Even more bizarrely, the captain's skin was not the color of a normal person at all. From his neck down, his skin was a shiny bluish-black color. The analysis data quickly gave the results, making Ling Yun gasp. Whether from the surface of his skin or its internal structure, the captain was completely a moving steel statue.
“I have a nickname in the Sky Eye Society: Iron Tank.” A strange smile appeared on the captain’s face, which then turned into a steely bluish-black color in an instant. His two eyes, like moving steel balls, shone with a sharp, eerie blue light.
Then, his upper body began to undergo bizarre changes, accompanied by a low growl. Countless incredibly sharp iron spikes grew from his upper body, making the captain look like a giant hedgehog covered in weapons.
The nearly half-meter-long iron spike was flat, with an extremely sharp tip and razor-sharp blades on both sides. It gleamed coldly in the darkness, leaving no doubt that a mere glancing blow from the spike would result in disembowelment.
The captain's hands slowly transformed, his left hand becoming a nearly one-meter-long steel sword, and his right hand becoming a heavy hammer that looked like a lead ball.
His dark blue face was covered with large and small metal lumps, resembling a raw steel blank that hadn't been cleaned. In a short while, the captain had transformed into a humanoid steel puppet. If he were equipped with a heavy machine gun, he would be an invincible mobile castle.
With a whoosh, accompanied by the sound of rolling thunder from the horizon, a torrential downpour began.
Chapter 87 The Steel Captain (2)
"Kid, I'll give you one more chance." Captain Steel slowly approached Ling Yun. "As long as you lead me to the Heavenly Eye, I'll let you and Gu Xiaorou go. This deal is actually very worthwhile. The Heavenly Eye is useless to you. Why not return it to me and you can stay free and go wherever you want? Isn't that much better than what you're doing now?"
His answer was a silver light that tore through the night sky. With a soft thud, a bright blade of light slashed fiercely at the captain's chest, as if striking the hardest steel, instantly sending sparks flying.
The captain sighed, "Since you're so uncooperative, then you might as well die. At most, I'll use the Soul Searching Technique to dig out all the secrets from your brain." As soon as he finished speaking, he transformed into a wisp of green smoke and rushed towards Ling Yun at lightning speed.
The torrential rain did nothing to hinder the captain's heavy, steel-like body; even with Ling Yun's current eyesight, he could not see the captain's movements clearly.
Ling Yun was taken aback, never expecting the captain's speed to be so terrifying. He hadn't even had time to think before the captain had already rushed towards him. Fortunately, he had remained vigilant, keeping the light blade in his hand still, and immediately met the blurry figure with a storm of speed.
Several clanging sounds of metal clashing rang out, sparks flying around the two afterimages in the rain. Then the two figures leaped high into the air, crossed each other like lightning in mid-air, and bounced back to back onto the muddy ground.
Ling Yun bent over slightly, panting heavily. Several long and deep wounds crisscrossed his chest, and blood mixed with rainwater gushed out. One wound was particularly long, almost running from his right abdomen to his chin. It was the result of a steel blade in the captain's chest.
The captain also had a long scratch on his chest, but after the bluish-black skin was cut open, what was revealed was the gleaming silver of steel.
"How about it, getting a taste of cutting through steel?" The captain grinned maliciously, raising his left arm, which had transformed into a sharp sword. Suddenly, he turned around and slashed his own chest several times. "Attacks of your caliber have absolutely no effect on me. Perhaps your light blade can cut through real steel, but my body is much harder than real steel."
"Heh heh, tasted it, utterly pathetic." Ling Yun spat a mouthful of bloody saliva into a puddle on the ground. He gave a weak, cold laugh as he looked at the captain, blurred by the rain. He had only lost a very small amount of blood; some of the blood that had just flowed out of the wounds had automatically flowed back into his body, and in the blink of an eye, several of his serious injuries had already healed.
"Self-healing?" The captain's expression grew even more ferocious. "I never thought a human would have the same abilities as those scum who only live in the darkness. No wonder you're so fearless. Watch me tear you to pieces, then how will you heal yourself?"
The colonel suddenly raised the heavy hammer on his right arm high, and then slammed it down on the ground like a pile driver.
The entire earth trembled, as if a meteor from outer space had struck the planet. Ling Yun felt a tingling sensation in his feet and immediately sensed something was wrong. He leaped back several steps with lightning speed. Where he had just stood, a clearly visible gust of air burst through the muddy ground with a whoosh, its immense force shooting dozens of meters into the air. The torrential rain within a radius of several meters froze instantly, suspended in mid-air, creating an impossible and bizarre spectacle.
Ling Yun leaped out one after another, and with each leap, a powerful gust of air would rush out of the ground where he had stood. In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen unfathomably deep craters had appeared in the ground.
Although he jumped extremely fast, as the captain's heavy hammer slammed down on the ground one blow after another, the airflow he expelled also increased in speed and volume.
Before Ling Yun could even leap into the air, his toes barely touching the ground, a tremendous force erupted from the earth and shot forth. Ling Yun had to use his exquisite telekinesis to narrowly veer around the edge of the attack, avoiding the blast of air. Even just standing near the edge of the force and making slight contact with his mental energy field, Ling Yun immediately felt a powerful tremor. He couldn't help but be secretly astonished; this captain was truly a monster, possessing such immense power.
The captain watched Ling Yun dodge and weave without flinching, a playful smile playing on his lips. Suddenly, the hammer sped up, striking the ground several times in quick succession.
The earth trembled slightly, and after a second of silence, several powerful jets of air simultaneously erupted from the ground, enveloping Ling Yun. Feeling an almost numb sensation under his feet, Ling Yun was shocked. He knew that if he were hit by even one of these jets of air, he would definitely not be able to withstand the enormous force. Even if he wasn't shattered to pieces, he would likely be seriously injured.
