For this second swift assault, the Aura Holes on the ceremonial staff released not sharp Aura Blades but shockwaves serving as propellant, propelling Giles to speeds the naked eye couldn't follow.
Even automatic sensing evasion had limits.
Facing Giles's swift assault of a different tier, Brion's evasion ability gave no response. The metal sphere atop the human body was forcefully struck into the ground by the staff.
Crack!
The human body assumed an 'n'-shaped posture, spine tearing through skin, spraying blinding fresh blood, completely unaware of being a corpse.
The extremely 'fresh' blood reflecting in his eyes made Giles's pupils slightly contract.
"Did you really think I had no precautions?"
Then, Giles showed a ferocious smile.
Just then, dozens of metal spikes shot from the human body with horrific wounds, aiming at Giles at close range.
[Chaos]
The Nen on Giles's body, like waves hitting reefs, crashed onto the incoming spikes.
That Nen manipulation, as the skill name suggested, thoroughly displayed 'chaos', including Aura Blades emerging from staff holes, resembling a tangled mess of threads.
Nen containing immense power crushed Brion's hidden moves within the human body, also crushing the metal sphere.
Due to powerful impact, the ground cracked extensively. Brion's spherical head and human corpse sank into the ground, turning into fragments.
The attack's sound wasn't loud… Giles deliberately controlled force to achieve this.
After all, causing too much noise would attract all wandering Brion in the ancient city.
After Giles swiftly eliminated the first Brion, the descending Brion also attacked the soldiers.
The shield-form metal perfectly blocked firearm attacks. After landing, they charged into the formation, then the metal shield instantly retracted into metal spheres.
Almost instantly, metal spheres bloomed like flowers, each metal petal adorned with sharp blades, spinning and slashing towards nearby soldiers.
Soldiers all had a layer of condensed, stable Nen… agile and calm, they dodged incoming petal blades.
Perhaps due to single-point attacks being ineffective, Brion retracted petal blades, reverting to metal spheres, switching to another area-attack mode.
Whoosh, whoosh!
The metal heads immediately shot numerous steel ball-sized spheres towards surrounding combatants.
Facing this wide-area pellet attack, each soldier, augmented by Nen, displayed superb combat skills… dodging, evading.
After Brion's assault ended, the team lost fewer than twenty men.
Avoiding this wave, nearby combatants switched to close combat, drawing special alloy blades, five-man groups attacking Brion.
Under coordinated group blade curtains, even Brion's automatic sensing evasion couldn't withstand chaotic slashing. Once the human body sustained damage, it was directly chopped into pieces.
Hidden moves within humans, warned by Giles, proved ineffective.
The battle ended quickly. The International Permit Agencies' team, using numerical advantage, eliminated about forty attacking Brion, but suffered twenty-one casualties.
"Sixteen immediate deaths, three severe injuries, two minor injuries."
"Bad… Brion fragments contain potent poison."
"Don't touch!"
While gathering casualties, someone noticed wounded showing poisoning signs, immediately collapsing. The three severely wounded teammates also showed poisoning signs, dying shortly.
The remaining two minor injuries gradually lost breath amid convulsions.
Upon death, their faces were cyanotic.
Giles and Kincaid approached, closely examining corpses.
"Such spread attacks plus potent poison… if it were ordinary special forces, they'd be wiped out by now," Kincaid said while updating Brion information with his pen.
"Correct."
Giles's eyes flickered with unreadable emotion.
In his previous voyage, most teammates were elite special forces, yet only he survived.
Facing Brion parasitizing various organisms, ordinary people, however physically strong, struggled to resist.
Even Brion didn't need much effort to easily wipe out a two-thousand-strong special forces unit.
But all soldiers brought this time were Nen Users...
The International Permit Agencies didn't let soldiers develop personal Nen Abilities but had them constantly hone Nen Techniques.
Regardless of Nen Category, their development direction leaned towards Enhancement, exponentially amplifying various traits of a special forces soldier.
Thus, against Brion's close-range spread attacks, the denser formation only produced twenty-one sacrifices.
This was the International Permit Agencies' current strongest team, determined to obtain the [Hope] in the Ancient Labyrinth City.
And this extreme training plan for soldier Nen Users was proposed by Giles.
However, Giles's Nen Category wasn't Enhancement, yet his combat style infinitely approached Enhancement.
Thus, Giles was a natural Enhancement advocate.
Initial victory pleased Kincaid, and soldiers gained confidence after results.
In the entire team, only Giles was dissatisfied, but he didn't show it, to avoid hurting morale.
"Optimism now is premature. This is still the Labyrinth City's outskirts, so only about forty wandering Brion attacked. Going deeper..."
Giles's broad, scarred hand clenched tightly. He couldn't help recalling scenes of numerous Brion gathering… various bizarre creatures with metal spheres!
The International Permit Agencies' team cremated twenty-one comrades' bodies, including forty attacking Brion corpses, then proceeded deeper.
After they left, burning bodies emitted pungent scorched smells.
Several minutes later, blazing flames extinguished instantly as if entering an oxygen-deprived space, revealing twenty-one charred bodies.
Moments later, charred bodies' crowns slightly protruded… silver sprouts slowly emerged, spreading like vines over unrecognizable heads.
Within over ten seconds, brand-new metal spheres appeared atop charred bodies.
Then, twenty-one charred bodies shakily rose from the ground, slowly moving like zombies towards where the International Permit Agencies' team departed.
While walking, charred fragments continuously fell, creating a path of ash.
Strangely, only twenty-one bodies revived, while the forty attacking Brion corpses gradually turned to ash in the flames.