"A necessary sacrifice."

She spoke the words back slowly. Her fingers curled at her sides.

Lex stepped forward without a word, planting himself between her and the line of guns.

Although he wasn’t wearing any power suit, he was confident he could still block bullets. But his body couldn’t operate at peak performance without risking cellular damage.

Now that he thought about it, it was the Director who insisted that he meet her wearing civilian clothing.

As for Samantha, she was a non-combatant with no weapons whatsoever, which made her a liability.

"I’ll make an opening," he said quietly. "After that, you run. Don’t look back. Whatever you hear."

"What about you?"

His grip shifted on the spear. "I’ll manage."

"No. That’s not—"

"Listen," his voice hardened, cutting her off. "Once you get out of their range, they won’t waste resources chasing you because they would be too busy fighting me."

She didn’t find that comforting. She wasn’t sure she was supposed to.

"Can’t we just run away? You did it before, right?"

He shook his head. "That was different. We’re in a more open area with little to no tall buildings. And I’m sure they’ve already quarantined this place."

"Then what if you run away yourself? Just leave me here."

"Don’t be stubborn and just listen to me, Samantha," he said firmly, his tone leaving no room for argument.

The soldiers shifted their formation, rifles tracking every movement, while the Four Horsemen stood ready, waiting for the smallest opening.

Lex exhaled slowly.

Then he lowered his stance.

The pressure around him intensified. Dust dragged across the ground, circling his feet.

"I didn’t want to use this because of the severe backlash," A faint smile appeared on his lips. "But if I’m going to die anyway, I might as well take you all with me."

BOOOM!

His aura erupted at once.

A pillar of blue light tore upward, rising thirty feet into the air in violent, unsteady bursts. It flickered in uneven surges. From a distance, it looked like a blue flame streaked with lightning, crackling as it reached toward the sky.

Lex slowly lifted his head.

drip!

drip!

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes began to bleed. The backlash had already started.

But his smile didn’t fade.

crack!

crack!

Each step he took left shallow cracks in the pavement.

The soldiers adjusted their aim. Red dots clustered across his chest.

For odd reason, they held their fire.

Lex noticed it too, and unlike Samantha, he understood exactly why they weren’t firing.

That realization left a bitter taste in his mouth as he tightened his grip his weapon, anger building under the strain in his body.

"I’m a human!" he roared and thrust his spear into the ground.

For a split second, everyone expected destruction.

Instead—

A blue shockwave burst outward.

It didn’t break the ground. It spread across it.

The force rolled in a wide circle, pushing everything back at once.

Soldiers were thrown off balance. Dust and debris lifted and scattered as if the air itself had been struck.

Harry raised his arm to block it, sliding back a few steps, while the other Four Horsemen also dodged.

Samantha didn’t have time to ask what he was doing before her feet left the ground.

"Why would you—"

She hit the pavement twenty meters away, hard enough to knock the breath out of her. By the time she looked up, he was already inside their formation.

Gunfire erupted — short, mechanical bursts

RATATATAT!

RATATATAT!

His aura caught some of the rounds. Others he deflected with the spear’s shaft, spinning the redirected bullets back toward the shooters.

The soldiers split and regrouped, drawing stun batons, tightening into a pattern.

CLANG!

CLANG!

CLANG!

They were not as strong as the Four Horsemen, but their formation made it hard for Lex to build any momentum.

Every angle was covered. Every step forward was cut off before it could grow into an attack.

They had studied his battle style beforehand, but it only carried them so far.

"This is not enough to kill me!"

The moment he found enough space, he thrust his spear forward.

Two soldiers were killed instantly as a blue beam burst from the tip, tearing through the path ahead and smashing through the walls along the way.

Without wasting the carried momentum, he spun his weapon. The motion generated a powerful force that knocked everyone back, breaking their formation.

Harry slipped in immediately, along with the other Four Horsemen, cutting Lex off before he could build momentum.

Unlike before, they were now able to handle Lex’s attacks, thanks to their previous encounter.

"It won’t end like last time, Lex. We’re going to kill you here and destroy everything you built—your name, your legacy... everything!"

Harry taunted him, trying to throw him off and break his focus.

The Federation soldiers pushed themselves back to their feet, quickly joining the fight.

