Guild Wars

These fellows crashed into the ground rather loudly, causing cracks to appear on the asphalt of the road. They glared at Draco's group with cold looks, but one actually couldn't see their faces because they were wearing unified masks.

Meanwhile, Draco and his group were completely stunned, as the fellows before them were clad from head to toe in extremely high-tech, futuristic armor that looked a little too familiar.

"Fuck, did we piss off Tony Stark?!" Omega Raider blurted out in shock.

His words were apt, because this group resembled chrome-painted versions of the Mark 2 Iron Man armor, but much sleeker and more refined. For them, seeing this was shocking, even making them wonder if the government had somehow gotten a Void Pass and sneaked one member into the Superhero world ahead of time.

However, Draco's smile faded. He was a man of two timelines, and his biggest feat in reality was twofold: the public announcement that he owned a nuclear warhead backed by Nathan Rothschild, and the second was making the president of the Central Country kneel before him while he stomped on his head.

So it could be said that Draco possessed a sufficient level of power akin to a country on his own. He was privy to many details, which was why he was intimately knowledgeable of the World Council and its methods.

But he had never heard of this.

"I really was an ignorant clown," Draco chuckled with mockery toward himself.

They always said anger clouds judgment and hatred blocks common sense. As he had been deeply mired in both during the previous timeline, he had likely been toyed with by many factions who sneered at him in the dark but paid lip service on the surface.

If the Central Country could deploy these units, then these were not trump cards. Trump cards were final-resort kinds of things; these battle armors must be something they were either testing or had been in production for a while and were safe to use.

Yet, Draco could tell through reading the minds of those here that these suits were built to deal with Lineage members and Control masters! Each suit was akin to an all-round Lineage member with an inheritance bloodline of 5% purity and a Control master of Tier 1.

The suits were expensive to make, but once they had the design down, they could start working on the next version of this, which should be even more powerful. That was precisely why they were deployed here, to get combat data from them and see how to improve these suits.

The smart thing for Draco to do, knowing this, was to seal them in a pocket space while he bypassed them or to kill them so fast using an undetectable power system he possessed—like Mind Force—in order to give them nothing.

However… Heh, you already know.

"Alright, you guys take two each, only use Control and suppress yourself to Tier 2," Draco commanded casually as he folded his arms.

Shadowheart, who ascertained a similar judgment based on the facts, glanced at Draco and saw his playful smile. He then nodded to the others and took the lead, dashing forward like a blur and swinging his staff in a practiced manner to strike one of the battle armors.

Who said a mage cannot learn to use martial weaponry? When mana ran out—which was impossible for Shadowheart incidentally—one's staff was the next tool to use in battle. He had spent a significant amount of time learning to use it, as he wove his staff with surprising agility and accuracy, smashing one of the battle armors in the torso and sending it flying.

Shadowheart's expression cooled as he glanced at his staff, which was slightly dented, noting the battle armor that soon blasted out of the rubble using the thrusters on its back with not even a slight dent on its frame. The operator laughed audibly through their mic and pointed at Shadowheart.

"Prepare to die, you fucking vampire lord display!"

Blasting forward, he closed the distance between himself and Shadowheart in a split second and delivered a roundhouse kick. Shadowheart calmly turned to block with his staff spread out, moving to displace the force when his face changed slightly, since his foe suddenly activated a thruster behind his foot, causing his force to increase sharply.

SNAP!

The staff shattered in the middle, while Shadowheart dodged the enhanced kick by leaping backward. His eyes fell to his precious staff that had been broken. His eyes narrowed slightly as his breathing hitched, and he remained in this position for a while, as if deeply wrestling with something.

"Idiot, pay attention to your enemy!" The operator of the battle armor excitedly roared as he dashed forward to punch Shadowheart, but he was blocked by a fierce punch from AP_Berzerker.

The operator clutched their arms together to block and was forced back by a few meters, digging grooves into the ground. Smoke emerged from the place where the operator blocked, causing them to exclaim in shock, wondering how AP could do so much damage.

But this was normal; after all, Control was a multiplier on your 'base form.' Shadowheart was a mage build with no real boosts to physical strength, minus his rebuilt body, while AP was a monster of endless strength and regeneration. Shadowheart's VoP at Tier 2 was stronger than AP's, while AP's BoG at Tier 2 was naturally stronger than Shadowheart's.

"What do you think you're doing, roadside trash?! Do you know how long Misery and I have waited for this?! How dare you try and interrupt?!" AP roared with fury, looking like a child who almost had his Xbox seized away.

The operator was confused but noticed that his other colleagues were locked in battle and could not help. He alone had to deal with these two, but he was more than up for the challenge, not caring about Shadowheart anymore since he was still standing in place like an idiot.

