The Girl Who Looted Tomorrow

Soldiers met soldiers, commanders met commanders.

Jessica faced the adjutant head-on, while the official practitioners under her command clashed with the [Soldiers] under his.

Bang, bang, bang!

On Special Affairs’ side, no one cared whether this was supposed to be a fight between extraordinary powers or not. The first thing everyone did was draw their firearms and open fire.

In low-level combat, ordinary guns were still very useful.

The enemy [Soldiers] had lined up in neat rows and nearly filled the entire street, so there was no real need to aim. As long as no one shot an ally by mistake, the bullets would find targets.

Blooms of blood burst through the enemy ranks. Some [Soldiers] were hit in the chest, some in the limbs, and a few unlucky ones had their heads blown open.

But what happened next was deeply wrong.

The [Soldiers] who were hit acted as if nothing had happened. Even with blood still pouring from holes in their foreheads, they continued advancing in perfect formation.

There were clearly one hundred people, yet the pressure they gave off felt like a single complete body.

They were like a train beginning to move. Each [Soldier] was nothing more than a tiny gear inside that greater machine, interlocking with the others, working together, driving the train faster and farther forward.

Step.

Step, step.

They gave Special Affairs no chance for a second round of ranged fire.

The two sides collided almost immediately.

Nolan, one of the team captains, stood on the front line. He charged ahead first and rushed up to one [Soldier], then threw a punch.

Under the support of his extraordinary ability, the force of that strike was distorted and amplified several times over.

He held nothing back. His spirituality drained rapidly, and this blow could absolutely be called a full-power strike from a Rank Four practitioner.

If a Rank One Demon Path practitioner took this punch, they would burst into a mist of blood on the spot. That was not an exaggeration.

If this punch landed on a wall, Nolan could also control the force and spread it evenly through every corner of the building, shattering the entire structure in an instant.

But the ordinary-looking [Soldier] in front of him did not explode on the spot.

The man was indeed sent flying, and cracking sounds like firecrackers rang out all across his body as bones snapped one after another. Even so, it was still strange.

Nolan frowned.

He had a very clear grasp of his own strength.

If the punch he had just thrown carried one hundred points of force, then after it landed on that [Soldier], only fifty points seemed to remain.

As for the other fifty?

It was as if they had vanished into thin air.

No, not vanished.

Nolan sharply noticed that when he threw that punch, the entire advancing [corps] paused for a brief instant.

It was as if everyone had been struck by an invisible force.

“This is…”

Nolan realized it at once.

His attack had been shared among the rest of the corps.

Of course, it was not a perfect equal split among every person. Instead, half the damage had been spread out.

But even that was absurd.

In a certain sense, was this not the same as fifty percent damage reduction?

While Nolan was thinking, the two [Soldiers] closest to him immediately counterattacked.

These [Soldiers] did not have any proper weapons. At most, they carried knives, kitchen knives, iron rods, and similar things.

The two in front of Nolan each held an iron rod.

Whoosh.

It looked like an ordinary swing, yet it tore through the air with a clear sound.

Nolan originally intended to use his ability to twist the direction of the two attacks, but his eyes suddenly widened.

He could feel his spirituality draining at terrifying speed, like water pouring into a bottomless pit.

Even so, the two [Soldiers]’ attacks showed no sign of slowing.

Bang. Bang.

At the last moment, the two strikes were finally shifted off course.

They smashed into the ground beside Nolan’s feet.

The two iron rods snapped outright, and several obvious cracks spread across the stone-paved road.

“That’s ridiculous. So this is [Battle Formation]?”

A bead of cold sweat appeared on Nolan’s forehead.

If he had to face these enemies alone, he would lose in ten minutes at most.

His attacks were only half as effective against them, while their attacks were extremely dangerous to him.

He could use his ability to avoid their blows, but the spirituality cost was simply too high.

The moment his spirituality ran out would be the moment he lost.

But this time, Nolan was not fighting alone.

“Charge!”

“Push forward!”

With those shouts, one Special Affairs practitioner after another followed Nolan’s lead and rushed in.

Special Affairs’ equipment was excellent. Almost everyone carried a firearm and a melee weapon, and they all wore specially made stab-resistant gear.

Still, if even Nolan had this much trouble fighting these [Soldiers], ordinary official practitioners had it much worse.

Each [Soldier] was, on average, far stronger than an official practitioner.

Within seconds of contact, several people on Special Affairs’ side were already injured.

The female captain in glasses whom Freya had met before shouted, “All injured personnel, fall back on your own. Let the next line take your place.”

Gunfire, screams, and furious roars filled the street.

Orders were nearly drowned beneath the chaos. Every captain had to shout at the top of their lungs just to pass commands to the few people nearby.

After all, these people were police officers, not soldiers.

Right now, they were holding on through sheer courage and a strong sense of justice. Naturally, the longer the fight went on, the more chaotic the scene became.

The corps, however, was the complete opposite.

Not a single [Soldier] made any unnecessary sound. They were like machines, doing exactly what they were supposed to do from beginning to end.

At the rear of the battlefield, Euphemia’s face filled with worry.

Judging by the current situation, Special Affairs might be able to win, but they would certainly pay a brutal price for it.

She could not help murmuring, “Faye still isn’t here?”

The moment her words fell, a massive shadow dropped from the sky.

Like a cannonball, it slammed into the very center of the corps.

Boom!

With a deafening crash, the ground was smashed into a crater more than thirty feet across.

Dense cracks spread across the ground around the edge of the pit.

Who knew how many [Soldiers] were blasted away by that impact?

A clear empty zone appeared right in the center of the corps.

“Well, what a coincidence. I never expected to run into something like this while taking a walk down the street. Fighting villains is exactly my kind of thing. Mind if I join in?”

At the center of the crater, Archbishop Pantheon slowly rose to his feet.

He was now over sixteen feet tall.

He had used the Giant Branch ability called [Giantification].

However, his growth was not like some green muscle monster swelling up. His entire body had grown in equal proportion, including his clothing and weapon.

Pantheon held a stone greatsword almost as long as he was tall.

Unlike ordinary stone, the greatsword carried a cold metallic sheen. When sunlight struck it, it even reflected light.

This greatsword was the weapon Atticus had shaped for Pantheon with his extraordinary ability.

One of the Rank Four Earth Path abilities of the Earth Branch was called [Steel-Tempered Earth].

As the name suggested, it could turn stone as hard as steel.

As he spoke, Pantheon raised the greatsword and dragged its edge along the ground, sweeping it horizontally at ground level.

There was nothing fancy about it.

At his current size, his body itself was already the best weapon.

With a roaring gust of wind, all the [Soldiers] who had been knocked away and had not yet climbed back up were struck by the greatsword.

Cracking sounds rang out all across their bodies.

Like broken rag dolls, they were swept away once more.

“The Earth Church?”

Seeing this, the official practitioners could not help letting out a breath of relief.

Strictly speaking, their orders did not allow them to cooperate with the church.

But at a time like this, seeing powerful reinforcements arrive was still something to be happy about.

Nolan narrowed his eyes and stared hard at the battlefield.

“Why was his attack so effective?”

They were both Rank Four, so Nolan and Pantheon should not have been too far apart in strength.

But Nolan quickly noticed the key.

“The formation. As long as we break their formation, they’ll lose the support of [Battle Formation].”

“Find a way to disrupt their ranks. Their combat power will drop fast.”

As mentioned before, however, Special Affairs’ side was already too chaotic. Nolan’s orders were very difficult to carry out.

But at that moment, the other members of the Earth Church arrived on the street a little later than Pantheon.

Among them, Atticus suddenly said, “That’s easy.”