Chapter 287: Riven Against Powerful Magitech Robots

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The last guard, a C-Rank, was grabbed by Vladimir and lifted clean off the ground. His massive werewolf hands closed tightly around the man’s neck.

"W-Wait...! A-Aaack! W-We’re just working here...! Please...! I have... a family...!"

"Oooohh, you have a family? I couldn’t care less what you have. I’m going to enjoy this!"

"Vladimir, enough."

Riven stepped in and grabbed his arm.

"Hah?!"

Vladimir glared at him with clear annoyance.

"You told me to go wild, so I’m going wild!"

"Don’t waste your time."

"...Tsk!"

CRACK.

Vladimir crushed the man’s neck with one hard squeeze and dropped the dead body onto the ground. He took a step forward, already looking for the next target.

"Ohhh, would you look at that. Such a huge, welcoming crowd we’ve got here!"

Vladimir laughed as he watched the massive group of soldiers and guards from Claymore Enterprises charging toward them.

They weren’t just regular superhumans enhanced with high technology. Most of them were already Awakened and had their own abilities. On top of that, they brought heavy machinery.

Giant humanoid machines started running in from the rear lines. Each one stood about ten meters tall, with thick arms and legs. Soldiers rode in the cockpits mounted on their shoulders and backs. The machines raised huge machine guns and opened fire without any warning. At the same time they launched dozens of missiles that exploded on impact, sending shockwaves across the open ground.

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

"Eliminate the intruders!"

"We’ve got a terrorist attack!"

"Don’t let them get through the walls!"

"The Communication Tower is down! I repeat, the Communication Tower is down!"

Riven moved first. His body blurred into a shadow as he closed the distance and crashed into the nearest machine. Enormous metal hands swung down to crush him.

CLAAASH!

He caught the metal fists with his bare hands and was pushed back a few meters, boots digging trenches into the dirt. Then he planted his feet, took another step forward, and roared.

"Hahaha! Do you think you can go hand-to-hand against Claymore Tech’s latest masterpiece?! This is the Exterminator-07! The newest model on the market. Built from synthetic mithril and orichalcum compounds, and packed with several layers of anti-mana barriers!"

The machine activated a thick barrier of blue electricity that wrapped around its entire frame. The current burned into Riven’s hands and started draining his energy the longer he stayed in contact.

The technology was solid. Better than most of the military hardware he had seen so far.

However...

"Fascinating, but not enough."

His voice dropped lower as shadows burst out from under his feet. His right arm swelled and twisted, fusing with the flowing darkness and dragon fire until it turned into a massive dragon-titan arm. He punched straight through the barrier, through the armor plating, and straight through the soldier sitting in the cockpit.

CRAAAASH!

"Guuuaaaagghhh!"

The soldier’s scream cut off as Riven’s fist tore through his chest and blew the upper half of his body apart. The entire machine was sent flying into the air before it exploded in a bright ball of fire and metal scraps.

BOOOMMM!!!

"T-There goes fifty million..." one of the watching soldiers muttered under his breath. The second he made eye contact with Riven he screamed and turned to run. "D-Don’t kill meeeee!"

Riven ignored him. He didn’t have time to chase people who were already fleeing.

"K-KILL HIM!!!"

The rest of the soldiers, roughly fifty of them, opened fire from a distance. They mixed elemental rounds, paralyzing shock rounds, and wide-range spirit crystal missiles in a continuous barrage.

Riven took one step forward and drew Fenrir’s Fang. He activated Abyssal Shroud and Abyssal Assault at the same time, pulling both skills into his Mana Aura. His Mana Nature mixed with his Spiritual Energy and expanded outward, turning the area around him into a spreading zone of cutting force.

Abyssal Assault Art – Abyssal Guillotine Garden.

The technique combined Guillotine Cascade with his Ghostly Sword Garden. Hundreds of sharp, cleaving waves shot out in every direction as he charged straight into the enemy line.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

The machines that tried to block him were the first to fall. They were cut into pieces and crushed one after another, crashing to the ground with loud metallic explosions.

At the same time, any soldier that got in the way was immediately mauled by Vladimir, who ran at them like a wild beast. He bit their heads off, gnawed at their necks, or tore them apart with his bare hands, leaving trails of blood and broken bodies in his path.

"Hahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!"

He was having the time of his life. Riven clenched his teeth, feeling genuine guilt for what he was doing, but knowing full well that the path he was going to walk wasn’t going to be one where he could solve everything peacefully. The screams around him made it harder to ignore.

"W-Wait please!"

"Don’t kill us!"

"Aaaaaggghhh!"

Some of the soldiers begged for mercy as Riven mowed through their numbers. He flinched for a moment as they begged, the words cutting deeper than he expected, only for a massive machine to run at him and slam him into the ground with crushing force.

CRAAASH!

"Ugh?!"

Riven groaned, feeling his right arm break instantly under the impact. Pain shot up through his shoulder as he looked up at the machine that had hit him. It was an enormous red-colored mech overflowing with Mana and something else that felt wrong.

"Blood Energy?! What...! What is that?!"

"Hahahahah! You stupid fools! You shouldn’t have ever tried to break through the Mana Reactor I OWN!"

A voice echoed from the huge mech. The head of a short, pale-skinned and red-haired man with pointy ears and crimson eyes emerged from the cockpit. He wore regal clothes—a white shirt under a red and blue suit, covered in gold decorations, and a bracelet with red jewels that pulsed faintly.

"This man is...!"

Riven instantly recognized him. The appearance, the blood energy he wielded, which seemed to be fused with the machine and somehow fueled by it, all matched what he had seen in reports and memories from his previous life.

"You’re a Vampire?!"

The man inside the mech laughed out loud as he pointed a gigantic fist at Riven and fired it. The massive, red-colored mechanical fist reached him within a split second, crashing against him with massive force and toughness that felt far beyond ordinary steel.

CRAAASH!

"Ngh?!"

Riven clenched his teeth as he saw his biological armor explode and shatter instantly. Bones in his arms and chest broke under the blow, the impact driving him deeper into the cracked ground. He couldn’t believe it, but that damn machine was stronger than him in his base form, at least for the moment.

However...

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