AP cracked his knuckles and chuckled darkly. "Son, I'm going to fuck you up."

With that, both parties charged forward with a slight sonic boom, colliding in the center with a hefty punch on punch that made the ground quake. A shockwave of moderate power was released, spreading to the buildings on either side of the road and causing their windows to shatter on the spot.

AP was perfectly fine, while the operator naturally had to take more than a few steps backward, his feet digging into the ground with each step due to the force, while his AI system continually sent warning alerts. According to the damage report, his right fist was now in the yellow category after one hit, when it had previously been green!

Before the operator could think, AP charged forward again with a crazed grin and delivered a thunderous smashing punch. The operator wisely avoided this move, watching as the ground was smashed into a small crater by AP, leaving where he had formerly stood in ruin.

With sweat forming on his brow, the operator realized he couldn't afford to take a single hit from this brute. As such, he switched combat modes and stretched his hands out, opening two ports in the middle that glowed with an orange light.

"INCINERATION BLAST!" he roared as a wave of condensed fire was ejected from his hands, sweeping across the entire street.

Those who were fighting had to spread out, jumping onto other streets or into the top of nearby buildings. When they looked over, their eyebrows furrowed as the road had been turned into a huge gully that was smoking, the melted asphalt forming a pool in the center that stretched back, almost to the end of the entire block!

From the smoke, AP walked out slowly and with a swagger as his grin remained, his body unharmed but his clothes severely ruined. However, this only served to reveal his explosive muscles, which were like steel plates embedded in flesh.

Amidst the destruction, there was a small isle in which Shadowheart still stood, glancing at his broken staff as his face became gloomier and gloomier, unable to suppress his murderous intent and growing fury.

AP cricked his neck and stretched casually. "Look man, nice shot. I totally forgot that those suits could do amazing stuff like that, but you're never going to break my defense with that."

Suddenly, AP disappeared from where he stood like a blur, not even making a sound. The operator was startled and tried to retreat, but his arms were grabbed from behind and pulled roughly, causing him to be at AP's mercy.

AP leaned in and spoke with a low tone, his eyes flashing with a dark light. "I warned you not to interrupt Brother Shadowheart. We've never gotten to see him truly angry before, and this is our first chance to savor his crash-out. How dare you try and ruin it?"

Before the operator could make any moves, as he planned to release a combination of an incineration blast and his thrusters to escape, AP yanked with all his might—limited to the level Draco permitted—and tore off both arms from the socket.

The operator howled in agony as he fell down, his suit releasing countless warnings that he could not pay heed to at this time, as fountains of blood spurted from his shoulders. AP crouched near his body that was thrashing on the ground in agony, with a look of pity.

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"Hey, if this damned robot armor is connected to the bosses behind it, let me give you a piece of advice. Don't fucking focus on offense or defense; at least put some method of healing for the operators within, otherwise, if they are crippled like this, what can they do?"

AP stood up with a sigh and stomped down, crushing the helmet of the battle armor with ease as the building they were on cracked from top to bottom, crashing downward into rubble. AP coughed out dust as he walked out of the rubble with an embarrassed expression because he hadn't expected the building to be so weak.

The blood from the operator he killed began to rise and slowly float to the area where Hunter was fighting, causing AP to roll his eyes and rush toward Shadowheart's location, only to find that the fellow had disappeared. This made AP's face change, as he definitely did not want to miss the reaction. He unsealed himself and scanned for Shadowheart's position before bolting in that direction.

Meanwhile, Misery was also taking on an operator quite calmly. He was a mixed mage and warrior build, so his strength was not as explosive as AP's, and his magic was not as focused as Shadowheart's. He forwent his magic, closing his tome, and focused on using his fists to combat his enemy, as he would not use Gae Bolg for this minor fight.

He and his enemy dashed across rooftops, exchanging blows in rapid-fire sequences before separating and reconnecting continuously. Their movements were almost in sync, appearing far more formal than expected, resembling an actual coherent style rather than a raw display of strength and speed.

When they separated once more, the operator opposite him glanced at the greenish-yellow warning on the AI interface in his suit, showing that he had sustained 10% damage to various parts. He frowned. What made him even more unhappy was that he recognized the fighting style Misery was using.

"You! You bastard! You're an ex-serviceman! You're using the Military Boxing style from the Army!" he pointed with an accusatory tone.

Misery adopted the stance once more and charged forward wordlessly, not intending to exchange ideas with this guy. He was not the type to talk much while killing anyway, and he had no qualms using this style to beat down what would have been his comrades if he had not been discharged.

For Misery, ever since that moment, his heart had been dead as ash, and even with his new lifestyle, it was impossible for it to recover.