Chapter 1021: Battle!

The downward rush speed was extremely fast; in less than a second, Lin An directly charged through the blown-open tunnel entrance, heading straight for the mutant's location.

Smoke and dust swirled, debris occasionally fell from the pit above, the whole tunnel now like a skylight had been opened, a faint cold light from Wu Yun shone in.

He ignored the centipede-shaped mutant ahead.

Lin An suddenly stopped, and in that moment he unintentionally made brief eye contact with the Sun Walker.

In Lin An's eyes, a flicker of surprise flashed.

Beneath the mask, his pupils reflected an inverted-triangular lizard face.

The surprise stemmed from those anthropomorphized two emotions.

He saw the Sun Walker's face contorted with rage—a ferocity unlike ordinary mutants, but an anger tinged with some capacity for thought.

High-level mutant, indeed it has begun to possess some intelligence?

Upon first facing a regular Third Level high-grade mutant, Lin An quickly made a judgment and didn't think further.

Light surged.

Sword slash!!

Whether you have brains or not, slash first, talk later.

Without Hesitation.

Within 0.1 seconds, a shrill scarlet sword aura directly spanned the distance between them, fiercely slashing at the airborne Sun Walker.

「cha!! 」

The sword aura tore the air; after delivering the strike, Lin An turned and left.

His purpose was to lure this monster upward; it hardly mattered what damage his casual strike could inflict.

However, as Lin An turned, he inadvertently noticed in his peripheral vision that behind the Sun Walker seemed to be a large quantity of human books.

What...?

Just as the thought arose, the sword aura he had slashed already struck the Sun Walker.

But after a dull metallic clang, the scarlet sword aura capable of instantly killing a Second Level mutant left only a white trace on the Sun Walker.

「Beep, critical hit judgment in progress, judgment failed... 」

「Beep, crushing judgment in progress, judgment failed... 」

As a series of system prompts sounded, Lin An's heart hesitated slightly.

Indeed, with the rank gap, his attack could no longer inflict multiple crushing effects as before, and its damage was greatly reduced.

In the past, against lower or same rank foes, a casual strike from him would trigger a fourfold judgment; any enemy weaker than him would be turned into a pile of minced flesh under critical crush maim.

This was the first time the effect failed to trigger, leaving him somewhat unaccustomed.

The only thing that made Lin An feel alright was that in the attribute crush judgment, the Sun Walker's strength attribute was not much higher than his; at least normal damage could still be dealt.

Third Level high-grade, indeed not so easy to kill.

In an instant, based on the information that appeared, Lin An determined the forthcoming combat style.

The battle simulation engaged; after slashing, he rushed out of the tunnel without looking back.

At his speed, he burst out in the blink of an eye.

As for that pile of strange books, in a state of absolute combat calm, Lin An instinctively shielded them out, focusing only on battle matters.

「shaa!! 」

A hiss came; the Sun Walker originally guarding the books, after repeated attacks, became fully enraged—though it had some intelligence, it was limited to this.

At the same time, three Second Level mutants also surged out of the pit, their heads swelling like prayer beads, slender limbs swiftly scraping the cave walls.

One second later, Lin An flew out first, with four mutants closely following.

Taking advantage of the distance, Lin An quickly said to Xiong Hanzi:

「Wait for me to pull away! 」

「After I gain control, you join the battle! 」

「Charge up to maim! 」

The orders were concise; as he flew out, Lin An felt the extremely swift aura of the Sun Walker behind him and decisively gave Zhang Tie a new command.

The Sun Walker's speed nearly matched his own; if he didn't drag it into close-quarters combat, relying on Zhang Tie's speed, he could hardly keep up with their high-speed movement.

On the summit, the waiting Xiong Hanzi's eyes narrowed; he gave a heavy, muffled nod, his spiked club continually gathering power.

All it took was a single command from Lin An, and he would launch a leaping strike to smash the opponent with a club!

