CH 52

It was already late at night when a convoy of trucks heading towards the now ruined district was spotted by the Flush news team. Their whole team has been resting on their van that they parked right beside a forest area near the ruined district. It was because of the roaring noises generated by rows of trucks that made them aware of the presence of the convoy.

"Hey! Hey, Jane!"

A sleeping woman was badly woken up by a push in the back. Her dream of having five sheep as pillows was abruptly interrupted and it made her soft smile turn to a vengeful frown. She was about to hit back when she heard the ruckus being formed by the trucks as there were more than one news team trying to get the next scoop standing by.

"Get the van started!" Jane finally got the chance she needed to secure a marvelous story.

The government had been relatively silent about what they would arrange for that giant pair of rabbit's feet in the air which was being coined as the 'Rabbit's Foot Incident'. Since there was no footage of what happened earlier, save for a few 'claims' by survivors who were giving out rather crazy stories of an ice man and flying chains. Though the crater created in the district did exist, there was no evidence of any ice in the area, or chains for that matter.

The night sky was filled with lights coming from helicopters that hover nearby, close to the gigantic rabbit's foot. There seemed to be a specific goal here though, as the lights focused on a certain part of the lower body.

'Is that its butt?'

Jane couldn't get around the fact that the group that came seemed intent on highlighting the bountiful assets, so much so that she scrutinized them carefully. For all you know there might be a clue there somewhere, it was only when she saw a red dot hover somewhere above it that she caught on.

"They're bringing out guns to fire at that spot!" A voice from her right added confidence to her theory, which was further cemented when she saw a clusterfuck of red dots circle around that area of its body. They seemed to form a giant red laser circle.

"Greetings, we are the Coalition. Cina's first and only ranker organization!"

Jane hastily made Gendry start recording, hoping to capture on camera exactly what happens. It's a good opportunity after all, since they'd be capable of broadcasting it live if anything exciting happens.

"Hey, set up the drones too. I'll operate them."

With more eyes to observe, the more coverage they can have. Jane was getting intoxicated as she noted the man near the enormous pair of feet who was being spotlighted by the helicopters. Gendry was setting up the drones while she continued watching, seemingly unaware of the fact that she could hear him clearly, though he was standing from a few hundred meters away.

"When this abdicate first arrived, we thought we were ready. Our sources have informed us about these beasts of unknown origin, and we have not placed enough importance on them. That was until after we lost this district before we, the Coalition, lost."

The man then seemed to grow taller, his voice clearer and what was most strange was, he was smoking up. The shadows of smoke were clearly visible, making Jane wonder if the spotlights ended up burning the man's clothes or something.

"Hey, I'm done. Use this." Gendry tossed Jane headwear. It's a pair of goggles combined with a headset. The rather experienced news reporter swiftly put it on, clicking the button near the ears when she had felt contented with it.

(July 25, 2019)

-Not Recording-

The glasses on the headwear displayed a black screen on the top right corner while words formed on the center of the relatively small screen. Though it proved non-problematic when the screen is so close to the eyes. She hurriedly used the controller that came along with the headwear, one that controls the drone's flight pattern.

"Oh my God!" Jane was so focused that she overlooked the first big news of the night. She looked towards the direction that Gendry was looking at and felt her eyes were deceiving her.

"When did that get here?!"

A circular wall of ice 20 meters long and 1 meter thick that revolves around the gigantic pair of feet. The man had promptly moved from walking on the ground to standing on a lofty pillar of ice, his body was covered in blue frost that seemed to have its reach all the way to where she was standing.

"Stop! It might move again!"

A stray voice came from direction of one of the news reporters. It was a young woman whose flushed face showed much aggression when she saw the ice man provoke the thing yet again. Hadn't he seen enough death and destruction?

Regrettably, her conjecture was wrong as the abdicate did not in fact, move. Chu Yang had merely followed the plan offered by the Oculus. Though he did put some flair in his performance, it wasn't in any way against the plan. Right now, all he needed to do was wait for the Oculus to provide them of the item.

"But no more losses! The world shall see what kind of disasters we can expect to see from today onwards! This beast arrived this noon and while only being active for twenty minutes, had wrecked a city district 2 kilometers in radius. What else does the world need to know? The fight for elitism has ended, the war for survival is now!"

The walls that stood at an initial 3 meters grew higher while maintaining its specifications. Ultimately reaching only just below the tailbone of the Heftpound. When the lasers lost their target, they thought the man made a mistake.

"That won't be enough." A group of three wearing black metallic armor came near the man from the Coalition.

The three's unique outfits made eyes turn as they seemed more capable than the rest of the soldiers here, save for that ice man. One of them took the lead as he leisurely strolled past the ice as if he felt nothing, but the two who followed him also didn't show any signs of slowing down. This, with the fact that no one else was 20 meters from the ice man, made the three's company more mysterious.

"Zen 1, follow those three."

