Chapter 550: Gamble
BANG!
The silver-haired man and the caravan vanished as Libran shot a bullet at it.
The bullet shot forward at insane speeds and left behind a streak of pure black that seemed to implode.
It was almost like the black streak consumed all the space around it.
As soon as the caravan vanished, everyone saw the Prison's true appearance.
A cluster of metallic prisons growing into a gaunt but humongous torso. Several long and powerful arms of steel extended out of the torso which ended in terrifyingly sharp blades.
The figure was almost 20 meters tall.
"Foolish humans," the Prison spoke as it avoided the shot.
At that moment, the Prison unleashed a terrifying cry, which seemingly shook the entire world.
Everyone who heard the cry felt their vision blurring and their minds spinning.
It was like they were being spun around rapidly while hanging upside down.
Luckily, the power of the cry weakened with distance, and the people inside the city weren't hit as hard.
However, the same thing wasn't true for the Heroes.
Surprisingly, only three of the four Barriers activated.
Aria's Barrier didn't seem to block the attack.
Yet, paradoxically, the three Heroes from Kugelblitz felt their minds spin while Aria felt almost nothing.
At that moment, the three Heroes from Kugelblitz noticed that their Zephyx was dropping rapidly.
Aria took note of that.
'An attack that only causes significant damage if your Barrier tries to block it?' she thought in shock.
Naturally, such an attack was anything but ordinary.
Barriers were supposed to protect against Specters.
But in this case, they effectively amplified a Specter's power.
And these Barriers were not cheap!
The Barriers the three Heroes from Kugelblitz used cost over a billion credits each!
They were the best Barriers available inside the city!
Of course, as a Governor, Aria had access to Barriers made by Aegis, which were far better than any Barrier that could be manufactured inside Crimson City.
Her Barrier had noticed the nature of the attack and actively avoided blocking it.
Because of that, Aria only felt minorly disoriented while the three other Heroes clutched their heads in pain.
An instant later, Aria looked at the Prison and swung her flat sword forward.
SHING!
A concentrated beam of light shot forward and hit the neck of the gaunt figure, burning a hole through it.
The loud cry stopped, but the Prison seemed barely injured.
Sure, a big hole had been seared through its neck, but this was a Specter, not a human.
Killing a Specter was very difficult.
The Heroes from Kugelblitz recovered in an instant and launched their own attacks.
Libran started to fire several bullets aimed at the gaunt figure.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Big dents appeared all over the figure, slowly distorting its shape.
BOOOOOOM!
Vanessa released one gigantic bullet, punching an enormous hole through the gaunt figure's chest.
Finally, Jornis charged forward.
His club grew to a gigantic size, and he-
BANG!
Jornis' Barrier activated as several metallic spears shot at him from one of the cells on the Prison's body.
The human who was inside the cell screamed in pain and fell to the ground.
Nobody knew if he was unconscious or dead.
Jornis was pushed back and lost a lot of his Zephyx, and the other Heroes realized what had just happened.
'The Prison can use the Zephyx and the abilities of its prisoners,' Aria thought.
Around 25 people were imprisoned in different cells.
The weakest was an Initial Veteran, while the strongest was actually a Hero.
The person who had just lost consciousness was a Late Specialist.
Suddenly, three more people screamed, but compared to the person just now, they actually turned into black dust.
The next moment, several attacks were launched from the Prison at the three Heroes.
These humans had not been as powerful as the Late Specialist.
However, by converting their entire being into Zephyx, their attacks had still reached tremendous power, and the Heroes needed to be careful.
The three Heroes from Kugelblitz had to deal with the attacks, and the Prison opened its mouth again.
SHING!
But then, a thin beam of light went past the Prison.
CRK!
The gaunt figure fell from the amalgamation of prisons below it as the two thin parts of its torso beside the bullet hole were cut in two by Aria's laser.
Aria seemed much more exhausted than before.
'If Vanessa hadn't already made that gigantic hole there, I wouldn't have been able to bisect it,' she thought.
The other Heroes finished dealing with their attacks and looked at the two parts of the Prison.
