Containment Failure

"Wes... Wesker, don't... don't leave me behind..."

A shareholder, covered in blood, crawled beneath the Safe House door, stretching out a trembling right hand to beg for help in desperation.

The position where he lay triggered the sensor, and the detection of a foreign object prevented the Safe House door from closing completely.

Seeing that man about to charge over, Wesker didn't say a word; he simply raised his foot and kicked the man squarely in the chin!

Crack!

The shareholder's neck snapped instantly, his head twisted at a grotesque angle, and he was killed by that single kick.

With the "obstacle" gone, the heavy Safe House door finally continued its descent.

As it lowered to a gap of only a fist's width from the floor, a series of blood-curdling screams erupted from outside. It seemed that man had reached the door and was mercilessly reaping the lives of the remaining shareholders!

With a final, heavy thud, the Safe House door slammed shut!

From the moment he discovered the Safe House to the point where he had forced them into a dead end, it had taken less than half a minute!

Wesker watched with a twitching eye as blood began to seep in from beneath the door gap, knowing that all the shareholders outside had already perished under the other's claws.

However, a few shareholders had managed to scramble inside.

They gasped for air for a long moment, finally recovering from the sheer terror of their near-death experience, before glaring at Wesker and cursing, "You son of a bitch!! It must have been your plan..."

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Four gunshots silenced the shareholders' unfinished insults.

A fist-sized hole appeared in the center of each of their chests, right over their hearts, clear enough to see the scenery on the other side.

The shareholders looked down at the holes in their chests in disbelief, then rolled their eyes back and collapsed to the floor, their bodies still twitching from nerve reflexes.

Wesker expressionlessly holstered his smoking Magnum Revolver and stepped over the corpses, preparing to organize a plan to surround and annihilate the man trapped in the corridor.

Suddenly!!

Having perfectly fused with the T-Virus and possessing a keen sense of danger, Wesker felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end!

Immediately following, a harsh sound of twisting metal erupted from behind him!

He whipped his head around to look.

He saw that through the narrow gap between the closed Safe House door and the floor, a massive amount of black liquid was seeping in!

It seemed to possess a consciousness of its own, constantly expanding and writhing, actually acting like a hydraulic jack to forcibly lift the multi-ton Safe House door?!

Regaining his senses, Wesker immediately drew his Magnum Revolver and fired at the pool of black liquid attempting to pry open the door!

The high-powered Hollow-point Bullets struck the black liquid, but it was like throwing stones into the ocean; there was no reaction, not even a ripple!

After two rounds of gunfire, the heavy Safe House door had already been forced open by a fist's width!

Next, a pair of imposing black giant claws reached in, braced against the door, and began to pry it upward with brute force!

Finally, the oppressive figure of Xia Tianming appeared before Wesker's eyes!

He knelt on one knee, his pitch-black pupils devoid of emotion, his arms transformed into claws holding up the Safe House door, while the black liquid on his body dripped into the room like melting wax!

As for the shareholders who had been trapped outside, they were all gone, not even a scrap of their clothing remaining.

Total containment failure...

Seeing the man breach this final line of defense, Wesker gritted his teeth and turned to accelerate his escape.

Boom!!

The Safe House door was slammed back down; there was no doubt about it, that man was inside!

Wesker had barely taken two steps after turning when an intense sense of danger struck him from behind again!

It seemed he could no longer just keep dodging; he had to fight!

Xia Tianming swung his Blacklight Claws, leaping toward the man in the trench coat with the force of an avalanche, determined to slice him into ribbons!

But the man moved as if teleporting, his figure flickering to the side with such speed that only a blur remained, causing Xia Tianming's attack to miss!

Having dodged the claw, Wesker fluidly followed up with a whip kick, the speed so great it created a sonic crack in the air as it aimed straight for Xia Tianming's head.

This whip kick of his was powerful enough to cave in an armored vehicle!

However, Xia Tianming's reaction speed was not slow either; he immediately raised his claws, crossing them in front of him to block.

If he had let that kick land, he would have been sliced into pieces instantly!

Seeing the cold, glinting claw blades, Wesker was indeed wary, but a kick once launched could not be retracted; he had no choice but to force the angle of his leg higher, causing his full-force kick to miss.

But this momentum caused him to spin in the air, and he ended up tripping over himself—a rather comical sight...

Before Wesker could recover from the awkwardness, Xia Tianming had already swung his Blacklight Claws and attacked again!

The rapid-fire exchanges between the two happened in the blink of an eye, the speed so fast it was dizzying!

The fallen Wesker had no time to dodge and could only raise his left arm to block.

Squelch!

The razor-sharp Blacklight Claws instantly pierced through his arm, the tips stopping less than a few centimeters from his face!

Wesker furrowed his brows, having no time to cry out in pain; seizing the split second when the attack stalled, he scrambled to put distance between them, rolling to the side.

He stared at the three shocking, deep claw wounds that had pierced his left arm, and without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed his left shoulder with his right hand and yanked with all his might!

Riiip!

He had actually forcibly torn off his own entire left arm and tossed it onto the ground!

Barely a second later, the severed arm lying on the ground burst through its skin as countless red-black tentacles erupted, shredding the entire limb into a black-red sphere of blood!

Had Wesker hesitated for even a second, that arm, infected by the Blacklight Virus, would have instantly consumed his entire body!

Seeing him survive by severing his own limb, Xia Tianming's gaze remained devoid of any fluctuation; whether he consumed it a second earlier or later made no difference.

He stepped forward, planted his foot onto the viral blood sphere that had dissolved from Wesker's arm, and absorbed it.

Virus Energy +300

A single arm had provided him with 300 points of energy; it seemed this Wesker was even more "nutritious" than that Tyrant!

Xia Tianming revealed a rare, greedy glint in his eyes, staring at Wesker like a starving tiger eyeing a succulent lamb as he began to walk toward him.

Wesker's face twisted, and through gritted teeth, he endured the agonizing pain of his severed limb: "Is there nothing in that head of yours besides kill, kill, kill?! Why can't we cooperate with the Umbrella Corporation for a win-win, to create a brand new world for all of humanity together! How are you any different from a beast in this state?!"

I strike hard against the weak, but I cower before the strong—this perfectly encapsulated Wesker's pathetic face at this moment.

He had once been a man of few words and ruthless deeds, killing rebels and civilians as easily as stepping on ants without even blinking, earning him the title of Cold-Faced Killing God among his subordinates.

Only now, having encountered Xia Tianming, had he transformed into a long-winded preacher of morality, reduced to nothing but empty rhetoric because he couldn't win the fight.