Familiar

Commander Kromi's guess had been right. It really was a shield, but one formed entirely from condensed virus!

The instant Xia Tianming kicked the door flying, he transformed his right arm into a Blacklight Spike Shield and raised it in front of himself, blocking the fierce barrage of bullets fired from over a thousand guns!

The biological shield was woven from layer upon layer of viral tendrils. It was incredibly tough and defensive, strong enough to withstand a direct hit from a Stinger missile!

They had stopped firing. Now it was time to strike back!

Xia Tianming gave the Blacklight Spike Shield condensed before him a sharp jolt, reflecting all the dense cluster of bullets embedded in its surface. They flew back with no less force than when they had left the barrels!

A large number of soldiers were hit by the ricocheting bullets. Even their sturdy bulletproof vests and helmets couldn't protect them from such a powerful impact!

The bullets tore through their bodies, bursting into clouds of blood before embedding themselves in the walls behind them!

In an instant, screams filled the spiral passageway. Casualties mounted, and nearly a quarter of the troops went down!

And this was only the beginning.

ROAR!!!

A roar that made everyone's hair stand on end suddenly rang out!

A gigantic beast nearly five meters tall when standing upright leaped over Xia Tianming's biological shield, appearing before the soldiers.

Explosive scarlet muscles covered its body. Bone spikes ran the length of its back, sharp fangs jutted from its gaping maw, and its claws could easily gouge trenches in the concrete floor. It possessed nearly every biological weapon associated with slaughter—and was the perfect bioweapon the Umbrella Corporation had long dreamed of creating!

This was none other than Wesker, transformed into a Hunter after being infected by the Blacklight Virus!

He no longer recognized the soldiers who had once served under him, and naturally, they couldn't connect this hideous beast with their cold, ruthless supervisor, Wesker.

Commander Kromi saw the monster through his night-vision binoculars, and his heart began to race uncontrollably.

He had seen most of the mutant bioweapons the company had created, but never one this terrifying. Had a new Mutant escaped from the laboratory, prompting the company to send him here with a team to hunt it down?

But what was that shield?

Before Commander Kromi could recover and order his men to open fire again, the Hunter crouched low and suddenly leaped more than thirty meters, landing on the opposite side of the spiral staircase. It pounced on two dumbstruck soldiers!

They didn't even have time to scream before the Hunter's claws trampled them into a bloody pulp. Then it swung its claws again, smashing the fully armed soldiers nearby as easily as tofu and blasting them apart in great clouds of blood!

The other soldiers only snapped out of it when their comrades' blood spattered across their faces. They hurriedly swung their guns toward the hulking monster and opened fire, and gunshots once again thundered through the spiral passageway!

Meanwhile, on Commander Kromi's orders, another group of soldiers cautiously approached the shield-shaped mass standing before the door in combat formation.

They didn't dare shoot at the shield again, afraid their bullets would be reflected back and cause more casualties.

For some reason, Commander Kromi felt that something behind the shield gave him an inexplicable sense of dread. It seemed strangely familiar...

Behind the Blacklight Spike Shield, Xia Tianming filtered out the dense gunfire with his keen senses and heard footsteps approaching from both sides.

But the cautious soldiers stopped at a certain distance. They sent only one man at the head of the formation to scout ahead.

The soldier swallowed and crept toward the back of the biological shield, eager to see what was hiding there.

When he got closer and looked carefully, he saw that there was a man behind the shield—a man he had never seen before?!

The instant his eyes met the man's pitch-black gaze, a bone-deep chill swept through him from head to toe, as if he'd fallen into an abyss of ice!

It would be the last thing he ever saw...

The other soldiers waited for him to report what was behind the shield. Then a shadow flashed out from behind it, and the soldier they had sent to scout suddenly vanished before their eyes!

The terrifying sight struck fear into their hearts. They hurriedly raised their guns and aimed at the black shield.

But less than a second later, the scout emerged from behind the shield, completely unharmed.

The soldiers stared at him in confusion. Had they just imagined it? One of them asked, stunned, "What just happened to you...?"

"There's nothing back there," the soldier replied as he walked toward them, speaking in the same voice they knew.

But the squad leader stayed wary and shouted a warning. "Don't come any closer! Take off your helmet! Let us see your face!"

The soldier they had sent out did as he was told and removed his helmet. It was indeed the man they knew.

And without them realizing it, he had already come within ten meters of the group.

Just as everyone was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Commander Kromi, who had been watching the whole time, received a message from headquarters. The moment he heard it, his face turned deathly pale. Eyes wide, he roared, "Don't let him get any closer!!! Open fire! Now!!"

But it was already too late.

By the time the soldiers heard their commander's order and came to their senses, the scout's arm was already wrapped in countless tendrils, rapidly stretching out.

In less than a second, his right arm had become a twenty-meter-long, black-and-red Whip-Blade coiled across the floor!

Its surface was covered in sinister black, keratinous blades, while a scythe-shaped barb curved backward from its tip. Its metallic-black sheen was enough to make anyone shudder!

This was the newly unlocked [Whip-fist Form]—and the soldier was, of course, Xia Tianming in disguise!

Once he was within striking range, Xia Tianming lashed out with his Blacklight Whip-Blade, sweeping it sideways before the assault squad could recover from his sudden transformation!

Screee!

The Whip-Blade cut through the air with a fierce whoosh, slicing through the soldiers ahead as easily as a scythe through wheat!!

They didn't have time to scream. Their upper bodies hadn't even hit the ground before tendrils extending from the Whip-Blade's surface dissolved and devoured them in midair!

With a single sweep, Xia Tianming made dozens of soldiers in a fan-shaped area ahead of him vanish in an instant, turning them into viral nutrients inside his body!

Then he flicked the Whip-Blade backward, coiling it around the Blacklight Spike Shield behind him and dissolving the shield back into his body.

Xia Tianming could now separate the viral weapons and shields he created from his own body to draw the enemy's attention!

The sight of an entire squad being wiped out in an instant made Commander Kromi's pupils twitch.

That familiar feeling had returned. Had he encountered this strange man who could turn his arms into weapons before?

He didn't know that he had already become nutrients inside the man's body...