A Card In Hand

Chapter 79: The Wrong Answer

The second phase of the battle mode was nearing completion.

Lights flared brilliantly.

“Just some scrap metal trying to evolve on the battlefield? What a joke!”

Unlike the terrified green python and the dark bat, Ban Claw, with his vast experience, knew that any creature attempting evolution on the battlefield was incredibly risky, and the Mechanical race was no exception.

He raised his right hand and smashed it down.

The second massive, tens-of-meters-long tentacle of the giant octopus thunderously struck down.

In an instant, it brutally smashed the opponent, who was just about to complete the second phase of the battle mode, deep into the ground.

As the shockwaves crazily spread, Ban Claw’s right hand reached forward and clenched, turning the entire area of the ground, along with Li Ao, who was smashed into the depths, into a gigantic boulder.

The giant octopus’s long tentacles rolled the rock ball around, repeatedly smashing it on the ground. Boom, boom, boom… The ground continuously burst apart, and numerous cracks spread out like a web.

The giant rock ball.

Equally shattered to pieces.

Ban Claw directed the giant octopus tentacle to toss it up one last time. When the rock ball reached its peak, he slammed down hard with the tip of the tentacle…

Thud!

The ground emitted a deafening sound.

Within the violent tremors, a terrifying deep pit slowly emerged as the dust settled.

The circular pit was dozens of meters in diameter and ten meters deep. The originally shattered rock ball had disappeared, turned into a pile of rubble.

“That guy must be in pieces now, right? Hahaha, the rock is completely shattered, he’s dead! He finally died! He dared to evolve during battle, trying to force evolution without any protection, what an idiot!”

The green python was incredibly excited. Under the vice-president’s lethal strike, that weird mechanical killer was finally finished.

“It’s just a mechanical life form, it acts on instinct alone, it’s not surprising!”

The dark bat also felt a wave of relief.

“…”

However, Ban Claw’s face showed no joy.

He stared at the pile of broken rubble on the ground.

Staring for a long time.

Ban Claw’s strange behavior made the green python and dark bat glance at each other, puzzled.

What’s wrong? Could it be that the mechanical killer is still not dead? Could it still survive after such a strike?

“It’s gone!”

Ban Claw frowned deeply, certain that the mechanical life had been inside the rock ball at the time of the last hit, but when it and the rock ball were smashed to the ground, it had bizarrely disappeared.

Could it be unharmed?

But even if it was unharmed, breaking out of the rock ball should have taken some time, right?

Did it escape by burrowing into the ground?

Impossible.

If it had truly burrowed into the earth, it couldn’t have escaped his detection, given his years of deep study into earth-based source energy!

“Be careful!”

Ban Claw warned his subordinates, “This is an enemy capable of spatial jumps. It’s not dead… It might have escaped using the shattered spatial vortex, but it could also still be lurking around us! The battlefield has suffered too many impacts, the space has fractured, and there are signs of spatial vortex fluctuations everywhere. Pay attention to the changes around you!”

“…”

The green python couldn’t help but feel fearful.

Was the mechanical killer still alive?

And it knew how to perform spatial jumps?

The dark bat tightly grasped his black cloak.

His knuckles turned white from the force.

He slowly moved his feet, trying to stay close to areas with dense shadows.

Just as he was about to slowly move into the shadows of a pile of ruins, a strange, small ripple suddenly appeared in the space behind him.

“Behind!”

The green python shouted loudly to warn the dark bat, and Banzhua moved even faster than lightning towards the dark bat’s location.

At that moment, an exceedingly sharp mechanical long sword suddenly appeared from behind the green python’s neck.

It emitted a lethal gleam as it swiftly sliced through the air.

The green python was terrified out of his wits, having never imagined that he was the real target of the enemy’s attack.

His neck twisted bizarrely in one direction, then elongated at high speed, pulling along his elongated body and legs. His entire lengthy body was forcefully swung away to dodge the deadly strike from behind.

In the instant the green python successfully escaped with his elongated neck and strange flinging motion, the mechanical long sword behind him vanished.

It turned into an afterimage.

Ban Zhua, who had rapidly returned, lunged at nothing.

The green python, his body snake-like, awkwardly crashed onto the ground of the ruins, “Bang!” kicking up a cloud of dust!

