(MNIBP)Chapter 52 - Unstable Energy Source

The Highlands, New Jersey, USA.

Ben's P.O.V.

Once the silver-eyed man received the redhead’s instructions, the latter aligning perfectly with what was in his mind, his whole body tensed, his blood coursing at high speed all over his body as every single muscle he possessed rippled and worked together to transmit as much force as possible from his upper body down to his right leg and finally to the ground. The resulting counterforce threw him forward at a speed invisible to the untrained naked eye.

The move was anything but silent, however, as clumps of earth flew into the air and hit the trees and bushes around. Nonetheless, by the time the two armed men he was targeting heard him, it was already too late. Through his helmet’s visor, Grey Knight noticed the guards’ bodies starting to turn around toward him in a manner almost akin to slow motion.

Despite the strange scene playing in front of his eyes, his body did not slow down at all. Instead, he clenched his right fist before throwing a calculated punch toward the woman standing in the back. Hitting her floating ribs, with some audibly breaking in the process, he then threw a left to her temple, successfully incapacitating the armed woman who collapsed on the floor. Not wasting time checking if the latter was out cold or simply dead, his moving form began flowing toward the other man whose body was already turned back two-thirds of the way.

This time, the armored SHIELD Agent threw a low kick to the opponent’s left knee which broke on contact. ‘Damn it! I slipped up a bit there.’ He briefly thought as the other man’s body started to ‘slowly’ stumble due to the lack of leg support. Using the same tactic as with the previous guard, the silver-eyed knight threw a right to the enemy’s left floating ribs, cutting the scream of pain that was starting to form in the injured man’s throat. A last right hook to the temple finished the job with the man lying out cold on the ground.

As his Divine Sense was fully deployed during the brief fight, if one could call it that, he was completely aware of everything happening around him. Back up a few seconds ago. With Grey Knight’s distraction, every single guard started to turn back. Hawkeye, who moved to the highest hill around, then shot his gun and, unsurprisingly, managed a headshot on the armed guards standing in the back of the second armed team, killing him instantly. The last guard clearly felt flustered at the out-of-control situation, which created a perfect opportunity for Black Widow to deal with him without risking getting shot by those firearms with unknown power.

Mirroring the silver-eyed knight, the redhead knocked the guard out with a left to the temple, not even bothering with any other attack. With the difference in the two fighters’ strength, Grey Knight could easily understand why she would act that way. Nonetheless, he would rather use one more attack than needed to be sure of the result. In any case, when facing weak grunts like them and with his current attack speed, it would not slow him down much.

After taking a deep breath to loosen his previously tense body, the silver-eyed knight asked in the coms. [”Did you guys notice? About their energy signature?”] The other two superagents nodded, with Black Widow responding. [”They seemed... kinda unstable. It’s as if they're not natur...”] Before the woman could finish her thought, the raven-haired knight’s Divine Sense caught an abnormality coming from the only dead guard’s corpse.

The energy inside the man’s heart, which was already pretty unstable seemed to grow out of control at high speed. Despite only having been a cultivator for a short time, the muscular knight’s previous experience told him that any energy source going out of control had the regular tendency of blowing up. And, from the strength starting to build up, the explosion would probably be too much for the redhead and himself to bear in close quarters. As for Hawkeye, he was probably far enough to be safe.

That inner reflection happened in an instant, his body dashing automatically toward the redhead at the same time. Despite wearing her mask, his mind registered the question in her eyes, however, time was too tight for him to explain. Instead, he tried to convey the message ‘Trust me’ through his gaze while grabbing her motionless body and setting her over his shoulder.

As his legs pushed as hard as he could to run faster, he yelled through the coms. [”RUN AWAY, CLINT!!!”] As the last word left his lips, his mind caught a brutal shift behind his back. The energy that kept growing finally reached its limits, which had the exact result he previously expected. Instantly, a deafening sound resounded in his ears, followed by a hot and powerful blast right after.

The first blast was bearable by them thanks to their superhuman physiques, however, it did not end with just one. Instead, three others quickly followed which aggregated and resulted in a ridiculously powerful explosion. What baffled the silver-eyed knight was not the latter, though. Instead, it was the fact that the explosion had a mind component as well since some parts of his Divine Sense were instantly burnt. Thankfully, with his perk, any non-life-threatening injuries would only make him stronger. Even those affecting the Mind, the latter being harder to heal than those on the body, were not a great problem for him as long as he had enough time.

That being said, it was not a pleasant experience and to avoid worsening the injuries in his Divine Sense, he chose to retract it inside his mind while moving Black Widow’s figure to cover her completely with his own. He barely had time to do it as the kinetic energy from the explosion immediately hit his back and violently threw the two in the air as if they were just rag-dolls. They ended up colliding against several trees and bushes, breaking everything in their way until they landed haphazardly on the ground, rolling for a few dozen feet before their bodies finally halted.

After making sure that there was no other danger, Grey Knight gently let go of the redhead who rolled down from his torso until her back touched the ground. Through the coms, he could hear the panting breaths coming from her, while from the corner of his eyes, he noticed her chest moving up and down almost desperately. ‘Should be the mental shock.’ He thought as he recalled the fact that he bore the overwhelming majority of the shocks and damages.

After a few seconds of silence where the two regulated their breathing, the silver-eyed knight heard the coughing voice of Clint through his ‘earpiece’. [”What the fuck... The fuck was that?! Did they... Have a bomb or something? I scanned them... Earlier and found nothing?”] To which the raven-haired knight replied in good humor while standing up slowly.