They all knew that the Prison wasn't dead yet.
However, they needed to know which part of its body its core was in.
The next moment, Libran pulled out his guns again and shot several bullets at the severed torso.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The shots showed much more effect on this part, which meant that the Prison's core most likely wasn't in there.
"AAAHH!"
Over ten people screamed inside the cells before turning into dust.
The next instant, a cacophony of attacks shot at Aria.
The Prison was prioritizing Aria!
Suddenly, Jornis' gigantic club appeared in front of her.
BOOOOM!
Jornis' club was destroyed, and its front half shot into the horizon.
However, several of the attacks were blocked, and Aria could deal with the remaining ones.
At that moment, Aria felt a signal coming from the back of her Barrier, and she turned around.
She saw the severed torso of the Prison reaching for her with its long blade fingers.
SHING!
Aria was surrounded by a beam of light before the blades passed through it.
Luckily, they didn't hit her.
BOOOOM!
Suddenly, a gigantic fist hit the severed torso, throwing it into the distance.
Yet, the torso stopped in the air and turned towards the Heroes again.
At the same time, more Zephyx was being gathered by the individual cells.
'Does it have a split core?' Aria thought, looking at both halves. 'That makes things troublesome.'
BANGBANGBANGBANG!
A cacophony of gunshots rang out from the direction of Crimson City, and the upper half of the Prison was being pelted with bullets.
Everyone looked over and saw ten Specialist guards and five Specialists from Kugelblitz shooting at the torso.
Their attacks were not as powerful as the attacks of the Heroes, but the sheer number of them still dealt tremendous damage to the torso.
The Heroes immediately split up.
Jornis charged towards the torso, while the other three charged towards the cells.
The offensive powers of around 15 Specialists were not any weaker than theirs, but the Specialists couldn't defend themselves as easily, which was why Jornis would defend them.
Several more prisoners turned into dust, and the three Heroes had to defend themselves.
"I'm out!" Vanessa shouted after defending from the last attack aimed at her before retreating.
As a sniper, Vanessa used almost 50% of her Zephyx in one shot, which meant that she had essentially started the battle with half of her maximum Zephyx due to her shot.
She would need to recover, which would take a couple of seconds.
However, a couple of seconds was a long time in such a high-skill battle.
Libran and Aria got through the avalanche, but they were also running low on Zephyx.
The number of attacks unleashed by the Prison went far beyond what a Late Demon should be able to put out.
That was because it was using the Zephyx of its prisoners.
More prisoners turned into dust, but at that moment, Aria felt a signal coming from her Barrier.
Aria narrowed her eyes.
WHOOOOM!
The next moment, she bathed the entire world in light.
BANG! BANG!
Explosions occurred in the world of light, and Aria shot out, crashing in front of Crimson City.
Her Zephyx was dangerously low.
Libran was still in his earlier position, but his Zephyx was also extremely low.
However, the Prison was also out of prisoners...
Nearly...
There was one last prisoner left.
The Hero.
It was an Early Hero.
A man with dark green hair and razor-sharp eyebrows.
The Prison hadn't touched this prisoner yet, but that prisoner was obviously its biggest weapon.
Libran gritted his teeth when he saw that.
This was not how he had expected this battle to go!
"Foolish humans," the torso spoke as its blade fingers threw Jornis into the distance.
Vanessa and Libran seemed to despair.
However, Aria only narrowed her eyes.
She had gone all-in with her gamble.
She only hoped that it had paid off.
The first signal her Barrier had sent her had been sent from another Barrier from Aegis.
Additionally, the Specialists had all attacked simultaneously and the same target, which meant that somebody had been giving them orders.
Lastly, the second signal had also been sent by another Barrier.
It was Nick.
The second signal only meant one thing.
Distract the enemy.
Aria hadn't seen Nick anywhere near the battlefield, but that didn't mean that he wasn't there.
Aria didn't know what ability Nick had, but she knew that Nick was extremely good at staying hidden.
Nevertheless, she still wasn't sure what Nick could be able to accomplish against such a terrifying foe.
She just hoped that her gamble would pay off.