Vlad tore his gaze away from the Hybelle when he heard screams and desperate cries behind him. The Second Squad's leader fixated his eyes on the pools of blood slathered over the yellow leaves on the ground.

A man with dreadlocks got his arms tied behind his back by a six-foot-tall man with white skin. The new enemy wore a tight, black outfit with metal pauldrons fitted onto his shoulders. He had short, slick blonde hair combed back and piercing green eyes.

With a smooth motion, this man lifted his hostage with one hand rather easily.

"You left your flank unguarded so I swooped in and killed quite a few of your men," said the lone enemy. "Never leave yourself open to Eldrornn Mallueda. Your men made that mistake."

Vlad narrowed his eyes and he dropped to the ground, his hidden right hand patted at his belt. Four knives left. He could throw it and distract this Eldrornn Mallueda, but what would happen after that?

Surely, this soldier who killed three of his men in an instant could lacerate Vlad to pieces if he lowered his guard down.

"...Who are you?" asked Vlad, his eyes swept a gaze at his surroundings. "You want me, isn't it? I'll surrender myself to you if you let him go."

A thin smile formed on Eldrornn Mallueda's face. "Don't take me for an idiot. You have about four to five men hiding in the area and their rifles, are no doubt, aiming at me. Letting this guy go will just risk my life."

Sweat trickled down Vlad's cheek. Every few seconds or so, he cast a glance at the immobile Hybelle and shifted his attention back to the Officer ten meters in front of him.

While basked in the color of sunset, Vlad noticed his men moving in the background but they did not shoot. They were waiting for their leader to instruct them on what to do next.

Various plans and strategies flitted into Vlad's mind. He could—albeit a bit risky—took Mallueda by surprise and during that time the enemy was distracted, he would strike him. Another way to go about this difficult situation was to call for reinforcements.

"......Inner bullseye, on him," whispered Vlad to himself.

The blonde, Eldrornn raised an eyebrow, his green eyes glinted. "What did you say...? Look, if you want to say something, it's now or never. Tell your men hiding behind the trees to put down their weapons and I'll let this man go, probably."

He was in control of this situation. Eldrornn knew this all too well and his grin reached his cheeks. "Ah, wait, hold on a sec. I got an idea. You're their leader, right? How about you slit your throat for me, and then I'll let go of this man. Hahaha—"

A loud gunshot rang out and Eldrornn's head snapped to the side. Before he could do anything else, the Officer dropped to the ground with a thud.

"S-Sir!" The man who was Eldrornn's hostage a moment ago ran to Vlad's side. "That was..."

"Yeah. I had him on standby after he shot the C4. I ordered him to shoot that guy," explained Vlad briefly.

Having eliminated the immediate threat, Vlad recognized the Hybelle's inability to move nor attack in its state. The robot lost half of its body and had no means to run an offense with its still intact left legs buried into the soil.

"..." The man with dreadlocks opened his eyes wide.

Eldrornn Mallueda's body twitched. His right leg bent and his left extended—the supposedly dead man sat on the ground as he glared at Vlad.

"That hurt, ya' know!? If you want to snipe me, at least choose a high-powered rifle! This... ugh... Look, you used a .308 Winchester cartridge! What are you, a caveman?"

The sniper rifle's bullet barely made a scratch on his head and Eldrornn cracked his neck, seemingly unfazed upon being sniped. He held the crushed bullet in one hand and flattened it with two fingers. While he whistled at the small bullet disc he'd created, Vlad had begun to dash towards him.

"I suggest your sniper changes his or her cartridge to a .50 BMG round. That one in particular packs five times the punch this bullet has," said Eldrornn.

"...Now!"

Vlad's command was clear to those hiding behind the trees, and with a click of their assault rifles, gunshots rang out.

Suddenly, Eldrornn opened his palms and thrust it upward, sending what appeared like a concatenation of silver marbles all over his body. The silver marbles broke into smaller portions and within two seconds, Eldrornn's entire body was swathed in it.

"You can't hope to do a thing when you're up against me!" yelled Eldrornn as a multitude of bullets crashed into the marble armor, and at the same time, it got deflected and dug into the ground and tree barks.

A few minutes passed, and still, Eldrornn's armor was unscathed. The barrage of bullets receded, signifying that Vlad's men had run out of ammunition.

"Weak! If I knew it's going to be like this, then I don't have to pull out another layer. You all don't deserve that much!"

Eldrornn gathered the silver marbles to his open palms and it then covered his hands in no time at all. Eldrornn's green eyes glowed and in the next second, he lowered his body and punched the ground like a madman, sending varying chunks of soil and yellow leaves scattered.

