The Ultimate Evolution

They had clearly noticed by now that there were no explosives pre-planted in these underground tunnels. The explosives in the places that had collapsed had apparently only just been installed. So, as long as they could rush past this collapsed section, they could catch up to the people planting the explosives. Even if explosives were detonated in the tunnels in front, they would not be properly installed yet. On the contrary, if their team went back to where they started to take another way, it would be tantamount to giving the enemy more time to make adequate preparation.

Rocky’s face had turned completely blue after throwing that lance, but he was already like an arrow on a drawn bow at the moment; there was no way he could stop. The bones and joints in his body creaked like rusty mechanical parts. Blood was pouring out of his eyes and ear holes. Gungnir was thrown out once again!

After the lance left his hand, Rocky fell to the ground, face first. He took a long time to climb back up, gasping for air. The eerie dark blue had corroded into his limbs along his veins. Rocky seemed like he was about to become a smaller version of a Na’vi.

The rubble heap was pierced through again. Hundreds of meters ahead, at the end of the tunnel made by Gungnir, a man could be seen squatting there with detonators and wires in front of him. He was currently assembling them with a tense expression.

When they saw this man, the eyes of everyone in Rocky’s team turned bloodshot.

They could not let this man detonate the explosives. Rocky was completely spent, so there would not be a third Gungnir throw for a while. That meant their mission would fail. But as long as they could kill this guy, the path ahead was clear!

Everyone sprinted forward with all their might. After about 50 meters, the team inevitably split into different groups due to the difference in speed — a group in front, one in the middle, and one at the back.

The first group was naturally formed by contestants with high Agility. Steel File seemed to have an ability to temporarily increase his speed, so he was actually rushing in front together with one of the hired guys. The middle group consisted of a druid who had learned metamorphosis techniques. In the final group was Carlos, who was staying back to take care of Rocky, and naturally, Rocky.

When Steel File and the high Agility mercenary reached within 20 meters of the soldier planting the explosive device, they were already at least a hundred meters away from Rocky and Carlos.

At this time, the middle part of the tunnel suddenly exploded again! A large amount of mud and rock poured down from above. The explosion this time was particularly violent, so the collapse spanned across more than 50 meters of the tunnel. If the underground tunnel was not constructed to resist earthquakes that were 10.0 or higher on the Richter scale, it would have completely collapsed.

Even so, the collapsed soil and concrete still piled up high like a mountain, filling up the tunnel. At the same time, it also split Rocky’s team apart!

Then, the rocks on the tunnel wall to the side exploded, and a large figure emerged from the billowing dust! His right hand shined with a ruthless silver glint as he struck out fiercely, causing serious injury to Carlos! Carles screamed in pain.

Carlos was instantly aware that they had fallen for the enemy’s trap. Ignoring the blood pouring from his body, he gritted his teeth and flicked the coin in his hand towards the enemy.

Carlos liked to cosplay as Robert Garcia from King of Fighters, so the coin in his hand was a necessary prop, but no one knew that the coin was also his hidden ace!

The rotating coin made swishing sounds in the air, like the sound of something extremely sharp whirling and cutting through the air at high speed. If one were to observe the coin carefully, they would see that there were now sharp, transparent blades around the coin, like gear teeth!

Not only that, Carlos had also taken out a fearsome looking long blade. The handle of the blade alone was a meter long. It looked a little similar to Guan Yu’s Green Dragon Crescent Blade, but at the end of the handle was a sinister-looking skull with five horns. Carlos instantly chopped down on the enemy who appeared to be somewhat surprised by the coin.

(TL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Dragon_Crescent_Blade )

The chop was smooth and ruthless. After the blade had slashed past, the cold, cruel light still remained in the air. Normally, by the time the light was seen, the blade had already cut into the enemy’s warm flesh and blood, so fast was the attack! The blade slashed faster than the eyes could respond!

These two consecutive strikes were Carlos’ ultimate live-saving technique. He was performing them now without a shred of hesitation in order to protect Rocky’s life. The power of these two strikes were so amazing that Carlos had insta-killed Awakeners with them before!

But instead of cutting into flesh, the chainsaw-like coin produced dazzling sparks of dark gold!

A harsh sound could be heard, like a chainsaw cutting into steel. And when Carlos’ blade chopped down, it also resulted in a loud, deafening clang. Both strikes had been blocked by a shield!

