The fierce gunfire in the city, even over six miles away, clearly reached Adrian's ears in the dead of night.
But he didn't move.
He just sat silently in the center of the abandoned room, surrounded by an ethereal flow of Elemental Control.
They were like tiny fireflies, constantly seeping into his skin, repairing his overtaxed body, and even his nearly depleted soul gradually came back to life in this nourishment.
The distant gunshots and shouts never stopped.
Adrian used them to judge Logan's safety—as long as the sounds kept going, it meant Logan still had control of the situation and was still alive.
Fortunately, his judgment was mostly on point.
That lab riot had clearly cost the other side big time, and well-trained combat personnel couldn't be replaced overnight.
Every veteran who could actually survive on a hellish battlefield was forged through time and blood.
The other battlefield had long since turned into a bloody mess.
Logan was covered in blood, his heavy breathing especially clear in the brief silence. He casually tossed aside his empty rifle, and the ground beneath him was a disaster zone.
After an entire night of high-intensity fighting, the number of gang members who'd fallen under his bone claws was at least eighty, maybe a hundred.
Shattered limbs and dried blood covered the streets, and this already run-down city now looked like some forgotten war zone.
With capital pulling the strings, the police station's lights never came on, and the city's residents kept their doors and windows locked tight—nobody dared go outside right now.
"This guy... is really a pain in the ass!"
A security team member whispered, his voice tinged with obvious exhaustion and shock.
Before coming to grab him, they'd all studied Logan's files thoroughly. But reading about him was way less terrifying than facing him in person.
A nearly immortal self-healing body, combined with extreme killing experience built up over two World Wars.
Honestly, trying to capture him alive was basically impossible.
In open terrain, they might still be able to pin him down with firepower and formation. The last time Logan got successfully captured was in some barren wilderness with zero cover.
But in this complicated urban close-quarters combat, Logan's experience and instincts were cranked up to the max, while their firepower advantage got squeezed down to nothing.
That's exactly why Adrian and Logan picked this place as their battlefield.
"Absolutely don't let him get close! Otherwise, even if you don't die, you'll be crippled!"
The squad captain roared another reminder, his voice hoarse.
"Stay in groups of five, no more than sixty feet between groups! Stick to cross-cover tactics, don't give him any openings!"
This elite tactical squad of twenty—all battle-hardened vets—didn't dare relax for a second right now.
Everyone knew that facing a monster like this, even one tiny mistake meant instant death.
In their blind spot, Logan was hidden deep in a narrow, dark alley, leaning against a cold, damp brick wall.
"Should be about time." He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and looked up at the sky.
The distant sky was already tinged with the white of dawn.
Nearly five hours had passed since he'd started the chaos. According to Adrian's original plan, four hours would've been enough. But just to be safe, he deliberately dragged it out for an extra hour.
Feeling his stamina recover a bit, Logan started moving quickly in the direction he'd agreed on with Adrian.
"He's trying to escape!" The tactical squad immediately caught on to what he was doing.
"Don't forget the other Mutant! Adrian's the primary target!" The captain instantly realized, his heart sinking.
"He's going to meet up with Adrian!"
They'd all seen the intel on Adrian, but everything on record might've just been the tip of the iceberg.
According to the shaky supplementary report from the lab researchers, Adrian's abilities had never truly shown themselves or developed during years of being locked up.
Which meant they knew jack shit about what he could actually do.
When facing a Mutant, the unknown was usually the most dangerous thing.
Inside the abandoned house, the bright light swirling around Adrian gradually faded, eventually disappearing completely.
He slowly opened his eyes.
"Click... click..."
As he stretched his body, a series of crisp cracking sounds came from his joints, and a surge of power rushed through his limbs.
"Didn't expect to recover this much after a night of elemental baptism." He was a bit surprised.
The rest over the past few days hadn't been nearly as effective as this time—clearly, recovering after pushing his abilities to the limit was a form of tempering.
"Looks like abilities only grow when you use them till there's nothing left." He seemed to realize something.
Right then, subtle air currents brought him information.
He smelled the familiar, strong scent of blood in the wind, getting closer.
"He's here."
Without hesitating for a second, Adrian moved, rushing out of the abandoned house and heading straight toward Logan.
"Da da da... da da da..."
Scattered gunshots still tried to stop Logan, but suddenly, all sounds got drowned out by a deeper roar.
The ground started shaking violently.
"Finally." Logan grinned, relief washing over his blood-stained face.
He knew Adrian had arrived.
"Crash!!"
The next moment, the concrete-paved ground seemed to turn into a surging ocean, suddenly raising a massive wave of earth and rock over three feet high! The wave advanced at a crazy speed, its momentum terrifying!
"Damn it! What the hell is this?!"
"Is it an earthquake?!"
The tactical squad members' faces went white, their formation instantly ripped apart by this force like nature's wrath. A bunch of them got violently thrown several yards, hitting the ground hard and temporarily losing the ability to move.
Adrian walked steadily out of the smoke and shadow, his eyes cold. He clenched his right hand in the air toward the fallen crowd.
In an instant, that section of ground collapsed and twisted like quicksand, swallowing all the disabled team members!
In just a moment, the ground went back to being flat, as if nothing had ever happened.
After doing all that, Adrian's face was slightly pale, but his breathing stayed steady. Compared to how weak he'd been before, he'd now gotten back the strength for direct combat.
"You recovered faster than I expected." Logan walked over.
"Not enough." Adrian shook his head, his gaze sweeping over the ruined street.
"The plan went smoothly, and the results are better than expected. They're... not a threat anymore. For now."
They couldn't stick around. The chaos they'd caused was too big—they had to leave immediately.
Logan followed behind Adrian, casually tearing off his shredded clothes, which were already soaked in blood and stiff as a board.
They broke into an unguarded clothing store nearby, quickly changed outfits, then jumped into an unlocked car on the roadside. With the roar of the engine, they drove straight out of the smoke-filled city.
Only now did the two truly escape the lab's controlled view—at least temporarily.
One day later.
When the financiers behind the lab finally found the missing tactical squad, only a stretch of heavily excavated, ruined street remained at the scene.
Dozens of pits, three to six feet deep, were scattered everywhere, like they were silently testifying to the inhuman power they'd faced that day.
The on-site manager looked at the mess and could only sigh helplessly: "This... is big trouble."
They knew damn well that once Adrian fully recovered and completely mastered his terrifying abilities, everyone involved in the experimental project would end up on his revenge list.
"Immediately destroy all financial transaction records related to the lab!"
"Start the self-destruct sequence, and... completely blow up that laboratory!"
Listening to his subordinate's report, the financier behind the lab almost squeezed these two commands through gritted teeth.
That state-of-the-art lab, which he'd dumped insane amounts of money into, now had to be personally destroyed.
They knew better than anyone that any trace could lead Adrian straight to them, and then their lives wouldn't be safe anymore.
After hanging up the phone, the financier couldn't hold back his towering rage anymore, sweeping a valuable ornament off the table with one punch.
If I can't have it, nobody else will!
"Distribute all information and whereabouts clues about Adrian and Logan..."
He ordered his trusted subordinate, word by word, a ruthless glint in his eyes.
"I want them... to never know peace!"
The mystery of immortality represented by Logan, and Adrian's assassination methods that rivaled a battlefield ghost—these two were enough to drive every ambitious person in the world crazy.
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