With a loud bang, like a silver bottle shattering, Xiao Rou felt as if a dagger had pierced a piece of hard tempered glass. The tip of her hand had already penetrated several centimeters into the mask. The mask seemed to melt the moment it was attacked, suddenly emitting a bright light. Streaks of golden lightning flowed rapidly across the mask armor, extending from her hand to her arm at the speed of light, like fine golden patterns. The light of her mental energy field suddenly shone, and a series of bright silver transparent light shields rose up, struggling against the power of the lightning.
Xiao Rou took a deep breath, sensing an immense power rapidly gathering from every part of the armor, like reinforcements rushing from all directions to rescue the masked creature under attack. The Dark Knight's body had become a heap of blood and flesh. All its power came from the dark armor, but with Xiao Rou's close-range attack, the two powerful forces clashed fiercely. The dark armor used all its energy to resist the enemy's powerful attack, inevitably neglecting one aspect while focusing on another. Thus, the Dark Knight became a sacrifice for the dark armor protecting its power. Now it was no longer a contest between the Dark Knight and Xiao Rou, but entirely the dark armor's final burst of power.
Although the destruction was a long story, it happened in less than a blink of an eye. Two heavy gusts of wind sounded behind Xiaorou again. Clearly, the other Dark Knights had noticed the anomaly and launched another lightning-fast sneak attack on their opponent in hopes of rescuing the Dark Knight trapped by Xiaorou. The twelve Black Knights could only generate true power when they were united. If even one of them died, it would inevitably have a huge impact.
This time, Xiaorou did not dodge again. She suddenly stretched out her fingers like hooks and grabbed the mask of the already dead Dark Knight. Then she suddenly swung him up heavily and used him to block the attack from the three Dark Knights behind her.
Knock knock knock!
Three dull thuds, like the beating of drums, were heard. Suddenly, the Dark Knight's name, Dark Knight, appeared in Xiao Rou's hands. The giant claws on the six thick arms gripped the dark armor of the already dead Dark Knight. At the very moment of their attack, Xiao Rou's slender hand, which was inserted into the mask, suddenly pushed her mental field to its limit.
Stimulated by the immense power, the Dark Armor's protective capabilities were instantly unleashed to their maximum. Dazzling golden lightning bolts wove together into a golden electric net, and countless winding golden patterns connected in the void to form a pure golden river of electricity, instantly pulling the three arms that were heavily striking it into the center of the vortex of power.
As if triggering a chain reaction, the three Dark Knights' massive claws, which had successfully launched a sneak attack, were sucked into the dark armor by a tremendous force, unable to detach. Although they shared the same origin, the momentary misalignment of their attacks caused the dark armor, which was only capable of defense, to treat the three's attacks as if they were enemies. As if infected, the electric light spread rapidly across the three Dark Knights' bodies. Threatened by the immense attack, the dark armor on the three Dark Knights also began to shine brightly, with golden electric light spreading like a spider web, instantly enveloping the three Dark Knights in a golden ball of electricity.
Xiao Rou gritted her pearly white teeth as she was simultaneously struck by the electric shocks from the armor of four Dark Knights. Her mental energy field was already at its limit, but under the relentless and pervasive attack of electric energy, it inevitably began to compress. The astonishing protective energy of the armor shocked Xiao Rou; no wonder it had withstood that devastating thrust. Moreover, even now, the protective electric energy on the dark armor hadn't reached its peak. The reversed, misaligned protective energy tightly linked the three Dark Knights and one dead Dark Knight together. After being attacked, the dark armor could no longer distinguish friend from foe, only releasing electric energy to its maximum. As a result, the three unfortunate Dark Knights were reduced to charred remains by their own protective power.
Without the Dark Armor, the Dark Knight's power would be utterly insignificant. However, through Xiao Rou's skillful application, his greatest asset became a deadly weapon. Lacking the powerful mental field of a superhuman, the Dark Knight died in excruciating pain the moment the armor's electric light was released.
Even after realizing that the four Dark Knights had actually turned into a pile of mud, Xiao Rou still didn't release the four suits of armor that had become dazzling balls of electricity. Her snow-white, slender fingers trembled incessantly, and her mental energy field had been compressed to a minimum. Even wisps of electricity could seep through the thin mental energy field, constantly hitting Xiao Rou's fingertips and spreading to the girl's body. Almost every strike brought unparalleled pain.
However, Xiao Rou still gritted her teeth and persevered silently, because there were still two Dark Knights to deal with. Since the first Dark Knight died too quickly, and the three Dark Knights who attacked were trapped in an instant and immediately devoured by the protective power of the Dark Armor, the entire battle actually only happened in the blink of an eye. The last two Dark Knights surrounding Xiao Rou did not even have time to make a move before they saw their four companions turn into an indistinguishable ball of electricity.
