142 THE HEROES PACK OF ATHERIS
Damen caught sight of the three assassins through the multi-screen feed of his DemCoin Mining App, as they staggered across the field. They were fleeing—exhausted, wounded, and desperate after the impossible battle.
He raised a hand.
From somewhere in the dark, tranquilizer shots rang out—sharp and precise. The darts hit their marks. The assassins collapsed one by one, their bodies twitching as exhaustion overtook them.
Then came the screams.
Their energy essence was ripped from their bodies, drawn into Damen's outstretched palm. The air crackled as their power was consumed.
"Drain."
"Drain."
"Drain."
Each invocation deepened the horror.
The Meta-soldiers standing nearby could only watch in silence as the once-lethal assassins withered, their strength fading into nothing.
"What is happening to the assassins?" Captain Green asked.
Damen has the perfect answer, "That is the assassins' way of committing suicide after they failed a mission. They explode from inside."
"Wow. Suicide! with this kind of commitment these assassins should work for us in the battlefield", Green commented.
Damen exhaled slowly, his eyes glowing faintly. Then he turned, gazing across the field toward a distant shape—Garius Zetheris.
"Are we going to kill him too?" Captain Green asked beside him.
"Maybe… if we can," Damen replied.
Through the drifting haze, Damen spotted Acyros, confident and untouched by the assassins.
Damen waved his hand again.
The Meta-soldiers opened fire. Rounds clashed against shimmering force fields with sparks flying as Acyros and Garius tried to defend themselves.
But the soldiers' fire was relentless.
The shields soon rippled, then finally cracked under the relentless barrage.
When the smoke cleared, Damen appeared, walking calmly toward them while his mercenaries fanning out behind him.
"We meet again," Damen said coolly.
"Damen Dark… it's you again?" Garius shouted, with blood on his lips.
But Damen's attention was on Acyros.
He studied her carefully. Without her Anti-Meta field fully active, she was far less intimidating than before.
Acyros raised her chin defiantly.
"Don't be so smug, you may break our outer shield," she shot back, then added, "but your rifles couldn't break my force field. Our reinforcements are on the way….you'd better run while you can."
Damen smiled faintly.
"Right. I know someone who walks around wrapped in layers of force-field charms," Damen said coolly. "But don't worry—you'll be dead long before your reinforcements arrive."
She smiled, unshaken. "My personal force field isn't some cheap charm defense. These are meta barriers—my body armor."
Damen had read about it. When meta-humans reached a sufficiently high rank, their power no longer needed external equipment. It condensed into an invisible shell, a natural defense fused to flesh and instinct.
"Damn… Acyros' body armor is disturbingly similar to my own Blood Armor", he thought.
But armor or not, it wouldn't stop him.
He had waited for this moment.
Every move, every calculation, every prediction had led here.
Damen had anticipated the Black Cockerel would choose to strike at the governor's palace during the mediation meeting because that place was far less defended than the HQs of either Zetheris or Veyran…. And they couldn't bring too many bodyguards to such a meeting, which makes this the perfect opportunity to murder them.
He knew either Garius or Valtor would try to escape through the east windows, and their flight paths would pass right over a particular point.
He waited there patiently.
Eventually, Damen was proven right in his predictions. And when the assassins arrived before him, he let them fight first. Then he would take everything through an ambush.
Acyros shouted, "Without Meta skills, you can't break my body armor! And with my Anti-Meta field active, your powers can't even be used!"
She laughed…. but only briefly.
Damen kept walking.
Then, in a sudden blur of motion, he lunged. No Meta energy flared… his body moved purely by instinct and power. As he closed the distance, the bones in his hands shot forward, transforming into jagged blades.
"Fist Form Blade."
He struck. Once. Twice.
The impact rattled Acyros' personal force field, splintering it. He struck again and again, until the shield shattered completely.
"No—how can you summon a meta skill?" Acyros screamed, staggering backward. "Please… don't kill me!"
"Your body armor is still too weak," he said calmly. "I can crack it with ease."
For a very long time, Acyros felt fear.
Against someone like Damen who could ignore her anti-meta fields, she was a sitting duck... to be slaughtered.
"This is the perfect time to kill you," Damen said coldly. "If your partner Umbros was here, it wouldn't be so easy…. But only a tiny little bit harder."
Then his bone blade pierced her heart. Her breath caught, her eyes wide in disbelief.
"Drain."
Her essence tore free, spiraling into his chest as the light faded from her eyes.
Then he turned to face Garius, who was frozen in terror.
"Wait please! You don't have to kill me!" Garius begged.
Damen said nothing. His blade moved once more, swiftly, and mercilessly. The strike ended him instantly.
Another "Drain."
When it was over, Damen stood alone amid the silence… his soldiers still far behind him, and the corpses of both Garius Zetheris and Acyros the Rank-B before him.
"Is it over? So soon?" the soldiers asked among themselves.
Something glinted on Acyros's chest, catching Damen's attention. His Vision Connect focused in automatically, and a string of data appeared across his view:
Name: Core of Anti-Meta
Description: A core that dissolves the bonds between meta particles, releasing their stored energy. Generates an Anti-Meta Field that disables all meta-based abilities within its range.
Damen's pulse quickened. "This is the source of Acyros' power."
Without hesitation, he tapped the command: "Assimilate."
The interface flickered then went blank. He was expecting a message giving him the option to bind the core to one of his meta skills.
To his surprise there was none.
"What the hell…? How do I even use this thing?" he muttered, frowning.
Still, he knew it was valuable. Whatever it was, the Core of Anti-Meta was far too valuable to discard. He'd figure it out later.
He gestured for the Meta-soldiers to withdraw and turned to leave.
Then the air tightened all of a sudden. A sudden heaviness pressed against his skin, like the atmosphere itself was warning him.
It was a premonition of danger.
Damen froze. An instinctive chill ran down his spine.
"Didn't I already kill Acyros?" Damen whispered.
Above him, shadows floated in the air coming towards them.
He moved immediately, rolling into a nearby thicket and vanishing into Camouflage Mode, hoping that the shadows hadn't spotted him.
He ordered the soldiers to fall back without him on his comms. Through the branches, he watched in silence.
Whatever this new presence was, it wasn't something he wanted them to face head-on if he had the chance.
Soon, the figures in the sky descended into the fields, landing near the fallen bodies of Garius Zetheris and Acyros.
"How could Acyros be killed so easily?" one of them said, a man clad in a vibrant uniform and mask, a bold letter A emblazoned across his chest.
The other two were dressed the same way, their matching insignias marking them unmistakably.
Damen recognized them at once.
They were part of a Hero pack, meta-humans from one of the major families. Judging by their insignia, they came from the Atheris family of Silver City.
Moments later, the thunder of rotor blades filled the air. Several helicopters descended, soldiers rappelling down to secure the bodies and survey the battlefield.
Damen's pulse quickened as the search parties began sweeping in his direction.
"Why are you going that way, Thrynn?" Orya called out.
The two heroes continued advancing, their boots crunching over broken metal and scorched soil…. straight toward where Damen was hiding.
"Go away... just go away," Damen thought desperately, willing them to turn back. He scanned their energy signatures, each of them was a Rank B meta-human.
Even with his advantages, there was no way he could take on three of them at once.
"Here, I found it!" one of the voices called out.
Damen's heart lurched. "Damn it... they've found me."
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