Vivian sat frozen in the reinforced security room, her eyes glued to the glowing camera feeds. She had silently watched Skull casually enter the Fortis building, completely bypassing their heavily armed blockades, and she was currently struggling with a deep, paralyzing panic over what was tactically best to do.
She intimately knew the Black Hand’s terrifying reputation. She knew that with his lethal, ghost-like skills, he would somehow be able to effortlessly reach all the way to the top floors of the tower, regardless of exactly how many armed guards foolishly got in his way.
So, in a grim way, it was entirely useless to try and send squads of regular people to try and physically block or even delay him. It would just be a pointless waste of human life.
The terrifying question was: if nothing drastic was done about it right now, the assassin would eventually end up finding and dealing with her in the security room, or worse, he would reach the executive suite and assassinate Max.
Surprisingly, right as her panic was peaking, she received an encrypted call on the command console. It was from Max himself.
On the other end of the line, Max’s voice was incredibly calm. He calmly told Vivian exactly what was currently happening on the lower floors, and how they would be sending Aron alone to directly deal with the masked trouble.
"Listen to me, Max! I know you heavily believe in your elite team, but you don’t fully understand what is walking up those stairs right now. This person is fundamentally different from all the others outside!" Vivian pleaded, gripping the edge of the console. "He might genuinely be the absolute biggest, most lethal threat that their entire side has in this war!"
"Is that so?" Max replied, his voice completely devoid of fear, carrying a chilling, absolute certainty. "Then I think we’ve definitely sent the exact right person. Because I think Aron might actually be the biggest, most lethal threat that we have on our side as well."
Max paused, the sound of distant gunfire echoing through the receiver.
"So, stop panicking and focus purely on what tactically needs to be done right now. Run the board, Vivian, so we can finally get out of this entire bloody fight losing the least amount of our people."
The line clicked dead. Vivian’s hands were still physically shaking as she vividly remembered Skull looking directly into the security camera just minutes ago.
A dark, cowardly part of her was actually wondering if she should quickly switch sides again. If she made it incredibly obvious over the PA system that she was actively helping the Syndicate, maybe Ramon and Darius would go easy on her when they breached the room. Maybe they would let her live.
But when Max had called, the sheer, unshakable weight of his words of confidence violently snapped her out of it. It made her reaffirm herself and her loyalty to the Bloodline group. They weren’t backing down, so neither could she.
She leaned forward and pressed the main broadcast button on her microphone.
"Captains, listen to me. Start defending less on the perimeter. Allow the flow of the enemy people to actively move inside the lobby," Vivian ordered, her voice finally steady. "We are moving onto the next stage of the defense."
Down on the ground floor, those exhausted Bloodline members that were outside and desperately fighting in the ruined courtyard were incredibly relieved to hear that specific order in their earpieces.
They were taking on the absolute brunt of the brute work, their muscles aching as they continuously clashed with the flow of Syndicate people that just never seemed to stop pouring through the gates.
Now, though, they did exactly as asked. They were focusing strictly on their individual survival fights, seamlessly stepping backward rather than holding a rigid blocking line. By strategically yielding ground, the enraged Black Hound and Gilt Rat members were aggressively rushing right into the Fortis reception lobby. And now, they were clashing with the interior defenders. But the trap wasn’t only set for the reception area.
The strict tactical order was to continue to let the enemy people push deeper and deeper into the building.
Standing safely near the back of the invading army, Darius smiled as he watched the defensive line finally buckle.
"It looks like Skull managed to do something incredibly useful in there," Darius commented proudly. "Our people are finally able to push through and get inside the lobby."
"It was only a matter of time before their pathetic defenses broke," Ramon said coldly, adjusting his pristine coat. "But if that assassin doesn’t produce the final results soon, we are still going in with the heavy hitters. I’m absolutely not having another corporate failure today. This Bloodline group has gotten far too lucky for far too long."
The , violent flow of Gilt Rat thugs and Black Hound street fighters continued to push inside, and they were blindly following the exact same vertical path as Skull.
As the mob would aggressively ascend the main staircase, they would inevitably find the higher areas heavily blocked off by barricades of furniture. Frustrated and looking for blood, the mob would peel off and head directly into one of the many open office floors of the building.
And it was here, in the sprawling, confined office spaces, that they would see heavily armed groups of Bloodline members silently waiting for them.
They violently engaged in fighting floor by floor. And as the flow of the Gilt Rats and Black Hounds would relentlessly continue upward, they would continue to spill into different rooms until they were now fiercely fighting on several different floors at once. The entire Fortis building was fully engaged in brutal, close-quarters combat.
To an amateur tactician, it would have seemed absolutely ridiculous to purposely let the enemy flow inside your own headquarters when they were defending the outside chokepoint rather well.
But Vivian knew some things drastically needed to be adjusted due to the sheer numbers of the situation. She knew the Gilt Rats and Black Hound members simply wouldn’t ever stop coming until they were all dead. So, the Bloodline needed to actively thin out as many members as possible by forcing them into confined kill-zones. And right now was the perfect time to spring the trap.
Vivian spoke into the encrypted channel, addressing the elite fighters hiding in the upper floors.
"Everyone is perfectly in position and ready, right? Well... now is the time. Deal with as many of them as you can. Punish them as much as possible!"
On each of the separate, designated floors, the trap jaws snapped shut.
In the sprawling Media Room, Joe had confidently stepped out from behind a barricade. He immediately threw out several lightning-fast, heavy boxing jabs, brutally hitting the encroaching thugs square in the face. He was bobbing, weaving, and ducking under wild swings with expert precision, methodically taking out as many enemies as he possibly could with his bare hands.
’I’ll just keep going, pace my strikes, and perfectly control my breathing!’ Joe thought to himself, his healing factor burning through his fatigue as he dropped another Black Hound.
Up in the Legal Department, a blur of motion was seen aggressively running directly across the tops of the mahogany desks. The man in the golden jacket seamlessly jumped high into the air, twisting his body and swinging his powerful legs, brutally kicking two Syndicate thugs in the head at the exact same time.
In one of the Showcase Rooms—an area that used to be strictly used to show promotional videos of the corporate services they provided—Na had stepped out of the shadows. Utilizing his terrifying, raw Altered strength, he was physically lifting one of the fully grown men high over his head and violently throwing him like a bowling ball directly into the charging ranks of the others, shattering their bones.
And lastly, on the Games Floor—which was a large recreational area where Fortis staff members could usually relax, get food from the coolers, and play games like ping pong—Darno was putting in brutal work. He had effortlessly grabbed one of the screaming Gilt Rat members and violently thrown him right on top of the recreational ping pong table. Without missing a beat, Darno slammed his , heavy arm right down onto the center of the person’s body, completely breaking the heavy table in half and making absolutely sure the thug was no longer participating in the fight.
The elite Rangers, plus their extra heavy-hitters, were now officially in the fight.