BOOM—!

  The massive front end of the heavy truck plummeted into the trap, letting out an ear-grating screech of twisting metal.

  The entire vehicle looked as if it had been slammed into the earth by an invisible, giant hand.

  Two blinding searchlight beams stabbed upward, dancing futilely against the pitch-black night sky.

  Silence lasted for only half a second.

  "Standard Protocol Seven! Team A, hold position! Teams B and C, deploy to the flanks and clear the high ground! Launch the drones!"

  The command, cold and devoid of emotion, echoed through the pass via external speakers.

  The two assault vehicles in the rear had braked almost the instant the heavy truck began its descent.

  Their tires carved two precise arcs into the sand as they came to a steady halt at the edge of the pit, instantly establishing a crossfire grid.

  The six-barrel machine gun turrets atop the roofs let out a low whir as they preheated. Brilliant searchlights cast two pillars of cruel light, illuminating every crevice in the nearby rocks with a deathly, pale clarity.

  This escort detail was in an entirely different league compared to the wasteland scavengers Kane usually butchered.

  Crag tightened his massive fists, preparing to leap according to the original plan, but Kane’s urgent, low command hissed into his ear.

  "Plan aborted! Listen to my lead—you are the shield, I am the thorn!"

  "In three seconds, hit the one on the left!"

  Crag’s massive frame paused for a fraction of a heartbeat. The bloodlust swirling in his eyes was instantly suppressed by absolute obedience.

  Three seconds.

  He didn’t count them.

  A beast-like combat instinct guided him to pivot the moment Kane finished speaking.

  He reached down and physically tore a flat, tabletop-sized slab of rock right off the mountainside!

  "ROAR!"

  An explosion of suppressed fury erupted from his chest.

  The muscles in his arms bunched and bulged like subterranean dragons. He hoisted the several-hundred-pound boulder over his head and, with every ounce of his strength, hurled it toward the assault vehicle on the left!

  The boulder tore through the air with a dull howl, casting a massive, predatory shadow through the searchlight beams.

  CLANG—!

  The sound was a heavy, deadening thud.

  The boulder shattered into powder against the sloped frontal armor of the assault vehicle, causing the chassis to rock violently.

  Yet, on the thick alloy plating, it left nothing more than a distinct dent.

  An instant later, the assault vehicle’s turret whipped around, its infrared sensors locking onto Crag’s previous position.

  Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

  A searing whip of tracer rounds lashed out viciously!

  The cliff face was shredded, stone chips flying everywhere as the white-hot bullets scorched red pockmarks into the rock. Smoke and dust filled the air.

  Every ounce of the enemy's attention was drawn to that earth-shaking strike.

  That was the moment.

  From the shadows on the opposite side of the pass, a dark silhouette streaked out along the ground.

  [ Kinetic Boost ]!

  Kane’s form became an untraceable blur under the moonlight.

  He didn't move in a straight line; he stayed low, weaving through the jagged shadows of the uneven ground, silently flanking the rear of the right-hand assault vehicle.

  That was the zone with the thinnest armor—and a total firing blind spot.

  He didn't use his dagger to pry at the heavy metal. Instead, he pressed his palm flat against the vehicle's undercarriage.

  A faint light flickered in his palm.

  [ Aero Blade ]!

  Two razor-thin, highly compressed currents of air sliced through the atmosphere. They precisely severed several hydraulic lines exposed beneath the chassis and the thickest fuel delivery pipe.

  Deep crimson hydraulic oil and pungent fuel sprayed out instantly, soaking into the parched sand in dark, spreading stains.

  Kane didn't even look up. With a twist of his body, he melted back into the deeper shadows, vanishing as if he had never existed.

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  "Crrr-ack... Warning: Hydraulic system failure. Power output dropped by 70%..."

  Inside the assault vehicle on the right, a piercing electronic alarm suddenly wailed.

  The machine gun turret on the roof looked as if its tendons had been cut; it wobbled feebly twice before hitching and grinding to a halt.

  The crossfire net from the left assault vehicle suffered a microscopic stutter due to the malfunction of its ally.

  Now!

  Crag seized this fleeting opening. His massive frame leaped from the fifteen-meter-high cliff!

  BOOM!

  He slammed into the soft sand like a falling meteor. The resulting explosion of dust and grit instantly threw the visibility within the mountain pass into total chaos.

  "Maintain formation! Smoke grenades! Prep thermal scans!"

  The commander inside the vehicle remained terrifyingly calm.

  A soldier clad in power-assisted exoskeletal armor leaped from the back of the vehicle. He swept the area with his rifle while raising a handheld scanner with his other hand, attempting to lock onto life signals through the dust.

  Just as he looked down at the screen, waiting for the signal to register—

  The sand beneath his feet erupted without warning.

  A hand caked in filth, moving as fast as a striking viper, clamped onto his ankle with a death grip!

  The soldier's pupils froze.

  An irresistible, massive force surged from beneath the earth. Before he could even squeeze the trigger, he was hauled straight down, dragged bodily into the soil!

  "Gah—!"

  A short, mangled scream was instantly swallowed by the dirt.

  Silence returned.

  The sand rippled slightly and then went still.

  All that remained was a lone Gauss rifle lying in the dirt and the look of unmasked horror on the faces of the surrounding soldiers.

  Buried alive.

  That chilling phrase exploded in the minds of every soldier, bringing a terror far deeper than any hail of bullets.

  "Dammit!" Inside the truck in the pit, the squad leader witnessed this eerie scene through the internal feed, his pupils shrinking to needlepoints. He immediately scrapped their previous protocol and roared over the comms to all units:

  "Target is not a bandit! It's a Gaia Coalition ability user! Abort standard sweep, initiate 'Heresy' response! Heavy ordnance priority on the stone giant—he's the tank!"

