Francis wrenched his body sideways.

The crystallization had slowed him down — he could feel it in the drag of each movement, like his limbs were fighting through gravity.

But his trajectory reading was enough to compensate, painting ghost-lines over everything that moved, and it gave him just enough margin to slip past the spike.

Luke was already pulling his hand back for a second attempt.

CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.

Three volleys erupted from the ground in rapid succession, cutting off every viable landing angle.

Francis read the pattern before the third one even broke the surface.

Luke wasn’t just attacking. He was boxing — plotting terrain, closing exits, herding him into a specific location.

’Smart.’

Francis noted it. Then he stopped playing along.

He drew a breath and drove his fist straight down.

BOOOOM!

The shockwave tore through the air like a pressure bomb. Everyone below flinched. Those too slow to brace were knocked off their feet entirely, slammed into the concrete with enough force to drive the air out of their lungs.

Before they could get their bearings, a second barrage followed — invisible blasts hammering into bodies, tossing them like dead weight until they stopped moving.

’I’m not done yet. I still need to deal with these noisy pests.’

After landing, he used the rooftop as a launch point and shot himself higher. From above, he activated Shockwave Emission along with his other ability to take the helicopters out.

One by one, they were taken out of the sky. The rest pulled back, unwilling to come any closer.

On the ground below, Aira and the rest of the Federation’s elite team landed fine. None of them moved for a moment. They just watched.

"Did he just fly higher? No one told me he had rockets for feet," one of the unnamed agents muttered. His name was Enzo.

He held his staff loosely at his side — dark metal, no visible seams, the kind of thing that didn’t look dangerous until someone noticed the lines running along the surface and the way they glow.

"I’ve reviewed Ryzen’s combat file three times," Lance said. "Even accounting for mutation, he should still be limited by his innate talent. On top of that, he hasn’t gone berserk. He’s still in control."

The others exchanged glances and nodded. He had targeted the helicopters first, a sign of calculated thinking.

"Compound Z sometimes has random side effects," Aira said. Her fan trembled at her side, building rotational pressure. "Don’t overthink it."

The five moved without a word. They had fought together long enough to read each other’s intent, even in a high-speed fight.

"Let’s bring that thing down first!" Enzo raised his staff.

A spark ignited at its tip. Small, at first — like a cigarette lighter catching in the wind.

Then he breathed into it. The flame spread down the shaft, and when he swept it in a wide horizontal arc, what left the staff wasn’t wild or scattered.

It became a wall of flame—flat and compressed, a surge of superheated pressure. It burned hot enough to melt metal and spread wide enough to seal the entire zone in less than a second.

Francis had less than that to react.

His Trajectory Reading painted the wall of flames in lines—speed, height, rotation, heat radius.

Running through it wasn’t an option. Going over it wasn’t either; the flame disk curved upward.

So he let his own weight do it, no thrust — just gravity pulling him below the attack’s path as it screamed overhead.

THUD!

He hit the ground on both feet and cratered it, the impact rolling outward through the asphalt in a ring.

Looking up, he saw the flame disk break apart, turning into a rolling curtain of heat and smoke.

’That attack is powerful enough to heavily wound a Category 6 beast or higher. Their firepower is no joke.’

Just as he was about to move, the ground beneath him cracked open.

He didn’t retreat. He punched down instead.

The earth split open. Stone and debris erupted upward, and before the dust could settle, the wind arrived — a violent rotating column that ripped through the debris field and turned it into a grinding wall of force.

Then the heat followed. Flames poured in and swallowed all of it, turning the gap in the earth into something close to open magma.

Francis landed thirty meters away and assessed the wreckage.

The five were still standing at the edges of it, exactly where they’d wanted to be.

’This is harder than I thought.’ He exhaled slowly.

He was stronger than any one of them on their own. But together, their timing and coordination changed everything. Every opening closed too fast.

Taking them down was possible, but it would drain too much energy and leave him open.

The heat was a problem too. Even with newfound strength, he wasn’t immune to the right combination of fire and compressed wind.