As the two Dark Knights pounced on her with lightning speed, Xiao Rou suddenly raised an electric ball that had expanded to nearly ten meters in diameter. She had maximized her mental field; if she held out any longer, the electric light would shatter her defenses and turn her into part of the lightning. From the start of the battle, the girl had realized that she couldn't defeat the Dark Knights without breaking through their armor. However, the fact that the Dark Armor had withstood the Destructive Thrust attack unscathed had already proven its incredible durability.
Playing hit-and-run was pointless; competing in speed with a group of Iron Man-like beings was simply a waste of her superpowers. And who knew if even more powerful alien creatures would appear? The longer the fight dragged on, the more disadvantageous it would be. Therefore, the girl immediately devised another attack strategy: using their own weapons against them.
Judging from the current situation, the girl's approach was successful. When the protective electric energy of the four Dark Knights' armor was activated to its maximum, it was enough to pose a significant threat to the last two Dark Knights. There were still six Dark Knights attacking Ling Yun. In the midst of the tense battle, Xiao Rou had no time to check on her boyfriend. Because of her worry, even though she knew that Ling Yun's strength was no less than hers, and perhaps even stronger, she couldn't stop worrying. She had to eliminate the six Dark Knights as quickly as possible and then go help Ling Yun. Only when she saw that Ling Yun was safe and sound would Xiao Rou be truly at ease.
Now, the only worry is that the remaining two Dark Knights will dodge the electric ball's attack. If possible, Xiao Rou would like to carry the electric ball and smash it hard at the two Dark Knights, but the electric light cannot be maintained at a stable level. It's like Xiao Rou has a grenade with the pin already pulled; if she doesn't throw it out quickly, it will destroy her as well.
With a hiss, the electric ball suddenly split in two, striking the two dark knights who were charging at full speed. One of the dark knights was caught off guard and was hit in the chest by the electric ball, flying backward. Then, as if infected, his dark armor began to emit protective electric light uncontrollably, forming an even larger electric ball in the blink of an eye. The terrifying power turned the dark knight into a charred corpse once again. The unlucky dark knight suffered misfortune. The armor that was originally meant to provide great strength turned into the most deadly weapon. And this was already the fifth time that Xiao Rou had used the power of the electric ball to kill someone.
The other dark knight, as if anticipating something, deftly dodged the half-ball of electricity. After tracing a semi-circular arc, he charged towards Xiaorou again.
Xiao Rou sighed inwardly. She wasn't confident she could kill all the Dark Knights in one fell swoop, but she held onto the greatest hope. Sure enough, one escaped. Although killing five Dark Knights was already unexpected, the last Dark Knight was likely to be more troublesome than killing the five. Xiao Rou would have to work hard to control his body and then use the protective electric light of the Dark Armor to kill the Dark Knight.
However, the girl still felt a sense of relief. After all, five of the attacking Dark Knights had been killed. Although the last one was still fierce, the pressure was much less. The Destructive Thrust just now was simply due to a lack of proper technique. Being able to find a way to break through the Dark Armor in the shortest time, although there was an element of luck involved, also proved Xiao Rou's wisdom and experience.
She was about to look in Lingyun's direction. The battle had been intense but brief, and she didn't know how Lingyun was doing. Without seeing her boyfriend's condition, Xiaorou's heart remained unsettled.
A long arrow, shimmering with a faint silver light, suddenly flashed before Xiao Rou's eyes and then silently pierced the head of the dark knight who was leaping through the air. When the arrow was halfway into the dark knight's head, it suddenly began to explode. Although the protective electric light on the armor only had time to turn the last half of the arrow into a pile of silver light spots, it was too late.
The Dark Knight's swiftly moving figure suddenly stopped in mid-air, as if an invisible hand had suddenly grabbed his legs. Immediately afterward, his lifeless body plummeted to the ground with a crack. With the immense inertia, the stiff Dark Knight's corpse scraped against the ground until it finally stopped at Xiao Rou's feet.
Xiao Rou was taken aback. The silver arrow was clearly a bow and arrow formed from a mental energy field. Apart from Ling Yun, no one else could use precise mental energy field control to create such a lifelike telekinetic arrow with explosive properties. Simulating a telekinetic arrow wasn't difficult; the challenge lay in achieving a perfect match between its shape and the characteristics of a telekinetic arrow. Possessing both the bow and explosive properties was already extremely difficult, but what shocked Xiao Rou most wasn't these two characteristics of the telekinetic arrow.
Although it was only a fleeting glimpse, Xiao Rou's keen eyesight allowed her to discern a familiar electric spark on the arrowhead. Though extremely faint, it was identical to the protective electric spark on the dark armor. Xiao Rou realized that the electric spark on the telekinetic arrow served only as a disguise. At the moment of contact with the dark armor, the disguise would cause the armor to become suspicious rather than resisting due to different forces. By the time the armor realized the telekinetic arrow's attack, it was too late. Once the disguise had fooled the armor's defenses, the telekinetic arrow's attack power and explosive force were enough to turn the dark knight hidden inside the dark armor into a corpse.
