Everything visible slowed down.
The process of the raindrops shattering against the helmet was seen clearly.
The black sludge, like a tide, surged downward from above. Perhaps intending to kill the irritating human in one swift motion, the sludge this time spread across the entire width of the collapsed skyscraper. The serpentine shadow followed closely, and one could imagine that upon landing, the spreading black sludge would engulf the entire street, crushing everything around it.
Greenish-blue lightning gathered at the crown of the black and green snake's head, poised to strike under the manipulation of its flashing green snake eyes.
After pausing for one-third of a second, Lin pulled out a Honkai energy fragmentation grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it toward the close-range black tide.
"Bang—"
The exploding smoke and the instantly closing black sludge swallowed Lin's figure.
"Howl!"
The serpentine shadow roared, its cunning snake eyes glaring fiercely at the smoke that had instantly vanished in the rain.
Though only for a brief moment, the attack was momentarily hollowed out. It was certain that the human was not dead.
"Clang!"
The dark-blue blade sliced through the white smoke. Lin emerged from it, traversing against the black tide toward the top of the skyscraper. The overloaded jet pack allowed him to ascend the wall as if on flat ground, and his bleeding wounds did not slow him down.
In fact, Lin was moving faster than he had been before.
In the viewport, every part of Lin's body displayed a red warning light. His heart rate was off the charts. His breathing was so rapid that his internal circulation system couldn't keep up with his air exchange. Two small bulges appeared on his temples. The ominous, glowing green fluid coursed through his thick blood vessels.
Mobius probably never imagined Lin would inject all the toxins so early, and not just one dose at a time, but all four doses simultaneously.
The consequences were yet unknown, but the effect was evident.
His burnt pain receptors meant Lin could only know which part of his body was damaged through the interface. But without pain, Lin's other senses became sharper, and his thinking speed increased, allowing him to perform unimaginable movements.
"Crackle, pop—"
The snake eyes locked onto the approaching black dot. Then, they suddenly brightened. The greenish-blue lightning on the snake's head condensed into three separate bolts, striking down at the human who didn't know his place.
The terrifying power of the lightning carved three huge hollows in the ground, but the serpentine shadow froze when it saw the figure reappear amidst the lightning.
It didn't hit him?
No, Lin dodged it.
The precursor to the lightning release—the light in the snake's eyes—lasted only a few tens of milliseconds. But in Lin's perception, it was no different from a streetlight suddenly turning on in the pitch-black night, practically shouting at him to get out of the way.
So, he merely deflected a short distance to the side. The lightning only mildly numbed his arm through the water vapor, failing to affect him otherwise.
The furious Honkai Beast roared. More lightning condensed on its snake head this time. Seeing this, Lin immediately used his knife to cut into the wall above him, darting inside the skyscraper to lose its target.
After entering the building, Lin threw grenades at several supporting pillars without stopping, shooting them to detonate before they could land.
"Boom!!!"
Amidst the violent explosion, the half-ruined skyscraper began to collapse. The coiling Honkai Beast on the upper part started to fall.
"Howl—"
The serpentine shadow roared in fury.
In mid-air, it funneled all the black sludge into the tilting skyscraper. The nearly liquid black fluid seeped into every corner, determined to engulf, crush, and devour Lin inside.
Its intelligence was not low. It could even devise traps using the howls of humans and their comrades to lure other humans.
All it could conceive was that low-level organism, the human—so fragile that a touch would shatter it into a puddle of blood.
So, it covered the entire skyscraper, the human's only refuge, and then...
Detonated it.
"Boom!"
The remaining one-hundred-fifty-meter-tall skyscraper exploded from within, completely collapsing. Liquid matter, turned into countless spikes, shot out from the interior. Steel rebar, crushed stone, and office desks were shredded into splinters. The corpses of Honkai Zombies and humans dissolved into the black sludge.
But...
Nothing.
The massive creature landed on the ground, crushing the asphalt. It used its snake eyes to lock onto everything that had been scattered, but the human's figure was absent.
Was he instantly swallowed by the black sludge, or...?
Its beastly senses perceived something. It raised its head, just in time to see the figure suspended under the black clouds, drawing his dark-blue blade.
"Rumble."
Lightning brewed in the thunderclouds, illuminating half of his helmet.
The viewport, stained crimson with blood, stared fiercely at the Honkai Beast on the ground, like a vengeful demon.
