Chapter 210: Stealing the Show
The soldiers stationed near the Sunset Squad were screaming in excitement, their cheers echoing one after another.
"They truly deserve to be the number one squad! This combat power is insane!"
"So badass! That fire tornado is absolute god-tier!"
"AHHH! That woman on the RV is so freaking cool!"
"I want to be able to fight like her one day!"
"Terrifying! Look at that massive field of lightning!"
The exclamations mingled with the roar of gunfire and the explosive blasts of superpowers, pushing the battlefield’s atmosphere to a fever pitch.
Meanwhile, a few dozen meters away in the Omni Squad’s encampment, the siblings William Walsh and Sharon Sloan wore expressions as dark as thunderclouds.
Ever since this Sunset Squad from Kensington showed up, they had been stealing their thunder at every turn. Back in the safe zone, whether it was a zombie horde or an Aberrant Beast attack, the Omni Squad had always stolen the show as the undisputed center of attention.
Shane Shaw happened to catch a glimpse of the siblings’ ugly expressions. He couldn’t help but scoff, his tone practically overflowing with disdain as he complained to Nancy Sullivan beside him, "Look at how jealous they are. They look like they just swallowed a fly."
His words floated right into Sharon Sloan’s ears. The flames of jealousy in her eyes instantly flared higher. Her nails dug ruthlessly into her palms; she wanted nothing more than to rush over and tear Shane’s mouth off.
But the moment she saw they were the official Special Operations Department team, she had no choice but to swallow her anger. She just couldn’t figure out why she was suppressed by the Sunset Squad every single time. She and her brother had clearly both advanced to the Third Rank. They thought they could really make a name for themselves at Kensington Base. Yet, her brother’s fire superpower and her water superpower looked like absolute jokes compared to the Sunset Squad’s exaggerated fire tornadoes and sweeping lightning!
What frustrated her even more was that the Sunset Squad members’ superpower coordination and destructive force were clearly far superior to ordinary Superpower Users. They wielded their abilities with effortless mastery, as if their superpowers were just extensions of their own limbs.
How on earth did they do it? Did they have a special training method, or were they hiding some kind of secret? A powerful sense of crisis crawled up her spine and prickled her scalp. The panic of falling behind made her entire body tense up.
"No, I must get my hands on the laboratory’s Enhancing Liquid!" she thought. "Only by becoming stronger can I crush the Sunset Squad and bring our Omni Squad back to its former peak!"
She glared in the direction of the Sunset Squad, her eyes so bloodshot they looked ready to weep blood, filled with paranoia and malice.
William Walsh also stared at the battlefield with a livid face, his fists tightly clenched. The fire superpower around his body restlessly surged, but he was completely helpless to do anything. The gap between the two sides was visible to the naked eye.
Nancy Sullivan had already found it utterly ridiculous when she heard that the Omni Squad actually dared to cause trouble for Luna Dawson. Now, seeing the furious faces of the Captains of Squad One and Squad Two, Nancy—who was eagerly watching the drama unfold from the front row—couldn’t hold back her laughter.
She mocked them to Shane, who was protecting her, "Shane, look at the faces of those two captains. I told them before that the Omni Squad could provoke anyone, but they just had to go and compare themselves to Luna."
Shane had just gathered his superpower to shoot down a dozen Second Order bats that had ambushed them from the left. He lowered his voice and looked at his sister with amusement. "Alright, next time you’re out walking the dog, you’ll have plenty of gossip to share with Luna about them."
Nancy laughed out loud. Gripping the Miao sword that Shane had reinforced, she flipped her wrist, constantly slashing at the mutated bats that broke through the net of gunfire and swooped down.
As a precious spatial Superpower User, she was tightly surrounded by a squad of soldiers. Rather than protecting Nancy, it was more accurate to say they were guarding this core combat asset and property of the government—something that absolutely could not be lost.
Tina activated her Second Order speed superpower. Her figure seemed to swell with power as she weaved through the swarm of bats, engaging them in close combat with the swift and fierce movements of a cheetah.
Seeing this, the members of the Special Operations Department cast envious glances. One team member couldn’t help but marvel, "Tina is way too fierce! Any bat below the Third Rank doesn’t even have a chance to get close!"
His teammate beside him nodded in agreement. "Right? This speed superpower is incredibly useful!"
Relying on her formidable speed and explosive power, Tina slaughtered every mutated bat of the Third Rank and below before they could even get half a step close to Nancy. This fierce battle allowed everyone to witness the astonishing combat power of mutated creatures with their own eyes. From then on, during subsequent missions, more and more people began attempting to subdue and tame mutated creatures to use for their own purposes.
Several mutated animals were stationed on the military truck at the head of the convoy, making them the core targets of the bat swarm’s attacks and bearing the brunt of the most intense offensive.
Shadow, War Tiger, and Pax were assigned to the frontline combat echelon. They activated their superpowers, their bodies rapidly expanding in size, and leaped into the fray to engage the bat swarm in a life-and-death struggle. Shadow had even successfully broken through to a Third Rank speed superpower within the last two days. Its movements were so fast that it left behind only an afterimage. Those high-level mutated bats that luckily broke through the defense line were, without exception, utterly subjugated by it, completely devoid of any power to fight back.
On the other side, the girl with the parrot was led to Major General Dalton’s side.
Major General Dalton kept his eyes locked on the swarm of bats high above and said in a deep voice, "Have it release a sonic wave aiming at the densest cluster of bats. Let’s see if it can disrupt the Aberrant Beasts."
The girl cowered slightly, but she immediately nodded. After softly replying with an "Mhm," she gently stroked the parrot’s feathers and gave the command, "Ash."
Receiving its master’s signal, the parrot instantly spread its wings. It emitted a piercing, high-frequency sonic wave from its beak that swept toward the swarm of bats high in the sky.
Although it was merely a Second Order sound-type special superpower, it precisely covered a radius of fifty to sixty meters above Major General Dalton. The bats within this range were thoroughly disoriented by the bizarre sonic wave. They lost control and crashed into one another, utterly failing to pose any threat to the chief commander.
The soldiers present marveled at the sight. No one had expected these seemingly inconspicuous little animals to play such a crucial role on the battlefield; their combat power was truly staggering. Occasionally, a few Third Rank bats would desperately break through the layers of interference and dive down, only to be quickly surrounded and killed by the nearby Superpower User soldiers.
Morgan Dean huddled beside a military truck. He was merely a First Rank wood-type with practically zero combat power. He could only conjure a few offensive vines, capable of killing First Rank mutated bats at best.
"Keeping my head down so as not to be a burden to others is the right thing to do," he continuously convinced himself.
Cola was utterly panicked, but it also sensed the danger. It transformed into the size of a large dog, its hind legs trembling as it channeled its superpower. It condensed over a dozen sharp miniature whirlwinds, blowing away all the mutated bats that tried to approach the military truck, firmly guarding this small safe zone.
Even so, if it hadn’t been for the heavily armed soldiers guarding the perimeter of the military truck, Morgan Dean probably would have crawled into the carriage long ago to cower with the other survivors.
High above, many mutated bats of the Second Order and above were still circling and observing. They were searching everywhere for targets with weak defenses that exuded the sweet, bloody scent of Superpower Users.
Before long, a small squad of over a dozen Second Order bats locked onto Morgan Dean’s direction. There were only a few scattered Superpower Users there, and the superpower aura emanating from their blood was rich and alluring—an absolutely perfect prey for the bats.
The bat swarm’s diving speed was shockingly fast. A single bat accurately clamped its jaws onto a man’s shoulder. With a vicious flick of its head, the Superpower User was tossed high into the air like a puppet with its strings cut.