"Vulkan lives on!"
With the battle cry amplified through the vox system, Ignis ignited the flamethrower and unleashed a torrent of fire toward the Mountain Lion Gang raiders. Even as their bodies were set ablaze, those figures covered in Chaos sigils did not slow their charge in the slightest.
That kind of fanaticism, however, did nothing to strengthen their flesh. The end of being engulfed in flames was still nothing more than becoming a pitiful heap of remains.
The Salamander advanced through the inferno in relentless pursuit, while two members of the Jaxcalibur Squad followed closely behind him, rifles at the ready, delivering finishing shots to downed enemies to ensure none of them stood back up.
Ignis pushed the battle line forward at remarkable speed. As he cut down the howling followers of Khorne, he simultaneously fed high-threat target locations to Jax-03. Although the customized marksman rifle in Jax-03's hands often failed to kill those grotesquely mutated enemies in a single shot, even brief suppression was enough to ease the pressure on the officers.
Anby's chainsword screamed as it spun at high speed, its whirring teeth tearing through body after body. The white-haired girl had seen her share of battles, but opponents driven to this level of madness were rare. Her relationship with Soldier 11 was far from amicable, yet their coordination on the battlefield was flawless. Reluctant though they both were, with their backs against each other they formed a defensive line that was nearly impossible to break. Lightning and flame intertwined, chainsword and combat blade rising and falling in turn. Before long, a ring of enemy remains had piled up around the two of them.
Zhu Yuan lifted the Suppressor K22 and reloaded it with buckshot. Her remaining ammunition was running low. She was grateful to this force that had suddenly entered the fray—though their identities were unclear, at least they did not appear to be enemies. The fully armored figure among them looked strangely familiar, but buried under recent administrative work, she couldn't recall where she had seen him.
She moved quickly to Qingyi's side. Seth noticed someone had come to support Qingyi, nodded at Zhu Yuan, and rushed back to the front line to rejoin the fighting. The damaged Intelligent Construct, missing an arm and a leg, could only sit on the ground and watch the battle ahead.
Qingyi nearly laughed when she heard the remark. She pressed a button on her three-section staff, which folded back into a long baton. She tapped Zhu Yuan lightly on the head with it. "What kind of foolish thing is that to say? I'm a robot—I don't feel pain at all. But the one who showed up… doesn't it make you feel like this is fate?"
"Huh?" Zhu Yuan brushed the lightly descending staff away from her head, still not quite processing it.
"Ignis from the Cunning Hares. You forgot?" Qingyi looked at her junior. "That very dark giant."
Only then did Zhu Yuan suddenly remember. She had seen that armor before—in the Vision Corporation case. The impostors posing as officers had bodycam records.
"So, you're alright."
While Zhu Yuan was still dazed, Ignis had already walked over and greeted Qingyi.
"Disappointed?" The Public Security Intelligent Construct showed no concern for her damaged body. She removed the thermos from her waist, used the lid as a teacup, and calmly sipped her tea.
Seeing how completely at ease she was, the Salamander found it amusing. He turned and greeted Zhu Yuan as well. "It's been a long time. I didn't expect we'd meet again like this."
"Ignis, sir, I sincerely appreciate your help," Zhu Yuan sighed. "I didn't expect you'd come to seek revenge after all. This should have been the Public Security Bureau's responsibility."
"Assisting law enforcement is the duty of a good citizen," the Salamander replied. "Besides, the one who gave me this location was your undercover agent. She asked me for help, but didn't mention that you'd chosen today as well. Does the calendar say today is an auspicious day for cracking down on crime?"
Zhu Yuan was about to say something, but Qingyi shook her head, signaling her to stop for now.
"No matter what, thank you for the assistance." Qingyi finished the tea in the lid and screwed it back on. "Zhu Yuan, our people are at the brink of exhaustion, and our ammunition is completely spent. This operation has failed. Get ready to head back and write a self-criticism."
"Senior, I don't think this is something a self-criticism can solve." Zhu Yuan looked at the utterly unflustered Qingyi and felt her head start to ache. "And we don't have Carrot data. Getting out will be difficult."
