The midnight chill hung heavy inside the high-rise penthouse suite of Builder City, casting a dark, silent shroud over the vast living quarters. Outside the floor-to-ceiling panoramic glass windows, the brilliant neon lights of the metropolis flickered like distant stars, casting long, pale silver bars across the polished obsidian floor. In the center of the vast room, fifteen dark, masked figures stood perfectly frozen in the darkness. Their poisoned short-blades and high-frequency daggers were drawn, held at precise tactical angles as they surrounded the sleeping quarters of the DREAMHUNTERS. They had moved like phantom shadows through the night, silently sweeping away the guild's gold-bordered spatial wallet, Saad's specialized high-tech tools, and Shoaib's irreplaceable master blueprints into a single spatial vacuum bag.
To the shadow operatives, the job was already complete. They were mere seconds away from leaping off the high-rise balcony and melting into the sprawling night skyline with an absolute fortune in their hands. They had performed hundreds of high-stakes burglaries across the upper sectors of Builder City, and not a single target had ever detected their approach.
Then, without warning, the atmospheric pressure inside the penthouse completely shattered.
It did not drop gradually. In a single, horrifying millisecond, two blood-red orbs flared open in the pitch-black shadows of the master bed. A suffocating, ancient weight descended upon the room, so sudden and intense that the double-paned reinforced glass walls groaned loudly against their heavy steel frames. The temperature inside the suite plummeted instantly toward sub-zero levels, thin trails of white frost creeping rapidly inward along the window edges.
Lam sat up.
He did not rush his movements. He swung his boots over the edge of the mattress with deliberate calm, his tall silhouette framed against the silver moonlight filtering through the glass. His crimson eyes burned with an icy, predatory light, fixing squarely on the lead thief who held the bulging spatial bag in his gloved hands.
"You took a lot of things," Lam said, his voice a low, echoing rumble that vibrated through the floorboards and rattled the crystal chandelier hanging overhead. "Money. Tools. Blueprints. All of it."
The lead thief gasped, taking an involuntary step backward as the suffocating pressure crushed down on his chest like a physical block of iron. But the operative was a hardened veteran of Builder City's criminal underworld, handpicked by elite syndicates for his flawless record. Recognizing that covert stealth was no longer an option and that the target was awake, he raised his black-gloved hand and gave a sharp, desperate gesture to his squad.
"Kill him!" the lead thief hissed, his voice strained through his acoustic mask. "He's just one teenager! Don't let him alert the rest of his group!"
All fifteen bandits moved at once.
They were not amateur street thugs or unorganized muggers; they were high-rank shadow mercenaries trained in synchronized assassination tactics. Four of them lunged directly at Lam's head and neck with poisoned short-blades, while six swept around his left and right flanks to completely cut off his evasion routes. The remaining five pulled heavy black throwing needles from their tactical belts, launching a dense hail of venom-coated steel aimed straight at his throat, heart, and joints.
They thought they could win. They thought numbers, deadly poison, and a synchronized surprise assault could easily overwhelm an eighteen-year-old caught unawares in his private quarters.
They did not know that Lam was not a human at all.
With a low, resonant hum that echoed from deep within his chest, Lam flexed his fingers. Instantly, dense, violet-black Endermite shells manifested around his hands and forearms, wrapping his skin in impenetrable, biological armor that pulsed with pure Abyssal energy. The jagged, crystalline plates locked together seamlessly, forming natural gauntlets that radiated a terrifying aura of raw physical force.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The hail of poisoned throwing needles struck Lam's chest and neck in mid-air, but they did not pierce his skin. The heavy steel darts shattered into fine metallic dust upon contact with his natural physical density, falling harmlessly to the thick silk carpet like dry sand.
Before the four lead attackers could even register the impossible sight, Lam moved.
He did not use his spatial teleportation. He simply took a single step forward, his footwork tearing a deep trench through the solid obsidian floor tile. He reached out with terrifying speed, catching the first two poisoned blades directly between his Endermite-covered palms. With a simple, effortless flick of his wrists, the high-grade alloy daggers snapped into tiny fragments.
The two attackers froze.
Lam grabbed the wrist of the first before he could pull away. Instead of striking him directly, Lam twisted, using the man's own momentum to throw him shoulder-first into the second attacker. Their armored bodies collided with a heavy metallic crash, sending both rolling across the floor.
The fourth attacker was already behind him.
His dagger flashed toward the gap beneath Lam's shoulder.
Lam tilted his body.
The blade missed by centimeters.
