"You probably wouldn’t even win against my warrior," Zack said calmly, finishing the st adjustment to his dark nanosuit. The sleek suit hugged his form perfectly, leaving him a menag silhouette. He pced the helmet on his head, activating the suit fully.
"But I decided to deal with you myself. Want to know why?" As the helmet clicked into pce, the nanosuit came alive. tless nanofibers pierced deep into Zack’s body, stimuting his muscles, nerves, and bloodstream. The suit accelerated his blood flow, delivering oxygen to his brain at an unpreted rate. Every fiber of his bei like it was on fire, ready to explode with power.
"Because you pissed me off!" Zack roared, charging forward to meet the oning bear. The brown bear lu him, its enormous paw sweeping down with crushing force. Zack ched his fist, the power of the nanosuit amplifying every muscle in his arm. As he swung, he felt the air resist his punch, as if the sheer velocity was trying to hold him back.
BOOM!
The sound was like a drumbeat from the heavens. Zack’s fist collided with the bear’s paw, pung straight through it. Blood sprayed as bones shattered. A gaping hole the size of a bowl was left in the bear’s paw, Zack’s fist tearing through it effortlessly.
CRACK!
Zack withdrew his fist, fragments of bone flying in all dires along with streams of blood.
"ROAR!!!" The monstrous bear howled in agony, its t form stumbling back a few steps. Despite its size and strength, fear flickered in its eyes as it stared at Zack.
Even though Zack stood only 1.95 meters tall—just over two meters in the nanosuit—he was like a titan to the bear. The ma, enhanced in both strength and defense, had fur that could withstand armor-pierg bullets. A, Zack’s fist had torn through it like paper.
At the base of the mountain, Bck Hand stood frozen in disbelief. Cloaked entirely in bck, his meical, synthesized voice trembled with frustration. Everything he’d been told about Zack had been wrong.
The reports were clear: Zack, the leader of NYC City Base, was a tech guy. His strength supposedly came from the exoskeleton suits he designed. His forces sisted entirely of maes, not people. Bck Hand had believed every word. He’d even gone so far as to request aromagic pulse bomb specifically to ralize Zack’s tech.
But the reality? Zack had human soldiers. Not just any soldiers—super soldiers. And there weren’t just one or two; there were eight of them. On top of that, Zack himself wasn’t just a "tech guy." He was an overwhelming powerhouse. "This ieam deserves to be sent to Experimental Site No. 42!" Bck Hand snarled, his anger spilling over.
"Lillian! What are you waiting for? Kill him already!" In his rage, Bck Hand seemed to lose all posure, shouting at Lillian, who stood nearby in her bat uniform.
"Bck Hand!" Lillian’s voice was cold as ice. She drew a hilt from her waist, pointing it at him. The hilt had no visible bde, but it was enough to make Bck Hand step bastinctively. "I’m not one of your subordinates," she tinued, her tone sharp and unfiving. "Watch your words."
After a tense pause, she lowered the hilt, her gaze shifting toward Za the mountaintop. Her expression was unreadable, but deep inside, she felt something stra was irrational, but she couldn’t help it. Zack’s preseirred something in her, something she hadn’t felt before. "I’ll kill him," she said, her voice firm yet flicted. "But after this, you’d better apply for three days of leave for me."
Without waiting for a response, Lillian dashed toward Bear Mountain, moving with the speed and grace of a predator. The uerrain didn’t slow her down at all. To her, it was no different from ft ground.
Ba Bear Mountain, the massive brown bear—Verrik—was hesitant. The hole in his paw throbbed with pain, and Zack’s dispy of strength had shaken him. "ROAR!" He let out a warning roar, its injured paw curling us body as it crouched low to the ground. With three limbs supp its massive frame, it slowly began bag away.
"If you were a real brown bear, I might’ve sidered keeping you as a pet," Zack said, his voice ced with mockery as he approached the injured creature. The dark nanosuit g tightly to his body, its faint hum a testament to its activated power.
"But it’s a shame—you’re just a human," he added coldly. Before Zack could close the distahe sound of rapid footsteps echoed behind him. Lillian had arrived. "Kill it," Zack ordered, not b to turn around. pared to other enemies, Zack preferred fighting rge oppos like the brown bear. Their sheer size and power made victories against them all the more satisfying.
Without another word, Zack dashed toward the brown bear. His movement was so fast that the air around him seemed to ripple.
BOOM!
His upperded squarely on the bear’s , the force of the blow reverberating like a on bst.
CRACK!
The sound of bones breaking was sharp and unmistakable.
"ROAR!" The bear let out a guttural cry of pain as its jaw twisted grotesquely. Brokeh mixed with blood and saliva fell to the dirt below.
"Aren’t you here to behead me?" Zack shouted, his voice filled with fury as he unched another punch, this time straight to the bear’s face. The impact sent the massive beast crashing to the ground. It rolled twice before struggling to its feet, swaying unsteadily.
After several failed attempts to stay upright, the brown bear—Verrik—colpsed again. His paw was mangled, his jaw shattered, and his skull, one of the hardest parts of his body, was now riddled with cracks. Blood seeped into the dirt around his head as his battered form y motionless.
"You’re already done?" Zaeered, walking toward the falleure, ready to deliver the finishing blow. Before he could strike, a heavy crash sounded from behind him. Zack turned sharply to see one of the fearless warriors, nearly four meters tall, topple to the ground. Both of the warrior’s legs had been severed by an invisible bde, and the weight of the powered armor—nearly a ton—caused the earth to tremble upon impact.
Standing nearby was Lillian, a sleek bbat suit that atuated her agility and speed. She moved with the fluidity of water, weaving through the group of fearless warriors with ease, despite their relentless attempts to strike her. The fearless warriors weren’t ordinary fighters. They had ied a serum far superior to the sed-rate co used by the Vanguard anization. But against Lillian, their speed aion time seemed sluggish. She darted around them like a shadow, untouchable.
The bde in her hand, ected to a seemingly edgeless hilt, glowed faintly with a pale, moonlit light. With a single swing, it cut effortlessly through the warriors’ alloy steel armor, several timeters thick, as if it were paper. Even their bullet-resistant skin offered no prote against the bde’s deadly glow. "What is that?" Zack murmured, his voice tinged with unease. "A light bde?"
