Hold the Line and Wait for Reinforcements?

"Activate, Destruction: Decomposer Mode!"

As Luca's words rang out, the [Dominator] pistol in his hand rapidly unfolded.

Cyan particles gathered without pause, and the enormous energy sphere rapidly shrank with a humming sound.

But before he could fire the high-energy particle sphere,

a large number of gang members armed with guns came charging out of the building, their faces twisted into savage expressions.

Dun Shan's expression changed at once. He raised his gun and shouted,

"Covering fire!"

"Rat-tat-tat-tat—"

The dense roar of gunfire rang out all around them, and golden shell casings pattered to the ground like raindrops.

But Kingpin's men were nothing more than gangsters who relied on brute force. How could they compare to seasoned veterans like Dun Shan and his team?

The situation turned one-sided in an instant.

Screams rose one after another. Four or five gang members fell backward before they could even raise their guns.

However, Luca was the first to notice that quite a few gang members inside the building had aimed their guns at Baymax, who was pushing the cart.

Looking at the energy sphere that had finished charging in his hand, Luca immediately shouted,

"Baymax! Come back!"

"Okay!" (●-●)

As Baymax darted away, countless bullets from the gangsters struck the Mercedes' windshield, spiderwebbing it with cracks.

But the Mercedes was freed from its predicament. It floored the gas and raced toward the building.

By then, though, the [Dominator] in Luca's hand had already fired a beam of green light.

"Vmmm—"

A cyan-blue high-energy particle beam slammed into the ground behind the car.

Luca had been worried about hitting Baymax, and the Mercedes had kept its foot on the gas, accelerating extremely quickly.

As a result, his shot had missed the car entirely.

Even so,

the moment the particle beam struck the ground, cyan and white light burst forth. In the blink of an eye, they formed a huge energy sphere that crackled with a sizzling sound.

The Mercedes had only moved half a meter, and nearly a third of its body was swallowed by the enormous sphere.

In that brief instant,

the vehicle's armor, rated to withstand VR7-level attacks, melted and disintegrated, leaving a section of the car gone.

The entire rear half of the vehicle, along with most of its wheels, looked as though an invisible, enormous mouth had bitten into it. All that remained was a neat row of cuts glowing a scorching red.

Perhaps because the car had been disintegrated so quickly, it didn't explode from the damage.

Carried by its momentum, it barreled straight into the building in front of it without slowing down.

After knocking several gang members aside, it smashed through a wall in the distance with a crash and came to a stop.

Luca watched and nodded with satisfaction, then put the [Dominator] away.

Well, Luca could calmly holster his weapon

because Baymax had already hurried over and shielded him with his body from any stray bullets that might threaten him.

And because although the firefight had only just begun, Dun Shan and the others had already dealt with nearly all the enemies who had charged out of the building.

Thresh, the burly bald man standing beside Luca, had been especially brutal.

After giving up on shooting at the bulletproof Mercedes, he turned his gun toward the warehouse and began spraying indiscriminately.

The flames spitting from the muzzle were like the Grim Reaper's scythe, turning everything in their path into a pincushion.

And as the man sprayed bullets, he laughed maniacally without pause.

"Die! Die, you scum! Hahahaha! Taste Grandpa's blazing big gun!"

Even in this seemingly frenzied state, Thresh kept his machine gun astonishingly steady and accurate. He even switched to short bursts between sprays and quickly changed ammo boxes in the pauses, keeping his fire going as long as possible.

Only after he had emptied all 200 rounds in another ammo box, and the gun began clicking repeatedly as it ran dry,

did Thresh seem to regain his senses. His expression stiffened as he looked at the slightly red-hot barrel, then awkwardly scratched his bald head.

"Um, Young Master Luca, I'm not usually like this..."

Luca, still hiding behind Baymax, watched him with the corner of his mouth twitching. For a moment, he had no idea what to say.

In truth, Luca didn't know that Thresh really wasn't in his "usual state."

Since they were fighting in the city today—and against gangsters, no less—he was only using an M249 light machine gun.

When Thresh fought on overseas battlefields as the squad's heavy gunner, he usually used an XM556 microgun with an electrically powered tactical backpack ammo box. In other words, he normally suppressed enemies with what was commonly called a handheld minigun.

In those circumstances, Thresh, well, laughed even louder and looked even more deranged. He really was in a different state from the one he was in today.

Back to the matter at hand.

With all the enemies before them down, the roar of gunfire finally died away.

Spent shell casings littered the ground. The pungent smell of smoke filled Luca's nose, the faint echoes of gunfire still lingered in his ears, and everywhere he looked were gangsters' bodies riddled with holes.

But none of the dead in front of them appeared to be Luca's real target that day.

"Longbow, Wrench! Did anyone escape from the building just now?" Dun Shan quickly asked the other two teammates over comms.

"No." Longbow's calm voice came through first.

Wrench's reply came a little later. He took a few quick breaths before answering.

"I've been watching the screens on my end the whole time. I didn't see anyone escape, either."

But Dun Shan noticed something off about Wrench and immediately pressed him.

"Wrench, report your situation."

"A car that looked like it belonged to Kingpin's men just passed by my position. I took it out. But we need to hurry. The target could have more reinforcements on the way."

Wrench answered rapidly.

Dun Shan didn't dwell on Wrench taking out a car full of gangsters. But as he had reasoned, Kingpin was, after all, the kingpin of Hell's Kitchen, and they were attacking his stronghold. More of his men could arrive at any moment.

If they didn't want to get surrounded here, they had to move faster.

Without hesitation, Dun Shan immediately looked toward Luca.

But he didn't need to remind him. Luca had already reached for the arm of his [Tracking Glasses] and switched on his thermal vision again.

"One, two, three, four..."

His gaze swept rapidly across the area. Kingpin was still in an unmonitored room on the third floor, protected by his last few men. Judging by the thickness of the room's reinforced walls, they had likely been specially fortified.

"Planning to hold out for reinforcements? No, wait!"

"Watch out, grenade!"