Zack hovered above, watg the se with a trace ret. "What a waste," he muttered. "If they’d gone off, I could’ve told Ava and the others not to bother ing."With a sharp dive, Zack aimed for the military base at the heart of Caribbean base.

  In the aer, chaos erupted. “Fuck! Fuck!!” The roars of frustration from Jod another officer echoed through the room, their curses carrying the weight of desperation. “Launch the missiles! Intercept him now!” Jock bellowed.

  A pale-faced subordiammered, “C-Chief, all the anti-aircraft ons were destroyed in the initial attack.”

  “What about the stingers?!” Joapped, practically spitting the words. “Those handheld missiles—we’ve still got those, right? Use them! Take him down!”

  No one had the heart to remind him that handheld ons like Stingers were meant for helicopters and slow-moving aircraft, not a man in a high-tech suit zipping through the air like a fal.

  Before anyone could respond, Jock felt a sharp pain in his back, a cold chill spreading through his chest. He looked down in horror to see a bloodied fist bursting through his ribcage, clutg his still-beati.

  Jock’s wide eyes locked onto Navas, his trusted ally, standing behind him. "Y-You…” he gasped, but the words died on his lips as his body colpsed to the floor. His lifeless gaze seemed to ask a silent question: Why?

  Navas, unfazed, dropped the heart onto the ground and crushed it underfoot. "Pathetic," he growled.

  “Why now?” Kshatti, another officer, asked, clearly uled but irely surprised. His words weren’t a protest, just mild annoyaiming could’ve beeer.”

  “He was useless anyway. Couldn’t handle one enemy in the sky,” Navas snapped. As he spoke, he ripped his shirt off, revealing rippling, steel-like muscles. A tattoo of a ferocious tiger’s head on his chest seemed almost alive, its savage eyes gring.

  “Sir, high-energy biological activity detected!” Ego’s voice chimed in Zack’s headset as he streaked toward the base.

  “High energy?” Zaced at the HUD and spotted the man standing in front of the tral building. Shirtless, tattooed, and radiating a dangerous aura, the man stood motionless as if daring Zack to approach.

  “Name: Navas Puticha,” Ego began, ung into a detailed rundown. “Male, 31. Former professional Muay Thai fighter, known as the 'Bck Tiger.' Senteo life in prison for killing his oppo and the referee during a match. Known for extreme violence, ibalism, and a... peculiar i in women over forty.”

  “Charming,” Zack muttered with a smirk. “Bck Tiger, huh?” He hovered in mid-air, raising his palm to charge the suit’s pulse on.

  But instead of fear, Navas wore a twisted grin, his fidennerving. "You think you’re untouchable just because you fly?" he shouted, his voice ced with malice. As he spoke, the tiger tattoo on his chest began to glow an ominous red, pulsating like it had a heartbeat of its own. “That’s… new,” Zack muttered.

  With a sudden roar, Navas ched his fist and puoward the sky. The air around him rippled violently as shockwaves exploded outward, yer upon yer, creating a visible distortion imosphere. The sheer force of the punch sent debris flying in all dires. Fallen leaves, dust, even loose metal poles were torn apart by the pressure.The shockwave raced toward Zack, shredding through everything in its path. Below, a metal streetmp crumpled like paper, its shattered pieces scattering in all dires.

  Navas’s ability to press air in a specific area, creating unstable high-pressure waves, owerful enough to tear through most targets. Theoretically, if developed further, he could bee a true powerhouse, capable of creating wind walls and barriers from thin air. But for now, his skills were raw and ineffit.

  “The st person who tried to blow me away with an air on was a zombie…” Zack's calm voice echoed through the air, breaking Navas’s fierce tration. For the first time, a flicker of emotion crossed Navas’s face—a mixture of disbelief and frustration.

  “How is this possible?” Navas stared in shock at Zack, h unharmed in the air. His air wave attack could tear through armored vehicles. Was this man wearing armor strohan a tank?

  If someone like Zack were present, they’d definitely avas on the shoulder and firm his suspi: Zack’s armor wasn’t just strohan a tank—it was at least twice as durable. “If this is the best you’ve got…” Zack’s voice turned cold, his meical suit glowing faintly as he prepared to strike. “Then you die.”

  In an instant, Zack dove toward Navas like an arrow, the thrusters on his suit propelling him downward. Navas raised his fist, ready to attack again, but before he could rea! Boom!

  Two sharp particle beams shot from Zack’s gaus, hitting Navas’s raised hand with precision. A sizzling sound filled the air as most of his ched fist melted away, leaving only bone and shredded skin.

  “AHHHHH!” The deyed pain hit Navas like a freight train, his screams of agony pierg the air. But Zack didn’t give him time to recover. In one swift motion, Zack crashed into him, grabbing his face with his steel hand and smming him into the ground.

  The sheer force of the impact shattered the crete as Zack pushed Navas along the pavement, the high-speed fri leaving a long, bloody smear behind. Navas struggled, his vision bing, his head grinding against the ground while heat and pain burned his skin. By the time Zack stopped, Navas’s back was shredded, with bones visibly protruding, and the back of his skull had been scraped ft.

  Zack stood over him, his armored frame t like airabbing Navas by the head with one hand, he lifted the injured man off the ground effortlessly. “If I remember correctly,” Zack said, his tone mog, “you called me a Stupid bastard, didn’t you?”

  Navas roared in pain and anger, swinging his remaining fist wildly at Zack’s armor. The hits were futile, barely leaving a scrat the steel. “It seems like that hurt…” Zaented dryly before tightening his grip on Navas’s skull.

  The pressure made Navas feel like his head would burst. “AHHH!” Navas howled, his voice crag uhe strain.

  “Enough!” Zack barked, sileng the air. With his free hand, Zack struavas across the face, shattering his teeth in a single blow. Blood spttered as Zack reached into Navas’s mouth, grabbing his tongue and ripping it out with brutal efficy.

  Blood gushed from Navas’s mouth, choking him as he gurgled ily. His mutated physique kept him from dying immediately, but this resilienly prolonged his suffering.“Now,” Zack said, hoisting the bloodied and battered Navas like a broken doll, “take me to Officer Jock.”

  Zack carried Navas through the entrance of the building, his gait casual, as if he were strolling through his own garden. Ego, the AI ied into his suit, sed the building’s yout and projected it onto Zack’s HUD. With a gnce, Zack identified the and room and began walking toward it.