Chapter 217: Dual Frequencies
The chaotic frenzy raging across the thawing slush field continued to defy every expectation. Through the high-magnification optical scopes mounted atop their rifles, Lin Qing, Han Zheng, and Old Wang watched in stunned silence as thousands of infected shredded their own ranks. The thawing mountain pass was rapidly transforming into a violent, churning sea of torn limbs, shattered bone, and dark, viscous blood.
Down in the Central Command Hub, the diagnostic monitors were flashing erratic streams of complex telemetry, their digital graphs spiking in wild, overlapping waves.
Dr. Zhou leaned closer to Sun Hao’s primary interface console, her eyes wide behind her glasses as she analyzed the raw frequency data broadcasting across the valley from the perimeter diagnostic array.
"Commander! We’ve isolated the cause of the swarm’s erratic behavior!" Dr. Zhou’s voice burst through the comms loop, laced with intense excitement and profound disbelief. "It’s a dual-frequency conflict! The subject standing outside the gates isn’t just standing idle—she is actively projecting her own Blue Core aura! She is broadcasting a competing psychic control command directly into the Alpha’s local network!"
Lin Qing’s finger tightened against the flat face of her rifle’s trigger guard as the realization fully set in. Her dark eyes remained locked on the slender silhouette standing motionless in the slush. "She’s hijacking the Alpha’s hold on the horde."
"Precisely!" Dr. Zhou confirmed rapidly over the feed, her hands flying across the terminal to isolate the overlapping wave patterns. "The Alpha’s telepathic commands are being jammed and overridden at close range! She is intentionally turning the front ranks of the swarm against the rear ranks, forcing them into a self-destructive loop to keep them from storming the blast gates!"
Han Zheng’s dark eyes narrowed as he adjusted his weapon’s energy output, his hands steady on the receiver. Su Xiao’s mother was utilizing every ounce of her newly evolved Blue Core power to erect an invisible, self-sustaining wall of raw violence around the base, single-handedly preventing the facility from being overwhelmed by the sheer numerical superiority of the infected.
Deep within the upper-level secondary residential suite, the atmosphere was growing increasingly tense. While the doors kept the auditory roar of the distant alarms muffled, the raw, volatile energy radiating from the two clashing Blue Cores on the surface was permeating deep through the bedrock. The air inside the room felt charged, heavy with static electricity that made the fine hairs on the back of the children’s necks stand on end.
Xiao Li stood near the center of the living area, his shoulders squared as his eyes scanned the perimeter, maintaining a vigilant guard over the room. In the far corner, Han Ye remained motionless in his deep shadow trance, his breathing slow and shallow as dark vapor curled lazily off his fingertips, keeping his spatial awareness woven throughout the facility’s lower levels.
Su Xiao, sitting on the edge of her bed beside Xiao Mei, suddenly gasped. She clutched her small chest with both hands, her little face growing pale as a wave of intense, suffocating anxiety washed over her. Her mother’s energy signature outside was flaring up with terrifying intensity, and through their instinctual bond, the young girl could feel the sheer, overwhelming strain her mother was under.
"Xiao Li... please," Su Xiao begged, her voice trembling as big, heavy tears welled up in her dark eyes. She scrambled off the cot and ran over to the tall soldier, tugging desperately at his sleeve. "Please take me out! My mommy is out there all alone! Please, let me go to the gates!"
"Su Xiao, calm down," Xiao Li said gently, dropping smoothly to one knee to meet her at eye level, his hands resting reassuringly on her small shoulders. "We can’t go out there right now. It’s an active battle zone. The Commander and Lin Qing are watching over everything from the ramparts. You have to stay safe inside."
"No! You don’t understand!" Su Xiao sobbed, her small chest heaving as her fear and panic spiked uncontrollably.
As her emotional distress reached a boiling point, the energy within her small body began to react to her panic. A subtle, high-frequency hum vibrated through the air of the suite, causing the metallic fittings on the walls to buzz. On a nearby metal table, a heavy glass water pitcher and a set of glass tumblers began to rattle violently against the surface. The water inside sloshed frantically back and forth as the glass clinked louder and louder, hairline cracks suddenly spider-webbing across the surface of the tumbler closest to her.
Gu An stepped forward immediately, her eyes wide with alarm as she raised her hands, preparing to project a protective shield around Su Xiao if her power flared any further. Xiao Mei pulled back slightly, sensing the dangerous shift in the room’s atmospheric pressure.
"Su Xiao, breathe!" Xiao Li urged firmly but gently, tightening his grip on her shoulders to ground her. "Look at me! Your mother is fighting out there to keep you safe. If you run out there right now, you put everyone in danger—including her. Trust Lin Qing. Trust the Commander. They won’t let her fight alone."
