Chapter 260: Why is he here?

Blake’s eyes widened.

"Y-you sensed it? When? And why would he try to do that...?"

Tania didn’t answer immediately.

Her gaze remained fixed on the port, following something Blake couldn’t see. There was a subtle shift in her expression, an almost imperceptible tightening around her eyes.

BOOOOOOM!

A deafening explosion tore through the harbor.

Blake flinched violently. The shock wave rolled across the port, rattling the metal structures and sending a cloud of dust billowing into the air. A moment later, the sound of alarms began to echo through the surrounding buildings.

His visor flickered.

"What the—?!"

For the briefest moment, Tania’s eyebrows drew together.

Then her expression returned to normal.

"Go and physically stop Alfred for now."

Blake stared at her.

"Wait, what?"

"Zlatan and Alexis are going to have some problems."

Before Blake could ask another question, Tania was already moving. He stood there for half a second, trying to process what had just happened.

Then he swore under his breath and activated his suit.

’What the hell is going on?’

He launched himself toward the port.

***

BOOM!

Another explosion erupted near the terminal entrance.

Alexis and Zlatan reacted instantly, moving sideways just as a huge steel branch tore through the pillar behind them. Concrete fragments scattered across the ground, and the entire structure shuddered under the impact.

The two men landed several meters away.

For a moment, neither spoke.

Then Alexis slowly raised his head, his expression darkening.

Their cover was blown.

Around them, the port had descended into chaos. Workers were shouting and fleeing toward the nearest buildings, while security personnel scrambled to take cover behind vehicles and concrete barriers.

Someone pointed toward the two men.

"Who the hell are they?!"

"Unknown hostiles! They’re armed!"

"Sound the alarm! Get everyone over here!"

A shrill alarm rang out across the terminal.

Within seconds, security personnel began converging on their position from multiple directions. Some carried firearms, while others wore reinforced tactical equipment. Several more emerged from the nearby buildings, moving quickly to block the roads and prevent their escape.

The men surrounding them were clearly not ordinary security guards.

They were organized, well-equipped, and apparently prepared to respond to threats of this magnitude.

Alexis clicked his tongue.

"Damn it, that stupid brat!"

He looked up.

Hovering above the terminal was a fully equipped hero in an armored suit, its mechanical components gleaming in the early morning light.

Trail-X.

Alexis’s expression soured further.

"And to think we had him tailed."

Beside him, Zlatan stretched his arms over his head, seemingly unbothered by the growing number of enemies.

Alexis gritted his teeth.

From the beginning, they’d considered the possibility of Trail-X’s involvement, it would have been foolish not to.

The hero was related to Sylvan Nada, and he had an ambiguous relationship with Alfred Hicth. His presence could complicate the operation considerably. They’d monitored his movements, examined his routine, and paid particular attention to his schedule with Sylvan.

By all accounts, Trail-X wasn’t supposed to be here.

He should have been somewhere else entirely.

So why had he appeared at the port at precisely the moment their operation was supposed to begin?

Had their information been wrong?

Alexis didn’t have time to figure it out.

The hero hovering above them raised his arm. Several mechanical components along his suit shifted, locking into position.

Alexis’s eyes narrowed.

"Zlatan."

"Hmm?"

"I’ll take care of him. You deal with the rest."

Zlatan glanced at the soldiers closing in around them, then he looked back at Alexis.

"Try not to take too long."

"As if."

Alexis bent his knees.

The next instant, he launched himself into the air.

The force of his takeoff cracked the concrete beneath his feet. A powerful burst of compressed air exploded outward, sweeping across the surrounding area and forcing several soldiers to stagger backward.

One man lost his footing entirely and crashed into a parked vehicle.

Another stumbled into his colleague, sending both of them sprawling.

Alexis didn’t even look at them.

His attention was fixed entirely on Trail-X.

The hero barely had time to react before Alexis reached him.

A sharp whistle cut through the air.

Then Alexis’s foot slammed into Trail-X’s armored torso.

CRACK!

The impact sent a shock wave through the surrounding air.

Trail-X was hurled backward, his body hurtling through the air before crashing into a stack of empty cargo pallets nearly twenty meters away.

The pallets splintered beneath the force of the collision.

