"Athena, mark all exterior windows connected to the firing lane," Tang Ziyi ordered calmly. "Identify the target's position and relay it to our teammates outside."
Blue overlays instantly appeared across the operators' lenses, particularly the Spirit Fox mbers among the backyard team. Several windows along the outer wall pulsed red.
"Confird," Athena replied. "Neutrino elents scanning across satellites and crisscrossing data feedback from operators' helt cams. Primary hostile likely positioned center-left behind a reinforced furniture stack. Aunt Tang, I observe slight changes in positioning every now and then according to the bullets' trajectories. He's moving around to prevent you from guessing accurately."
BRRRRRRRT!!
Another vicious PKM burst tore through the corridor.
The walls trembled again.
Dust drifted downward like ash.
Ahmin exhaled slowly, forcing herself to remain calm despite the absurdity unfolding before her eyes. Her commandos were already seasoned fighters by militia standards, yet this level of sustained pressure inside CQB territory bordered on insanity.
Heck, they could probably compare to smaller nations' special units capable of eliminating national threats.
This current dilemma had never appeared in her military career before. Ahmin reflected silently and wondered if she had fallen behind.
Yet, studying her fellow GSS operators' and Tang Ziyi's reactions, Ahmin recognized everyone was in the sa shithole. A relief amidst irony.
A hallway machine gun should never dominate this long against a prepared assault elent.
Not unless the defenders possessed sothing abnormal.
Tang Ziyi leaned against the wall and listened carefully.
Gunfire. Grenades.
Movent.
Then.
Nothing else. No shouted commands. No panic. No emotional fluctuations. Just continuous chanical violence. Alone mad lion trapped.
Her expression gradually darkened.
"Change of objective," Tang Ziyi suddenly said.
Ahmin turned toward her imdiately.
"We kill him."
The nearby militia commandos stiffened slightly. Capture had been the priority from the beginning.
Intel.
Interrogation.
Strategic exploitation.
Everyone in the operation knew they were after intelligence to prepare for future stages and uncover more about the mysterious and formidable rise of ISIS.
But Tang Ziyi's tone left no room for debate.
"He's too dangerous?" Ahmin asked quietly.
Tang Ziyi nodded once.
"This isn't normal combat behavior. Either he dies now, or more people die trying to restrain him."
Actually, your girls dying, not mine, Tang Ziyi thought.
Not to ntion, this guy might not even be the HVT, but rely so high-tier elite thug.
Furthermore, even if he really were the boss—which she doubted, since most leaders were terrible fighters—prying truthful information out of his mouth would be another ordeal entirely.
She couldn't afford to risk her allies' lives for so uncertain probability.
Another grenade rolled out.
Clink.
This ti, nobody panicked.
The won had already adapted.
"Grenade!"
BOOM!!
The blast shook the corridor again.
Before the debris settled—
BRRRRRRT!!
The PKM resud instantly.
Tang Ziyi's eyes sharpened coldly.
There.
No transition noise. No repositioning, not large distance from her perspective anyway. No assistant feeding the belt.
No pause from concussive recovery.
Even elite fighters degraded under repeated flash pressure and overpressure inside enclosed spaces.
But the enemy maintained impossible consistency.
The only window of opportunity existed when grenades appeared in her vision. Perhaps, to throw accurately, the terrifying culprit had to focus more on his hands.
The backyard team leader's voice arrived softly through the comms.
"Periter teams in position. We have identified exterior windows to attack. Awaiting orders."
Tang Ziyi imdiately issued orders.
"Flash entry only. No lethal rockets. No offensive grenades. We still need structural integrity. Recomnd multiple nine-bangers."
She didn't desire to harm helpless bystanders caught in the crossfire. They had already seen several innocents during the initial clearance. Imprisoned here, willingly or unwillingly, who knew.
And there was still a chance the hoowners remained inside. Although she would rather harm innocents than place her teams in danger, the predicant before her eyes hadn't reached that stage yet where collateral damage could be disregarded entirely.
Everything remained under her control so far.
"Understood."
Ahmin blinked.
Even now, Tang Ziyi remained composed enough to control escalation carefully.
The discipline was terrifying.
Tang Ziyi raised three fingers toward the stack.
Everyone tightened their grips.
Two fingers.
The PKM continued roaring.
One finger.
"Hotel Backyard, execute. Execute."
Outside—
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Puff! Puff! Puff!
Several dark objects smashed simultaneously through the exterior windows. At the sa ti, the operators fired at the windows and every possible opening.
Though Athena confird only a single shooter inside, uncertainty always existed.
So could be hiding to ambush.
So could be bait.
So could mislead.
Despite the low probability, what if every throwable got tossed back toward them? No one fancied the idea of being blinded multiple tis by their own 'friendly fire.'
To ensure perfection, the Spirit Fox operators suppressed every window and opening designated by Tang Ziyi.
The enemy reacted instantly.
BRRRRT!!
The PKM shifted toward the windows, alard by the sudden intrusion and flanking maneuver.
FLASH!!
FLASH-FLASH!!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The second floor detonated in violent white light.
Even through filtered night vision, the hallway beca a miniature sunburst, continuously lighting up from the nine-bangers and flashbangs.
Tang Ziyi moved instantly.
"PUSH PUSH PUSH!"
Spirit Fox surged forward aggressively. The reluctant commandos pressed onward as they saw their comrades serving as the vanguard.
This ti, there was no cautious probing or slicing.
No asured pacing.
Only speed and aggression.
The operators flooded the corridor at a near-sprinting pace while the militia commandos followed behind in staggered formation.
Tang Ziyi and the Spirit Fox mbers weren't keen on waiting or considering their allies' hesitation. Eliminating the threat beca the priority.
The PKM resud firing blindly.
Wild this ti.
Finally imperfect.
Rounds smashed high into the ceiling instead of controlled chest-level sweeps.
The suppression still worked well. But the fact that he could still fire sowhat in their general direction delivered a warning—the fighter seed capable of resisting the flashes.
Tang Ziyi reached the first barricade and kicked it aside.
Furniture crashed apart.
A figure erged behind it—
Massive.
The man barely flinched from the flashbang effects.
His PKM remained locked into his shoulder.
A shredded ammunition belt fed across the floor beside him in impossible quantities. Copper casings flooded the entire corridor floor.
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