7:50am.

Mr. Representative Ben died.

And for the first time since the battle royale started, the battles paused as an eerie silence that penetrated bones descended upon the battlefield.

Everyone stayed still, staring with varying expressions of surprise, shock, fear, and horror at the position where the A.I Construct was a moment ago.

Now, all that was left there was soot, metallic debris, and the blackened footprints of the A.I Construct.

Mr. Representative Ben was no more.

Metabolic Overdrive!

Cell Repair!

Parasite did not hesitate to trigger both abilities at the same time.

This time, he truly suffered lethal damage.

His flamboyant clothes suffered terrible burns, leaving them in tatters- holes filled his inner T-shirt and the jacket. As for his black cargo pants, the flames burnt through them, turning them into tattered shorts that exposed his black underwear.

His reflective aviator sunglasses were nowhere to be found, revealing his predatory blood-red eyes and the contorted expression on his face.

His face was badly burnt.

His Zweihander was thrown by the explosion to the side.

The massive sword survived the explosive, but its handle was burned and charred while the blade glowed red-hot.

The only thing that stayed intact from the explosion was the blood-red pendant that was always around his neck.

As for his sidearm- the pistol strapped to his cargo pants directly melted like the flames were especially attracted to them, burning his skin even more.

The same fate befell the two poisoned daggers that he carried with him in his cargo pants, the flames directly burned them and turned them to molten metal.

With the molten metal burning his skin, seeping into his blood, the poison also started spreading as Parasite began feeling a bit weak and lethargic.

It was a fast-acting paralysis poison!

This was also why he didn't hesitate to activate both Metabolic Overdrive and Cell Repair. The fact that his tenacious body as an E Rank Gene Augur was in this state showed the horrifying level of damage that the bomb dealt to him.

His body was in a state of great disrepair and he needed repairs immediately and fast.

The only reason why he wasn't stripped naked entirely by the explosion was because at the last moment, he managed to converge his ADE around himself to form a protective shield though it did very little in reducing the damage.

This was why his pistol and daggers melted, while his clothing though damaged weren't burnt off completely.

As the two abilities took effect, burnt flesh fell off from his body as his rapid regeneration kicked in, growing new flesh and skin to replace those that were burnt from a cellular level.

The ADE stored in his blood also churned, purging the poison away from his bloodstream.

He grimaced as the pain kicked in once again.

The others may have escaped the range of the explosion, but that meant they saw everything from a front-row view as the bomb exploded, they witnessed it as Mr. Representative Ben was roasted and burnt into nothingness.

Cain's forehead squeezed in horror. 'What the hell just happened?'

Cell and Swain both stayed silent, but the apprehensive look on their faces showed that they were terrified by what just happened.

No one saw it coming.

As for Talia, Daren, and the others, despite the fact that they've known of Leon's jury-rigged bombs ahead of time and most of them had even seen it in action back at the siege of the cargo trailer, they were still stunned by its efficacy.

Rex stared in a daze. 'It actually happened?' He thought.

'I did it?'

At this moment, a chill spread through the air.

The temperature in this area of the wasteland was still extremely hot from the lingering effects of the explosion, yet every single warrior of the Zmer gang at this moment felt a chill crawl down their spines.

Staring into those lingering flames, Parasite's eyelids twitched.

It was just for a short time but in those few seconds when the explosion engulfed him, the pain he experienced was something even he did not wish upon his worst enemy. The pain was extreme, it was debilitating, it was hell.

As for the damage, it was horrifying.

He didn't survive because he was at the periphery of the explosion. No, he survived because he was an E Rank Gene Augur.

Parasite was 100% sure that despite his position relative to the core of the explosion, if he was perhaps an E Rank NetRunner, a Mechanist, or even a Cyber Gladiator instead, he would not have survived the flames from the explosion.

And if he was F Rank and not E Rank, he would have undoubtedly suffered the same fate as the representative.

These realizations settled in his head and in that moment, he felt an emotion that he was not used to.

For the first time in decades since he gained power, Parasite felt fear.

The old but familiar feeling twisted his guts, reminding him of memories that were long buried in his past, memories that he was least reluctant to face.

And with fear came rage.

Fear… it's a single word but to Parasite it meant more.

Fear was the one insecurity that this Warlord kept buried behind layers of bravado and lies, a truth he never wanted to face again and when it surfaced, it made him feel irrationally enraged.

Parasite was angry that he was scared of that explosion, he was enraged by the reality that he could actually still feel fear after all these years.

Fear made him lose his mind.

His face twisted in malevolent hate as he turned his head to glare at the cause of this emotion, the man who caused it all, the puny Mechanist, Rex.

He bared his fangs like a beast, his throat rumbling with hunger and hatred.

When Rex saw those predatory blood-red eyes glare at him, he shuddered. 'F*ck!'

Parasite was about to move, but before he could, someone else did first.

Neural Projection!

Talia moved.

Parasite's smartphone being destroyed meant she could not rely on it to insta-teleport, but in the ghostly AR psionic state, her speed was still extremely fast and she closed in on the enemy immediately and attacked.

Data Lash!

Parasite shuddered as blood flowed from his mouth and nose.

That attack felt like a switch, a play button that finally reset the world to normal, reminding all the warriors present that the battle was not yet over.

"B*TCH!" Parasite recovered and snarled through gritted teeth as he glared at her with a hateful expression, then he pounced at her.

"B*tch, I'll make you pay!" He growled as he charged toward her, then he remembered that he was not with his sword.

Mid-charge, he suddenly pivoted and dived towards the large Zweihander.

He picked it up and instantly his skin started sizzling and peeling from the hot surface of the handle, yet he didn't even pay attention to it as with the 30 seconds effect of Metabolic Overdrive still active, his skin regenerated passively.

