144 NIGHT OF HARVEST
Thrynn was quick and responsive, but his power was merely close combat.
If Damen could grab him close using him as human shield against the ranged attacks, he would have a way to neutralize all three of them at once.
He didn't let go of Thrynn's hand.
Thrynn was still dazed by the lightning. Damen flung him on the other side just in time to parry several serpentine light constructs of Orya.
"Argghhh!" Thrynn screamed, his body spasming violently. The electrocution left his nerves fried and his limbs unresponsive.
He couldn't move, not even defend himself.
Damen didn't waste the opportunity. Grabbing Thrynn by the collar, he used him as a human shield and charged straight toward Orya.
The woman's eyes widened in disbelief.
"He's coming towards me…what should I do?" Orca cried.
Orca wasn't meant for close combat — her role was battlefield control, summoning serpents from a distance to strike and hurt.
Close combat was Thrynn's job.
Damen swung Thrynn like a battering ram. The impact sent Orya sprawling to the ground, gasping for air. Before she could recover, Damen's boot crashed into her chest.
Her ribs shattered under the force. A distorted vortex of kinetic energy rippled inward into her chest — "Momentum Collapse."
Orya's mind went blank from the pain.
"As I thought… these heroes are specialized in their own fields. Together they may be invincible… but once you take them apart, they could be broken one by one", Damen murmured.
Still gripping the half-conscious Thrynn in one hand, Damen seized Orya with the other.
With both enemies in his grasp, he rocketed toward Nymeris.
Nymeris froze, her heart was racing. "How is he this brutal—he's only a Rank B?"
Damen swung Thrynn and Orya like blunt weapons, hurling their bodies toward her. Reacting on instinct, Nymeris unleashed a storm of lightning whips. The air flashed with electrical fury …. but Damen barreled through it.
"Why is he charging through my lightning whip?" Nymeris cried.
Damen's body armor absorbs most of the energy. Thrynn and Orya, however, screamed as the lightning tore through their weakened bodies.
Nymeris hesitated.
Her power barely affected Damen now, and every strike only further destroyed her teammates.
"What do I do?" she thought, panic creeping in.
Then she turned to flee.
"Run?...not a chance," Damen said.
Damen didn't let her.
He activated his Mining App's Drain ability, siphoning energy from Thrynn and Orya even as he closed in. Their bodies went limp as he absorbed the last of their power.
Then…
He was upon Nymeris in an instant … his hand clamped around her throat. She gasped, summoning the last of her electricity to down Damen but lightning flickered uselessly across his armor.
"How are you immune to lightning?" she asked.
"Just as you are", he replied before he activated, "Drain."
Nymeris' power vanished in seconds. Then, without hesitation, Damen crushed her neck.
He landed hard on the ground, a heavy thud echoing through the still air.
Smoke rose from his armor, the only sound around was the faint hiss of cooling metal. Around him lay the broken bodies of three Rank B heroes — silent and motionless.
With deliberate calm, Damen drew his bone blade. He knelt beside each corpse and carved a single letter — "V" — into their flesh.
The mark of the Veyran family.
Then he opened his system interface and checked his stats:
Name: Damen Dark
Strength Rank: B Meta Rank: C Blood Rank: B
Strength: 608 | Charm: 262 | Meta: 393 | Command: 392 | Blood: 893 | Armor: 1016
He exhaled, satisfied. "Not a bad harvest," he muttered. "I should focus on hunting high-rank metas from now on."
But something caught his eye — faint glimmers rising from the heroes' bodies. They were residual core energy. Without hesitation, Damen reached out and assimilated them one by one.
System messages flickered before his eyes:
Core of the Mind successfully assimilated.
Core of the Mind Level 1 activated: 1 of 2.
Core of Electricity successfully assimilated.
Core of Electricity Level 2 activated: 2 of 2.
Core of Light successfully assimilated.
Camouflage enhanced by Core of Light.
"This is new," Damen said, intrigued. "My camouflage just got an upgrade. Let's see how strong it is now."
He activated the ability.
Instantly, his form shimmered and vanished. The Zetheris family's guards and meta soldiers who were approaching from the distance slowed and became confused.
"Where did the murderer go?" they asked.
Damen rose smoothly into the air, invisible even as he moved. The soldiers' sensors and scanners failed to detect him.
He grinned. "Damn… I've become invisible."
"From now on, Camouflage is upgraded to Invisibility," he thought, amused.
With that, Damen turned and soared into the night sky, leaving the wreckage, the police, and the Zetheris family to deal with the aftermath of his massacre.
------
Damen returned to base and headed straight for the shower.
The heat of battle washed away under the cold spray, but his mind was still running. When he stepped out, wrapped in a towel, the rest of the team were gathered in the common room, their eyes fixed on the holo-screen.
"Breaking News: Garius Zetheris murdered and Valtor Veyran critically wounded after failed truce negotiations between their factions lead to faction war."
The room was silent except for the reporter's voice. When they noticed Damen, Dorin turned to him.
"Did you hear? Garius Zetheris is dead."
Damen gave a calm nod. "Yeah," he said simply.
Of course Damen knew.
He was the one who killed him. Dorin was once a law enforcer and despite resigning from SIA, there was still a sense of justice and law in her…. There was no reason to let her know too much about his methods.
"What about Valtor Veyran?" he asked, feigning curiosity.
Kail flicked his wrist, projecting a smaller holo-screen in front of Damen. The footage showed Valtor being struck in the chest by a group of masked assassins and loaded onto an ambulance.
It was the mark of the Order of Cockerel.
"So," Damen muttered, "the Order of Cockerel went after both Garius and Valtor… at the same time."
Lander frowned. "When did the Order of Cockerel get involved in this mess? They are a menace… Last time I tried tracking their funds, the trail went cold."
Damen frowned. "Yeah, I remember. You still owe me a million aur for that failed job."
Dorin and Lander both looked away, pretending not to hear.
Kail smirked. "Anyway, don't worry about it. I already traced the Order's money trail. Big Brother here raided their remote aur bank …. he's more than compensated."
Lander blinked. "You did what? You hacked into the Order of Cockerel?"
Kail immediately waved his hands defensively. "Ah—never mind that."
Damen stepped in smoothly.
"In short," he said, "Kail discovered that both Valtor Veyran and Garius Zetheris placed assassination contracts on each other through the Order of Cockerel. Valtor managed to survive his hit."
He paused, a faint smile forming. "Garius didn't."
Suddenly, the base's alarms shrieked to life, red warning lights flashing across the walls.
Damen froze. "What's going on?"
Kail's fingers flew across his imaginary console, pulling up the surveillance feed and his expression turned pale.
"It's… Ambrone Melrose," he said, his voice tight. "He's here… and he's brought the SIA with him."
The room fell silent.
A cold wave of dread swept through them. Even Damen's eyes narrowed.
Of all people, Ambrone Melrose was the last name they ever wanted to hear at their doorstep.