Chapter 945: Battle Begins

The stench was overwhelming, the image breaking down frame by frame.

Under visual and mental double lock, Lin An watched the huge monster charging at him; in his dark pupils, it seemed as if thunder was brewing.

A vast amount of mental power overflowed, allowing him to see every minute movement of the mutant, the changes in its muscles and limbs.

A flash of silver light came and went, that was the external manifestation of mental power solidified.

"Beep, detected a rank‑3 intermediate mutant: Flash Striker"

"Mutant abilities: leap strike, supersonic tongue flick, intermediate biological toughness enhancement, infrared perception..."

"Weak point analysis: central spine, hindbrain tissue..."

A dense stream of information scrolled down.

With the aid of the True Eye and Judgment skills, the Flash Striker now appeared transparent; all its information was broken down into detailed data, listed out in full.

Its motions were parsed into a 3D view.

It was like opening X‑ray vision; a huge amount of weak‑point information invisible to the naked eye streamed out simultaneously, marked on the Flash Striker's body.

Red, symbolizing critical hits and vital points, pierced the Flash Striker's entire body.

Under the crushing pressure of mental power, Lin An almost felt an illusion arise in his heart.

If he wished, he could even anticipate beforehand and copy the opponent's movements.

Although the opponent's speed... was indeed very fast.

A fierce wind blasted his face, but faster than the wind was the probing, chilling jade foot thrust forward.

Like a frog, its muscles exploded outward; the mutant leaping from the outer wall launched its assault in a strange posture.

It leapt up, then dove down.

The Flash Striker was like a supersonic iron shovel driven obliquely into the ground; the air beneath its toe tip was compressed into a mass, then instantly burst, forming a brief cavity.

To outsiders it was a blink‑of‑an‑eye moment, but in Lin An's eyes it felt somewhat prolonged.

All that could be seen inside the building was Lin An, who had been motionless as if stunned, suddenly spring into action the instant the attack reached him.

He sidestepped, dodged left!

Arcane power surged forth, like the thrust nozzle of an aircraft adjusting its attitude.

"Whoosh! Boom!"

In an instant, a tremendous roar sounded after passing through the point where Lin An had previously been hovering.

A deep pit appeared, the ground struck.

The earth resembled a giant snake struck in the belly, painfully bending up from both ends; the hard cement floor cracked and lifted up, fragile as paper.

There was no time to see more; smoke and dust blocked the view, and involuntary cries rang out from the crowd.

"Did he get hit!?"

"Why didn't he dodge!?"

There was no time to think.

The few people drawn by the battle could only stare blankly at Lin An, who seemed to have been struck by the monster.

The speed was too fast.

With their reaction speed, they could only see the visual afterimage left by Lin An's hyperspeed movement.

After a full second, a keen‑eyed Awakened One, as if seeing something, let out a stunned, voiceless cry and pointed incredulously to the other side of the monster.

"He dodged it!"

"Over there!"

Hearing the shouts, several people rushed to look, only to see that figure appearing unharmed, calmly standing sideways beside the monster's right hand.

They then realized that what had been struck was merely a shadow, not Lin An's true body.

What speed is this!? What reflex is this!?

Clinging to the window.

Seeing for the first time an Awakened One daring to face a rank‑3 mutant head‑on, several people almost forgot why they had come here.

That figure, hovering mid‑air parallel to the mutant, was like a magnet, deeply drawing their gaze.

The battle was faster than imagined.

Just a moment after they were still reeling from shock, they next second saw the mutant moving again.

Like being provoked, the Impactor, stiff in place, seemed not to have expected that a human could dodge its attack.

In its feeble intelligence, it barely realized that the tiny bug beside it harbored considerable power.

"Roar!"

Both claws swept out at high speed.

Unlike human combat, there was no need to worry about joint attack stances.

Unrestrained, the sky‑filling claw shadows resembled a cross‑shaped lock sealing space, coming down toward Lin An's head; a single claw's might could likely shatter the hardest tank armor.

His expression remained calm.

Suspended in mid‑air, Lin An didn't even draw Cain's Blade.

Intent on testing his various physical qualities, he keenly felt the actual strength of this rank‑3 mutant.

Or rather, just how strong he now was.

"Swish swish! Swish! Swish!"

With the aid of hyper‑effective thought, the claw shadows that most people could not dodge appeared in Lin An's eyes as a giant net full of holes, which he nimbly avoided, slipping in and out.

Combined with extreme speed and abundant mental power, each of his dodges felt like anticipation.

The Impactor, this rank‑3 mutant unleashing its assault, could actually pose no hindrance to him.

Such a bizarre scene was not only incomprehensible to the survivors hiding in the building, but even Zhang Tie and Yun Tian, watching from high above, were momentarily startled.

Lin An and the monster differ by only one level, but just from dodging, it gives a feeling of ease and leisure.

It's as if what Lin An faces is not a third rank, but an ordinary zombie.

Sensing each attack that grazed past his body, Lin An felt something.

Between the attributes, they are complementary.

If he could only anticipate the monster's attacks but lacked sufficient physical quality to forcefully shift position, then the outcome would be the same: being pressed and beaten by the monster, and a slight mistake would mean death.

If he only had speed but could not anticipate, he could only pull back the distance, relying a little on sneak attacks or else wear down the monster from afar.

Not only that, continuous dodging requires high agility and also requires a strong physique to maintain.

And with strong mental power, when anticipating and wanting to launch an attack, if strength is too low it will result in no damage at all.

All four attributes are indispensable.

It is precisely because his attributes are completely over the limit that he can now easily face this third-rank mutant.

Only through personal testing can he deeply realize this.

Unnoticed, in the battle against a mutant that would make many Awakened Ones flee at the news,

Lin An dodged while considering his future path.

"Boss... who... who exactly is he!!"

However, in just a few seconds, the team members who had never seen a battle between third ranks stammered as they looked out the window.

The attacker's offensive momentum showed no pause; between the one person and the monster, they, with Lin An intentionally dodging, brought the monster to destroy half a block.

But no matter how the mutant attacked, that tiny figure like a speck could always dodge time and again.

It looked like nothing short of a thrilling performance show.

No one answered.

Everyone's hearts and minds were drawn to this unbelievable battle.

They completely did not understand how Lin An managed it.

You should know, although they had never seen a third rank take action, they still knew the basic common sense.

An ordinary third rank could absolutely not achieve this.

That mysterious man, or rather that whole team of mysterious people, could they not all be existences on the rankings?

At least in their understanding, the information many third ranks revealed in the chat channel indicates that, at equal rank, mutants are far stronger than humans.

"Who cares who he is!!"

Watching the battle with pounding heart, the Awakened Ones called the captain seemed to suddenly snap back to, and slapped his head hard.

"We can't worry about that anymore! We're here to get equipment, not to watch a show!"

The team captain took a deep breath, his eyes flickering:

"Leave a few people here to watch! Let's hurry to get the equipment!"

"We don't know if that guy can kill the monster, but holding it down is only beneficial for us!"

He licked his dry, cracked lips, and the team captain without hesitation turned and rushed into the building interior.

He didn't know anything else; he only knew that perhaps, while that group of mysterious people lured the monster away, it would be a huge opportunity for himself!