Boom! Boom! Boom!
Bate's steps landed on the magma, heavy footfalls echoing.
With a savage face he strode toward the high-rise district across the square; under the demon gene's influence, destruction was all he craved.
"Humans, tremble beneath this lord's body!" Vast flames leapt and danced.
His frame spewed magma like a walking volcanic vent, coating hundred- or even several-hundred-metre towers.
At the same time the square's magma began to follow Bate's march toward the skyscrapers.
"The Monster's coming—run!" At the foot of the towers the crowd paled as the colossus bore down with its lava tide.
"Where are the Xuanjian Division and the army? I've got a sixty-year mortgage on that place!" One man dropped to his knees, despairing as a blob of magma smashed through his home.
"Relax, bro—even though your house is gone, you still owe sixty years of payments!" A young man sprinted past, tossed this "comfort" over his shoulder, and kept running.
Beep-beep-beep!
"Get the hell out of my way!" On the street cars drove the wrong way; a bald, middle-aged driver rolled down his window and cursed the jam ahead.
But no matter how he swore, the road ahead was completely choked—cars everywhere, nothing could move.
Building after building ignited as magma set them ablaze, flames roaring up their sides.
Bate pressed on, launching magma that kindled surrounding fires and drove the temperature ever higher.
So long as he stayed within that searing zone his regeneration soared.
Not far away, on a rooftop, a mixed band of Awakened Ones stood staring in terror at the distant destroyer.
"Destruction on this scale rivals Level Five—how can the Monster Association keep spawning things like this!" A tattoo-faced youth's features twisted in rage.
They were the local Awakened group entrenched in He City: two Level Fours, five Level Threes, and plenty of Level Twos.
In all of Ningzhou only Xuanjian Division's Third Group outmatched them; no one dared defy them on their turf.
Used to throwing their weight around, they now felt a flicker of dread at the sudden Monster.
An old man's eyes flickered as tower after tower caught fire. "What do we do? At this pace he'll reach us soon."
"Pull out," ordered the group's long-haired black-clad leader, voice bitter. "Group-Three Chief Cao Li won't make it in time and they can't drop a nuke here—the city's finished."
They owned plenty of property here, yet one look at the Monster left them powerless—what could they do?
Woom! At that moment three black-painted fighters appeared in the sky a kilometre away.
A woman scoffed, "Ordinary humans still think those toys can touch a Level Five-class Monster."
"Let them buy the city a minute; we're leaving," the long-haired leader said, striding for the elevator.
The rest of the Awakened followed suit.
In the cockpit the pilot paled at the sea of fire and magma below.
"Command, we're on station—large numbers of survivors still near the target, request instructions!" He circled Bate overhead.
They were an air-wing detachment stationed outside the city, mobilised the instant the Inspector Division received the alert.
"Fire one Lion Missile!" came the order over comms.
The Lion was Nanwu Country's heaviest anti-ship weapon, meant for carriers and ten-thousand-ton warships.
"Roger!" The lead fighter rolled, lining up from three kilometres away while the Monster stared back.
"Die!" the pilot snarled, squeezing the trigger.
Whoosh! The eleven-ton missile detached and streaked toward Bate.
After two kilometres of acceleration it hit Mach 5.
Bate, watching all along, sneered. "No Awakened—just toys? Pathetic!"
Flames on his head flared, a burning ring expanding outward.
Swish! The ring swept past the missile only metres away—and detonated it mid-air.
Boom! The blast and shock-wave slammed into Bate's colossal frame.
Crack-crack-crack! Every pane in the surrounding towers shattered, yet the shock-wave merely brushed him like a breeze.
Fire washed over Bate and rolled out seventy metres in every direction.
Within three hundred metres, anyone slow was thrown; organs ruptured, they died on the spot.
Farther away, survivors coughed blood, badly injured.
High inside a cloud, Jiang Yan watched the explosion, then turned to Black Gold. "Flatten that military base."
"On it!" Black Gold split; a second body peeled away beside him.
"Off you go!" The first Black Gold booted the new copy before it could speak.
At a suburban garrison several officers watched the drone feed of the strike on the Monster.
None dared relax.
A bespectacled officer whispered, "Did it work? At that range even an ordinary Level Five shouldn't escape unscathed."
No one answered; they stared as the flames began to fade.
Beneath them stood the Monster—utterly unharmed.
"How…? Only a nuke can scratch it now!" the brigade commander despaired.
"Hold the line! Chief Cao is en-route in a fighter—G55 at triple Mach, eight or nine minutes from five hundred kilometres!" The mayor, arriving in a suit, shouted hope.
Hope flashed across every face—survive ten minutes and salvation might come.
Bang-bang-bang!
Gunfire erupted outside.
"Monsters inside the base—repel them!" voices roared.
Boom-boom-boom! Cannon blasts followed; officers and mayor rushed out of HQ.
They looked toward the gate a few hundred metres away: hundreds of soldiers and three tanks firing non-stop.
Through the gaps streamed black, sausage-like creatures charging the defenders.