“Sir, large heat source approaching!”

“Defensive measures, fire everything we have!” Urbs shouted.

Every weapon south of the city launched an attack on the imminent Destro’ver, which was advancing towards them at jet speed. They managed to slow it down, but not to stop it. The bulky tank crashed into the line of tanks at the south gates and continued to smash its way into the city grounds using the momentum gained.

Regardless of the number of RPGs launched at the Destro’ver, its titanium metal remained unscratched.

After a brief pause, the Destro’ver’s barrels locked-on to soldiers and fired when it was within the city grounds.

Urbs had never seen anything like this before. Standing at four stories tall, the Destro’ver was armed with four main cannons on the sides, each being surrounded by eight barrels. It had two mounted rocket launcher systems and a single barrel in the middle. What was unimaginable, was the two turbojets installed on the rear of the machine.

“Take cover!”

It was pointless. Even the smallest bullet coming out from the Destro’ver was armour-piercing.

The city and Urb’s soldiers were sustaining critical damage.

After the arsenal burst, the machine suddenly powered down. The engines whirred. Like any other heavy machine, the Destro’ver had a cool-down duration to prevent overheating of its engine parts.

Husker urgently picked up his transponder and spoke into it, “Urbs, it’s now or never. Do it.”

The line went eerily quiet. The radio channel was interrupted with violent static.

Even though Husker was zones away from Urbs, he could feel the overwhelming power shaking the very molecules in his body.

From the radio was Urbs’ amplified voice, soft but clear, ”radiance unleashed.”

“Radiance?”

Ezra asked the beautiful blonde lady sitting next to him on a bench.

Professor Rochelle Regina took a sip of strawberry juice from the clear plastic cup she was holding.

“Radiance is a special phenomenon. It is sort of a special ability which only few can harvest. Rumour has it that a few centuries ago, a gigantic meteor flew past the skies, spreading a very thin layer of radiation in the atmosphere. Humans who were exposed to this radiation and could adapt to it were able to achieve extraordinary feats — things that normal humans could never execute.”

“And you’re claiming that I am… one of those?” Ezra questioned.

“Berserkers. Yes. You are a berserker. One who possesses such power,” Regina replied gently, “the group of you are called berserkers because when you release your radiance, you sort of go out of control. That’s what happened to you in the lab. That’s why you must learn to control it.”

Ezra gazed at the quiet starry night sky. He thought of that time when he was stuck in that wretched dungeon, and how he struggled out of those chains.

He whispered softly, “I went berserk, didn’t I? Back there…”

Regina tilted her head towards Ezra and said, “it leaves traces of radiation, you see. When we arrived to take samples, the radiance level was way beyond normal levels.”

Ezra could not catch on. He gave a confused expression.

“Normal levels?”

“It is what we call a controlled version. For those which surpasses the norm, we call it Higher Radiance. It is the pinnacle of this ability – the unleashing of the raw form without any restrain. It’s hard to achieve this form and far more difficult to prevent it from consuming you,” Regina said, as if reciting years of research.

Ezra fidgeted in his seat.

The gravity of power I have…

The bespectacled lady in a cherry-red flare dress crossed her left leg over her right and turned to her right to look at Ezerka Nyx meaningfully before saying, “mastering this final form is what makes you part of Heaven’s Command. It’s called radiance unleashed.”

The south of Odina blazed harshly in a lemon yellow aura. The air molecules vibrated violently.

“Radiance unleashed, metropolitan labyrinth.”

The grounds south in the city began to rumble. The buildings surrounding the indestructible killing machine collapsed, burying it under tons of rubble. The concrete ground beneath the machine cracked and sank in. Even its turbojets were unable to lift it off the ground. The Destro’ver was completely boxed in.

The Hustlers watched in awe as they witnessed the City Hunter’s commanding officer’s power. Even the enemy soldiers were stunned.

“It’s as if the city is responding to his powers…” one Hustler mentioned.

“But in a matter of minutes, that tank is going to re-activate. Though it has been trapped in, it still has armour-piercing ammunitions.”

“And no one can get in either…”

A group of Hustlers discussed among themselves.

Even Husker himself craned his neck to watch the show. He steadied his spectacles using his left hand and gave an impressed look on his face. He was clearly enjoying it, even if he had seen Urb’s radiance countless number of times back at HQ Command.

(Yoohooo~ Nothing beats the real deal!)

Husker knew that there was more where that came from.

As the crack lines on the roads deepen, they started to split, creating openings underground. Alpha Hunters rushed out from underground tunnels, ambushing the remaining enemy troops as they emerge from the ground. These man glowed in bright lime yellow aura. They moved with amazing reflexes as they manoeuvred between buildings and underground tunnels.

The other hunters utilised the underground tunnels as an escape route to clear away from the battlefield.

Husker was right. This was Urbs’ game, his speciality. Helping him would not only be an insult to his friend, but may also ruin the entire plan.

The Alpha Hunters took advantage of the underground maze created by Arnold Urbs to travel freely and effectively, wiping out the last of the enemy forces.

“Bogey sighted,” alpha two squad leader hissed into his headset, as he crawled out from an underground tunnel.

His men climbed out of the underground tunnel as well and scurried to the immobile Destro’ver.

“Gasoline douse set.”

“C4 set.”

“Clear! Move out!”

“Clear the area!”

BOOOOM!

The collapsed buildings absorbed most of the explosion, yet Oclia’s soldiers could still feel shock waves even when they were far away from the blast.

The declaration was broadcast audibly with a commanding tone, “Aegis Uno, take.” It was then followed by the sound of the pulling and releasing of the bolt of a sniper rifle.

Everyone knew who fired that shot.

The former head architect of Oclia was known by another name in Heaven’s Command &mdash Aegis Uno, sniper of the city, commanding officer of the City Hunters, aegis of the labyrinth.

Arnold Urbs had stealthily positioned himself on the third level, having a clear sight of his target. His shot went through the narrow gaps between the collapsed buildings, finally reaching its target – the Destro’ver. Upon contact, the bullet which was armed with a delayed-explosive, drilled into the titanium’s interior and exploded, causing a chain explosion.

The City Hunters had claimed their first victory.

The two mis-fits were right all along.

The two commanding officers were prepared for such an attack. They could afford to lose the small towns around the city, but not Odina herself. As long as Odina remained in their possession, they could still regroup to push the enemy back. If the soldiers had not been recalled to fend the borders, Odina would have fallen, and Oclia would have lost one of her most strategic bases.

“Sir! Transmission from Colonel Footes!”

Urbs turned to face his signal-man. Footes and his men should not be back so soon, unless…

“What did he say?”

The signaller decoded the secret code and read aloud, “second wave is coming from the east. We are rushing back to assist. ETA twenty minutes.”

“We’ve been fooled… This was the distraction all along…”