Sergeant William pierced through the Purifier squad's fire blockade with his ferocious close-quarters assault.
Once this veteran soldier entered melee combat mode, he displayed an efficient and ruthless fighting style.
Every swing tore through the air with a sharp whistle, every impact was accompanied by the sound of breaking bones.
One Purifier attempted to block with his malfunctioning repeating crossbow, but the specially alloyed crossbow body was struck from above by William's rifle butt. With a metallic twisting sound, both the crossbow body and the Purifier's collarbone were smashed inward, the cultist screaming before collapsing limp to the ground.
However, not all of those heavily armored Purifiers were weak. After experiencing brief chaos, they quickly demonstrated the combat will expected of the cult's elite internal guards.
Two Purifiers directly abandoned attempts to repair their malfunctioning alchemical repeating crossbows, drawing short-handled heavy weapons from their backs instead. One was a one-handed iron hammer covered in serrated barbs, the other was an armor-piercing war pick with a sharpened front end resembling a giant can opener.
They roared with heavy, reckless footsteps, charging from left and right to pin down William who was fighting amidst the bone piles.
Their attacks were wide and sweeping, completely abandoning defensive postures in favor of injury-for-injury suicidal tactics.
The war hammer's sweep targeted not William's vitals but his lower body, while the war pick's angle aimed directly at his shoulder.
William immediately found himself in a difficult fight. His battle-honed intuition made his movements precise and dangerous, barely dodging the iron hammer that could have shattered his legs with an extreme sidestep.
Though he repeatedly deflected attacks through rich experience and skilled technique, his advanced age worked against him, and the opponents' alchemical armor proved extremely resilient. Pure physical blunt force struggled to achieve decisive results quickly.
For a moment, the narrow passage echoed continuously with the clashing of metal, the battle situation falling into brief stalemate.
William alone endured the fierce assault of two heavily armored berserkers.
Meanwhile, the final Purifier, after a moment's hesitation, made a calm judgment. He didn't join the close-quarters melee, instead turning his beak-like mask toward the three-person team's seemingly least threatening member who had just unleashed the "curse storm" - the core figure.
His target was Lin Jie!
"Watch out!" Julian, though an intellectual rarely involved in such direct violence, found his courage prevailing at this critical moment.
He crossed his walking stick before his chest, steadfastly meeting the heavily armored Purifier charging fiercely toward Lin Jie.
"Clang!"
When Julian's seemingly ordinary hiking stick collided head-on with the Purifier's heavy metal rod, it didn't snap instantly as expected.
Instead, the stick's surface lit up with a faint protective field composed of emerald green ancient Celtic runes, barely neutralizing most of the attack's kinetic energy.
Clearly, this curator who valued honor and knowledge above life didn't carry equipment as simple as it appeared.
Unfortunately, the vast gap in strength between a scholar and a professional warrior couldn't be bridged by a single alchemical defense.
Julian only managed to block that one strike before the subsequent force shattered his grip, blood streaming from his hands as he staggered uncontrollably backward, falling into a pile of human skeletons.
The Purifier, as if having smashed through a thin wooden door, continued his powerful charge without pause toward Lin Jie who remained in a mentally weakened state.
His figure completely enveloped Lin Jie.
Lin Jie knew there was no retreat.
William was entangled by two powerful enemies with no means of escape, and Julian had temporarily lost combat capability.
At this moment, he stood completely isolated, able to rely only on himself and the old partner in his hand that had just completed its "evolution" - [Serene Heart], whose true power remained unknown.
He didn't panic. Facing the charging heavily armored Purifier, his somewhat unfocused pupils instead instantly sharpened under the pressure of danger.
All distracting thoughts were expelled from his mind by the revolver's "zen-like quality," leaving only absolute calm.
He quickly raised his right hand.
That Webley Revolver personally modified by Arthur Conan finally revealed its restrained yet dangerous new form in this underground battlefield littered with bones.
Below the originally somewhat slender barrel now sat an additional "heat dissipation stabilization module" forged from shimmering azure "Guardian Scales" and high-purity mithril.
At the module's forefront, a perfectly intact hexagonal scale served as the finishing touch, discreetly embedded there like a "third eye" containing special energy.
Lin Jie's index finger rested steadily on the trigger.
Unlike his panicked shooting during that first time aboard the Sea Witch.
His mind rapidly recalled Sergeant William's typically concise and efficient shooting posture.
Turn sideways, sink shoulders, bend knees slightly.
He stood firmly in a standard shooting stance that appeared relaxed but could effectively channel recoil into the ground.
Raise gun, aim.
His arm, enhanced by [Serene Heart]'s mental protection field, remained perfectly steady without the slightest tremor.
He aimed not at the Purifier's heavily armored torso protected by thick alchemical plate, nor at the head securely guarded by the beak-like metal mask.
Instead, he targeted the vulnerable joint between armor plates at the knee - exposed during high-speed forward movement to maintain body mobility!
At the moment when the Purifier was less than three meters away, his stone-shattering rod already raised high, about to descend with crushing force, Lin Jie pulled the trigger.
"Bang—!"
A crisp, concentrated gunshot with the quality of shattering ice suddenly echoed through this underground space filled with metallic clashes and bone-crushing sounds!
As the alchemical bullet left the barrel, the intact "Guardian Scale" below the gun barrel lit up with a soft azure halo.
Divine power containing "protection" and "order" enveloped the high-velocity spinning bullet, forming an invisible streamlined "energy shell" that effectively smoothed all unstable vibrations and energy dissipation during flight.
It became an absolute "straight line"!
The Purifier also possessed high combat proficiency - the moment Lin Jie raised his gun, his charging body had subconsciously performed a slight standard sidestep evasion.
This movement should have been enough to avoid the targeted vulnerable spot.
But unfortunately, what he faced was no ordinary bullet.
That UMA-enhanced bullet ignored his evasion, ignored the bone dust and chaotic energy fields swirling in the air.
Following the trajectory predetermined by Lin Jie's will, it precisely drilled into the vulnerable gap between the constantly moving knee armor plates - no larger than a comb's width.
"Thump!"
The power contained within the alchemical bullet detonated the instant it entered the Purifier's leg joint.
A silver light mixed with shattered bones, muscle, and twisted metal components exploded into a bloody mist from behind his knee.
"Merde!!"
A pained French curse erupted from beneath the mask.
The Purifier's high-speed charging body lost balance as his right leg's support failed.
His powerful attack consequently deviated severely from its intended path, smashing hard into the ground less than half a foot from Lin Jie, spraying shattered stone and bone fragments everywhere.
He knelt on one knee, his ruined right leg twisted backward at an unnatural angle, completely losing its mobility.