Jane had implemented the automatic function of the drones to acquire a more vivid image of the three, along with the ice man. Their similar bodies made it hard to distinguish one from the other, but there was, however, something unique to each one.

"Good evening, I'm 'King' from the Pantheon. But it seems that you're more aware of the name 'Oculus'? It's nice to finally meet you, Ice Wizard Chu Yang."

Zel held out his hand in greeting, one which Chu Yang shook in response. Their auras clashed for just a moment, as Chu Yang had inadvertently forgotten to withdraw his. This caused a significantly strong force to slam against Chu Yang, knocking him back just a little while Zel stood his ground.

"Yeesh, careful with your mana dude. Thing's not exactly safe to use willy-nilly." Billy couldn't help but assume Chu Yang's mistake as a sign of provocation. One which made him look bad, so he uttered a soft warning in return.

"Don't worry about that. He just forgot. He's saving Cina after all, no one can keep calm while achieving that." Zel understood the pressure Chu Yang was receiving. He's had his fair share of the responsibility of handling a group of people, it's not exactly the most relaxing of jobs. But his words seem to get through to Chu Yang as the man just laughed.

"Forgive me. I've really been unable to control myself today. It is as he said, we're fighting a giant monster rabbit, I'm not exactly in the right mindset today."

Meanwhile, Matthew was looking at the abdicate to try and see if the situation is still as he investigated beforehand. The mana core has been charging up by passing through one part of the Heftpound's body, it's tailbone. That's the reason they are targeting there, so they can stop the abdicate from getting stronger and to inflict it an effective wound since it seems more vulnerable there.

"I have the thing with me. It's not something we have much of, but the occasion needs to be resolved immediately. Consider it the Pantheon's gift."

Matthew looks at Chu Yang using his colourless eyes. He finds it strange that his mana seems more active than Zel's, which flowed like a river while Zel's mana was as still as a lake.

"When I take them out, the Heftpound will awaken, we need to be quick,"

Chu Yang had read in the plans about this mana core. A product that usually comes from killing abdicates, but the Oculus said they had found some through a secret method. The mention of not having much of it may even speak of how rare this thing was, if he was to exploit them, he needed to use all of them to leverage it against them. Any organization that can freely hack into your intelligence system represent a threat after all and doing so would hopefully set them back. Soon enough, he examined his surroundings, observing the men to be ready and nods towards Zel. He brings out his aura, signifying the start of the operation.

"I'll do it in three, one."

Matthew couldn't help but sweat as he outstretched a hand where the temporary mana core would appear from his storage ring. He looked at the relatively calm Billy who also had his hand in a gripping position.

"Two."

Chu Yang looked at the hands of Zel who arranged them over his two receiving palms. The timing of this must be just right so they can keep the abdicate still, making it easier for the others to focus fire the tailbone. It all rested on his ability to perform his part, one that is most vital to this operation.

"Three."

Zel had thrown out six mana cores, all of them are handled by threads he made earlier. He threw the five at Chu Yang who was overwhelmed by the sight of Zel's blue mana. Zel didn't care though as he absorbed one and made an armor from the residual mana, like the one in his dreams. They affixed themselves just above his skin while he collected the armor he was wearing into his storage ring.

It was then that the hibernating Heftpound finally moved or tried to move as the ice around it suddenly moved to place themselves around its body. Constricting its movements while a hole was left behind on the place where its tailbone is.

Matthew and Billy hastily went to the side to eliminate the chance of stray bullets from affecting them while Zel had placed himself just between Chu Yang and the abdicate. Zel felt that the abdicate had realized just what Zel and Chu Yang had consumed just now and wanted some too. So much so that it placed its arms on the edges of the portal and raised it, showing the rest of its body except for one arm that got left behind on the other side. It seems that the arm was stuck since it was only half out while the rest of its body was completely free.

"Bang. Bang. Boom." A shower of fire rained down on the Heftpound as it roared in pain. Some have lost visuals on the tailbone and decided to fire on its face instead. One incredibly unusual bullet had even managed to wound its eye, Matthew who was standing to the side saw it all clearly.

'That bullet was not ordinary at all, it appeared like a ray of light.'

Henry was boastful of his shot that wounded the Heftpound. Having squandered all of his mana though, the level 4 felt the need to rest but not before he emptied every bullet on his sniper rifle. At the same moment, Chu Yang had felt the mana coming from the mana cores and hurriedly crushed one as instructed.

The feeling of fatigue from having to work all day quickly went away as a feeling of fullness replaced it. Though he felt he only had a fourth of his capacity filled so he crushed three more. When he was doing so, the Heftpound's dark blue arm which once swept the district clean was once again falling in an effort to pummel him to mincemeat.

"Crack. Roar!" That was when a crack in the ground made the Heftpound loose its footing, making the momentum it had built up allow no way to strike its intended target. The three men from Oculus were currently standing in front of Chu Yang.

One of them placed their hands over the ground, another was spreading out threads of mana around them while the last one seemed to be observing the Heftpound's movements then suddenly turned around to face him.

"Hurry up!"