Ending Everything

"What are you all standing around for! Focus your fire on that guy!!!"

Commander Kromi gripped the heavy machine gun mounted on the stair railing, ignoring the risk of friendly fire, and opened fire on the man who was slaughtering his way through the crowd!

But the target's movements were like a ghostly phantom; his speed was so dizzying that the gun barrels could only chase after his wake.

Xia Tianming switched between claws, blades, and whip-fists, each attack resolving large groups of enemies with maximum efficiency and zero hesitation.

Wherever he passed, screams filled the air; his killing speed was so fast that he appeared only as a black-red blur.

"Spread out!! Don't bunch up!!"

Seeing his men disappearing in droves, Commander Kromi roared hysterically.

But in this narrow spiral corridor, there was no room to form any kind of combat formation.

Coupled with Xia Tianming and the Hunter rampaging through the crowd, the already chaotic scene became completely uncontrollable.

Sending in more troops here was no different from throwing their lives away; numbers meant nothing in this space.

A rocket soldier carrying a 120mm rocket launcher struggled to lock onto the fast-moving target, calculated the lead, and triggered the firing mechanism.

BOOM!

A rocket trailing smoke flew from the tube, heading straight for the target's landing spot, triggering a violent explosion that engulfed him in a mushroom cloud of fire!

"Did I hit him?!"

Seeing his success, the rocket soldier danced with joy.

However, his movements froze almost immediately.

As the flames dissipated, he saw the target still standing perfectly fine in the embers, his entire body covered in a layer of black-red substance, resembling some kind of medieval armor...

It was Xia Tianming entering his [Blacklight Armor] form, where viral tentacles had layered and hardened over his body, even covering his face entirely; he looked like a demon crawled out of hell.

The surface of the armor, hardened from viral tentacles, was covered in dense, sharp black spikes; even a mere touch would leave an enemy riddled with holes.

While this form sacrificed a bit of speed, it drastically reinforced his defensive capabilities, making him nearly immune to direct small arms fire and the shockwaves of explosives.

Seeing that his weapon had not only failed to cause any real damage but had actually drawn the enemy's attention—the faceless, terrifying head was now turning to stare directly at him—the soldier panicked. He dropped the empty launcher and turned to flee, but after only two steps, he felt something descend from above.

BANG!!

A sudden, powerful shockwave slammed the rocket soldier to the ground. As he struggled to crawl up, the demon covered in bio-armor was already standing right in front of him...

"AHHH!!!"

Seeing the enemy leap dozens of meters like a superhero to land there, the surrounding soldiers snapped out of their shock and hurriedly raised their guns to fire!

Intense gunfire erupted again, but this time, the fierce barrage hitting the viral armor on Xia Tianming only sparked against the surface, unable to cause the slightest injury.

Xia Tianming raised his right hand, and blacklight tentacles condensed, forming a two-meter-long black blade on his arm!

The flickering muzzle flashes reflected off the blade, casting a chilling, scarlet glow!

Combining [Viral Armor] with [Blacklight Blade], he had become a killing machine with both offense and defense!

Ignoring the bullets flying from all directions, Xia Tianming swung his blade, reaping lives among the enemy ranks; almost no one could stop him.

This completely shattered the soldiers' psychological defenses; they had never felt so helpless.

Even when they had surrounded Alice before, although that woman was equally formidable, she at least had to dodge bullets and could be injured, giving them a glimmer of hope for victory.

But this monster simply ignored all gunfire, slaughtering these fully armed, battle-hardened soldiers as easily as crushing ants, naturally causing immense psychological and physical strain.

Finally, led by someone, many soldiers began to drop their weapons and flee, clutching their heads.

This operation was nothing but a suicide mission!

Seeing his men breaking ranks, Commander Kromi flew into a rage, turning his machine gun on the deserters and roaring for them to pick up their weapons and keep fighting.

Suddenly!

A deafening roar came from the side, and Kromi turned his head to look.

He saw the hideous beast, covered in bullet holes, charging straight at him; its violent power made the stairs beneath its feet tremble!

"Come on... you bastard, let's see who chickens out first!!!"

Commander Kromi braced his heavy machine gun and pulled the trigger on the charging Hunter, the tongue of fire from the barrel illuminating his twisted, ferocious face!

SPLAT!

However, he hadn't even lasted three seconds before the Hunter slammed down a giant claw, flattening him and his heavy machine gun into a puddle of meat...

With the commander dead, the remaining soldiers fell into total disarray, like headless flies, dropping their gear just to run faster.

At this moment, after Xia Tianming used his Blacklight Blade to reap and consume the lives of several more squads, he felt a certain threshold within him being triggered, a restless energy ready to burst forth.

Suddenly!

He bent his knees slightly and leaped off the spiral staircase, falling in freefall through the air, appearing in everyone's line of sight.

The crowd froze in confusion—what was happening? Was he jumping to his death?

But the sight that followed would become their ultimate nightmare!

Xia Tianming's body, suspended in mid-air, suddenly began to expand violently, while countless black-red tentacles continuously extended from within him!

When the expansion reached its absolute limit.

SHING!!!

Innumerable black tentacles erupted from his body like a supernova!!

Possessing the sentience of black vipers, they shot out in every direction with the speed of lightning and thunder, each tentacle piercing through every single soldier with precise, brutal force, leaving not one behind!

Xia Tianming, positioned at the epicenter of all these tentacles, resembled a banyan tree that had lived for tens of thousands of years, his thousands of branching tentacles acting like roots connecting to the bodies of a thousand soldiers!

The soldiers lowered their heads tremblingly, their pupils dilating as they stared at the tentacles piercing through their abdomens; their bodies liquefied at a visible rate, like melting candles, flowing and seeping into the tentacles to become nutrients for the Blacklight Virus...

In less than a single second, Xia Tianming had instantly ended all life within this spiral corridor while suspended in mid-air.

Everything fell silent.

Ten thousand tentacles, ending everything...