"There are practical difficulties…" Qingyi replied, but her gaze never left the Salamander.
"Alright, alright." Ignis understood perfectly what the robot meant. "We have a rest point nearby. Have those who need assistance move there."
"Razor's criminal hideout is just ahead. We can't let him escape again."
Zhu Yuan looked toward the officers still locked in combat. Seth Lowell was holding up his shield, fighting two Mountain Lion Gang members at once. The young man's face burned with fervor; despite several fresh wounds, he showed no sign of giving up. They had already lost many personnel and much equipment today. If they withdrew now, that bitterness would be hard to swallow.
"Zhu Yuan, this man isn't here for a picnic," Qingyi said, patting her junior on the leg.
"But—"
Before Zhu Yuan could continue, Ignis cut her off.
"Don't worry, Officer Zhu Yuan. I will personally kill Razor. He won't have a chance to escape." The Salamander's gaze shifted toward the battlefield. Mountain Lion Gang reinforcements had arrived, and the officers were beginning to contract their formation. "My reinforcements are here as well."
As soon as the words fell, a nearby building was shoved open from within, and a massive bipedal war machine nearly two stories tall burst onto the street.
The quad-mounted thermal lances opened fire. The Mountain Lion Gang militants launching the attack had never seen anything like this. Their mutated flesh might withstand small-arms fire, but thermal lances were clearly not something the body alone could endure. Amid violent explosions, their bodies were torn apart, formations shattered, and the counterattack was immediately crushed.
Of course, it wasn't only the Leviathan Dreadnought that had arrived. From the breach it had created, autonomous mechs controlled by Jax-05 surged out as well. These steel soldiers executed their controller's will without mercy, annihilating what remained of the Mountain Lion Gang's lives.
"This really is my first time fighting alongside Men of Iron. A truly novel experience." The old veteran advanced a few steps, grabbed a stunned Mountain Lion Gang thug, and shredded him into pieces with the sharp blades of the siege claw.
"Belobog Heavy Industries?"
Zhu Yuan stared blankly at the paint scheme on the Leviathan Dreadnought. She had heard that these people were applying for licenses, but was this really the same thing as the Hollow engineering machinery listed on the paperwork? And what about these hundreds of autonomous tactical mechs of all sizes? Since when did the Cunning Hares have this kind of influence? Weren't they just a labor dispatch company?
Zhu Yuan felt like her brain was overheating. She had seen far too much today to process it all.
"Burn!"
The Leviathan Dreadnought's quad heavy flamethrowers erected an impassable wall of fire across the street, completely cutting off the Mountain Lion Gang's retreat. The autonomous tactical mechs actively coordinated with the officers and others to eliminate the remaining gang members.
Naturally, the officers hoped to capture them alive and bring them to justice, but these cornered criminals showed not the slightest intention of surrendering. Even when faced with calls to lay down arms and the ferocious assault of the mechs, they only counterattacked until they were reduced to mangled flesh.
Seth tried to forcibly knock one thug to the ground and slap cuffs on him, but the man struggled desperately, pulled a dagger from his boot, and nearly slit the rookie officer's throat. If Anby hadn't intervened in time and beheaded the thug with a single strike, it would have been too late.
Watching Seth touch his own neck, Zhu Yuan understood. These people had no possibility of being arrested. They were completely insane. If they wanted to avoid catastrophic losses, the only option was to neutralize them on the spot.
Most of her colleagues around her were panting heavily. They had endured far too much today. Continuing to push themselves would only lead to greater losses, and several wounded still needed care. Ignis's proposal was the most reasonable. They truly needed rest and assistance; forcing it any further was meaningless.
Zhu Yuan let out a sigh. "Mr. Ignis, after this is over, I hope you'll give me an explanation."
The Salamander nodded. "When everything is finished, someone will explain it to you together with me. But for now, your people need rest—especially the wounded. Open your communication channel. Someone will guide you."
