"Holy shit, my arm was broken—it's healed already?"

"My kidneys just got shredded by fangs. Thought my sex life was done for, but not anymore! Hahaha!"

The Middle Gate had become an energy hub, soldiers lining up to get patched up by Axel and rushing back out with bloodthirst in their eyes.

"Are medical Awakened always this insane? With him, it's like we've got an undead army."

Justin, covered in gore, hacked down a mutant beside Lloyd. He stole a glance at his comrade and felt a rush of awe. Lloyd was fighting harder than ever, stronger even than in his prime.

"Not always," Lloyd said. "This Axel… he's the most terrifying healer I've ever seen."

Justin blinked. "Wait—didn't you say he's only Level Four?"

"I said terrifying, not strongest. No ordinary Level Four could heal like this. Since the fight started, he's patched up at least twenty Awakened and over a hundred soldiers. His Force… it feels fucking endless."

Justin's heart thudded with exhilaration. "Then we can't lose.."

Of course, Axel couldn't save those with destroyed hearts, pulped brains, or injuries that left nothing to work with. But anything short of outright fatal, he could haul back to life and throw straight into the meat grinder again.

With firepower intensifying and mutant corpses piling high, the enemy's advance finally slowed. The beasts began to hesitate.

It wasn't fear. Kaia's eyes narrowed, her mind stretching outward like a net. "No… they're waiting for something."

Her psychic senses couldn't translate their exact thoughts, but the emotion she picked up wasn't retreat—it was excitement.

"Front lines, fall back!" Lloyd barked. He'd given up doubting Axel and Kaia long ago. The warriors retreated in tight order toward the gate.

The next instant, the ground heaved.

A deafening crack split the battlefield as the snowdrifts and mountains of corpses ruptured. Hulking shapes, each over five meters long, dragged themselves up from underground. Their bodies were plated with spikes, their skulls encased in thick, khaki-colored bone armor.

Lloyd's face drained of color. "Heavily Armored Pangolins!"

The monsters let out a guttural screech and thundered forward, the earth trembling under their charge.

"Clear the gate! Weapons up! Get those energy cannons in position!" Lloyd roared.

If it had been any other Level 4 mutant beast, Lloyd would have teamed up with Axel and Kaia to take them down. But these heavily armored pangolins were the engineering tanks of the mutant horde. Their plated bodies were as hard as steel, their mass terrifying, and even artillery shells fired from a distance couldn't stop them.

Military textbooks recounted countless fortifications breached by these creatures in the early years. Without an Awakened of exceptional power, even a low-tier Level 5 would struggle to destroy them in short order. And even if they did manage it, the precious fortifications painstakingly built would be reduced to rubble.

"Get out of the way! Move those cannons!" Lloyd bellowed, fully aware that the city gate was doomed to collapse if he didn't act. He had to reposition the energy cannons, only one of pangolins was facing the gate, while the others covered the artillery bank. If those were destroyed, their firepower advantage would vanish—and even Axel's miraculous healing couldn't save them from a full-on mutant horde.

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"Axel… what do we do?" Kaia's face paled. Her psychic attacks lost effectiveness the farther she was from the charging beasts. By the time they reached a hundred meters, even her strongest strikes would barely slow them.

"You two, get out of the way. I'll handle this," Axel said, rising calmly.

Lloyd was still shouting orders to move the cannons when he spotted a lone figure stepping directly into the path of three massive pangolins.

"Axel, what the hell are you doing? You're a doctor!"

Lloyd knew that medics were often the least effective Awakened on a battlefield, only slightly better than support types.

He gripped his Red Flame Blade in tension. Axel inhaled deeply, condensing his Force into the blade while channeling the power of Burning Flame. The last time he had unleashed this combination, he'd wiped out Easton, a top-grade Level 4 Awakened, with a single strike.

Now, after soaking in the Dragon Pond, Axel's compressed Force had skyrocketed to over 600 points, fused with the scorching might of a fire spirit. He was ready to unleash its full fury.

"Axel!" Kaia's voice cracked with anxiety. She knew his power surpassed hers, but seeing him step into the fray was terrifying.

The three heavily armored pangolins charged like freight trains, tossing snow, debris, and the corpses of lesser mutants into the air. Axel shifted his stance repeatedly, making sure his strike would hit all three at once.

Two kilometers… one kilometer… five hundred meters… three hundred… two hundred!

Finally, Axel unleashed the strike he had focused on for over ten seconds.

A blinding flash streaked from the blade, fiery orange-yellow and scorching with raw energy. The attack consumed nearly two-thirds of his Force.

The blade met the pangolins head-on. The beasts kept moving briefly, but the lead one faltered—split clean in two.

Boom!

The two front pangolins collapsed in a shower of sparks and snow. The last one's head shattered under the residual force of the strike.

"Fuuuck…" Axel exhaled, finally allowing himself a breath. Silence fell over the battlefield.

Nearby, Zane's lips twitched. "Holy crap! Du bist der Hammer!"

Axel activated his primordial meridians, quickly absorbing the Level 3 Mutant Beast Crystal he had grabbed, preparing for the next wave.

"What do you mean?" Axel asked, looking at him.

"I learned some Stormhold (a language) while waiting around," Zane said, snapping out of a daze. "It means… awesome." Last October, Axel had been wracking his brain against Maxen, a Level 4 Awakener. Now? Maxen would be no challenge at all.

The distant herd of mutants hesitated at the sight of the three fallen pangolins, then finally retreated like a tide.

Lloyd could only gasp. "Is this… a fucking doctor?"

Ten minutes later, Axel had cleared the battlefield. Most of the mutants here were Level 2 or below, and with his current strength now at Level 4, ordinary Level 2 mutants—except for a few stronger ones—were no longer capable of producing Life Crystals.

He used most of the crystals he'd scavenged to replenish his own Force, effectively healing every soldier on the field. The rest he handed over to Annabelle as backup rations.

"Axel, the captain and his men are holding the line over there. Let's meet up at the East Gate."

"Got it."

Without any Level 5 mutants present, Rosaline and Vince should be fine on their own.

"Mr. Axel."

Axel and Kaia, with Annabelle in tow, were about to leave when Lloyd called out. Hundreds of Ministry of Defense soldiers were standing at attention nearby.

"Thank you!" the smallest of them—about Axel's size—called out. Axel smiled and waved, and the three of them departed through the middle gate.

"Huh? Axel didn't say hi to me! Our relationship's fading!" Zane muttered dejectedly.

......

The East Gate battlefield was far worse than the Middle Gate. The ground, churned and torn over kilometers, was a chaotic mess, yet there were fewer mutant corpses.

When Axel arrived, Vince and the others were already waiting.

"Captain, I've secured this area as well," Kaia began reporting, but their conversation was interrupted by a loud argument near the gate.

"Geoffrey, Our deputy captain was supposed to guard the East Gate, and you don't even know where he is?" The voice belonged to a middle-aged woman with an ordinary appearance, her tone sharp. The three men in Survey Corps uniforms flanking her frowned at the men opposite.

"I told you, there's a Level 5 mutant at the East Gate. I went after it. Your deputy captain stayed behind and now he's missing. I haven't even accused him of desertion, and you're blaming me?!"

The middle-aged man, scruffy, injured, and wearing a Ministry of Defense uniform, released a surge of Force in frustration.

"Level 5 Awakener!"

"Captain, what's going on?" Kaia asked, leaning closer.

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