The bizarre imagination and the deadly sniping—who else but Ling Yun could have conceived of such a powerful and ingenious method? It's like two armies waging a covert war. When one army discovers that the other army is wearing uniforms of the same color, it's bound to be suspicious. But when the other army suddenly attacks, it's discovered that the uniforms of the same color and style were just a disguise.
Ling Yun looked at his girlfriend with a smile on his face, holding a telekinetic longbow in his hand, while the corpses of the Dark Knights lay scattered on the ground.
Chapter 333 The Dark Knight (4)
When the other six Dark Knights pounced, Ling Yun didn't engage in a head-on confrontation like Xiao Rou. Their different personalities and experiences dictated their different attack methods. Ling Yun generally preferred a defensive counter-attack approach to the unknown; knowing oneself and one's enemy is the key to victory. Moreover, having witnessed firsthand how a Dark Knight could emerge unscathed from the devastating blow of the Destructive Thrust and recover completely in the shortest time, Ling Yun knew there was something strange about the Dark Knight's armor.
At this point, a counterattack would be ineffective unless the attack could break through the limits of the Dark Armor's protection. However, that would mean Ling Yun would have to use his trump card, consuming a large amount of his special abilities. This might result in the complete annihilation of all six Dark Knights, but it could also be a complete waste of effort. Moreover, Ling Yun and Xiao Rou both thought that the Dark Knights might not be the final attacking creatures summoned by the bronze statue. There might be an even more powerful opponent hidden behind the Dark Knights. Therefore, it would be unwise to reveal his trump card at this time.
However, they couldn't engage in hit-and-run tactics with the Dark Knight. The numbers flashing in the bronze statue's eyes were decreasing at an alarming rate. Although it was extremely fast, the panoramic view made it clear, which meant that the time limit was getting shorter and shorter. The most distressing thing about the third hall was that Lingyun and Xiaorou could only passively wait for the enemy's attack, and could not actively seek a way to pass the test. In other words, until now, the two of them had not found the key to passing the test.
Thus, the copying ability played a crucial role. Just like the countless dangers Ling Yun had experienced before, the copying ability always had an irreplaceable role in analyzing the unknown. In fact, to some extent, the copying ability had become one of Ling Yun's most powerful supernatural abilities. Although it was not inherently offensive, its powerful ability to copy and analyze everything and its continuous evolution gave it extreme attributes. On this basis, the power of all supernatural abilities could be multiplied. Ling Yun even vaguely sensed that under the influence of the copying ability, other supernatural abilities were gradually merging into an inseparable entity, which was a sign that it already possessed the rudiments of a supernatural ability.
Extraordinary arts are inherently categorized and cannot be merged. Furthermore, arts of different attributes are inherently contradictory and diametrically opposed, such as fire magic and ice magic, mind control and hand-to-hand combat. They seem completely unrelated. However, a prerequisite for a super extraordinary art is that arts of similar attributes can first be merged, and then, through further development, arts of different attributes can also be merged. Therefore, super extraordinary arts often possess incredible characteristics and power. The fusion of two attributes is not simply a matter of one plus one, but rather a geometric superposition. A super extraordinary art possessing three or more attributes often has its power increased by a factor of three to the power of three. The more attributes merged, the greater the power of the super extraordinary art, but also the more difficult it becomes to create.
Even a hedgehog isn't without its weaknesses. You can't be invincible by simply hiding inside a tortoise shell. The Dark Knight's greatest strength is his dark armor, but it's also his greatest weakness. Ling Yun merely dodged while probing the Dark Knight with his own power. He quickly analyzed the data of the protective electric arcs emitted by the dark armor using his copying ability, and soon he could simulate an attack identical to those arcs. Although it was only a tiny fraction of the power, it was enough to confuse the Dark Knight.
A gleaming silver longbow materialized within his mental energy field, accompanied by faint silver arrows powered by telekinesis. Within his long-range attack range, Ling Yun's arsenal was virtually inexhaustible; as long as his telekinetic energy wasn't depleted, he would always have arrows. His high-speed movement maintained a constant distance from the pursuing Dark Knight. Facing the Dark Knight, Ling Yun retreated relentlessly, his feet seemingly on roller skates, engaging in a lightning-fast chase. Despite the Dark Knight's full effort, he couldn't keep up with Ling Yun's pace.
Arrows crackling with electricity were fired one after another. The deceptive attack did indeed confuse the dark armor for a moment. Although the dark armor could automatically transform and even release energy to protect the dark knight, it was ultimately neither an intelligent being nor a phantom beast. It could not judge what was hidden under the disguise of an attack with the same attribute like an intelligent being.
