Chapter 206: You Are Mistaken

"You see, we investigated you thoroughly, Viper." Cobra snarled, his obsidian face twisting into a triumphant, grotesque smirk.

?"Investigated? It seems you aren’t actually here to collect a routine protection fee or run a simple extortion racket—you planned this entire ambush from the start," Viper muttered calmly, her eyes scanning the perimeter of the mine compound.

?"Now I finally understand why my spiritual perception was mysteriously cut off and I couldn’t sense a single signature beyond three hundred meters." She added, realizing a localized anti-detection array had been quietly erected.

?"Hahahaha!! Once you use that terrifying stats-siphoning ability of yours, your skill enters a cooldown! During that vulnerable window, you are entirely powerless!" Cobra yelled, throwing his head back in arrogant laughter.

?"Even so, I still possess more than enough combat strength to slaughter you right now. Even if you’ve locked down this entire sector with a barrier, it’s completely useless against me," she stated, her fists clenching as a dark, oppressive aura flared around her knuckles.

?"And who on earth said I was going to be the one brawling with you to the death?"

?"...?!"

?WHOOSH!

?Multiple dark silhouettes abruptly detached themselves from the shadows of the surrounding cliffs, storage containers, and rusted mining machinery, landing with heavy, synchronized thuds in a wide semicircle right beside Cobra.

?"These twenty elite killers represent the absolute apex of the Blood Guild’s elite!! They are the ones who will grind you into dust!" He roared at the top of his lungs.

?Viper and the three wives watched in dead silence as the twenty incoming newcomers immediately whipped out matching crimson pills and infant skulls, instantly mimicking Cobra’s grotesque transformation process.

?"ARGGGGH!!!!!"

?All twenty mercenaries shrieked in unison as their flesh painfully blistered, peeling away to reveal crimson skin followed by jagged, curling demonic horns.

?"Recycling the exact same cheap trick twice? Your tactical execution actually isn’t half bad," Viper said, slowly sliding both hands deep into her pockets as she surveyed the mini-army of monsters:

?"If all of you had coordinated and attacked me simultaneously from the very first second, I would have been forced to siphon all ten of your original targets dry at once—and if that happened, I would have instantly killed you all. So sending your vice leader out first to force me into revealing my abilities was your primary strategic plan all along."

?"That’s correct... Wait, why on earth are you standing there casually smiling?!" Cobra demanded, pointing a trembling, claw finger at her in sudden confusion.

?"First of all, I figured out something was deeply wrong the exact moment our vehicles rolled into this facility, and I quietly reported the anomaly to the three Boss ladies behind me... I intentionally played along with your little trap primarily to draw all your hidden rats out into the open." She explained, tilting her head with an unbothered smirk:

?"Did you honestly believe that even if I chose not to activate my siphoning ability, you possessed the raw power to breach my second physique? Don’t make me laugh out loud... And more importantly, locking me in as your primary target is the absolute biggest mistake you’ve ever made."

?"What is that supposed to mean?!" Cobra asked, his voice cracking with sudden, unmasked insecurity.

?"I am simply not the most dangerous entity standing on this soil right now... In fact, you arrogant fools didn’t manage to trap us at all; you merely locked yourselves inside a cage with predators." She shrugged effortlessly, her hands never leaving her pockets.

?"Enough of this psychological posturing! We’ll see if you still have the jaw to run your mouth after we obliterate you... You three, slip past her and capture the women standing in the back! The rest of you, focus entirely on suppressing Viper!" Cobra commanded viciously.

?"YES, SIR!!"

?BOOOOOOM!!

?The three designated assassins kicked off the dirt with terrifying speed, shooting forward like red streaks. But to their sheer, unadulterated shock, Viper didn’t even twitch—she stood completely still, not lifting a single finger to intercept them.

?"....?!"

?They were entirely dumbfounded by her blatant inaction, but survival instincts were overridden by greed: who cared about her psychological games when the three breathtakingly wealthy women were now completely exposed and defenseless?

?WHOOSH!

Next Moment...

?’Huh? Why is it suddenly dark?’

?BOOOOOOM!!!!

?".....?!!"

?Cobra, his newly mutated assassins, the terrified Mr. Brook, and the mines guards all froze in blind terror, their jaws dropping to the dirt as they stared at the ten towering red-armored knights that had suddenly materialized in a protective semicircle directly in front of the three women.

?With terrifying, synchronized efficiency, the colossal knights had brought their massive broadswords down in a devastating downward arc, smashing the three rushing assassins straight into the bedrock with such unimaginable force that not a single bone in their bodies remained intact.

?"What in the actual hell are those iron monsters?!" Cobra shrieked in absolute panic, instinctively moving backward.

?"Like I told you... I am not the most dangerous thing standing here." Viper said softly, looking over her shoulder at the wreckage. "Those entities are leagues stronger than my current strength. Trying to fight me would have granted you a long, painful death, but as for those things..."

?She gestured casually toward the knights. "I honestly have no idea what level of hell they’re about to put you through."

?Kelly stared coldly at the shattered remains of the assassins, her memory flashing back to the twenty-one infant skulls used. The cold realization of their absolute depravity locked into place.

?"Unforgivable... Absolutely unforgivable! Knights, slaughter every last one of them—and ensure you subject that black-skinned monster to a slow, exquisite torture!" Kelly commanded, her voice dripping with ice.

?"It appears you’ve successfully managed to awaken my Boss’s true wrath, which means I don’t even have to lift a finger," Viper remarked, closing her whi eyes as she relaxed her stance.

?WHOOSH!

?All ten elite knights surged forward in unison, rushing past Viper and kicking up a violent gale that whipped her brown hair across her face as they descended upon the remaining eighteen members of the Blood Guild.

?"Damn it!! How on earth can things built that heavy move with such monstrous speed?!"

?Cobra clenched his claws into fists, his eyes bloodshot: "I refuse to go down like a trapped animal—I’ll take you all straight to hell with me—"

?BAM!!

?A massive, iron-plated gauntlet suddenly shot out, clamping down over Cobra’s entire face with crushing force and lifting his heavy, mutated body completely off the ground by his head alone.

?’What the hell?! When did that thing get close enough to grab me without a sound?!’ He thought, his mind racing in sheer horror as he desperately grabbed onto the knight’s forearm with both hands, only to find to his utter despair that his claws couldn’t even dent the metal plating.

?’Are they literally forged out of indestructible iron?!’

?"AHHHHHHH!!!"

?"No, please stop—!"

?"....?!"

?Cobra’s internal thoughts cut off abruptly as he heard the synchronized, blood-curdling screams of his elite subordinates echoing across the clearing. In the span of barely two seconds, the entire compound fell into an unnatural, deathly silence so heavy it felt suffocating.

?The next instant, the massive iron grip tightened agonizingly around Cobra’s face, crushing his cartilage and catching him entirely off guard as he stared into the unblinking, crimson visor of the knight holding his life in the palm of its hand.

?"This...?"