From Bullets To Billions Chapter 609: The Last Line of Defense

Leaving the debris of the games room behind, Ramon and his thinning group of loyalists resumed their grueling ascent, eventually breaching the heavy doors of the Fortis Media Room.

Presentation boards, advertising materials, and flyers littered the floor in chaotic fashion. To their surprise, this office space was oddly devoid of conscious Gilt Rat or Black Hound members. Most of the Syndicate grunts lay scattered across the carpet, writhing in silent agony.

Standing amidst the wreckage sat a lone, panting defender clad in a green jacket.

"That one over there... another irritating Altered?" Ramon sneered, casting a disdainful glance at the gasping Ranger. "No wonder the Billion Bloodline group displayed such unearned confidence."

Without breaking his pace, Ramon gestured casually, ordering one of his top-tier lab coats to step forward and dispatch the survivor.

The hulking enforcer charged, closing the distance in an instant. Joe looked up at the mechanical nightmare approaching him and retreated a step. A steel-reinforced fist whistled through the air, nearly shattering Joe's skull; however, with a miraculous twist, Joe narrowly dodged the lethal momentum.

Joe cursed inwardly, his pulse thundering against his ribcage.

He lacked the speed to evade the follow-up blow. A hydraulic-assisted punch hammered into his abdomen. The sheer force lifted Joe off his feet, hurling his body backward until he slammed into a massive, wall-mounted flat-screen display.

His face collided with the screen, splintering the glass, and crimson blood began to trickle down his forehead onto his green jacket.

"I might have misjudged him as a threat," Ramon remarked dismissively, not even slowing down. "Just ensure he is thoroughly dealt with before you rejoin us."

While Ramon dismissed the green-jacketed man after such a one-sided collision, Darius felt a prickle of curiosity, his tactical mind racing. These were the same elite forces that had dismantled the heavily fortified Black Hound locations weeks ago; they certainly possessed unrivaled combat expertise. And if this seemingly fragile man in the green jacket hadn't incapacitated those heavily armed thugs, who had?

Darius squinted. Perhaps this battered Ranger wasn't as fragile as Ramon arrogantly assumed. No ordinary person survives dealing with so many Syndicate thugs single-handedly.

The lab coat enforcer left to finalize the kill soon realized why. Through the static of the flickering TV, Joe was already stubbornly dragging himself upright.

"Are you kidding me?" Joe groaned, wiping blood from his vision as his fractured ribs began to mend with a searing, agonizing heat. "Couldn't I have received a regeneration ability that didn't involve this much agony? This fight is going to be brutal."

Joe rotated his shoulders, a strained smirk twisting his lips as he faced the mechanical suit.

"Well, at least I have something to look forward to today. When I finally crush you, I am taking that exoskeleton for myself!"

Forgoing the chaos of the media room, Ramon and Darius climbed higher. They could sense they were approaching the summit of the tower. Having roughly calculated the size of the Billion Bloodline roster, they expected the resistance to be stiffer, but they could hardly imagine Max finding any more soldiers to oppose them.

The next threshold brought them into the Legal Department.

As they stepped inside, a radiant, golden leg swept toward their heads in a devastating arc.

Darius, relying on his combat instincts, moved in a blur. He grabbed Ramon by the collar and jerked him backward. The strike whistled inches over their heads, barely missing the leaders. Instead, the force slammed into the chest of the last lab coat enforcer trailing them.

The impact sent the armored warrior tumbling backward, throwing him down the steep concrete staircase they had just ascended.

Wolf touched down gracefully, his glowing jacket casting a golden hue over the dim office.

"Not a bad entrance for a special Ranger, if I do say so myself," Wolf quipped with a sharp grin.

Despite his posturing, Wolf didn't stand his ground to duel the leaders. The moment he rose, he bolted past the doorway. It appeared as if he were fleeing, but his tactical intent was clear: he was diving down the stairs, pursuing the armored man he had just struck to isolate his target from the support group.

"I intended to crush that arrogant fool myself!" Ramon bellowed, his face flushing with fury.

However, his refusal to backtrack down the stairs and lose momentum forced him to proceed. He would not allow a distraction to forestall his victory.

As Ramon pushed deeper into the hall, he and Darius were now truly isolated. Their formidable squad of armored lab coats had been systematically picked off, each engaged in their own desperate struggle on the lower floors.

"Well, it only takes one of us to effectively terminate the Chairman. If there are two of us, that is hardly an issue," Ramon muttered, adjusting his tie.

Darius remained reticent, reflecting on his first formal meeting with the Chairman of the Billion Bloodline group. He had never anticipated their tense rivalry would escalate to this bloody finale.

Rather than arriving at the executive suite, the Syndicate bosses encountered one final obstacle: the Fortis gym.

Ramon halted outside the double doors, a sudden thought occurring to him.

"Come to think of it... where the hell is Skull?"