The deploynt bay sealed with a hollow clang that vibrated through Leon’s boots. The white light shifted to amber, casting long shadows across the floor.
Leon stood, leaning against the wall, his fingers curled loosely at his sides.
At his opposite angle, Bao Xiong adjusted the straps of the armor that miraculously appeared from nowhere.
Wu Ze stood in a rigid stance beside Bao Xiong, her chin lifted, eyes forward, and jaws hardened enough that the tension in her cheeks was visible.
An Lang, on the other hand, swallowed repeatedly, flexing his hands as if testing to see whether they still belonged to him.
And for Liu Yan, she leaned against the adjacent wall, tucking a helt under her arm, and counting her fingers in respect to the lives she wanted to live.
At the ceiling of the moving bay, a loud voice cracked their silent stance.
"Squad 7-Gamma. Final Confirmation. Urban Pacification Drill. Chaos City, Sector Five. Ti remaining: sixty seconds."
Leon exhaled slowly through his nose, closing his eyes. ’Chaos City. Huh.’
Through Liu Yan’s teaching he had been receiving, he knew the mortality rate in the city, the monsters that blended themselves with the ruins and devoured all prey if they ca into contact.
Lastly, the worst thing that gave him the uncomfortable feeling was the last thing Liu Yan told him: Skill grows through struggle. And, killing a higher-ranked being without resistance damages one’s skill.
’So how should we fight them?’ he said low in his head, then brushed his palms across his face, sighing.
An Lang stiffened as the bay jolted inward. His eyes darted to Leon for half a second, carrying the stare of the dead, then drifted from him.
"Let’s get to work," Liu Yan said in a calm voice, staring at Leon. She slid her helt on and sealed it with a sharp click.
"Let’s maintain our formation." She tilted her gaze to Bao Xiong. "Since this is Leon’s first ti, he will be at the center, agree?"
All three of them, including Leon, making four, said in one voice, "Yeah."
Leon tilted his gaze to Liu Yan, nodded, then gave her a wink. He felt the squad’s attention settling on him like a physical weight on his shoulders.
An Lang moved a step closer to Leon, leaning to his ear. "We will try to protect you. Try to survive."
He moved back, but his gaze never left Leon’s slightly shocked face.
The chanical humming sound in the bay deepened as soon as the gravity in it shifted. Then, in a blink, the floor they stood on vanished.
Leon’s stomach lurched as they fell in a controlled tunnel. His knees bent as soon as his boots slamd hard against another ground.
There, thick air vibrated through his chest, through his teeth, and through his jet-black hair. He tried calming his breath, but the loud roaring sound from afar made his lungs refuse him.
When all four of his squad landed beside him, dust exploded upward, seeping through the small space they stood on.
Leon’s teeth gagged as shock traveled up the bones in his legs and into his spine.
After two minutes, the hatch at their front blew open with a vibrating sound and grinding speed that sent every last composure in him to dissipate.
Blinding light seeped into the open vault they stood in, carrying the sharp tang of rust, smoke, and the fading sour taste that almost made him vomit.
"Brace yourself, Leon," Liu Yan said, placing a warm hand on Leon’s back.
Watching his squad move out in a graceful stance, the bones in Leon’s legs trembled as he tried to take a step forward.
His nose burned as the pressure in the air increased after another loud banging sound echoed from a distance.
When he finally exited from the vault, his eyes darted around. First, on a collapsed street that stretched ahead with fractured asphalt that ford uneven slopes.
On his second turn, he saw burned-out vehicles scattered like discarded sea shells. Buildings leaned at broken angles, their upper floors collapsed beyond recognition on his third turn.
His boots crunched down onto debris as he moved five steps forward, entirely leaving the side of the vault.
’Where did the roaring sound co from earlier?’ He turned a confused gaze, stared at the backs of his squad, then shifted his gaze to the collapsed buildings.
"This sector seems to be cleared," Bao Xiong stated, after scanning the left and right without any sign of life.
Wu Ze kept on moving forward in careful steps, her eyes tracking the slanted rooftops.
She pulled out a short pencil, which transford into a seven-foot katana sword after she pressed the red button on the top.
"Do you all have weapons, and I don’t?" Leon asked in an extrely shocked voice.
Liu Yan turned, placed a finger on her lips, then frowned. She neared Leon as soon as Leon’s mouth moved, as though he wanted to say another word.
From behind Leon, An Lang moved in circles around the vault, breathing shallowly. He stopped at the front of the vault, swallowed hard, then forced himself to move, joining the squad.
Just about a foot away from Leon, who was the last person, sothing caught An Lang’s eyes that made him pause his leg and stiffen.
On the third floor of a half-collapsed block, sothing with dark skin withdrew behind a jagged window fra. The movent was too fast, and only An Lang saw it.
An Lang tried to speak but couldn’t when he saw bright red eyes staring back at him from that sa angle.
He lifted his hand slightly and pointed two fingers at it, then tapped his fingers, signaling his squad.
Liu Yan followed An Lang’s gaze, turned slightly, her knees bending.
"We’ve been spotted," Bao Xiong said under his breath, followed by a wide smile that spread across his face.
Leon’s vision sharpened, almost to that of an eagle, staring in the direction An Lang had pointed. He felt a blazing sun hibernating in his eye sockets when he saw the blazing eyes from the jagged window’s side.
Wu Ze tightened her grip on the katana, then shifted her leg position and turned her head slightly toward Bao Xiong. "Don’t make any hasty decisions this ti too, please."
When all five of them turned their gazes toward the window’s angle, an arm erupted from the window.
Just as the jagged angles of the glass window scratched the skin, a human figure jumped from inside it and crashed hard onto the uneven ground.
Pam.
Blood seeped out of it like water and began spreading on the ground.
’Is that a human?’ Leon thought, watching as Wu Ze closed the gap between the bleeding form and the squad.
She pricked the tip of the katana onto the skin, then turned. "It’s dead. Let’s proceed."
She swung the sword, the blood dripping from it like beads of water, then pressed the green button again, the sword smoothly turning into the pencil shape.
After five minutes of walking away from the bloodied ground, another sour taste of air slamd Leon in the face.
"Ran, we’re not alone!" Liu Yan said, her voice echoing like a blast.
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