Alexis landed lightly, his eyes already searching for his opponent’s next move.

"Stay there," he muttered.

He wasn’t about to let that idiot get anywhere near the designated location, not now.

Meanwhile, Zlatan was left to deal with the soldiers.

He looked around at the men closing in on him. There were quite a few.

Some had taken positions behind the vehicles, while others were advancing cautiously with their weapons raised. A few seemed uncertain about whether they should attack immediately or wait for further orders.

Zlatan smiled pleasantly.

"My, my. Such a warm welcome."

One of the soldiers shouted, "Get down on the ground! Hands where we can see them!"

Zlatan tilted his head.

"I’m afraid I can’t accommodate that request."

"Last warning!"

"How frightening."

The soldier tightened his grip on his weapon.

And then Zlatan’s ability activated.

It began as a vague, inexplicable unease. A sudden awareness that something was terribly wrong. Their hearts began to race, their breathing turned shallow, and the space around Zlatan seemed to grow oppressive.

Then the fear intensified.

The soldiers saw him standing there, smiling as pleasantly as ever, and their instincts began screaming at them to run.

They couldn’t explain it, couldn’t identify why their brains were reacting so strongly, but their bodies reacted as though they were facing an enemy far beyond their ability to defeat.

The fear surged higher.

At its peak, it overwhelmed their ability to think clearly.

A soldier stumbled backward, dropping his weapon.

Another fell to his knees, clutching his head as his body shook uncontrollably.

Several men tried to retreat at once, only to collide with one another. Others stood frozen in place, their limbs trembling, their eyes fixed on Zlatan with an expression of pure, uncomprehending terror.

One man opened his mouth to shout, but no sound emerged.

Another tried to raise his weapon and found that his hands wouldn’t cooperate.

Their bodies had entered a state of overwhelming panic, their minds struggling to distinguish between the imagined catastrophe their instincts were screaming about and the reality in front of them.

Zlatan watched them with mild curiosity.

He stepped forward.

The soldiers nearest him immediately recoiled.

One of them fell backward so violently that he struck the ground with a grunt. Another scrambled away on his hands and knees, abandoning all semblance of military discipline.

Zlatan sighed.

"Really, now. I haven’t even done anything. Seems like the strong ones are still hiding."

He continued walking.

His path should have been clear.

And yet, as he approached the entrance, he felt something change.

The fear didn’t disappear.

But it weakened.

The soldiers who had been trembling uncontrollably began to recover enough to move. Their breathing gradually steadied, and their eyes, though still wide with apprehension, regained some of their focus.

Someone was interfering with his ability.

Zlatan stopped, his pleasant smile remaining, but his gaze sharpened.

The fear he’d imposed had been pushed back, not entirely removed, but reduced enough that the soldiers could function again.

A moment ago, most of them had been incapable of mounting any meaningful resistance.

Now, they were regaining perhaps eighty percent of their normal mental capacity.

They were still frightened.

They were simply no longer helpless.

A soldier retrieved his weapon.

Another rose unsteadily to his feet.

Then someone shouted, "He’s still here! Regroup!"

The command snapped the others into motion.

Zlatan looked toward the direction from which the command had come.

Someone was restoring their mental state.

And whoever it was had done so remarkably quickly.

His smile widened a fraction.

"Well, well, I wonder who is interfering here..."

He rolled his shoulders and resumed walking.

***

Blake was running, he had activated his stealth skill.

The port was in chaos.

Smoke rose from somewhere near the terminal, partially obscuring his vision. Alarm bells rang incessantly, and people were shouting over one another as security personnel rushed toward the site of the explosion.

Blake ducked behind a parked vehicle, then sprinted across the open stretch of concrete toward a row of shipping containers.

’What even was that explosion?!’

He pressed a hand against the side of his visor, trying to bring up the port’s layout. The display flickered as it attempted to process the available information, but several sections were obscured by interference.

Blake’s expression twisted.

"Damn it. I can’t even see a damn thing from here!"

He hurried past the containers, his boots striking the ground in quick, uneven rhythms.

Where was Alfred?

Tania had said the man was trying to escape, but that didn’t tell Blake where he was going. There were multiple roads leading away from the port, and with all the confusion, Alfred slipped away without anyone noticing.