With its landing point as the center, the half-meter-thick reinforced-concrete ground shattered like a biscuit struck by a giant hammer, collapsing inward in an instant.
A terrifying crater more than twenty meters across took shape with a thunderous boom.
And that horrific shockwave, impossible to fully absorb,
transformed into a ring of flying stone and dust, visibly expanding outward in every direction.
Everything in its path—abandoned cars, flimsy tents—was shredded and hurled aside by the devastating wave.
And this was only the beginning.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Over a hundred dull impacts exploded simultaneously in every corner of the base.
The sky had fallen.
That was the only thought in the minds of every survivor inside Fen Hua Base at that moment.
Under their airdrop, the entire base's surrounding ground cracked apart.
Countless floors were punched through; the few remaining buildings were instantly turned into deep pits.
When the destructive shockwave finally faded, the dust blotting the sky began to settle.
Amid that chaos,
one… two… over a hundred scarlet lights slowly ignited within the thick dust.
Lights devoid of any emotion.
Garry's pupils shrank at the sight.
Before he could react,
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Heavy footfalls echoed from the smoke.
The steel giants that had just wrought apocalyptic ruin stood unscathed, rising one after another from the craters they had carved.
They shook off the dust, took heavy steps, and climbed out of the pits.
Each stride made the ground tremble.
A hundred pairs of crimson eyes locked as one on Garry atop the watchtower.
Being targeted by a hundred monsters of this caliber sent a chill from the soles of the feet of even a Tier 3 veteran like Garry, forged in seas of blood.
He still felt an icy dread shoot up from his soles.
The tallest Iron Golem—controlled by Ash—strode straight toward the watchtower.
"They're here for me."
Garry instantly grasped their objective.
He inhaled sharply, crushed his fear, and replaced it with cornered ferocity.
With no further hesitation he stamped down.
Boom!
The watchtower's roof was smashed open.
He shot skyward like a cannonball, then plummeted straight at the approaching Iron Golem.
His speed left a vivid after-image—far faster than the guy called Zack had ever managed.
Yet Ash's Iron Golem made no move to dodge the thunderous strike.
"Perfect."
Ash roared inwardly, utterly confident in this body of four solid iron blocks overflowing with brute power.
He raised a steel arm thicker than a man's thigh and, without flinching, punched the airborne Garry head-on.
The next second,
Flesh and steel collided in the rawest fashion.
Clang!!
A deep, bell-like boom exploded outward.
A white shockwave visible to the naked eye burst from the point of impact.
The recoil felt like slamming his fist into a speeding truck; an unstoppable force hurled Garry ten-plus meters through the air.
He landed and staggered back several steps before steadying himself.
"How is this possible?"
Garry shook his numb right arm, shock written across his face.
"I'm a Tier 3 Awakened—this thing actually took my punch head-on?"
Unwilling to accept it,
"Again!"
With a roar he turned into an after-image once more and traded frenzied blows with the Iron Golem.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
A chain of heavy, terrifying impacts rang out.
After a dozen punches Garry finally sized the monster up.
Its strength was indeed weaker than his.
Each exchange left him churning with blood.
Yet the steel giant was also forced back step by step.
What was truly terrifying was its near-indestructible body of pure steel.
Most of his power was negated by that adamant frame.
Still… "It's not invincible."
Garry's eyes sharpened; after his barrage, hair-thin cracks had appeared across the golem's chest and arms.
Just as he prepared to finish it off in one go,
Ssshh!
A purple spatial ripple flashed behind the Iron Golem.
A Shadow Marine Warrior appeared, holding a gleaming iron ingot.
He gently pressed the ingot onto the fresh cracks marring the golem's frame.
Something miraculous happened.
The ingot vanished instantly.
The cracks Garry had fought to open healed at visible speed and vanished.
In barely a second, the Iron Golem stood pristine and undamaged once more!
Garry froze, utterly dumbfounded.
His face showed blank despair straight from the soul.
"You mean to tell me…"
He muttered, voice trembling,
"I nearly kill myself just to crack it a little…"
"And your guy walks up, touches it, and in one second it's fixed?"
Watching the golem restored in a heartbeat, the fighting spirit he'd just ignited was snuffed out.
His heart shook; lips quivered—no words came.
By then the other Awakened survivors in the base had regained their senses.
They saw their leader Garry locked in a losing standoff with a steel monster.
"It's the boss!"
"Quick, help the boss!"
The group shouted and charged toward him.
But before they could cover the distance, the Iron Golems stepped in unison, forming an impenetrable wall that penned them outside.
The battlefield was split once more.
Only One-Eye Garry remained at the center, facing the Iron Golem slowly advancing under Ash's control.