Chapter 195: Breaking Bamboo

In the lobby of the Craig Community Bank, bullets crisscrossed and flew wildly in every direction. The roar of gunfire completely drowned out the screams of the bank employees and customers.

Li Tailai and his companions were pinned down in a corner of the lobby by bullets coming from all directions and angles. They barely managed to hold out using the cement truck that had crashed in and the scattered brick walls as cover.

“At least twenty people, shit! That bastard Antonio practically hid an army in here.”

Lawrence Collinson cursed from behind the tires, enduring the intense heat coming from behind him.

The fuel tank of the cement truck had long been shot out, and part of the vehicle was blazing fiercely. Fortunately, they had prepared in advance—the truck’s interior was filled with cement. Though the tank had burst, it caused the cement to pour out instead.

Li Tailai had mixed in a large amount of thorns, and Inez Bilton—the tenth-level magic-energy mage borrowed from Brute—used the spell ‘Frost Domain’ to rapidly cool the cement, turning it into a more reliable barrier. Even gunfire from outlaw-level magic-energy professionals could not penetrate it.

“The number of people isn’t the problem; the key is those bystanders. The enemy is using them as hostages, as human shields.”

Howard Eisenhower sat in a corner and said in an incredulous tone, “Did you really come from the jungles of Southeast Asia? Why are you so restrained? Unbelievable—we’re here to rob and kill. We’re criminals! Bandits!”

“Mr. Sky Eye, if you can’t stand it, you can open fire.”

Kermit Collinson shrugged. “The boss repeatedly stressed that this operation should avoid involving innocent people as much as possible. Though I don’t understand why, neither A-Tai nor I want to go against the boss’s wishes.”

“So we have to stay here.”

Howard Eisenhower let out a sarcastic laugh. “I bet that in at most a hundred seconds, we’ll have to slink away in defeat—”

But just then, they simultaneously sensed a powerful surge of magic tide and the disturbance of the surrounding magical defense array.

Eisenhower’s eyes narrowed slightly. His figure darted out like a ghost, his twin pistols firing continuously, unleashing fourteen bullets in a row, before he ducked back into a corner.

Taking advantage of the brief failure of the defense array, his bullets accurately struck the foreheads of six bank security guards in the lobby.

The last man, though escaping death, was hit in the thigh and fell to the ground with a scream.

“You need to tell your boss that I did my best. Shit! These two guns only have nine-round magazines. Couldn’t he spend a little more money to buy a magic-energy gun that uses rechargeable bullets?”

Howard Eisenhower cursed as he changed magazines. Meanwhile, Li Tailai and the others had also made progress. As a large mass of thorns expanded inward like a moving wall, Kermit Collinson suddenly entered a berserk state. With gunfire cover from his brother Lawrence and the others, he forcibly smashed through the bullet-riddled bulletproof glass above the counter.

As the man’s battle-axe whirled, it instantly stirred up a bloody storm inside, killing five magic-energy professionals from the Blood Hand Gang.

But at that moment, another squad of Blood Hand Gang members surged out from the stairwell—twelve in total, each wielding a firearm. With firepower no less intense than before, they pinned Li Tailai and the others down. Kermit Collinson, still in his berserk state, was hit by over twenty bullets. In an instant, his ‘Berserker Armor’ was on the verge of collapse.

“They really did hide an army in here.”

Howard Eisenhower, somewhat speechless, leaned his body back slightly, not daring to stick his head out for the moment. “I think your berserker friend might be done for.”

Lawrence Collinson immediately turned and glared at Eisenhower. Just as he was about to risk everything to go to the rescue,

from the central air-conditioning ducts above them, dozens or even hundreds of silvery-white blade lights suddenly ‘spat out,’ shredding several magic-energy professionals standing below into pieces. Then these miniature flying swords instantly converged into a stream, charging straight at one of the twelfth-level outlaws.

In almost the blink of an eye, the man’s armor was cut and split apart, and then his entire body, like a tomato crushed in a juicer, splattered in all directions.

This scene stunned both sides fighting in the bank lobby, and the intensity of the exchange dropped several notches in an instant. The customers and bank employees hiding in the corners once again let out heart-wrenching screams.

But only a moment later, as a large hole broke open above them, Li Mochen and Gene Reddy descended together through the swirling dust. The density of bullets in the lobby immediately peaked once more.

Li Tailai, Lawrence Collinson and the others, along with Sky Eye Howard Eisenhower, all launched their counterattacks simultaneously. In just five seconds, they cleared out all the enemies in the lobby.

Among them, seven died at Eisenhower’s hands, including one outlaw.

Once the fighting here subsided, Li Tailai and the others, without waiting for Li Mochen’s orders, busied themselves on their own.

Inside this building, there were only two entrances to the basement: the stairwell and the elevator shaft.

But Li Tailai had already checked using ‘Animal Domination’; both entrances were sealed by thick alloy doors. The outer layer of the basement was seven meters of military-grade concrete, heavily reinforced with steel bars and alloy plates, with defensive capabilities rivaling those of a fortress!

In addition, the basement interior had a powerful magical defense array. Although the other central hub had been destroyed by Li Mochen, the part of the array structure inside the basement could still operate independently.

Under these circumstances, the only way to break into the basement was through blasting.

So the Collinson brothers were already laying explosives and blast magic crystals, while Li Tailai used his animal companions to evacuate all unrelated personnel from the building.

At this moment, although the Craig Building had been pulled into the gap between two worlds, under Inez Bilton’s guidance, these innocent people caught up in the incident could return to the streets of the Bright World as long as they walked out of the building without resistance.

As for Gene Reddy, he was working together with Li Mochen, using various materials on-site to construct a shelter inside the building, and setting up three pre-prepared magic arrays.

Twelve blast magic crystals were equivalent to twelve tons of TNT, and one ton of TNT’s explosive power was enough to level a military dormitory building. It was easy to imagine how astonishing the power would be when these twelve blast magic crystals detonated together—even a seventeenth-level powerhouse like Howard Eisenhower had to be wary.

So before the blast, they had to build a safe refuge for themselves.