Dorio and Pilar were like tigers among sheep.
Every punch and kick from Dorio carried lethal force and an attached explosive burning effect. Cultists hit by her either died or were severely injured, often engulfed in flames that were difficult to extinguish.
Pilar, on the other hand, moved nimbly around the edges of the battlefield, clearing piles of enemies with his upgraded flamethrower, or using his long arms for precise strikes and grapples, snapping enemies' necks.
The enforcers' boltgun also provided steady firepower, filling gaps in the fire net.
The battle was almost a one-sided slaughter.
Although the cultists were fanatical, their resistance seemed pale and powerless in the face of absolute firepower and technological superiority.
Their crude weapons could not effectively threaten Maine's crew, and their flesh and blood bodies were like paper in front of bolter rounds, plasma, and promethium flames.
In just one or two minutes, more than half of the cultists in the hall fell, with only a few scattered ones stubbornly resisting or trying to hide.
"Looks like it's almost over," Sheriff Atkins said, relaxing his tone slightly as he reloaded a new magazine. "It went even smoother than expected."
Maine also nodded slightly. It seemed the core part of this mission was about to be completed.
However, just as he was about to order the final cleanup, a sudden change occurred!
On the edge of the scorched pit left by the altar after it was vaporized by the plasma cannon, a figure that had been curled up in the shadows and previously ignored by everyone suddenly let out a shrill, inhuman shriek!
It was a very young Hive City boy, dressed in rags and emaciated.
But at this moment, his body was undergoing a terrifying transformation.
His eyes were completely filled with murky energy emitting a faint red glow, and countless worms seemed to be crawling under his skin. His blood vessels bulged, appearing an ominous purplish-black.
A visible energy wave, twisting the air, suddenly spread outwards from him!
"Psyker!!" Sheriff Atkins exclaimed in horror, his voice filled with dread. "Be careful! It's an unregistered psyker!"
But the warning came too late.
That invisible psionic shockwave slammed into the enforcers at the very front like a heavy hammer!
"Ugh!"
Two enforcers were thrown backward as if struck by an invisible battering ram, their heavy armor crashing against the metal pipes behind them with a bone-chilling crack. They fell unconscious on the spot.
The other two enforcers, though they managed to stand, clutched their heads in pain, blood streaming from their noses, clearly suffering severe mental shock.
This sudden attack instantly disrupted the enforcer squad's formation.
And the psyker boy, after unleashing this attack, seemed even more pained and even more berserk.
He raised his hands, and murky red energy gathered in his palms, forming two unstable, crackling energy spheres, about to be hurled at the chaotic enforcer squad!
At this distance and energy intensity, if they hit, the remaining enforcers would likely face a grim fate.
It was at this critical moment!
Valerie's neural reactions surpassed conscious thought. Faced with the sudden psionic crisis ahead and the imminent destruction of the enforcer squad, a powerful response command erupted directly from her core consciousness like a biological instinct, instantly triggering the Sandevistan neural accelerator implants deeply embedded in her spine and motor cortex.
Buzz—!
A strange hum did not come from outside, but from the ultra-high-speed electrical signals surging through Valerie's own nervous system, which were instantly synchronized with the reaction core of the iron guard prototype through a deep neural connection.
To Valerie, time seemed to suddenly freeze—or more accurately, the dark red iron guard prototype's movements instantly accelerated to an unbelievable degree!
The iron guard, originally in a crouched firing stance, moved its massive body, leaving a blur. With an agility completely unfitting its heavy mass, it suddenly took two large steps sideways, its heavy metal feet stomping the ground with a dull thud, positioning itself precisely between the injured enforcers and the psyker!
All of this happened in a flash, so fast that even the berserk psyker couldn't fully react to the fact that a thick wall of steel had appeared in front of his locked-on target!
"Bang! Bang!"
Two unstable psionic energy spheres slammed into the iron guard's frontal armor, erupting in a blinding red flash and violent energy turbulence.
The ceramic steel and composite layers on the armor plates groaned under the energy impact, but ultimately successfully withstood the attack, leaving only two scorched marks and some minor cracks.
"What?!" Sheriff Atkins and the surviving enforcers stared at the scene in front of them, dumbfounded.
The speed that power armor had just unleashed completely exceeded their understanding of such heavy equipment!
Almost at the same time the iron guard blocked the attack, Maine also reacted.
He didn't hesitate at all. His left arm's incinerator gun wasn't even fully raised; relying solely on its powerful fire control system and neural connection, he completed aiming and firing while moving!
"Whoosh—!"
The low thermal ray shot out again, accurately hitting the psyker boy who had just finished his attack and was in a brief state of rigidity.
There were no screams, not even much struggle.
The boy's body was ignited from within the moment it was hit. The murky red psionic light was covered by hotter, purer destructive energy.
He was like a human candle lit, burning intensely and expanding in less than a second, then turning into a small pile of flying, sparking ashes, completely dissipating into the air.
Only a small scorched mark left on the ground and the lingering mixed scent of ozone and burnt flesh in the air proved his former existence.
A brief silence fell over the hall.
Only the crackling of promethium flames and the groans of the injured enforcers remained.
—
After a brief silence, the team immediately resumed action.
"Check for casualties! Secure the perimeter!" Maine's voice broke the silence.
Dorio and Pilar quickly moved forward to check on the enforcers who had been thrown back by the psionic shock.
One had fractured ribs and possible internal organ damage, the other had a fractured skull and was in critical condition, but still alive.
The other two enforcers, though dizzy from the mental shock, could still move with difficulty.
Sheriff Atkins' face was extremely grim, partly due to the casualties among his subordinates, and partly due to lingering fear.
If it hadn't been for the iron guard's incredibly fast reaction and Maine's precise follow-up shot, his squad might have been completely wiped out here today.
"Call for medical support immediately! Prioritize evacuating the injured!" He yelled into his communicator, then turned to Maine, his tone complex, "...Thank you for your timely assistance. If it weren't for you..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but the gratitude in his eyes and a hint of undisguised shock were clear.
He looked at the iron guard that had just displayed astonishing speed, then at Maine's incinerator weapon that effortlessly turned the psyker into ashes. A new, deeper understanding of this team under the Explorer Magos formed in his mind.
This was clearly not just a well-equipped mercenary group; their combat effectiveness and reaction speed had already exceeded the scope of conventional military units.