With the glowing red-hot sword in both of his hands, he glared at the ghostly NetRunner with madness in his eyes, then he took a step forward and attacked.

Bio-Pulse!

The others also finally reacted.

With Talia taking on Parasite, Kain and Rex recovered fast as they took the initiative to shoot at Alexander Cain, drawing his attention.

In that moment, Leon's eyes gleamed as a single word reverberated in his mind. 'Chaos'.

This was exactly what he wanted when he decided to embrace chaos, opportunity. He believed that there was opportunity in chaos, and finally, Rex bought them that opportunity.

With the E Rank A.I Construct out of the equation, the odds of the battle was no longer entirely lopsided in the favor of the Zmer gang.

Finally, the odds tilted again, becoming even now.

Yes, all of their major combatants- Talia, Brick, and Daren were all heavily injured after the stunt they pulled, protecting the 3 Mechanists in the middle but sacrificing injuries for the life of an E Rank enemy was more than worth it.

Besides, Brick didn't stay injured.

Cell Repair!

So long a Gene Augur was not killed immediately and their ADE was not exhausted, killing motherf*ckers of this Class was an exhausting chore.

And now, against just the Zmer gang's Ascended, it was no longer a losing battle as Talia led from the front.

Now, it was an even battle and all hell broke loose again.

Leon raised the Air Gun Rifle and aimed at one of the 3 remaining mundane thugs of the Zmer gang who were still stunned by the explosion.

He took careful aim and pulled the trigger.

BAM!

Headshot.

One shot, one kill.

Before Leon could take the next shot though, a torrent of shadows swarmed towards him like a flood of Bats were attacking him.

Instantly, he took two steps back and dodged as a pair of sharp swords attacked him from the shadows.

Having been keeping watch of Cell from the very beginning, he noticed immediately when the Gene Augur moved. By moving backward, he didn't just create distance between them, he retreated back to where his spear was.

Leon knew that his Air Gun Rifle was not as useful as his spear in a battle against the Bat DNA Geneform. As he moved, he didn't hesitate as he dropped the Air Gun Rifle and picked up the Flux Crystal Spear before facing the Gene Augur.

His eyes gleamed with a ravenous hunger. "Come on!" He snarled.

Cell pounced at him and they continued their battle from where they stopped.

Swain watched in a daze as the battle royale resumed around him, still stunned by how he just witnessed the death of an E Rank Ascended.

That moment still gave him goosebumps. In that one moment, he realized that the enemies were not lamb waiting to be slaughtered like he thought.

Instead, they were actually wolves in sheep's clothing.

He shuddered as he stared at the Mechanist that he once looked down on. 'Does he have more of those things?'

But then he snapped out of it when Daren pounced towards him.

Brick could heal himself, but Talia and Daren could not. They knew that they couldn't afford to drag the battle out longer if they wanted to survive, and hence why the Cyber Gladiator did not hesitate to hunt down the enemy Gene Augur.

Swain reacted on instinct, swinging his War Hammer for an attack. Daren did not back down as he attacked with both of his gauntlets.

Impact Surge!

BAM!

The duo of Gene Augur and Cyber Gladiator recoiled from the impact, both suffering damage, then they turned into a hurricane of orange and purple as their ADE flared.

They pounced at each other.

Once upon a time, the Zmer gang had the numbers advantage and Swain was free to pick off the rebels of community G who followed Talia one after the other. But now, the scales of the battle tilted and now favored the rebels.

With the battle royale resuming, Brick suddenly found himself unmarked. He had no enemy bearing down on him immediately.

Without hesitation, his eyes moved and paused on the last 2 mundane thugs of the Zmer gang.

THUD!

Brick instantly erupted into a sprint as he charged at them.

But just like him, these thugs showed no hesitation.

Tututututututu…!

They shot at him but the Gene Augur didn't even react as he simply hardened his mechanical skin like stone, tanking the attacks as he charged at the two thugs.

They didn't just shoot at him though.

Them shooting was the distraction, and the distraction was to buy them the opportunity to turn around and run away from the battlefield.

"…"

Brick stopped running as he stared in a daze. 'They ran?'

The 2 thugs didn't even look back as they ran into the distance and when they discovered that he was not pursuing, they hid behind one of the trucks that they drove to this battlefield.

Brick's mechanical face twitched slightly. 'Should I chase?'

'No'. He made his decision instantly.

Brick knew that though the situation currently looked rosy, it was not. As a Gene Augur, he knew exactly how terrifying Parasite was.

With Talia heavily injured and now fighting against the Warlord alone, he knew that she needed help.

Instead of pursuing the clearly terrified mundane thugs, Brick instead turned around and charged towards Talia to help.

Bio-Pulse!

He fearlessly charged at Parasite!

For the next few minutes, a more even but even more intense battle took place in the wasteland as still inside the buses, the terrified slaves watched it all happen from the distance.

For 7 minutes, the others fought an even battle while a livid Parasite dominated Talia and Brick.

When he swung his Zweihander, the world shook.

He moved like a force of nature.

And yet, Talia and Brick managed to survive against him for 7 minutes.

They were beginning to get desperate though, wondering if they could actually defeat him, Talia especially after realizing the abilities of an E Rank Neo Gene Augur and knowing that Parasite could keep on going for hours or even days.

But after 7 minutes, something changed- new presences arrived in this battlefield, drawing the attention of all the Ascended currently fighting.

Dust swirled in the distance as 3 patched-up bikes approached the battlefield.

Reinforcement was here!

After more than 15 minutes since Ghostwire left the cell tower base in community G, he finally arrived with reinforcement.

The time was 7:57am.

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