Before he could even try to get up, he saw two crisscrossing mechanical long swords waiting above his head for a long time…

The green python didn’t even feel the pain as a head was sheared off by the crossed swords.

Blood sprayed into the air, and as the green python’s head fell to the ground and tumbled, the last image he saw was a massive mechanical foot coming down on his face with precise accuracy…

“Smash!”

Li Ao, transformed into a mechanical assassin, crushed the green python’s head underfoot!

Blood and brain matter splattered…

The green python.

This enemy, who would have brought immense pain and despair to Li Ao in the next ten years, was obliterated by Li Ao with one stomp ahead of time.

The green python, who possessed the talent of fleshy sprouts, would not die merely from beheading, because he could easily reconnect his head to his severed neck using his talent, as he had once fooled Li Ao with this trick in a previous life. But in this life, he no longer had the chance to use his ability to reconnect his neck.

“Green Python!”

Dark Bat cried out in sorrow as he witnessed the death of his friend.

The green python was exceptionally talented.

Yet, he was instantly killed by the enemy without any chance to fight back, greatly shocking the dark bat’s heart.

Ban Zhua was extremely enraged, and the aura emanating from his body formed an angry shockwave.

The hidden war beast, the Demonic Swamp Octopus, fully revealed itself, its massive body and sprawling tentacles spanning over eighty meters, covering the entire battlefield.

Each terrifying sucker on its body emitted a strange suction force.

Its fearsome eyes glowed red.

Locking onto Li Ao.

“You heap of scrap metal, I’ll grind you into dust!”

Ban Zhua was so angry that his whiskers bristled, humiliated by the disgrace of the green python being killed in front of him, his pride deeply wounded, burning with rage.

“Answer incorrect.”

Li Ao wanted to burst out laughing, but now was the time when acting was most necessary.

“I’ll tear you apart!”

Ban Zhua’s right hand merged directly with a gigantic tentacle of the Demon Marsh Octopus, transforming into an enormous hand that pressed down, covering the sky.

Li Ao was tired of playing games.

Through the spatial vortex created by the Void Swimfish, he could freely move across any position on the battlefield.

Thinking he could be completely locked down by a mere Demon Marsh Octopus?

Ban Zhua simply knew too little about space-related war beasts!

The illusion disappeared.

Ban Zhua’s gigantic hand smashed down, capturing nothing but air.

The earth shook violently as if a severe earthquake had occurred.

Silently, Li Ao teleported behind the panicked Dark Bat.

“Save me!”

At this moment, Dark Bat could no longer care about his pride; he was afraid of being instantly killed like the Green Python.

Out of fear, he couldn’t wait for Ban Zhua’s instant rescue and frantically waved the black cloak in his hands, jumping into the Shadow Dimension.

He planned to escape from another shadow to evade the enemy’s sudden assassination attempt.

The black cloak, endowed with shadow-jumping abilities, along with his innate talent for shadow movement, allowed Dark Bat to quickly evade attacks during combat.

However.

This luck would not always be his.

As Dark Bat jumped into the Shadow Dimension as usual, planning to return to a shadow on the material dimension battlefield, he was horrified to discover an incredible mechanical god of death emerging from the Shadow Path.

Its enormous energy cannon, already fully charged and aiming directly at his face, flickered with a despair-inducing glow…

“No, ah!”

Before Dark Bat could even cry out in despair, his soul was obliterated by the energy blast.

His body was thrown out of the Shadow Dimension, tumbling out of the shadows of a ruined area.

Ban Zhua arrived just in time.

To see a headless corpse.

Cruelly thrown at his feet with merciless mockery.

“You bastard!”

Ban Zhua was furious to the point of exploding; he had never suffered such humiliation in his life.

Under his full protection, both potential newcomers, Green Python and Dark Bat, were exceptionally slain by the enemy on the spot.

“Answer incorrect.”

The cold, ruthless mechanical voice sounded again.

Ban Zhua’s eyes were bloodshot.

Angry, he looked up.

Glares hatefully at the mechanical assassin that he despised to his bones.

He furiously noticed it transforming again, its parts rapidly reassembling amidst the energy glow…

That infuriating voice mechanically intoned: “Combat mode change, initiating phase three.”

This completely enraged Ban Zhua.

He swore.

If he didn’t eradicate this disgusting mechanical assassin immediately, he would never be able to forgive his own mercy in this lifetime!