18. Battle

Amos gritted his teeth against the pain of the bullets burying themselves in his back. He had to be grateful that the bullets he'd loaded into the car were ordinary, low-lethality rounds rather than expensive enhanced ammunition.

Under the rapid-fire machine gun's barrage, the ordinary bullets had torn through his skin and muscle, but they hadn't been powerful enough to penetrate his formidable muscles and damage his internal organs.

Of course, if he'd been hit by any more bullets, he wouldn't have been able to hold out.

But the machine gun's attack was about to end. He reached down to grab Edna. Her crude attempt to dodge couldn't possibly evade his grasp.

The moment he caught Edna, he pulled her behind him and sprinted in the opposite direction.

If Edna had gained full control of Dora, the car's smart assistant, the machine gun would have stopped firing. Amos could then have held a hostage and forced Captain Froman to let him go.

Those had been the best decisions Amos could make in an instant, but things didn't always go as planned.

He'd moved too quickly, and Edna hadn't fully taken control of the car's smart assistant, Dora. She'd only forcibly activated the machine gun's automatic tracking attack and locked Amos as its target.

So when Amos pulled Edna behind him, the machine gun didn't stop. It kept firing.

In a short span of time, dozens of kinetic rounds struck Edna. Although she was an Armored Warrior too, she was at the very lowest level. Even Amos couldn't have withstood a concentrated barrage of that many kinetic rounds.

In an instant, Edna's body was nearly torn apart. Amos could even feel the bullets passing through her body and hitting his back.

"Edna!" Captain Froman's eyes were bloodshot. Her death drove him almost mad.

It was hard to find an Electronic Warfare Specialist who was also an Armored Warrior. Armored Warriors' primary enemies were the Zerg, so Electronic Warfare Specialists held little status among the regular Armored Warriors.

But in a mercenary group, an Electronic Warfare Specialist was essential for boarding enemy ships. Without one, the mercenaries might not even be able to open their target ship's hatch, let alone deal with its countless defense systems.

To keep Edna, Captain Froman had tried everything. He'd even agreed to get engaged to her, despite her plain looks, hoping his own charm would make her stay.

But after all that effort, Amos had destroyed everything today.

Captain Froman's eyes filled with murderous intent. He unleashed all his strength and hurled the Special Combat Sword in his hand.

Propelled by nearly two thousand kilograms of force, the Special Combat Sword moved so fast it was almost impossible to see. The instant it left Froman's hand, Amos, who was fleeing, jolted and fell to the ground.

The Special Combat Sword had pierced Amos's right knee. As it struck the sturdy bone, it shattered into countless broken fragments.

His right knee was now riddled with fragments mixed in with the broken pieces of bone. The pain from the wound was excruciating.

Amos threw Edna's corpse aside and clutched his right knee, screaming in agony.

The car's rapid-fire machine gun had also run out of ammunition, and it kept making empty clicking sounds.

Holding the Level 1 War Hammer, Captain Froman walked up to Amos one step at a time, a cruel smile on his face.

"You killed Edna, so you'll pay for it with your life!" As he spoke, Captain Froman, consumed with rage, swung the Level 1 War Hammer at Amos's arm.

The full horror of the Level 1 War Hammer was revealed as Captain Froman struck Amos again and again, reducing the flesh, bones, and everything else in his arms to powder.

Amos's eyes were filled with terror and pleading, but nothing could move Captain Froman. He kept bringing the Level 1 War Hammer down on Amos's arms, and when he was done with them, he went for his legs.

In just twenty seconds, Amos felt that he'd rather be dead. He wanted nothing more than to die quickly instead of being brutalized like this.

If he'd had enough time, Captain Froman would have tortured Amos for much longer. But he knew the police would arrive soon. There was no time.

"Die!" He brought the Level 1 War Hammer down hard on Amos's head. Before it struck, Amos's eyes showed relief.

"Crock, have you found the target?" Captain Froman glanced regretfully at Edna's body once more, then ignored it and spoke into his Identity Bracelet.

"Captain, there's no one in this building. We've searched everywhere," Crock replied calmly.

"We're out of time. Pull out immediately!" Captain Froman checked the time. He knew there was no chance today, so he gave the order without hesitation.

The T3 Sniper Auxiliary Device wouldn't pinpoint the target's location again for another thirty minutes. He didn't have that long to wait.

"Yes, Captain," Crock replied in the same calm voice. Then he led Ed and Fisher out of the building.

"Something happened to Edna?" Ed cried out in shock when he saw her mangled body.

Just then, a police patrol aircar flashing warning lights came flying in from the distance. The mercenaries had no time to say more. Ed hoisted Edna's body, and they quickly fled the scene.

David, huddled in a corner of the Underground Gym, let out a long breath. One of the mercenaries had just been barely a centimeter away from him. All it would have taken was a stretch of the hand for them to touch.

The reason the mercenaries searching the building hadn't found him, and even the life detector hadn't detected him, was Shadow Servant.

When he discovered that someone had infiltrated the smart butler Emma in his home, David had immediately controlled Shadow Servant to pass through the ground and invisibly check what was happening outside the door.

What he saw was that the security system he'd believed to be incredibly powerful had been rendered useless. The thick steel-alloy door had also been easily breached by the intruders.

For the first time, he'd seen just how terrifying this world could be. The intruders had made a mockery of the home he'd thought was safe.

David saw that three of the five mercenaries had entered the house while two stayed outside. He knew there was no way to escape.

Their actions had been highly professional from the very beginning: first blocking the Skynet signal, then cracking the security system, and finally breaking through the steel-alloy door.

Aside from the woman holding the strange device, all the others used cold weapons, which alarmed him even more.

According to what he knew, people carrying firearms weren't the most frightening. Only Armored Warriors would abandon firearms in favor of cold weapons.

From that alone, he knew fighting back was out of the question.

His only option was to hide. He soon thought of Shadow Servant's invisibility.

He didn't know whether Shadow Servant could hide him as well, but he had no other choice.

So when the three mercenaries entered the house, he recalled Shadow Servant and found a corner in the Underground Gym. He curled up as tightly as he could to reduce the space he occupied.

Shadow Servant was nearly the same size as David. Only if David made himself smaller could Shadow Servant conceal his whole body.

Fortunately, David had been practicing the Eighteen Forms of Body Technique, and his joints could bend to an extreme degree. In the corner, he folded himself into a square shape.

Then he connected with Shadow Servant and controlled it to wrap around him. He'd come up with the idea, but he didn't know whether Shadow Servant could cover a body as large as his.

Under his control, Shadow Servant floated over his body. To his surprise, it began to change shape from its human form, spreading over him like a fluid.

Even where his body touched the ground, Shadow Servant passed through the floor to keep him completely covered.

The three mercenaries searched quickly. They'd probably done this kind of thing many times before. It didn't take long for them to find the basement entrance.

Through Shadow Servant's eyes, David watched as the mercenary searching the Underground Gym repeatedly scanned the area with a device in his hand. Even though the gym was sparsely furnished and could be surveyed at a glance, the mercenary still followed the strictest search procedure.

The mercenary was Crock. The device in his hand showed no signs of life, but the location tracking from half an hour ago had placed the 'T3T3 Sniper Auxiliary Device' right here—and he still hadn't found it.