A deep, guttural wolf howl echoed through the tunnels, far more menacing than those of the regular werewolves. It grew louder and closer with each passing second.
The werewolves surrounding Laura, Eggsy, and Wesley froze for a moment before abruptly turning and retreating, disappearing into the darkness.
The three agents, momentarily unsure whether to pursue, heard Sunday's calm voice in their comms. "Eggsy, Laura, Wesley. The second batch of air-dropped supplies, including ammunition, spare batteries, and additional reactive armor, will arrive in ten seconds. Your next task is to support the Expendables and eliminate any werewolves you encounter."
Still riding high from the adrenaline of killing nearly 40 werewolves, Eggsy eagerly replied, "Got it, no problem!"
Laura, however, paused to think, quickly piecing together the situation. She realized the three of them had been used as bait to lure the bulk of the werewolves away while the Expendables targeted the werewolf leader in a separate operation.
Cursing under her breath at the realization, she had to admit that William's and Sunday's planning had been meticulous. They'd ensured she and her team were never in any real danger. Resigned, she replied curtly, "Understood."
Wesley, ever the silent professional, merely nodded and leapt down from the third floor of the ruined underground structure to the ground floor, waiting calmly for the resupply drones.
Eggsy joined him, his excitement unabated. "Mate," he said, punching Wesley lightly on the arm, "we're gonna be rich after this! How much do you reckon the boss will pay us? Ten grand? Twenty?"
"Probably closer to ten," Wesley replied. No sooner had he spoken than Merlin's voice came through their comms.
"Considering you've taken down close to a hundred werewolves and performed decently overall, I'll recommend to the boss that you receive £10,000 each, plus a bounty of £1,000 for every werewolf killed."
"YES! I love you, Merlin!" Eggsy shouted, practically bouncing on his feet. A quick calculation revealed that he was set to earn nearly £14,000 from this mission, and both he and Wesley couldn't hide their excitement.
"Idiots," Laura muttered, clearly unimpressed by their enthusiasm. While the money meant little to her, the thought of her kill count being the lowest among the team stung her pride. The Croft family was a bona fide financial empire. Though she had yet to inherit its wealth, she knew it amounted to tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars. Money was never her concern—her pride was.
Twenty seconds later, the resupply drones arrived, delivering fresh batteries, reactive armor, and ammunition. The three agents quickly swapped out their depleted gear for the newly delivered supplies, reloaded their weapons, and set off at full speed toward the Expendables' location as directed by Sunday.
Once the three agents left, Selene emerged from her hiding spot. She surveyed the carnage around her—over a hundred werewolf corpses with veins bulging with the blue marks of liquid silver. She stood silently, lost in thought.
She understood all too well that if humanity could field more soldiers equipped with this kind of mech armor, the supernatural world wouldn't last long. Werewolves, vampires, and other "creatures of the night" would be forced to retreat into the shadows, driven to the most desolate, uninhabited regions of the world to live like wild animals.
The name "Boss," mentioned by Eggsy earlier, piqued her curiosity. Selene couldn't help but wonder who was behind this operation.
Without hesitation, she pulled out her phone and snapped several photos of the werewolf corpses around her. Then, determined to find answers, she set off in pursuit of Eggsy, Laura, and Wesley.
After a minute of running, Selene rounded a corner and was immediately slammed against a wall by a powerful force. Before she could react, she felt cold steel against her throat.
Laura's stealth combat suit shimmered into visibility as she deactivated its cloaking feature. Holding Selene by the neck with one hand and pressing a knife to her throat with the other, Laura hissed, "I noticed you earlier. I let you go because you didn't interfere with us. But now, you've got the nerve to follow us? Vampires like you really have no sense of self-preservation."
"Why don't we just kill her?" Eggsy suggested, emerging from cover nearby. "It'd save us the trouble of her getting in our way later."
"Then you do it," Wesley said, approaching from the opposite side. When Eggsy hesitated and muttered something, Wesley scowled. "Don't make trouble. Merlin said today's targets are werewolves, not vampires. Besides, vampires and werewolves are mortal enemies."
That comment gave both Eggsy and Laura pause. They began to suspect that William's plan was to temporarily ally with the vampires to eliminate the werewolves before turning on the vampires themselves.
Ever the joker, Eggsy couldn't resist making a snide remark in the comms. "Maybe the boss just fancies her, huh?"
"Shut up, Eggsy!" Merlin snapped from the truck. "If you want to keep your job—and your head—stop dragging the rest of us into your stupidity!"
Laura, clearly fed up with the situation, released Selene with a look of disdain. As she passed Eggsy, she gave him a silent pat on the shoulder, then sprinted off toward the Expendables' location. Wesley followed suit, giving Eggsy a similar pat as he passed, leaving Eggsy standing alone, embarrassed.
"Bloody hell," Eggsy muttered, smacking his helmet. "You lot better keep quiet about this."
Once the agents were gone, Selene rubbed her neck, picked up the M416 rifle she had dropped, and silently resumed her pursuit.
By now, she was certain that Eggsy and his team's boss bore no immediate hostility toward her. If that were the case, Laura would have killed her on the spot instead of letting her go multiple times.
After running for several more seconds, Selene heard gunfire ahead. She knew she was close to the action. Following the trail of werewolf corpses, she crouched and entered a narrow ventilation shaft. Moving quietly, she crawled several dozen meters before turning a corner and emerging into a massive, open underground structure.
Her eyes widened in shock. "Damn it," she whispered. The werewolves had been hiding in an old air raid shelter beneath East London all this time.
Crouching at the edge of the ventilation shaft, she looked down at the chaos below. In the massive space, nine figures in glowing blue mech armor were locked in an intense battle against over a hundred werewolves.
It didn't take long for her to notice the werewolves' objective: a long-haired man, unconscious and chained to a corner wall, being fiercely guarded by three of the mech soldiers.
Selene's breath hitched as she recognized the man. "Lucian?"
Without thinking, she raised her M416 and opened fire on Lucian.
Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat!
Several silver bullets hit their mark, jolting Lucian awake with a pained roar.
Meanwhile, aboveground, William sat in a truck parked on a main road. Watching the scene unfold on his display, he smirked. "Let's see how you handle this once you realize it's all been a trap, Selene."
Turning to Sunday, he gave his next orders. "Deploy the combat robots. Have Wesley fire warning shots to drive Selene away. If she refuses to leave, wound her."
"Understood, sir," Sunday replied.
Moments later, the back of another truck opened, and a section of the floor slid away to reveal a manhole cover. With a series of mechanical clicks, a combat robot climbed onto the truck's roof, removed the manhole cover, and began descending into the sewer. One by one, more robots followed, entering the underground network under the cover of the truck.
Back in the air raid shelter, Lucian's attack galvanized the werewolves. Many of them broke away from the main battle and charged toward Selene's position.
Meanwhile, Wesley, alerted by Sunday, raised his rifle and fired several warning shots near Selene's location.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The bullets struck the walls of the ventilation shaft, just meters away from her.
Looking at Lucian being fiercely guarded by the mech soldiers and the werewolves relentlessly being cut down, Selene quickly pieced it together.
"These mech soldiers are using Lucian as bait to lure in all the werewolves trying to rescue him," she muttered under her breath, the realization sinking in.
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Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 542)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1284)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1289)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
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