Dark Wolf and his team faced the opposing side. One of the super-terrorists approached the armored man whom the DH ARMY had just attacked. He wore heavy armor like a medieval knight and said in a mocking tone:
« Oh, Conter… Was that really you who just got beaten up? »
Conter stood back up, then pushed him away, growling in an irritated voice:
« Leave me the hell alone, Chevalier. I hadn't used my power yet. Keep to your place and leave me the hell alone. »
Dark Wolf watched them, then pointed his fire lance at the opposing group:
« We have no time to lose. Odin, fly to the boat and get all the children out of there. The rest of us will cut them off. Go, move! »
The entire DH ARMY team dashed toward the boat, and Odin shot up into the air, speeding straight toward the cargo ship.
Chevalier watched him take off and burst into laughter:
« Haha, there he goes! Well, friends, we must delay them… or better yet, kill them. »
One of them, a dark-haired woman, blew, and a strange smoke began to pour from her mouth. It invaded the entire harbor at a terrifying speed. In an instant, visibility was completely gone.
Odin saw the scene from the sky, but he did not dwell on it. The lives of the children remained the priority. He prepared to accelerate, but a violent bolt of black lightning struck him. He recoiled, then heard a terribly familiar voice:
« Did you really want to pass by without saying hello to your beloved darling, Koudri Molnii? »
Odin's face froze in disbelief as he saw the person rise to face him. It was a woman with long, curly black hair and black electrical arcs running across her entire body. Her dark, slit dress twirled with the wind currents.
On the ground, the tension was palpable. No one knew where the other was. To avoid giving away their positions, everyone remained calm and still, holding their breath in silence.
Dark Wolf, in the middle of the smoke, kept his cool. He scrutinized every direction, hoping to detect an enemy. As he watched, he heard someone coming rapidly toward him. He looked ahead, but sensed another presence behind his back. Turning around, he saw a blade emerge from the mist and dodged it just in time. A man entered his zone. His long arms had been replaced by sharp metallic blades, and his face was hidden by a cardboard box with two holes cut out for the eyes. He growled like a wild animal.
After a brief standoff, he lunged fiercely at Dark, trying to slice him with his right hand. Dark stepped back, grabbed his arm, and in a rapid motion, slammed him heavily to the ground. He ignited his right arm with fire and punched downward. The man tilted his head and dodged. He tried to slash at Dark's legs, but Dark leaped back to avoid the strike.
Suddenly, the man drove his right blade straight into Dark's shoulder. Dark retreated, then mimicked the gesture of drawing a bow. A arrow of fire materialized between his hands. When he released the arrow, it flew straight toward the man. The man began to zigzag frantically to avoid the explosions of fire. Seeing the blasts clear the mist, a tactical idea crossed Dark's mind.
In the air, it was a clash of deities. Violent thunderclaps echoed through the night, while blue and black lightning collided across the sky. Odin and Koudri were waging a merciless war against each other. Koudri screamed, gathering electrical energy between her palms:
« I love you! And you, you never cared about me! »
She projected the lightning bolt. Odin conjured a barrier of lightning to block it, then thrust his fist forward. The metallic structures covering his forearms detached, split into three segments, and flew straight toward her. The woman tried to dodge, but the objects tracked her and struck her full-force in the face. Automatically, she fell directly back into Odin's arms.
« Sorry, I don't like evil girls », he delivered coldly.
The woman completely lost her patience. She lunged at Odin, gripped him, and the two crashed down together onto a moored ferry.
On the ground, Dark Wolf continued his duel with the blade-man. He threw a fire lance at him. The man dodged, then Dark shot a fire arrow right in his face, setting the box he wore ablaze. The enemy began to scream in agony, twisting on the ground to extinguish the flames. Dark understood from his disorganized movements that this man was nothing but an amateur. He created a massive fireball and propelled it into the sky. At a certain height, it exploded, permanently blowing away the smoke.
When the smoke disappeared, he saw that Big Zero had entirely frozen two terrorists in blocks of ice. Ghost, meanwhile, had eliminated two people.
Cortana and Vega were engaged in a brutal hand-to-hand combat against Conter.
Cortana charged forward, delivering a series of lightning-fast strikes to Conter's abdomen. Her fists struck with precision, searching to break his guard. One, two, three hits… then a literal flurry of even faster strikes.
But Conter barely reacted.
