Meanwhile, Alex wasn't doing too well—
but he wasn't struggling either.
Thanks to his suit, the storm of bullets barely scratched him.
He moved through them, calm, deliberate.
But the bazooka strikes? Those were another story.
He dodged some.
Deflected others with his axe.
Shot down a few mid-air.
Still—one out of five always found its mark.
Each hit slammed through his body with crushing pain,
enough to sting, not enough to stop him.
His suit held firm, the Pendragon tech humming faintly as the impact dispersed.
The Vornshade soldiers started to form up.
They spread out in perfect coordination, creating a wide circle around him.
Dozens of muzzles leveled his way.
Alex didn't hesitate.
He yanked up both guns and opened fire.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Soldiers fell one after another, smoke rising off their armor.
Then came the next wave.
Bazooka trails cut through the night sky.
He blew one apart midair—
BOOM!
The blast cracked the ground, a wave of hot air rushing over him.
But more came from every direction.
Too many.
One connected.
BOOM!
The explosion lit the base like a miniature sun.
Flames rolled outward.
However, right before that could happen, Alex had already dug his feet into the ground, refusing to be blown away by the attack.
He gritted his teeth, bearing through the pain. The blast pushed him back, the snow beneath his boots cracking and melting from the heat.
Once he recovered, Alex clenched his axe and hurled it toward the direction the attack had come from.
The weapon spun through the air and struck a man standing on top of a car—right in the neck.
Stretching out one hand, Alex called the weapon back. At the same time, his other hand lifted, qi gun aimed in the opposite direction.
He stood like a man on a cross—arms out, firing both ways.
Bang! Bang!
The instant his hand caught the returning axe, he threw it again without even looking.
The axe sliced through the cold air and buried itself into the chest of another soldier holding a bazooka. The man had already been in mid-launch—his finger pulling the trigger—when the weapon twisted in his grip.
BOOM!
The explosion tore through him and the military vehicle beneath his feet, blasting them apart in a burst of smoke and flame.
But just as Alex began to regain his rhythm, more bazookas locked onto him—this time, several at once.
"Argh… shit, not again," Alex cursed.
In a flash, another gun materialized in his hand. He raised it and fired at the incoming rockets.
BOOM!
Before the bazookas could reach him, a figure dropped from the sky with explosive force, landing right in front of Alex.
The impact sent a shockwave rippling through the snow, knocking the rockets off course. They veered away and detonated harmlessly to the sides.
A mushroom of flame swallowed Alex and the newcomer whole.
Before the fire could fade, a long whip with a golden glow cracked out of the blaze. It spread in a perfect circle, slicing through the soldiers surrounding Alex. Bodies dropped instantly—the whip's arc left no survivors.
As the smoke cleared, the figure stood revealed. Gwen.
Her whip shimmered like liquid sunlight, glowing hotter as she flicked it again. The few surviving soldiers tried to regroup, guns raised, but Gwen was already moving.
She snapped her wrist—the whip lashed out, coiling around a nearby military vehicle.
Unlike before, this time the whip didn't cut; it wrapped. Gwen's control was surgical—she could decide whether it slashed through steel or simply held firm.
With one powerful yank, she pulled. The car lifted off the ground and slammed across the snow, throwing the soldiers atop it like ragdolls.
The car landed in front of her and Alex, blocking most of the bullets flying their way.
Even though she had a suit like Alex, for some reason, she wasn't taking the hits head-on like he was.
"Just because your suit can withstand bullets doesn't mean you should let them hit you like that!" Gwen shouted, sounding almost like a big sister scolding her little brother.
"I'm trying to dodge them all, but there are too many against me!" he replied.
"What were you thinking, running off here to take them alone?" she continued.
Alex couldn't say anything — he had never really seen Gwen behave like this before.
Just then, a loud explosion went off nearby. The car she had pulled over to block the attacks was blown apart by a bazooka.
"I'll buy you some time to refill your qi. You've been using your guns for too long," Gwen said. Using her hands, she picked up the remains of the destroyed car and started hurling them at the soldiers.
They flew out fast, slicing through people as they went. One soldier's head was cleanly severed, while another was sliced diagonally from his torso.
When she finally ran out of parts to throw, she unleashed her whip. It cracked sharply through the air before she began swinging it, cutting down soldiers with precise, deadly strikes.
This time, she was faster — and cleaner — than Alex had ever been.
Meanwhile, Alex had used his opponent as a focus point to tap into his sea of consciousness. Inside, he could immediately see his qi core—and in truth, he was out of qi.
Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem. But now, as Alex looked at his artificial qi core—the one he had crafted from his peace energy and meant to serve as a reserve—he frowned.
'Damn it… it's already gone down by half,' Alex cursed inwardly.
Because he had used the Buster Technique several times during the fight, it drained energy directly from his qi reserve instead of his main core.
Luckily, though, his artificial qi core could restore qi ten times faster than his original one.
'Doesn't matter,' he thought. 'This should still hold me until the reserve fills up again… that is, if I don't use more advanced techniques than I should.'
He transferred a good portion of energy from the reserve into his main core. It didn't fill his qi bank to the brim, but it was enough to keep him going for a while—as long as he didn't push too far.
Pulling himself out of his sea of consciousness, Alex decided to use one last skill—something that could give him a quick boost.
Power surged from his legs, launching him forward in a burst of speed as he dashed toward a group of newly arrived vehicles. The cars were parked in a tight formation, overlapping and blocking the road.
He summoned his axe back to his hand. Just as a man stepped out of one of the vehicles—armed with guns and a long-range weapon—Alex's axe spun through the air and took the man's legs clean off. The man screamed as he fell to the ground.
Meanwhile, Alex continued. He ran himself into the cars from the center where they all met each other. He pushed them apart, but he could only go so far before his force dwindled.
He didn't stop though — he started slashing with his axe, using his qi to enhance his reaction and action speed.
Alex was moving before he could be shot at.
However, more base members were arriving, all heading towards Alex. As for Gwen, who was also dealing with her own fight, it didn't appear like she was having any problems at all.
Alex stepped back. For once again, he had used his buster skills even though he didn't want to. He used it to jump back, creating a distance between him and those coming for him.
Just like Gwen had told him, Alex decided not to let the bullets hit him carelessly anymore.
Though luckily, Gwen was taking care of the bazookas as explosions went off in different directions.
With a good distance, Alex fired multiple bullets at the men after him — but more were still coming, and more fire followed.
At that moment, though, something had changed. Fewer people approached him.
Alex, noticing this, felt his entire instincts screaming at him to get out.
Soon, he realized why. From the corner of his eyes, he saw a large vehicle rolling on chain wheels — and at the front of the vehicle was a long, thick pipe pointing directly at him.
'Ohhh shit,' Alex thought.