"Ugh...!"
Viper gritted her teeth so hard her jaw bulged. She struggled to push herself up from the pile of shattered tiles, clutching her side where she had violently impacted the wall moments ago. Fresh blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. She shook her head vigorously a few times to dispel the dizziness and the ringing in her ears.
Not far away, Griz and Batong instinctively retreated to regroup with her. Their eyes were fixed on the newcomer with wariness, but what shone clearly in their gaze was "irritation" and "frustration" reaching its boiling point.
"Pui!"
Griz spat a mixture of saliva and blood onto the ground in a rage. His savage face twisted with anger. "Damn it all! Who the hell is interfering with our business this time? It was about to be over!"
"Tch..." Viper clicked her tongue, her glare fixed on Victoria like a venomous snake ready to strike. "Is today some kind of Owen family reunion? First the stretchy one, now the psychic one... Popping up one by one, it's so annoying!"
Batong shared their sentiment. He ejected his empty magazine and slammed a new one in with frustration. "Shit! Why do we always get interrupted right at the execution phase?! A simple mission has turned into a mess. I'm starting to think the pay for this job isn't worth it..."
Amidst the hunters' cursing and complaints, Victoria stood calmly in the center of the room. She completely ignored their vulgar words, treating their voices like the buzzing of annoying gnats unworthy of her attention.
The slender figure in the white skinsuit walked elegantly over the debris, her expensive sneakers stepping on the rubble without caring about the dust that might soil them. She stopped beside Talia.
Her sharp eyes, glowing with a faint blue light, glanced at Talia's tattered clothes and wounds... before her gaze softened, replaced by a deep sense of guilt.
"I apologize for being late..." Victoria said softly, letting out a sigh of displeasure at her own tardiness. "To think you had to end up in such an unsightly state... Master will surely be displeased."
Talia, sitting and panting on the floor, looked up with a dry smile. Even though her body was in pain, she tried to act cheerful. "N-No worries, Miss Victoria... Just you arriving in time is super good already! Hehe. If you were a bit later, Talia would have turned into a sheet of dried rubber for sure."
While the two women conversed... the three hunters watching the standoff began to sense something amiss.
As their initial irritation faded, the instincts of "Awakeners" who had survived countless missions kicked in. Batong, whose senses were sharper than the others, began to turn pale. Large beads of sweat popped up on his forehead, and he unconsciously took a step back.
"Hey... be careful!" He whispered a tense warning to his teammates, his eyes never leaving Victoria. "That blonde woman... she's not just some low-level Awakener. The amount of mana radiating from her is massive. She's likely Rank A! Or very close to it!"
The term "Rank A" acted like a curse that froze Griz and Viper in their tracks. Their earlier arrogance evaporated by nearly half. What they sensed was a wave of mana energy overflowing from Victoria's body... dense and violent like a sea swelling into a storm, as if she were intentionally threatening them.
"I know!" Griz gritted his teeth, trying to keep his voice steady. "Releasing that much mana pressure... does she think I'm blind?"
Hesitation began to grip their minds. They knew well that in the world of Awakeners, "Rank" was an insurmountable wall. Three Rank C Awakeners might be able to mob and kill a Rank B... but a Rank A was an entity from a different world entirely. Fighting a Rank A without a plan was no different from suicide.
"What do we do, Viper?" Batong asked, his voice trembling. "Should we retreat?"
Viper stared intently at Victoria, her brain processing rapidly. If they fled now, the mission would fail, and they might be hunted down by Victor later. But if they fought... their chances of survival were equally slim.
"Don't be a coward just yet!" Viper decided, grinding her teeth. The look of a gambler going all-in appeared in her eyes. "She might just have a lot of mana, that doesn't mean she's a Rank A Awakener. If she were a real Rank A, we'd be dead already! That bitch might be all bark, or maybe she's using power-enhancing items... Let's attack first to be sure!"
Hearing this, Griz roared to psych himself up. "That's right! So what if it's Rank A mana?! There are three of us... If we mob her, she'll run out of energy eventually!"
With that roar, the three decided to launch a simultaneous attack to pressure their enemy!
"Die!!"
Griz bent down and grabbed a slab of concrete the size of a car hood from the floor. His arm muscles expanded with reinforcement power before he hurled it at Victoria's head with full force, like throwing a frisbee!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Bang! Bang!
At the same moment, Viper flicked her wrist, throwing three poison-coated daggers in arcing trajectories, while Batong unleashed a barrage of pistol fire aimed at her vitals without hesitation!
Such perfect coordination had delivered death to many Awakeners before.
However... Victoria's reaction was merely one of annoyance. She snapped her head to look at the trash flying towards her, her beautiful brows furrowing. "So annoying! Do you scum not know your place?"
She didn't move to dodge. She didn't take a defensive stance. She simply flicked her right hand to the side lightly, like shooing away a fly.
Voooom!!!
An invisible wave of Telekinesis exploded from her body like a raging storm! Raw energy slammed into all the incoming attacks in mid-air.
