A blinding flash of light followed by the tremor of the ground was what greeted them.

In that short second, Ivan had thrown one of his barrier bombs along with one of the more fragile bombs in Nina's possession, and the result was there for everyone to see.

"No! What did you do!?" The octopus woman screamed in shock and rage when she saw it.

But without even giving her time to properly adapt, Ivan kept throwing two more bombs with barriers.

Which were followed by two more explosions that shook the ground.

And amid the enemy agents dying in droves, William called out to them. "Let's go!"

Without wasting time, they started running at full speed toward the exit.

Since they were in the middle of a large hall that served as an intermediary to several other areas, that was what had made it easy for them to be surrounded, but now the wide area was also working in their favor so they could escape.

While running toward the opening that would lead directly to the exit, Jonathan glanced over his shoulder toward the woman who at that moment was desperately trying to help her agents.

That might have given the impression that she cared about them if it weren't for the way she had practically ignored them while they died fighting against them before.

She should be trying to help them more out of rage than concern or pity, if her expression was any indication.

And as if she felt his gaze, she turned her face toward him, her murderous eyes meeting his.

"Bastards!" She screamed so intensely it was possible to hear the tear in her throat.

"Shit." He muttered when he saw how she finally seemed to have noticed their escape. "William! You'd better hurry up with the second part of your plan because she's coming after us!" He shouted when he saw how she frighteningly ran toward them using her robotic arms.

Hearing him, William looked back as well and, faced with the same sight, frowned and spoke to the others. "Vanessa, give me your boots, Xiao hand me your weapon and Yusuke, give me your lightning shield, Ivan, your bombs."

With those mentioned doing what he asked while still running, Jonathan frowned, finding that suspicious. "What are you planning to do?"

William met his eyes for a moment before looking away. "What do you think? I'm going to buy you time." He said with a slight smile.

Without saying anything else, Jonathan kept staring at him, finding it suspicious.

With the things he asked for finally handed over, William stopped running and turned toward the approaching woman. "I'll hold her off while you run, be quick, I'll catch up to you once you pass through the gate."

With all of them stopping, everyone looked at him as they realized what the second part of his plan was.

"What the hell are you trying to do? Don't tell me you're going to try to sacrifice yourself." Jonathan questioned him, his suspicions almost confirmed.

"Who said that? I'm not going to sacrifice myself, I'm wearing Vanessa's boots, I'll just distract her for a while and then follow you, now go!" Shouting a warning, William didn't wait for a response and flew straight toward the woman.

Without moving, Jonathan stood there staring at his back with a furrowed brow.

"What do we do?" Alex asked with a worried look.

"…We do what he said." Emília said slowly, her brow furrowed.

"…Let's go, we won't be much help anyway." Vanessa said before turning and continuing to run, although the frown on her face showed how much she was against it.

The others followed one by one, with Jonathan being the last to remain, his gaze fixed on William as the latter had already begun his fight against the woman.

Until he turned, took a step, and started running along with the others toward the exit.

Seeing that they had finally started running again, William let out a sigh of relief, his gaze then turning forward toward the woman.

"You look relieved that your friends are abandoning you." With her robotic arms continuously attacking William's lightning shield, the woman said in a cold tone.

Adopting a smile, William replied casually. "They're not abandoning me, they're being smart and saving their own lives."

Narrowing her eyes, the woman easily understood what he meant. "Sacrificing yourself to stop me? Heh~ how noble, too bad that will be useless, I'll kill you very quickly and then I'll go after your friends." She said with a small mocking smile on her lips.

"Yeah, I wouldn't be so sure about that, ma'am." With a roguish grin, William, who was already in the air, opened distance between them by flying higher.

During that brief moment when he was out of reach of her arms, he threw something toward the corridor they had come through.

"No!" She screamed with wide eyes as she desperately tried to intercept it with her robotic arms.

But she failed.

What William had thrown fell right in front of the corridor entrance and right between the walls, and with that, it exploded.

However, instead of an explosion like she was expecting, what appeared was a luminous blue barrier that served as a blockage in the corridor.

While the woman stared in surprise, William took the opening to continue his attack, hitting her head-on with shots.

But that caused little damage to her, and she simply turned her attention back to him.

He then kept resisting as much as he could against her assault, her robotic arms continuously trying to hit him.

"Your time is running out! You can't save your friends, stopping my subordinates from coming here won't make a difference!" The woman screamed amid her frantic attacks.

"We'll see." After replying, William continued to defend himself, dodging and shooting back, but it was obvious to both of them that it was just futile resistance, soon he would be unable to hold out.

However, that was within his plans.

Barely dodging another strike from one of her robotic arms, he opened distance between them once again, using the space to circle around her quickly.

She tried to hit him by following his movement, but that was when he did something unexpected.

Out of nowhere, he hurled one of the weapons he was using to shoot at her.

However, finding that suspicious, she immediately struck the weapon intending to send it flying away.

