Seeing Locke, the Fierce Wolf, resurrected with full health, the surrounding superhumans were terrified out of their wits. Their first thought was to turn and run.
But no one expected that the brainless Ground Hawk had already gone mad with fear. He squeezed a roar from his throat and charged at Locke with his twin hammers raised.
Now things were settled. It was too late to run. The others could only grit their teeth and follow. Only one thought remained in their hearts: today, they had to crush him completely, or they would die.
Facing the oncoming encirclement, Locke didn't retreat—he advanced. Flowing Water Rock Smashing Fist struck as he stepped. He didn't dodge or evade. Suddenly, he took the full force of Ground Hawk's heavy hammer blow, then twisted his wrist. His fists became a dense, interweaving net, unleashing a furious counterattack on everything around him.
Though Ground Hawk was the frontline, the others weren't idle.
Long-range energy waves were rubbed together and blasted. Bodies capable of discharging electricity crackled and emitted blue light. Thunder controllers pulled down lightning bolts. Fire users spat streams of flame.
Unfortunately, none of them could land a hit on Locke's clothes, but they made their teammates scream and cry.
"Ice Blast, are you blind?! Watch where you're aiming!"
"Which bastard sprayed acid?! My arm's burning through!"
"Damn it! If you keep fighting like this, we're all going down! Dan! What the hell are you still doing?! Hurry up and control him! If we don't, we're all dead here!"
Seeing his teammates tearing each other apart, he spotted Mindstorm cowering in the corner. He immediately grabbed him by the throat and cursed: "What are you still staring at?! Hurry up and do it!"
A former teammate of Soldier Boy, Mindstorm had been half-crazed from psychological trauma for years. Terrified by Locke's fury, he went into a stress response and collapsed on the ground, foaming at the mouth.
Stimulated by Five-Oh's voice, he finally regained himself and lifted his trembling head.
The moment his gaze met Locke's, Mindstorm gritted his teeth and immediately activated his ability. He was determined to drag this evil god into a nightmare from which there was no escape, to make him taste a life worse than death.
But the moment his power spread, a sudden dizziness engulfed the world.
When he opened his eyes again, he was surrounded by a dead, silent canyon. A gray fog wrapped around him like rotting cotton, unable to see the sky or touch the ground.
He had wanted to trap Locke in an illusion, but now he was horrified to discover that his powers had completely failed.
In other words, this time it wasn't him catching Locke—it was him being pulled into Locke's dream.
In the boundless gray fog, Mindstorm could only walk forward without direction. The path beneath his feet seemed endless.
He frantically searched for the boundaries of the dream, for an escape, but his legs were about to give out, and still there was only suffocating ash before him.
Until he saw a group of figures gathered around a bonfire.
Sitting to one side was a king in cold, light armor. His entire being was as sharp as if it had condensed into substance. His hands rested on a longsword, the scabbard on the ground, silent as an immortal mountain.
Not far away stood a monster with four arms and four eyes, a massive mouth full of fangs splitting its belly open. A terrifying aura wrapped around it like shadows, as if it were alive. Just looking at its silhouette made one's scalp prickle, as if countless eyes were watching from the darkness.
There was also an old man with white hair exploding like a lion's mane, his face hideous, a string of giant Buddha beads hanging from his chest. Each bead glowed with a faint light, radiating the fury of an untouchable stranger.
And a humanoid creature with the light of a starry sky flowing across its body. Tiny starlights revealed the cosmos within it, as if it carried the universe on its shoulders.
Suddenly, all four figures turned their heads simultaneously. The moment their gazes fell on Mindstorm—
He felt his soul torn apart by countless invisible knives, crushed to powder, unable even to scream.
Especially the humanoid creature covered in starry sky—one look, and his consciousness was drawn into it, completely losing the ability to resist. Until a calm but unquestionably majestic voice echoed in his mind:
"This is not a place you should be. Return. And forget everything you saw here."
The next second, the bonfire suddenly surged to great heights. Dense figures exploded from the crimson light, shadows intertwining with shadows. In an instant, countless physical forms burst from the flames.