[”Or something. Remember how unstable their energy seemed to be? Well, I found the energy source in that guy’s heart starting to go haywire and thought about what was the worst that could happen. That’s why I grabbed Widow and got our asses out of there.”] Beside him, the female superagent started getting up as well, while not forgetting to comment. [”That was a great call...”] Letting out an audible sigh, she then continued. [”I only noticed the change when you picked me up. It was too small for my Divine Sense to catch before that.”]

[”Anyway, are you guys alright? I’m only a bit shaken up myself since I was pretty far away from the epicenter. That and I got the hell outta dodge when you told me to run away, Knight.”] Clint exclaimed. Checking his body through his mind, he then responded. [”I’ve got several muscles ripped here and there, internal bleeding... Mmmhh, I’ve also got...”] Taking his right shoulder with his left hand, he then pushed it as hard as he could until he heard an audible clack followed by a brief bout of pain that disappeared right after.

Sighing in relief, he continued. [”I HAD a dislocated shoulder, but I just fixed it. No broken bones, thankfully, but an overwhelming amount of bruises all over my body. But I think they should go away in a few minutes. The ripped muscles might take a bit longer, though. Half an hour? Maybe less? I’m not really sure.”] The woman at his side suddenly remarked. [”Now, you’re just showing off!”]

Her comment brought out a few chuckles from the towering knight who replied. [”Maybe I am. In any case, we need to decide what we should do now. With an explosion this big, we’ve definitely been made. So... Do we continue? Or do we retreat?”] Those words silenced the other two for a moment, leaving him to ponder over their situation.

The conundrum they faced was this: If they did go through with it, the risk would rise exponentially with the enemy being aware of their arrival, especially if they had more of those human-bomb guards. However, if they chose to retreat, not only would they lose a great source of intel, but that organization would start to be much more vigilant. That would make finding a similar base much harder.

With all the information they had, the raven-haired knight already made his decision on whether to proceed or not. Nonetheless, he stayed silent as he wanted to give some time to the other two. Especially Black Widow, who was the designated ‘captain’ of their temporary team. He did not have to wait for too long, though, as the redhead declared firmly a few seconds later.

[”I want to continue the mission. But I’m not forcing the two of you. I get that the danger level is much higher than the intel I gathered previously showed, so I would understand if you guys wanted to opt out.”] Hawkeye stayed silent for several seconds in thought. Since time was ticking, Grey Knight decided to speak. [”I’m in. With our strength, the risks are manageable. Not only that, but even if you find another base, I don’t think the danger would be much lower. After all, they’ve just learned of our existence, which means that they shouldn’t have time to prepare.”]

Pausing for a second, he added a caveat. [”That being said, it’s all based on conjectures since we lack definite intel, so take it with a grain of salt.”] Nodding her head, the female redhead commented. [”I made the same conclusion. So, what do you say Hawk?”] Her question was followed by the sound of a sigh on the other side. [”The two of you will really be the death of me... Knight, if I die, don’t go seduce my wife, or I’ll come back from the dead to take you out.”]

Freezing for a second at the unfounded accusation, the handsome and muscular male knight exclaimed. [“What the fuck are you talking about? I’m already married, so why would I go seduce another woman?!”] His voice might have had some guilt hidden in it, especially as the image of one particular redhead appeared in his mind, however, he chose to shove it aside and defend his honor.

His exclamation was immediately followed by two simultaneous scoffs. One came from beside him while the other came from the blond man on the other side of their coms. [”If you didn’t have another grown woman who’s head-over-heels with you and her two kids living in the same house as you and your wife, you’d be a bit more credible.”] Those last words were accompanied by a few taps on his shoulder.

Faking a cough, the raven-haired knight turned toward the newly arrived Hawkeye and claimed. [”Pure coincidence. Anyway, since we’re all for continuing, let’s get moving, alright? The more we wait and the higher the danger.”] The other clearly chose not to comment on his words and the trio thus started dashing through the valley in a bid to reach the mountain in front of them.

The intense movements brought constant pangs of intense pain to the muscular knight, however, as time slowly passed, so did the discomforts in his body, little by little. Even his Divine Sense started growing incrementally more solid as the burnt parts healed gradually. While his focus was turned toward his own recovery, their feet led them from the hollow to the mountain bottom and, quickly after, along its incline.

When the team was close to the objective, his train of thought was suddenly disturbed as he received a private message through his coms. [”By the way, Ben. Thanks again for saving me back there. I don’t think I’d have made it otherwise.”] Her words elicited a warm smile from Ben who gently replied. [”Always, Nat.”] Pausing for a second, he added. [”Let’s focus on the mission, alright? I don’t want us to get more hurt than we’ve been.”] [”Sure.”] Her reply seemed to contain disappointment, however, he was not lying when he said it was not the time and place for much more than the mission.

Shoving all those thoughts aside, he moved his Divine Sense to cover their front and after a few short minutes, found an opening in the mountain wall. From what he could tell, it was an artificial cave blocked by a metallic wall. The only entrance seemed to be a sizable gate, big enough to let heavy trucks in. Fortunately, it was currently open. Unfortunately, it was full of guards, with all of them armed with similar rifles as the ones they previously encountered. They were also all at least at the First Level Novice Rank, with the strongest seemingly at the Peak of the Third Level.

Since his Sense was stronger and finer than the other two, he was designated as the team’s scout and thus quickly led the team to a hidden place not far from the entrance, but sufficiently far to be out of sight of the guards. Of course, the man knew that they might have surveillance in place and had thus been using his veiling technique all along. From his point of view, Black Widow had a similar spell, however, it seemed to use the Water Element instead of the combination of the Five main ones. Hawkeye mainly relied on the obfuscating attribute of his own armor, probably because he had too little time to learn any spells, or at least, not the veiling kind.

Once the group stopped behind a wide tree, Ben turned toward the redhead and asked calmly. [”Got any plan on how to go through those guards?”]