I! Cleaner!

Sly bastard!

Through the visor of the powered armor, the squad commander saw the terrified face of Leon's adjutant behind him. The commander's eyebrows furrowed, and he had no choice but to reset the launcher, stopping the already preheated rapid-fire cannon.

With the firepower his powered armor carried, this round of the rapid-fire cannon could hit the target carrying a strange weapon. But whether that target would die or not was uncertain, while his adjutant from the Ryan Family would definitely be riddled with holes.

And given the Ryan Family's deep-rooted influence in the Kingdom's military, if he dared to kill both the adjutant and the target, he might end up on a military tribunal, thanks to their joint efforts.

He had to engage in close-quarters combat.

Assessing the current situation, the squad commander of the powered armor quickly issued corresponding orders.

The twelve powered armor units split into three groups, with five units moving left and six units flanking from the right. The commander's powered armor accelerated sharply, heading in a straight line towards Leon's position, and raised the cannon mounted on its arm...

...

"Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat!"

Accompanied by the sound of rapid gunfire like raindrops, Leon himself wasn't hit, but the ground a few meters in front of him exploded, with dirt and rocks flying from the silvery hail of nails.

Immediately, several bright red canister-shaped weapons were tossed farther ahead by the powered armor behind him. As they landed, a massive burst of bright yellow flames ignited, and the gust of heat it generated blew directly toward Leon, curling his hair tips.

*Damn cautious...*

Watching the powered armor behind him, which could have easily caught up, deliberately maintaining a slow pace and using its cannon and incendiary rounds to slow him down, waiting for the others to surround him gradually, Leon couldn't help but curse his luck.

*Pioni's ass, although effective, hadn't the ability to attack directly. It could only chip away at the powered armor's thick iron shell*, he realized. The little blonde from the Ryan Family was right—handling two or three powered armor units was already a strain for him at his current level. Any more would likely end up disastrous.

*The best plan now seemed to be to turn around and deal with the powered armor hanging onto him, but judging by how cautious its operator had been, he certainly wouldn't let him get close easily. If Leon turned back to charge, they would widen the gap once more.*

And although a tracked powered armor wasn't the best at turning, its forward and backward speed wasn't slow—possibly reaching 50 to 60 kilometers per hour—which Leon couldn't match, possibly driving himself further into a trap.

*He had no choice but to fight.*

Using the soul vision of the Black Goat to observe the position of the other powered armor units, Leon abruptly changed direction. Instead of fleeing straight ahead, he charged directly at the five powered armor units flanking from the left.

Faced with what seemed like a self-sabotaging move by Leon, the operators on this side of the powered armor, perhaps assuming their nearby teammates would quickly provide support, didn't immediately pull back. Instead, they removed the shields hanging on their backs and raised them directly in defense.

*Bad move!*

Seizing the fleeting opportunity, Leon, with the little blonde screaming behind him, didn't reduce his speed and charged straight into the massive two-meter shield.

A silver metallic mass, roughly the size of two human heads, originally hovering around him transformed into a razor-sharp blade under Leon's will, slicing through the lower edge of the shield like cutting through paper, carving out a hole large enough for him to slip through!

*What the hell is that?!*

Everyone witnessing the shield's quick destruction was stunned. Facing Leon, who wielded an unknown strange weapon, the powered armor's operator panicked and retreated, hoping to rely on speed to shake off this dangerous "little man."

But transitioning from advancing to retreat required startup time. Once Leon closed in, bringing the powered armor within the two-meter range of the "Fart Sword," its fate was unavoidable.

"Thump thump thump thump!"

The sound of metal armor being pierced echoed as Leon, who had already dismantled several powered armor units and knew their weaknesses, drove the "Fart Sword" to become four shining cursed silver spears, successively penetrating the joints between the torso and limbs.

As the nearly 30-cm thick shell was pierced, the internal precision gear set was jammed by the hard cursed silver spear, causing the powered armor's weight reduction module to instantly fail. Hot white steam gushed from the pipes severed by the powered armor's weight, exploding into a large cloud of suffocating acid mist.

"Watch out! He's out!"

With the operator's panicked warning from the now-defunct powered armor, Leon, covering his mouth and nose, darted out from the dense white mist, and amidst the little blonde's coughing from behind, pounced on the second approaching powered armor.

The operator of the second powered armor, not expecting his comrade to fall so swiftly, instinctively lifted the cannon in hand, trying to target the terrifying figure lunging toward him.

*Is he... firing?*

Hearing a hum similar to the sound of a washing machine at its maximum setting, the little blonde behind Leon shivered violently, realizing their teammate had opened the cannon, intending to kill them both. He couldn't help but scream in despair:

"You bastard!"

The cursed silver mass beside Leon split in two, with one half wrapping around the machine gun barrel, trapping the nails inside, while the other half morphed into a hand grasping the powered armor's arm, twisting it sideways.

"Damn!"

Seizing the momentary imbalance of the powered armor, Leon sidestepped the stumbling right leg of the machine, moving to the flank, while the part of the cursed silver that had pushed the cannon now flowed back like a living thing, falling precisely into Leon's hand and forming a thin, long blade.

"You!"

The thin silver blade slashed sideways, tearing through the side of the powered armor like cutting paper. Numerous fragments of tiny metal pieces, propelled by the high-pressure steam flow from the ruptured pipes, sprayed out, creating dense tiny craters around the ground. The powered armor, missing most of one leg, fell over backward!

"Mom!!!???"

"Boom!!!"

The loud thud of the powered armor hitting the ground occurred almost simultaneously as the little blonde trembled and called out to his "Mom." Immediately following, the choking thick white acid mist exploded, once again hiding the figure that had dismantled two powered armors in the blink of an eye, enveloping him back into the fog.