Other than the weird status message, Qin Hua was unable to find anything else that was out of place. However, she continued running around, not willing to leave things just like that.

She did not want to take any chances or be over-confident in her own strength. That could unnecessarily get someone hurt.

So she was determined to find out everything about this special 'soul corroded' status before the battle began tonight.

Time quickly ticked away as both sides continued making their preparations, and soon it was almost time for the evening sun to set.

An atmosphere of tension filled the air, along with the beautiful tones of the dusk, and before long, the first move was initiated.

Ahh! A shrill cry sounded from within the armory of the water purification facility.

Two men standing outside ran towards the small building. They were surprised to find the sound coming from inside as this was a location that was guarded heavily without fail at all times.

"What happened? What happened?

"

The guard who had shouted turned around, his face as white as paper.

"Everything is… is… gone.

"

"What are you talking about?

"

The two men looked further inside, and when they did they became equally shocked. The entire room was empty and three guards were lying on the ground.

They seemed to be still alive but were knocked out completely unconscious.

"What the heck? Who could have done this?

"

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. We are totally screwed. Don't we have that huge fight soon? Shit. Yahe is going to skin us alive.

"

"Oh my God. He is going to kill us.

"

"Wait. Wait. I heard that it's actually not a big fight. Maybe they won't even come in here? We can just inform later.

"

"Ya, we will definitely know a lot more when these two wake up. Luckily they are only knocked out cold.

"

"But you know what that means right?

"

"This means definitely someone from our base is responsible for this.

"

"Hmm. Yes. If it was any other beast or weird creature, they would have ripped both these idiots limb from limb.

"

"But who from the base could have done this?

"

"We didn't even hear a noise.

"

"Who knows? Let's just wait for one of these idiots to wake up. Then we can go report everything together. At least that way, we won't get reprimanded for this fiasco.

"

"Fuck this is our entire ammunition. Someone's head is going to roll for sure.

"

"Ahh. Damn it.

" The three guards looked at each other and restlessly waited for the knocked-out duo to wake up.

Meanwhile, other members of team A readied themselves to fight alongside Yahe.

They were hoping that it wouldn't come to a fight, so they ensured that their appearances were as intimidating as possible.

Though it was a bit odd for them to fight against common civilians, following orders was something that was drilled into their bones, and in the end, that came first. Not to mention the world that they were living in right now.

Their actions might be extreme but what other choice did they have? These things had to be done in order to bring some sort of normalcy back to the world.

Fear and panic were rampant everywhere and it made even harmless civilians do violent things. When such events happened, it was their duty to do something about it and step up.

So no one questioned the mission tonight and their resolve did not waver. They were ready and prepared to do whatever was necessary.

"Here we go,

" Yahe shouted loudly and waved his hand.

"Yes, sir.

" All the men replied in unison and the group started moving.

The whole team of fifteen strong soldiers with enhanced abilities and a couple even with awakened superpowers were headed towards the hospital zone.

However, they didn't have to walk for long.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Suddenly, a rain of sharp deadly icicles resembling frozen stalactites shot at them from a distance, and before any one of them could respond, the icicles pierced several soldiers and drew blood.

Hands, neck, shoulder, any exposed area was mercilessly targeted with extreme accuracy.

"Fuck. Who is shooting at us?

" Yahe shouted in alarm. They weren't even at the hospital yet and they were ambushed in advance!

He had no idea what was happening. Weren't they the ones who were supposed to have the element of surprise to their advantage?

They had even planned to use this advantage to force the other party to submit without needing to use any sort of violence and now… it looked like the tables had completely turned!

"Move! Move! That arrogant prick is somewhere here! Start shooting back NOW! Don't let him leave. SHOOT! SHOOT!

"

However, before the sound of the first gun blast could be heard, a woman's fiery voice sounded.

"Not so fast buddies!

"

Balls and balls of fire started flying in the darkness of the night created by the void of any street lamps or building lights and the absolute lack of electricity.

"Ahhh!

"

"Ahhhh!

"

"Ahhhhh!

"

The men started screaming and shouting and ran around haphazardly.

They did not know where the attacks were coming from and they were being attacked both from the back and from the front.

"Roan! Minzhe! What the hell are you waiting for? Get the ** out and start fighting!

" Yahe was completely flustered. In his panic, he reached into his bag and took out a grenade.

"These pricks don't deserve any mercy.

" He pulled the pin from the grenade and raised his hand to toss the grenade at the person shooting fireballs from the back.

Because of sending out fireballs, Alex's silhouette was more visible than Lu Chen's. Though she kept moving around, her movements were still somewhat traceable.

"Attacking your own troops? Die bitch.

" Yahe grunted and tossed the grenade, his eyes completely reddened with anger. Some of his men were also in the vicinity but he didn't care.

He knew about this person beforehand as he had seen her fight previously, but he didn't realize that she was this powerful.

Now he was more than sure that this woman had absorbed all the mana cores from the centipedes. Otherwise, how could she have become this so strong in such a short amount of time?

"Retreat north!

" Yahe shouted and tossed out the grenade.

All of their men were familiar with this particular command and they quickly moved away at the top of their speed, not caring about taking a couple of hits when doing so.

Yahe as well moved and continued to run away from the area of impact.

1… 2… 3… He counted the seconds waiting for the explosion. However, only the sound of the footsteps of his fellow men running away echoed all around.

There was no bang and there definitely wasn't an explosion.

"Why?

" Yahe gritted his teeth and turned around to confirm his suspicions.

And just as he was dreading, the grenade he threw had magically disappeared.

For the first time, Yahe felt fear for his life as he hadn't felt it in a long time.

He had no idea what to even do next. As he ran forward still continuing to look back, his body hit something, hard and sturdy.

Thud. His body bounced like a rubber ball and he fell onto the ground, landing on his back, but when he looked up, there was nothing in front of him.

"What? Just what the hell is happening?

"

He didn't even know if he was seeing things. There was a faint impression of a beast in his mind… from where did that come? Was there a beast around?

He rubbed his eyes and looked again, only to see that there was nothing in front of him.

Yahe shivered slightly.

His eyes darted here and there trying to comprehend what the hell was happening when he eventually noticed the small object gently placed in front of him.

FUCK!

It was the same grenade he had thrown!

"Minzhe!!! Help!

" Yahe shouted and everything happened in an instant. The grenade glowed bright and boom!

"Everything is over… ah...

" Yahe closed his eyes. However, another figure stood in front of him. This was the same person he had been calling over for a while now, Minzhe.

The short and chubby guy stood between him and the grenade and his entire body was profusely sweating from top to bottom.

His hands were stretched out and a small ball-sized black light shimmered at the place where the glowing grenade was previously located.

The explosion and bomb were now nowhere to be seen and only this black ball was visible.

And an incredible suction force emanated from this small black ball and everything started to get sucked in, with even Yahe's body being pulled forward.

"Hey! Hey! That's enough!!!

" Yahe once again started screaming.

The stupidity of his men was baffling. It looked like the idiots around him were only good at showing their abilities when everything went their way.

The minute they were up against something unknown, everyone behaved like bumbling buffoons.

"Regroup. Regroup!

" Yahe shouted, but how could the other party allow them to do so.

The icicles and the fireballs once again started raining down on them, making everyone wish they had never set out to do this mission.