Chapter 145: Battle of Tenar (4)

Kyle cursed to himself as he fired another pellet at a separate soldier, only to be blocked by Nox’s arm shields once again—that damn kinetic absorber. His railgun shots had only managed to take out three Nest soldiers so far, causing Kyle to decide to ditch the railgun in favour of his pulverizer, charging into the fray.

He rushed up to Nox, who also ran forward to meet him, the two of them colliding in a flurry of blows and parries. This would be the third time they had fought, and it was starting to get onto Kyle nerves how often Nox would be around to block him.

The moves felt repeated, as though they were going through the same motions as their previous duel. However, both of them had studied each other, recognizing feints and attack patterns while trying to exploit the habits of the opponent.

The clash was not a duel – ADCON soldiers, Count Leon’s knights and Nest soldiers all tried to intervene, hellbent on killing the leader of the other side. However, the skill level of the two were far above everyone else on this battlefield, both of them killing each other’s troops.

Soon a circle formed around the two of them in the wide corridor of death. Nox knew he just had to hold on long enough for the military reinforcements to enter the palace and crush the infiltrating force.

[Boss, the military are sending troops towards the government palace now!]

Kyle furrowed his brows as he blocked another hit from Nox’s arm shield, taking a step back and swinging the pulveriser right at Nox’s head, who ducked backwards as well. Kyle knew he did not have enough time – if he could not outright defeat Nox and overwhelm his troops in the next few minutes and capture Mornero, his remaining troops in the palace would soon be encircled.

Time to test my new skill. Kyle activated his upgraded version of the negation field, obtained from his Level 40 Sub-Class Upgrade.

The field expanded outwards, immediately disabling the engravings on Nox’s armour as well as the Nest soldiers, reducing the arctech armour and weapons to normal husks of metal. The sudden jarring change allowed Kyle to rush forward, his Version 0 exosuit completely unaffected and giving him a complete advantage over Nox.

Nox’s armour began to overheat itself, the stored arcia energy from successive kinetic impacts being discharged as waste heat and sound energy, unable to be converted correctly due to the disruption in arcia flow. The armour refused to budge and locked up, forcing Nox to take the next pulverizer hit head-on.

The follow-up shock reverberated through the armour and slammed Nox’s organs, causing him to gag as he was sent flying into the wall, the force causing cracks in the wall while Kyle chased, not intending to let him go.

Nox tried to activate everything he had on hand – the heating of the armour, the small amount of Agent Black, but it all failed to trigger. A few Nest soldiers tried to rescue Nox, but were immediately killed by the arctech swords and guns of the ADCON soldiers and Count Leon’s knights, who now had a superior advantage.

Nox finally knew that his time was up, causing his Nest slave engraving to suddenly trigger, attempting to self-immolate the body. However, the negation field destabilised the process, causing the arcia energy to backlash. The rampant rogue surged through Nox’s body like a rampant wave, tearing up his innards as blood began to seep from every orifice.

I need to capture him! Nox was a critical source of information, and Kyle had no doubt that Nox knew many things about Soren, Rayner as well as the Warden Drones. He needed to get more information on the hidden organisation.

Kyle quickly grabbed Nox and tore away the armour as fast as he could, finding the hinges that mounted each plate. He exposed Nox’s chest plate while the ADCON soldiers pushed forward, forcing the Nest soldiers back, who were now retreating beyond the five-meter radius, their arctech weapon working once more.

The fierce battle resumed with gunfire while Kyle quickly used his lightning sword to carve the flesh into which the engraving had been tattooed, digging deep. Kyle noticed that this engraving was a bit more complicated, but the process was pretty much the same as how he did it for Yona and the old Nest informant in Desham.Updated from novelbIn.(c)om

Activating his Necklace of healing, he pinned Nox down to prevent him from thrashing too much while he carved the entire engraving out, not having the arcia etcher on hand to modify the engraving to his own master-slave engraving.

Chunks of meat were tossed to the side as the ribcage of Nox was visible, with Kyle’s healing constantly sealing up. He noticed Nox had a health potion stored in his armour’s pocket as well, stuffing it into Nox’s mouth and forcing it down his throat while Nox writhed violently.

The leader suddenly dropped his weapon, surrendering to Kyle. He knew he would not be able to overpower Kyle anytime soon, given the equality of duelling strength. The rest of the knights surrendered as well, their swords and guns clattering to the floor.

Kyle quickly had the remaining ADCON soldiers restrain them, wary of a sudden attack from them. He saw the knights as a potentially valuable asset, but he needed time to break their former loyalty or engrave them with slave engravings similar to that of Nest.

For now, he and ten other ADCON soldiers squeezed into the elevator, which led them down to the underground bunker where the rest of the ministers and members of parliament were hiding, desperately trying to make sense of the rapidly deteriorating situation.

In the bunker room, everyone of importance was there including the highest ranking generals, protected by Nest soldiers and military soldiers. Mornero grimaced as he continued to receive reports of losses and damages across the city. How is this happening? I did everything right! He could not conceive the plan that he had created for the last twenty years to fail, having even taken into account a potential invasion by Yual.

The speed and strength of the revolution far surpassed anything he had prepared for, his projections based on the speed of revolution under Johan. It took us more than five years to overthrow the former nobility, but I was overthrown in less than two months?!

“President, we lost contact with the palace guards!” A frantic voice yelled out as the various ministers kept track of what was happening aboveground.

“Damn it, fortify the entrance! Don’t let any rebel get through the elevator!” Mornero shouted back. “How long more till the military troops sweep the palace?!”

“President, the troops are being stalled at the entrances. The rebels are too well armed!” The head of the Versian army replied.

Is it Count Leon? Was he the one instigating all of this? Mornero had tried everything in his playbook, even using Nest to purge the catacombs and flush out the rebels. Every sign of inconsistency, he crushed. It all came falling after I tried to retake Desham...

“Pull back every troop from the second defensive line.”

“But President, if we do that, Count Leon will be able to advance right up to the wall. We will be caught in a siege!”

“As long as we hold out for a week, there will be time for our reinforcements to circle Count Leon!”

However, before the head of the Versian Army could relay the command down through encrypted radio channels, the doorway of the bunker room exploded open, cratered it by an explosive that folded the metal surface like paper.

A barrage of pellets immediately filled the room, killing everyone who did not react fast enough. Mornero ducked under the table, grabbing an arctech pistol from his belt as the death cries of the ministers and generals resounded.

Before he even could peep out from cover, a hand had already grabbed him by the collar, lifting him like a ragdoll and slamming him against the wall. Kyle grabbed his right wrist, crushing it in his grip and forcing Mornero to drop the arctech pistol. The ADCON soldiers swept the room, killing everyone else with no hesitation.

Mornero gagged, coming face to face with Kyle, though his face still remained defiant. “So it was you, Kris Greyborn. Do it! Kill me!” He spat through bloodied teeth.

“After everything you have done to me? You’re not going to get off that easy.”

M.G.Drive