"It seems the Chakra rifles still need a great deal of refinement. They consume their users far too heavily, making them unsuitable for prolonged combat,"
Hoshi said as she observed the battle unfolding before her. In truth, it could hardly be called a battle at all; it was nothing more than a massacre carried out by the Lone Wolves Squad as they tore through the alchemical puppets.
The extermination of the enemy army did not last long.
Every bullet shattered a single target, and within only a few minutes, the battlefield had been transformed into a wasteland littered with the scattered remains of those puppets.
Then, as the five warriors approached the enemy vessel, one of the Lone Wolves suddenly lunged forward with astonishing speed and raised his enormous shield before the team, his combat instincts warning him of the attack that was about to come.
BOOOOOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted as a lightning attack was unleashed by a figure concealed behind a nearby rocky cliff. She appeared to be a woman, yet her transformation into something resembling a werewolf had erased nearly every trace of humanity. Her eyes glowed fiercely, razor-sharp fangs protruded from her mouth, thick fur covered her entire body, and although she still retained the general silhouette of a female, she looked like a grotesque hybrid of woman and wolf.
She raised her voice toward the five figures before her. Though it carried a mixture of concealed fear and anger, she struggled to sound confident despite already realizing the terrifying threat standing before her.
"Surrender. The Kingdom of Gelel guarantees your safety."
The only reply she received was absolute silence. Then, in the next instant, the five warriors surged toward her at incredible speed. It stood in complete contrast to their massive physiques and the tremendous weight of their armor, which should have slowed them considerably. Their faces remained hidden behind their helmets, preventing her from reading even the slightest expression.
At that moment, sensing overwhelming danger, the werewolf woman unleashed another bolt of lightning, this one even more powerful than the last. A violent thunderbolt shot directly toward the warrior leading the charge, but he simply raised his shield once again at precisely the right moment.
The attack struck it head-on, yet the shield endured without wavering, as though it absorbed the lightning itself before harmlessly dispersing the energy into its surroundings.
At the same time, without the slightest hesitation, the warrior drew a combat knife from his side and instantly closed the distance between himself and the werewolf.
Yet just before he could strike, his body froze in place as though time itself had come to a halt, turning him into nothing more than a statue of steel.
The reason soon became apparent.
Another woman emerged from behind the rocks. She resembled a giant bat, with leathery wings stretching from her shoulders, crimson eyes, and a slender body.
She unleashed an exceptionally powerful illusion that enveloped the armored warriors, freezing their perception and trapping them within what felt like an entirely different time and place.
Seeing that her companion had saved her at the last possible moment, the werewolf turned toward her, panting heavily. The confidence she had tried to project moments earlier was now replaced by a trembling voice filled with fear, relief, gratitude, and anger.
"You took your sweet time, you ugly bat! Were you really planning to let me die here alone?"
The bat-like woman frowned in annoyance and answered in a rough voice.
"Shut up, you—"
BOOM!
Before she could finish her sentence, a bullet fired from far away pierced straight through her head. It exploded into countless fragments, scattering blood and flesh in every direction before her lifeless body collapsed onto the ground.
The sight of her companion's head exploding before her eyes plunged the werewolf into overwhelming shock.
After seeing the illusion successfully immobilize the five armored warriors, she had believed victory was already theirs. Yet she had no time to process what had happened, because the enormous armored warrior standing before her suddenly moved again.
Whether he had broken free from the illusion with astonishing speed or whether he had never truly been trapped at all, merely pretending in order to lure her into striking distance no longer mattered. The truth was obvious.
The armored giant who had stood motionless like a statue suddenly burst forward with terrifying speed. Raising his knife once more, he closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye.
The werewolf leaped backward with every ounce of strength she possessed. But the shock had delayed her by the smallest fraction of a second, and that single moment of hesitation was enough to cost her everything.
Whoosh!
The warrior's blade cleaved her body cleanly in two, beginning at the crown of her head and slicing all the way down through her torso while she was still airborne.
Her body split into two perfect halves that crashed onto opposite sides of the ground, leaving behind a widening pool of blood and torn flesh between them.
Having completed his task, the armored warrior did not spare her corpse a single glance. He flicked his knife to shake the blood from its edge before calmly returning it to its sheath.
Then he turned toward his four comrades, who had already resumed moving. Without exchanging a single word, the five of them continued advancing toward their next objective.
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