Wu Youran shot Shao Jingxin a sharp glare.

"Leave," she said coldly. "Go back to your faction leader and report all your failures. I’ll handle this."

She stormed past him, her grey mist expanding as she threw herself into the fight with Shao Xinyuan. But Xinyuan had already injured and knocked out two of the SS-rank Espers.

The remaining two were barely holding their ground still meeting him head-on.

One of them was the wind user, Min. She was focused on manipulating the air around Xinyuan, compressing the air into thousands of microscopic needles and sharp spears.

Xinyuan moved through them with unnatural speed.

Some missed. Some didn’t, slicing across the side of his cheeks and arms. But the wounds sealed almost instantly, his skin knitting back together like his body refused to remain damaged.

Min’s breathing turned uneven. "Damn it."

Her eyes darted toward her partner. "Yuan, hold him!"

Yuan frowned, instantly pushing back to create distance from Xinyuan.

Then crackling lightning exploded and arced around his entire body. His eyes bleached into a pure, blinding white, his black pupils completely vanishing as he channeled with full focus.

With a roar, Yuan blasted a massive, concentrated rush of lightning and electricity straight at Xinyuan, the force sending the Disaster-Class Esper crashing deep into the rubble of the leveled building.

Dust swallowed everything.

"Hey! Hey, wake up!" Yuan hurried toward one of the unconscious Espers, trying to shake him awake while Min straightened her spine, drawing in a ragged breath as she stared at the thick dust.

She solidified the air around the rubble into massive, jagged spikes and spears, driving them down into the wreckage again and again and again, hoping to impale Xinyuan while he was pinned.

Wu Youran stepped beside her, casually rubbing her neck. Her eyes scanned the wreckage. "Didn’t you say Lin Wenzhi was with him?"

Min frowned. "He was. He must’ve teleported him away."

Her expression darkened. "I can’t believe Jingxin was sloppy enough to lure them here."

"Yuan, hunt down the Guide," Wu Youran ordered sharply, turning her gaze toward the lightning user Esper.

Yuan was still trying to shake his fallen allies’ conscious, but at Youran’s command, he rose to his feet, drawing in a deep, murderous breath. "I am going to kill that bastard. But first, I am going to find out exactly what makes him tick, and drain every single drop of his guiding energy."

Yuan took a single step forward, but his foot never hit the ground.

A lash of dark mist shot out from the rubble like a viper. It wrapped securely around Yuan’s neck, and with a sickening snap, his head ripped clean off.

"NO!" Min screamed in sheer horror.

Before she could even track the movement, Yuan’s limp body dropped heavily onto the concrete and his severed head was tossed carelessly aside, rolling into the dirt.

"Yuan!" Min collapsed over his body, sobbing hysterically.

Wu Youran’s eyes narrowed into sharp slits as the dust fully settled.

Xinyuan walked out from the wreckage. He was covered in dust, and a dark smear of blood stained his shirt, proving the lightning strike had actually hurt him.

But he didn’t look weakened. Both of his eyes had bled into a deep crimson, and his chest heaved heavily.

His gaze locked directly onto the weeping Min.

Without lifting a finger, she was lifted clean off the ground, her arms and legs snapping to the side as the invisible pressure began to twist her bones.

"Shall we have a chat, Wu Youran?" Xinyuan asked, completely unbothered by her agonizing screams. He used the back of his hand to casually wipe away the blood staining his lips, his crimson eyes shifting to lock onto the commander. "You did threaten me and my Guide, after all."

"Why would I chat with you?" Wu Youran raised her hands, her grey mist swirling defensively around her frame. "My orders are to take you back alive, which means beating you into submission is strictly compulsory."

She stormed at Xinyuan.

The Disaster-Class Espers clashed head-on, both their mists swelling around them heavily. The collision was hard enough to crack the concrete floor beneath their feet, immediately turning into a full-blown battle.

The shockwave pushed Min entirely away; she landed hard on her back and let out a sharp cough before frantically pushing herself into an upright position.

Breathing hard, she watched as Xinyuan and Youran fought, their destructive exchange pushing further and further away toward the main city.

In no time, distant explosions, crashes, and emergency sirens began sounding across the city.

Min immediately rose to her feet and rushed over to the Espers who were still unconscious and also blasted further down the lot by the shockwaves.

Once she checked their pulses and confirmed they were still alive, she pressed against the earpiece hooked around her ear.

"Shao Xinyuan and Lin Wenzhi are exposed. We need immediate backup." Her eyes lifted to the sky. "I’m going after Lin Wenzhi."

She rose to her feet, the wind pressure around her boots pushing her cleanly off the floor as she flew easily into the midnight sky.

~

Meanwhile, tucked deep into a dark alleyway a few blocks away from the shattered club, Wenzhi stood quietly over an unconscious Shao Jingxin.

Jingxin hadn’t made it far. Wenzhi had intercepted his escape route and shot him cleanly with one of the high-grade knockout tranquilizer guns he had covertly swiped from Doctor Ruixin’s laboratory during his very first visit.

Wenzhi squatted over Jingxin’s unconscious form, pressing the heavy barrel of his gun directly against his forehead. Keeping the gun steady with one hand, he pulled out his phone from his pocket to dial Jiang Zhaohe.

Before his fingers could touch the screen, the device vibrated violently in his palm.

Zhaohe was already calling him.

Wenzhi swiped to accept the call immediately, putting it on speaker.

"What on earth is going on, Wenzhi?" Zhaohe’s sharp voice barked through the speaker. "I just got an emergency alert from our monitoring grid. Xinyuan and Wu Youran are at the verge of leveling the main city right now!"

"There was a mole." Wenzhi sighed, his eyes fixed on the target beneath his boot. "I need backup."