It was quite the normal day.

  Hua was stationed along with three other newly-joined high-level MANTISes. It art of the agreemeween Mobius and the cilors.

  They would not mind several high-level MAurning into their personal bodyguards. In turn, they would assign h-level MANTISes on the field.

  The three h-level MANTISes apanying her were the assigned batants. Their strengths and skills weren’t bad. Having enough honkai resistance already puts them ahead of others when using honkai ons, more so with bat reflexes and the likes.

  Boom-!

  ‘Hm..?!’

  A huge explosion disturbed the stadium’s peace. They were only mere minutes away from starting the cert.

  A brief silence fell before murmurs superimposed one another, creating a kind of chaotioise that became a fuel for the impending chaos.

  Beep-!

  “—mmand. A rge explosion occurred on the East Wing.”

  “Roger that. Squadroo Three, do you copy? Check the statuses of the delegates.”

  A tinuous yet anized and came from Hua’s earpiee after another.

  “Delegates… The officials from Fire MOTH..!”

  Apparently, the Fire MOTH guests was at the East Wing when the explosion occurred. This immediately ged the explosion's nature into a terrorist attack.

  She immediately tapped a se of her earpiece several times until she reached the el of the high-level MANTIS deployed for these delegates.

  “—one’s dead. Was this the Herrscher? Is this…”

  A series of abrupt wreeted Hua's ears.

  Psshk-!

  Thud-!

  The hing that greeted her ears was a sharp sound and a thud. Moments ter, the radio was cut off.

  “East wi wing.”

  Her mind acted swiftly. One decision after another popped up in her mind.

  The first thing she did was to tact the headquarters—the Fire MOTH bran this city.

  “I need oher batant with me. Deploy the other to lead the evacuation.”

  “U-uood!”

  A sigh escaped her lips. Never had she expected she would bee a leader figure like Major Himeko one day.

  Boom-!

  Boom-!

  Boom-!

  Several explosions occurred in the span of the mihe people iadium are already running towards the eight exits.

  “Terrorists! There are terrorists!”

  “What?! They’re here?!”

  “Someo could be someone!”

  “A bomb! Was that a bomb? That man is carrying a bomb!”

  Fire MOTH personnel are trying to trol the chaotic crowd. The other lower-leveled MAationed did not have much trouble, but there were already staff being overwhelmed by the stampede.

  A minute had passed by. Hua and the h-level batant arrived at the se.

  “...Shit.” A curse came out of the h-level MANTIS' mouth.

  It was a crimson hell. Everything within the East Wing was burning. The special-grade steel bars are melting like butter to a fire.

  They could already tell its severity based on the increasing temperature of the stadium itself. It was a fone clusion that the majority of the people inside would be inflicted with intense heatstroke.

  “Should we..?”

  “No.” Hua shook her head. “This kind of occurrence could only be caused…”

  “...There.”

  The man cut off her words. He already saw the rising honkai energy levels at one pce.

  The thing they feared the most occurred—

  A Herrscher.

  “Ivan is aype MANTIS.”

  He pertaio the high-level MANTIS left behind to preside over the evacuation. At the very least, the heat stroke could be mitigated.

  Hua’s ‘eyes’ exteo the surroundings. Her senses were enhao the point she could hear a drop of water from far away.

  It was a mix of her martial arts and the effects brought by her ICHaruda.

  Tap.

  Tap.

  Tap.

  She precisely locked onto the presumed Herrscher’s location.

  Honkai energy gathered on her fist as waves of impact were sent straight to the Herrscher's.

  Bam-!

  Rumble-!

  Amidst the sea of fmes, a lone figure was revealed. It was a red-haired woman with a b coat. The temperature around her rose up extremely high, yet her clothes weren’t affected.

  The other MANTIS, Mark, kly what he had to do.

  Zoom-!

  His entire figure turned into a blur. Viridest winds created a vacuum on the sea of fmes, extinguishing them in his path.

  ‘I’ll close the distance..!’

  Just as he was only several meters away from the red-haired woman, arm bells rang in his mind—but it was too te.

  Tchk-!

  A curved sharp object struck at his back. It came out of nowhere.

  Sou-!

  Bam-!

  His body was sent flying to the sea of fmes, his status unknown. Things happeremely fast that even Hua was caught off guard by it.

  ‘Another enemy..?!’

  Hua saw another silhouette of a ‘girl’. She wielded aremely rge scythe. It was the oo instantly deal with a high-level MANTIS instantly.

  In the moment, that figure disappeared. It was as if that suspected Herrscher did .

  Her mind acted extremely fast. While she uncovered the identity of the extra enemy, she began to avoid the attacks made of fmes.

  sequently, she could also feel her surroundings turniremely hot. If it wasn’t for her battlesuit, she would’ve had to expend more energy to deal with it.

  For the five minutes, she pyed a game of tag with the Herrscher of Fmes.

  Every time she was about to get attacked, Hua would dodge it.

  If the Herrscher of Fmes moved away from Hua, the tter would close the distand attack at cle.

  This made it so that the two of them maintained a siderable distao each other.

  It pced Hua at a great disadvantage as most of her bat power relied on close bat.

  ‘This level of attack…’

  Murky thoughts began filling Hua’s mind. The dition of the people ihe city ed her, yet all she could do was to put the Herrscher into a stalemate.

  Moreover…

  ‘Where was she..?’

  Hua was still wary of the other ‘enemy’. She waited for a long time, even showing several openings iionally, yet the girl never came again. She kept her stro ace card—Meta-Morph—to her sleeves just for this.

  A total of six minutes had passed sihe beginning of the i. Several emergency measures were forced out of Hua’s battlesuit. Its extreme capabilities were built with Herrscher battles in mind.

  heless, three months wasn’t long enough to formute a mature teology for it.

  ‘I should—’

  Just as Hua decided to use her Meta-Morph, her thoughts were briefly cut short.

  Aremely loud soni came from the skies.

  Zoom-!

  BOOM-!

  RUMBLE-!

  The impact sent numbing aftershocks to several kilometer radius. It was akin to a strohquake. The winds cleared out most of the fmes itlefield, revealing burnt skyscrapers, cars, and the likes.

  In the midst of them all, a tall figure stood in front of the Herrscher who colpsed to the ground. Blood came out of her mouth. Several of her internal ans were shattered by the sheer impact of the man’s nding. It wasn't even a direct attack, but the mere shockwaves caused by his crash.

  Add to that the pressure he emitted, it wasn’t wrong to say that she was disabled in one go.

  The tip of a longsword oiraight to her neck.

  “Let her out.”

  The moment she met the man’s golden eyes…

  ‘What…’

  …the ‘Herrscher’ bnked out.