Chapter 64

Termination 9

-:-

Quoting a famous Jedi:

‘It’s over Anakin. I have the high ground!’

This particular phrase became a meme due to the simple fact that the scene related to the phrase was a strategic stupidity.

If evil jedi A just forced the droid he was riding on to move somewhere safer to disembark, he wouldn't have lost all of his limbs in an idiotic charge.

While the movie and its 2 prequels were generally considered as bad by fans, the meme itself had profound wisdom within its words.

An elevated area with a clear view of the entire battlefield and was easy to defend was an ideal location for a gunslinger like Theo.

“COME AT ME!!” roared Theo as he fired like a madman onto the crowd below.

Before meeting his enemies, Theo dreaded the possibility that he might run into them before getting to this building.

Luckily, they chose to surround him in the area where he had the most advantage.

The park and the surrounding area were filled with the result of typical Alkebulan corruption.

The skeletons of what were to be 7-15 story buildings were prevalent in what supposed to be a business district.

Fast forward a few decades and a few civil wars, the result were partially started shells of a long forgotten potential.

These buildings were perfect sniping grounds due to relatively clear line of sights in every direction due to the nonexistent walls.

As such, while the enemies were trying to get to Theo by climbing up, he could easily shoot them down.

It was like shooting fish in a barrel, except the fishes had extremely sharp teeth, pointy sticks and guns.

Theo’s enemy rushed up the building but was met by a hailstorm of bullets as they approached. Some of these bullets were from Theo, but most of them came from his invisible allies. The Hassan-i Sabbah focused their sniping prowess into the area where Theo was firing, thus making it look like his Beretta ARX160 was doing more damage than it actually can.

Theo made sure to fire into large groups in order to hide the Hassan-i Sabbah’s support.

Unfortunately, even with this combined effort can only delay the tide.

The Quile shapeshifters were tough and fast. Nothing short of a headshot would permanently put them down.

As such, despite the combine efforts of Theo and the Hassan-i Sabbah, the enemy didn't even take 5 seconds to breach the lowest levels

Theo ignored the ones that got in and focused on gunning down those who were unable to find any cover. And with their large number and the size of the building halls that were not designed for car sized wolves, decent number of them received a bullet to the head.

It wasn't much compared to the massive size of the horde, but it would have to do.

Sadly, Theo wasn't able to continue his shooting spree.

Barely 2 minutes since the enemy has breached the first floor, they were now at the 8th floor. It probably won't take a few seconds before they reached Theo.

As expected of beings with superhuman powers.

After his pelvic shattering experience, it was understandable that Theo was very reluctant to go into melee combat again.

Theo stopped firing and walked from the ledge.

He activated all of the strength applifying apparatus of his power armor, ran towards the ledge and jumped off with all of his strength.

He then fired his grappling hook towards the neighboring building that was a bit of a distance away.

As the grappling hook pulled him towards his next sniping nest, one of the Valalya spearwielders noticed him and threw her spear at him with surprising force.

Theo was able to shoot it down, but her action was noticed by her allied spearwielders and soldiers.

They joined in and barraged Theo with spears and gunfire.

While Theo could shoot down the spears thanks to the assistance of his spy drones, bullets were another matter entirely.

His power armor did its job on protecting him, but the same could not be said to his grappling gun that was hit by a lucky shot.

Theo plummeted down 10 stories and smashed painfully into the concrete street below, destroying every bone, muscle and internal organ in the process.

He would have died instantly if it wasn't for the protection of his power armor and the instantaneous application of his omnigel

Theo forced the mind breaking pain coursing through his body down and began running.

“KEEP YOUR DISTANCE AND FIRE AT WILL!” screamed the desperate Theo into the coms.

Answering his prayers were the gunshots from his invisible allies and the pained screams of his enemies.

And since the building had very little walls, it was literally a shooting gallery for the Hassan-i Sabbah.

Theo would have sang praises to his allies if it wasn't for the lingering feeling of his lungs turning into mush a few seconds ago.

As he broke into a sprint, he stopped and caught a spear that would have hit the back of his head.

Whoever threw this one was extremely skilled.

And it was his solemn duty as a law abiding citizen to return lost belongings.

He stopped on his tracks and turned towards the building.

His target was the largest concentration of werewolves in the 10th floor, who has just realized that Theo was no longer there.

He used one archon battery charge on his left arm and threw the spear with all of his might.