He caught the mercenary's forearm beneath his elbow and pulled him forward. The attacker stumbled straight past Lam, completely losing his balance. Lam planted a palm between his shoulder blades.
One push.
BANG!
The mercenary shot across the room and buried himself halfway into a leather couch.
At the exact same moment, the third attacker lunged from behind.
Lam thrust his left elbow backward.
BOOM!
The concussive force generated by the strike exploded out of Lam's elbow like an artillery shell. The heavy armored chest plate shattered, and the bandit was sent flying thirty feet through the air. He crashed violently through the heavy oak doors of the master suite, collapsing unconscious in the far corridor amidst a cloud of wooden splinters.
"Flank him! Keep your distance! Use the suppression gear!" the lead thief shouted, his previous confidence turning to panic as he watched his frontline fold in seconds.
The remaining operatives scattered across the vast penthouse living room, activating the shadow-blend tech built directly into their stealth suits.
Their bodies vanished.
The room suddenly became still again.
Lam's crimson eyes moved slowly from one side to the other.
A faint distortion appeared above him.
Lam noticed it immediately.
Four mercenaries reappeared from different tactical angles simultaneously, two dropping from the vaulted ceiling beams while another pair attacked from opposite sides. Heavy kinetic shock-batons extended from their wrists, crackling with blue electrical currents.
"Too slow," Lam murmured.
The first operative dropped directly from above, driving his shock-baton down toward Lam's right shoulder with all his weight behind the strike.
Lam casually raised his left hand.
The baton slammed directly into his palm.
ZZZRAKK!
Electricity exploded across Lam's arm.
The attacker grinned beneath his mask.
The expression lasted less than a second.
The blue current running across Lam's Endermite shell began changing color.
Purple.
The biological armor was absorbing it.
Lam squeezed his fist.
The heavy alloy baton collapsed like tin foil.
"What—"
Lam pulled the broken weapon forward, dragging its owner off balance, then drove his shoulder into the man's armored torso.
The mercenary flew backward, spinning across the room before smashing into a marble pillar.
Two others attacked together.
One went high.
The other went low.
Lam stepped between both strikes.
The upper baton passed over his shoulder while the lower one cut through empty air beneath his coat.
Lam seized both attackers by their tactical harnesses.
For half a second, they hung helplessly in his grip.
Then Lam slammed them into each other.
CRASH!
Their helmets collided.
Both dropped.
The fourth attacker wisely stopped his charge.
Instead, he jumped backward and threw two magnetic suppression cuffs toward Lam's ankles.
Three more mercenaries joined him.
Six cuffs opened in mid-air.
Lam lifted his right leg and swept it across the room.
The kick touched nothing.
It didn't have to.
A violent wall of compressed air erupted from the movement.
WHOOOM!
The magnetic cuffs were blown backward before they could lock.
The four operatives behind them were ripped off their feet and hurled into the wall.
The impact shook several framed decorations loose.
They crashed onto the floor along with their weapons.
The lead thief's breathing grew heavier.
"Ranged formation!" he barked. "Now!"
The surviving mercenaries immediately changed tactics.
Two vaulted behind the leather lounge couches and pulled compact pneumatic wrist-cannons from beneath their sleeves.
Another pair climbed onto the elevated dining platform, giving themselves a clean firing angle.
Four red targeting dots appeared across Lam's torso.
PFT! PFT! PFT!
Dense tungsten projectiles tore through the air at hypersonic speed.
Lam moved his head slightly.
The first projectile missed his cheek.
A second passed his shoulder.
The rounds buried themselves in the opposite wall, blowing chunks of stone across the penthouse.
The shooters adjusted instantly.
They fired again.
This time, Lam didn't dodge.
He raised his hand.
TINK!
A tungsten slug slammed directly into his palm.
It flattened against the Endermite shell and dropped onto the floor.
One of the marksmen stared.
"No way."
Another volley came.
Lam started walking toward them.
PFT! PFT! PFT! PFT!
Rounds struck his shoulders, forearms and chest.
Some ricocheted.
Others flattened.
None stopped him.
The shooters began backing away.
"Keep firing!"
Lam vanished from their sight.
Not teleportation.
He had simply accelerated beyond what their eyes could follow.
The couch suddenly exploded backward as Lam appeared in front of the first two marksmen.
Before either could react, he grabbed both wrist-cannons.
CRUNCH!
The firing mechanisms collapsed inside his hands.
Broken springs, circuitry and metal fragments spilled onto the carpet.