Zhu Yuan immediately gathered her team. After a brief explanation, the officers agreed to withdraw temporarily. Seth, of course, objected; he felt that since they had already come this far, they had to capture the enemy leader. The result was a knock on the head from Qingyi. The young man could only hoist his senior onto his shoulder and follow the main group as they withdrew with the wounded.
"You're not going?" the Salamander asked, looking at Zhu Yuan as she waved farewell to her team.
"Someone has to stay behind and record what happens next so I can submit a report when we get back," Zhu Yuan said as she checked the remaining rounds in her weapon. "If something goes wrong, the responsibility should fall on me."
"Very well. Keep a safe distance, Officer Zhu Yuan," the Salamander replied, then charged forward.
The battle here was already nearing its end. Under the terrifying firepower of the Leviathan Dreadnought, the Mountain Lion Gang was completely incapable of assembling any effective force. Several times they attempted to launch charges from the main avenue, only to be blasted into scattered chunks by the thermal lances. Some scattered stragglers who rushed out from buildings on either side were picked off one by one by the autonomous mechs. Although a few autonomous units were destroyed in the process, such losses were entirely acceptable.
Anby and Soldier 11 stood several meters apart, their relationship visibly strained. Though they assisted each other during combat, the moment the fighting paused, they deliberately kept their distance. After that brawl, the two white-haired women exchanged no words at all, wrapped in heavy silence.
In the Salamander's eyes, the battle had entered its final phase. The Mountain Lion Gang could never destroy this mechanized force led by the Leviathan Dreadnought. Even if the enemy unleashed all of their Bloodletters, the old veteran had ways to crush them one by one. As for the losses among the mechs, he was certain that Markus would not care. That blue, aircraft-shaped head wanted a grand act of revenge—one that would show every potential threat that any future provocation would be met with the harshest retaliation.
The enemies ahead were the last few survivors on the battlefield. Their bodies were grotesquely mutated: bulging muscles, towering height, bone spurs jutting from their elbows, and horns bursting through their helmets. They wielded massive battle axes larger than a grown man, etched with blasphemous sigils of Khorne. These flesh-warped cultists had already torn apart several tactical mechs, including a Typhon Heavy Slugger-type unit.
Several Guardian mechs concentrated fire on them, but a red glow flashed across the cultists' bodies. The thermal lance shots twisted in an incomprehensible way, veering off and slamming into a nearby building instead.
Khorne granted his followers blessings against ranged weapons. This was unmistakably the work of a Warp god.
The cultists roared the name of the Blood God and charged at the autonomous mechs—but a green blur crashed straight into their midst. Riding the momentum of his charge, the Salamander's punch detonated into two bursts of blood mist. The power fist crackled, his left arm clamping one mutant under his armpit while his right fist crushed another into lifeless ruin.
The one pinned under his arm thrashed desperately, trying to break free, but the Salamander's overwhelming strength was something no mortal flesh could resist. It was like being locked in iron jaws, utterly unable to move. Knowing full well that nothing useful would come from its mouth, the Salamander gripped its head and crushed it, the disintegration field bursting into another spray of gore.
"Looks like that was the last batch," Jaxcalibur-01 said as he walked up. There was a gash across the chest of his protective suit, but thankfully no blood.
"No more enemies detected," Jax-03 reported over the comms. "It suddenly got quiet. Feels strange."
"But there's no Razor, and no…" Ignis paused, then chose a different phrasing. "No severely mutated ones."
Indeed. Not a single Bloodletter had appeared this time. Those were the true elite among the enemy. Honestly, these thugs were nothing more than expendable cannon fodder meant to drain their stamina and ammunition. Killing more of them held little meaning.
"Then we go to their nest. The hostages are still there—they'll make their last stand there," Soldier 11 said, already moving forward on her own.
There was a deep concern Ignis did not voice. Those hostages might already have been offered up as sacrifices to the dark gods. He could only hope that this time, nothing truly unmanageable would be summoned.
"Then we advance," Gotthardt said. "I'll provide fire support from the rear. Since you won't let me blow up that building, there's a lot less I can do."
===BREAK===
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