He remained motionless, as if the avalanche of blows were mere raindrops.
Before Cortana could grasp what was happening, he brutally grabbed her wrist in a crushing grip.
« Too slow », he said in a calm voice.
With a sharp, ruthless motion, he violently slammed her against the concrete ground of the dock. Cortana slid for several meters before stopping against a stack of crates.
Vega clenched his teeth.
He immediately dashed into action.
He bondit into the air and delivered a masterful spinning backkick aimed directly at Conter's head. The impact resonated in the air.
Without giving him time to recover, Vega followed up on the ground with a left hook, followed by a powerful right straight. Each blow was delivered with immense force, making the surrounding air vibrate.
Conter's body swayed slightly under the impacts… then slowly returned to its initial position.
As if nothing had happened.
Vega froze in hesitation. He had just understood something terrible: this titanium could negate powers.
Conter raised his eyes toward him.
Then, suddenly, he went on the attack.
His fist tore through the air at a brutal speed and struck Vega's stomach. The shock was so violent that Vega was lifted off the ground before being launched like a projectile against a metal container.
The crash of metal echoed throughout the harbor.
Vega fell heavily to the ground, his breath completely cut short.
Cortana stood back up with difficulty. Her breathing was irregular, but her gaze remained dark with determination.
« He takes hits too well… He negates powers and destroys our defense, we are in a really bad spot », she thought.
Conter began to advance slowly toward them, his steps echoing on the damp concrete of the dock.
Brutally, a fire arrow crashed onto the top of his head, exploding violently and making him step back. He suffered no apparent damage. Turning his eyes to the left, he saw Dark Wolf running toward him. Vega screamed into his earpiece:
« Boss, watch out, he's immune! »
« I gathered », Dark retorted.
He picked up a heavy metal bar in the middle of his run, braced himself against a crate, and leaped toward Conter.
He brought the bar down horizontally with all his might.
Conter simply raised his arm to block.
The bar struck his forearm with a sharp metallic sound.
The collision was so titanic that the bar bent slightly, molding to the shape of the monster's arm.
Dark's eyes widened.
Conter grabbed the bar, snatched it from his hands, and tossed it away like a simple piece of useless scrap metal.
But Vega suddenly emerged behind him.
Despite the excruciating pain, he had stood back up.
Dark jumped onto Conter's back and locked his arms around his neck, attempting to strangle him with all his might.
« Now! », he yelled.
Vega understood instantly.
He took a monumental leap and bounded forward, driving his knee full-force into Conter's face.
For a fraction of a second… everything seemed to stop.
Then Conter finally moved.
He firmly grabbed Vega's arm and threw him over his shoulder with herculean strength.
Vega crashed violently onto the tarmac, executing a painful roll.
Dark slid off the giant's back and quietly wiped the blood dripping from his own hand.
A slight smile appeared on his lips.
« Hmm, you are definitely more durable than the others », he said calmly.
Cortana went back into her guard.
Vega stood up step by step behind her.
Suddenly, beneath Conter's foot, a black hand emerged from his shadow and tried to drag him down, but the colossus did not move a millimeter. He grabbed the hand with his bare strength and, with a sharp yank, dragged Ghost out of the shadow realm. Ghost could not believe his eyes. Conter threw him savagely against a loading crane. The impact was so brutal that the entire metallic structure shook.
« Son of a bitch… », Ghost muttered, before quickly evaporating into the shadows.
The other members of the DH ARMY, seeing the fight turn sour, rushed to intervene. But before they could reach the scene, armed men rushed down from the cruise ship, which instantly began to move away as all the remaining soldiers retreated on board.
Vega, watching the boat escape, clenched his fists in frustration:
« Right now, we could really use the rookie… Where the hell is he?! »
An unknown but confident man's voice echoed in the earpieces of the entire team:
« [ I'm here, I'll be there in ten seconds. ] »
« Where the hell were you, rookie?! », Big Zero growled.
« [ I was wrapping up my investigation. This whole thing is a trap. They wanted to trap you all in a prolonged fight so that when the Armored Units arrive, they can arrest you directly. And another thing: the Armored Units never received info regarding child trafficking. They barely just found out about it. ] »
Meanwhile, Dark Wolf and the others continued their fierce duel against Conter. They attacked him from all sides, but the titanium skin remained unbothered. He took every hit without flinching and retaliated with brute force.
