua decided to use her Meta-Morph, her thoughts were briefly cut short.
An extremely loud sonic boom came from the skies.
Zoom-!
BOOM-!
RUMBLE-!
The impact sent numbing aftershocks to several kilometer radius. It was akin to a strong earthquake. The winds cleared out most of the flames in the battlefield, revealing burnt skyscrapers, cars, and the likes.
In the midst of them all, a tall figure stood in front of the Herrscher who collapsed to the ground. Blood came out of her mouth. Several of her internal organs were shattered by the sheer impact of the man’s landing. It wasn't even a direct attack, but the mere shockwaves caused by his crash.
Add to that the pressure he emitted, it wasn’t wrong to say that she was disabled in one go.
The tip of a longsword was pointed straight to her neck.
“Let her out.”
The moment she met the man’s golden eyes…
‘What…’
…the ‘Herrscher’ blanked out.
