Jessica arrived before Felicity and used her powers to wipe out the brutal effects of exhaustion. While doing so, she glanced at the casket made from exotic flora... glowing brightly, radiating a savage presence.
"I didn’t know you have mastered your ability enough to summon Domain!"
Jessica said as healing light emitting from her cleared all signs of internal backlash suffered by Felicity.
"I only achieved it recently... after awakening from the long sleep."
Th1s chapter is updated by n)ovel/\bin/\
Felicity explained.
She was close to achieving mastery before the nanite attack. Now, a few days ago, when Zed made her recover from the genetic disorder, the serum he injected partly increased her strength and control over her powers since it was made from rare, powerful materials. This was enough for her to cross the borderline and summon Domain.
"This was the first time I actually used it."
Felicity added while jumping on her feet.
She spread her arms and then brought them together to make the casket assimilate with the ground.
"Haah."
She let out a breath of air and sighed.
Jessica was able to heal the internal injuries she got from overusing her strength, but the physical exhaustion remained. Domain has fully drained her...
"Hmm?"
Felicity felt something and grabbed Jessica with roots. The roots pulled them both to the side, and they narrowly avoided a projection of black energy. The energy projection smashed on the ground some meters away, sending mud in the sky.
Felicity turned back and saw the Dark Beast facing Loren looking at her, a paw raised in the air. Loren bombarded the beast with psionic energy and the beast focused back on her.
"This is really bad!" Jessica said.
So far, only Felicity was able to kill Dark Beast. For others, it was almost impossible to achieve her level of success given the revival ability of the immortal-class species.
Not even Zed was able to kill the Dark Beast as the latter was on guards after the close encounter with death...
KA-CHA!
The Dark Beast attacking Loren broke through her defense. Her psionic energy disappeared and a claw stabbed at her.
Whoosh~!
At the same time, the main sliding door of the villa opened. A thick metallic hand emerged, its front surface open like a tunnel.
An eerie glow erupted from the open surface and a beam of red light boomed out!
BOOM
A deafening boom reverberated through the villa.
As the beast stabbed the claw at Loren, an extremely chilling sensation crawled up its body. Before it could guess why, the beast saw a burst of light before its eyes.
BANG
The light beam smashed right on its forehead! The strength of the red light was so strong that it made the beast stumble back and collapse on the ground.
"WHAT?!"
Loren was shocked to find a large hole on its forehead! The hole literally ran through the head of the beast, exposing monstrous brain matter.
BANG
More deafening booms ringed out in quick succession.
Olly, who was barely clinging to his life, was shell-shocked to discover a large hole in the neck of the beast.
"What the hell just happened?!"
Olly wondered as he saw the other beasts suffering the same fate, except the one fighting Zed.
"!"
Jessica, Loren, and Olly were stunned.
The powerful beasts were overpowered in a matter of seconds by some light beams?!
Everyone turned towards the source of the deafening booms and noticed a metallic body - over ten feet - stepping out of the villa.
The metallic body was entirely silver except its face where an inverted ’U’ arc was inscribed, glowing with a shiny red liquid. There were no eyes, ears, mouth or any feature associated with humans despite having a humanoid shape.
"A robot?!"
Jessica muttered in shock.
"No, not a simple robot," Felicity said, her eyes studying the metallic body. "It is a battle robot specialized for war combat."
Meanwhile, inside the holes of the three fallen beasts, slime emerged and the hole rapidly filled up. In a matter of seconds, the beasts rose, their bodies radiating strong killing intent.
ROAR
One of the beasts roared and pounced on the robot. The two sets of claws radiated sharp black energy that shrieked through the air, creating energy fluctuations.
Dust and mud rose up as the beast arrived in front of the robot, its claws aimed straight at the head of the robot.
But before the claws could make contact, one of the robotic hands rose. From the open tunnel-like surface, metallic fingers emerged, quickly turning into a fist.
Just as the claws closed to stab, the metallic fist smashed down on the beast’s head. The sound of skull cracking rang out and the head caved in.
A single punch sent the beast rolling to the ground!
"This is real?!"
Olly was taken aback.
