"It's poison."
Nathan calmly stated. By observing the rigid expressions and suffocating states of the gang members, it could be preliminarily determined that the substance had both paralyzing and suffocating effects.
"Chemical weapon?"
The task force members looked at the fallen gang members. Some were clutching their throats, foaming at the mouth, while others had abnormally rigid expressions, their eyeballs unmoving, as if their entire bodies had been frozen.
"However, the neuro-mechanical helmets also have anti-toxin functions, so there's no need to worry too much."
Norry said. Their Ranger Neuro-Mechanical Helmets were designed to operate in various harsh environments, and chemical weapons were naturally within their scope.
"Swish!"
Just as Aimed was observing, a whooshing sound attacked.
"You're the one, the leader of those guys."
A small figure, emanating a faint purple glow, broke through the heavy toxic mist, instantly rushing to his side. It leaped horizontally, spinning 1260 degrees in mid-air, and fiercely kicked the back of Aimed's head.
"Boom!"
A resounding impact. The moment the instep touched the exoskeleton armor, a powerful force erupted. The immense force caused air ripples that even dispersed the surrounding mist. Just by seeing it, one could feel the strength of that kick.
"Very good…"
But despite taking such a heavy blow, Aimed only moved his foot forward half a step, his body completely unaffected.
"I didn't realize such a slender body contained enough power to repel me."
Aimed's deep, low voice, tinged with a metallic resonance, emanated from within the triangular helmet. Aimed, fully armored, shook his head left and right, slightly stretching. The three-meter-tall, pitch-black armor slowly turned to face the small figure that attacked him.
The person was short, about one and a half meters tall, with the appearance of a young boy. He wore a green newsboy cap, green overalls, and a green T-shirt. His name was Haido. Although he looked like a boy, his true age was twenty-three.
The two figures stood face to face, the visual disparity immense, like an infant and an adult.
"Even in the gang, there are talents."
As Aimed spoke, his palm flattened downwards, reaching for the top of Haido's head.
"My ability, it's not working!?"
Haido's pupils contracted. Before Aimed could grab him, he tapped his toes on the ground and retreated seven steps, creating distance from Aimed.
"That layer of purple outer glow on you, it's poison, isn't it?"
Aimed retracted his hand. He could see the faint purple glow on the opponent, but the Ranger Neuro-Mechanical Helmet couldn't detect anything unusual about him. Aimed scanned the battlefield. The entire area was enveloped in purple toxic mist, completely surrounding it.
"The same ability, it can be released as a toxic mist for area-of-effect attacks…"
"And also cling to one's body surface, as a close-combat attack method."
Haido's expression changed dramatically. This person instantly analyzed most of his ability, just like a seasoned veteran of countless battles.
"However, our equipment has anti-toxin functions, so half of your ability is useless."
"Heh heh, really?"
Haido, hearing this, curled the corner of his mouth and said,
"I admit, my poison is ineffective against you, but that's only because you're hiding in an iron can."
"But your companions don't have that ability."
"Sir… this poison isn't just from breathing, even skin contact… will cause poisoning."
As Haido's words fell, Aimed heard the intermittent reports from his task force members in his ear. He didn't turn his head. The helmet's display immediately showed the situation of the other team members.
At this moment, among the remaining seven team members, some were kneeling on one knee, some were barely standing with one hand on a wall, but all were panting heavily. Although they showed no signs of suffocating, they were clearly poisoned.
Aimed's eyes narrowed. The display zoomed in. He saw large purple blotches covering the team members' necks, a clear external manifestation of poisoning.
"Activate Gyo, form a protective shroud on your body surface, and isolate all the poison."
Nathan's voice rang in the comms. The other team members immediately activated Gyo upon hearing this. A translucent aura surged from their aura nodes, forming a sparkling aura shroud on their body surface.
"Huu~ much better."
Norry exhaled deeply. After activating Gyo, he immediately felt much better, no longer so numb and weak.
"Don't be careless; there's more than one Nen user on the other side."
