2 minutes later…

[11:16pm]

Thick green chemical gas filled the large subterranean chamber, engulfing all biological lifeforms who were not wearing masks.

From the beginning of this ambush to the end, Lieutenant Johnmark, Lieutenant Cormier, and Lieutenant Ryan did nothing as their teammates were slaughtered. All they could do was survive.

Their powers were neutralized completely by the perfect ambush. Unlike Leon, they simply couldn't adapt.

The green chemical gas was the nail on the coffin as it put them to sleep.

Now, only Captain Ariande and Leon stayed fighting out of the 9 E Rank Ascended of this elite squad within less than 3 minutes of the ambush.

In 3 minutes, 7 of them were neutralized.

Captain Ariande fought against the E Rank NetRunner of the terrorists, but Leon? He singlehandedly defied all conventions of a Mechanist, fighting against the Demon of Ozempic and his 3 E Rank Holy Champions.

BOOM!

Another incendiary grenade detonated, burning through the already partially broken bodies of the terrorists once again.

"DODGE!"

The terrorist with Cat DNA screamed at his companions as he dove to safety because once again, Leon didn't stop with a single incendiary grenade.

Alarm and desperation could be discerned in his voice.

They barely dealt with the incendiary grenade when another fragmentation grenade detonated, which was quickly followed by another blast grenade.

This was just one of the lesser ones of Leon's devastating attack combos. During this time, he already burnt through dozens of grenades which when calculated in Neo Credits counted in hundreds and thousands.

At the same time, he already burnt through 10 R9 energy shields, 10! And yet he showed no signs of stopping.

This was how prepared Leon came for this raid.

Despite the ambush that neutralized the squad, he simply refused to give up.

This was no longer a conventional Ascended battle, this was a battle showing just how rich and equipped Leon was to his enemies.

This was the overwhelming power of an E Rank Mechanist.

He was outnumbered, he was seemingly outmatched and yet in the past 2 minutes, Leon was the only one whose combat gear stayed in pristine condition as he was protected by his energy shields.

As for his enemies, their clothes were in tatters.

Their bodies were burnt in several places, showing terrible injuries and burns that were inflicted over time. The fact that none of them was dead yet showed just how brilliant they were individually.

And yet, in comparison, this was how much of a threat Leon posed in these past few minutes.

Their faces mere marred with confusion, shock and terror like they were fighting against an inconceivable alien, all except Lucian who continued fighting with single-minded purpose like he didn't understand the concept of pain or fear.

Compared to Leon's attacks, together they were dealing exponentially more attacks to him but with his R9 energy shields devouring all the attacks, Leon became the only one dealing damage.

It became a strangely one-sided battle.

In a battle where 7 elite E Rank Ascended were already neutralized- powerful Neo Cyber Gladiators and Gene Augurs, a single Mechanist continued fighting and resisting, singlehandedly dealing all the damage to the terrorists.

Leon showed the horror of facing a combat E Rank Mechanist in battle, he revealed the overwhelming power and adaptation ability of an E Rank Mechanist.

He had no weaknesses, he was stacked on all sides.

Of course he was burning money every second that he sustained this battle but so long his enemies suffered as a result of it, Leon didn't give a damn.

They were the ones ganging up on him and yet they were the ones bleeding out with deep and nasty injuries.

For this mission, Leon came with 26 R9 energy shields! That was thousands of Neo Credits, and it meant he was still a long way from being vulnerable to their attacks.

Leon was like a lone Lion King surrounded by a pack of Hyenas.

Despite his valiant display though, the longer the battle lasted, the more opportunities Lucian got to flex his unreal vitality.

Even with an E Rank Gene Augur among his subordinates, Lucian took on the job of tanking Leon's most powerful and devastating attacks without dying.

He kept on regenerating, it felt like he could never die.

And despite the fact that Leon stayed unscathed as he dealt serious damage to them, Lucian especially, he was beginning to feel desperate. 'Why won't he die?' He felt the pressure getting to him; he felt the mental stress.

'How can he have so much vitality?'

He tried to wrap his head around it and rationalize it but it just didn't make sense for a Quantum Shaper to have so much vitality.