With a burst of telekinesis, he was lifted into the air like a rocket, with a current of air following closely beneath his feet, making it seem as if he was being carried into the sky by Lingyun.
The captain looked up at Ling Yun, who had already risen high into the sky. With a flick of his right arm, the iron ball suddenly flew from his hand, hurtling towards Ling Yun with lightning speed. The instant it left his grasp, the iron ball spontaneously burst into silver flames, shooting towards Ling Yun like a shooting star in the night sky.
With a mere flick of his right arm, the captain conjured a new steel right hand from the tip of his forearm. His entire body was like an infinitely regenerating steel factory, capable of producing an endless variety of steel weapons.
Ling Yun was in mid-air, his strength exhausted, but he had managed to avoid the attack of the air currents. Although a small amount of air currents struck his feet, the force gradually dissipated at high altitudes. Ling Yun only experienced a momentary numbness in his feet, then felt fine. Using his telekinesis to counteract gravity, he was about to regain his footing in mid-air when suddenly, a sense of foreboding washed over him.
Looking down, a dazzling streak of sparks hurtled toward him with incredible speed. A muffled hum filled the air—the violent gusts of wind generated by the iron ball cutting through the air. The torrential rain did nothing to extinguish the burning flames.
Startled, Ling Yun quickly used his telekinesis to propel himself in the air, launching himself in the opposite direction to desperately avoid the fireball's attack range. After launching himself, Ling Yun still had time to flick his hand downwards, erecting an invisible telekinetic barrier above the fireball. He didn't expect to withstand the fireball's impact in a hurry, but as long as he had a moment to recover, he could launch himself a little further, thus increasing his safety.
With a bang, the telekinetic barrier was shattered without any doubt. The fireball only paused slightly before whistling past Ling Yun, who was trying his best to dodge. Several sparks from the silver flames even splashed onto Ling Yun's clothes, instantly burning several fingernail-sized holes.
Ling Yun took a breath, showing no sign of relaxation in the face of danger; on the contrary, his unease surged even more violently. Looking down again, he saw a silent, jet-black steel short sword flying towards him at twice the speed of a fireball.
The fireball was just a prelude; the bright flames were merely to attract Ling Yun's attention. When Ling Yun had truly exhausted his strength and relaxed his mind, the real killing move was the black short sword that almost blended into the night.
Ling Yun only had time to turn his body sideways in mid-air before the black short sword, swift as lightning, pierced through him with a soft "whoosh."
Chapter 88 The Steel Captain (3)
Ling Yun screamed and plummeted straight down from the sky.
With a wave of his hand, the captain's black dagger and silver fireball automatically spun in the air and flew back into his hand. Once they landed on his arm, the two steel weapons instantly fused with his body, as if seamlessly welded together.
The iron spikes and steel blades, resembling those of a hedgehog, were slowly retracted into the captain's body. In his view, the battle was over. As part of his body, the captain could freely command his separated weapons, as easily as a thought, as perfectly as his own limbs.
His steel-like eyes coldly stared at Ling Yun, who was falling from the sky. After being seriously injured, Ling Yun was also unable to maintain his balance with telekinesis. He was extremely high off the ground, and even if he was not injured, he would probably be half-dead from the fall.
Suddenly, the captain's eyes flickered. Ling Yun had already crashed heavily to the ground, but strangely, there was no splash. Instead, he landed silently on the ground like a puddle of water, and then slowly seeped into the ground, as if the ground was not made of solid soil, but a calm sea.
"Earth Escape Technique?" The captain frowned and muttered to himself. Ling Yun's technique resembled earth escape, but there seemed to be some subtle differences. The captain didn't possess a real earth shield, so he could only vaguely sense the difference and couldn't pinpoint it. Besides, since Ling Yun could still use this technique, it proved he was still capable of movement, and the captain didn't have time to ponder these unimportant questions.
After Ling Yun sank into the ground, there was no sound at all, as if he had vanished into thin air. Not even a trace of energy remained.
There was definitely no trace of Ling Yun on the ground, so the captain used his mental field to scan the several-meter-deep underground with all his might, leaving no corner unchecked. Theoretically, a mental field has the ability to penetrate all matter, but its effectiveness is far less than scanning in the air. Especially solid matter; while it can scan hundreds of meters instantly in the air, underground, even the captain can only scan to a depth of about ten meters.
But that's enough. Even the most advanced earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of technique that allows one to lurk only seven or eight meters underground, which can be detected by a mental energy field).
This guy was trying to use his earth-遁术 (earth-遁术, a technique that allows one to escape underground) to catch his breath in some corner so he could heal his injuries and regain his strength. The captain thought with a cold laugh. Hiding underground and he'd be fine? How naive.
The telekinetic force manifested as a giant sphere, rapidly traversing the underground. Within its range, it could sense the presence of any living being. Countless weak underground creatures stirred in alarm at the telekinetic force, only to be instantly obliterated by the invisible shockwaves.
Ten minutes passed, and the captain still hadn't found any trace of Ling Yun. But he remained calm and patient. Ling Yun was undoubtedly doing his best to evade the mental energy field scan, so he wouldn't be detected for the time being. It was only a matter of time; even the fastest earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic that allows one to escape through space) couldn't outpace the speed of a scan, especially since Ling Yun was seriously injured. The captain had plenty of patience.
Suddenly, a satisfied smile appeared on the captain's face. His mental field sensitively detected a life form with abundant energy, and it was also breathing slightly and moving quickly. Who else could it be but that injured guy?