One clean shot could shatter his already unstable body, exposing his parasite form and leaving it vulnerable.

crack!

He noticed his body’s flexibility was decreasing. Every movement came with resistance now, like there was extra weight pressing against his muscles.

It wasn’t severe yet. Not catastrophic. But it was there.

And he could tell the clock was moving in a direction he didn’t like.

[DING!]

[Energy Levels: 99/50]

The system only confirmed what he already suspected.

He clicked his tongue. The numbers on the display left no room for other interpretation. Retreat was the best option.

Still, the decision weighed on him. Walking away meant leaving high-value targets behind, along with the dead bodies. That alone was a waste.

’Let’s get this over with.’ Francis shifted his weight forward.

The five read it immediately.

"He’s pushing," Luke said, both gauntlet dropping toward the ground.

"Formation!" Aira shouted. Her aura kept rising, forming a wind shield around her. But it wasn’t meant to stop enemies. Only to buy half a second of slowdown.

Half a second was enough if used correctly... as long as they weren’t facing Francis.

SWOOOSH!

His speed doubled in an instant.

"Dodge—" Aira shouted, but it was too late.

He crossed the distance so quickly that her shout hadn’t finished leaving her mouth before he arrived.

His hand found Luke’s throat before Luke had fully straightened from his half-kneeling position.

The impact crushed his spine at the cervical vertebrae.

Francis felt it transmit up through his palm — not a crack, more like something that had been under enormous tension finally giving.

Still moving, he dragged the corpse forward while his free hand yanked Lex’s spear from the ground.

All of it happened in under five seconds.

By the time anyone could process what happened, Francis was already gone, covering nearly half a kilometer.

The remaining Federation agents didn’t move. They knew he was far too fast to catch, even if they tried.

The only thing that could still follow him were the helicopters in the sky. Even they didn’t last long.

One after another, the helicopters fell. The Federation lost all tracking. Just like that, he was completely gone from their sight.

"L... Luke." Lance let out a trembling breath as he looked at his friend.

The head was barely recognizable, crushed beyond shape and stripped of any features.

Next, the damage to his abdomen was even worse, leaving a wide hollowed-out space that looked ripped open and emptied.

"Damn it," Aira cursed. "How can a commoner like him be that strong? If the clan finds out about this failure, I’ll be a laughingstock."

Her focus wasn’t on the lives lost. It was on her name, and what this defeat would do to it.

"You..." Lance was on the verge of snapping, but Enzo grabbed his shoulder and held him back.

"Calm down, Lance. We’re allies. The one responsible for Luke’s death is that monster."

Aira didn’t care about their argument and turned away. She started barking orders, demanding advanced scanners to track their target.

The smoke from the damage was still rising in thick columns when a voice came from somewhere inside it.

"I think the Federation should retreat. You’ve already caused too much commotion.."

A figure walked out of the curtain of smoke at a pace that couldn’t be described as rushing. It was the Director of the Defense Force—George.

Aira turned to face him with her chin already raised. "This entire section is under Federation jurisdiction. Please don’t involve yourself."

He might be the Director of the Defense Force for this city, but in her eyes, that meant little compared to her clan’s status.

"Miss Aira..." He stopped at a comfortable distance.

"...I cooperated with your request at considerable cost. I won’t pretend that didn’t happen. But the situation has moved past what we originally agreed to, and if we don’t begin managing the exposure in the next few minutes—"

"Shut up." her words came out rude. "Our stated objective was Lex Ryzen. Nothing beyond that. The plan to move against Samantha Liner was yours — your political maneuvering, your risk. I won’t have that attached to my operation."

George’s eyes darkened. He didn’t like being talked down to by a young woman, but her background was too dangerous to ignore.

He was a man willing to issue a kill order on the daughter of the richest man in the country. Not on impulse, but with care and strategy, fully aware of what it would cost him if it ever came back around.

That kind of willingness did not come from ambition alone. It came from certainty. The certainty of someone who knew he had a powerful backer.

He studied Aira for a few seconds, then chose to be more lenient with her attitude.