7:37am.

A few dozen minutes ago, Leon, Talia, and the rest of their crewmates felt despair as they discovered that they were fooled by Parasite all along and the second warehouse was empty.

In that moment, Talia felt despair, rage, and frustration. She felt like all of her plans were crumbling down like a castle with a shaky foundation.

And yet, a clutch moment from Ghostwire gave them hope again.

Once again, Ghostwire made them believe as they pursued the enemies.

And when they arrived, the situation was even better than they expected.

In a fortunate twist of fate, they met the slaves that they were looking for- hundreds of them. They also met enemies- soldiers, including an E Rank NetRunner, but it was not as bad as they feared.

Afterall, there was no Parasite, there was no Cell, no Alexander Cain. The situation was far better than they ever hoped for.

It felt like fate favored them, it felt like the heavens was helping them.

Talia held the E Rank NetRunner back while they took care of the others. They succeeded, they took care of the enemies and hijacked 3 of the buses.

Just when mission success seemed so close and in sight, in another sudden twist of fate, everything changed again.

Suddenly Parasite was here, the Zmer gang was here.

From afar as they approached, inside the military-grade truck, the Warlord already saw the state of the battlefield. He saw soldiers lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood and synthetic oil, and he instantly flared up.

"These bastards! That f*cking b*tch!"

Parasite felt his blood pressure rise exponentially, and it was not gradual, it was an instantaneous rise of 0 to 100.

The Karaki CT-3X super bikes are faster than the military-grade trucks.

Despite the fact that Cell and the others pursued the enemies with tact, not wanting to leave the truck carrying Parasite behind, they were still faster than the truck.

And now, with the enemies in sight, Parasite suddenly became too impatient to wait it out till the truck arrive.

With his blood boiling, he suddenly felt that the truck was too slow.

So he kicked the door of the truck.

BAM!

The metallic reinforced door was kicked and torn right from its hinges, then Parasite jumped out of the military-grade truck.

Thud!

His black gloved hands clenched as soon as he landed, his long brown dreads billowing in the wind, then he moved and erupted in a sprint.

After becoming an E Rank NetRunner, even as a physically weak Class, Talia still realized that she could now run at speeds of up to 120km/hour if she pushed it. As for Parasite, he was an E Rank Gene Augur.

When he moved, he kicked up a dust storm and turned into an orange blur even as his ADE swirled around his body in a violent manner.

Of course, the Karaki CT-3X super bikes were still faster than him but his subordinates tactfully decided to allow him take the lead.

Parasite overtook the super bikes and rapidly closed the distance.

When he was close enough, he finally removed the giant and extremely heavy Zweihander that was strapped to his back.

He held the heavy and gigantic sword with both hands.

He didn't care about the buses, neither did he care about the F Rank Ascended, when he moved, his eyes were set on only one target, the two illusory ghosts that were engaged in a tight psionic battle.

Through Neural Projection, NetRunners can enter a state of augmented reality as psionic beings, but unless they hid inside digital overlays in digital devices like smartphones or neural devices, they were still susceptible to kinetic attacks.

Parasite knew this and was why he charged directly towards her.

Bio-Pulse!

His strength and speed increased by 20% as he turned into a streak of orange light, but Parasite was not done yet.

Metabolic Overdrive!

Parasite gained a 30 seconds burst of movement and regeneration, once again increasing his speed by a further staggering 80%.

Whoosh!

He turned into an unstoppable orange projectile moving at near supersonic speeds even as he dragged a gigantic Zweihander with him, then he swung.

His target? Talia.

BUZZ!

The air shook and vibrated in the wake of the Zweihander cutting through the air as the fabric of reality seemed to briefly shake.

Parasite cut at the illusory ghost of the female NetRunner.

That attack could cut right through a building!

But just as the blade of the Zweihander was about to cut into her body, Talia's illusory ghost body shimmered, then suddenly disappeared!

Neural Projection!

Parasite had a smartphone on him and having detected it already through Ping Scan, Talia directly jumped into the phone just as the Zweihander was about to cut through her and deal devastating damage or even out-rightly kill her.

Parasite's Zweihander cut harmlessly through air, but the E Rank Neo Gene Augur wasn't discouraged.

The moment she jumped into his smartphone, it lit up with a notification and he noticed it since Talia didn't immediately hide her track with Ghost Line or Mirror Mask.

It was not that she forgot, she didn't bother to hide because with an E Rank NetRunner just like her present, all her moves were open like a book before him.

But just after she jumped into the smartphone…

CRACK!

