Taking advantage of the brief distraction by Adam, Li openly fired and let loose with his pistols in Dan's direction. Ada backed off and released her hold on Dan. Both him and Li managed to get some much distance away from the Bloodknights. Adam also got back on his feet and dashed a good distance away from Natalia. He kept his anti-materiel rifle trained on the trio of Bloodknights.

  Somehow, they had once again defied the odds and wormed themselves out of Judith’s control.

  Judith spat into the sand. “Alright then. This is getting dumb.”

  Dan only caught the split second of Judith gathering energy in her palm before she teleported a short distance away from the strider tank. She popped up beside Ada and raised her golden blade. She brought her arm down and sent another cutting crescent of energy toward the strider. Dan got a first hand demonstration of Judith’s full destructive power.

  The slicing wave of gold energy penetrated the rear of the strider and left out the front. The wave continued soaring through the air before smashing into the sand and shooting up a giant geyser. The tank had been perfectly split into two halves before multiple explosions forced Dan and Li to backpedal. He glanced to his side and still saw the giant wall of sand and lighting slowly but gradually swallowing up the desert. The confetti of sparks and the dark plumes of smoke that billowed out of the raging fiery halves of their strider meant they had just lost their ride and any protection against the approaching radioactive sandstorm.

  “You think it stops there?” Judith said loud enough for Dan to hear through the fierce flames of their tank. “Destroying tanks and buildings is all well and good. But what if I told you there are even greater heights even I haven’t discovered yet. I’m talking about attacks that can alter the landscape itself. Forget chopping a tank in half. I heard some rumors from the Church that there’s maniacs within the Dead Zone who could split entire cities, even countries.”

  Both Dan and Li stood with their handguns raised at the Bloodknights. Even though Dan was still willing to fight, he couldn’t stop the chills throughout his body. If that level of destructive power was possible, then that meant the cult master he struggled so hard to kill wasn’t close to the most powerful being within the Church of Nanotology.

  Knowing Judith was actively pursuing such ridiculous heights was the stuff of nightmares. If he couldn’t escape with his life here, the least he could do was do everything in his power to kill Judith and stop her pursuit of such dangerous powers.

  He opened a private channel with Li.

  “I don’t like the implications of what she’s saying,” Dan said. “Imagine someone like her taking a trip over to Alpha territory and with a flick of a wrist she splits apart a couple thousand square kilometers worth of land in a second. At that point, you wouldn’t even need warheads or nukes.”

  “Then it’s our duty to kill this bitch before we ever reach that point,” Li stated coldly. “Not just in service to the Alpha Corp, but to the entire world. With that sort of unlimited power, why tether yourself to an actual shard? Just be a force of nature and wreak havoc on everything around you with no opposition powerful enough to stop you.”

  Though Adam didn’t say a word, he already had his response lined up. Dan watched as the skull-faced agent blasted another slug from his anti-materiel rifle. The two Bloodknights already anticipated the shot. Ada used her warp dancer and dashed away while Judith simply sidestepped the hypersonic slug, evading it with natural speed neither Dan or Li had ever witnessed before.

  “I’ve had enough of you,” she declared.

  Judith extended out her arm and Dan saw translucent lines of shimmering haze coming out of her hand. Adam found himself frozen in place as some invisible force prevented him from firing another shot. Judith lifted her arm up higher which also lifted the skull-faced agent off the ground.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Dan muttered.

  Dan and Li fired their handguns at the lead Bloodknight but none of their bullets landed. In just a flash, Ada had rushed into the path of the rounds. Some rounds harmlessly impacted her armor while the rest she seemingly swung her Bloodluster and smacked the projectiles away.

  “Kid! It’s up to you now. You have to—”

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  Judith didn’t allow Adam to finish his sentence. She lashed out with another crescent-shaped wave of gold energy from her blade. The wave of energy sliced through Adam’s abdomen, effortlessly cutting through him and his armor as if he wore nothing but paper. The skull-faced agent fell to the sand in two bisected halves. Dan saw a brief red flash from Judith’s eyes, then saw both halves of Adam’s body burst into flames.

  The fires burned so intensely that they changed from fierce orange to a vibrant blue. The bizarre flames rapidly ate away at Adam’s armor, then his flesh until almost nothing was left of the agent but charred remains in the sand. The rate of disintegration took only half a minute.

