While Ashton and Phantom were sorting their business, the undead had to face troublesome opponents on their own. Their invasion had hriously failed, and now that Phantom had killed a mercenary, the rest turned against the undead.
In a way, the undead brought the mercenaries to strengthen their enemies.
However, not all was lost as they had an ace up their sleeve, a weapon that could instantly turn all odds in their favour.
"Commander, what should we do?" One of the undead soldiers whispered.
"Colonel Jadyn was supposed to takemand," The Commander replied softly, "As his second-inmand, I instruct you to arm the bomb. If we cannot defeat them, we''ll turn them."
"Affirmative!" The soldier replied and began working on the bomb, protected by the foliage of the troopers.
"Huh, so this is the secret weapon?" Someone whispered into the soldier''s ear.
"Yes," The soldier absentmindedly replied, "Now let me do my job-"
The undead turned around to shove the man aside. However, he realised there wasn''t anyone standing by him. Besides, it didn''t appear as if anyone else heard the voice.
Confused, he resumed his work. But something was off. His hands felt oddly sloppy, and it almost felt like his hands were not listening to the mind.
At that moment, he heard the voice once again. But this time, it almost sounded majestic. Like a god was talking to him.
"Why don''t you disarm the bomb instead?" The feminine voice echoed in his mind, "If you do, I''ll fulfil any wish you ever had. Everything you ever desired would be under your feet, be it women or power."
? "But the orders-"
"Does a kill need to follow orders from a peasant?" The voice replied, "Maybe I was wrong to believe in you. How unfortunate, but if that''s your wish-"
"NO! I''ll do as you ask. I''ll disarm the bomb for good!"
Without wasting another moment, the man not only disarmed the bomb butpletely dissembled it. It was already toote when themander realised what had happened.
Rushing over to the soldier, the man smacked him hard. But even that blow wasn''t enough to bring the soldier out of his trance.
"Bastard! What have you done!?" Themander vigorously shook him, to no avail.
"He won''t be waking up any time soon." Alina smirked, "Neither will the rest of your ''bomb squad''."
"You- I know you!" Themander''s bloodshot eyes red at her, "The white witch! To think you were hiding here-"
"She isn''t the only one," Jay jumped out of nowhere, slicing undead left and right with his whip-like sword.
"Fucking Inhumans!" Themander snarled before lunging toward Jay.
However, before the undead could do anything, he was slit in half by one of the mercenaries. The undead were backed into a corner with nowhere to run.
Now their only hope was Phantom. As long as they held out till his return, he would surely kill all the bastards. But it didn''t seem like he would being to their rescue any time soon.
"Shouldn''t we help them? I''ve been itching for a fight, and it''ll also help wrap things up faster!" Montagu eagerly popped his ws. The thought of battle brought out the warrior blood in him.
"Dad, let them be." Anna replied, "The Inhumans have suffered enough under the undead''s tyranny, and they deserve to get some payback. Besides, the outworlders are also helping them. I don''t think we need to involve ourselves for now."<novelnext></novelnext>
"Then what about helping Ashton-"
"Don''t even think about it," Anna sternly warned him, "Phantom isn''t someone who can be defeated using numbers."
Anna might have said that, but she was worried to death for Ashton. After all, thest time the two faced each other, Ashton only managed to survive thanks to master Vulcan.
Also, this time around, there was no one to help him. If Ashton lost, all of them would be as good as dead.
"If you want to help," Anna mumbled, "Please take everyone into the underground shelter, and lock it from the inside, so no one breaks in."
"What do you-" Her mother tried to talk, but Anna had none of it.
"It''s only a precaution, ma, should things take a turn for the worse." Anna replied, "I''ll stay back ande for you once everything is over."
"Very well," Montagu replied and immediately gathered the nonbatants before leaving.
Once the hall had been cleared, Anna decided to join the battle or at least assist them somehow.
"I believe in you, moron." Anna mumbled, "Don''t make me eat my words."
***
Back on the battlefield, tables had turned against Ashton. Although he had gotten much stronger than before, he wasn''t the only one who did.
Phantom wasn''t wasting his time after his loss. Travelling through countless worlds, he had absorbed the abilities and power of god knows how many aliens.
"Hm... you are awfully strong. I''ll give you that." Phantom panted while resting his hands on his knees, "And here I thought I won''t need to go all-out against you."
Ashton used the scythe to support him as blood droplets trickled down his face. Since the scythe''s power had been restricted, he couldn''t phase through all of Phantom''s strikes.
Even though he used the phasing ability to dodge the critical strikes, the strike that connected skillfully reduced him to such a state.
"I was saving the secret strength to go against that dwarf, but I don''t think I can afford to go easy on you anymore." Phantom smiled as he rushed in from another attack.
Ashton instantly phased through the attack. However, something weird happened. Even though Phantom''s strike turned out to be useless, he didn''t stop.
"Shit!"
It took a moment for Ashton to realise that Phantom had never aimed for him. Instead, his target was the ones inside the hall!
"Feel despair, you bastard!" Phantomughed his heart out.
"Anna!" Ashton yelled at her.
She turned towards them, only to find Phantom racing towards her. He was too quick. From afar, Ashton could see Anna twist in pain as she fell to her knees.
"PHANTOM! I''LL KILL YOU, FUCKING BASTARD!"