Ethan had known exactly which room Rainie was being held in, and he also knew who was inside with her. His dramatic entrance had never been ant to be direct, it was simply a diversion, sothing loud and impossible to ignore, ant to draw their attention outward.
Landing from that height without his ch was not sothing he could do casually. While still in midair, he dismissed the armor and shifted into Bear Form, reinforcing his body with Iron Hide before impact. The ground cracked beneath him as he landed, dust and debris bursting outward, but no one rushed out of the target building. As the dust began to settle, the silence stretched on, and the cover he had created threatened to vanish.
He needed another distraction, sothing bigger.
Ethan surged forward in a Furious Charge, crossing the open space in seconds and slamming into the nearest guard tower. At its base, he unleashed a Savage Swipe, his phantom paws crashing into two of the four main support beams. They snapped apart like dry branches. The twenty-ter tower groaned, tilted, and collapsed in a thunderous roar, dragging the unfortunate sentinel down with it. The explosion of debris and pulverized concrete rolled outward in a thick, choking cloud.
That did it.
Almost imdiately, the front door of the main house swung open.
Panther Form... Stealth.
Activating his form skills in the real world did not literally turn him into an animal. Instead, a faint, spectral image of a panther appeared behind him, its presence sharp and predatory. In Panther Form, his movents beca smooth and precise, carrying the fluid lethality of a Rogue rather than a brute. His weapon responded to the shift. The Twilight War Spear dissolved into light and reford as Ashaman’s Fang, transforming his hands into gauntlets crowned with vicious, flickering energy claws.
He had already anticipated the polar ice-silk cocoon, knowing how unnaturally resilient the material was, so the change was deliberate. As the figures in the doorway reacted to the collapsing tower, Ethan slipped past them like a shadow, crossing the threshold without drawing a single glance.
In one clean bound, he was at Rainie’s side.
He raised his clawed hands, ready to tear through the silken prison and pull her free.
Just before his claws could touch the ice-silk, a blade of pure malice pierced the space between his shoulder blades, cold enough to make his instincts scream.
’So fast!’
The shock was imdiate. His Soul Sense had detected nothing behind him, no warning at all, which ant this had to be the girl Victor had ntioned. The mont she attacked, she revealed herself. A semi-transparent dagger shimred into existence within his perception, its freezing edge already grazing his skin. This was no ordinary weapon.
Ethan did not dare take the hit.
He twisted violently to the side, his body flowing with Panther Form’s agility as he lashed out with Shred. Three arcs of crimson energy tore through the air, slicing through the space where the dagger-wielding hand should have been. Even if she was invisible, she still had to be holding the weapon.
The arcs missed her entirely.
Instead, they flew onward, carving through a nearby table and several chairs ters away, leaving behind cuts so clean they looked almost unreal.
"Huh?"
Ethan frowned, confusion flashing through his mind. Did she dodge? If she had, then the dagger should have moved with her, but it had not. There was no ti to think it through.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Three gunshots erupted almost simultaneously.
The bullets scread toward him in a tight triangular formation, their angles carefully chosen to seal off any obvious escape. The shooter was Blackfin. Ethan had not paid the man much attention before, but this kind of marksmanship demanded respect. Firing three near-parallel shots from a handgun, each with a slightly different trajectory, required exceptional control.
A man leading a rcenary outfit in a place like this had to be dangerous.
Still, three bullets, no matter how well placed, ant nothing to him.
Ethan did not move.
He activated Battle Embodint, reinforcing himself with two additional layers of Iron Hide. He doubted a handgun could penetrate his defenses, but caution cost nothing.
Ting. Ting. Ting.
The specially crafted bullets struck the shimring silver barrier around his body and flattened on impact, deforming into dull chunks of lead before dropping uselessly to the floor.
In that sa mont, the figure who had been lunging in from Ethan’s flank reacted instantly. Shadowstrike saw the bullets collapse harmlessly against Ethan’s defenses and abandoned his attack without hesitation. Twisting mid-motion, he tried to retreat. If armor-piercing rounds had done nothing, his blade was worse than useless.
He barely made it halfway through the turn.
"Shadowstrike. Long ti no see. Running already? Get down."
Ethan’s voice was calm and cold. On the final word, Shadowstrike felt sothing vast and crushing blot out the light above him, followed by a flash of searing pain that exploded across his face. A heartbeat later, his body was smashed flat against the floorboards with a heavy, bone-jarring thud.
It all happened within the span of two heartbeats.
Shadowstrike groaned and writhed, then slowly forced himself up on one elbow, his vision swimming. Blackfin stood frozen in the doorway, his expression unreadable, eyes sharp and calculating as he took in the scene. Ethan barely spared them a glance. His attention lingered instead on the one presence he still could not sense.
"Who are you?" Shadowstrike rasped. The words ca out hoarse, edged with confusion. The phrase "long ti no see" gnawed at him. He prided himself on caution, and he did not rember crossing paths with anyone this dangerous.
"He’s Druid God."
The answer did not co from Ethan.
It ca from a soft, sweet voice, girlish and oddly cheerful, sounding from five paces to Ethan’s left.
He frowned and turned his head. The air rippled, light bending as if disturbed by heat. A mont later, the girl who had been sitting in the Humvee’s passenger seat stepped into view, her form resolving as if she had always been there.
"What?" Shadowstrike sucked in a sharp breath. "Druid God? From Ethereal?"
Shock flickered across his face, then sothing unexpected followed, relief. A rival from a ga was far preferable to a naless monster who killed without reason. Ethan’s restraint, the fact that he was still alive, suddenly made sense. This was not personal.
Neither Ethan nor the girl acknowledged him.
Ethan slowly turned his entire body toward her, every movent deliberate. She stood only five steps away now, close enough that he could see the faint curve of her smile.
"You’re standing awfully close," he said quietly. "Aren’t you afraid I’ll swat you like a fly?"
As he spoke, he expanded his Soul Sense to its limit, finally locking onto her presence now that she was no longer hidden.
"Tehehe, you wouldn’t," she giggled, her cheeks flushing pink like an excited fan eting her idol. "Can I get your autograph?"
"Uh..."
For a fraction of a second, her reaction caught him off guard.
Then his expression hardened.
In the very next instant, Ethan exploded forward. He activated Force Resonance, but instead of channeling it into his arms, he drove it straight into his legs.
BOOM!
The floor cracked beneath his feet as he vanished. The five-step distance ceased to exist, erased in less than a thousandth of a second.
"You really think you can play mind gas with ?" he snarled. "You’re dead."
The impact shook the room. His body slamd into the far wall, plaster shattering outward. His hand was already clenched tight around a throat, lifting a struggling figure off the ground and pinning her high against the fractured surface.
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