The Rail technology of China had far surpassed other countries. The power and speed that China used were simply more powerful and diverse. Railguns became a more preferred weapon of choice as the evolving technologies made it more powerful than post-modern guns.
But the Chinese had mastered the art since their research on magnetic technology had long been kept a secret from the world.
Rail Beam was a cannon fire with a tailing electric path that would continuously control the metal to continuously spin and penetrate through any armor. The added heat and the rough making of the canon made this attack a powerful weapon that could even pierce through Armors if given the right time and aim.
And this powerful and deceptive attack was aimed at Shock.
Shock was shocked at the shocking turn of events.
The sudden disappearance of Meryl's bright light caused Blast's attack to aim for Shock. Shock, quickly summoned all the lightning to act as a shield to deter the incoming attack.
BOOM!
The Rail beam's bright light and flashy impact did not allow the others to confirm if Shock was dead. Being professionals, the assassins continued to attack not giving their enemies any more time to relax but worried filled their hearts.
But almost immediately the Rail Beam dispersed. Shock was seen thrown off from his position. Standing on the place where Shock was, was a large black shield which was now reshaping itself to another weapon. The shield disrupted the electric charge that would have followed causing the rail beam to lose power.
The assassins stopped attacking as they were shocked at his intervention.
The three Unlocked also stopped their attacks.
"It seems you guys have an interesting power. I'm sure that Master won't mind if I fight seriously." The cold and confident voice of Typical sounded out.
The shield had finally reshaped itself into another large sword which Typical easily carried.
While he carried two swords, various nanometals, which were the remains from the large shield, continued to circulate around him. The sword on his right arm gave off a familiar reddish blow. The boosters on his feet started to give off a bluish glow as it was charging itself for an attack.
"Young Master!" Sting called out worriedly. He felt the odd sensations happening in Typical's body.
"Do you know why they call me 'Typical'? Unlike the other Assassins who are equipped with various techs, I am only equipped with the typical technology that is bestowed upon the warriors of our clan. A sword, the booster boots, some ranged weapons, and a normal shield mask." The mask that Typical wore started to change in form. It opened up revealing his eyes which gave a strange pale-green color.
"Yet despite that, I am expected to be able to conquer and defeat all of the other Assassins should we fight one-on-one." Typical's voice started to grow angrier at the moment. He turned to glance at Shock and confirmed his status.
"Young Master, thank you." Shock voiced out painfully.
"So this is it, right?" Lynd responded.
"Looking at your new weapons, it seems you are utilizing various technologies that the other Dragon's Fang must be equipped with." Lynd returned a smile to Typical's angry gaze.
"It is as you say, young Lynd Indigo. My commendations. I fear that unless I betray the code set upon me by my Master, a member of a Dragon's Fang would die. You see, only I have the right to kill them. No one else can."
"So you're undoing the seal? And let me guess, you have a golden headband on your head that's keeping your powers in check and the moon can turn you into an ape?" Meryl laughed.
"So what? The power of our friendship can defeat it! For love and truth!" Meryl mocked as she raised her hands.
"Laugh while you can, young master Meryl. But that's not the seal that I meant." Typical's body started to glow.
"The technology is not a seal but a limitation. Master does not care if I use other technologies. The real seal is something imposed on me simply for my own safety." Typical's voice started to tremble.
He gripped his swords tighter and gave off a powerful roar.
"HAAAAA!"
The battle cry that he gave created an odd sense of goosebumps for Lynd and his group.
"My God!" Meryl's cheerful expression changed as she felt the pressure. She never dreamt that someone else would make her feel a sense of threat.
"Reaper's Breath?" Cliff frowned.
"No. He barely touched it." Lynd replied.
"But this is troublesome. He was clearly at the peak of Advent, but now he's reaching Unbecoming Proficient." Lynd summarized as he felt the strange changes in Typical's body which he has gone through.
"Assassins. Ready yourselves. This will be the first time I'll be fighting together with you." Typical ordered as he readied a stance. The assassins followed likewise.
The odd sensation they felt on Typical's body continued to grow stronger and stronger.
"I can't believe it. The peak of Proficient. He's almost Surmounting!" Cliff complained angrily.
They have been with Seeker long enough to know the levels of each stage. Seeker had on numerous occasions limited the strength he presented. And during their training, Seeker did his best to show the limits of Surmounting Unbecoming. That sensation was instilled on all of them as they had to fight Seeker in that form.