Su Xiao hiccuped, her small body trembling as she looked into Xiao Li’s steady, unyielding eyes.
Slowly, as she forced her frantic breathing under control, the high-frequency hum in the room began to subside. The rattling glass on the table settled back into stillness, though the thin, fractured cracks remained as a stark testament to the sheer potential hidden within the child.
Back up on the freezing heights of the upper view ramparts, a deafening, bone-shattering roar suddenly ripped through the valley, completely drowning out the shrieks of the self-destructing swarm.
The Blue Core Alpha had reached its absolute limit.
Enraged by the total loss of control over its army and the blatant defiance of a rival Blue Core interfering with its hive mind, the towering, terrifying entity finally descended from the high northern ridge.
It leaped down the steep, rocky incline with unnatural, terrifying speed, its massive, mutated frame landing heavily in the muddy slush seventy meters out, sending a massive spray of gray mud, ice, and dark water flying fifty feet into the air.
A thick, violent aura of bright blue energy crackled wildly around the Alpha’s body, sizzling violently as it came into contact with the melting snow. Its glowing, sunken eyes locked directly onto Su Xiao’s mother. The Alpha no longer cared about the Research Center or the blast gates; its singular, predatory instinct was focused entirely on utterly annihilating the rival Blue Core standing in its path.
Su Xiao’s mother did not retreat a single step. As the Alpha charged forward, her own blue aura flared up to match its intensity, casting a blinding, ethereal light across the gray, dreary landscape.
The two Blue Core entities collided seventy meters from the blast gates with the sheer force of a heavy artillery impact.
A massive, visible shockwave of pure kinetic and psychic force erupted from the point of contact, blasting outward in a three-hundred-sixty-degree radius. The sheer pressure of the collision swept away hundreds of surrounding infected like dust, flattening the nearby slush drifts and violently rattling the massive gates of the Research Center.
The very granite foundation of the mountain seemed to groan under the staggering weight of their clash.
The Alpha swung a massive, razor-sharp claw coated in dense, crackling blue energy, aiming straight for her head. Su Xiao’s mother ducked beneath the devastating arc with unnatural fluidity, pivoting in the freezing slush and driving a concentrated palm strike of raw kinetic power directly into the Alpha’s exposed ribs, sending the towering monster skidding backward thirty feet through the mud.
"They’re tearing each other apart out there!" Old Wang yelled over the roaring wind, adjusting his tripod as the kinetic shockwaves vibrated through the concrete rampart floor beneath their boots.
"Not while we’re standing here," Han Zheng declared, his voice cold, steady, and resolute as he raised his heavy rifle, aligning his sights with the chaotic fray. "We cover her!"
"Song Yan, Lieutenant Chen!" Lin Qing called out through her headset, her voice cutting cleanly through the noise. "Stand by at the blast gate firing ports! Prepare to provide heavy suppression if the Alpha tries to push past her toward the threshold!"
"Standing by!" Lieutenant Chen replied instantly over the comms, his thermal power flaring so hot in the lower loading bay that the heavy metal seams of his gauntlets were glowing a dull, incandescent orange.
Up on the ramparts, Lin Qing, Han Zheng, and Old Wang pressed their eyes firmly against the soft rubber cups of their high-magnification optical scopes, tracking the high-speed, blinding kinetic duel unfolding in the slush. The two Blue Cores moved with terrifying velocity, trading brutal, energy-infused blows that tore up the frozen earth and shattered boulders into dust beneath them.
Then, the critical opening appeared.
As the Alpha lunged forward to execute a heavy, two-handed overhead strike designed to crush its opponent, it was forced to drop its forward kinetic shielding to channel maximum energy into its upper limbs. For a brief fraction of a second, the glowing, unshielded energy processing node behind its upper sternum was left completely exposed to the vantage point of the upper ramparts.
"Target acquired!" Lin Qing called out instantly, her voice slicing through the loop like a blade. "Upper sternum node! It’s completely unshielded!"
"I see it!" Old Wang grunted, his finger resting lightly on the hair-trigger of his specialized sniper variant, his crosshairs locking directly onto the glowing blue core pulse behind the Alpha’s chest plate.
"Sync your firing capacitors!" Han Zheng commanded, his rifle humming violently as his own kinetic power fed directly into the weapon’s primary chamber, causing the glowing orange core to pulse with blinding intensity. "On my mark! Three... two... one... Fire!"
Three high-output orange energy beams erupted simultaneously from the upper ramparts, cutting clean through the freezing air toward the exposed chest of the Alpha.