Chapter 36: Holding the Line

Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Holding the Line

The molten slag of the blast door pooled on the concrete floor, bubbling like magma and filling the bunker with the suffocating stench of burnt plasteel and acrid ozone.

Through the glowing broken breach stepped two B-Rank nightmares, their dark-gray cloaks tattered and smoking from the burn of the traps above.

The front assassin moved first. His body blurred into a smear of red-rimmed shadow as he vanished, closing the distance in less than a heartbeat.

"Donald, drop down!" Evelyn barked.

Donald ducked instinctively. The crimson blade of the B-Rank vanguard whistled through the air where his neck had been a microsecond prior, shearing off a clean chunk of the steel worktable behind him.

Evelyn pivoted on her right heel, her low center of gravity allowing her to move smoothly beneath the enemy’s follow-through. The black plates of her Obsidian Van-Armour absorbed the shock of her rapid movement, the dark-steel micro-mesh glowing with faint blue lines of kinetic energy. She snapped her hips, driving her elbow hard into the vanguard’s ribs to create space, then unsheathed the Bloodhound’s Fang in a fluid, ascending arc, activating one of her Active skills.

[Crescent Slash (B-Rank)]

A dense, crescent-shaped wave of pressurized blue aura erupted from the edge of her blade with a sound like a cracking whip. The spatial slash cut straight through the vampire’s defensive blood barrier, striking his chest and blasting him backward through the air. He crashed hard into the concrete wall, cracking it, though the dark, viscous liquid pooling in his eyes showed his rapid cellular regeneration was already fighting the spatial damage.

"Blood-Mage on the left!" Donald shouted, his [Valuation Eye] painting the room in lethal vectors.

The second B-Rank—the hooded Blood-Mage—raised a gaunt, pale hand. A dozen crimson tendrils whipped out from his fingertips, weaving into a razor-sharp net designed to slice them both to ribbons.

Donald stepped firmly in front of Evelyn, locking his boots to the concrete. He raised his left hand, channeling his mana into a roaring sphere of compressed heat energy.

"Eat sun, parasite!"

He unleashed his C-Rank [Fireball]. The compressed orange projectile didn’t just fly; it detonated against the incoming blood-net mid-air. The holy-aspected UV heat from his previous traps seemed to react with his mana, making the blast burst violently into brilliant, searing white flames. The blood tendrils sizzled and turned to ash instantly, the concussive wave throwing the Blood-Mage off balance.

Without missing a beat, Donald slammed his heavy Type-3 Pile Bunker against the reinforced structural support pillar to his right.

He wasn’t aiming for the Blood-Mage. He was aiming for the environment.

BOOM-CLACK!

The pneumatic piston fired with a deafening hydraulic roar. The massive steel spike punched entirely through the foot-thick concrete wall. Donald’s [Valuation Eye] had already calculated the spatial layout of the hallway behind the bunker—and the second hidden stealth assassin trying to flank them through the wall.

The shockwave transferred through the concrete, shattering the structural pillar and causing the entire rear wall to collapse directly on top of the concealed flanker. A shower of pulverizing stone buried the shadow-stealth assassin before he could even register the hit.

"Behind us!" Evelyn called out, her back pressing flush against Donald’s.

Their bodies locked seamlessly into a back-to-back stance, the [Compound Interest] passive skill flaring in Donald’s chest like a furnace. The 15% stat boost surged through his limbs—his Strength and Agility spiking in tandem with her proximity.

Another shadow leaped from the ceiling dust—a surviving C-Rank assassin trying to capitalize on the chaos.

Evelyn didn’t look back. She trusted Donald’s perimeter completely. She swept the Bloodhound’s Fang in a wide, horizontal defense, her [Crescent Slash] releasing three quick, cascading slashes of light that walled off the Blood-Mage’s retreat.

Donald leaned back against Evelyn’s solid frame, using her weight as an anchor. He spun the heavy Pile Bunker like a baton, catching the descending C-Rank assassin mid-air across the throat with the steel casing. As the vampire gagged, Donald disengaged the safety with a flick of his thumb and pulled the trigger point-blank into his chest.

THUNK-BANG!

The steel piston drove through the target’s chest cavity, the pure kinetic payload blasting the vampire across the bunker, where he shattered against the blast doors and dissolved into grey ash.

"The front one’s recovering!" Donald yelled, feeling the heat of another blood spell gathering in the air.

"I’ll open his guard! finish him!" Evelyn shouted back.

She leaped forward, launching off Donald’s shoulder with a maneuver that looked almost choreographed. Mid-air, her Obsidian Van-Armour flexed perfectly around her joints, storing the impact from her jump. She descended upon the B-Rank assassin like a falling star, her blade spinning in a tight, brilliant spiral of blue aura.

The B-Rank Assasin raised his bloody broadsword to block, but Evelyn’s [Crescent Slash] hit his blade three times in a fraction of a second, the heavy, spatial pressure shattering his weapon into metallic splinters.

The vanguard stumbled, his chest completely open.

Donald was already moving. Powered by his boosted stats, he sprinted across the concrete, sliding under a stray beam of blood-magic sent by the trembling Blood-Mage. He popped up directly in the vanguard’s personal space, his left hand glowing with a newly formed, super-compressed sphere of white-hot flames, while his right arm held the Pile Bunker primed.

He shoved the [Fireball] straight into the vampire’s face, blinding him and burning away his flesh, then jammed the tip of the Pile Bunker against his sternum.

"Liquidation time," Donald growled.

BOOM!

The piston unleashed its full kinetic blast. The assassin was torn apart, his core shattered as he disintegrated into ash before even hitting the floor.

Donald turned his head toward the final target. The Blood-Mage, now completely isolated and staring down a heavily armored, lethal Vanguard and an Investor holding a smoking spike cannon, slowly backed away toward the melting hole of the blast doors.

Evelyn lowered her blade, the tip trailing along the floor, a cold, lethal smirk spreading across her face.

"Your move, you blood sucking leech," she whispered.