Shrouded Seascape-Chapter 1075. Slaughter

Despite the late night, darkness didn't reign supreme due to the thick layer of white snow that reflected the faintest glimmers of light.

Rather, the world was enveloped in a strange amber hue—like the last sliver of dusk.

The snow poured faster from the sky, piling up on the ground. The vehicles carved deep trenches into the snow, but neither side showed any intention of stopping.

Howl!

A couple of shadowy, four-legged silhouettes burst forth from the amber blue and closed in on Anna's vehicle.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The clown threw two throwing knives, and the shadows collapsed before they could reach the car.

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Behind them, the Mobile Task Force had arrived, and they numbered quite significantly. Their blurred figures moved rapidly through the snowstorm.

A heavy air of tension weighed down on them. Both sides knew the upcoming fierce battle was inevitable and prepared in grim silence.

Inside the violently shaking car, Tobba was hunched over the dashboard. He seemed oblivious to what was happening and was excitedly fiddling with the car's radio.

At the start, there were some muffled human voices, but it all soon dissolved into white noise. Annoyance crept upon his face as he muttered, "Ugh. This is a dead zone without any signal. Can't hear a thing."

"You're trying to listen to the radio now?! In this situation?! Just watch how I'll throw you out!" Anna snapped.

As soon as the words left her lips, the car jolted hard and suddenly skidded to the side.

"Tire's gone! Ready to bail!" Jackal shouted. But he immediately noticed a flash of red light closing in from afar. With a hard yank on the wheel, he swerved the vehicle to the right.

A rocket flew past them and hit the ground, detonating with a deafening boom. The aftershocks propelled the vehicle into the air, flipping it upside down. The car then crashed down into the snow with its wheels skyward.

Amid the swirling snowflakes, a group of humans and animals cautiously circled in on Anna's vehicle.

The men were dressed in full snow camouflage, their eyes shielded by anti-glare goggles to fend off snow blindness. Even their boots were strapped to skis designed for combat mobility in harsh terrain. They were clearly professionally armed for the operation.

The insignia emblazoned on their shoulders—a circle enclosing three inward-facing triangles, and in the center, three jagged fangs gave off their identity. They belonged to the IMF's Mobile Task Force.

Clank, clank, clank.

Barbed grappling hooks were latched to the base of the overturned vehicle in an attempt to flip it back up.

Just as they were about to start pulling, one of them suddenly went limp. He collapsed onto the snow and began spasming.

The agent beside him moved on instinct; he bent over to check the collapsed figure only to suddenly draw the weapon from his waist. Without a word, he aimed at the man on the ground and pulled the trigger.

Two deaths.

Being well-trained, the rest of the task force members took quick action against the sudden traitor. A snow wolf lunged at the man and sank its teeth into his hand. At the same time, another task force member tackled the traitor and held the latter's arms into a lock.

Before they could question the traitor any further, the man's head twisted a full hundred eighty degrees until he was staring directly into the eyes of the one pinning him down.

It was only then that the task force member realized in shock. A clown's mask was somehow plastered on his comrade's face.

The man's eyes widened in horror. Taking this opportune moment, the clown detached itself from its host and flipped through the air with frightening speed. With a snap, it latched onto its new host.

The last thing the man heard was the crunch of his snow goggles being crushed by an unnatural force.

Controlling its new body, the clown repeated the same modus operandi.

However, the surviving agents had already learned from their previous mistake. They re-strategized and moved in to surround the clown in an attempt to bring it down. But soon, it became clear that the clown was not acting alone.

A pair of massive hands extended from beneath the snow. It locked onto an agent's legs and yanked in under in one swift motion. He never came back up.

Before the battle unfolded, Li Lu, Jackal, and the others had already been transported to a safe distance by Anna. Now that the chaos had ensued, they were lying prone on a snowbank and picking off targets one by one.

At this moment, the hunters had become the prey.

With trembling hands, Gao Zhiming pulled the trigger. Evidently, without any surprise, he missed. The recoil from the pistol was also so powerful that it nearly wrenched his arm out of its socket.

However, he didn't give up. He gritted down on his teeth and fired another shot. After missing a few times, finally, one struck an enemy.

When Gao Zhiming saw a fragment of skull blown into the air by the bullet, he instinctively flinched. His mind went utterly blank. He had thought he was ready to take a life, but reality proved him wrong.

After a few seconds of frozen silence, something inside him seemed to awaken. His eyes reddened, and he bit down hard on his lower lip. A crazed ruthlessness overtook him as he frantically fired again and again.

On the other side of the battlefield, a sharp blade plunged into a beating heart. Her hands twisted a neck and snapped it. As the coppery scent of blood intensified in the air, Anna's pulse quickened with excitement.

She loved this feeling—indulging in the surge of violence—where she could kill at will. It reminded her of those times when she was still a Dioite.

Realizing that the tides were turning against them, the Mobile Task Force began to pull back from the battlefield. They had no intention of being dragged deeper into Anna's rhythm. But then, for some unknown reason, they stopped and returned to fight with Anna and her group.

Just as the thick blanket of snow was about to be dyed completely crimson with blood, a new sound resonated in the distance. It was a mechanical whooshing, like turbines slicing through the air.

A blinding light swept through the air. A hovercraft with its thick, inflated skirt was rapidly gliding across the snow and approaching them.

The people on the hovercraft arrived before the vehicle itself. Just as Anna was about to drag another task force member into the snow, the air around her instantly froze, and her hands were locked in the materialized ice.

The ground beneath her started to shift, and the soil rapidly compressed and gave in to form a hollow chamber beneath her. Without any place for footing, Anna dropped into the dark, rounded pit.

"Who are you? Why are you helping traitors?" A voice travelled into Anna's ears. "The HQ is recruiting new blood. As long as you are willing to cooperate with us, all that has happened can be written off."

Anna's dozen irises squeezed into her eye sockets. Instantly, she had vision in the dark. A woman dressed in a white combat suit stood opposite her. A helmet bristling with wire ports crowned her head.

"IMF's latest batch of Anomaly-absorbing test subjects? That's a rare power you have there," Anna remarked. She took a swift glance at her surroundings and noticed the chamber's perfect symmetry. She could roughly guess her opponent's identity.

It seems like this batch has better control of their abilities than the last batch.

Just then, a translucent, ghost-like figure phased through the stone wall and materialized next to the woman. His gaze was filled with caution as his eyes locked on Anna.

Under his scrutiny, Anna felt as though she had been stripped bare. However, her expression gave away naught a sliver of her emotions. On the contrary, the man's expression slowly contorted with shock as his jaw dropped.

"You...You're 315? You're still alive?!" He questioned.

Anna's pupils shrank into needle points, and her gut twisted into a knot. At his words, the gunfire overhead abruptly ceased. Clearly, his remark had made its way through every open comms channel.

Swoosh!

A sickly green flame instantly enveloped the two figures standing before Anna. Not even a sound escaped their throat before they were reduced to ashes.

Anna emerged from the ground. Her eyes burned with wrath as she stared at the hovercraft that was trying to turn and retreat. She dashed toward it and commanded, "Kill them! Kill them all! Don't even let a single one escape!"