Believing that under the active effect of the Lingchi Wielder, he could surely cripple one of the opponent's legs!

「Bang! 」

「Bang! 」

Flying around the vein, the two figures—one green, one red—entered supersonic state after a brief acceleration, with piercing sonic booms and shock clouds appearing simultaneously.

Like pulling a white giant umbrella, Lin An, luring the Sun Walker, constantly adjusted his flight direction while his internal spirit energy was simultaneously mobilized.

The Sun Walker's defense is extremely high; Lin An intends to change his previous combat methods.

This time, he no longer plans to use the grandiose but spirit-energy-wasteful sword aura torrents and spirit-energy storms.

Before, it was large-scale instant kills, and he didn't care about damage issues.

But now, facing a high-defense, high-speed enemy, conserving spirit energy, hard-hitting close-quarters combat is the truth!

Especially after his spirit-energy control strengthened, Lin An also wanted to test what kind of attack his body could unleash with spirit-energy reinforcement.

But before that, perhaps he could consider trying a few Judgments first?

Regarding the Sun Walker's displayed intelligence, he believed that under the Fool trait, the opponent would be somewhat affected.

Facing a feeble-minded foe is always better than facing a cunning one.

However, just as Lin An prepared to summon seven Judgment thunderbolts in one breath, a series of piercing, irritating howls rang out.

"Hiss!"

"Hiss!"

"Huh?"

Lin An turned sharply, seeing the second-level mutant he had almost ignored, and his brow furrowed slightly.

He had been simulating the battle with the Sun Walker, almost forgetting these three wastes.

Hearing that irritable hiss, Lin An decided to make the opponent shut up first.

Without hesitation, as Lin An momentarily stopped, four consecutive black-red lights burst from him.

Double Cast!

Destruction! Destruction! Impact!

From Cain's Blade and Rose Armor, under the two equipment's special effects, Lin An, standing still, instantly turned into four afterimages, crossing in an X shape, and suddenly launched a Destruction Impact in all directions.

Like a blade waltz, with triple sonic speed boost, the bursting sound of breaking air accompanied by a tremendous roar instantly tore apart the second-level mutant hanging behind him.

The speed was so fast it completely surpassed their reaction.

There was no struggle.

Blood mist exploded all around, and a patter of meat rain poured down.

Three consecutive system prompts also sounded.

"Ding, killed second-level mutant, human-headed centipede. Obtained white equipment, 【Centipede Mask】"

"Ding, killed second-level mutant, human-headed centipede, obtained material, 【United Horn】.."

Ignoring the system prompt, 0.1 seconds later, Lin An, returning to his original position, looked satisfied at the effect he had caused.

Relying on double cast and two super-speed teleport skills, he could launch Destruction Impacts on multiple targets in an extremely short time and instantly return to his original position.

It must be said, the skill combination gave surprisingly good results.

If he also used the Blink skill, Lin An even felt he could produce an infinite dash combo effect in a short time. While dealing damage, he could dodge attacks with an almost cheating Blink.

Suppressing the thought of experimenting with the combo technique, as the three-headed mutant died, the Sun Walker seemed to be angered again, taking advantage of Lin An's pause, a pair of bladed hands turned into a green afterimage like an impact drill and suddenly assaulted.

"shaa!"

Insect chirring hiss.

Looking at the Sun Walker that wanted to chop him to pieces, Lin An's mouth curled with a cold smile.

You want to kill me?

Uninterrupted!

Demon!

Two major state skills activated simultaneously. In an instant, dazzling dark-gold spiritual energy surfaced on his body; his originally handsome appearance, under the Demonic Form, became somewhat eerie for a moment. Under the Spiritual Energy Shield and Uninterrupted double protection, Lin An felt no fear, directly charging forward with his sword.

What about third-level advanced! After his strength once again greatly increased, he had long craved a thrilling battle!

In an instant, under the dim night sky, dark-green afterimages and enchanting blood light tore across the sky, violently colliding in midair.