  The tactics shifted instantly.

  Inside the crippled right assault vehicle, the gunner abandoned the dead turret and manually cranked the barrel, aiming an incendiary grenade at the massive, flickering silhouette in the dust.

  Whiz—BANG!

  Thick, chemical flames erupted in a cascading wave, instantly enveloping half of Crag's body.

  Sizzle...

  The fire seemed sentient, clinging to his Obsidian Skin and burning with white-hot intensity. It scorched the hardened rock until it turned glowing red, emitting an ear-grating cracking sound.

  "ROAARRRGH!"

  Agony ripped a sky-shaking howl from Crag's throat as his massive frame struggled frantically within the sea of fire.

  Watching Crag being swallowed by the flames, Kane’s pupils constricted violently.

  He abandoned the plan to continue ambushing with [ Phase Burrow ]. His entire body erupted from the shadows, discarding all pretense of concealment.

  Stray bullets kicked up plumes of dust at his heels.

  He ignored them, his objective clear—he charged straight toward the heavy truck that was already half-buried in the earth.

  "Target sighted! Focus fire!"

  The soldiers, assuming he was trying to seize the main cargo container, immediately diverted their remaining firepower toward him.

  However, that wasn't Kane’s target at all.

  With a series of leaps across the jagged chassis, he nimbly reached the underside of the driver's cab and jammed his notched dagger in with a violent wrench!

  A small silver metal case, bearing a distinct lead-seal marking, was pried brutally from the vehicle’s frame.

  The intel was correct!

  Kane clutched the case to his chest and, in the same motion, pulled a high-explosive grenade from his waist.

  He pulled the pin and hurled it with lethal precision toward the massive fuel tank he had previously sliced open—the one currently gurgling out high-energy fuel.

  The moment the grenade left his hand, he used every ounce of strength in his lungs to roar two words at the agonizing figure struggling in the sea of fire:

  "Block it!"

  Within the inferno, Crag’s movements suddenly seized.

  He had heard it.

  In those eyes, scorched red by the heat, the pain and madness receded, replaced by a primal, pure resolution.

  Enduring the agonizing torture of his flesh being seared, he pivoted violently. Abandoning all defense, he transformed his massive two-and-a-half-meter frame into a literal stone wall, shielding Kane’s retreat path with his life.

  His arms crossed over his chest. Deep beneath his skin, ancient and desolate lithic totems suddenly flared to life.

  It was the most primitive guardian stance of the Stoneborn.

  A second later.

  The grenade impacted the fuel tank.

  BOOM—!!!!!

  First came a flash of white light that swallowed all color. Then, the deafening explosion tore through the air, drowning out every other sound in the mountain pass.

  The entire heavy truck was transformed into a colossal fireball that surged toward the sky.

  A terrifying shockwave, mixed with countless shards of burning metal, swept outward in a frenzied arc.

  As the smoke from the blast and the kicked-up dust slowly began to settle, the entire pass had become a burning hellscape.

  The two assault vehicles had been flipped by the shockwave, their husks emitting intermittent plumes of black oily smoke.

  Kane and Crag were gone, vanished without a trace.

  ...

  In a concealed rock cave several kilometers away, Kane scrambled to beat out the last clinging embers on Crag’s body.

  Half of Crag’s torso was charred black. Large chunks of his Obsidian Skin were flaking off like parched, cracked earth, revealing the raw, blood-red flesh beneath.

  He was clinging to life by a thread, every breath reeking of charred flesh.

  Yet, the ancient stone totems on his skin still emitted a faint, dark-red glow, pulsing in sync with his ragged respiration.

  Kane’s expression remained grim as he cracked open the heavy, cold lead case.

  A strange surge of energy washed over him.

  Inside the case were no weapons, no gold bars—only a crystalline construct submerged in a translucent blue gel.

  It looked like a heart, throbbing slowly and rhythmically.

  Its surface was webbed with visible, hyper-precise energy circuits that emitted an enchanting luminescence.

  A small label on the case read: [ Military-Grade Energy Core (Gen II): Tier 1 ].

  Meanwhile, back at the ruins of the mountain pass, a squad of guards rushed from Blackrock Town was surveying the scene.

  The lead captain’s face was ashen. He activated a high-clearance encrypted comms channel, his voice trembling with unrestrained fury.

  "Command, this is Scout Team 7... The escort squad has been wiped out. The 'Heart' has been taken."

  "Repeat: The 'Heart' is lost!"

  "Lock down all surrounding sectors immediately! No survivors, objective unknown... Requesting immediate intervention from the Investigation Unit!"

  Inside the cave, Kane looked at the "Heart" in his arms—an object worth an entire town—and then at Crag, who lay on the ground with a fading pulse, wisps of acrid smoke still rising from his body.

  Without warning, the memory of Old Tock’s death flashed before his eyes.

  That suffocating sense of powerlessness—watching his only companion die right in front of him—tightened its grip on his own heart once again.

  Dammit.

  Kane cursed under his breath.

  The icy calculation in his eyes rapidly receded, replaced by a flicker of irritation that he seemed to despise in himself.

  He shoved the "Heart" deep into his jacket, leaned down, and didn't bother trying to hoist the giant onto his back. Instead, he used every ounce of his strength to drape one of Crag's massive arms over his shoulders.

  Half-dragging and half-heaving, he hauled the mountain of a man off the ground.

  The blood debt had yet to be paid.

  This big idiot who had blocked the explosion for him... this... useful tool... could not be allowed to die here.

  He quickly oriented himself and, shoulder-loading Crag’s weight, began to stagger toward the deeper, more shadowed reaches of the canyon—toward the Heart of the Ancestors.

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