Lam looked at the weapons.
"Annoying."
He pushed both mercenaries backward with one hand each.
They crashed into the couch and went limp.
The two shooters on the dining platform immediately fired.
Lam bent backward.
A projectile passed over his face.
Another struck the floor beside his boot.
Lam grabbed the edge of the destroyed couch.
The mercenaries saw what he was doing.
"Oh, you've got to be—"
Lam threw it.
The massive couch spun through the air.
Both marksmen dove away as it smashed through the dining platform railing.
Before they even landed, Lam was there.
One tried to raise his weapon.
Lam flicked the barrel upward.
The shot blasted into the ceiling.
Lam then struck the man's armored vest with two fingers.
The force lifted him off his feet and sent him sliding across the dining table.
The second mercenary swung his cannon like a club.
Lam ducked.
The weapon passed over his head.
He tapped the man's helmet.
THUNK!
The operative immediately collapsed onto the carpet.
Four more shadow operatives rushed from the corners of the dining hall.
This time, none attempted to strike him.
They spread apart.
"Gravity units!"
Small machines attached to their belts unfolded.
A deep mechanical hum filled the penthouse.
The air around Lam distorted.
Suddenly—
BOOM!
The floor beneath his feet cracked.
Localized gravity multiplied around him.
Two times.
Four.
Six.
Ten.
Furniture near Lam began sliding toward the gravitational field. Broken weapons scraped across the floor.
The four operators clenched their teeth as their generators reached maximum output.
"Got him!"
Lam looked down at the cracked floor.
Then back at them.
He didn't even bend a knee.
Their expressions changed.
"Increase it!"
"It's already at maximum!"
Lam raised his boot.
Then stomped.
BOOOOM!
A localized pulse of Abyssal energy erupted beneath him.
The gravity field distorted.
The machines screamed.
Warning lights flashed across all four generators.
"Shut them down!"
Too late.
The fields inverted.
All four mercenaries were ripped upward.
"AH—!"
They slammed against the ceiling.
The gravity units shattered.
The field disappeared.
All four fell back down, crashing into couches, tables and the obsidian floor in a heap of broken equipment.
Lam slowly turned toward the remaining operatives.
Nobody attacked.
For the first time since the fight started, they hesitated.
Their leader noticed.
"What are you doing? Move!"
One mercenary looked toward him.
"Our equipment isn't working!"
"Then improvise!"
The operative barely had time to respond before Lam took another step.
That was enough to restart the fight.
Two mercenaries threw cylindrical devices across the floor.
CLICK.
Lam looked down.
Flash-bangs.
BANG!
White light consumed the penthouse.
The explosion was immediately followed by a violent sonic pulse powerful enough to disorient anyone standing nearby.
The thieves moved through the blast using their helmet filters.
Three attacked Lam simultaneously.
One blade swept toward his ribs.
Another targeted his back.
A third attacker attempted to wrap an incendiary wire around his throat.
Lam's hand emerged through the white smoke.
He caught the wire.
The mercenary pulled.
The thin cable ignited, glowing orange.
Lam stared at it.
Then pulled back.
Hard.
The attacker flew straight toward him.
Lam caught him by the front of his armor and tossed him onto a nearby couch.
The other two attacked.
Lam blocked the first blade with his forearm.
CLANG!
He twisted.
The dagger flew from the mercenary's hand and embedded itself in the ceiling.
The second attacker aimed for Lam's side.
Lam stepped around him and hooked his foot behind the man's ankle.
One small movement sent the mercenary crashing onto his back.
Lam planted his boot beside the man's head.
CRACK!
The obsidian tile shattered.
The operative stared at the crater inches from his face.
He stopped moving.
Lam stepped away.
He didn't need to hit him.
The message was clear enough.
But the mercenaries were desperate now.
One activated a neural stunner.
A narrow pulse struck Lam directly in the temple.
Nothing happened.
The operative fired again.
Lam slowly looked toward him.
The mercenary lowered the weapon.
"...Seriously?"
Lam appeared in front of him.
He took the neural stunner from the man's hand, examined it for a moment, then crushed it.
The mercenary immediately raised both hands.
Lam pushed him aside.
Another shadow operative wasn't so willing to surrender.
He came charging from behind with two high-frequency daggers, crossing them toward Lam's back.
Lam spun.
His Endermite gauntlets struck both blades.
Sparks exploded through the darkness.
The mercenary attacked again.
Left.
Right.
Thrust.
Reverse slash.
