Chapter 57 Restrained Within

Song Shi stepped forward, blade in hand, while Grove wore a look of furious rage, his massive iron arms emitting a dull mechanical whir.

The next instant, both vanished from where they stood.

Within the entire factory building, a harsh shriek of metal-on-metal collision suddenly exploded!

The monomolecular blade and the iron arms locked tightly together, and in the fraction of a second when countless mechanical components twisted and roared, an incomparable force surged into the iron arms, directly sending Song Shi flying backward!

"Definitely packs a punch."

The moment he was sent flying by the borrowed momentum, Song Shi had already adjusted his posture, landing and taking several steps back to dissipate this immense force.

Without needing to look.

Song Shi could feel his right hand trembling slightly.

Even though he wore the [White Armor Type III] powered arm guards, in terms of sheer strength, there was still a significant gap—the pair of thirty-centimeter-diameter "giant iron arms" belonging to his opponent were unadulterated heavy prosthetics, built entirely for pure violence and the protective capacity of overlapping armored shells.

That single frontal clash just now had left his internal organs feeling somewhat unsettled.

Yet right now, the exterior of that pair of "giant iron arms" looked far more battered.

Large swathes of the armor plating had peeled off, the surface pitted and scarred, stained with black powder marks, and intermittent arcs of electricity crackled across them—the prior forced confrontation with the firepower of three sentry turrets and the series of grenades thrown by Song Shi caused red "malfunction warnings" to continuously pop up within Grove's field of vision.

However, there was no time to ponder.

Almost simultaneously with Song Shi landing, Grove's body sank slightly, and his legs—already implanted with an "alloy skeleton" and a "hydraulic transmission system"—began to exert force.

Then, accompanied by the groaning, cracking ground, Grove let out a roar, his entire body charging forward like an unstoppable heavy tank! Lunging at full speed! Smashing all obstacles to dust! He barreled straight toward Song Shi!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Merely "stepping" and "landing" sounded like a string of artillery shells exploding right beside one's ears.

This cold storage factory was not small.

Yet at this moment, as Grove spread his arms and launched his charge, all the space before him seemed to be gathered and crushed into his embrace—everything ahead of him was reduced to a single option: "to be crushed to pieces"!

There was nowhere to dodge.

—Then he wouldn't dodge.

Tendrils of psionic energy began to rise, outlining the silhouette of the "forge's flame."

Only this time, these flames did not billow outward recklessly as they had in the past; instead, guided by a single thought, they converged and poured into the limbs and bones throughout his body.

He completely abandoned the "externalized" application of the forge's flame, channeling it entirely into his interior, temporarily transforming his own body into "fuel" to trade the roaring combustion for even more formidable physical capabilities.

"This method of 'internalizing within the body' is an advanced psionic technique indeed."

No flames were visible around his body; only Song Shi's eyes shone with stunning brilliance at this moment, a hint of molten gold swirling deep within his pupils.

Grove said nothing.

Nor did he have the time to speak; he merely raised his arms high to strike down Song Shi, transforming into a "death" that made no sound and required no sound to express!

Thus, Song Shi laughed loudly and vanished from the spot, leaving only his voice echoing behind.

—"Just what I wanted!"

Clang!

Dazzling sparks scattered wildly, and the piercing hum of resonance played in an unbroken stream.

Burning with the forge's flame "internalized within," Song Shi at this instant still lagged slightly behind in sheer strength, but his raw speed had completely surpassed his opponent's.

Boom—Clang, clang, clang, clang!

Within a mere breath, the monomolecular blade and the giant iron arms collided violently more than ten times!

The previous slash had just been delivered, seemingly about to fall, when the very next moment, a completely different cut was unleashed. Song Shi's entire figure dragged behind him a series of afterimages, leaving only the harsh screech of metal impacts echoing endlessly.

Growing ever more high-pitched, in fact.

Because Song Shi offered no defense.

Facing the giant iron arms capable of effortlessly crushing him to powder, Song Shi swung his blade with a fury akin to venting, without the slightest intention of defending—or rather, he was astonishingly using offense as defense!

For a fleeting moment, one might even question whose stronghold this truly was.

Confronted with the continuous flashes of blades that enveloped him from all directions as if they would never cease, Grove at this moment was completely cowered behind the shelter of his iron arms, relying on the latter's four-layered outer armor—now reduced to "two layers"—to desperately fend off the cuts of the monomolecular knife.

—Suppression.

Despite his degree of cyberization being far superior to his opponent's and his implants having cost a fortune, at this very moment, he was actually the one being...

...suppressed?

As the monomolecular blade once more met him for a split second before drawing back, the next strike hovering on the verge of release.

Sensing the cutting force growing weaker for the first time since the battle began, Grove abruptly flung his arms wide, his prosthetic eyes capturing the trajectory with absolute precision, and with a ferocious grin, he thrust out his giant hands, forcefully grabbing the retreating blade!

—"Jariden!"

The explosion of gunfire thundered from afar!

Amidst a muddy pool littered with severed limbs and corpses, a rugged man with several fragments of shrapnel embedded in his right eye, one leg severed, and his entire body stained with blood leaned heavily against a pile of bodies.

He no longer pretended to be dead; he jerked his head up, aimed squarely at the distant Song Shi, and squeezed the trigger of the rifle in his arms straight to the end!

At the same precise moment, a chilling shriek of twisting metal pierced the air.

Grove's specialized heavy-duty prosthetics, possessing enough output to twist a sentry turret, clenched down on the monomolecular blade. In that split second, he roared as he exerted his strength, intending to grind the weapon—and his enemy—into dust—

Time seemed to freeze for a fraction of a second.

Everything around them began to slow down. Grove's eyes widened, hoping to catch a glimpse of panic on his opponent's face, but the black mask blocked out everything.

And in this instant, Song Shi was likewise exerting his strength to twist. Under two entirely opposing forces, when time resumed its flow once more—

Countless fine fractures burst across the body of the monomolecular blade, and in less than a tenth of a second, these cracks widened abruptly. Amidst a sky full of flying iron shards, the monomolecular blade disintegrated and shattered!

In Grove's hands, there was no longer the tactile sensation of grasping anything.

The exact moment the monomolecular blade broke apart into pieces, Song Shi was free of all restraint and vanished from his spot.

Why is this guy... appearing behind me?

Gazing at the scene below, astonishment rose in Grove's heart, but the thought "Why am I suddenly looking down at all this?" immediately took over his mind, and the next second, these chaotic thoughts plunged into silence along with the rolling of his severed head.

Only then did the roaring thunder of the assault rifle arrive in succession.

Using Grove's corpse as a shield against the first wave of bullets, seizing a fleeting gap, Song Shi whipped his body around and hurled three blade fragments, piercing the throat of Jariden—who was still frantically pulling the trigger—and causing the latter's body to go limp.

Until all of this came to an end.

From Grove's headless, burly corpse, a spurt of pungent blood finally erupted, and his whole body toppled backward, striking the ground with a heavy thud.

"Hoo—"

Song Shi slowly stepped over Grove's remains.

With every step he took, a wisp of white, hazy vapor drifted upward from his body, lingering and refusing to disperse.

Much like the "steam" rising from boiling water heated by a roaring fire.

Finally, he came to a halt.

Dragging the fragmentary monomolecular blade—now reduced to barely a small stub—he looked down at Jariden, who lay amidst a pool of thick, viscous gore, still staring fixedly at him, and nodded slightly.

"Any last words?"