As Jun An had anticipated, the MANTISes possessed absolute confidence owing to their immense strength. The group was already celebrating with champagne prematurely, their guard almost non-existent.
Descending from an altitude of a thousand meters, Jun An plunged straight towards the enemy stronghold, making a direct assault. Pinpointing their base was, in fact, quite simple: head straight for the most intense Honkai energy signatures!
Shortly after landing and dispatching a few 'wild mobs' along the way, Jun An immediately encountered the enemy chief.
"Hi there! You must be Chief Snowdon, right?" Jun An greeted him with a less-than-friendly demeanor; an ordinary human posed virtually no threat.
"You—you're from Schicksal!"
Spotting the emblems representing the Apocalypse family and Schicksal on Jun An and Helia, Snowdon felt his heart plummet.
How did they arrive so quickly?
"Benefactors! You've finally come!"
Snowdon instantly fell to his knees, clutching at Jun An's pant leg. "The Lion Mercenary Group members are inside! They forced me into everything! They used my family as leverage; I had no choice but to comply against my will..."
Observing Snowdon's swift and decisive kneel, Jun An couldn't help but marvel inwardly at his sheer promptness, while simultaneously regretting not having copied Aponia's mind-reading ability before departing.
"Helia, what's your assessment?"
Since Jun An was uncertain, he opted to consult his companion.
Helia, who had primarily been a spectator to Jun An's whirlwind assault, snapped back to the present. "Snowdon initiated this war," she stated forthrightly. "The Lion Mercenary Group only surfaced within the past month. Therefore, he certainly cannot be blameless. Apprehending him first is undoubtedly the correct course of action!"
With that, Helia produced a pair of handcuffs from seemingly nowhere and secured Snowdon to a nearby door handle.
"Wait, I—I still have more to say..."
Realizing he couldn't break free from the 'silver bracelets', Snowdon attempted to struggle further, but the door was violently flung open. The sudden force yanked Snowdon aside via the handcuffs, nearly dislocating his shoulder.
"What's all the commotion out here?! What in the world is happening?"
"Who's being so loud?! Do you not know the price for disturbing my sleep!"
Kaldeste's massive form instantly overshadowed the two newcomers. Jun An roughly estimated his height at twice his own, easily exceeding three meters!
Accompanying him was a white woman, dressed in rather revealing attire.
Kaldeste saw the yelling Chief Snowdon, then surveyed the defeated subordinates sprawled before Jun An. Whether Stigmata Awakeners or armed soldiers, nearly all were incapacitated; some unfortunate souls even had their heads embedded in concrete walls.
Taking in the scene, Kaldeste frowned deeply. The boy before him didn't look capable of felling Stigmata Awakeners.
Meanwhile, Jun An noted Kaldeste's distinctive dragon horns and the tail trailing behind the woman, immediately recognizing them as his targets: the leader codenamed Lion, and the second-in-command codenamed Cannibal.
The woman's gaze met Jun An's, and an immediate flicker of intense heat sparked within her. Licking her lips, she sidled closer to Jun An.
"Little brother, interested in playing some fun games with your big sister?"
Jun An's youthful, almost shota-like appearance instantly ignited Anthony's sadistic tendencies. She reached out, aiming to grasp his slender neck. "Don't worry, big sister will be..."
Suddenly, she realized something was terribly wrong. Her hand was trapped fast in the boy's grip, utterly immobile!
"Apologies. I have no interest in you."
Thump!
Inch Strength: Heaven Sundering!
Seizing the initiative, Jun An delivered a powerful punch straight into her abdomen. The devastating impact caused Anthony's eyes to roll back as she violently coughed up a spray of blood.
"Kid! You're courting death!"
Kaldeste, whose initial assessment of Jun An's strength had been hesitant, instantly lashed out with a fist. Jun An swiftly raised his arm to block, but was still sent flying back over ten meters.
He couldn't help but shake his throbbing hand. "Hiss... damn hard."
This was precisely why Jun An disliked fighting unarmed; lacking even a basic tool to mitigate damage meant taking a direct hit genuinely hurt.
