"Commander, where should I lead it?" Han Sen asked calmly.
Guris was shocked that the voice he heard was so relaxed. He barked down the line, "Go to the south-east and buy Mister Tiger some time! Wait until Mister Tiger is able to finish dealing with the other."
As soon as he said it, Guris realized that was one of the strangest commands he had ever given. It was odd telling a soldier to keep a xenogeneic busy for some time. People would think he was crazy for issuing such an order, but he had no choice, given the circumstances.
"Sure, but I can't make any promises." Han Sen agreed and changed direction, leading the beast east.
"You do your best, son." Guris gritted his teeth. He couldn't imagine that someone like Han Sen would delay the xenogeneic long enough for Mister Tiger to kill his own enemy and move in to help.
And when Guris reviewed Mister Tiger's situation realistically, he wasn't even sure if the Noble would be able to fight another xenogeneic immediately after. And that just made the situation even more worrying.
Han Sen moved his body and dodged the xenogeneic's attack. He brought the xenogeneic over to the south-east as he had been instructed to, but he wasn't planning on waiting for Mister Tiger to finish dealing with his own xenogeneic.
After moving through several different streets, Han Sen dipped into a building. He deliberately broke his camera and his communicator to avoid the prying eyes of the others and keep them in the dark.
As Han Sen had led the xenogeneic forward, he had punched the creature many times. None of his hits were effective, though. The xenogeneic did not have geno armor, but it was far stronger than an armored Kate. As a result, Han Sen could not deal any damage to the creature's body.
After Han Sen evaded the next strike of the xenogeneic, he put the glove on his hand.
In the Alliance, Han Sen hadn't been able to use the Northern King Glove while wearing armor because he hadn't possessed his own geno armor. Now that he had generated his own set of armor, this was no longer a problem. So, Han Sen was able to put the glove on his right hand and make it look something more like a gauntlet.
Han Sen dodged another of the xenogeneic's attack, delivering a strike to the beast's belly as he did.
Pang!
The fist hit the belly, and it echoed like a drum. It didn't break the flesh, but the xenogeneic coughed up some blood. It looked injured almost immediately.
Not that the attack really slowed it down. It came at Han Sen with undiminished bloodlust.
Han Sen was fighting and falling back as he did, retreating into the shelter of another building. He punched the xenogeneic, whose body was scary. By this point, Han Sen had to have punched it with his glove a dozen times. And while the beast was bleeding a lot, it refused to die. It was a supremely powerful foe.
"If I had a sword that was sharp, I could kill them all," Han Sen thought, annoyed that he did not have a self geno weapon.
He couldn't use the full power of the Northern King Glove. If he could, he would have killed the xenogeneic with ease.
Han Sen used up a lot of his energy in the fight. The geno universe's power was too strong. His repeated castings were exhausting his energy at an alarming rate, and Han Sen fought the xenogeneic with all the effort and energy he could spare. But a while after, he felt very tired.
Just as Han Sen was about to give up and resort to taking the enemy back to Mister Tiger, he felt something very hot on his back. It was the Nine-Life Cat tattoo, sizzling on his back like a fresh branding.
Han Sen felt immense pain due to it, but all of a sudden, his exhaustion vanished. Hot power surged inside him, and his body's cells erupted like a volcano. It made Han Sen feel like he was filled to the brim with power.
Pang!
Han Sen punched the xenogeneic again, sending the creature flying. It smacked into a concrete wall and left a deep hole in it.
The xenogeneic fell down onto the floor, heaving up blood. The place on the creature's chest that had touched Han Sen's fist was scorched, as if the beast had been branded by his burning fist
Han Sen was, needless to say, happy about this. He ran forward and gave the xenogeneic another punch. And where the next fist landed, the entire patch of the beast's skin was blackened.
Han Sen punched it another three times, and eventually, the chest was broken and caved in. What was left was a black, gaping hole where the heart had once been. It was dead.
"Xenogeneic Baron hunted; xenogeneic gene found."
Perhaps it was because he had left the sanctuary, but the rules seemed to have changed a bit. The announcements were starting to get vaguer.
When the xenogeneic died, the heat on Han Sen's back faded away. His condition returned to normal.
Before he had the time to think about what happened with the tattoo, though, Han Sen leaped over to the creature and pulled out its ten nails. The nails were where the thing had mutated.
Perhaps because it was dead, the monster's body was far weaker. Han Sen was able to remove the sharp blue nails with ease.
And after Han Sen took the ten nails, the body became much softer. It returned to looking almost like a normal Kate. Its previous strength was all gone.
Just as Han Sen wondered how he might deal with the body, it started to flare and burn. It quickly turned to ash, and when the wind blew, it scattered like dust on the breeze.
Han Sen was frozen. He didn't know Nine-Life Cat's tattoo could imbue him with such power.
"I need to find out what this whole Nine-Life Cat business is about. Old Cat did say the reputation was bad. If it really is infamous, however, it should be easy to learn a thing or two," Han Sen thought to himself.
"Han Sen, answer me! What's going on!" Guris had seen Han Sen enter the building, but he hadn't seen what had transpired there. He had wished to send someone else to check on Han Sen, but no one had been willing to enter due to the fact that Han Sen had been tangoing with a xenogeneic.
Soldiers were tasked with finding xenogeneics, not hunting them. If they knew where a xenogeneic was, they wouldn't go near it
Before Guris received a response, though, he saw someone exit the building. It was Han Sen. The xenogeneic that had been chasing him was gone.