A waltz amid the ruins

The second basement level was vast, but the sight here left him slightly alarmed.

What had once been an enormous underground hall had now become an alien creature's nest. The massive Leviathan carcass occupied the center of the hall, like a fallen hill, its surface covered in vein-like patterns. Pale purple, luminous fluid flowed through those patterns.

But that was not the most frightening part.

The wreckage of more than a dozen robots lay scattered around the carcass, torn to pieces, as though some tremendous force had twisted their bodies apart.

"Was there a battle here?" Zhao Fan raised his flashlight warily.

Suddenly, a burst of heavy gunfire rang out at the other end of the hall.

Ratatatat!

It was the other teams. They had evidently found this place too, and had run into trouble.

"Watch your step," Zhao Fan warned quietly.

His perception told him that dead things were not all that lurked here.

Clack, clack...

The scraping of mechanical joints came from the shadows.

"Damn it, Scavenger robots!" Old Dog raised his nail gun and backed against a pillar. "These things were the government's early failed attempts to rival Stark. They've been modified into guard dogs for this place. They don't feel pain, and they only know one thing-eliminate intruders."

Before he had finished speaking, three oddly shaped robots emerged from the darkness. They had spiderlike lower bodies and upper bodies fitted with chainsaws and laser welding torches. Their red electronic eyes scanned the darkness.

"Intruders... detected... executing... purge protocol..."

A grating synthesized voice rang out. All three robots accelerated at once, charging toward Zhao Fan and Old Dog.

Bang! Bang!

Old Dog opened fire first. The steel nails struck the robots' armor with tremendous kinetic force, throwing up sparks, but failed to penetrate.

"Aim for the joints!" Zhao Fan shouted, darting out like a cheetah.

Rather than taking them head-on, he used the terrain, weaving rapidly through a heap of rubble.

One robot swept its chainsaw toward him. Zhao Fan slid beneath the sharp teeth and flicked his right hand at the same time.

Whoosh!

The throwing knife sliced into a hydraulic line connection in the robot's leg.

Hiss!

Black hydraulic fluid gushed out. One of the robot's legs instantly failed, and it lost its balance and toppled to the ground.

But the other two did not stop attacking. A red laser beam grazed Zhao Fan's shoulder, scorching his camouflage suit and leaving a searing wound.

"Fuck!" Old Dog roared, pulling a homemade EMP grenade from his backpack. "Try this!"

He hurled it hard.

Bzzzt!

Blue electrical arcs burst outward. The two robots stiffened, their electronic eyes flickering a few times before they were temporarily disabled.

"Go! Don't waste time! The EMP won't keep them down for long!" Zhao Fan did not linger to fight. He pulled Old Dog up and ran deeper inside.

But just as they rounded a corner, a sudden barrage of gunfire and explosions erupted ahead.

Boom!

A wall was blasted open. Through the dust, Rattlesnake Rick charged out with four or five fully armed men, running straight into Zhao Fan and Old Dog.

Rick was a sorry sight, his exoskeleton armor covered in scratches. It seemed they had run into plenty of trouble too.

"More rats?! Die, you little shits!" Rick raised his shotgun with a vicious grin.

"Get down!" Zhao Fan shoved Old Dog to the ground.

Boom!

The shot slammed into the wall behind them, sending chips of stone flying.

"Kill them!" Rick roared.

At that critical moment, a red figure suddenly dropped from an overhead ventilation duct, landing silently right behind Rick's group.

There were no wasted words, only two cold flashes of steel blooming in the darkness.

Slash!

Before the mercenary at the rear could react, his throat had already been slit, and blood gushed out.

"Who's there?!"

Rick's men turned around in terror.

"A swarm of noisy flies."

The red figure-Kestrel-stood beside the corpse and flicked the blood from his short blade. His voice had been processed through a voice changer, making it impossible to tell whether he was male or female, but it carried a chilling calm. "You're disturbing my hunt."

"Kestrel..." Rick had clearly heard the name too, and his expression darkened. "This is internal D.O.D.C. business. Get lost if you don't want to die!"

"D.O.D.C.?" Kestrel gave a contemptuous snort. "Have the D.O.D.C.'s standards fallen so low? They'll even take stupid pigs who can do nothing but use brute force."

"Kill him!" Rick bellowed in fury, swinging his gun toward Kestrel.

A chaotic battle erupted instantly.

Though Rick's men had fierce firepower, Kestrel was practically death incarnate in this cramped, complicated terrain. Using the broken walls as cover, he wove through the hail of bullets. Every strike either took a life or put someone out of the fight.

His movements were elegant and lethal, as though he were dancing a bloody waltz.

Zhao Fan hid behind cover, watching Kestrel's every movement intently.

[Basic Precision Throwing] had given him exceptionally strong dynamic vision, allowing him to barely track Kestrel's movements.

Too fast... still too fast. Zhao Fan gritted his teeth. Even though he had mentally prepared himself, the strength Kestrel displayed still left him feeling suffocated. It was not just speed, but a command of the rhythm of combat.

"What do we do? Run while they're busy?" Old Dog asked quietly, loading a fresh nail magazine.

"No." Zhao Fan looked past the battling crowd toward the enormous platform in the center of the hall, enclosed in layers of energy shields.

There, through the translucent force field, he could clearly see a grayish-white, shell-like object over two meters long. Purple patterns on its surface brightened and dimmed like breathing, and the air around it warped slightly from high-energy radiation.

That was the Leviathan biological armor sample.

And the hidden energy core lay in the rotting flesh beneath the armor.

"We only get one chance." Zhao Fan tightened his grip on his throwing knife. It was his only hope of turning the tables. "Wait until they've both worn each other down."

In the battle, Kestrel had already killed half of Rick's men. Relying on his exoskeleton's protection, Rick was still barely holding on.

"If that's all you've got, I'm very disappointed." Kestrel sidestepped Rick's heavy punch and drove his short blade into a gap in the exoskeleton.

Bzzzt!

One arm of the exoskeleton instantly failed.

"Aaaah! I'll kill you!" Rick pulled the trigger frantically, but it was futile.

Just as Kestrel was about to deliver the final blow, the entire underground hall suddenly shook violently.

"Warning! Containment barrier breach detected! Warning!"

Amid the piercing alarms, the dome overhead suddenly burst open.

Several round metal spheres were thrown down, unfolding in midair into numerous hovering heavy combat drones.

"It's Evelyn!" Benjamin's voice rang in their earpieces. "She blasted straight through the floor! The tactical team is coming down!"

"Everyone, put down your weapons immediately!"

Evelyn's cold, commanding voice came through the drones' loudspeakers. "This area is under D.O.D.C. jurisdiction. Any resistance will be considered a terrorist attack and met with lethal force!"

Kestrel stopped and glanced up at the drones, disgust flashing in his eyes.

"Troublesome woman."

He abandoned Rick and darted away, heading straight for the sample in the center!

"Stop him!" Evelyn ordered over the command channel.

The drones' machine guns opened fire instantly, their streams of flame weaving a net of death.

But that did not stop Kestrel. He threw two smoke grenades and vanished into the smoke. When he reappeared, he was already in front of the energy shield.

"Now!"

Zhao Fan knew he could wait no longer. Once Kestrel got the item, no one here would be able to catch him at his speed.

"Old Dog, cover me!"

Zhao Fan burst from cover.

"Lunatic!" Old Dog cursed, but he did not hesitate. He raised his nail gun and fired wildly at the drones overhead, successfully drawing some of their fire.

Zhao Fan sprinted through the hail of bullets; his target was the center of that chaotic storm-Kestrel and the sample.

He was going to snatch food from the tiger's jaws.