"Clang."
The knife sliced through the darkness, like a dark-blue crescent moon, descending from the sky toward the ground.
"Roar!"
Madness utterly consumed the snake eyes. The black fluid seeping from its body surged out from beneath its massive form, transforming into a snake head even larger than itself. It opened its gigantic mouth, biting at the falling human figure.
No evasion was possible.
The aura of death rushed at him.
Lin stared at the snake mouth, large enough to swallow dozens of himself.
But he didn't need to dodge.
"Crack—"
The last grenade was thrown from his left hand, which he had hidden behind his back. At the same time, he shot his grappling hook toward the direction of the imminent explosion.
"Bang!"
A moment of emptiness was enough to decide the outcome.
The back of the sludge-formed snake head instantly exploded. A thin grappling hook embedded itself straight into the overlapping scales of the serpentine shadow, pulling Lin, who had broken through the black sludge, toward the Honkai Beast's massive, complex snake head that hadn't fully reacted yet.
A falling star plunged.
"Slice!"
The high-frequency sonic cutting knife cut into the Honkai Beast's shell without resistance. Lin, relying on the lingering inertia and the traction of the grappling hook, gritted his teeth, pushing this crucial strike to its absolute limit.
"Screeeeeeeeeeeeech—"
From head to abdomen, the dark-blue streak of light sliced a foul, gaping rift into the detestable monster.
"Aow—"
This time, the Honkai Beast let out a wail of agony.
Its front was nearly sliced in half by Lin's single strike. Its flexible, snake-like muscle structure collapsed, and black fluid flowed incessantly from the wound like blood.
But this was not enough. A High-Tier Honkai Beast would never die unless its core was destroyed. This was the most terrifying regenerative ability of a creature composed of pure Honkai energy.
Lin crashed heavily onto the ground. He spat a large mouthful of blood—half green, half red—onto his screen. He had no time to catch his breath. He flipped over, hearing the cracking of his joints, picked up the high-frequency sonic cutting knife from the ground, leaped, and plunged onto the Honkai Beast's wound, burrowing inside and beginning to hack frantically.
Blood, fluid, rain—he could no longer tell what was raining down on his body or what was corroding his armor with a sizzling sound.
He simply hacked wildly at every area that might be the core.
"Howl—Howl—"
The Honkai Beast wailed. Countless black sludge spears stabbed the human rampaging inside its body, using every ounce of its remaining strength to kill and stop him.
His abdomen was pierced, the skin on the side of his neck was cut open, and his legs were riddled with dense, bloody holes...
"Howl!"
Both human and Honkai Beast were in a frenzy, desperate to kill the other. At this point, there was no difference in strength; there was only pure savagery and killing intent.
Lin hacked tirelessly until the surrounding muscle tissue convulsed and stopped reacting, and the wails faded. He finally ceased his cutting, kneeling before the core that was already shattered into fragments.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
He couldn't feel the pain, but his body's instinct still forced him to cough.
Lin grabbed the surrounding flesh as a handhold and pulled himself out of the large wound he had carved.
"Hoo... Hoo... Hoo..."
Lin turned and looked at the motionless serpentine shadow behind him. He slowly knelt onto the ground, sitting in a puddle of blood and rain.
Blood oozed from all his orifices, though he himself couldn't see it. The injuries on his body were enough to qualify him as a broken ragdoll at a secondhand market, yet he still felt no pain. Only the gradually lowering body temperature alerted him that he had reached his limit.
[Attempting communication connection...]
Lin numbly tried to connect the communication. He slowly got to his feet again, heading toward the evacuation point.
"Crash..."
The sound of the rain intensified.
"Thump."
The sound of something beating.
"..."
Lin's body froze in place.
He instantly turned around.
What met his eyes was the "corpse" of the Honkai Beast, which was twitching again.
It wasn't dead?
He had clearly pulverized the core.
Not just one... core...
Lin thought of the Honkai energy reaction that far exceeded that of a typical Emperor-class Honkai Beast. The expression beneath his helmet turned savage.
He immediately turned and rushed toward the wound that hadn't begun to heal yet.
"Rumble!"
Just then, a flash of lightning descended from the sky, engulfing him.
The thunderclouds had gathered overhead without him noticing. A pair of purplish-blue eyes ruthlessly stared down at everything beneath them.