The moment Jonah’s heavy boots hit the gray ash outside the door, the trap was fully sprung. Unit 4, the assassin who had shot Lisa, was not acting alone. The Vanguard Command was a highly organized, militarized army. General Silas had sent a full strike team to capture the giant anomaly. High up on the mountain ridge, hidden in perfect snow blinds, three more invisible snipers aimed their glowing purple rifles down at the camp. And they were not just using snipers. Strange, mechanical sounds echoed through the falling snow. Kevin looked up with his glowing blue eye. His Perception stat instantly highlighted the danger. "Dad! Above us!" Kevin yelled. Hovering silently in the sky, flying right through the blizzard, were dozens of small, black metal drones. The drones were completely silent. They did not have propellers. They floated using System magic. Underneath each black drone, a glowing purple laser gun was mounted. The drones aimed their red laser sights down at the courtya

"Hello, Jonah," Silas said. His hypnotic, beautiful voice echoed softly in the quiet, snowy tunnel. Jonah stood up slowly. He gently laid Lisa back down in the snow. Jonah stepped in front of his son and his dying friend. He placed his broad, massive body between them and the guns. The freezing silver light in Jonah’s eyes flared with blinding intensity. The iron scars on his chest pulsed with heavy, terrifying power. "Silas," Jonah growled. His voice sounded like grinding mountains. Silas smiled beneath his silver mask. He looked at the glowing giant with deep, scientific admiration. "You walked through a wall of my best sniper fire, and you do not have a single scratch on you," Silas murmured, nodding his head. "Your Undying Will skill is truly magnificent. It is a flawless piece of biological programming. It breaks all the rules." Silas took a slow step forward. He did not look afraid of Jonah’s power. "But you have a fatal flaw, Jonah," Silas said softly. Silas pointed hi

Jonah stared at the black ash on Lisa’s chest. His heart dropped into a cold, bottomless pit. "The bullet," Jonah whispered. His deep voice sounded like a dying engine. "The bullet is cursed." "It has an Anti-Regeneration property," Martha explained. The doctor’s hands were shaking now. "The purple Mana inside the wound is eating the healing magic. The enemy designed this bullet to stop the System from fixing the damage. It destroys medicine. Normal healing potions and skills will fail." Lisa let out a terrible, rattling sigh. Suddenly, her body went completely limp on the metal table. Her back arched slightly, and then she fell flat. Her dark eyes rolled back into her head. "She stopped breathing!" Elena screamed. Martha pressed two fingers hard against Lisa’s pale neck. She felt for the pulse. The room was totally, perfectly silent. Martha looked up at Jonah. Tears filled the doctor’s tired eyes. "She is flatlining, Jonah," Martha whispered. "Her heart has stopped. The purpl

They looked through magical scopes. They shot glowing purple bullets that ignored the wind and tracked body heat. They were cowards. They were cold, calculating machines. Jonah slowly lowered his hands from his face. He looked at his massive, thick arms. He looked at the heavy, dark iron scars covering his skin. He was a Tank. The System had built him to be a shield. His Undying Will skill was a miracle of survival. It allowed him to absorb bullets. It allowed him to turn terrible pain into kinetic power. If a monster stood in front of him, Jonah could shatter it into dust. But what good was a shield if the enemy refused to get close? What good was a massive, forty-pound iron sledgehammer if the assassin was two miles away, hiding on a cliff? "I am just a target," Jonah whispered into the dark, empty room. His deep voice was full of bitter, painful realization. If he walked out the front door right now, the invisible snipers would shoot him again. They would shoot him ten times.

The concrete building was quiet. Outside, the whiteout blizzard continued to scream against the thick, gray walls. The wind was a wild, angry beast. But inside the building, the air was heavy with a different kind of tension. Jonah walked down the dark hallway. His heavy, steel-toed boots hit the concrete floor. He stopped in front of the heavy wooden door of the ruined armory. Kevin stood next to him. The young giant held his custom-made iron mace in his good left hand. His right arm rested in a white sling. Kevin looked up at his father. His one good eye was full of deep worry. "Dad," Kevin whispered. "What are you going to do in there?" Jonah looked down at his son. He saw the fear in Kevin’s face. He knew his son hated the magical System just as much as he did. But they both knew the terrible truth. The invisible assassins of the Vanguard Command were waiting outside on the high mountain ridges.