Chapter 608.2: Get Up.

His mind sharpened to crystal clarity. Everything around him mapped itself in his head.

Below the deck, there were gun batteries.

20mm and 37mm guns were too thin. But the 155mm cannon... that might hold.

The massive barrel loomed right in front of him. Night Ten unlatched his harness to max length, bit down, and jumped.

If what he did worked, Newton would probably rise from his coffin and cuss him out.

All he could do was trust the his exoskeleton.

“AAAAH!”

He landed straddling the barrel, arms and legs wrapping it, locking his joints and motors.

A tearing force slammed his waist, and the air was crushed from his lungs.

Even with 9/10 of the force absorbed, near a ton of weight and falling energy smashed into him.

The barrel bent and the steel shrieked, but it held. Pinned by a whole dropship, Night Ten felt like a crushed ant, his eyes bulging.

To his surprise, it didn’t hurt.

He thought the helmet had cut off the pain feed, but no. He couldn’t feel his lower body at all.

Shit. His spine snapped.

But,

He glanced down and saw that the ropes held.

It was strong enough to lift a tank, let alone a sub-10-ton Viper.

His exoskeleton, too, proved itself. Pre-war engineering wasn’t just a random term that was given to all equipment.

Catching a plane from freefall... He had done something legendary.

As for his next life, he would think about it in three days.

As he closed his eyes and logged out, gunners inside the turret watched with tears, staring at the hero outside.

They couldn’t see his eyes, but they felt the burning resolve.

There was no doubt, he was a true warrior.

The pilot in the cockpit was the same. He stared dumbstruck at the figure hanging outside.

Even with his body torn in half, the grip never loosened.

Such loyalty. Such courage.

His mouth twitched, eyes stinging. He wiped them away with his arm.

Brother, go well.

Your will, your ideals, I’ll carry them forward.

Behind him, Jiang Xuezhou sobbed uncontrollably, clutching her rifle, screaming through tears. “No, don’t!”

She hated her weakness. Without high-tech tools, she was useless. All she did was drag others down.

If only she were stronger.

If only her fear of heights hadn’t glued her to her seat, maybe things would’ve been different.

Her tears fell like beads, heart wracked with guilt, lips trembling with broken cries.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Meanwhile, by the 400mm main gun, Gaen watched the Viper plunge.

A savage grin split his face as he flicked a finger.

Like a chef’s ladle, the gesture sent a dozen winged creatures emerging from the transport plane.

They flowed onto Heart of Steel’s deck, shrieking as they tore into the nearest New Alliance soldiers.

He was clumsy at first, but he had grown adept at wielding his Biotic Armor.

A flick of a finger, a glance of the eye.

Those were all he needed as the wings of his fellow creatures unfurled, hurling themselves to shred his foes.

It was as easy as breathing.

After suffering bombardment for such a long time, losing his named champions, at last he had restored his pride.

He had done it!

But then he remembered, these grotesque creatures were once his tribe’s children. The cruel smile twisted into pain and hate.

“Ahhh! Gomo! It’s you, isn’t it?! It must be you! I should have realized when I was still on the ground... Only you, only the one I trusted most, could have done this without anyone knowing!”

All Mutant Humans had done the breeding work, but delivering newborns was the priests’ task.

As the tribe’s High Priest, only that man could have made a thousand newborns of the Qi Tribe vanish in secret.

Maybe it wasn’t just a thousand!

Otherwise, why was it that after they strained themselves day and night in the pens, rutting with those two-legged beasts, the tribe still had so few people?!

That disgraceful bastard... Claiming to stand with mutants, but sitting firmly with the old humans, never once treating the Qi Tribe’s people as his own!

He should have realized it long ago, all those old relics were the same, spouting about following the Ancestor’s teachings, when in truth they were rotten to the core!

Once he got back, he would crush that old man’s skull! He would find someone else to renegotiate with those two-legged bastards of the Torch Church!

But before that, he had to make sure those poor children died with meaning.

“Go! Rip them apart! Tear every last one of them to shreds!” he roared in rage, claws thrusting forward.

Under the swarm, another fireball spun from the sky and crashed onto the deck.

It was a W-2 attack craft with its wing torn off.

Out of ammunition, instead of crash-landing on the ground, the pilot lured the winged creatures close, fired a pistol at them, then slammed itself into the deck.

Flames boiled across the steel. Soldiers scrambled back.

Seeing their fear, Gaen’s face twisted into a mad grin. “Hahaha! Die! All of you die...!”

While he raved, the players finally noticed the unusual monster.

All the others had flesh-wings sprouting from arms or hips. Only that creature had wings on its back.

“Holy shit?!

Illidan

?!”

Where the hell were his Warglaives?!

The moment Silver Sword locked eyes with the boss, he froze. Even his rifle jammed in shock.

While he fumbled with his weapon, Silver's Father in his Iron Wall heavy exoskeleton let out an excited roar.

He threw aside his gun, yanked out the brand-new Jungle Corps Chainsaw he had bought the day before from Boulder Town Arms Industry, and charged. “Haha, good timing!”

Facing that four meter frame, Silver's Father felt like a dwarf. But in his mind, before the chainsaw’s cutting edge, all were equal!

The wide blade shrieked, howling as it slashed at the boss’s chest.

The expected shower of gore never came.

Before the blade even cut a single chest hair, Silver's Father felt like a speeding train had rammed his chest.

He spat blood, armor caved in with three claw marks, body flung like a kite cut loose. He smashed against the deck’s edge, bursting through a broken guardrail and tumbling into the abyss.

“AHHHHHHhhhhhhh...!”

The drawn-out scream faded away.

“Father!”

Watching him fall into the endless dark, Silver Hand howled in grief and rage, then spun back, eyes burning at the monster.

Silver Sword, having cleared the jam, raised his rifle again, muzzle spitting fire and fury. “We’ll take you down!”

They both charged.

And then...

Freshly respawned, they both fed the boss yet another pair of kills.

Blood dripped thick from Gaen’s claws. Chewing bone, bathed in gore, his eyes glowed with feral light.

No longer content to command, he hurled himself into the thick of men, claws thrashing around, a storm of blood and screams followed.

Old White and his squad that had pushed into the mid-deck, stared in shock.

Old Six swallowed hard, glancing at Prop Master. “You got a tube on you?”

Prop Master grimaced. “Who the hell carries that?!”

“Where’s Night Ten?” realizing someone was missing, Quit Smoking spun about, searching.

He remembered Night Ten had a Gauss rifle. That would work on a boss like that, if he had it with him.

Gale frowned. “No idea. I jumped before him... Wait, did he even make it down?”

Quit Smoking froze, remembering Gale was the last to leave the plane. His heart lurched. “Shit! Don’t tell me he was on that plane that just went down?!”