Thirty seconds ago, the man in grey wanted to shoot himself. His power was exhausted every second to maintain the hallucination field. In a few more minutes he would be just another normal human being. A while ago the man decided that spreading his resources across all the categories was less efficient than focusing those crystals on a certain power. On the positive side, the man’s psychic power was almost invincible. On the negative side, once his psychic power was down, he was just another normal human being.

As decisive as he was, the man knew he needed to get away right now. Wasting no time, he turned and walked out of the tent. The two Umbrella guards at the gate ignored him. It was as if they have never seen him before.

Still maintaining the hallucination field, the man walked quickly. Sweat began to appear on his forehead, but he ignored them. He walked across armies of Umbrella soldiers, but neither of them saw him.

Suddenly, he paused in front of an officer.

Major Timothy Cain was casually taking a stroll. He has just sent away the last of the important Umbrella scientists. His commander told him Umbrella would be wiping the city with a nuclear missile. He was just preparing to leave when a thought suddenly entered his mind.

The thought was odd, but it was firmly planted in his mind.

“Attention all Umbrella units. This is Major Cain. A prisoner has escaped. All units converge on location B and execute the prisoner at all cost. Use all weapons.” Cain didn’t even know there was a prisoner a minute ago, but the random idea completely occupied his mind. It overpowered whatever hesitation he might have. He was usually a coward, no, a leader, but now he was drawing his pistol and leading the charge. Maybe a small bit of him knew something was wrong, but he wasn’t strong enough to escape the influence.

As someone who almost killed Jean with his mind, the man had no trouble dealing with a normal organic unenhanced human being.

As the Umbrella officer bravely charged toward what was likely a certain death, the man turned and ran the other direction. Using his own power as a reference, the entire army of heavily armed Umbrella units could at most stall Jean. Feeling his power even more exhausted, the man dropped the hallucination field and ran even faster.

His eyes lit up when he saw two helicopters on an open field.

Jean’s eyes snapped open. She quickly scanned the tent, and realized the man was nowhere to be seen. Reasonable. The man wasted all that power to delay her. There was no reason for him to waste that precious time. She walked out of the tent.

The two guards were taken by surprise, but their training and experience meant they responded quickly. Both raised their MP5 SMGs at Jean with their fingers on the trigger.

Jean didn’t want to use any power too special in this world, at least not now, but even so she was still a good fighter. Immediately, she grabbed onto the gun barrels and pushed them into the air. The pressure on the weapons caused both men to accidentally pull the trigger, and, following the two strings of silent clicks, two lines of bullets darted over the sky.

Exerting some strength, Jean ripped both SMGs away from the men’s grips. With the weapons in hand, Jean used the firearms as hammers and slammed both soldiers on the head. The men were taken by surprise by Jean’s strength and failed to protect themselves quick enough, not that they ever had any chance. Powered by her enhanced muscles, the two stacks of metal broke two holes in the men’s skulls, killing them instantly. Both men fell as a puddle of blood formed below him.

The process seemed to have taken a long time, but it was actually over in two seconds. However, the two guards were merely the beginning. She was in an Umbrella base, and random Umbrella soldiers in black suits started to move toward her with their weapons firing.

Jean flipped the SMGs over and, facing the dozens of enemies, fearlessly pulled the trigger.

It was one woman against an army. It was also an extremely unfair duel.

Random bullets hit Jean and ripped open her suit, but she merely shrugged it off. Just because she wasn’t using her celestial power didn’t mean her xel’naga level body didn’t exist. Bullets bounce off her at best. On the other hand, Jean’s bullets weren’t as ineffective. The soldiers fell one by one, but they kept on coming. With impressive courage and a large number, the Umbrella forces held their ground.

One of the Umbrella soldiers, a sniper, got into position on a watchtower and aimed his Barrett M82 sniper rifle at Jean’s chest and pulled the trigger. A single bullet slammed into its target. Through the sight, the soldier almost cheered when he saw something hitting the woman in the chest.

His cheer died in his mouth as he realized the girl didn’t even stumble. The immense impact the round carried was simply absorbed by the woman’s fragile body. It was a Barrett. A Barrett! It could rip someone’s head off with one shot! Who the hell were they fighting?

He would never get the answer as an SMG bullet somehow got into his eye. The bullet with an effective range of 200m somehow found its way all the way to where the sniper was hiding. How that happened was another question the sniper could never answer.

As one third of the Umbrella soldiers were on the ground, the rest were faltering.

True, they were elite soldiers. True, they were highly paid by the Umbrella Corporation. True, fleeing now might end up with the execution of both them and their families. But even so they were still backing up. They were soldiers, not zealots. They wouldn’t stand and fight when it was obviously the enemy couldn’t be defeated. Those willing to die so their families could live with a handsome payment from Umbrella were gone already. Most of the survivors looked at their major for instruction. Those were the relatively loyal ones. The not so loyal ones were already nowhere to be seen.

“Major?” Cain was still hesitating. The thought the man planted in his mind forced him to continue attacking, but his self preservation was gradually taking over. The man was in a hurry, and he was already exhausted when he met Cain. His influence over Cain was just a simple trick with very little psychic energy involved, and it was wearing off.

As Cain was hesitating, a soldier ran up with a bazooka in his arms. He got into range, was somehow still alive, knelt down, and fired. With a long trail of smoke, a rocket flew toward Jean with incredible speed.

The projectile accurately hit its target, but none of the soldiers took a sigh of relief. Instead, they kept their eyes open and stared at where the girl was, wondering if that shot killed the seemingly invincible girl.

It didn’t.

“Fall back.” As the man with the bazooka collapsed with a hole in his heart, Cain finally made up his decision. This was not his fault. The enemy was simply invincible. As soon as the words were spoken, the rest of the soldiers fled twice as fast as the speed they charged. They were more than ready to run. All they needed was an order from their commanding officer. In that case, if they were asked of why they fled, they could always say they were just following orders.

Major Timothy Cain gave one last look at the girl. Her clothes were battered and revealed large pieces of bare skin, but instead of feeling lucky, the major felt frightened. The revealed skin wasn’t even wounded in the slightest degree. Two soldiers who were slower than the others were, and they paid the price with their lives. The last effect of the trick disappeared, and the high ranking Umbrella commander turned and fled.

Jean didn’t go after the soldiers. They were just cannon fodder. The man knew it. Jean knew it. Even if Jean just walked by them and allowed them to fire on her with everything they’ve got, she would still be perfectly fine. The only mission these elite soldiers served was to stall Jean as long as possible. Now that they were gone, it was time for Jean to go after the head.