Nathan reminded them. The other team members also regained their spirits. The aura shroud blocked the possibility of skin contact with the toxic mist, but the poison they had already taken wouldn't disappear.
Moreover, everyone had seen that green orb of light that descended from the sky earlier. Plus, the information they received before coming here indicated that there was also a Nen user among these people who could manipulate his own blood.
Counting it up, the opposing side had at least three Nen users who had already developed their abilities. As for their own side, they were still rookies in Nen training and hadn't yet developed their own Nen abilities.
Of course, this was also related to headquarters' strategy. Headquarters scientists had been researching how to homogenize Nen abilities to facilitate management.
Therefore, training at the soldier training base had consistently slowed down their Nen ability development, only allowing them to practice the four basic principles of Nen.
However, humans were the most complex creatures in the world. It was almost impossible to homogenize everyone's inner thoughts. Illumi also had an idea: if Nen abilities couldn't be homogenized,
then each person's ability could only be recorded and stored in the base's archives. The diversity of abilities resulted in a direct increase in management difficulty. Ultimately, it might evolve into a loose organization like the Hunter Association.
"Don't be so naive. My ability isn't that easily broken."
Haido saw the task force members protecting themselves with aura, and grinned.
"However, you're right."
"There is indeed more than just me as a Nen user here."
"Confinement!"
As Haido's words fell, a semicircular green barrier immediately rose around the battlefield, completely encircling the entire area.
"What is this?"
The team members looked at the green barrier surrounding them, raised their assault rifles, and fired, but the bullets passed through the barrier without any obstruction.
"Let me try."
A team member approached the edge and reached out to touch it. The barrier blocked their path like a wall. The team member pondered for a moment, picked up a stone from the ground, and threw it out. The moment the stone touched the barrier, the team member simultaneously touched the barrier with his hand.
"Smack!"
His palm slapped against the green barrier, but the stone flew out without any obstruction.
"I understand. This is a barrier specifically designed to isolate living beings."
Nathan and Norry also stepped forward, touching the green barrier, their voices calm.
"This is a bit troublesome now. It means the enemy likely just wants to trap us. Once their reinforcements arrive, we'll be like fish in a barrel."
"But from your tone, it seems you don't find this trouble concerning."
Norry asked. Although Nathan said it was troublesome, his tone was very calm.
"That depends on the instructor. Can you try to detect the instructor's presence with infrared thermal imaging?"
Nathan's mouth, beneath his helmet, curled upwards. Norry, hearing this, activated the infrared thermal imaging detection function of his Ranger Neuro-Mechanical Helmet and looked at Aimed in the center of the battlefield.
"This… the infrared thermal imaging can't even detect the instructor's presence."
"According to my speculation, it should be the effect of that Nen ability exoskeleton armor. As expected of a seasoned veteran of countless battles, the ability he developed considered all possibilities."
Nathan explained. He had detected the instructor from the beginning. That armor completely blocked infrared light sources.
"Well, your comrades have already understood the situation."
"Are you still going to fight us?"
Haido glanced out of the corner of his eye at the people standing in front of the barrier. He also heard the analysis of the team member who was testing the barrier from the screen. He looked at Aimed and said,
"You've killed so many of us for the sake of an ordinary person. Shouldn't your anger have subsided by now?"
"Our leader truly wanted to meet King Bradley and didn't want to cause irreparable damage."
Aimed's exoskeleton armor's eyes flashed red. A black Damascus blade materialized in his hand.
"Alright, hand over the guy who killed my four trainees."
Haido's eyes narrowed slightly, and his expression gradually grew impatient as he said,
"Don't be too excessive. Compared to two hundred people, we've already been very lenient for four people."
Aimed stopped talking. The Damascus blade in his hand danced, and he slowly stepped towards Haido.
"Even if you fight me, what good will it do? You can't get out of this barrier at all."
Unfortunately, Aimed was unmoved, still slowly walking towards him with the Damascus blade. Haido's cheek twitched slightly, feeling immense pressure. Aimed's exoskeleton armor was simply too troublesome. Poison had no effect on him, and physical force couldn't threaten him.
