"That red humanoid armored soldier is the strongest among the Rebels. As long as we take her out, the others won't be a threat." Jason hovered about fifty meters above the ground, fixing his cold, vicious gaze on the red humanoid armored soldier below.

  With a shift of his body, he dove from mid-air, flying straight toward the red armored soldier. Captain Guan noticed Jason heading toward Kallen and quickly spoke into his communicator: "Watch out, Kallen — Jason is coming for you."

  "I see him." Kallen responded swiftly. She turned to face Jason as he flew at her, swiping at him with the five-fingered steel cw on her right hand. Jason moved rapidly through the air, dodging Kallen's strike with remarkable agility, then circled behind her and thrust his dagger at the back of her neck.

  Two sharp cngs rang out as Jason's dagger struck the armor at Kallen's neck, sending bright sparks flying. The bde was immediately deflected by the armor, leaving only a shallow mark. The armor was extraordinarily hard — Jason's dagger simply could not penetrate it to harm Kallen.

  "This thing is pretty tough. My weapon can't hurt her — I'll have to find another way to take her down," Jason thought to himself. He continued moving rapidly around Kallen, alternating between thrusting at her with his dagger and striking at her head and legs with his feet, trying to throw off her bance and knock her to the ground. But the armor's defensive capability was too powerful — no matter how Jason attacked, Kallen remained completely unharmed.

  Although Jason's attacks couldn't injure Kallen, they effectively kept her occupied, preventing her from engaging the Sanctuary's other armored soldiers. The moment Kallen stopped fighting alongside them, the Rebels' armored soldiers were immediately overwhelmed by the Sanctuary's forces. One by one, the Rebels' armored soldiers were struck by the Sanctuary's silver short swords and began taking damage.

  "Kallen, stop fighting that Jason — if this keeps up, we're going to lose," Captain Guan said urgently. After ten to twenty minutes of combat, the Rebels had already lost seven or eight armored soldiers while the Sanctuary had only lost three or four. At this rate, the Rebels' defeat was inevitable.

  "Give me a little more time. I'm almost figuring out his movement patterns," Kallen said. Through their prolonged exchange, she had gradually grown familiar with Jason's style of movement and was beginning to keep up with him.

  Kallen extended the five-fingered steel cw on her right arm and swiped at Jason in front of her. Jason shifted quickly through the air, dodging her attack, and circled around to her back. Without even gncing behind her, Kallen spun around and swept the cw toward him.

  Jason moved rapidly backward, sliding six or seven meters away, evading her strike. Then Kallen's chest unched two grappling hooks, shooting toward Jason at high speed. Jason moved upward to dodge them — but in that very instant, Kallen's shoulders fired two more hooks aimed at the space above him, cutting off his escape route.

  With a sharp snap, Jason — moving upward — collided directly with one of the hooks. It coiled around his left arm, tching on firmly.

  "Finally got you!" Kallen rejoiced inwardly. She quickly commanded the hook to retract. It tightened around Jason's left arm and pulled his body swiftly toward her.

  Kallen thrust her right arm forward, once again swiping the five-fingered steel cw at Jason. Restrained by the hook, Jason couldn't dodge — the steel cw seized his waist. At the cw's center, a red orb bloomed with crackling electricity. Kallen showed no mercy, preparing to deliver a killing blow with the orb.

  "Heh heh… walked right into it, didn't you…" A slight smile tugged at the corner of Jason's mouth. He quickly reached out with his right hand and grabbed the red orb from Kallen's palm, pulling it free from her five-fingered cw and holding it in his hand.

  "This… this is impossible!" Kallen was stunned. That red orb burned at an extreme temperature capable of instantly melting even the most indestructible armor — and yet now it sat in Jason's palm like a toy balloon. Had she not seen it with her own eyes, she never would have believed it.

  Before Kallen could react, Jason pressed the red orb against her chest. It sank into her breastpte, melting through the armor. Kallen let out an agonized cry — then with a thunderous boom, she crashed backward onto the ground and y still.

  "Kallen… Kallen, are you alright?! Someone get to her now!" Captain Guan, watching from a distance, cried frantically into his communicator. A nearby gray armored soldier rushed toward Kallen. Extending a half-meter silver light-sword from its right forearm, it drove the bde straight at Jason, who hovered beside Kallen's fallen body.

  Jason neither dodged nor retreated. He opened his right palm and pushed it forward to meet the gray armored soldier's silver light-sword. The half-meter bde made silent contact with his palm.

  At that moment, something strange happened. The instant the silver light-sword touched Jason's hand, it bent sharply — turning back toward the gray armored soldier's chest, as though Jason's palm were a mirror reflecting the bde right back at its owner.

  Sparks erupted. The silver light-sword pierced the gray armored soldier's chest, punching through its armor and into the pilot's body. The gray armored soldier lurched, then crashed heavily to the ground.

  "Surprised? I can control and reflect energy," Jason murmured to himself. Hovering about a meter above the ground, he looked down at the two armored soldiers fallen at his feet, a smug smile spreading across his face. "Your attacks don't just fail to hurt me — I can turn them right back on you and make them my own weapons."