However, Jun An simultaneously ensnared Kaldeste's attacking arm with his shadow, immediately using it to hurl the massive MANTIS into the nearby wreckage, where he impacted heavily, carving out a deep crater.
"Captain, are you alright?"
Helia watched Jun An with worried eyes, but he simply waved dismissively. "I'm fine. The remaining Stigmata Awakeners are closing in. Remember, don't let a single one get away. This is the fight you requested."
Although Jun An's initial assault had eliminated five or six of the roughly dozen Stigmata Awakeners, nearly ten still remained active.
As for the second-in-command, Cannibal – she had been caught completely off guard, not even channeling Honkai energy, when struck by Jun An's punch, a blow potent enough to cave in the skull of a lesser Honkai Beast. Her internal organs were likely reduced to pulp; rousing her anytime soon seemed highly improbable.
"Yes, understood! I will not let you down!"
Helia raised her crossbow. "All Stigmata Awakeners! We are Knights and Valkyries of Schicksal! Surrender immediately, or Schicksal will resort to force!"
Predictably, with Helia standing alone, her command was ignored. Instead, the remaining mercenaries surrounded her.
Even though they were merely Stigmata Awakeners lacking formal training and utilizing nerfed versions of Artificial Stigmata, they still presented a considerable challenge for Helia.
Seeing Helia single-handedly holding off the group of Stigmata Awakeners, Jun An redirected his full focus towards the MANTIS fused with the Judgement-class Honkai Beast, Benares.
"Kid! Managing to injure me... you've got some skill!"
Kaldeste tore away the remnants of his upper clothing, revealing densely muscled flesh beneath. "Who are you? Why attack us?"
"Hyperion Captain, Schicksal Far East Branch."
Jun An retracted his shadows, his voice calm. "Because you violated the regulations. You misused the power of MANTISes to massacre civilians and murder innocents. Thus, I've come to enforce discipline."
"...On a side note, as you are mercenaries, you are not entitled to prisoner-of-war protections."
"It was just a few deaths, nothing more," Kaldeste scoffed dismissively. "Kid, you're a MANTIS too, aren't you? Though Schicksal loyalists disgust me... if you're willing to join us, how about I make you second-in-command? I'm offering you this chance purely because I recognize your strength!"
Kaldeste harbored ambitions of expansion and dominance; his primary deficiencies were manpower and funding.
With funds now relatively secure, manpower was the bottleneck – especially MANTISes like himself! With sufficient numbers, even recreating a force akin to the Thirteen Flame-Chasers was conceivable!
"Just a few deaths... nothing more?"
Jun An inhaled sharply, immediately drawing Xuanyuan Sword. His voice turned frigid. "Human life is not so cheap."
Following his words, he slashed towards Kaldeste, only for the strike to be deflected by the MANTIS's dragon-scale armor.
"Kid, why the anger? You don't seem the type to particularly care about human lives either."
Kaldeste blocked Jun An's blade with his draconic forearm, maintaining an air of indifference. Then, a look of sudden comprehension crossed his features.
"Ah, I see. You've been domesticated by those ordinary humans, haven't you."
With a powerful stomp, Kaldeste closed the dozen-meter distance almost instantaneously, launching a heavy punch towards Jun An.
The sheer force of the blow gouged a large crater in the ground upon impact. While Jun An's shadows managed to impede Kaldeste's movements somewhat, the crackling lightning enveloping the MANTIS quickly shredded them.
"Humans! Kill as many as you like; they'll just breed more!"
"Relative to our lifespans, they are merely ants, scurrying briefly before death!"
"Our power can crush them with contemptuous ease, just as we are doing now! Should even one ordinary human stray into our combat radius, they would be inadvertently obliterated!"
As he finished speaking, Kaldeste glanced towards a nearby mother and child. A cold smirk touched his lips as he flung a bolt of lightning in their direction.
"Tch!" Jun An clicked his tongue in irritation, swiftly deploying his shadow to intercept the attack. However, in that fleeting moment of distraction, Kaldeste's massive fist drove deep into Jun An's abdomen, sending him hurtling several meters through the air.
Kaldeste laughed icily. "Why do you even bother caring?"