Laying down on top a hill to avoid being seen by potential terrorists hiding in the background, Daren and Talia felt like they were watching a movie from a 3rd person POV. They felt like they were in a cinema.

They also felt like they were watching a blockbuster action thriller.

Despite being veterans themselves with a lot of missions under their belt, the violence and intensity of what was happening still left them stunned.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Despite the distance separating them from the immediate vicinity of the underground terrorist base, they could feel the tremors of the D Rank combat and it made them shudder.

’This...’

They were not completely blind though.

Afterall, to keep them in the loop, Leon granted them direct access to the Zerphyr-7 Stealth Reconnaissance UAV which granted them HD-quality footage of the events going on in the underground terrorist base.

Daren and Talia watched the 2 D Rank Ascended go on a rampage alone knee-deep inside enemy territory.

They watched Leon and Lt. Colonel Umar barge into enemy territory, slaughtering over a hundred terrorists within mere minutes!

It was a chilling and humbling spectacle.

Watching the Lt. Colonel in action with his set of abilities, Talia and Daren could not help but yearn for D Rank themselves.

When they saw the Lt. Colonel tear his way underground to the second underground layer with his Blood Manipulation, they yearned even more for power and when the Sentry-IV Autocannon Drone took over, tearing through the reinforced chamber where the high-ranking terrorist was attempting a Trial with brutal power, they were stunned.

’This power...’

Their eyes widened as they realized. ’He never used this Drone in the duel against Colonel Alphonse!’

Slowly, gradually, they were both beginning to see the sheer gulf of power separating them from the current Leon.

Leon was like a bottomless well, they couldn’t see the depth of his true power yet and it terrified them. ’So this is D Rank power...’

Despite witnessing his rise till now, they struggled to overlap this terrifying Ascended with the clueless and weak F Rank Mechanist that they found just a few months ago in the fringe of the Wastes.

The thought of Leon’s growth speed made them yearn even more for power and for the first time in a long time, Talia felt that her growth speed was too slow.

Then they saw it...

RAGHRRRRRR...!

They witnessed it as the D Rank Trial was interrupted, and they saw it as the terrorist who was probably already 2/3rd of his way towards becoming a D Rank Ascended failed. They saw him mutate.

Watching it happen as he lost his sentience in the most brutal and inhumane way, Daren and Talia felt their blood run cold, and again they relived the fear of Ascended Trials.

’No, I’m not rushing...’ Talia thought solemnly, tempering her desire.

They saw Garak lose all sense of reasoning, they saw him attack his own mentor, and they saw Leon kill the corrupted Neon Beast. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Throughout, they were both quiet, staring at the floating hologram solemnly.

They heard when Lt. Colonel Umar shouted at Leon that the terrorist leader was already escaping, they saw Leon go in pursuit, and they saw the tunnel collapse after Dhruv Laden’s bomb detonated.

Then they saw Leon hesitate before charging outside.

DING!

The moment it happened, the Zerphyr-7 also broadcasted the live footage of Dhruv Laden escaping to them.

Daren hesitated. "Should we pursue...?"

Talia shook her head immediately. "No, we may just end up becoming a liability," she sighed. "Let’s wait for Leon’s decision".

"Ok". Daren nodded as he slightly bit his lips.

Then they saw the crate falling from the sky.

...

DING!

Leon kept his gaze on the live hologram that was being broadcasted by the Zerphyr-7 even as he jumped towards the surface.

"Bulwark". He called.

Immediately, a crate dropped down from the Zerphyr-7 Stealth Reconnaissance UAV that was hidden high in the sky.

It was falling ahead of Leon and mid-fall, the crate exploded from inside.

And from inside emerged a war machine that was more than 4.5 meters tall and less than 5 meters, the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame!

THUD...

The ground quaked when the war machine landed.

By then, Leon was already close as the cockpit of the mech suit opened for him to jump inside without hesitation.

Inside, the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame was already on, simply waiting for his input to generate telemetry data.

The first thing Leon did was to calculate. ’2 miles...’

Without hesitation, Leon put Davis’s sheer computational power to use as he calculated the current distance between him and the escaping terrorist, including the terrorist’s running speed, and he contrasted both against the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame’s own top speed when running.

In the end, he arrived at a deficit. ’I’m not fast enough to catch up...’

But Leon didn’t give up as his eyes gleamed. ’What can I do?’ He took on his problem-solving mindset immediately.

His brain whirred and instantly, he got an idea.

The Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame may not be built for speed and pursuit exactly, but there are many ways to kill a fish.

Enhance!

Leon’s grayish white ADE erupted from inside like a tsunami, wrapping around the war machine and focusing on its legs and upper back, then...

KABOOM!

The Modular Missile Pod Arrays that were in the upper back area of the mech suit unleashed a salvo at no one!

They unleashed a salvo at empty air and the ground behind them, turning the recoil and force of the violent explosion into a makeshift propulsion force.

Leon burned money and firepower to generate propulsion!

He turned the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame into a rocket running on burning flames and explosions and instantly, it shot off with a speed exceeding Mach 3!

WHOOSH...

...

Thud... thud... thud...

Dhruv Laden ran across the wasteland with speed, intent on using the full effects of his Overdrive Mode ability before the effects on his speed subsided.

He already crossed 2 miles in less than a minute, this showed the terrifying natural speed of a D Rank Cyber Gladiator.

’They can’t catch me this far out...’ He finally allowed himself to relax, but he didn’t smile as the fate of his student kept on replaying in his head.

’Those bastards... I’ll kill them!’ He thought angrily in his mind.

Despite his rage though, he was very self-conscious of his current situation and knew that he was currently weak. The worse thing was that he didn’t have access to any healing pills, he left them all behind in the underground base while escaping.

He grimaced as he held his chest, adding pressure to it where Umar’s blood beam cut through to stem the bleeding.

Thinking of the black mercenary, all he felt was hatred. ’I’m not going to forgive you for this!’

He kept on running while struggling with his intrusive thoughts and rage, and that was when he heard it.

WHOOSH...

’Eh?’ Dhruv turned and looked behind him just in time to see the black frame of a large war machine, and then he saw both its forearms igniting with blueish white fire, and then...

BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...

Leon unleashed the full power of the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame’s Forearm Rail Cannons, intent on catching the high-ranking terrorist off-guard!

He did catch Dhruv off-guard, and yet...

Servo Reflex!

Bzzz!

Dhruv moved on instinct, leaving a blur.

But instinct alone was not enough.

He couldn’t dodge the entire volley of attacks as one of the hypersonic tungsten penetrators that were shot from the Rail Cannons hit him on the shoulder.

The tungsten penetrator ripped Dhruv’s entire right shoulder off!