BOOOOM!!!
A deafening explosion rang out! The giant concrete slab was pulverized into dust in an instant. The bullets and daggers were blasted backward by the shockwave!
But the violence didn't stop there... The "excessive" wave of telekinetic force continued to shatter the mirrors and ceramic sinks in the area. The remaining restroom doors were ripped from their hinges and sent flying. Even Talia, standing behind her, had to quickly stretch her arm to grab a pillar just to keep from being blown away by the wind!
When the dust settled, it revealed Victoria still standing in the same spot, chin held high, without a single scratch... But that counterattack had revealed a certain "truth" to a cunning hunter like Viper.
Viper's eyes gleamed, and a cruel smile returned to her face.
"See that?..." Viper whispered low to her teammates. "She has a lot of power, true... but her control is 'rough'! That bitch used enough force to stop a cannonball just to deal with our petty attacks... She's wasting power like crazy!"
Batong, who was observing, quickly nodded in agreement. "And look at her posture... Standing there with her chin up, absolutely no guard. She's completely underestimating us... That's not the stance of a trained fighter. She's more like a rich young miss who has a cannon but doesn't know how to shoot."
"Then this is going to be a piece of cake!" Griz grinned savagely.
Without needing a signal, the three immediately split up to prove their hypothesis and find more weaknesses!
"You arrogant bitch! Try taking this punch!" Griz roared, charging at Victoria like a bloodthirsty tank! He cocked his giant fist back as if to punch with full power, but in reality, he was intentionally using his massive body to block her vision, while Viper and Batong split off for a sneak attack.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Batong, moving to the flank, fired continuously into Victoria's blind spots to force her to divide her focus for defense.
"Truly annoying, you insects..." Victoria frowned in irritation. She flicked her hand slightly, causing scrap metal and chunks of concrete around her to float up and swirl into a defensive barrier. Every bullet that flew in was deflected cleanly by the 'invisible wall'.
And the moment Griz reached melee range... the patience of the haughty queen ran out.
"Don't come near me, you filth!" Victoria snapped.
She focused her mind on Griz and thrust her hand forward, curling her five fingers like a claw. Her blue eyes flared with rage. Massive telekinetic power rushed out to 'grip' Griz's giant body, which was running at high speed, stopping him dead in mid-air!
"Urgh!" Griz grunted through clenched teeth, struggling as if a giant invisible hand was crushing his entire body.
However... in the second Victoria dedicated her entire focus to handling a 'living being' with large mass and strong mana resistance, a fatal error occurred.
Clang! Clatter! Thud!
The concrete debris and rebar she had kept floating around her to defend against Batong's bullets suddenly dropped to the floor simultaneously, as if their strings had been cut!
Viper, who had been lying in wait for this exact moment, widened her eyes in delight. "Got her! She can control multiple inanimate objects at once... but with a 'living person' who has resisting mana, she can only handle one at a time! And it takes all her concentration!"
It was the most fatal opening for a telekinetic user lacking experience... focusing so hard on a single point that they neglect their surrounding defense!
"Now! Kill her!" Viper shouted, launching herself from the shadows at top speed.
"Oh no!" Victoria gasped, realizing her mistake. She tried to fling Griz away to pull her power back for defense, but Batong didn't let the opportunity slip. He fired a heavy volley at her immediately, forcing her to flinch and lose her rhythm for a split second.
And that split second was enough for the assassin...
Whoosh!
Viper reached execution range. The dark purple poison-coated dagger in her hand traced an arc, aimed precisely at Victoria's slender neck!
'I've got you!'
But before the blade could touch her skin...
Thwip!!!
A white blur shot out from the last bathroom stall behind them at high speed! It was a slender arm stretching out like a giant snake, wrapping tightly around Viper's waist!
"What the!?" Viper exclaimed in shock.
"Get awayyyy!" A sweet but powerful voice shouted.
The elastic arm retracted violently, yanking Viper's body away and hurling her through the air to crash into the opposite bathroom wall with a loud bang!
Crash!
"Gah!" Viper slumped to the floor, winded and speechless.
Amidst everyone's astonishment... Talia's small figure slowly walked out of the stall where Jessica was hiding. But what made the hunters' jaws drop wasn't just her reappearance, but her 'condition'.
The severe wounds that were once bleeding profusely were now wrapped in clean white gauze and bandages neatly, tightly, and orderly, like a work of art. Her tattered sleeves and pant legs had been torn off, revealing muscles that looked flexible and combat-ready.
She had used the missing two minutes to transform from an injured victim back into a nearly fully recovered fighter!
"W-What is this?" Batong gaped, looking from Talia to his wristwatch. "In that short time... she healed herself that much!?"
Talia puffed out her gauze-wrapped chest proudly. She gave the hunters a playful wink.
"Hehe, confused right?" She laughed brightly. "Seeing me like this, before I became a maid for Master Owen, I used to be a professional ER Nurse, you know! Stopping bleeding and dressing wounds is a piece of cake! Talia Recovery Version... is back on the battlefield!"
