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Chapter 12 - A Variant Dymin Zoan

A deep frown etched itself onto Silas Von's face as he watched the southwestern horde draw closer.

With a swift mental command, he tasked his smart system with an analysis.

A mere second later, his AI assistant delivered its cold, logical conclusion:

[Behavioral analysis indicates a 78% probability the horde's target is our unit. Immediate action is recommended.]

Silas's eyebrow twitched, yet he held his position. A sliver of hope remained—the leading edge of the southwestern horde was slowing down.

He clung to the chance it was just a macabre coincidence.

That hope shattered as the other three swarms poured into view, completing a grim circle around their position.

[Director Von, we have to move. Now!] Jake's message burst into the neural link, unable to contain his urgency.

[Silence! Hold your position and follow my command!] Silas's rebuke was instantaneous and sharp, a digital whip-crack of authority.

As if to prove his point, the first wave of Ash-Howlers ground to a halt roughly a hundred meters from the building.

They stood there, an unnatural and eerie stillness falling over them.

But the situation continued to evolve. The dead air filled with a low, anxious growl.

The horde had fully encircled the building, a sea of gnashing teeth and dripping maws. Countless gray eyes, vacant yet intense, were fixed on the structure.

They began to shift and press inward, their restless snarls rising into a chorus of impatience and hunger.

[Director... they're forming a siege perimeter!] Vincent Franks's message arrived, the usually calm Vice-Director's tone now strained with alarm.

He, too, was running out of patience.

[Damn it, these freaks are trying to box us in! Vincent, you have the conn.]

Silas Von rose to his feet, a wild, almost manic grin spreading across his face. With a sudden 'whoosh', he launched himself from the thirtieth-story rooftop.

Rolly gasped, his voice a mixture of terror and awe transmitted through the neural link: "Holy hell! The true master goes from sunshine to thunder in 0.2 seconds!"

The lead Dymin-Zoan spotted the figure plummeting from above and threw their heads back, emitting piercing, alien shrieks. Their cries acted as a catalyst.

The sea of Ash-Howlers below erupted into a frenzied boil, their collective roar shaking the air as they surged toward the building in a mindless, raging tide.

"One per sector! Fire at will! Light them up!" Vincent Franks barked the order the moment his Director jumped.

With Silas gone, his calm demeanor vanished, replaced by unleashed ferocity.

"It's..like a damn tower defense game..." Rolly muttered, his voice trembling even over text. But his hands were steady.

The staccato roar of his weapon answered the command, tongues of fire lancing through the thick haze to tear into the onrushing horde.

BOOM!

Silas hit the ground with the force of a meteorite, the impact cratering the pavement in a shallow, circular blast of dust and debris.

Yet, as the dust settled, he stood at the center, utterly unfazed.

His first move was a swift, devastating palm strike against the building's main entrance, collapsing it into an impassable heap of rubble in seconds.

He then turned, his eyes instantly calculating the battlefield, and shot toward the densest part of the southwestern horde.

Though not a large man, in that moment he was a human battering ram—an unstoppable force.

He plowed through debris and abandoned vehicles as if they were paper, kicking up a towering plume of dust in his wake, charging headlong into the heart of the monstrous swarm.

BOOM!

A cataclysmic shockwave tore through the horde as countless Ash-Howlers were hurled into the air like ragdolls, limbs torn apart and black blood splattering like morbid rain.

It was as if a bomb had detonated in their midst.

But Silas didn't pause to engage the cannon fodder. His focus was absolute, his path a laser-straight line toward the three Dymin-Zoan.

The bio-creatures instantly recognized his intent. The two slightly smaller ones let out guttural roars.

The bulbous masses on their shoulders shuddered and split open, revealing pulsating organic emitters.

A visible wave of energy distorted the air around them as blinding white light coalesced within the apertures, generating intense heat that made the atmosphere waver.

In the next instant, four searing energy projectiles screamed toward Silas with a deafening BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A cold smirk touched Silas's lips. A shield materialized on his left forearm. He accelerated instantly, weaving through the incoming fire with a series of impossibly sharp, serpentine evasions.

The final shot was unavoidable. A vicious glint flashed in his eyes as he braced, raising the shield to meet it head-on.

KABOOM!

The blistering projectile detonated against his defense, obliterating every nearby Ash-Howler in a blast radius and hurling Silas himself back dozens of meters from the sheer concussive force.

Yet, for all the spectacular violence, the energy blast never truly touched the physical shield.

It had been halted centimeters away, dissipated against a shimmering, hexagonal energy barrier that flared brightly on impact.

[Hmph. You think your inferior, Sunflare-type energy cannons can breach my kinetic barrier?]

His determination sliced through the neural link, cold and razor-sharp. [Die!]

Silas's legs coiled like springs before unleashing their power.

KABOOM! The pavement beneath him shattered from the tremendous force of his launch, propelling him like a human missile straight toward the Dymin-Zoans.

At that exact moment, the tallest of the three creatures in the center threw its head back and unleashed a ground-shaking roar.

Its massive frame expanded more, muscles bulging and tearing under a rapid eruption of overlapping keratin plates.

Its limbs thickened by more than a full circumference, and its vaguely humanoid head distorted, morphing into a grotesque, rhino-like visage complete with a deadly horn.

Its height skyrocketed to a terrifying four and a half meters. It had transformed into a hulking, rhino-like behemoth—a walking fortress of biological armor.

With a powerful push from its hind legs, it charged.

A blinding white light enveloped its fist, sheathed in thick, bony plating.

The heat around it warped the air violently as it threw a world-shattering punch directly at Silas's incoming form.

"A Brute-Rhino-type! Excellent!" Silas's voice wasn't fearful—it was exhilarated.

He didn't dodge. Instead, he met the colossal fist head-on, swinging the massive golden hammer in his hand downward with equal, devastating force.

BOOOOM!

A titanic shockwave exploded outwards, lifting every single Ash-Howler and the two smaller Dymin-Zoan off their feet and hurling them through the air like leaves in a hurricane.

An intense white light erupted from the Brute-Rhino's fist.

The very ground beneath its feet cracked and spider-webbed under the strain, yet somehow, impossibly, it held its ground, its armored fist stopping Silas's golden hammer cold.

[It can withstand a direct hit from me? A variant?] Surprise, then cold calculation, flashed through Silas's mind.

Seeing his first blow neutralized, his left-hand shield shimmered and dissolved, its matter instantly reforming into a second, identical golden hammer.

The time for testing was over; he would end this with overwhelming force.

Even for a warrior of his Stellar Rank, being this deep in hostile territory and surrounded was a death sentence.

Prolonged engagement wasn't an option—he risked being overwhelmed and worn down through sheer attrition.

[Torrential Hammer Art!]

His intent surged through the neural link. He burst into motion—AI-guided weaponry responding in perfect sync.

Both golden hammers became a blinding whirlwind of destruction, a frenzied barrage of meteoric impacts aimed squarely at the Brute-Rhinotype behemoth.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!…

The concussive thunder of each earth-shattering collision rolled across the battlefield, so immense that even Jake, Rolly, and the others, positioned a hundred meters away on the roof, felt the vibrations in their bones and heard the explosions with terrifying clarity.

"Bloody hell," Rolly muttered, his voice trembling over the private channel.

"Did he just run into a high-ranking Dymin-Zoan!!?"

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