The Rangdan Elite seemed to have lost patience with this "insect's" final struggles.
Its armored head turned slightly, its featureless Helmet seeming to "look down" at the human clinging to its body and making his laughable efforts.
It slowly raised its bloodstained right arm, the same one that had effortlessly crushed his comrade's skull moments earlier. Spreading its five fingers with the cold indifference of someone crushing a bug, it reached toward the junction between the young soldier's skull and spine.
One gentle squeeze there would end this pointless resistance for good.
The young soldier could even feel the cold shadow of approaching death looming over his head.
He closed his eyes and waited for the end.
But the expected agony and darkness never came.
Instead, there came a deafening roar, like a storm bursting apart, followed immediately by a metallic thunder so heavy it made his heart quake!
"Get away from him!!!"
It was Warren Heinrich's voice!
At the very instant the Rangdan Elite raised its hand to deliver the killing blow, Warren burst from behind the half-ruined barricade like an enraged lion lunging out of Smoke and death!
As his charge reached its peak, he raised his Shotgun one-handed, bringing its muzzle almost flush against the rear side of the Rangdan Elite's featureless helmet.
Right at the vulnerable joint between Helmet and neck armor—the spot the young soldier's broken dagger had failed to pierce, now slightly exposed by the turn of its head!
Bang!!!
The deafening gunshot exploded through the narrow trench, drowning out even the continuous explosions in the distance!
At such close range, with the muzzle almost pressed against its target, every pellet of the large-caliber shell poured into the gap in that joint, carrying devastating kinetic force!
Crack! Splat!!!
The shrill sound of metal tearing