One by one, these beings were so powerful they made people tremble. Some even seemed to have descended into this world. Now they surged around him like a tidal wave.
The overwhelming pressure that could crush everything instantly enveloped him. Endless fear squeezed his heart like cold tentacles, not even allowing him to scream. He rolled his eyes back and fell unconscious.
As the last light vanished from his vision, he heard a faint sound of bones breaking, then uncontrollably fell into endless darkness, plummeting into an infinite abyss.
In reality, in the blink of an eye, Mindstorm collapsed to the ground, limbs convulsing, foam flowing from the corner of his mouth. His entire body trembled like a fish out of water.
Five-Oh watched him fall straight down, frozen, his mind blank.
It was only when Ground Hawk's heart-wrenching scream cut through the chaos that his gaze snapped back to the battlefield.
In just half a minute, the bones all over Ground Hawk's body had been shattered.
Locke used him as a living shield, wielding him like a broken sack, swinging him horizontally and vertically, smashing those superhumans who had enhanced physiques into crying and howling for their mothers, clutching their heads and scrambling around.
Seeing this, Ice Blast, also a G-Cop member, still retained some camaraderie. He raised his hand and fired a pale freezing beam—directly hitting Ground Hawk along with Locke, freezing them both into a block of ice.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Five-Oh didn't care about the fool's life or death. His eyes suddenly blazed with crimson light, and his deadly laser beams gathered power and shot toward the ice sculpture.
Seeing this, the other superhumans also threw out their ultimate moves.
Flames sprayed. Ice spikes roared. Energy beams tore through the air. Spikes, acid, and lightning were wrapped up with various miscellaneous projectiles, all smashing down with immense force.
The shadow of death loomed overhead. The superheroes, who usually didn't like each other and listened to no one, rarely played a wave of tacit cooperation.
Of course, this didn't include the physically enhanced superhumans standing at the front—they didn't hit Locke, but were smashed by their teammates' attacks, crying and wailing, becoming the most unjustly unlucky guys in this cooperation.
A full minute of firepower finally ceased. On the battlefield covered in smoke and dust, the group of superhumans sat on the ground, weapons in hand, panting heavily—everyone was certain that this time, Locke the Fierce Wolf was definitely dead.
After all, with such a powerful onslaught, even if Homelander himself faced it, he'd be skinned alive in half a minute. Let alone this terrorist with only second-rate superpowers.
As they collapsed to the ground, patting each other's shoulders, celebrating their survival, the smoke gradually dispersed.
Locke's broken body was shockingly revealed to all. His hands were gone at the wrists. Half his face was burnt black and twisted, exposing white bone. Only a wriggling black fluid protected his vitals, keeping him from dying completely.
Watching the superhumans' faces freeze and turn to expressions of despair, Locke squinted through his burnt half-face, revealing a strange, terrifying smile. His hoarse voice was wrapped in icy cold:
"Guys... you really should have aimed for my head."
[New Skill Acquired]
[Armament Haki]
[Can be loaded onto character card]
[2486 → 1986]
[Garou: Youth (100%) → Garou (Semi-Monster)]
The cold system notification was like a life-threatening curse, echoing across the dead, silent battlefield.
In the next second, everything changed.
Locke's originally charred short hair fell away, and new strands grew wildly—crimson red, as if soaked in blood.
The bones of his broken wrists pierced through flesh and regenerated at a savage speed visible to the naked eye. In an instant, a pair of palms, veins and all, clenched tight.
His burnt face recovered at a shocking rate. The crusts peeled off, flesh returned to its place, and in just a few breaths, it had returned to its original state.
Under the utterly despairing gazes of the superhumans, Locke resurrected with full health, his body filled with terrifying murderous intent. He slowly raised his head, his crimson eyes sweeping over every pale face, unable to suppress the joy in his voice—yet it seemed to come from the depths of hell itself:
"The party's not over yet. I haven't had my fun until I've earned enough points."
"No one... absolutely no one... is allowed to leave~"
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