By the time the armor reacted, the telekinetic arrow had already turned the Dark Knight's head into a bloody mess. The Dark Knight's defensive and offensive capabilities were far inferior to those of a superhuman, but with the support of the Dark Armor, his abilities far surpassed those of an ordinary superhuman. Even superhumans at the lieutenant level were helpless against him. However, relying solely on the Dark Armor was not enough. The Dark Armor provided the greatest energy support, but in the end, it became the main cause of the Dark Knight's death.
The battle ended quickly. Although Ling Yun had never learned archery, it seemed that archery was just a combination of telekinetic manipulation and mental force field. Although his skills were still very rudimentary, it was enough for Ling Yun to kill several dark knights, and even to help Xiao Rou snipe the last dark knight when she was dealing with him.
Xiao Rou glanced at the smug smile on Ling Yun's face, blinked her beautiful eyes, and understood what was going on. She knew about the several extremely special abilities Ling Yun possessed. So, while feeling relieved, she sighed helplessly: "I went through so much trouble to find a way to kill the Dark Knights, and you've already killed them all beforehand. You're truly an anomaly among ability users."
Ling Yun shrugged. "Of course I'm an anomaly. I'm the only acquired superhuman in the world, and I can maintain the stability of my superhuman genes." Before his power grew, Ling Yun had always harbored a vague worry because Yu Xiujie had once said that 100% of superhumans with acquired mutated genes died from gene collapse. He was always afraid that he would suffer the same fate. However, after mastering the Hand of God, he was able to introspect at the gene level. Ling Yun finally felt relieved. The data he obtained from his observations told him that his mutated genes were stable and there was no possibility of collapse.
Xiao Rou glanced at him flirtatiously, "You're so cheeky, calling you fat is making you sound so smug. What do we do now? Continue waiting or do something else?" She pointed to the scattered corpses of the Dark Knights on the ground. These Dark Knights probably had more powerful attacks they hadn't yet used, but Ling Yun and Xiao Rou had swiftly dealt with them. The Dark Knight killed by Ling Yun died a particularly pathetic death; he hadn't even touched the hem of his enemy's clothes before being inexplicably shot through the head with an arrow.
Ling Yun shook his head: "There's no time to wait, and we can't be so passive, otherwise we'll just be trapped here. I just saw the time limit on the statue's eyes, and half of the time has already passed. You're right, all the attacking creatures are summoned by the statue's information energy. We must destroy the statue's structure immediately."
"A time limit?" Xiaorou was taken aback. "How did you see that?"
Ling Yun nodded and recounted the countdown numbers he saw in the statue's eyes. Then he said, "We'll go destroy the statue's structure right away. Do as you say, use fire and ice magic. The extreme heat will generate extreme cold to blast away its supports. If we don't topple this statue, who knows what other beings it will summon?"
Xiao Rou nodded approvingly, and the telekinetic spear suddenly reappeared in her hand. With a whoosh, pure white flames formed a burning ring at the spearhead. Even without the activation of her mental field, one could see the air around the telekinetic spear slightly distorted and deformed. This was a natural phenomenon caused by high temperatures. The Destructive Thrust automatically generated high temperatures, and its effect was far superior to that of fire magic. Xiao Rou had mastered the control of temperature quite well, so there was no need to generate flames separately.
Just as Ling Yun was about to leap up, his expression suddenly changed. Before he could put away his telekinetic longbow, he immediately drew it back up tightly. A faint silver arrow appeared in the center of the fully drawn bow and shot towards the corpse of a dark knight on the ground with a whoosh.
Xiao Rou was startled: "What's wrong, Yun!" As soon as she finished speaking, her expression changed. The twelve corpses of the Dark Knights lying on the ground suddenly floated up into the air silently and eerily, like zombies that had come back to life. What was surprising was that the twelve Dark Knights did not make any other movements, but instead stood close together, forming a miniature circle.
With a crisp clang, the telekinetic arrow only penetrated halfway into the mask of a dark knight before instantly turning into scattered silver specks.
"It's supported by the armor's own power, not the resurrection of the Dark Knight," Ling Yun said. The telekinetic arrow was connected to him by thought, so after just one arrow, Ling Yun sensed the strange changes in the Dark Armor. The Dark Knight was indeed dead beyond any doubt, but the Dark Armor seemed to be consciously gathering together. Ling Yun didn't know what changes the Dark Armor would undergo next, so he could only observe carefully for now.
The twelve suits of dark armor suddenly shone brightly, each emanating an intensely bright, flame-like radiance. The light grew stronger and stronger, until the dark armor itself became a flickering shadow. The lightning bolts from the twelve suits of dark armor blazed fiercely once more, hissing incessantly in the air with a chilling sound.