Under the compound’s countless, complicated stares, Fallen Star Squad stepped forward and shouldered a catastrophe that—by all rights—should’ve taken the entire compound to withstand.
It left the Enhanced who’d been ready to throw their lives away... not quite sure what to do with themselves.
For a lot of them, this was the first ti they’d ever seen Fallen Star Squad up close.
And the first impression hit like a hamr.
Back in the compound, the common labels for Fallen Star Squad were: strong, overbearing, arrogant.
But right now, what they showed wasn’t any of that.
It was simple, brutal invincibility.
Everyone already knew what they were facing. The leader was Tier 11. The rest were all Tier 10.
A pack of Titan Apes that terrifying—yet Fallen Star Squad held them in place, not letting them advance even a single step.
In the thick of the fight, Ethan gripped his poleaxe and went at the Titan Ape leader the most direct way possible—violent, relentless chops, like he was trying to split a mountain in half.
Man and beast collided again and again. Every impact sent Ethan skidding back more than ten steps, boots gouging the ground.
But the Titan Ape leader was forced back a few steps too, every ti.
In raw strength, a power-type monster like a Titan Ape still had the edge over Ethan.
But Ethan had the poleaxe.
He wasn’t worried.
Anyone paying close attention could see it: the Titan Ape leader’s fist was already a mangled ss of blood and torn flesh. If it kept trading like this, that hand was going to be ruined.
On the other side...
Chris and the others were fighting the Tier 10 Titan Apes toe-to-toe, trading blows without giving an inch.
Chris’s spear was wrapped in the black edge of his ability—dark锋芒 clinging to the weapon like a hungry blade. After taking a few losses, his opponent no longer dared to et it head-on.
Chris drove it back, pressing hard, taking the initiative completely.
Sean’s arms had turned to tal, the transformation massively boosting both his strength and his ability to take recoil. He swung his tal staff like a sledgehamr, smashing again and again without worrying about blowback.
The Titan Ape in front of him was forced into a steady retreat.
Garrick was covered head to toe in Earthen Armor. With a tal club in hand—plus earthen spikes stabbing up from the ground at random and boulders dropping from above—his opponent was kept scrambling nonstop.
Those three—Chris, Sean, Garrick—were all lee, and they were straight-up bullying their Tier 10 targets.
Big Mike rained down Rain of Flas. Skinny Pete carved the air with Wind Cutter. Henry fired Void Beam.
With their ranged skills layered over their weapons and positioning, they made the Titan Apes’ lives miserable—forcing dodges, breaking rhythm, constantly disrupting any chance to build montum.
But the first real breakthrough ca from Mia.
At peak Tier 9, she opened against a Tier 10 Titan Ape by freezing it into a solid, human-shaped block of ice.
Then she stepped in and drove her sword hard into its neck.
She didn’t manage to take the head clean off—but the cut was deep enough to cripple it. From that mont on, the Titan Ape’s combat power dropped sharply, its movents slower, its reactions dulled.
The only one truly in danger was Emily.
Her abilities were support-type—no direct combat boost at all. And she’d joined the latest. She’d only been practicing the Body Refinent Technique’s strength-building thods for a few days, nowhere near long enough for the results to show.
Against a Tier 10 Titan Ape, she was hanging on by her fingernails.
It didn’t take long before she was badly wounded, blood staining her clothes.
Even so, Emily clenched her teeth and refused to fold.
She never forgot what Ethan had told them.
Fallen Star Squad had no weaklings.
She knew she was weak right now—but she would grind until she caught up.
The onlookers could see it too.
They also knew Emily used to be from Silverfox Squad, before she joined Fallen Star Squad.
Sa Tier—yet the gap in real fighting ability was this outrageous.
It was proof enough: Fallen Star Squad’s people were the real deal. Even fighting soone at the sa Tier, there probably weren’t many who could stand against them.
And a lot of people noticed sothing else—sothing that made their scalp prickle.
The abilities Fallen Star Squad mbers were using... didn’t match what had been registered.
There was only one explanation.
They were Awakened.
Dual-ability users.
So many Awakened in one squad...
It was terrifying.
Watching Emily get knocked down, then force herself back up again, a lot of people felt their throats tighten.
"Colonel Mitchell, we should go help," Rambo said, turning to him.
Colonel Mitchell shook his head. "Ethan hasn’t said a word. Nobody acts on their own. I trust Ethan—he knows what he’s doing."
"...Alright."
The fight kept going. Everyone else’s battles had stabilized—so were even starting to tilt in their favor.
But Emily’s fight was brutal.
Normally she was soft-spoken, almost delicate. Now she was burning with a stubbornness that didn’t seem possible in soone like her.
Every ti the Titan Ape smashed her away, people thought, That’s it. She’s not getting up.
And every ti, she’d use her ability to restore her stamina, drag herself upright, grab her weapon, and charge back in—stabbing again.
The Titan Ape she was fighting had been punctured with several bloody holes.
But it barely mattered.
Its fists, on the other hand, sent her flying every single ti they connected.
When Emily—covered in blood—stood up yet again, more and more eyes filled with genuine respect.
"Stop forcing it!" soone shouted, unable to watch anymore. "If you keep this up, you’ll die!"
Colonel Mitchell finally couldn’t take it. He shouted toward Ethan, "Ethan—let us help! We can hold! Let her rest for a minute!"
Ethan glanced over between exchanges and said flatly, "No."
Of course everyone had noticed what was happening to Emily. Ethan and Fallen Star Squad weren’t blind.
They just... hadn’t stepped in on purpose.
They were forcing Emily to grow.
But they were also watching her like hawks. If she was ever truly in danger, they’d intervene imdiately.
As long as her life wasn’t on the line, a few injuries didn’t matter. With Henry around, even the worst wounds could be healed.
Right then, the large group of wounded Tier 9 Titan Apes in the distance finally reached them.
Colonel Mitchell’s expression tightened.
Alright. Our turn.
He was about to issue the order for the soldiers to engage—
When several nearly ten-foot-tall white apes appeared in the distance, sprinting toward them at terrifying speed.
The mont Colonel Mitchell saw them, his eyelid twitched.
Years of fighting gave him a gut feeling he trusted more than any briefing.
Those white-furred apes... might be even worse than the Titan Apes.
"How is this even happening...?" Colonel Mitchell felt bitterness rise in his chest.
Just when he’d started to believe Fallen Star Squad had this disaster under control, another batch of even scarier mutant beasts showed up.
Are they ssing with us?
Others saw them too. Shock rolled through the crowd in a wave.
Even from far away, you could feel it—the pressure coming off those white-furred apes was downright lethal.
But what really stunned everyone was this—
The Tier 9 Titan Apes that had been advancing stopped dead. So even started edging backward like they didn’t want to be noticed.
The Titan Apes already fighting also disengaged instantly, backing away with wary eyes fixed on the newcors.
"Holy shit..." Even the Titan Ape leader looked dumbstruck. "Why are those freaks here too?!"
It couldn’t wrap its head around it.
I ran to another world and I still ran into these terrifying bastards?
Ethan, on the other hand, smiled.
"Finally. You made it."
Fallen Star Squad glanced at him nervously. "Captain... they are...?"
Ethan nodded, still smiling. "Friendly. It’s handled."
"Thank god." Relief and excitent broke across everyone’s faces.
Then, almost in sync, they turned toward the Titan Apes with a look that was half amusent, half cruelty.
"You’re finished."
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