The duo froze, surprise locking their faces as the message sank in. Around them, assassins tightened their circle, silent and patient like predators waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Above, the girls—former teammates—stood watching from their vantage point, their eyes sharp and their smiles sharper.
"What's wrong?!" Lora demanded, fear cutting into her voice the moment she noticed the change in their expressions.
"The Guns took over our base!" Bray answered.
His voice carried the weight of grief, low and heavy like a funeral bell tolling in the distance.
Lora gasped,Her heart skipped violently inside her chest.
Jamie…!
The thought exploded through her mind, twisting something deep inside her.
Even now—after everything that had happened between them—she still loved him.
She hated how true that felt.
"We need to check it out!" Bray said urgently, desperation bleeding through his words.
They all understood what that meant.
If the base had fallen, the Commander had gained the upgrade.
And if that had happened, I meant greg hadn't stood a chance against him.
The assassins suddenly moved.
Blades flashed through the air like silver lightning, their movements so precise they seemed to slice the air itself.
The girls attacked as well.
Former teammates rushed forward without hesitation, their weapons raised. Going straight to their old teammates.
The fight had distributed its participants.
"Someone has to go check it out!" Alexander shouted as his blade collided with steel.
Three assassins moved around him at once, their footwork smooth and coordinated as they searched for an opening in his defense.
"Bray, you go! We'll cover you!" Lora snapped as she broke formation, sliding into position beside Alexander.
Bray didn't hesitate this was his chance and he needed to take it.
He ran out of the base.
His legs hammering the ground harder and harder as he burst through the chaos of the battlefield.
"Wait for me, Jamie. I'm coming."
His thoughts burned fiercely as his eyes locked forward, cutting through the dark streets ahead.
Behind him, the assassins pressed their attack.
"You've made a mistake,now you're the only male left."
One of them sneered coldly as Bray disappeared into the distance.
The fight was now divided. The three assassins went against Alexander and fiona.
The two former teammates went against Charlotte and Emily.
Alexander's lips curled into something halfway between mockery and defiance.
"Don't worry,i planned on taking you alone. I'm a one man army."
His eyes gleamed with dangerous confidence.
"I'll enjoy shattering that arrogance."
Two of the assassins moved together.
Twin blades flashed forward at the same time, their movements perfectly synchronized.
One attack came from the front, while the other came from behind.
Alexander dodged left—
then knocked the front attack aside, sparks bursting into the air. Another blade swept toward his ribs.
He kicked it away and spun sharply, only to find that the first assassin already recovered from his failed attempt.
They pressed him harder.
Faster and relentless with the almost precision.
There was no breathing room.
No pause.
Only pressure.
Then—
Finally, steel pierced flesh.
The blade drove straight through Alexander's back, punching violently through his chest.
Blood spilled instantly, hot and unstoppable.
"No! Alexander!!"
Charlotte's scream shattered the battlefield.
Her voice was raw, filled with a care.
The assassin leaned closer, his voice dripping with venom as he whispered into Alexander's ear.
"I told you… I'd shatter your confidence."
Blood poured from Alexander's mouth.
His vision blurred.
Nausea twisted violently inside him as darkness began creeping into the edges of his sight.
Then—
His body glitched.
The assassin froze.
Where flesh had been, pixels erupted.
Alexander's body fractured into fragments of shimmering light, dissolving into thin air.
The assassin's eyes widened in shock.
"I told you…"
Alexander's voice echoed through the battlefield.
The air shimmered.
Then a figure appeared.
Then another.
And another.
One Alexander stepped forward from nothing.
Then another.
And another.
Ten figures formed in total, each identical to the original.
Each holding the same blade.
Each staring silently at the assassins.
[Special Skill > One Man Army]
The assassins' confidence shattered.
Their blades trembled slightly in their hands.
For the first time since the battle began—
Fear crept into their eyes.
...
BROKEN SHIELDS BASE
"Yellow Sun…" the Commander muttered quietly, his eyes locked on Jamie's glowing figure.
There was no denying it.
The boy standing before him had suddenly become a contender for the very top of the food chain.
But how?
Jamie's stats had been low.
Too low.
