Chapter 330: Interrupting a D Rank Trial [1]
Everything happened extremely fast.
Blood Manipulation!
All the blood that was spilled by over a hundred terrorists, with a few E Rank Ascended among them gathered like a rushing flood.
The blood didn’t fall the way it should.
At first it behaved like any other spill, an arc flung through the air, scattering into droplets with gravity already reaching out to claim it, but then something interrupted that natural order... Lt. Colonel Umar’s ADE and ability.
The bloods’ motion slowed, stuttered, then stopped, each crimson bead hanging suspended in the air, trembling as if caught in an invisible web as a force unseen but precise began to act on it.
BZZZ!
The droplets pulled toward one another with eerie intention, threads of dark red stretching between them amid tendrils of orange ADE, thin at first then thickening fast as more blood was drawn in.
What was once a scattered spray across hundreds of meters in the first layer underground base quickly became a shifting mass, folding inward like a storm cloud that was collapsing into itself.
This was the full expression of a D Rank Bioforger practicing his craft.
This was Lt. Colonel Umar’s Ability Convergence Technique.
The crimson surface of the blood cluster tightened, then it congealed under the flow of orange ADE.
It was not fully solid, it was not truly liquid either, it congealed into something in between both matter states.
The mass pulsed, dense and heavy, suspended in defiance of gravity as veins of darker crimson began to coil through it.
Umar’s will sharpened and the entire mass shifted direction in an instant, snapping across the air like a launched spear, leaving faint streaks where droplets failed to keep up and were violently reabsorbed.
And then...
Organic Weaponry!
Ability Convergence Technique: Dense Detonation!
Within a fraction of a second, the mass of blood compressed into itself, every fragment forced toward a single point as the glossy surface fractured.
And for a heartbeat, everything went silent, then...
KABOOMMMMMMM!
It detonated.
Not like fire, but like pressure unleashed as a violent bloom of dark red burst downward, propelled with surgical direction rather than randomness.
Shards of semi-solid blood streaked downward like shrapnel, each piece maintaining cohesion just long enough to strike with brutal force that tore through layers of composite armor plating.
The ground collapsed!
And just like that, a path leading directly to the second underground layer from the surface was opened, a path giving the Sentry-IV Autocannon Drone direct access to the heavily reinforced chamber where a terrorist was attempting a Trial!
Standing on the surface, Leon’s black eyes gleamed.
His ally already did his part, now it was his turn and he didn’t hesitate as his grayish white ADE erupted like a tsunami.
Enhance!
BZZZZ!
...
’Eh...?’
Dhruv was tricked by his enemies.
By the time he realized what was happening, it was too late and the attack already commenced as the tide of blood detonated like a bomb, piercing through layers of composite plating to their position in mere milliseconds.
There was no time to react.
The world shook and turned white, then it fractured.
KABOOMMMMMMM!
Adaptive Shield!
Dhruv only had time to activate one ability when it hit, and he was engulfed alongside the dozen E Rank Ascended that were beside him, guarding the chamber that was behind them.
Instinctively, he curled up his body behind the shield but it was not enough as he was violently flung away from the reinforced chamber
Despite his Adaptive Shield, the sheer power of the attack meant that even Dhruv couldn’t escape unscathed as he suffered terrible injuries.
As for the other terrorists guarding this isolated chamber alongside him, more than half of them died immediately!
The others were more or less paralyzed, only the Gene Augurs among them were rapidly healing and had a chance of surviving.
As for Dhruv...
Immediately after hitting the ground, he staggered back to his feet.
’That bastard!’ Bleeding, he thought angrily.
What he didn’t know was that it was not over yet, Umar’s attack was just the prelude in a series to complete the mission.
One of the main mission goals of the 2 D Rank Ascended was not just Dhruv’s life but to interrupt the Ascended Trial currently going on inside the isolated chamber, and that was where Leon came in.
Enhance!
BZZZZ!
His grayish white ADE erupted like a tsunami, converging on the massive frame of the Sentry-IV Autocannon Drone, drowning it with power and density.
"...!" Dhruv’s 6th sense as a D Rank Cyber Gladiator kicked in immediately.