"How?" Meryl glanced worriedly.
"He should really be a Surmounting Unbecoming! But since it could kill him, he sealed it! Right now, he's undoing the seal!" Cliff cursed.
"What?! How is that possible? It must be some technology! he can't be Surmounting!"
"Cliff's right, Meryl. I can already feel it. His Path. We all know what Mister Meng's Path is. No wonder he took this guy as his disciple. He can withstand Meng because his cells and mind have already reach Surmounting Unbecoming!"
"But what about his energy consumption? If he's forcing his body, then the energy needed to be burned should be extremely high!"
"That's why his master sealed it. It could kill him. That's what happened to Lynd. It seems he already could reach that stage. But his body couldn't handle it. So he kept it in check."
"So if that's the case, if we hold him off long enough, we would win, right?"
"If we can Meryl. Don't you get it yet? A guy this strong who can manifest an unlocking up to Surmounting Unbecoming without the medicine that Charles developed? That guy is a genius! He is like us, Meryl. He's Believing his way to the Surmounting stage. There's no doubt about it. He is one of those future Ranked Heroes."
"A Believer?!" Meryl was shocked. She never dreamed that she would be fighting someone as frightening as him.
"He is Meng's disciple. What do you think?"
Meryl gave a silent look at her opponent and gave a serious glare at Typical.
"Meryl. Calm down. It's not like things are hopeless. Lynd should be at the top of that ranking. And since you must be near the top, we might just beat him. At most, we could be fighting number two. But with number one by our side, and with your's ranging from 3-5, then if we work together we should be able to face him." Cliff softly reminded. The greatest problem right now is if Meryl would lose confidence.
"I'm not worried, Cliff. I've estimated that I should be at the top five of that ranking list. I can give the first place to Lynd. But anyone who wants number two can do so over my dead body!" Meryl shouted as she turned and faced the three assassins at the back. A golden glow started to appear around her body.
"Meryl. Stop. Don't waste your energy anymore." Lynd ordered as he reached out to Meryl.
"Lynd, we can't win at this rate. Although Meryl's already consumed a lot of her suits energy, we need that flash to be able to attack. Those gunners are pretty good even with the light, we would get hit without it." Cliff rebutted.
"Are you ready?" Typical interrupted. His voice sounded constrained as if he was in pain and holding something from pouring out.
Lynd ignored Cliff and didn't let go of Meryl.
"Lynd? We need that light!" Cliff urged.
"Don't worry. Typical is not the only one who sealed their strength, remember?" A familiar confident feeling exuded from Lynd as he imitated the devilish grin that the other two knew so well and feared.
"You can unseal yourself?"
"I already did." Lynd took a step forward.
"We're ready too!" A strange golden glow started to appear around Lynd's body. It began to grow brighter and brighter.
The assassins were blinded by the light once more.
"Damn you! Ugh. Let's finish this so you can stop imitating me!" Meryl complained but a trace of joy surfaced in her face.
The three charged forward as fast as they could towards their opponents.
The battle progressed as the groups continued on their melee.
Meanwhile, deep in the underground level of the mansion, another important battle was happening.
BOOM!
The metal armors that would shoot out of Meng would explode an electric burst upon contacting anything. The metal's further divided itself creating shrapnel that would explode.
Seeker and Richie immediately retreated right before the entire radius where Meng and his shooting armors were, were enveloped with intense electric charges.
As the metal returned to Meng, Meng suddenly rushed forward towards Seeker and Richie.
The fast, rail charge created a powerful shockwave as it zoomed towards the two.
Seeker had already boosted to the right in order to evade while Richie simply stood still and knew that the attack wasn't headed for his direction.
Meng was indeed headed towards Seeker, but as he drew closer, the bluish glow that surrounded Meng started generating electric charges pointing to different directions.
"NOW!" Seeker shouted.
Richie had long been ready and shouted.
"RAAA!" It appeared as if there were invisible waves that were crashing into Meng's armor. The armor would meet some resistance as it passed through the sound waves that caused it to move significantly slower.
Seeker had long known of this disgusting skill that the Overcomer Richie has.
Seeker rode one of the invisible waves that were rushing towards Meng. Seeker's memories of fighting side by side with Richie allowed him to master his fighting technique which made him be known as the Death Tide.
The armor had just exploded out of Meng who was still wearing a Skin Plated armor.
Though Richie's waves made the exploding armor travel slowly, it was still at a speed humanly impossible to follow.