"Hmph, you'll just stay in here until you die without a burial place."
Haido sneered, then slowly retreated, moving towards the edge of the barrier. An oval-shaped opening appeared on the green barrier, and Haido disappeared within it.
"How was it? No agreement?"
The horse-faced man and the stout man watched Haido emerge from the barrier and asked.
"Those people have no intention of negotiating with us. They just want to kill us all," Haido replied.
"Then there's nothing we can do. We'll just have to eliminate them all," the horse-faced man said with a tone of regret, but a bloodthirsty, ferocious expression on his face.
"I will continuously release poison. If they stay in the poison for more than ten minutes, the gas will gradually penetrate their aura and affect their bodies."
"Once they are all paralyzed by muscle weakness and unable to move, won't they be at our mercy?"
Haido smiled contemptuously. 'Your strength is greater than mine, your equipment is better, but so what? Nen abilities are not that simple.'
"Swish!"
Just as a contemptuous smile appeared on Haido's face, a peculiar whooshing sound came.
"Puff!"
A black flash passed in an instant. Haido's body shuddered, and a charred hole appeared between his eyebrows. A wisp of green smoke still rose from the hole, as if the contents of his head had been ignited and scorched by some high temperature in an instant.
"Haido!"
The horse-faced man and the stout man exclaimed simultaneously. Just as they were about to step forward, their scalps suddenly tingled, as if something extremely dangerous was above them. Both immediately looked up and saw a flash of white light high overhead. The multipurpose integrated miniature Sparrow missile, carried by the Peregrine drone, had already launched.
"Whoosh!"
A whooshing sound came as the missile aimed at the two men on the ground, traversing a hundred meters in an instant.
"BOOM!"
In the terrified expressions of the horse-faced man and the stout man, the missile hit the ground and exploded with a roar. For a moment, the entire castle vibrated intensely.
At the foot of the mountain, Trent looked back towards the mountaintop again. Seeing the blazing inferno there, he couldn't help but feel a little worried.
"That's an explosion caused by a miniature Sparrow missile."
The two task force members also looked up at the mountaintop. There had been two consecutive explosions before, and now this was the third. It seemed the battle up there was quite intense. However, no matter how tenacious the resistance, it would be no match for military power of this caliber.
"I bet by the time we get back, all the enemies will be dead."
"Exactly."
The two team members joked and laughed, dispelling Trent's worries. They immediately boarded the waiting convoy and left the area. The two team members who had escorted Trent then returned to the mountaintop for support.
Meanwhile, at the castle on the mountaintop, the green barrier that had surrounded the battlefield shattered with a "crash," like a mirror, transforming into light smoke and dissipating into the air.
"Whoosh~"
A strong gust of wind blew, dispersing the large amount of gunpowder smoke on the battlefield, revealing the scene.
"Ah~!!"
"My leg~!"
On the battlefield, a dozen or so gang members who had survived the missile explosion were wailing and screaming. Some had broken legs, others broken arms.
Still others had large holes ripped open in their stomachs, faintly revealing their writhing intestines. Whether their luck was good or bad to have survived a missile explosion was debatable.
As for Aimed and the others, they had found concealed positions long before the missile explosion, avoiding a large amount of splashing shrapnel and debris.
"Sir, all three Nen users have been confirmed dead."
A team member crouched in the missile crater. At such close range, the horse-faced man, the stout man, and the short man were all blown to pieces by the missile. Aimed nodded. This was to be expected. In a missile attack at such a range, no one could survive, even if these three were Nen users.
"Instructor, to complete the mission, we still need to kill nine more people."
Nathan came to Aimed's side. The display in their Ranger Neuro-Mechanical Helmets showed a 3D model of the castle, with nine red dots representing humans concentrated in the castle hall. Even with such a massive commotion outside, the people inside remained unresponsive.
"Let's go. We'll kill the real targets."
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