The smartphone shattered.

Just as his attack missed its target and his smartphone lit up with a notification, Parasite realized what happened and immediately released one hand from the Zweihander- his left hand.

With it, he pounded at the top of his left leg- his lap.

Right there on his left lap, there was a bulge, a strategic pocket on the black cargo pants and that was where his smartphone was.

Parasite decisively smashed his smartphone to pieces and Talia was forced back into existence as a psionic ghost.

Data Lash!

Ben immediately took the opportunity to attack but Talia dodged.

Ghost Line!

At E Rank, Ghost Line did not just grant temporary invisibility on digital sensors anymore. Just like an advanced application of it was used to hide a whole base, there were different advanced applications of the ability.

One of them was to grant temporary invisibility, not just from digital sensors but from every form of attack, both physical and psionic for a moment.

Talia directly dodged the attack.

But like a relentless Hound, Parasite was right on her heels.

He still had his 30 seconds burst of movement and regeneration and even with her E Rank perception, Talia struggled to track the Gene Augur's movement.

In the end, she decisively made the decision to trade damage.

She left her AR psionic form, becoming corporeal again as with her neon green ADE flaring, she took control of her magnetic core and uplink discs.

Whoosh!

The discs moved with speed, attacking both of her targets.

Ben instinctively dodged the unlink discs but Parasite was more than willing to trade damage. He tanked the attack from the uplink discs as with one step, he swung his Zweihander again.

This time, Talia couldn't react fast enough to dodge.

She could only shift her body slightly to the side as instead of cutting across her whole abdomen and slicing her in two, the gigantic sword cut through the right side of her abdomen instead.

It was a clean cut.

Talia gasped as bright red blood flowed freely down her ribs but with a maniacal gleam in her eyes, she unsheathed her plasma knife and double-downed on her enemy even as the uplink discs kept on attacking.

Parasite's reflective aviator sunglasses blocked the gleam in his blood-red predatory eyes, but Talia could feel the raw bloodlust exuding from him.

She ignored it as with a gleam in her own eyes, she stabbed her dagger into the left side of Parasite's chest, aiming at his heart.

Parasite didn't dodge, he only hardened his muscles and skin but it couldn't stop a plasma dagger coming from an E Rank Ascended.

BAM!

The plasma dagger stabbed right through the thick skin and muscles, tearing through flesh and piercing straight through Parasite's heart!

Talia stabbed through Parasite's heart, yet the Gene Augur showed no signs of fear even as blood gathered in his mouth.

Parasite's lack of fear was not just because of his still active Metabolic Overdrive that granted him a burst of regeneration.

At E Rank, apart from Metabolic Overdrive, Neo Gene Augurs awaken 2 passive abilities, Bio-scan and Symbiotic Core.

With Bio-scan, an E Rank Gene Augur can sense every and any living form through pheromones and heat. With it, Gene Augurs can even sense NetRunners hiding with Ghost Line or Mirror Mask.

Unless the existence was dead, a Gene Augur can always sense it, and this made them a direct counter to one of an E Rank NetRunner's main abilities.

As for Symbiotic Core, it enables an E Rank Gene Augur to directly store ADE in their blood, granting them one of the most broken endurance of any Class at E Rank. They can keep on fighting enduring battles across dozens of hours or even days by drawing from the ADE stored in their blood.

But apart from the abilities, E Rank Gene Augurs awaken innate advantages like every Class during a promotion.

Just like F Rank Proto Gene Augurs can harden their skin, control their muscles, and heal minor injuries, at E Rank, apart from gaining exaggerated visual and sensory enhancements, E Rank Gene Augurs also have the ability of developing secondary organ systems through ADE.

This meant that at any given point in time, an E Rank Gene Augur can have as much as 2 to 10 hearts at once, or even more so long they had enough ADE to sustain them.

To any other Class, an organ failure or injury was lethal damage that can lead to death, but to an E Rank Gene Augur? It's just surface damage.

But since Talia had never fought against an E Rank Gene Augur before today, she never knew this.

She finally realized, but it was already a bit late.

Data Lash!

Ben attacked again and Talia froze, suffering mental damage as her thoughts became chaotic and that was when Parasite attacked again.

Having attacked once with the Zweihander already, he didn't have the time to drag the heavy weapon back for another attack instantaneously, so instead, he raised his left leg high and kicked at Talia's right rib.

CRACK!

The sound of her ribs cracking reverberated as Talia flew into the distance, smashing to the ground and rolling in pain.

Ben and Parasite charged towards her!

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