Take It Down!

Chu Hang's gaze pierced through the flames and flying debris, locking onto the depths of the spider swarm.

There was one spider there that was different.

It was smaller than the surrounding cannon fodder, its entire body dark gold. It remained motionless, eight long legs braced against the ground like a general reviewing his troops. Only the single eye atop its head glowed red, bathing the entire cell in a bloody light.

Found it, Chu Hang thought.

That was it.

His mind raced, filtering out every bit of battlefield noise—the screeches, explosions, and grinding metal.

He caught a high-frequency buzz.

A control signal.

The source of that signal was the dark-gold spider. Every spider moved under its command. They were not independent individuals; they were its minions.

To capture bandits, capture their king first.

"Steve!" Chu Hang roared, his voice drowning out the explosions.

"Talk!" Steve answered with a single word. He held the shield firmly against the doorway, blocking the tide-like spider swarm.

"There's a commander in the swarm! The dark-gold one at the very back! Take it down, and these things are finished!" Chu Hang spoke rapidly. "Clear a path for me! Five seconds!"

Steve did not hesitate.

"Logan!" he roared. "Left flank, tear open a gap!"

"Roar—!"

Logan, who had been cutting through enemies on the left flank, raised his head. A flash of frenzy glinted in his blood-red eyes. He liked orders like that.

The next second, he charged forward, straight into the densest part of the spider swarm.

"Get out of my way!"

Bone Claws extended, carving arcs of death through the air. Every swing brought a piercing sound of tearing metal and blue electrical sparks. Like a meat grinder, he forcibly carved a path through the sea of spiders.

Pressure on the left flank surged, but the pressure in the center, where Steve stood guard, eased.

"Now!"

Steve roared and abruptly pulled away his shield. The spider swarm piled up at the entrance instantly found an outlet and flooded in madly.

But instead of retreating, he advanced, violently hurling the Vibranium Shield in his hand!

Bzzzt—!

The shield struck the first spider and began ricocheting. Every rebound accurately hit a spider's joints or sensors before bouncing toward the next target.

The spider swarm instantly descended into chaos.

A path to the Spider King appeared, though only for an instant.

By the time Steve shouted, Chu Hang was already moving.

He pushed off the ground and rushed at the wall, his feet sprinting across the vertical surface. Gravity seemed to have no effect on him.

Everything around him slowed.

He had only one target.

The dark-gold Spider King had clearly sensed the danger as well. More than a dozen larger guard spiders with thicker armor immediately blocked its path.

At the same time, the armor on the Spider King's back split open, revealing a pitch-black cannon muzzle as a dangerous red glow gathered within.

An energy cannon.

Alarm bells rang wildly in Chu Hang's mind, but he did not slow down.

He had only one chance.

With a flick of his wrist, he precisely tossed an M24 Grenade with its pin pulled beneath the guard spiders' feet.

Boom!

The explosion flipped several spiders over, throwing their formation into disarray.

This was the opening!

Chu Hang's figure flashed through the smoke and dust of the explosion.

He could feel his skin burning as the energy cannon locked onto him.

But he was faster.

Just before the energy cannon fired, he had already closed in before the Spider King.

The Spider King clearly had not expected him to be so fast. It decisively abandoned its charge, and eight spear-like limbs stabbed viciously at Chu Hang from every direction!

You're asking for it.

Chu Hang forcefully twisted his body in midair, his entire spine driving him through an unbelievable evasive maneuver. The eight limbs grazed his clothes and narrowly missed.

Using the momentum of that twist, he spun like a top, his right leg sweeping in a semicircle through the air. His heel was stretched taut and aimed at the Spider King's enormous red-glowing eye.

He poured all his strength into that kick.

"Shatter!!!"

Bang!!!

A dull, suppressed boom rang out.

A crack appeared on the Spider King's hard single eye.

Then, like a spiderweb, the crack spread wildly in one hundredth of a second!

Crack—!!!

A crisp sound of shattering rang across the battlefield.

That single eye went dark.

The dark-gold Spider King's massive body suddenly stiffened, and its eight raised limbs drooped limply.

Chu Hang performed a backflip and landed steadily on the ground, shaking his slightly numb right foot.

"Damn, that thing was hard," he cursed.

One second.

Two seconds.

The battlefield fell into an eerie silence.

Then, the Mechanical Spiders that had been attacking madly stopped in unison, as if their power had been cut. The red lights atop their heads began flashing erratically. Some spun in place, while others even began attacking their own kind.

A few seconds later, amid a burst of dense crackling, the sensors of every Mechanical Spider went dark one after another.

They had all become heaps of scrap metal.

The battle was over.

The cell was silent as death.

All the surviving soldiers stared dumbfoundedly at the scene before them. At last, their gazes all converged on the man standing amid the scrap metal.

Steve panted heavily as he caught the returning shield. He looked at Chu Hang's back, his expression complicated.

Logan crawled out from a pile of spider wreckage, spat out the extinguished stub of the cigar in his mouth, and grinned broadly, revealing a mouthful of white teeth as he smiled silently.

This kid had guts.

However, just as everyone thought the crisis was over—

A deep buzzing suddenly echoed throughout the underground space without warning.

Then, a cold synthesized electronic voice reached everyone's ears through the broadcast system.

"Warning. 'The Nest' has been breached. Highest-authority command issued."

"Activating... Final Purification Protocol."

"The base will self-destruct completely in three minutes."

"Countdown commencing... 2:59... 2:58..."

The cold countdown echoed in every survivor's ears like a funeral bell.