Victoria looked at Talia's overly cheerful demeanor and couldn't help but sigh in relief. She wiped the sweat from her forehead.
"You're really slow... you rubber eraser," Victoria grumbled, but there was not a hint of anger in her eyes.
"Hehe... let's call it even. I was busy looking for bandages in Miss Jessica's emergency kit," Talia grinned broadly before stepping up to stand beside Victoria, her eyes turning serious. "Alright... Miss Victoria, please bury that gorilla into the ground. As for the remaining two gnats... Talia will be your shield!"
"Good..." Victoria turned back to Griz, her eyes gleaming more viciously than before. "Then let's start the 'real thing'."
Round two of the battle commenced! But this time... it was no longer a 3-on-1 fight, but a 3-on-2, where Talia and Victoria would demonstrate teamwork to cover each other's weaknesses.
"Don't be afraid! Mob them!" Griz, who had just gotten up, roared to rally his teammates again and charged at Victoria fearlessly.
Victoria no longer needed to worry about watching her back. She poured 100% of her concentration onto the giant figure in front of her.
"You... are truly an eyesore!" Victoria shouted. Massive telekinetic power slammed into Griz, lifting him into the air again. But this time, she didn't just hold him still. She flicked her hand down towards the floor violently.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Griz's body was slammed against the floor and concrete walls, left and right, over and over again like a ragdoll in the hands of a spoiled child!
"Arghhh!" Griz screamed. His tough body began to fail him. The sound of flesh impacting and bones breaking echoed throughout the restroom.
On the other side, Batong tried to aim his gun to help his friend, but every time he pulled the trigger, Talia would stretch an arm or leg to intercept the bullet's path. Her rubber body bounced the bullets back at him, forcing him to jump and dodge frantically.
"Hehe, no shooting anyone but me, Uncle!" Talia stuck out her tongue, then stretched one arm to wrap around the ankle of Viper, who was about to sneak attack Victoria, and swung the assassin into Batong, sending them both tumbling.
The situation had completely flipped! With the perfect coordination of Tank and DPS, the three hunters who once had the advantage were now being cornered.
"Let's end this!"
Victoria shouted. She gathered her last bit of strength, lifting the battered 'body' of Griz high up against the ceiling.
"Stay down!!"
She slammed her hand down violently! Griz's giant body was smashed into the floor at high speed. The massive pressure caused the concrete floor to cave in, forming a crater!
BOOM!!!
Griz lay motionless immediately, eyes rolled back, blood soaking his entire body. Completely incapacitated.
"Griz!" Batong shouted for his friend in shock. But he had no time to worry about others, for Talia's looming shadow had already closed in on him.
"Your turn!"
Talia cocked her right fist back. Her arm stretched out several meters like a slingshot pulled to its limit... before snapping back with multiplied speed and force!
"Rubber Rocket Punccchhhh!!"
Pow!!!
The small fist slammed squarely into Batong's face! His sunglasses shattered, the bridge of his nose snapped, and his tall, lanky body flew back, hitting the wall before sliding down to the floor, knocked out cold.
Now, only Viper remained...
The female assassin panted heavily, watching her teammates fall one by one with fear. She knew she had lost, but her wild instincts commanded her to struggle. She raised the dagger in her hand, preparing to throw it at Talia as a last resort...
Freeze!
But it stopped in mid-air, just inches from her hand. Victoria walked slowly towards her with eyes colder than ice.
"What do you think you're doing?" Victoria asked flatly. With a slight twist of her wrist, her telekinesis twisted the knife until it folded into a piece of useless scrap metal and dropped to the floor.
Viper stepped back until her back hit the wall. "D... Don't..."
"Go to sleep..."
Victoria flicked her hand. Invisible power grabbed Viper, lifted her up, and slammed her violently onto the floor. Since she wasn't a tank like Griz, she lost consciousness in a single strike...
The outcome was decided!
Talia wiped the sweat from her forehead, turning to flash a peace sign at Victoria with a wide grin. "Mission accomplished! Yay! Master is going to be so proud!"
Victoria dusted off her shoulder (even though there was no dust) and lifted her chin slightly, trying to hide her joy under her queenly persona. "Hmph... Naturally. We are 'Master's people' after all. It would be disgraceful if we couldn't handle something like this."
And right then... Jessica, seeing that the situation had resolved, slowly stepped out from her hiding spot with trepidation. She scanned the ruined restroom and the bodies of the three hunters lying on the floor in shock.
Her eyes widened as she looked at the two women who were completely different from each other. One cheerful and bright, the other cold and elegant. Yet, both stood side by side amidst the wreckage to protect her from danger.
A feeling of awe, gratitude, and pride welled up in her chest...
Jessica smiled through her tears and lunged to hug both heroes with thanks immediately. Although she initially disapproved of Owen's harem, she now realized she had given her heart to a truly extraordinary man. He would never abandon her no matter how many women he had, and she... would never abandon him either!
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