Chapter 33: Weakness
“You’re saying this is a Tier 4 Vanguard?!” High Priest John Schmid of the Radiant Path roared.
He thrust out an arm like cast steel, seized Simpson by the collar, and shoved his face so close that his breath sprayed across the Demon Gang leader’s face. “He has to be a Tier 5 Vanguard! The sixth Tier 5 Vanguard in the last seventy years!”
A dozen Demon Gang members around them instantly raised their rifles, barrels trained on John Schmid, silently demanding that the furious high priest calm down.
The room they stood in had dozens of electronic screens mounted on the walls, each showing live feeds from different sections of the building.
The surveillance system covering every corner of the building had faithfully recorded it all—Finn carving his way through floor after floor, effortlessly slaughtering more than a dozen mutants that both the Radiant Path and the Demon Gang took such pride in.
“My brethren! My colleagues! That mutant killed them all!” John Schmid’s veins bulged at his temples, rage boiling over.
“Calm down, High Priest,” Simpson said coldly. He clamped a hand around John’s wrist and pried it loose with a sharp twist.
John Schmid looked ready to explode again, but with more than a dozen gun barrels aimed straight at him—and realizing they were all grasshoppers tied to the same rope, facing the same life-or-death threat from Finn—he finally swallowed his fury and let out a heavy sigh.
“Is he someone the City Lord invited? Where the hell did he even come from? A Tier 5 Vanguard should’ve been famous long ago!” John Schmid snarled viciously.
John Schmid and Simpson Browne had just been drinking together, cheerfully toasting one another while they laid out their grand vision: reshaping Black Mountain and building a divine kingdom right here on earth.
The City Lord, known as the Undefeated War God, was getting old. Black Mountain—the largest grain-producing stronghold in the entire wasteland desert, which he had poured every last ounce of his strength into building—was finally about to fall into the Radiant Path’s hands.
To John Schmid and Simpson Browne, the future had looked bright and full of promise. An endless dawn was guiding them forward, and the light of Holy Radiance would soon bathe all of Black Mountain.
But now, everything had been shattered by one young man named Finn. The spark that had set the Demon Gang on the road to destruction and torpedoed the Radiant Path’s entire plan was nothing more than the gang’s decision to ask Finn where his Relic Marrow Bullet had come from.
“Why the hell did you have to mess with him?” John Schmid sighed heavily, pressing both hands to his forehead.
Simpson straightened his collar. “Didn’t our revered Holy Pontiff once use the power of Holy Radiance to kill a Tier 5 Vanguard? Now that we’re under Holy Radiance’s protection, why couldn’t we do the same?”
John Schmid shook his head. “Even if the Holy Pontiff piloted the Divine Ark himself, he could level Black Mountain in a single hour. But it’s too far away right now.”
“This Finn guy has to have a weakness!” Simpson stared intently at the surveillance feed, thinking hard.
“How could he possibly have a weakness?”
“I’ve spotted it,” Simpson said with a cold laugh. On the screen striped with static, two lone figures were cautiously feeling their way forward.
The camera was shot to pieces a second later, leaving only flickering black-and-white static, but Simpson had already come up with a vicious plan.
“What weakness?” John asked eagerly.
“Call in your last mutant brother, Kevin Dave. I’ve got a job for him,” Simpson said. He had regained the full swagger of the Demon Gang leader, chest puffed out like victory was already his.
John was still doubtful, but he had no other choice. He turned toward an empty corner of the wall and made a quick gesture.
Simpson paced for a moment, then picked up a brass communicator and dialed. Into the receiver he said, “Hey, Terry, old buddy. Bring a few guys and come help out. Oh, and grab your best friend Rex Donovan while you’re at it. Tell him there’s a Tier 4 Vanguard’s heart here—and it tastes real good.”
He hung up, his face dark with malice, and said to John in a low voice, “You, me, and Rex Donovan. Three Tier 4 Vanguards, and we’ve got Finn’s weakness in our sights. How the hell could we fail to kill him?!”
......
Finn kicked open a steel door. The instant the doorframe split apart, five high-caliber sniper rounds slammed straight into his face.
