Hans moved beneath the broken smoke of the street.
The Hellhammers continued their pounding, not stopping until he was close enough.
The old hardware store could no longer be seen as a building. Half of its roof had collapsed inward, while the rear section had split open. Dust poured from the exposed gap, mixing with the black smoke rising from the drainage line below.
The hive continued screaming underneath it all.
Not in pain alone, but also in anger.
Hans felt the sound push against his mind, scratching at the edges of his thoughts. They felt like pins biting into his skin.
And just as the sensation came, the System washed it away.
Hans did not slow down.
Around him, five DASF units moved in a loose diamond formation.
It was Callum together with Matilda and her group.
Their rifles stayed angled toward the side streets while their combat blades remained close enough to draw. Behind them, the Guardian APCs held the lane, autocannons chewing through any infected trying to break the approach.
Another shell landed farther behind the hardware store.
The street jumped in distress. The ground cracks widened by a fraction.
Thrashing around? Hans thought, reminding him of the previous hive extermination process.
These abominations liked to thrive around structural areas.
Aside from the higher probability shards landing near these places, perhaps it also liked to praise human architecture.
Matilda raised her hand, eyes glowing as she looked at him. "Commander, entrance ahead. Flesh movement detected inside."
"I can see it."
Hans’s eyes glowed as well. For some reason, his superhuman powers seemed to grow autonomously. Although it would need manual intervention occasionally, he did not have to work as hard as others in this field.
He wondered if the System was giving him a shortcut, then he realized he would have to train more units to surpass his current strength.
"These tendrils are unsightly," Hans remarked. "Get rid of them."
Black tendrils crawled along the broken concrete, trying to pull the cracked surface back over the opening. Every time they moved, sniper fire struck from above. Every time a sewer-type tried to climb out, the APCs tore it apart before it could fully unfold.
"Yes!"
Matilda grabbed her pistol, blasting the flesh into smithereens.
The hive was busy keeping itself alive. And for Hans, that was more than enough.
"Hellhammer One and Two, Golden Eagle nearing HVT. Halt your attack."
"Already did, Golden Eagle. You’re good to go."
Hans stopped at the edge of the exposed drainage wound and looked down. Far below, through dust, smoke, and writhing black flesh, the meteorite shard still glowed inside the hive’s center.
The Priority Target marker blinked over it.
Adrian had done his job. Now it was Hans’s turn.
"All units, be advised. Golden Eagle approaching the hive core. Prepare for extraction, over."
He closed the channel then looked over at the DASFs.
"Viper on me. Delta One, cover our approach."
Callum did not ask for more. He only drew his combat blade.
Matilda and her group raised their HCMARs and pointed them outward, retaining their loose diamond formation.
Hans stepped into the broken opening. The concrete edge crumbled under his boot. He slid down through dust and torn metal, one hand grazing the wall to control his descent.
The hive noticed him at once. Its scream changed.
It was no longer a wide cry thrown aroudn haphazardly. Instead, it focused its cry straight toward Hans.
Hans’s vision darkened only for a slight moment before his consciousness returned.
He smirked.
"Is that all?"
The flesh below answered.
Several tendrils lashed upward from the exposed drainage wound. Before they could reach him, gunfire tore through them from above.
Matilda’s team fired in short bursts, slicing the black limbs apart before they could fully rose.
Callum dropped after Hans and struck. His blade flashed once.
A tendril hidden from the side split lengthwise and slapped into the wall into two pieces.
Hans landed on the broken grated platform. The metal groaned under his weight.
The shard was directly beneath his feet, waiting for him to claim it.
After all this shelling, this shard is not yet destroyed?
He realized how unusually strong these shards were, as the same could be said from the previous shard whose hive controller also underwent the same artillery experience.
"I’ll be taking this."
The hive screamed in despair. It tried to swallow the shard whole but the shard glowed intensely in pink.
Its flesh sizzled as the shard reacted much to Hans’s surprise.
Is it rejecting the flesh? He wondered, but now was not the time to be curious.
He quickly vaulted over the half-broken rail, swung fiercely and bypassed the lurching tendrils, before grabbing hold of the half-stuck meteorite shard.
This one’s larger than others, he scanned the pulsing rock. Must be as large as that other one. Heh, let’s pull it out.
The thought had barely crossed his mind when the entire junction convulsed.
The flesh around the shard tightened, not to protect it anymore, but to drag Hans in with it.
Hans clicked his tongue. "What a greedy fellow."
Hans gripped the shard. The System’s container opened in his mind.
A powerful suction force came from his hand, pulling the shard away from the hive’s grasp.
The hive felt it, the flesh screaming once more.
Roots wrapped around Hans’s wrist, sizzling the moment they touched his skin.
------
[ Do you want to store this meteorite shard in the containment subspace? ]
------
You want me to get entangled with this thing? Store!
The shard vanished before the hive could put any resistance from the pull.
Hans grunted, using the sticky flesh as a platform. Strength gathered in his legs, and he kicked off before the hive could swallow his feet.
The hive’s flesh ruptured in response, bleeding on the two steps where he had stepped from just now.
By the time it tried to scream again, Hans and Callum were already gone. Angered, it screamed in desolation.
The tendrils rapidly grew, tearing the entire junction apart.
Hans landed near the broken opening, one hand catching the cracked concrete edge.
Callum appeared beside him a heartbeat later, blade already wet with black fluid.
"Out we go," Hans spoke before turning on his communicator. "All DASF units, return to your APCs. Package is secured. Good hunting."
Nobody asked what happened.
Matilda saw Hans return and immediately raised her hand.
"Delta One, withdrawing!"
The DASF formation folded backward at once. Rifles fired in short bursts while the Guardian APCs widened the lane, shredding anything that tried to rush the devastated street.
The two Guardian APCs swerved left and right, preparing for a U-turn.
The one in front drifted across the rough pavement, sticking its butt to where Hans and his group was.
Hans raised his communicator.
"Hellhammer One."
"Standing by, Golden Eagle."
"Resume fire. Bury it."
"With pleasure."
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