"Such overpowering robots would not only need money but resources that only military and top factions could afford..."
He then eyed Zed - who was facing another Dark Beast - and tried to think of a possible explanation that could make sense.
"Just who the hell is he?!"
Olly wondered. So far, he assumed Zed to be a very nice guy whom everyone likes due to his honest and friendly persona. Someone whom even his father admired for his down-to-earth personality...
"Claudia."
Felicity looked at the robot and smiled. For her, it couldn’t be more obvious on who was controlling the robot.
As one beast crashed on the ground, the two other beasts rushed at the battle robot. Their bodies turned illusory and they sent out claw projection, slashing vertically.
In response, from the bottom of the robot’s feet, streams of blue light erupted. The light propelled the robot high in the air, and the claw projection passed right under it. Ultimately, they smashed against a glass window of the villa.
Thankfully, the villa was countless times more durable and enhanced than the pool house. There were no scratches.
At the same time, as the claw projection failed, the robot landed its feet - erupting with streams of blue light - on another beast’s face.
The streams of blue light were nothing but combustible volatile flames, and when the flames came in contact with the face, the face caught fire.
[[No one has the right to wreak havoc at my home.]]
Claudia’s cold voice ringed into the beast’s ears.
From behind, another Dark Beast created a safe distance, ready to tear the robot to pieces. The beast opened its mouth, and a powerful black energy ball began to form.
Before the energy ball could fully converge, the back of the robot split apart and a rocket launcher moved out.
GRRR~!
The beast’s eyes turned wide in shock. The launcher fired a mini rocket!
The rocket flew like a bolt of lightning, its speed simply incredible and indescribable. There was nothing the beast could do as the rocket flew right into its open mouth!
BANG
The rocket collapsed into the converging black energy ball. Two sets of explosives broke apart, resulting in a terrifying explosion.
BOOM
The beast’s head exploded and its headless body began to collapse.
"My god! That robot is savage!"
Olly was shocked by the viciousness of the robot. It could have defeated the beast with means that were far less violent, and yet it chose such a brutal method.
"It is almost like the robot wants to vent!"
Jessica muttered.
"The robot doesn’t have a reason to vent, but Claudia does!" Felicity thought with a smile.
Just then, as the third beast collapsed, a slithering corrosive aura washed over the entire villa. Every form of vegetation corroded.
"This...!"
Jessica looked in disbelief at the source of the aura. It was coming from the three defeated Dark Beasts.
Much to her surprise, the three beasts instantly dissolved into a transparent slimy liquid. The liquid spread out, moving towards each other, and then bonding with each other.
"What the hell is going on?!"
A chill crawled up Olly’s senses and he turned pale from terror.
"Assimilation!"
Felicity’s forehead creased as she realized what the beasts were doing. They were fusing with each other.
Claudia didn’t do anything but observed the assimilation process through the robot. The reason was simple... she couldn’t stop them as the slimy liquid was almost incorporeal.
[[The information master acquired on Dark Beasts was incomplete. An immortal-class species is truly wonderful.]]
Claudia mused as from the slimy liquid, a new beast emerged.
This beast was similar to the Dark Beasts from before, but its body was small, barely ten feet. And instead of standing on four, it stood on two.
The corrosive presence the beast radiated made everyone feel as if they were in an abyss. Their breathing turned heavy...
At a speed that could not even be detected by Jessica and others, the beast appeared before the robot like a puff of smoke.
Claudia retaliated by making the robot smash down with its two fists. The beast stretched out its glowing claws and grabbed the incoming metallic fists.
BOOM
The moment the two made contact, terrifying shockwaves boomed out. The ground sank by dozens of meters and a crater appeared.
Some distance away, Felicity and others retreated to escape from the explosive shockwaves.
Swoosh~!
Black energy cascaded out of the claws and swept into the robotic fists. The metallic surface turned dull and the energy sliced through the surface like a knife through butter.
Just as the fists were about to be crushed, the beast felt a gust of wind from below. Startled, the beast lowered its head and saw the robot lifting a knee for a vicious kick.
The beast might have noticed the incoming kick but it was too late to avoid it.