"Tch. He's using his weapon to create a smokescreen," said Vlad as he covered his mouth from the heavy clouds of wheat-brown particles covering the area.

Vlad paid attention to any movement he could make out from inside the smoke. He pulled out two knives from his belt, before...

"Ugh!!"

A straight punch hit Vlad square in the chest, and he was sent flying backward. He quickly got back up before multiple jabs slammed onto his abdomen.

Vlad dropped to the ground after that, and after the smoke cleared, Eldrornn's boot stepped on Vlad.

"Force absorption and release. Your flesh stands no chance against my Iliad!" said Eldrornn with a grin. "I'm sure I'd broken several of your ribs there."

Eldrornn gathered his marbles to his boot's heel. "Maybe a third layer will break your chest open." Seconds after, more marbles poured out from his palms and coalesced with the existing silver layer covering his boot. He pushed his leg downward, expecting to hear Vlad screaming from being crushed by the extreme kinetic force stored inside his marbles. But this scenario did not unfold.

Instead, when Eldrornn looked closely at his boot, he noticed the mild cracking sound as his Iliad exerted more force onto Vlad's torso.

"...Ceramic plates? No... You have a customized ballistic plate underneath your kevlar, and I assume it has ceramics interspersed throughout to minimize blunt damage. So that's what I felt when I punched you. Very... over the top. But I'll make sure you get crushed from the weight even more."

This time, Eldrornn learned his lesson and flicked his wrist, connecting the marbles together like a boxing glove wrapped around his hand. He grinned, raised his 'gloved' hand up, and—

A sniper rifle's bullet hit Eldrornn in the head and his body swayed, but it did not hurt him. However, this action was enough to buy Vlad a few precious seconds.

Vlad slipped behind Eldrornn, pulled a knife, and stabbed right into the Officer's throat.

Or this was what should happen, and yet, the knife's tip could not pierce Eldrornn's skin in the slightest. Eldrornn smiled and commended Vlad for his effort.

A few more shots from the Second Squad's sniper then hit Eldrornn at the back of his head. He groaned from the pain.

"I told you to stop doing that!!"

Vlad leaped away from Eldrornn when he saw an incoming projectile. Within seconds, a high-explosive rocket crashed into Eldrornn's side. The rocket's warhead gleamed, and then it let out a deafening explosive force which engulfed Eldrornn in an orange-red inferno.

"Who did that!?" cried Eldrornn.

Eldrornn's burning figure emerged from the smoke and he glared at Vlad. His right side who caught the warhead directly had silver threads hanging from his exposed abdomen. More silver threads covered most of his lower body and face as if these objects were trying to stitch itself back together.

"...I get it now. So, this is your first 'layer' of protection," said Vlad as he pointed a handgun at Eldrornn's exposed throat. Quickly, he pulled the trigger and a bullet punched through the soldier's muscles and spine in one moment, taking the Officer's life.

Eldrornn fell to the ground with a loud thud, his eyes opened wide. Vlad shot him five more times, and after he had ascertained Eldrornn was dead, he breathed a sigh.

"You should be thanking us, Vlad Finnerty," said a young woman's voice from behind.

Vlad frowned when he turned to face the woman—a young girl with short, green hair paired with casual clothes.

"Beatrice Garcia, is it? And..."

"You can call me Jeremy," answered the guy carrying an anti-fortification rocket launcher who stood next to Beatrice. "That was a close call, wasn't it?"

"Too close for my comfort," admitted Vlad.

Creak!

Boom!

At the base's parking lot, three female Officers broke through one side of the medallion-colored wall and found themselves looking at a branch of interconnecting hallways.

"Booooo! There's no one waiting for us!" said one of them, a woman wearing a standard Sigurd Officer battle outfit, her curly hair dyed blue.

"...We took the rear as agreed, Yarilya. But I must admit, joining Eldrornn at the front entrance could bring more fun... than this," commented a woman of short stature standing behind Yarilya. This Officer had covered her hair with a white scarf embroidered with a vein-like golden pattern along the edge. She carried a guisarme—which was essentially a polearm twice her height with a bright, glowing pruning hook fitted onto a spear shaft.

"Tsk. Lenora, can you deactivate your Iliad for a moment?" complained Milloula Friegeaux, the leader of the trio. "That thing is blinding me!"

"Milla, we're here to crush these so-called rebels, right? Then we need them to come to us. I'm activating my guisarme here just so that we would attract them. I'm acting as a bait for you here, so just deal with it."

"But how about Franucci, Millloula? She took off without us," asked Yarilya to the group leader.

"Don't mind her. She serves her purpose by just being here. But now, it's our turn, ladies," said Milloula with a wide grin on her face.