The person attacking them was Reef.

The special effect of his steel claws caused as much damage as an assassin’s strike, forcing Carlos to bring out his life-saving technique in order to take the assailant out as fast as possible. However, Carlos’ killer move unfortunately landed on a well-prepared MT, so there was no way it would kill anyone. Carlos could not help staggering back a few steps from the impact.

Suddenly, Carlos felt his eyes sting, as if the sun itself was shining in front of him. Then, he saw a pair of eyes staring at himself. The eyes were black mixed with gold, and the pupils inside were vertical!

The wall next to Carlos quietly turned to dust.

A person slowly walked out from the dust.

The person’s face could not be seen. A dark energy and some unknown powerful force mixed together and very tamely wrapped around the person’s body. She appeared as mysterious as a black hole. Her body was unnaturally tall. When she walked, she seemed like she was on tip-toe. Her gait was light and graceful, like she was dancing on a balance beam.

The two slender rapiers in her hands, golden and silver in colour, were particularly eye-catching.

The person was naturally Zi.

The two rapiers suddenly intersected. Carlos’ eyes were painfully blinded once again. He knew he was in a terrible situation, so he immediately shrunk into a defensive posture, but the rapier in Zi’s left hand suddenly shot forward. The strike was aimed at an extremely tricky spot, making Carlos’ action seem like he was sending his head towards the rapier.

But Carlos managed to execute a timely response. He turned his body sideways with every ounce of his strength and barely managed to avoid Zi’s rapier again. However, once Zi found that her attack had missed, she instantly slashed her rapier to the side before the stab had even run out of momentum.

A bloody trail in the shape of a “Z” formed in the air. Carlos let out a tragic cry as a terrifying wound appeared on his right chest. The flesh on the wound curled outwards, and blood poured out from it.

Next, Zi stabbed forward a few times with shocking speed, piercing through all four of Carlos’ limbs.

The wounds felt numb; they were not very painful and Carlos’ limbs did not lose their functions. Therefore, he shouted in a hoarse voice, “Boss, you leave first! I can still hang on!”

But it did not occur to him why the stab wounds did not hurt. It was because the wounds were all covered in a strange circle of black electricity that completely paralysed his nerves.

When the two swords joined together, a dazzling black light burst forth from the combined sword. The black light was full of the aura of death. As the black light got more intense, it gradually turned into sharp claws and a sinister face — the face of a Sith Lord. The Sith Lord laughed wildly as he extended a clawed palm towards Carlos!

As soon as the Sith Lord materialised, several black rays of electricity shot out from the stab wounds on Carlos’ limbs. The black rays bit and clawed at Carlos, paralysing his nerves even further! And when the black rays of electricity merged with the illusionary image of the Sith Lord, the Sith Lord instantly grew more powerful. The Sith Lord turned into a chain-like black serpent and fiercely wrapped around Carlos’ throat, strangling him until his eyes turned white!

Sheyan suddenly emerged from the wall and dashed forward like an immaterial shadow! Although Carlos could see the shadow, he could not react to it!

Sheyan did not give Carlos any chance to fight back. He instantly launched a lightning quick fist.

It was bad manners to hit someone’s face in a fight, but Carlos’ face was exactly where Sheyan’s punch landed!

The punch carried the ‘Power of the Sky’ which shattered a layer of buff effect surrounding Carlos! The fist smashed Carlos’ nose and one of his eyes to smithereens! Carlos was blown away by the punch. It took a long time before the sound of him crashing to the ground like a broken cloth sack was heard.

The power of ‘Ultimate Impact’ was particularly terrifying against Awakeners!

Right after Carlos landed, the environment hundreds of square meters around them changed bizarrely. The floor was originally hard concrete ground, but it softened and sunk down in an instant, turning into a rotten, dirty, disgusting swamp.

Grey mist started permeating through the air.

Reeds, duckweeds and other aquatic plants rapidly grew from the mud!

This was the set ability on Zi’s set equipment — ‘Marsh Decay ‘.

(TL note: From Ch. 665: [ Set ability: Marsh Decay – when dealing damage to the opponent, there’s a fixed chance of transforming your nearby surroundings into the environment of the Kijuju Marshland. Reduces movement speed and includes a chance of infection with various pestilences ] )