Qingyi and Zhu Yuan were stopped by Berbick, gritting their teeth as they watched forty-four armed thugs scatter away.
"Damn it, there are too many—we can't stop them all."
Faced with Berbick's pressure and the residents' dangerous plight, the two were stretched to their limits.
"Hah, you'd better worry more about yourselves." Berbick sneered. "Once they finish with those worms, it'll be the end of you two Peacekeepers!"
He knew Zhu Yuan and Qingyi were elite officers of the New Eridu Public Security. Taking on both at once wasn't likely.
But once his forty-plus lackeys finished slaughtering the residents of Canvas Alley and came back to support him, he was confident he could take down the two Peacekeepers.
Zhu Yuan anxiously turned to Sol. "Sol, Qingyi and I will hold Berbick—please, save as many residents as you can. I'm counting on you!"
"Leave it to me." Sol nodded lightly. "Not a single resident will be harmed."
Forty-four gunmen firing at once—he truly couldn't block them all.
And since not every bullet was aimed directly at him, his [Bullet Gambit] would not work.
But luckily, he still had Electromagnetic Manipulation LV5. To him, bullets were nothing more than toys.
"Hmph, foolish kindness and blind confidence."
Berbick only laughed coldly, unmoved by Sol's words.
He recognized Sol as that man from the live-action movie in the Cretan Hollow—the sharpshooter with perfect aim, the swordsman who cleaved Ethereals in two.
Sol was only one man. How could he possibly stop more than forty lackeys?
Useless mercy. If I were him, I'd join forces with the two Peacekeepers and take me out first.
Instead, Sol chose to split their strength, letting Berbick pick them off one by one.
Berbick wasted no more thought and charged at Qingyi and Zhu Yuan.
"Charged Fist Barrage: Fatal Combo!"
His modified demolition gauntlets crackled with electricity, swinging down with crushing power toward the two women.
Qingyi barely managed to hold with her three-section staff, forced back step by step by the pair of electrified fists.
Even with strength enough to move a car, she was no match for Berbick.
And the currents running through his gauntlets interfered with her body further.
Fortunately, Zhu Yuan's support allowed them to keep their balance.
"As expected of a high-caliber criminal—he's even tougher than a Notorious Ethereal!"
Qingyi pushed off with her staff, retreating with a grim look.
"If it were just him, we could take him down with care," Zhu Yuan said, breathing hard. "But with his men, we can't possibly stop them all."
From the corners of their eyes, they saw Berbick's lackeys pulling their triggers at the fleeing residents.
Bullets were cheap—efficiency mattered more.
Hundreds of bullets flew from every direction, impossible for ordinary civilians to dodge.
Qingyi and Zhu Yuan's eyes went red, their hearts heavy.
They knew Sol was powerful, even capable of slicing bullets apart. But hundreds at once? Not even he could stop them all.
Was Canvas Alley about to suffer massive casualties?
The residents running ahead heard the deafening gunfire, despair creeping in.
Yet not a single one was hit. Not even a spark.
Shocked, they turned back.
There stood Sol, his palm shining with blue-white electricity, dozens upon dozens of bullets suspended in midair.
The disguised thugs kept firing reflexively, bullets flying from their barrels—only to freeze abruptly before him.
Electromagnetic Manipulation LV5!
Blue-white sparks energized the bullets' metallic shells, nullifying their impact through magnetic force.
In a single instant, he had opened a powerful electromagnetic field, erasing the hail of hot lead.
"What kind of ability is that?"
Zhu Yuan blocked Berbick's strike, glancing in shock at Sol.
Hundreds of bullets hung frozen in the air, like something out of a movie's bullet-time scene.
But this was no illusion of speed—Sol had literally stopped them.
"It's some kind of high-energy electromagnetic field."
Qingyi's face twitched as she muttered uneasily.
"You really know everything, even recognizing that," Zhu Yuan said in admiration.
As expected of an ancient Intelligent Construct who had served for untold years—there was nothing she didn't know. Follow current novᴇls on novel[f]ire.net
"No. Even I was affected—that's the sign of an electromagnetic field."
Meanwhile, Berbick too was staring in shock at the suspended bullets.
Someone could stop hundreds of bullets in midair? It was like seeing a ghost.
He could accept a man who cut bullets with a sword. But this? This he could not.
"What trick is this?!"
Berbick stopped attacking the two Peacekeepers, his gaze darkening as he fixed on Sol.
No heavy equipment on him, no devices that could explain such a phenomenon.
With his experience, there was no way to comprehend how a man could generate such a terrifying field.
"If you've got time to worry about that, you should worry more about your death."
Sol had no interest in wasting words with the soon-to-be-dead.
He glanced at the bullets suspended before him and waved his hand. "Your bullets—why don't you take them back?"
As his words fell, blue-white currents split into hundreds of streams, each locking onto a bullet.
The electricity formed closed elliptical orbits around each round, producing immense magnetic force.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The bullets shot back at their shooters, accelerated into blazing orange beams.
The gunmen's eyes widened. "What the—?"
But they saw nothing more than a flash of light before their bodies were shredded into ash, not even corpses left behind.
The bullets, having destroyed flesh, could not withstand the pressure themselves—exploding into sparks in midair.
Berbick froze in terror as his lackeys were obliterated before his eyes.
This wasn't the Sol he knew—the sharpshooter, the swordsman. This was something else entirely.
His voice trembled as he stared at Sol.
He had fought his way through the underworld with his fists, undefeated, proud of his iron will.
But faced with Sol's eerie control, bullets turned into artillery shells, he felt fear.
This was an unknown power, something he couldn't understand—something that could kill him.
"No. This is science."
Sol shook his head and flicked a Denny from between his fingers.
"This is… a Railgun."
The same phenomenon repeated on the coin, but this time the gathered current was the sum of all those bullets.
A massive orange beam tore the air, screeching like a thousand birds.
Berbick saw the light closing in, but his body couldn't move fast enough.
The coin struck before he could dodge, the heat and force vaporizing his torso instantly.
Only a terrified head remained, dropping to the ground.
The beam continued on, streaking toward the Dead End Hollow like a falling star.
The residents of Canvas Alley watched the orange light disappear into the distance, burning the image into their hearts.
They would never forget this moment, offering their deepest faith.