Though he couldn’t see it yet, he felt the second rapid gathering and convergence of ADE above him that was even more lethal than the first and instantly, he felt his heart skip a beat.
’This is different...’ his eyes widened.
He was right.
After the duel against Colonel Alphonse 3 days ago, Leon realized something new about his abilities. He realized that at D Rank, he gained the ability to control the output of his ADE when using Enhance.
At E Rank, Enhance was all about pouring out everything and pooling his ADE to amplify any of his constructs with his full power.
But at D Rank, he gained control. He gained the ability to regulate the power level of each enhancement when using Enhance.
The power amplification could be at 20%, 50%, 70%, 100%, any percentage that he liked so long he became accustomed to regulating it.
And for the past 3 days, Leon had been working on controlling his Enhance.
The earlier Enhance-empowered attack from the Sentry-IV Autocannon Drone to tear through the first layer underground base was an attack at just 60% of his total Enhance capacity.
Only now did Leon pour everything into his Enhance, 100%!
Dhruv’s first instinct after surviving Umar’s attack was to react aggressively to retaliate and continue protecting Garak, but the moment he felt the density of the ADE gathering above him, he immediately knew that this was not an attack that he could survive.
This was an attack that could kill him!
He could not survive it, not even with his Kinetic Shield and Adaptive Armor abilities activated, and not even with Armor Amplification.
Only with his Knight Exosuit did he have any hope of tanking such an attack, but the Knight Exosuit takes a few seconds to fully materialize.
"...!" Dhruv’s eyes widened, darting about in desperation as he threw one last glance at the reinforced chamber where his student was.
He gritted his teeth. ’Sorry Garak...’
In the end, he prioritized his life over that of his student.
Then he moved.
BZZZ!
Servo Reflex!
Pulse Dash!
Amid a flare of violet ADE, the D Rank Cyber Gladiator took a step and turned into a violet blur, dodging out of the way at the last moment just in time for...
TUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTU...!
The Sentry-IV let loose!
Dhruv ducked and blocked his ears with both his hands, yet he felt the world shake and vibrate around him like an earthquake was ravaging through the wasteland.
The sheer power of the strikes from the Gun Drone with Enhance at 100% literally triggered a mini-earthquake as the very foundations of the underground base was shaken and uprooted!
The underground base sank deeper into the earth.
RINGGGGGG!
Dhruv felt his ears ring despite blocking both of them.
He closed his eyes, and yet he felt dizzy as the sound of impact left him disoriented. Before he knew it, he lost balance and collapsed to the ground yet he still blocked his ears tightly.
With his ears and eyes closed, he didn’t see it but Umar and Leon saw it as the Sentry-IV Autocannon Drone went all out, it’s primary rotary cannon rotating between tungsten rounds, high-explosive rounds, incendiary rounds, and even the more expensive armor-piercing sabot rounds!
Every shot was worth thousands of Neo Credits!
And they tore through reinforced concrete and metal like paper.
And it was not just the rotary cannon rounds even as under the chassis of the Autocannon Drone, a burst of micro missiles were unleashed, slamming against the isolated chamber and drowning it in flames and impact force.
CRACK!
Despite his ringing ears and despite being disorientated, Dhruv heard the sound as the heavily armored and reinforced chamber that he bought specifically for Garak’s breakthrough, an investment worth over 5 million Neo Credits cracked!
And then, the sound suddenly stopped.
Silence returned.
Dhruv gritted his teeth and immediately sprang back up to his feet, warily glancing behind him as he staggered unsteadily.
Umar and the Mechanist were nowhere to be found.
Instead, what he found was the burned and charred black skeletons of all 12 of his E Rank subordinates!
They were all dead; he gritted his teeth.
Then he looked at the reinforced chamber where Garak was and he froze...
The heavily armored and reinforced chamber looked like a metallic box that was put inside a furnace and hammered till its dense armor plating cracked open on every side, there were multiple holes on the chamber!
And inside...
...inside sat Garak.
Inside sat Garak with multiple thick and round holes punched through his chest, with one through his neck!
Garak was hit!