These rifles used custom armor-piercing ammo and hit with the kind of force that could punch clean through an armored vehicle. All five bullets struck Finn at once. The raw kinetic impact snapped his head back and sent him crashing down into the dust.
From the attic in the distance came a burst of triumphant cheers—the snipers celebrating their long-planned ambush. But the sound of fresh rounds being chambered followed immediately. No one was letting their guard down.
“That actually stung a little,” Finn said loudly, rubbing his forehead. He stood up without a scratch.
“That actually stung a little…” The five snipers nearly broke down on the spot. Their will to fight collapsed instantly. They didn’t even dare fire again—they just turned and ran.
Finn let out a long yawn, steadied the rifle in his hands, and took aim like he was shooting sparrows. His bullets chased down their fleeing figures and harvested every last life.
Along the way he took a few more rifle-grenade rounds to the body, which finally woke him up a bit. Truth be told, stomping low-level mobs in a place with no real top-tier combatants bored him to tears.
The only thing that actually made Finn take things seriously was the “divine power” controlled by the Radiant Path. Their whole doctrine was to purify nuclear radiation, abandon nuclear energy, and build a divine kingdom on earth.
From what Finn had seen, the only place they ever displayed that divine power was in cleansing radiation. He still couldn’t figure out where it came from. Could it be connected to the World Nucleus?
On the twenty-sixth floor, Finn blasted open a hydroponic grain farm. It was supposed to be Black Mountain’s public property, but the Demon Gang had seized control of it long ago.
On the twenty-eighth floor, he wrecked a small munitions workshop. Crates of partly assembled rounds detonated in the flames, popping like a string of celebratory firecrackers.
On the twenty-ninth floor, Finn grabbed a light machine gun, walked straight into a dense storm of metal bullets, and sprayed down an entire nest of Demon Gang members. He also dropped four mutants in the process—each one roughly at the level of a Tier 3 Vanguard.
The thirtieth floor. This was the top of the building.
Finn strode up the stairs. Ahead of him stood a heavy metal security door—a pre-Cataclysm stainless-steel door, still thick and solid.
He reached for the handle. In that instant, a razor-sharp claw shot through the stainless-steel door like lightning, slicing through the frame in a shower of bright sparks and stabbing straight for his throat.
Finn tilted his body just enough to dodge the vicious strike. But the claw’s owner smashed the door open and slammed straight into him.
The attacker moved with brutal speed and ferocity. Through the flying shards of shattered steel, Finn finally got a clear look at him.
The man was massive and powerfully built, his body covered in bronze-colored scales. Even his eyes had iron-gray nictitating membranes. He looked exactly like a ferocious metal crocodile.
“Let me taste your heart!” Rex Donovan, the Metal Crocodile, roared, driving his iron claws toward Finn’s chest and gouging out a trail of bright yellow sparks.
Finn rolled aside to dodge, slipped into the room, then yanked out his assault rifle and opened fire—rat-tat-tat—blasting the metal crocodile square in the face.
The bullets didn’t even scratch his skin. This guy’s defense really couldn’t be underestimated.
In the darkness, a man in red robes suddenly leaped up like a giant eagle diving in. A savage gust tore through the room as countless wind blades shredded the walls, ripped through the air, and slashed straight toward Finn.
“Fine, I’ll take out the ranged damage dealer first!” Finn decided. He dropped low and rolled, catching a few wind blades across his body, but they didn’t amount to much.
The red-robed man—Radiant Path High Priest John Schmid—backed up a few steps and summoned countless spinning wind blades. They formed a jagged, deep-swirling vortex, trying to suck Finn right into its serrated maw.
Finn swung the Skybearer Sword, bracing against the wind-blade storm. Savage flames erupted along the blade.
“Crimson Flame Torrent!”
The torrent of fire wavered under the gale but still slammed into John Schmid. The high priest was experienced; he instantly rolled across the floor to escape the worst of the blaze.
Even so, the raging flames devoured half of his right leg.
“Ah!” John Schmid screamed and collapsed to the ground. Finn leaped forward, sword raised to take his head.
“Stop! Sinner!”
A sharp shout rang out from one side of the room.
Finn looked up, surprise flashing across his face, and had no choice but to freeze his sword mid-strike.