  Neither Dan or Li muttered a word at what they just saw. Even Ada glanced over her shoulder and Dan saw her eyes widen at the sight.

  In that moment, Dan just witnessed Judith use her telekinesis to trap and lift Adam, chop him in half with an energy wave from her golden blade, then disintegrated his body with her much more powerful version of the glare. He was reminded of his encounter with the cult master and how a Kodak agent was completely disintegrated from the glare ability at its full potential.

  Dan’s nose caught a whiff of the stench of scorched flesh, armor and other chemicals he didn’t recognize from the aftermath of Adam’s gruesome death. Judith slowly turned her head at the duo and gave them both a predatory grin.

  “Just look at your faces,” she said. “I was starting to get tired of this and wanted to end you both immediately. But wow, look at how surprised you are. I can smell the fear and panic all the way from here. Well, since it’s been made perfectly obvious that neither of you will surrender, I might as well have one last final show before you both die. I won’t even need to lift a finger for this one.”

  Dan gave Li a sideways glance, and the stealth specialist responded with a slight tilt of his helmet.

  Warp dancer activated.

  Dan would not let this chance slip by. He sprinted in the sand and pushed himself as hard as he could to close the gap between him and Judith. Turning around, he saw Li had already flashed out of existence with his use of the death step.

  Lucky for him, Ada was still distracted by the sight of Judith’s recent killing of Adam. He hoped it stayed that way for his next move against the lead Bloodknight.

  Judith seemingly stood frozen in place thanks to his warp dancer massively boosting his speed and its disorienting effects on enemies. Dan knew he had once got the jump on Judith back in the throne room where he shoved a machete into her torso and dropped some grenades at her feet.

  He rushed past Ada and aimed his Ravager pistol directly at Judith’s head. With a pistol literally pressed against her skull, Dan was confident there was no conceivable way for her to dodge. Judith’s gaze wasn’t directly on him when he activated his warp dancer. Her cheek was facing him and so he pressed the parallel of his pistol into it. In his peripheral vision, he watched as Li had popped back into the world a few paces away from Judith’s side. His pistols were raised at her with the same idea.

  Dan had already beat his teammate to that goal.

  Dan’s finger already moved to pull the trigger and his pistol fired. But something grabbed his wrist and brought the barrel away from Judith’s face. A familiar female chuckle filled his ears and his blood ran cold. He didn’t know it was possible for him to begin sweating so much even during the warp dance.

  Judith had grabbed his wrist and turned to face him. Dan was dumbfounded as Judith seemingly moved at normal speed. He frantically swerved his head in both directions and saw that Li, Ada and Natalia were still significantly slowed down. He was still in his warp dance.

  The lead Bloodknight took time to admire the muzzle flash from his pistol that occurred in slow motion.

  “How sad Dan,” she finally said. “You caught me off guard once before and I will admit that. But a miracle never happens twice.”

  Judith took her eyes off him and Dan froze as he saw a red flash from her eyes. The grip of his handgun suddenly felt hot, even through his glove. He quickly let go of his pistol and saw the weapon disintegrate in front of his eyes. Judith had used her glare to destroy his weapon.

  Dan was so stunned that he momentarily couldn't move his body. Judith stepped forward and backhanded him across the face. The impact deactivated his warp dancer as he spun through the air and crashed into the sand.

  He expected a broken neck from the hit but he was surprised it didn’t hurt too badly. But it was enough to send him flying and landing dozens of meters away. He frantically got himself back on his feet and watched if Li would have any better luck than he did.

  Judith turned to face the stealth specialist who used his death step once again and popped up right behind her. Before Li could pop off a shot, Judith spun around and swerved her head out of the path of Li’s barrage of gunfire.

  The lead Bloodknight had natural speed that was already frightening. From dodging Adam’s hypersonic slugs to dodging point blank fire from dual pistols, she was a monster in speed. She snatched Li by the neck and hurled him in Dan’s direction.

  He dashed in Li’s path and caught his friend, slowing him as best he could.

  “Okay, this is not looking good for us,” Dan said. The stealth specialist got back on his feet. Li didn’t respond except a nod that acknowledged their grim situation.

  Judith crossed her arms and glanced at her two Bloodknights. “Ada, Natalia. You’re both up. Show these upstarts how it's done. And before you kill them, put on a good show for me.”

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