Chapter 19 — I Built an Empire in the Wasteland

Doanh Chính Nam's elite bodyguards rushed forward following his silent command. Bạt Phong gritted his teeth, the energy shield popped up to block the first series of bullets. He counterattacked. One fell down. Then another name.

But this time the opponent is not like a regular commando. They coordinated smoothly, alternating attacks to not give him a chance to rest. His wrist panel flashed a red warning. Energy runs out faster than expected.

He fell to one knee when a blow hit the back of his armor, pain piercing through the protective layer and rushing straight into his body.

"Bạt Phong!"

Yên Nhi rushed from behind, the energy gun in her hand fired continuously, taking down the two bodyguards approaching Bạt Phong from both sides. She stood in front of him, panting but her eyes did not tremble.

"You shouldn't be here." Bac Phong forced himself to stand up, his voice both worried and a bit unbelievable.

"This is your battle, no less than mine," Yên Nhi replied, not taking her eyes off Doanh Chính Nam who was watching from afar with a chillingly calm expression.

Doanh Chính Nam stepped closer, signaling the remaining bodyguards to step back, confident that he was strong enough to handle the two people in front of him. "Congratulations Yên Nhi," he called her name, his voice ringing with authority. "You're much older than the last time I saw you."

Yên Nhi tightened her grip on the gun, her whole body trembling as an anger that had been pent up for many years suddenly exploded. "You know my father. You know what happened to him."

"I don't just know," Doanh Chính Nam replied directly, without any avoidance, his voice was cold and cruel. "I'm the one giving the orders."

The air seemed to freeze in that moment. Even the distant sounds of gunfire seemed to fade away before that naked confession.

"Vĩnh Khương is my best friend," Doanh Chính Nam continued, his eyes looking distant for a moment before returning to his familiar cold look. "But when he decided to release the serum formula to the public, sharing it with all the weak and unworthy, he betrayed the very ideals we both swore to protect. I had no other choice."

"You have a choice!" Yên Nhi screamed, tears welling up uncontrollably. "You chose to kill him instead of listening! You chose to lock me up for seven years, draining my blood like an experimental animal, instead of letting me live as a human being!"

"You are the organization's most important research output," Doanh Chính Nam replied, his voice not wavering at all. "I protected you the only way I knew how — kept you safe, kept you intact for a future where only the worthy will survive."

"That's not security," Bạt Phong spoke up, standing up next to Yên Nhi, his voice was sharp. "That's imprisonment. You don't protect her. You turn her into a commodity."

Doanh Chính Nam turned to look at Bạt Phong, his eyes showing a bit of contempt for the first time. "What do you understand about survival, young man? Do you think the world after the Great War will have enough room for everyone? Resources are limited. If divided equally among everyone, no one would survive. Someone has to decide who gets to live and who gets to die. I'm just doing the job that no one else is brave enough to do."

"You are wrong," Yên Nhi spoke, her voice was now unusually steady, no longer trembling like a moment ago. "My father proved the opposite. He perfected the formula so that it could be synthesized and shared with everyone, without having to sacrifice anyone. He did not kill him for the ideal of survival. He killed him because he was afraid of losing his power to be the one who decides the fate of others."

Doanh Chính Nam was silent for a moment, and in that moment, a ray of something - maybe a truth he didn't want to face - flashed through his cold eyes before being extinguished immediately.

"Enough." He pulled a small device from inside his jacket, a controller with a flashing red screen. "You still have the biolocation device implanted under your skin from your time in the lab, Yên Nhi. I can activate electric pulses to paralyze your nervous system any time I want."

Yên Nhi paused, the old fear instinct arose for a moment. But she quickly regained composure, recalling the documents her father left behind, recalling the biomedical knowledge ingrained in her subconscious.

"You're lying to yourself," she said, her voice suddenly calm. "The old generation biolocation device only works within a radius of five hundred meters from the main signal station, and that station has been disabled since the day Bạt Phong woke me up from my cell. You're holding a useless controller, Colonel Doanh Chính Nam."

Doanh Chính Nam's face changed color for a brief moment - enough for Bạt Phong to realize that Yên Nhi was right. He threw the useless device to the ground and pulled out an energy sword attached to his belt, the blade glowing an intense orange-red.

“Then we will deal with this in a more direct way.” He spoke, his voice as cold as ice, stepping forward with the speed and skill of a warrior seasoned in battle.

Bạt Phong pushed Yên Nhi back and raised his gun, but Doanh Chính Nam approached with surprising speed for his age, the energy sword swung out a horizontal slash. Bạt Phong was able to raise his shield to block, but the impact was so strong that his wrist control panel flashed an error message - the energy shield was almost completely depleted.

"Your armor is not limitless, young man," Doanh Chính Nam said, his eyes flashing with ruthless confidence. "I have commanded hundreds of battles before you were even born. You are just borrowing someone else's strength, as for me, this strength is my own."

He attacked vigorously, each swing of his energy sword precise and ruthless, forcing Bạt Phong to continuously step back. A slash grazed his shoulder armor, sparking fire. Another stab was just a few inches from his throat, Bạt Phong's heart tightened because of the impending danger. The wrist panel now had only one last energy bar flashing bright red.

"You will die here, along with the vain dream of a fair Abandoned Earth for all," Doanh Chính Nam said, his voice did not break even though he had just launched a series of consecutive blows.

Bạt Phong gritted his teeth and forced himself to block the next sword blow with both hands, feeling the weight of age and battle experience poured into each blow of his opponent. He knew he couldn't win with just the pure power of his depleting armor. You need another way.

He quickly glanced at Yên Nhi again. She took a few steps back, her hand no longer holding the gun, but quickly opening a small panel on the wrist panel of the very armor he was wearing - something that only someone who understood the original technical architecture of the Black Eagle could operate in a split second. Bạt Phong immediately understood what she was planning to do, and he braced himself to endure another blow, buying a few more precious seconds for her.

Bạt Phong braced himself to fend off the next attack, clearly feeling that the armor's energy was dropping to a dangerous level. He glanced at Yên Nhi standing behind him, their eyes met for a brief moment — and in that gaze, an unspoken plan began to form between them, preparing for the decisive blow that would determine the entire fate of this battle.

Not far away, on the northern slope, Lôi Quang Việt is still standing between two lines. Hạ Tử Kỳ ran over, his face full of blood and panic. "Sir, the Colonel's army is losing on the western flank, and the order calls for us to move in to support the main defense point. Fight or withdraw?"

Lôi Quang Việt looked into the distance, where the silhouette of Doanh Chính Nam was fighting with Bạt Phong, looking back at the group of children and old people trembling in the tunnel behind him that his army had almost rushed into. He remembered Doanh Chính Nam's cold threat the day before, remembering the feeling of being treated as a pawn that could be thrown away at any time.

"Withdraw," he spoke, his voice so decisive that he even surprised himself. "Withdraw all Gray Wolves from this battle. We will no longer hire someone who disregards human life like trash."

"But Colonel will..." Hạ Tử Kỳ did not finish his sentence.

"Leave him alone," Lôi Quang Việt interrupted, his eyes for the first time in many years shining with something akin to long-lost dignity. "If I had to choose between being a hunting dog for a ruthless person, or being a useless person who still retains some integrity, I would choose the latter."

The entire remaining Gray Wolf army retreated from the northern flank immediately, leaving a large gap in Black Eagle's attack formation - a gap that Kình Bá Đông quickly recognized and immediately sent troops to flood in, tightening the siege around Doanh Chính Nam's remaining main force.