One thing that Leon had learned about the power system of Neo-Tokara was that it was always balanced. Each Class was proficient in different aspects, even the adaptability of E Rank Mechanists was a focused proficiency born from creativity.

An E Rank Mechanist without his creativity would be nowhere as dangerous as him, and an E Rank Mechanist without his combat mentality would never think of equipping themselves for battle like him.

And this was also why Lucian simply didn't make sense.

Leon was confused and this made him agitated because it simply didn't make sense even when viewed from the lens of this world's physics.

And now he felt desperate because his ADE was dwindling fast.

His gadgets may last, but his ADE will not.

With more time that passed, the more ADE the thick black chain drained from him and with all the abilities that he used in the past 2 minutes, his ADE reserves finally went below 10%.

30 seconds later, his ADE became exhausted yet he didn't stop.

Afterall, unlike one-dimensional Classes like NetRunners, Gene Augurs, and Cyber Gladiators, a Mechanist's ADE becoming exhausted didn't render him helpless.

It rendered him weak, yes, but not helpless.

Afterall, a Mechanist's powers come from his constructs and most constructs don't need ADE to work; they had batteries, bullets, and engines of their own.

Leon kept on attacking with the VX-09 Emberfist gauntlet even as Davis kept on harassing the terrorists with the sword drones.

Though he sustained his offensive, with all his ADE sustenance exhausted, he began feeling dizzy.

More attacks connected though his R9 energy shield defended them all, and he retaliated less and less.

Still, the terrorists couldn't crack his defense open.

His defense was unbreakable.

If they were D Rank, perhaps they would have the raw power to directly overwhelm the energy shield and deal damage to his body but at E Rank, none of them had the raw power to brute-force their way past his defense.

In that moment, the terrorists realized something.

They realized that 1 on 1, in a battle with everything put on the line, Thomas Riley was unrivaled at E Rank.

Not even Lucian had a way to break his defense.

Leon continued fighting for 3 more minutes in the most intense battle of his life, a period of time in which Captain Ariande finally abandoned the battle.

She saw no hope in turning the battle around, so she hid.

BZZZ!

Captain Ariande's neon green ADE erupted one final time as she finally activated the sole ability of her D Rank Artifact.

Despite the fact that the NetRunner terrorist isolated the network in this underground complex, imprisoning her here and locking her from the outside global network, she could still use the ability of the D Rank Artifact.

The isolated network here still had data streams which she could merge with and hide in plain sight, away from the perception of the terrorist NetRunner.

And this was exactly what Captain Ariande did.

The moment she merged with the data streams and hid, she also automatically let the E Rank NetRunner loose on Leon and it became a 1v5!

Already dizzy from his ADE being exhausted and fighting defiantly for over 5 minutes, the moment she used a simple Data Lash, Leon finally succumbed to his mental exhaustion.

BUZZ!

His brain blanked, his legs went jelly as he staggered.

His vision became dizzier, his perception of the world became distorted and in the end, despite how unwilling he was, Leon finally lost consciousness.

Thud!

His body collapsed to the ground unconscious.

Till the end, the terrorists couldn't break his defense. Even after he went unconscious, the R9 energy shield didn't deactivate immediately.

But finally, the battle was over.

The terrorists collapsed to the ground, staring at the Mechanist with a look of pure shock and horror on their faces as the events of the past 5 minutes replayed in their heads over and over again.

The hefty terrorist suddenly recalled something as he looked at Lucian. "Lord Lucian!" He called with concern, paying attention to Lucian's deep injuries.

At this moment, the Demon of Ozempic looked more like a skinless humanoid monster than a Geneform.

Lucian wiped the blood from his lips and groaned slightly before forcing a smile. "I'll be fine".

In that moment, the E Rank NetRunner, Xena Rousey quickly walked towards him with a box.

She pulled a syringe from inside the box. "You overexerted yourself," she said. "You need to take your medication immediately".

"Ok". He didn't reject as he nodded and stretched out his right hand.

He looked down at the 4 soldiers who were unconscious, then he instructed. "Restrain them properly".

"Yes Lord Lucian".

…

At around 11:19pm, the battle came to an end.

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