Lex took another breath, and once again his speed skyrocketed. The air cracked as he pushed forward.

But in response, more and more soldiers moved in to slow him down.

The fight grew more intense. One after another, soldiers fell under his overwhelming power, but each time someone went down, another stepped in to take their place.

And now that he was fully engaged, the back up began firing whenever they found an opening.

Gunshots rang out between clashes, forcing him to divide his focus between close combat and incoming bullets.

Samantha didn’t waste the opportunity. She turned and ran, forcing her trembling legs to move. Creating distance meant he could fight without worrying about her.

Her breathing grew uneven as she pushed herself faster. Just as Lex expected, no one chased her.

That allowed her to create distance from the fight, turning from one corner to the next as the sounds of battle faded behind her.

"Just a little farther—"

BANG!

’What happened?’

She looked down. The answer was obvious from all the blood.

Her knees gave. The pavement caught her.

The pain came a second later. She twisted and groaned, her body shaking from the sensation.

"It...hurts." Her vision blurred slightly, and through it, she saw a pair of feet slowly approaching her.

Samantha forced her head up.

A woman came into view.

Brown hair. Matching eyes. A pistol rested in her left hand, while a short sword hung at her waist. She wore a white uniform marked with the Defense Force.

"Samantha Liner. To think I would get the chance to kill a member of the Liner family." Her voice carried the particular satisfaction of someone who had waited for something for a very long time.

"...Alicia." she recognized the shooter.

Same age. Same academy. No version of their history that had ever been friendly.

"Did the Director send you?"

"Half," Alicia tilted her head. "The other half was my own desire to end you myself."

From her tone and expression, it was obvious she had personal hatred toward her.

"What did I ever do to you—"

A low kick cut her sentence off cleanly. Samantha’s head cracked against the pavement and she rolled, tasting blood and grit.

"Your father." Alicia’s boot found the bullet wound and pressed down, slow and grinding. "Your whole family... parasites that need to be exterminated."

Samantha heard herself make a sound she didn’t recognize. Her body tried to curl inward. The pressure only increased.

"Does it hurt?" A small, delighted pause. "Good. I want you to feel all of it."

Then, as if kicking her was not enough, Alicia grabbed her by the collar and dragged her up from the ground. The gun barrel found the underside of her chin.

"Beg," Alicia said. "Maybe I’ll make it quick."

Samantha looked at her. Then she spat straight onto her shooter’s face.

Alicia’s eyes darkened instantly.

SLAP!

Samantha’s head jerked to the side.

SLAP!

Another one followed immediately

SLAP! SLAP!

The female agent kept hitting her again and again, only stopping when Samantha completely lost consciousness.

"What a boring bitch,"

She pressed the barrel to Samantha’s mouth, finger settling against the trigger —

— and felt the cold.

Not cold like temperature.

Cold like something had already passed through her.

She looked down slowly.

A black tendril had pierced her from the front and come out through her back, somewhere below the spine.

Her fingers slowly slipped off the pistol. The weapon dropped from her hand and hit the ground with a dull clink.

She swayed for a moment, like she was still trying to understand what happened.

Then she fell forward and didn’t move again.

The last thing she saw before her life was cut short was Samantha’s grinning face.

crack!

Samantha rolled her shoulders into place, then grabbed Alicia’s corpse and dragged her through a back door of one of the buildings.

’This is getting more complicated, but I can still come out on top here,’ Francis thought.

Slowly, he withdrew from Samantha’s wound. Instead of a fatal injury, the area he had passed through had decayed and then sealed itself, unintentionally helping slow the bleeding.

Still in his parasite form, he turned his attention to the corpse. He slipped into the wound right away.

[DING]

[Congratulations, Host. You have absorbed a Special Category human target. System is now assessing the acquired value.]

[Liver+ 80]

[Innate Talent Redundant – Spring Joints II]

He stared at the result for a moment.

’So it upgraded what was already there. This is actually a good thing.’

Spring Joints was one of the innate talents he used in almost everything—fighting, movement, and more.

Any improvement to it made all his other abilities stronger.

’Now, what should I do to her?’ he thought as his attention turned to Samantha.

Her breathing actually stabilized after the decayed tissue sealed the wound and slowed the bleeding. Still, she was far from safe and would need medical attention soon.