BANG
The moment the metallic knee smashed onto its chest, pain erupted and the beast felt its bones crack.
GRRR
Even before the force from the kick could send the beast back, the raised knee of the robot opened up and a drill rolled out! It burrowed right through the beast’s chest!
Black blood splashed along with ghastly gore.
The robot has no sense of pain nor emotions, and the newly assimilated beast was the same. Ignoring the pain, the beast opened its mouth and roared.
Black ripples boomed out and smashed onto its enemy like an avalanche.
The effect of the simultaneous attacks from each other pushed the robot and the assimilated beast back by a couple of steps.
[[The gained strength from the assimilation is not additional but multiplicative. The beast is almost as strong as a Level V mutant.]]
Claudia made an observation.
***
As an advanced AI, she could carry out multiple tasks at the same time, and that’s what she was doing now.
The mechanical insects she sent earlier for reconnaissance has sent a piece of important news.
On the ground, as Zed and the Dark Beast clashed with each other, flames and black energy surged out. Zed crashed against a corroded tree and wiped stains of blood from his lips.
"I hate this cockroach ability of not staying dead."
After the first time, he was not able to obliterate the beast attacking him. Somehow the beast would always manage to keep a cell alive and revive back.
*beep*
Zed has barely risen to his feet when a virtual screen popped in front of him.
[[Sir, we aren’t being spied.]]
When Zed heard the news, his expression relaxed.
He looked at the pouncing beast and attacked with a column of flames. He just needed to find an opportunity to transform and end this cockroach’s life.
[[But a group of mutants is rapidly moving in the direction of this neighborhood. They have a tracking device, most likely to track these beasts... if they come here, we will lose what we have built.]]
Zed’s face fell and his eyes turned cold.
The Dark Beast broke through the column of flames and slashed out with black energy. Zed didn’t block and allowed the energy to smash onto him.
Crimson blood splattered and he was sent flying back through the air. He propelled the flying force and made himself crash towards the villa.
Just as he was about to smash against a window, the window opened up and he fell inside. The moment he fell, the window shut back and turned opaque.
"Transform!"
A golden glow emerged in his eyes...
Meanwhile, outside.
Felicity and others noticed Zed crashing.
"Zed!"
Both Felicity and Jessica rushed into the direction of the villa when two ear-piercing roars erupted. The roars were brutal, of biblical proportions.
Shocked, Felicity covered her ears with a shield made of vines to protect herself.
Behind, the assimilated beast and the normal beast have turned berserk. They both charged into the direction of the room where Zed has crashed into.
Their eyes flashed with an eerie glow and they dashed forward... as if they have found what they have been looking for!
The battle robot stopped the assimilated beast with a powerful punch and launched a rocket to stop the other beast.
The Dark Beast barely avoided the rocket, and rapidly jumped forward.
"Watch out!"
Felicity warned as she saw the beast was about to land near the place where Jessica was. If those monstrous feet landed on her, Felicity knew even a corpse of her friend wouldn’t remain.
Jessica froze from both the crazy aura and fear.
As the worst was about to arrive, a horizontal vortex of flames rushed above her head and smashed onto the Dark Beast.
"Phew~"
Felicity’s eyes lit up from relief but a frown appeared on her face.
"The energy the flames emit is far too different!"
She thought as the flames engulfed the entire body of the Dark Beast.
"These flames are far more powerful than what he could summon even when he is using Domain!"
Felicity lifted her head to look at an open window from where the horizontal vortex rushed out...
***
Fifteen miles away.
The group of mutants from Sky Fiend Group rushed past the chaos of the city and arrived in a relatively peaceful area with more greenery.
"There are a few neighborhoods and get-away places ahead."
One of the mutants read the information displayed on a digital tablet.
"These neighborhoods are for the rich... they are no different than exotic locations. Rarely does anyone live here."
"Isn’t that great then? We wouldn’t have to concern ourselves with erasing our traces!" A female mutant said with a grin.
Before the others could respond, a chilling voice emerged.
"Don’t worry about erasing your tracks. I would do that for you."
The group of mutants was dumbstruck...