Chapter 370: Flawless Teamwork
The Chat Group had established an complex, highly specialized supply network for this massive "Hollow Evacuation Operation."
Whenever the team shattered an Ethereal into dust or interacted with specific environmental anomalies within the Hollow, a holographic shimmer would occasionally coalesce into tangible Supply Boxes.
These crates weren't just dumping basic lead. The ammunition tiered itself into distinct grades. The lowest tier, "Common Ammunition," merely refilled standard magazines—reliable, but unremarkable.
"Advanced Ammunition," however—the exact grade Stelle currently had loaded into her weapon—was a different beast entirely. It actively synchronized with the user, drawing upon their innate Elemental affinities or unique energy signatures the moment the firing pin struck. This synchronization drastically amplified the kinetic impact of every single shot, wreaking havoc with explosive special effects.
A tier above that lay the elusive "High-Grade Ammunition." Not only did it boast a far more volatile elemental imbuement, but the rounds also carried devastating secondary traits: armor penetration that could punch through steel plating, wall-piercing capabilities, and massive area-of-effect splash damage that could clear a room in seconds.
Then there was the stuff of legends: "Special Ammunition." According to the Chat Group's sparse item descriptions, the warheads of these mythical bullets contained an infinitesimal trace of the Force of Rules. This meant they could outright bypass a target's conventional defensive measures, ignoring shields and armor to inflict terrifyingly pure, true damage. Naturally, such game-breaking firepower couldn't be looted from random Supply Boxes. It demanded the completion of absurdly difficult hidden tasks or the fulfillment of obscure, borderline impossible conditions. Its rarity spoke for itself.
Right now, Stelle wasn't worried about mythical bullets. Every flame-imbued round she unleashed hammered into the massive, grotesque palm looming before her. The bullets detonated upon impact, blossoming into spheres of scorching fire against the creature's tough, keratinized skin. Each explosion left behind a fist-sized crater, the edges bubbling and charred black from the intense heat.
The searing agony forced the giant hand to twitch violently in the air. A flash of unsettling, almost human-like pain flickered within the massive, unblinking eye embedded right in the center of its palm. Its attempt to retreat back into the dimensional rift slowed by half a crucial beat.
"You're a tough one, aren't you!" Stelle grinned, her lips parting in a fierce smile. Her golden eyes practically glowed with adrenaline, her fighting spirit burning hotter than the muzzle of her gun.
This was the kind of combat she lived for. Seeing her attacks actually rip through flesh and leave visible damage was infinitely more satisfying than her previous encounters with high-level Ethereals, where every strike had just bounced off impenetrable energy shields or thick, unyielding armor plates.
"Stelle! Behind you!" March 7th's frantic scream suddenly shattered the rhythm of the battlefield.
Stelle's heart slammed against her ribs. She pivoted on her heel, her coat flaring out around her.
While all her attention had been hyper-focused on the wounded appendage in front of her, a second giant hand had silently slithered out of a distorted, jagged spatial rift directly at her back. It was already more than halfway out of the portal.
This one didn't bother winding up for a physical slap. Instead, the vertical pupil embedded in its palm snapped open, flaring with a blinding, toxic purple luminescence.
Without a single sound, a concentrated beam of solid energy erupted from the eye. It lashed out with the speed of lightning, a deadly spear of light aimed dead center at Stelle's exposed spine.
The purple torrent tore through the thick, oppressive fog of the Hollow, carrying a suffocating aura of absolute annihilation.
Stelle gritted her teeth. She had just finished a grueling round of continuous strafing, and the rapid depletion of her stamina caused her overworked muscles to scream in protest. That microscopic delay—a momentary lag born of sheer physical exhaustion—was fatal. Her body simply wouldn't obey fast enough to execute a full evasive roll.
"Stelle!" Dan Heng's sharp shout rang out, though his body was already moving faster than his voice.
In the exact fraction of a second the energy beam ignited, Dan Heng lunged in from her blind flank.
The heavy riot shield strapped to his back, previously folded into a compact storage mode, snapped open with a sharp, metallic clack. He planted his boots into the shattered earth, hoisting the wide, reinforced surface to act as an impenetrable wall between Stelle and the incoming ray of death.
But a physical barrier wasn't enough against that kind of raw destructive power. Dan Heng slammed his left palm against the inner plating of the shield. A faint, earthy-yellow light bloomed from his skin, sending a deep, resonant wave of energy rippling outward.
[Jadeite Shield]
A phantom projection of solid bedrock flashed across the riot shield's surface, instantly plating the metal with an energy barrier that was nearly invisible to the naked eye, yet fundamentally indestructible.
BOOM—!
The purple energy beam slammed dead center into the shield with the force of a meteor.
Blinding violet light detonated outward. A violent torrent of displaced energy splashed in every direction, violently uprooting the ground and instantly vaporizing the surrounding rubble and stray ether crystals into fine dust.
