Chapter 155 Pay with Your Life

As the second-in-command of the Legion, Hanning’s strength was beyond question. The ease with which he had defeated Replacement and held his own in battle against Blazing Flame was a clear testament to his formidable might.

Yet, facing three anomaly walkers from a major faction like Third City simultaneously, it was impossible for Hanning to take it lightly. A momentary lapse in focus could very well result in him perishing right here.

Caught in a pincer movement by Qi Chen and the others, Hanning decisively abandoned his original plan. He no longer intended to carry out the Legion's prior directive of kidnapping Li Taixing; his singular focus now was how to make a safe escape.

As long as the green mountains remain, there is no need to worry about firewood. As an organization that had lurked in the shadows and quietly built up its strength for years, everyone in the Legion understood this truth well.

Swish!

A biting chill instantly erupted from Hanning’s anomaly. A thin layer of frost abruptly formed on the ground around him, and having activated his anomaly possession, Hanning fled toward the side at top speed without a word.

The moment he moved, Qi Chen and the others—who had been maintaining a constant state of combat readiness—sprang into action as well!

The Nice Guy repeated his previous trick, altering the ground to become remarkably elastic. Launching into the air alongside Qi Chen, they closed the distance to Hanning rapidly through a series of long-range leaps!

Blazing Flame was slightly slower in travel speed, but he gritted his teeth and closely trailed behind the others.

"Just chasing him isn't a solution; we have to cut him off!" Qi Chen realized that relying solely on pursuit would make it difficult to stop Hanning, and he quickly called out to the Nice Guy.

The Overlord possessed no long-range attack methods; achieving ranged strikes was only possible through throwing. However, constantly soaring through the air made it impossible for Qi Chen to let the Overlord do that.

The only thing they could rely on was the Nice Guy's enthusiasm!

"Got it!" the Nice Guy replied. His eyes locked onto Hanning, who was skating rapidly across the ground in the distance, and his Enthusiastic entity emitted a rapid series of striking sounds, firing air bullets one after another!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

A fierce gale came from behind, but Hanning did not even look back. Under the state of anomaly possession, he immediately generated a sturdy ice shield directly on his back.

The air bullets struck the ice shield, scattering a flurry of ice shards, but failed to pierce the barrier.

Though Hanning suffered continuous impacts from the barrage of air bullets, as long as the ice shield held, his speed would at most be slightly reduced.

Moreover, having rushed past the administrative district area and onto the city streets, he finally caught sight of something favorable to him.

Hanning lowered his body, accelerated his legs to sprint toward a fire hydrant by the roadside, and clenched his fist. A blue, ghostly phantom flickered over its surface as he delivered a vicious punch straight at the fire hydrant!

Bang!

With a loud crash, the fire hydrant was knocked crooked, spraying a massive plume of water. Hanning channeled his anomaly power, transforming the gushing water into frost.

The fire hydrant, which had been continuously releasing a torrential stream of water, instantly became an ice-crystal submachine gun in his hands!

Sharp ice crystals tore through the air with shrill whistles, rushing straight toward Qi Chen and the Nice Guy!

"Roar!"

The Overlord's towering figure abruptly materialized, crossing his arms in front of his chest to withstand the aggressive rain of ice crystals.

Yet, while the attack was blocked, his and the Nice Guy's pursuit was forced to a halt.

Seeing that his attack had succeeded, a flash of smugness crossed Hanning's eyes. He turned his head, intending to resume his skating maneuver and make a clean getaway.

However, the moment he turned around, he found a familiar figure standing in his path ahead—Blazing Flame.

"Where do you think you're running?" The surface of Blazing Flame's robust body was flushed with a sickly red. Realizing earlier that his speed could not keep up with the others, Blazing Flame simply stopped following them and instead took a shortcut based on his familiarity with the area surrounding the administrative hall.

He had run in a straight line, smashing through the dividing wall between the administrative headquarters and the outer area, successfully intercepting Hanning's retreat route.

General Flame's ability activated on a large scale, instantly bringing the material of the ground to its melting point and turning it from solid earth into flowing, scorching magma!

This expanse of a magma lake completely blocked Hanning's intended escape route. Even if he created ice crystals, they would be instantly melted by the lava and General Flame's ability, making high-speed movement utterly impossible.

Hanning instantly turned his gaze toward the nearby fire hydrant. This object, capable of providing him with a continuous source of water, might just be his greatest chance to turn the tables!

Yet, the moment this thought formed, Qi Chen and the Nice Guy, who had intercepted him from the other side, charged forward!

As the Nice Guy ran, bringing the fire hydrant into his projection range, Enthusiastic appeared right beside the hydrant in a flash. With lightning speed, it delivered a punch to the fixture while simultaneously activating its ability!

The fire hydrant first softened and went limp, stopping the flow of water entirely, and then turned exceptionally hard, precluding any possibility of it being smashed open by Hanning again.

Following this combo of attacks, Hanning was left with no external source of abundant water. His expression turned somewhat unsightly, but even harder challenges awaited him.

The Overlord's rough, roaring voice echoed in the ears of every anomaly walker, and his oppressive physique instantly loomed before Hanning like an inescapable shadow.

Staring straight into that starkly contrasting, angry expression, Hanning fancied for a fraction of a second that he was facing a prehistoric beast. Driven by combat instinct, however, he quickly snapped back to his senses to meet the heavy blow hurtling toward his face.

Bang!

The ice-crystal shield that had rapidly formed before him offered virtually no resistance against the Overlord's violent strength. The entire ice shield was battered to the brink of shattering by the howling wind a split second before the Overlord's fist arrived, and the moment the actual blow landed, it was blasted completely to pieces!

"What kind of strength is this?!" Hanning could no longer maintain his graceful demeanor, and a look of sheer disbelief surfaced in his eyes for the very first time!

He had thought that his own red-haired, black-flamed giant was already the pinnacle of strength among anomalies. Yet the power displayed by this fellow melee-type anomaly seemed even more ferocious and unyielding than the black-flamed giant!

Vomiting a mouthful of blood, Hanning—who had escaped the brunt of the Overlord's attack by a mere hair's breadth—still suffered severe injuries.

Yet, as he retreated at high speed, a wave of intense, rolling heat rushed at his back once more!

"Splat!"

Blazing Flame's arm was coated with a layer of solidified black rock. He had altered the melting point of the magma to keep it at a low temperature while wrapping it around his arm, and then manipulated the melting point again to solidify it into black spikes!

The sharp black rock spikes plunged effortlessly into flesh and blood. Finding that insufficient, Blazing Flame violently twisted his arm. Hanning immediately coughed up large mouthfuls of fresh blood, his handsome face contorted with agony.

"Ugh, aaah!!" Hanning roared in pain, summoning his anomaly to kick Blazing Flame flying. Then, he made a move none of them expected: he formed a thick layer of frost armor around himself, shivering from the cold yet charging unhesitatingly into the magma lake created by Blazing Flame.

The ice crystal armor melted rapidly under the intense heat, but Hanning gritted his teeth and dashed across the lava before all the frost could melt.

Though both of his feet showed severe burn symptoms, relying purely on sheer willpower, he instinctively skated off into the distance.

Naturally, Qi Chen and the others could not allow him to leave just like that, even though Hanning—having had his body pierced by Blazing Flame—had already entered a countdown to death.

However, showing mercy to an enemy was the greatest mistake one could make.

Filled with the strongest urge for revenge, Blazing Flame immediately summoned General Flame and kicked out, sending several shattered stones shooting like arrows toward Hanning's back. In flight, these stones rapidly reached their melting point, transforming into scorching liquid that splattered across Hanning's body.

He was a dead man.