Chapter 163: Encirclement Hunt
Chapter 163: Encirclement Hunt
Penelope stared at the massive figure emerging from the darkness, icy muddy water dripping steadily down her pale face.
Over a dozen glaring red laser dots danced back and forth across her forehead and chest, as if ready to riddle her with bullets at any second.
She ignored the hulking man's taunts and discreetly moved her right hand toward the tactical holster strapped to her outer thigh.
Just as the big man was about to speak again, the previously still mud pit suddenly churned violently.
Dominic's tall, mud-covered body burst from the water with explosive force that made her scalp tingle.
Without wasting a single motion, his right hand clamped around the man's throat like an iron vise.
Accompanied by the sound of bones shattering, the brute didn't even manage a scream before his neck was twisted into a grotesque angle.
"Open fire! Kill the guy now, but I want the woman alive!"
Countless large-caliber rounds poured down like a rainstorm, shredding the bushes around the mud pit into airborne debris.
The instant Dominic snapped the enemy's neck, he yanked the massive corpse in front of him, using it as a thick human shield.
Holding the body with one hand, he wrapped his other arm around Penelope's waist and lunged like a cheetah toward the rocks to their side.
Dense gunfire slammed into the hard stone, spraying sparks and fragments that pinned them down.
Dominic's heavy frame pressed against Penelope, his rough palm cradling the back of her head, his scorching breath washing over the hollow of her neck.
"These bastards sure know how to throw a welcome party. Your sexy tactical gear's all dirty now."
Penelope ground her teeth and shot a glare at the lunatic in front of her, her silver tactical pistol already chambered and ready.
"Dominic, shut up. The wound on your back has completely torn open. At this rate, you won't last five minutes!"
She glanced at her magazine. Thirteen rounds.
Dominic's lips curved into a wild, cold smirk as he casually yanked two high-explosive grenades from the corpse's tactical vest, using his teeth to pull the pins.
"Don't worry. I don't die that easy. Tonight, I'm gonna show these pricks what real killing looks like."
The moment he finished speaking, he powered his arms and hurled both grenades with precision toward the densest cluster of fire in the bushes ahead on the left.
As the grenades detonated, Dominic grabbed the nearby corpse and covered their heads with it. Countless shrapnel chunks slammed into the flesh, spattering their faces with rank gore.
The blast's shockwave and thick smoke instantly disrupted the mercenaries' infrared night vision, throwing the entire perimeter into brief chaos.
Dominic didn't hesitate. Like a streak of black lightning, he charged into the dense smoke.
Penelope leaned out from behind the rock with flawless coordination, gripping her tactical pistol with both hands, her gaze as cold and emotionless as a killing machine.
She tracked every enemy attempting to close in on Dominic through the darkness, each shot clean and efficient, not a single bullet wasted.
Three gunshots rang out in quick succession. Three mercenaries trying to flank from the side instantly had their heads blown open, crimson blood spraying across thick tree trunks.
But she knew. Only ten rounds left.
Up ahead, Dominic moved like a tireless meat grinder, weaving between tree trunks and bushes with an almost instinctive sense of jungle terrain.
A mercenary wearing night-vision goggles had barely turned around when Dominic's blood-soaked hand clamped over his face, fingers squeezing with brutal force.
The man's nose bridge shattered instantly.
Dominic followed with a vicious knee strike, crushing the man's sternum. He collapsed to the ground.
Dominic moved like a phantom, his hands unleashing savage, violent poetry.
He casually tossed two more corpses to the ground, breathing heavily, blood pouring from the torn wound on his back.
But the killing intent in his eyes only burned brighter.
He efficiently scavenged several ultra-thin tripwires and a few fragmentation grenades from the bodies.
His fingers flew through the darkness, expertly wrapping the wire between two thick tree trunks and cleverly hooking the grenade pins to the tension points.
Penelope quickly moved up from behind, pressing back-to-back against him. Both could feel the scorching heat radiating from each other's bodies.
"Five more at three o'clock, at least four at nine o'clock. They're tightening the perimeter again!"
Penelope calmly reported enemy positions. Her silver pistol's barrel was burning hot. Seven rounds left in the magazine.
Dominic turned his head, his mud- and blood-smeared face pulling into a slight curve as his rough cheek brushed lightly against Penelope's hair.
"Stay close. We're breaking through."
The moment he finished speaking, a faint sound of snapping branches came from three o'clock on the right.
Someone had triggered the tripwire.
A blinding fireball exploded in the jungle, countless sharp fragments sweeping through like Death's scythe, harvesting all life nearby.
Piercing screams tore through the air as the five mercenaries trying to flank from the right were blown into chunks of meat.
Using the explosion as cover, Dominic grabbed Penelope's hand and charged left in a ferocious counterattack, trampling over severed limbs.
Just as they were about to tear through the last line of defense, a sharp metallic scraping sound came from the dense canopy overhead.
A hulking figure dropped from dozens of feet above like a giant bat, slamming heavily into the mud ahead of them.
The massive impact sent muddy water spraying everywhere.
The figure slowly stood, casually tearing off his black tactical mask.
When he got a clear look at that face covered in vicious scars, Dominic's wolf-like eyes narrowed sharply, every muscle in his body tensing instantly.
The man standing before them was none other than Rusty Nail—the one Dominic had torn the prosthetic off of and badly injured in the basement server room not long ago.
But the current Rusty Nail looked nothing like someone who'd been gravely wounded.
His entire body was encased in a bulky military exoskeleton frame, from spine to legs to arms, all supported by titanium alloy hydraulic systems.
His left arm—the one whose prosthetic had been ripped off—had been replaced with a thick mechanical limb. The whole rig gleamed with cold metallic light in the dim glow, hydraulic actuators humming with a low rumble.
Rusty Nail rolled his stiff neck, his one remaining eye flashing with venomous killing intent as it locked onto the blood-soaked Dominic.
"Dominic, when you tore off my prosthetic, you never imagined Mr. Ward would outfit me with this state-of-the-art single-soldier exoskeleton armor, did you?"
"With this thing, even with half my body wrecked, I can stand right back up."
"Mr. Ward's lab has way more money than you think."
Rusty Nail gazed with satisfaction at the killing intent in Dominic's eyes, his lips twisting into a demon's warped sneer.
"Tonight, I'm gonna crush every bone in your body inch by inch. And then, right in front of you, I'm gonna take my sweet time torturing Preston."