Politeness is Important

As soon as he realized the bomb wouldn't detonate, the man in the rabbit mask sprinted into the mall. Hearing the sound of glass shattering behind him, he rolled behind a checkout counter, grabbed his communicator, and shouted, "Kill them! Kill all the hostages!"

Immediately, the extremists on the fifth-floor furniture section moved to act, but suddenly, a series of soft whoosh sounds rang out.

Then, one by one, men's foreheads split open, blood sprayed out, and the tips of pens were exposed.

They had been pierced through the back of the skull by fountain pens, their foreheads blown open, dead on the spot.

But.

The hostages weren't only on the fifth floor. On the fourth floor, in the infant and toddler supplies section, a large number of hostages were also being held.

And among these hostages were many young mothers, as well as babies still in swaddling clothes!

Those extremists didn't hesitate. Hearing the order, they prepared to open fire.

People wept in despair, mothers clutching their children tightly, instinctively shielding them with their own bodies.

Yet, the expected gunfire never came. Two red beams shot down from the ceiling, swept around, and all the extremists froze in place, their bodies then splitting into several pieces.

On the fifth floor of the mall, Azu looked up with a smile, his eyes, which had just fired Laser Eyes, returning to normal.

He had already scanned the mall, pinpointed the extremists' positions, and formulated a plan before acting, never giving them a chance to shoot the hostages.

"Failed?"

The man hiding behind the checkout counter looked toward the furniture section. No gunfire came from either the fifth or fourth floor.

His heart sank to the bottom.

He was the mastermind of this incident, and also Azu's target, Gandy. Alda.

Then he heard the sound of something cutting through the air. He rolled alertly, and the checkout counter behind him suddenly exploded. Amidst the flying debris, a blue figure was clapping his hands, brushing off the dust that had landed on his shoulders.

Looking at the man's golden hair and handsome face, Gandy. Alda gritted his teeth and spat out a sentence: "Damn you, Homelander!"

Azu naturally heard this. He shook his head, looked at Mr. Rabbit, and said, "Game over."

"You have two choices now."

"One: tell me what kind of organization 'Vought' really is, and I'll give you a quick death."

"The other: you can stay silent, but I'll crush every bone in your body one by one until you're nothing but a pile of mush."

Gandy took off his mask, revealing a face with Middle Eastern features: "Dream on, Homelander. You won't get a single word out of me."

"Is that so?"

"What a shame."

Azu lifted his feet off the ground, smiled, and said, "Let me confirm one more thing: are you Gandy. Alda?"

The man froze, wondering how Homelander knew his name.

His expression confirmed one thing for Azu: this man was his target. He smiled slightly, his form flickering as he appeared before Gandy in an instant, stepping on his right foot.

Gandy immediately screamed in agony. His right toes were crushed flat by Azu, all five instantly shattered.

"Sorry, I accidentally used too much force." Azu spread his hands.

His response was a rifle pressed almost against his chest, and bullets blasting out from the muzzle.

"Die!" Gandy roared, his temples bulging as he pulled the trigger all the way, firing wildly at the blue demon before him!

Azu shrugged. As each bullet deformed and fell to the ground, he reached out and grabbed the barrel.

The rifle barrel instantly twisted, the gun exploded, and one of Gandy's hands was torn and bloody from the blast.

Mr. Rabbit screamed and stumbled back, sitting down on the ground, scooting backward bit by bit.

Suddenly, he pulled a syringe from his pocket.

He shouted.

"Long live the Council!"

Then he stabbed the syringe into his thigh, pushing all the liquid into his body.

This familiar scene reminded Azu of that day at the international airport, when a man named Edie. Orr had injected something similar and turned into a monster.

Now this man had also injected 'Holy Blood,' but it was actually a 'genetic agent,' and a reaction soon set in.

Gandy's skin first took on an iron-black hue, then his teeth fell out one by one onto the ground. From his toothless mouth, new, sharper teeth grew in.

Just then, Maeve arrived nearby. She had already dealt with the remaining extremists and, seeing Gandy undergoing some kind of transformation, asked, "What's going on?"

Azu grinned and waved at Queen Maeve: "This guy's on drugs. I ran into something similar at the airport last time."

"After they inject some mysterious substance, they turn into monsters."

Maeve spread her hands, looking baffled: "And you're just watching?"

Azu said nonchalantly, "What's the harm? Besides, it'd be rude to strike without giving the other side a chance to show off."

Maeve let out a laugh: "You're so polite."

Then she charged forward like a speeding train, slamming into Gandy. He was sent flying, his body twisted unnaturally—his spine was probably snapped.

Azu floated in midair, settling in to watch the show.

"Maeve, I think you need to arm yourself with a weapon or two. A sword and shield would suit you."

Maeve glanced at the man floating in midair and said irritably, "My body is the best weapon."

Then she saw Homelander jerk his chin forward. Maeve turned and watched Gandy climb to his feet, his already twisted waist snapping back to normal.

He looked up at Maeve. Like Edie Orr, the man's eyes had turned bloodshot, but aside from that, there were no other abnormalities.

Overall, he still seemed to retain a human form.

Maeve frowned as she heard Azu warn, "These monsters' weakness is their heads. Only when the head is gone do they truly die. Otherwise, no matter how severe the wound, they'll heal fast—like vampires from the legends."

Maeve charged without a word. After a few quick strides, she leaped, using her toned legs to clamp the sides of Gandy's head between her thighs, then twisted sharply.

Crack!

Gandy's neck snapped instantly. His body spun midair and crashed heavily to the ground.

Maeve stood up.

Turned.

Her right leg rose high, toes above her head, then she brought her heel down like an axe, aiming for her opponent's skull.

Just as Maeve's foot was about to shatter Gandy's head, the man suddenly moved like a gecko, hands and feet scrambling in a bizarre sideways shift, making her kick land on empty air.

Boom!

The entire fifth floor shook. Maeve's strike left an irregular crater in the ground, and shelves toppled everywhere.

But Gandy wasn't dead. He clutched his head, twisted it a few times, and reattached his neck.

Then he turned and bolted. His speed was inhuman—in the blink of an eye, he crashed through a window, burst out of the mall, and landed in the parking lot behind the building!