Chapter 68: Remained the same.
A second passed, then another. The fluorescent lights of the parking lot flickered back on one by one, and though they failed to banish the darkness entirely, they provided enough luminescence to reveal the center of the devastation.
The dust gradually settled and a truck-sized hole in the ground was revealed, wide cracks spreading from it as its edge crumbled, sending more rubble into the darkness below. The entire floor seemed to bend toward the hole, as if it were the center of a whirlpool that threatened to swallow everything.
A couple of meters away, Rocky stood motionless, his left arm still extended. Sparks danced between its retracted panels, most of which were missing, blasted to who knows where. The synthetic skin around that side was entirely burned off, wisps of smoke slowly rising from the charred metallic plating that was hidden underneath.
As if a thread had been cut, the arm fell to the guard’s side. His head twitched as he tried to glance in its direction, but his expression remained static. He sent a command to his busted cannon of a limb, intending to switch it back to its normal form, but the actuators failed to pull the components together, leaving the segmented plating stuck moving back and forth.
As the deathly silence filled the parking lot once more, Epsilon carefully peeked his head from beside his giant guard. He released himself from the giant’s hold, jumped down, then studied the scene of devastation with bated breath while the ringing in his ears had yet to fade. As the seconds passed without anything happening, he allowed himself to ask.
"Did you... Did you get her?"
Rocky’s mouth twitched as he tried to answer, but before any words could come out, a clenched fist met the left side of his head.
"NNGAAHHH!!!!"
Flare put every ounce of power her enhanced body could produce into a single punch. The glow coating her hands had dimmed, showing that she was holding back her flames. The power behind that strike was more than enough to decapitate a normal human, however, and if it weren’t for all the bionic enhancements holding his head in its place, the giant guard would have suffered that exact fate.
As the impact spread through his sturdy frame, Rocky was lifted off the ground before blasting off to the other side of the parking lot, smashing into one of the pillars then dropping to the ground, a pile of rubble raining on his motionless body.
Behind his mask, Epsilon’s eyes almost popped out. Rocky, his tank of a guard, was sent flying. The guard he had invested so much in, equipping him with enough armor to survive a missile strike. The guard who could rush through enemy lines while being showered with bullets and grenades. That Rocky was just overpowered, and by nothing more than a delicate-looking girl.