"But Victor appears unconscious!" Haley wailed. "If Raven reaches him in this condition, she will definitely kill him! Isn't there someone who could intervene?! Is the New World Order so helpless without Victor?"
A battle cry sounded throughout the beach. Everyone turned to one of the lateral screens, which showed an individual in motion.
Valerie Armstrong was racing towards the battle site carrying an AK-107. She fired off rounds in successive bursts at Raven.
Rat-tat-tat-tat! As she was an expert markswoman, her bullets found the target. However, they simply bounced off the assassin's nano-tech suit. It was not only bulletproof but absolutely impenetrable to all standard weapons.
"I'll have to use the King's Hand!" the Five-star general said aloud.
"What is the King's Hand?" Julia asked Maverick. The latter pursed his lips expectantly.
"It's a temporary privilege handed down to all Five-star-generals. We can borrow a fraction of Caesar's strength in an all-out attack. Such a move could work to incapacitate Raven, considering Val actually lands her attack."
The female assassin stopped in her tracks and turned towards Valerie. "Now that the guinea pig is down, a little mouse comes running to save him?" she scoffed in condescension.
Val wasted no time. Raven underestimated her, and that was something she could take advantage of. She dropped her gun and invoked the King's Hand. "Take this, you spandex bitch!"
Sparks appeared over her fist as she threw a mighty blow at Raven. The attack landed on flesh.
Boom! The female assassin caught Val's fist as if she were a child. "How weak… Did you think you could harm me with such an infantile move? The audacity!"
With a light twist, Raven broke Val's arm. "Now kneel before me!"
"Arghh!" The young woman cried out. She fell to her knees in agony. Her energy was already drained after using the King's hand.
Raven loomed over Val with a broad smile. She touched the young woman's lips. "You're so darned pretty, my dear."
The assassin played with Val's hair, and her hand slipped down to grab her chest. "Such heavenly blonde hair and such full breasts! I am jealous of your beauty! How about we lop off your head?!"
Raven stood to her full height as Val struggled in her grip. She raised her suited arm that immediately morphed into a dark executioner blade.
With a demoniacal smirk, Raven swung her arm down at Val's neck. "Off with your head!"
Thump! The blade never reached the young woman's neck. Something was holding it back.
Raven turned to see Victor grabbing onto her arm in a vice grip. The man's aura had transformed. He looked taller, superhumanly athletic, and his eyes glowed red.
"Victor took the red pill!" Haley cried out in joy. The other girls hugged each other in relief.
"Youuu!" Raven snapped, retracting the sword from Victor's grip and swinging it down on him.
Clang! This time, Starfall parried her attack effortlessly.
The female assassin was taken aback by his sudden escalation in strength. She morphed her arm into the crab-sword again and re-entered battle mode.
Clink! Clang! Victor's sword whistled as it came down heavily on Raven. The latter looked on in disbelief as the man's attacks left afterimages. She couldn't even detect the weapon's direction!
Raven could only defend against the unnaturally powerful and agile slashes. The knockbacks were so heavy that she lost her balance with every attack, hanging onto her sanity desperately.
"There's something different about you!" Raven barked. "What have you done?"
"I stopped being lazy," Victor replied coldly. His eyes were bloodshot and frigid, seeing nothing but a target to kill.
Schwing! Splurge! With a violent blow, he severed Raven's arm.
"Aaaaghh!" The female assassin screamed, falling to her knees. "How is this possible? My suit is made of Thanatos and Nanite! You shouldn't be able to cut through it! I should be overwhelmingly stronger than you!"
Victor looked down at Raven with an imperious air of disdain. "Nobody in the world is stronger than me!" he thundered.
"A pretender like you would never understand the meaning of true power! You were born weak, both of body and will, destined to cling to machines to hide your weaknesses! True power looks like this!"
Victor's voice thickened to a growl, and his skin darkened, giving him the look of the grim reaper. More so as he raised Starfall to kill Raven. "It's time for you to die!"
Victor's sword came swinging down on the woman.
"Wait!" Raven cried out suddenly. The woman deactivated the nanotech, making the suit uncover her head, revealing her human face.
"It's me, Victor! Don't kill me!"
Raven's voice no longer sounded like it was underwater. In fact, Victor instantly recognized both her face and voice. His blade stopped mid-swing, and his eyes widened in disbelief.
"Is that-" Maverick murmured over the radio.
"Angela Kaufmann?!" Claire exclaimed in shock.