The spear went through the 7th, 8th and 9th floor before punching a decently sized hole on the 10th floor. Most importantly, everyone one its flight path exploded like a tomato.

“BC 10912 Report: Primary 3 spotted. Large brown wolf jumping from the 10th floor.” said Old man through the coms.

“I see him. Get ready for capture.” said Theo as he watched a brown wolf jump and land painfully on the concrete.

Around 20 more wolves followed him, but most decided to go to a lower floor before doing such a painful leap.

The 21 wolves on the ground limped for a few seconds before their regeneration healed everything and began their chase.

After making seeing this, Theo decided that it was time to end this.

He sent a mental command.

Not a few seconds later, a massive explosion incinerated the building and everything within a few meters of it.

The blast was so strong that Theo was blown off the ground and landed painfully 10 meters away.

On the distance, it was possible to spot the culprit of the explosion.

This was Theo’s F22A Raptor and it dropped a purgatory bomb onto the building.

The blast radius was large enough to kill off 8 of the 20 wolves that jumped after Jacob.

The wolves stopped in their tracks as they watched in horror at the firestorm behind them

With a howl of pure rage, the wolves charged at Theo with every intention of ripping him apart.

They didn't get close.

Out of seemingly, nowhere metallic nets covered the wolves and immediately strangled them without mercy. Their flesh bled and their bones creaked as the net got ever tighter.

“I think it’s called a ‘Shrinking Cage’. The more you use mana, the tighter the net becomes. It can hold a werewolf for 30 seconds before it can rip itself free. And you guys are not werewolves, so it’s impossible for you….Or at least that’s what Nosferatu told me.” said Theo

About 5 seconds in agonizing pain later, one of the wolves shifted back into his human form.

The net remained on him and it was still extremely hard to escape from, but at least it didn't shrink.

The others quickly followed suite.

“We got Jacob Quile. Mission accomplished. Prepare for transport” said Theo as he stood in front of Jacob.

Out of nowhere appeared about 50 Hassan-i Sabbah’s clad with white power armor and armed with sniper rifles, much to the surprise of everyone else.

Theo did his absolute best to at least look calm despite his heart nearly jumping out of his chest.

The Hassan-i Sabbah installed a metal collar unto the Quiles. These collars had spikes that barely pierced the skin. They were pressure sensitive landmines that will cleave the head of the Quile if he tried to turn into a wolf.

As the Hassan-i Sabbah did their work, Jacob spew his sore loser speech.

“If you think I’ll tell you where Bella is, then you might as well kill me!” roared Jacob with pure hatred

“Hahaha. Calm down you mangy mutt. Your life has intrinsic value as a hostage. We may remove one of your limbs but you’ll- ” said Theo but was cut off by a sudden voice in the coms

“Young Lorne. This is Nosferatu. Do you read me?” said Nosferatu.

“Nice timing! I got good news for you. Jacob is in our hands! Send a severed limb to Bella and she’ll be as good as ours!” said Theo.

Since the coms were in Theo’s suite, the Quile could only hear Theo’s words.

And none of his statements gave them any relief.

Unfortunately, Theo’s celebration was short lived.

“Sadly, I have bad news…. We have failed.” said Nosferatu in a calm yet clearly depressed voice.

“W-what do you mean?”

“As the progenitor of a bloodline, I can feel when new blood joins my line. And at this very moment, dozens of newly indoctrinated is joining my bloodline every second...”

Theo was speechless.

It didn't take a genius to know what has happened.

Bella Sway has been turned into a vampire… and her rampage as a Mad Progenitor has begun.

Thousands of innocent lives were about to be lost.

“Where is she?” asked Theo in a cold voice.

“She’s in the city with the least amount of enemy forces. Their numbers are still too few to cause a mass panic, but by the time we get there, there will be something akin to a zombie apocalypse movie” replied Nosferatu in kind.

“I see… I’ll be there.”

“Godspeed Young Lorne.”

Theo turned to the Hassan-i Sabbah and the wolves.

Since they shared the same coms, the Hassan-i Sabbah heard what Theo heard.

“Request: Order?” asked the Old Man.

Theo turned to Jacob and pointed a gun at his head.

“You have just lost your value as a hostage. I’m sure that you’ll want revenge for what I have done to the Quile clan, but I can't afford adding another enemy to the growing list of people who want me dead. All I can do is say, I’m sorry it had to be this way.”