"It has to be the skill…" the Commander thought.
His mind replayed the chaotic system numbers he had seen earlier.
Jamie stepped forward slowly, lightning flickering across his skin.
Before he could speak, the Commander's voice suddenly cut through the air.
"Jamie!!"
It was the first time he had said his name.
"Your Yellow Sun is just a skill! It will go on cooldown! Then you'll be weak again!"
His voice thundered across the battlefield, but his eyes gleamed sharply.
He was baiting him.
Trying to force Jamie into burning out his power.
Jamie narrowed his eyes. The Commander was right.
Like every other skill, if he pushed it too far, his body would eventually break.
He tightened his fists.
"Then I'll end this quickly."
Jamie moved.
The air screamed behind him as he launched forward.
His fist crashed into the Commander's chest with explosive force, launching the man backward into a fence.
The Commander staggered forward again, his eyes wide.
His body burned.
It felt like thousands of needles had pierced through his muscles at once.
"Shit… he's fast!"
Jamie followed instantly with a kick.
But the Commander twisted aside at the last moment, slipping away with practiced control.
Jamie landed smoothly.
His jaw tightened as he wanted to advise his opponent.
"Overanalyzing will get you killed."
The Commander frowned.
"What do you mean by that?"
"You stepped away from the fence deliberately,you wanted to see how my skill reacts against stone."
The Commander's eyes narrowed.
They collided again.
Fists slammed into ribs.
Kicks cracked against jaws.
Elbows slammed into stomachs.
Each strike was met by another just as brutal.
Jamie winced slightly as pain flared through his body.
The lightning around him began flickering erratically, his aura trembling.
It's taking a toll on me,,and with how quick it is, i can't hold Yellow Sun forever.
I need to turn it off.
Jamie gritted his teeth as he blocked another attack.
The golden aura dimmed.
The lightning slowly faded like a candle when it's
turning off.
The radiant glow vanished from his body in a second.
The Commander couldn't belive what he was seeing.
He turned it off?to preserve his strength?
Then the realization struck him.
Now Jamie was just flesh and bone again, the thing keeping him from the Commander wrath was finally gone.
"Do you really think you'll last long like this?!" the Commander mocked cruelly.
Jamie smirked through the pain tearing across his muscles.
"I'd say the same thing to you."
Their weapons clashed again.
But this time the Commander had the advantage.
He was faster.
Stronger.
The stat difference becoming obvious with every exchange.
Jamie's strikes landed, but they barely slowed him down.
His body screamed with every impact.
But his will refused to bend, because he knew something the Commander didn't. When it came to endurance it isn't in the numbers.
It's in the will an individual.
Jamie pushed forward again.
Every block turned into another attack.
Every stumble became another charge.
The Commander's axe slashed through the air, knocking Jamie backward.
But even as he lost his balance midair, Jamie forced his body forward again.
The Commander had been studying him the entire time since the beginning of the fight.
This time I'll predict you, you'll go low and try to blindside me.
His muscles swelled as he raised his hummer.
"Got you."
Jamie slid low across the ground, exactly as he anticipated he will.
The Commander lunged forward, his hummer crashing down toward Jamie's chest with enough force to split his heart apart.
The hummer finally struck—
Nothing,,,only air.
"What—?!"
The Commander's pupils shrank.
He twisted quickly than the speed he was moving.
They looked for him but he was gone.
So fast the Commander couldn't even process it.
Jamie himself froze for a moment, stunned.
His body had moved faster than he could even think.
How…?
Then his system screen flashed before his eyes.
Stats appeared across his vision.
Strength: 9
Agility: 30
Endurance: 20
Speed: 20
Intelligence: 10
Mana: 15
Combat Experience: 20
The numbers flickered.
Then one stat changed.
Speed: 20 + 10
Jamie's eyes widened.
"Wait… my stats… they're increasing on their own?!"
A new notification burned across his vision.
Bright and radiant like when you win a jackpot in a lottery.
[Acquired God Feature > Infinity!]
[Your stats increase by fighting and training.]
Jamie's breath caught.
His heart thundered violently in his chest.
Because he finally had a chance, a chance to become the strongest of them all.