Lam blocked every strike with tiny movements of his forearms.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The attacker grew faster.
Lam remained calm.
Finally, the mercenary crossed both daggers and drove them forward.
Lam caught both.
He squeezed.
The vibrating blades cracked.
Then shattered.
The operative stared at the handles remaining in his hands.
Lam tapped his chest plate.
THUD!
The mercenary shot backward across the floor.
The last few operatives looked around the ruined penthouse.
Their formation was gone.
Their technology was destroyed.
Their weapons were useless.
Half their squad wasn't moving.
And Lam still hadn't even started breathing heavily.
"Retreat!" someone finally shouted.
That single word destroyed what remained of their discipline.
Two ran toward the corridor.
Lam appeared in front of them.
They stopped so abruptly they nearly collided.
Lam pointed back toward the living room.
Neither argued.
One tried the kitchen exit.
Lam grabbed the back of his tactical vest as he passed and casually tossed him onto a dining chair.
Another attempted to reactivate his shadow-blend system.
His body flickered.
Lam's crimson eyes followed him anyway.
The invisible mercenary took three careful steps.
Lam turned his head directly toward him.
The operative froze.
"You can see me?"
Lam nodded.
A second later, Lam's hand closed around the front of his invisible suit.
The stealth system flickered off.
"Oh."
Lam threw him onto the carpet beside the others.
THUD! THUD! CRASH!
One by one, the elite shadow gang was systematically dismantled across the length of the fifty-story suite.
Every strike Lam delivered was controlled.
He could have crushed them.
Instead, he targeted their armor, weapons and balance.
A wrist-cannon was destroyed with a squeeze.
A shock-baton snapped over his forearm.
A mercenary attempting a flying kick was caught by the ankle and thrown into a pile of cushions.
Another tried using a wire trap between two pillars.
Lam walked straight through it, ripping the anchors from the walls.
The operative holding the trigger simply stared.
Lam stared back.
The thief slowly placed the trigger on the floor.
"Good choice."
Seconds later, the fight was over.
Fourteen of the fifteen bandits lay scattered across the ruined interior of the luxury suite, groaning or entirely unconscious.
Their high-tech stealth suits were torn apart.
Their gadgets were shattered.
Their poison daggers lay uselessly across the cracked obsidian floor.
Smoke drifted from broken equipment.
Pieces of furniture were scattered throughout the room.
The once-perfect penthouse looked as if a small war had taken place inside it.
Yet at the center of everything stood Lam.
His coat remained neatly adjusted.
His breathing was completely calm.
Not even a drop of sweat ran down his face.
His crimson eyes shifted toward the balcony.
The lead thief stood beside the open glass doors.
His entire body trembled beneath his full-face mask.
He looked at his fourteen defeated squad members.
Then at the spatial bag clutched tightly in his grip.
Then back at Lam.
Lam began walking toward him.
One step.
Then another.
The lead thief stepped backward.
Lam stopped.
"My turn," he said softly.
That was enough.
The leader spun around and threw open the sliding balcony door.
Cold night wind exploded into the penthouse.
He jumped.
His body disappeared beyond the balcony railing.
The emergency parachute system built into his stealth suit immediately began activating.
He only needed a few seconds.
Builder City's glowing streets stretched far below him.
Then—
VROOP.
Space folded.
Before the thief could fall even three feet, Lam materialized directly in front of him in mid-air.
The thief's eyes widened behind his mask.
"No—"
Lam's Endermite-plated hand closed around his throat.
Their fall stopped instantly.
Lam pulled him effortlessly back over the railing.
THUD!
The thief slammed onto the balcony floor.
The spatial bag slipped from his fingers and rolled across the stone tiles.
It opened slightly.
Nehal's 700K wallet slid out first.
Then Saad's high-tech tools.
Then Shoaib's master blueprints.
All intact.
Lam glanced at them.
Then he stepped over the stolen loot.
The thief desperately tried crawling backward.
Lam's heavy boot came down against his chest plate, pinning him completely flat.
The man grabbed Lam's ankle with both hands.
He couldn't move it even an inch.
The red fire in Lam's eyes glowed brighter against the darkness.
Behind them, the lights of Builder City stretched endlessly across the horizon.
The wind whipped through Lam's coat.
The lead thief stared upward.
For the first time that night, he understood something perfectly.
They had never broken into an unprotected penthouse.
They had walked directly into the territory of something they didn't understand.
Lam leaned down slightly.
"Now," he said, his voice cold enough to freeze blood.
"Who sent you?"