But Seeker wasn't technically human anymore.
"Surmounting Sight!" Seeker unconsciously shouted as he rushed towards Meng. He could see through the small gaps and was rushing towards Meng. Since his previous attack where he forced his cells to evolve, the consumption now was lesser. And by channeling and focusing the surmounting strengths only to his eyes and sensory senses, Seeker was able to maintain that form longer.
Seeker zoomed in and thrust his sword towards Meng's torso.
Meng moved forward allowing the sword to touch the armor. Suddenly, the electric charges on his feet burst forth backward. Meng moved backward at incredible speed while allowing the sword to continuously touch his armor. Meng's retreat matched the pace of Seeker's strike but slowly, Meng started to slow down increasing the resistance between the sword and armor more and more.
Soon the momentum of Seeker's thrust was finally voided.
Seeker did not hesitate and retreated immediately.
The armors returned to Meng as another electrical charge pulled all the armors back. And just like that, Meng wore his full armor once more.
Seeker landed on the distance but instead of fighting, he turned to Richie.
"Damned monsters! You can already do Water World?" Seeker complained as he glanced at Richie.
"Water World? I like it!" Richie laughed.
"And you! I was moving at the speed of sound but you can even negate the attack at my speed?" Seeker then turned towards Meng.
"Right. Amazing martial arts. Even I can't do that. I should practice that move. Instead of blocking the thrust of the sword which would have pierced through your armor, you caught it and slowly applied a force equal to it as you retreat until it becomes two equal and opposing force and then you negate the attack. Amazing control. You make it look easy." Richie commented.
"As easy as catching a falling egg." Meng gave a stoic reply.
"Is this the best you two can offer? You should have brought more destructive technology. At this rate, you won't be able to go through my armor."
"Well, a lot of eyes are watching this battle. So we can't afford any techs that would alert them. Also, I'm from the future, Meng. So I know of Ultimate Obstruction. Once I determined your fighting style with that troublesome armor, I already planned how to destroy it. If I can't break it from the outside, I'll just do so from the inside."
Seeker had used Surmounting Sight to stealthily plant small bombs coated in rubber jell as he charged and zipped through the pieces of Meng's armor. While smashing the armors, Seeker had calculated the trajectory and simply tossed the small object that latched to the underside of the armor that flew off.
Seeker revealed a detonator and pressed it.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The explosions came from the insides of Meng's armor. Pieces of his armor could be seen flying around. Pangean Eradication technology damaged the integrity of the armor and destroyed the Magnetic Rail Return technology installed in the armor.
Meng's figure which was constantly exploding started to move further and further away from Seeker and Richie. Soon the explosions stopped. Smoke and electrical charges emitted by the damaged armor could be seen around Meng's laying figure.
Richie gave a confused look.
"Why do I feel scared all of a sudden?"
"Oh. That's because the armor that Meng wore wasn't meant to protect him. It was meant to protect us." Seeker said as he slowly retreated.
"The armor was a seal to stop the desolation from spreading. Now that we destroyed it, and even wounded Meng, this desolation would now appear. Get ready. We are about to face the Second Form of this Big Boss."
A strange corrupting and degrading air started to spread out as the ground itself somehow seemed to corrode.
"My God. What did you make me fight?" Richie smiled excitedly as he stared at the strange spreading aura.
"Regarding his Path, he is known as He Who Rides the Pale Horse."
"One of the four horsemen in Revelation?" Richie asked.
"Oh. Looks like Eagle's reform made you interested in the Bible. Exactly. He is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. His Overcomer's Title is even more domineering."
Greydon Meng rose from the smoke and the electric charges that scattered randomly. The figure gazed at his wounded body and sighed. He started to walk towards Seeker and Richie. The armor on his upper body was destroyed and only the armor on his legs remained.
His skin was pale green. His eyes were dark red.
Small cuts and wounds started appearing on Seeker and Richie. If it was anyone else, they would have been killed.
"What a sight to behold. I'm getting wounded just by looking at him!" Richie laughed.
"Wait till you fight him." Seeker spoke seriously as his suit started giving off a yellowish glow. Seeker was increasing his strength by consuming the energy of the suit.
Meng stood off in the distance as he watched his blood drip down the floor. The stone pavement around him started to crack.
"I never got to see this on my previous lifetime. You can't imagine how excited I am to see this. I finally get to see your real form. Greydon Meng. The Abomination that Causes Desolation."