From Bullets To Billions Chapter 608: The Price of Arrogance

"Sir, it appears the Bloodline group has deliberately deployed their elite fighters individually, acting as a chain of major roadblocks or perhaps attempting to halt our progress floor by floor," a towering man in a lab coat remarked. His mechanical exoskeleton whirred as they moved past the wrecked showroom.

He wasn't an outlier; every elite guard had arrived at the exact same tactical assessment. It was blatantly clear. It seemed the standard defenders were under strict orders to avoid engaging the command group, leaving the path wide open for these disjointed, superpowered duels.

"I share that sentiment," Ramon answered coldly, maintaining his steady, confident stride as he adjusted his cuffs. "But it truly doesn't matter. The outcome remains the same. I will simply step over their corpses and drag that pathetic chairman from his office with my own two hands."

High up in the security room, Vivian was expertly manipulating their deep-seated Syndicate arrogance.

The harsh reality was that if Ramon and his elites had swallowed their pride and stayed united to confront Na in the showroom or focus their fire on Stephen at the barricades, their combined mechanical might would have effortlessly crushed the Rangers before moving on.

Instead, Ramon was rashly rushing ahead. He was convinced his exoskeleton-clad operatives were fundamentally superior to any Altered or martial artist the Bloodline could field. That conviction was precisely why he continued to discard his men in one-on-one combat to facilitate his own ascent.

Vivian had not only engineered this trap but had also meticulously prepared contingency plans for worst-case scenarios, should the command group choose to stay unified. She had pinpointed the optimal engagement zones for each Ranger and mapped out secure retreat paths, allowing them to reach heavy fire doors and escape before being surrounded.

This backup strategy was why the training arena on the top floor was Vivian's final line of defense. If the Syndicate attacked as one single force, the conflict would inevitably culminate in one apocalyptic confrontation: every Ranger standing shoulder to shoulder against Ramon, Darius, and the surviving heavy hitters.

For now, events were unfolding precisely according to her design. Ramon seemed poised to continue fracturing his forces, just as she had anticipated. Her read on his ego had proven pitch-perfect.

When Ramon’s diminished group reached the next checkpoint, they stormed into the Fortis gaming and recreation room. This was where Darno stood firm, holding the line.

"This is becoming incredibly irritating!" Darno bellowed, his voice echoing over the room’s chaos.

He lifted a weighted leg, delivering a blunt-force kick to the neck of a charging Gilt Rat thug. The kinetic impact launched the man horizontally into another intruder, causing both to pile into a heap of shattered arcade machines.

As another street fighter lunged forward with a brass-knuckled swing, Darno brushed the hand aside like a pesky fly. Without losing rhythm, Darno lunged ahead and delivered a brutal headbutt square to the man’s forehead. A sickening crunch resonated, and a visible indentation marked the thug’s skull as he collapsed instantly.

"Ah... another bothersome obstacle," Ramon sighed, pausing at the threshold of the ruined room. He ignored the corpses entirely, his gaze locked onto the Ranger. "One of you stay behind and neutralize him permanently. Once that’s finished, rejoin us at the penthouse. I expect the bulk of their remaining defenses to be clustered around the chairman’s office."

This was another fatal miscalculation by Ramon. It was perhaps understandable, given that any typical corporate security force would naturally huddle their best defensive assets around their leader.

However, the elite fighters of the Billion Bloodline were spread evenly across the mid-levels, strategically positioned to inflict maximum attrition on the invading army long before they reached Max.

Obeying Ramon's directive, one of the hulking lab-coated figures stepped forward. Trusting fully in the hydraulic strength of his advanced exoskeleton, he closed the gap. When he reached Darno, the servos hummed loudly as he unleashed a devastating, steel-reinforced side punch.

Darno merely planted his boots into the carpet. He raised his heavy arms into a cross-guard, knees bent to absorb the impact.

CLANG!

The mechanical fist struck Darno’s forearms with the force of a sledgehammer meeting an anvil. Yet, Darno stood immovable. He didn't budge an inch.

"What the hell...? Is this exoskeleton glitching?!" the enforcer gasped, eyes wide with disbelief behind his visor. He looked from his hydraulic fist to the Ranger and back. "That blow should have shattered your arms like glass!"

"Sorry to disappoint, pal," Darno replied, a bloody, weary grin spreading across his face as he swiped the mechanical arm aside. "My bones just happen to be considerably denser than the average man’s!"

Darno immediately attempted a counter-strike to the man's chest, but the lab-coated operative hit his suit’s auto-reflex trigger, parrying just in time. The two titans locked into a grueling stalemate.

'Man, why can’t things ever be easy?' Darno thought, trading jarring, bone-rattling blows with the machine. 'I remember the boring days when I first joined Fortis, dying for real action every single day. Now that it’s finally sitting right at my doorstep... I’d give anything to just sit down and catch my breath.'

While Ramon left his guard behind to clash with Darno, he continued his ruthless climb with Darius and the remaining scientists. He was perfectly content to sacrifice his men in dribs and drabs as they inevitably crossed paths with the rest of the Rangers.

"Let them shed their blood," Ramon murmured coldly, staring up the dark stairwell toward the executive floor. "Everything within these walls will be mine by the end of the night."