The shield shuddered violently under the onslaught, emitting a high-pitched, teeth-aching groan of stressed metal. Yet, both the physical alloy and the projected energy barrier held their ground. The outer surface merely suffered a patch of severe corrosion, bubbling black, while the energy shield rippled like water, rapidly dispersing the lethal kinetic impact layer by layer.
Dan Heng's boots skidded back half a step, carving deep trenches into the dirt, before he locked his stance. His arm remained as steady as a mountain, holding the line.
"Saved..." Stelle exhaled a shaky breath, cold sweat beading at her temples as she stared at the smoking shield.
This split-second transition between life and death did not escape March 7th's watchful eyes. Positioned at a high vantage point atop a pile of crumbling ruins in the distance, she had already deployed the heavy sniper rifle she looted from a previous Supply Box, its precision scope locked onto the battlefield.
The cold, metallic stock pressed snugly against her shoulder socket. Through the crosshairs, she tracked the giant hand that had just fired the lethal beam. The afterglow of the purple energy still smoked from its palm as the appendage desperately tried to slither back into the safety of the spatial rift.
"You think you can just shoot at Stelle and run away?" March 7th's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. Her usually bubbly demeanor vanished, replaced by the icy calm of a seasoned marksman. Her breathing slowed, stretching out into a steady, rhythmic drawl as her finger tightened around the trigger. "Taste this!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three specialized Frost Bullets, heavily imbued with extreme Cryo energy, erupted from the muzzle. They traced three nearly imperceptible, pale blue lines through the air, crossing the distance in a fraction of a second to strike the exact same spot on the giant palm's vertical pupil with terrifying, pinpoint precision.
The first round shattered the giant hand's fragile, lingering energy defense, sending a spray of crystalline ice chips flying into the air. The second bullet drilled directly into the exposed flesh, unleashing a wave of extreme cold that caused the giant pupil to instantly stiffen and spasm in shock. The third and final bullet, carrying the most concentrated freezing aura, penetrated deep into the core of the eye.
Crack... crunch...
A horrifying sound of rapidly freezing tissue echoed across the ruins. Starting from the bullet wounds, the sinister purple glow of the vertical pupil was violently overtaken by a layer of pale, solid frost. The ice spread outward like a living, ravenous beast, devouring the entire palm in the blink of an eye.
In just over a single second, the entire massive appendage was completely frozen solid. It transformed into a gigantic, twisted ice sculpture, trapped forever in a comical, half-retracted posture. The extreme drop in temperature was so severe that even the distorted spatial ripples surrounding the rift became sluggish, solidifying under the absolute zero domain.
Lumine wasn't about to let this perfect window of opportunity slip by. With a swift, practiced motion, she shifted her internal elemental resonance, switching her affinity directly to Electro. In the same fluid breath, she channeled that crackling power into the magazine of Advanced Ammunition slotted into her weapon, dying the rounds with pure, volatile lightning.
When she pulled the trigger, the muzzle didn't just spit fire—it unleashed a blinding torrent of purple lightning.
An entire magazine of Electro-charged bullets rained down upon the frozen giant hand like a relentless, localized hurricane.
Superconduct reaction, triggered.
The violent, erratic Electro energy clashed fiercely with the extreme Cryo aura encasing the hand. This wasn't a simple cancellation of elements; the collision of the two forces in the low-temperature environment triggered a devastating Superconduct phenomenon.
Blinding, pale-blue lightning ran wild, arcing and exploding across the surface of the ice sculpture. Not only did the volatile reaction inflict massive Electro damage, but the Superconduct effect actively shredded the structural integrity of the ice, drastically reducing the physical defense of the frozen target.
"Paimon Star! Finish it off!!" Lumine shouted over the roar of the lightning.
Paimon, who had been hovering nearby and waiting for her moment to shine, puffed up her cheeks in intense concentration. She pushed her tiny willpower to its absolute limit, her eyes burning with determination.
Beside her, the towering, muscular manifestation known as Paimon Star materialized. Though the stand-like entity had been shrunk down to a mere 1.5 meters tall to handle the Hollow, its raw speed and power remained entirely undiminished. It vanished from its spot, reappearing in front of the structurally compromised, ice-sculpted giant hand in a fraction of a second. Its massive, spectral arms blurred into a flurry of violent afterimages.
"Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora—ra—...!!!"
A continuous, devastating barrage of heavy punches rained down upon the frozen appendage. The strikes were so impossibly fast they tore through the air, creating a chain of deafening sonic booms that echoed like a pile driver slamming into solid concrete.
Every single punch landed with bone-shattering force, carrying the absurd, concentrated strength of Paimon Star.
Now, with the Superconduct reaction having completely stripped away the creature's defenses, this storm-like barrage of relentless, hyper-kinetic punches became the final, crushing straw that broke the camel's back. The massive ice sculpture began to spiderweb with deep, terminal fractures.
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]