A Dark and Stormy Night

Ten thousand meters above the ground, above the cumulus clouds and beneath the ozone layer.

It was like another vast dimension, with darkness stretching in every direction as violent high-altitude winds howled without end.

A transport fighter had been severely damaged, its fuselage blazing into a brilliant fireball as it fell like a tiny sun. Not far to one side, however, another single-seat fighter had lost control unnoticed, spiraling nose-down as it accelerated toward the clouds and ground below.

"Target transport fighter successfully destroyed!"

"Circle downward and search. Confirm whether any enemy has parachuted or made an emergency landing."

"Rep-reporting, this is Violet Lightning-02… Ah!"

A sudden scream rang loudly through the fighter squadron’s shared communications channel, only to fall completely silent the next instant.

"Pilot of 02? What happened over there?" The captain of the elite fighter squadron frowned and asked through the radio, "Respond if you can hear me! 02, respond immediately upon receipt!"

"Static…"

Naturally, the pilot of 02, who had been thrown out of the cockpit, could not respond. Through the connected channel, only the chaotic sound of rushing wind could faintly be heard from the other end.

"Captain, 02’s signal is no longer showing on the detection instruments. I estimate…" One pilot spoke, casting a shadow over the hearts of the other five single-seat fighter pilots, including the captain, who was their ace.

After a pause, the captain raised his voice. "Stay alert! Check the surrounding airspace! Other than that destroyed transport fighter, are there any other enemy aircraft?!"

The moment his voice sounded over the channel, an explosion suddenly thundered through the high sky nearby. Another allied single-seat fighter was inexplicably struck, trailing billowing smoke and flames from its tail as it plummeted in a damaged emergency descent.

"Fighter 06?!" the captain cried out. The damaged fighter had been right above and beside him, and when it dropped straight down, it had nearly collided with the fighter he was piloting.

Fortunately, he was also an ace pilot in the Japanese Army Air Force. He accelerated, pulled upward, and rolled aside, narrowly evading the disaster with a skillful maneuver.

"Captain! I don’t know what attacked the rear wing! At this altitude, I’m afraid I’m going to die." The terrified voice of 06’s pilot came through the communications channel, growing weaker and weaker. "Wait, I think I see something…"

It seemed he had seen something before his death, but unfortunately, he did not have time to finish speaking before his connection to the communications channel was cut off.

"Have you found any enemy aircraft? What the hell is going on?!" The captain growled furiously, using his anger to vent the fear in his heart. They had lost two fighters in a row, yet they did not even know who or where the enemy was.

After more than ten years as a pilot, this was the first time he had encountered something so bizarre at an altitude of ten thousand meters.

"No, no sign of enemy aircraft."

"Same here. This is too strange."

"What should we do, Captain?"

Listening to the replies from the remaining pilots, the captain said in a low voice, "Regroup. Tighten our formation and descend to a lower altitude."

"Yes!"

The five fighters reacted quickly, skillfully forming a square-like formation in the high sky, with one fighter in the middle as they descended in parallel.

Rumble—

After the fighters collectively descended several thousand meters, lightning flickered through the clouds below. Arcs of purple electricity occasionally illuminated the night sky.

"Thunderclouds. Just our luck. Something feels off tonight. Since we successfully destroyed the target transport fighter, how about we head back to base?" one member suggested uneasily.

The other pilots remained silent. The captain’s heart stirred, and he was about to tacitly accept the suggestion.

Just then, one member cried out in horror, "Captain! On your fighter! There’s something there!"

Those bizarre words made everyone instinctively look toward the fighter at the center of the formation.

At that exact moment, a massive bolt of lightning flashed through the thunderclouds below. In that brief flare of light, the fighter’s fuselage was illuminated brightly.

Behind the single-seat fighter, a young man in a black suit was crouched low, his claws embedded in the steel exterior as he clung tightly to the aircraft.

The headwind blew his blond hair high, and beneath the skin-tight Night Suit, his body seemed forged from steel. He looked like a humanoid demon.

"How is that possible?!"

"Captain, there’s someone on your fighter!"

"How could that be a human? It has to be a monster!"

The other pilots were stunned beyond belief, while the captain was chilled to the bone. Bracing himself, he turned around and looked back. By then, Kyle had already crawled through the fierce wind pressure to the cramped one-man cockpit.

Kyle’s face was expressionless. His left claws pierced the fighter’s outer shell to stabilize himself, while his right fist, clad in a Vibranium Bracer, drew back before smashing violently into the protective glass.

Right before the captain’s eyes, spiderweb-like cracks spread from the point of impact across the reinforced glass, from the outside inward.

"Please, don’t!" The captain’s face went pale inside the cockpit. Kyle ignored his plea and followed up with another punch against the damaged glass.

The terrifying impact force, easily exceeding a ton, blasted the shattered glass inward. One shard flew directly through the captain’s wide-open eye socket, killing him on the spot.

Third one. Kyle silently counted, rising to stand proudly atop the fighter as he held his breath and scanned the four remaining aircraft nearby.

They had come knocking.

Since they had delivered themselves to him, not one of them would escape!

Without the pilot’s control, the fighter beneath him gradually tilted and began falling, just like the aircraft he had destroyed earlier.

Kyle bent his knees slightly and leaped ahead of time, jumping toward the single-seat fighter at the same altitude behind him.

His astonishing jumping power allowed him to clear more than ten meters. He slammed his right elbow head-on into another fighter flying toward him.

This monstrous, suicidal, inhuman attack worked with a single strike. The windshield shattered on impact, and the pilot, along with the fighter, lost control and plunged toward the thundercloud layer below.

Kyle groaned in pain as he too was flung away by the impact. Crimson blood seeped from the Venom Suit, and he barely managed to open his gliding wings and steady himself in the high sky.

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. The Healing Factor rapidly took effect inside his body, suppressing the wounds while continuously healing the injuries to his skin and internal organs.

In just a few seconds, injuries that had not been too serious to begin with were completely healed!

Three left!

Kyle’s expression remained cold as he spread his dark, blood-stained wings and sprinted toward the nearest remaining fighter.

The pilots in those fighters had watched, in the blink of an eye, as the captain and two allied fighters were destroyed by a humanoid monster. How could they dare linger any longer? They hurriedly pulled up and climbed.

Kyle raised his eyes toward the fighter ahead, which had already climbed more than twenty meters, and narrowed his eyes slightly.

Venom’s gliding mode could reach supersonic speeds during a dive. Its only drawback was that it could not actively gain altitude. That was the greatest difference between flying and gliding.

But that did not mean he had no way to climb higher in midair.

Kyle maintained his gliding state, folding his rear wings tightly against his back. He bent his legs to gather strength, then stomped forcefully against the air below—

A dark crimson tide of energy erupted beneath his feet, leaving a chain of white bursts in place as he shot upward nearly thirty meters.

Aerial Sprint!

Thanks to Tuba Jiuzhou for the Qidian helmsman-tier donation. Current number of owed post-premium chapters: 8.

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