What she didn't expect was that the moment her robotic arm hit the weapon, it exploded, disorienting her.

Momentarily caught off guard, she felt a chill down her spine as she quickly turned around and found the other weapon William had also thrown just a few centimeters from her.

"Fu-!"

The weapon exploded moments before hitting her face, cutting off her furious scream and surrounding her with a cloud of smoke.

But William knew that wouldn't be enough to kill her, the explosions of the weapons were just distractions so he could actually land a critical blow.

Through the smoke, he quickly approached her from behind, the staff of Yusuke's lightning shield raised in his hand.

And with that, he struck the staff directly against the interconnection of her prosthetics on her back between her shoulder blades.

And although through the smoke she managed to catch a glimpse of his actions out of the corner of her eye, it was already too late.

"You little shi-aaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!"

Her scream reverberated through the air in pure pain and agony as electricity coursed through her body.

Arcs of electricity leapt from her back in increasing amounts, accompanying her screams.

And with that, William backed away, knowing what was about to happen.

And as if on cue, right after he moved away, the staff exploded.

A flash of light and electricity shot through the air in all directions as he covered his eyes for a moment.

Lowering his hand, he saw her fallen on the ground, writhing as her skin looked burned in several places, parts of her pants also burned, revealing the skin beneath.

However, as injured as she looked, he knew that wouldn't be enough to kill her, and as if responding to that, she slowly and shakily began to get up.

"Sigh, looks like I didn't get lucky." Sighing at the sight, William accepted his fate. "Well, she's not the leader of this base for no reason." He then landed on the ground, facing her.

Finally standing up to her full height, the woman with her back to him abruptly cracked her neck, then slowly rotated it as if stretching.

"Well well, you're actually quite clever, that was quite the blow." She said as she turned around, an easy smile on her face as if the attack or the wounds on her body hadn't affected her.

Instead of saying anything, William lowered his gaze, fixing it on her scorched nipple, seeing that made him laugh.

Understanding his look, she did nothing but smile broadly. "That was a good plan, thanks to the electricity I'll need some time before I can move my prosthetics again, that is, if I focus on all of them." Following her words, her robotic arms that had been trembling in an attempt to move stopped, instead only one of them slowly rose shakily.

Bringing the still unstable robotic arm to her side, she asked with a bloodthirsty smile. "Any last words?"

But William just stayed silent again.

"Great." Without hesitation, she quickly extended her arm to pierce him.

However, halfway there, a holographic shield struck the arm, pushing it aside.

And with that, Jonathan arrived at William's side.

"What are you doing here?" William questioned him, frowning.

Something to which Jonathan replied with an equally furrowed brow. "Shut up and run!" Grabbing him, he pulled him along.

And as he was being pulled, William stared at him incredulously. "This is useless."

"Where do you think you're going!?" The woman shouted, recovering her attack and extending her arm again to pierce William.

But before her arm could hit him, Jonathan stepped in front of him.

The barrier of his vest immediately activated, but it was useless.

"Ugh…psssh." Spitting blood, a trail ran down the corner of his mouth as he held the robotic arm that had pierced his stomach.

Behind him, William stared in shock. "Why the hell…you should have left me here and run!" His expression turned into a frown at the end.

With his brow equally furrowed and veins bulging around his neck, Jonathan glanced sideways at him. "And abandon you? Not happening, what was your plan?"

"…It was to blow myself up with Ivan's bomb." William replied while staring at him.

Turning his gaze back to the woman, Jonathan smiled. "I see, we need to create space, right? Then get ready."

Without giving William time to question him, Jonathan took something from his pocket and threw it in front of the woman, who, already on alert, moved her arm and struck it.

Which proved correct when it exploded, but instead of destroying, a repulsive force emerged, throwing the three of them away from each other.

"Ugh!" Groaning in pain as he rolled across the ground, Jonathan soon felt himself being lifted up, turning his head back, he saw William's still furrowed gaze.

"You're insane."

Ignoring him, he shifted his eyes to the object William had thrown toward the woman, proving that he had understood his plan.

"Ivan! Barrier bombs! Now!"

Being carried by William, it was only then that Jonathan noticed the others approaching, showing that they had ignored his words to keep running.

And with that, he also saw Ivan doing what William had said before all of them started running toward the exit again.

While being carried, he saw three barrier bombs explode, covering the corridor behind them, preventing the woman from following them and more importantly.

That she threw the bomb back and, with no choice, ended up deflecting it over the barrier behind her, sending it toward where her agents were.

"Bastaaaaaards!!!"

He saw her scream furiously in their direction moments before a flash forced him to close his eyes, followed by a deafening sound and a strong tremor.

Hearing some nearby curses that he judged to be from Yusuke, Vanessa, Nalini and Alex, his consciousness faded into darkness as he lost consciousness.

His last thought before completely losing consciousness being.

'I guess I won't…be able…to hug…Marianne's thighs…'

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