A few meters away, the roar of a motorcycle engine was heard. Glancing behind a container, Dark saw a black sports motorcycle with proud red lines. The rider, dressed in the official DH ARMY suit, targeted a platoon of enemy soldiers. He leaned his machine into a spectacular drift toward them and ejected himself from the saddle mid-momentum. The motorcycle continued its wild course alone, and as soon as it slid to their feet, the rider drew a plasma pistol and fired a bullet of pure energy with pinpoint accuracy directly into the fuel tank. The impact triggered an instant and devastating explosion.
He wore tactical trousers heavily loaded with technological gadgets and featured a compound bow secured on his back.
He analyzed the positioning of the troops, took a deep breath, and dashed onto the battlefield, running toward the scene while letting his plasma pistol talk against the soldiers, rarely missing his target. The soldiers retaliated by opening heavy fire in his direction. He executed a series of maneuvers to dodge the bullets, taking cover behind containers. He grabbed his bow and notched three arrows simultaneously. He unleashed a quick shot before ducking back into cover. One arrow caught a soldier right in the chest, but the other two missed.
He continued running behind the containers. The soldiers kept firing, and one bullet hit his shoulder while another grazed his left forearm. Suddenly, behind the enemy group, the three arrows he had fired previously exploded, killing the tracking soldiers. They were explosive arrows.
Emerging from behind three containers, he launched two small tactical throwing knives straight into the heads of two sentries, dropping them instantly. Without losing a single second, he charged straight toward Conter and shouted to Big Zero:
« Mr. Zero! Freeze him! »
Without questioning, Big Zero thrust his hands forward. A wave of ice surged over Conter and froze him, but not for long. He immediately began to shatter the ice prison.
The biker sprinted toward him, slapped a small branded device equipped with a flashing chip directly onto Conter's frozen chest, then shouted at the top of his lungs:
« Everyone fall back! Move back! »
All the members of the DH ARMY trusted the rookie and threw themselves backward to take cover. The biker glanced at his wrist and pressed a button on his computer.
In the air, a guided missile deployed from their plane and dived at supersonic speed toward the harbor. The biker climbed onto a container, gave a mocking military salute, and screamed at the top of his lungs:
« EBEBI AWA! »
Then, suddenly…
BOOM!
The missile crashed right onto Conter, triggering a titanic explosion.
Meanwhile, in the air, Odin had finally managed to defeat the woman. She was lying on the deck, unconscious, but Odin himself was in poor shape. He saw the boat carrying the children drifting rapidly toward the horizon. He dashed toward the vessel, grabbed the first container filled with children, and began to lift it slowly. He noticed that Cisnet was standing on the command bridge, observing him with a foolishly provocative smile. Odin tucked the container safely away and went back for the second one, lifting it slowly, but Cisnet started dancing on the boat's deck as if he couldn't care less about the situation.
« You, I'm coming back to kill you… », Odin growled.
« Go ahead, leave with your containers. Either way, what I actually want to smuggle isn't in those! »
On the harbor dock, all the super-terrorists were out of commission.
Suddenly, a shrill and distant wail of sirens tore through the night:
Hon! Hon! Hon!
The regular army's Armored Units were approaching in their assault vehicles.
Koudri finally regained consciousness and flew toward the fleeing cargo ship. Chevalier, for his part, was already safe inside the vessel, having not lifted a finger to fight.
Koudri rose above the mast, raised her hands toward the heavens, and struck the boat with a powerful lightning bolt that instantly made the whole vessel invisible.
Sensing the authorities' trap closing in, the DH ARMY plane dived down, stabilizing its position by hovering above the dock. The entire team scrambled back on board via the cargo ramp without losing a single fraction of a second. Before slipping inside, Dark Wolf left a mysterious object on the ground, then climbed in. The plane activated its camouflage, instantly becoming invisible, before disappearing into the pitch-black night.
Several black armored cars parked with a screech of tires around the corpses and unconscious terrorists. Dozens of elite soldiers dressed in ultra-heavy, black cybernetic armor stepped out. From the lead car, a man finally stepped forward. He was more imposing than all the others, and engraved on his metallic breastplate was the symbol of a stopwatch. He swept the deserted battlefield with his gaze, nervously tapped his foot against the concrete, then declared in a robotic, mechanical voice:
« We missed them. »