Chapter 118: A Battle of Ever-Changing Tides

The final corpse-monsters beneath the earth had entangled all the wyvern knights. Though they could not hold out for long due to arcane contamination, it was enough.

Adonsa’s senses expanded fully, and tracing the electromagnetic signals, she instantly pinpointed Provence’s true location. The mountain of corpses beneath her feet was shattered, and the air erupted into a ring-shaped shockwave as Adonsa broke the sound barrier.

Concepts like "treading snow without leaving a trace" or "crossing the river on a reed" are irrelevant; in the standard universe, to achieve such velocity, one must obey the laws of conservation of momentum.

Thus, Adonsa’s charge was accompanied by a deafening, awe-inspiring momentum.

Surface friction alone could never support Adonsa’s supersonic sprint, so her feet had morphed into grappling claws. Each stride not only covered dozens of meters but dug deep into the grey earth, kicking up towering clouds of dust and cratering the ground.

Each individual footfall possessed enough force to send a heavy truck flying.

The earth trembled and dust billowed; Adonsa alone created a spectacle reminiscent of a thundering cavalry charge. A distance of several thousand meters was mere self-deception in the face of her advance.

"Adonsa, suspected Tier-5 Cyber-human. Preliminary assessment suggests mastery of four-dimensional spatial technology or possession of spatial equipment. Specializes in advanced biological modification. Confirmed as an Apostle of the biotech path..."

The limited intel on Adonsa flashed through Provence’s mind. He made an immediate decision: "Ran Bingqing, stop her!"

The usually reticent Ran Bingqing felt a surge of violent excitement. Facing Adonsa, who charged like a runaway train, she rushed forward without hesitation, her own feet cratering the ground upon impact.

Yet, her speed was inferior to even an arthritic old man compared to Adonsa.

Adonsa barely acknowledged her, choosing simply to plow through.

Ran Bingqing executed a "thousand-pound drop," her feet sinking deep into the soil as she braced in a textbook horse stance, arms crossed over her chest in full defense.

BOOM!

Conde’s sensors captured the moment perfectly.

In slow motion, Ran Bingqing’s stance held for less than a tenth of a second before being shattered by Adonsa. It wasn't the direct impact that broke her, but the fact that Adonsa had caused the very ground beneath her to collapse into a massive pit.

The seismic shock sent Ran Bingqing flying back over ten meters. Even so, she had blocked Adonsa’s heartbeat-like pace; the force of the head-on collision against her chest had vanished like a stone into the sea, producing nothing but a long, resonating chime.

Adonsa couldn't help but spare her a surprised glance. The stance was broken, but Ran Bingqing had suffered no actual damage; her gilded skin didn't show so much as a dent.

In fact, she seemed even stronger.

Adonsa’s momentum stalled. Before she could gather force again, others struck at her through the turbulent air currents caused by the impact.

Provence flickered and prepared to dive into a spatial gate, but before he could see clearly, a fist shot out from the void toward his face. It was white and slender, appearing suited only for holding a paintbrush—it was Adonsa’s fist.

Even before impact, the terrifying pressure of the blow surged toward him like a cannonball.

Provence was startled, realizing his oversight. While his spatial gates were effortless to open, they were still limited by his neural reaction speed. Adonsa’s reaction and movement speed clearly surpassed everyone present; opening a gate in front of her was merely providing her with a shortcut to strike him.

*However, do you think you can use my gates for free?*

Provence sneered inwardly. He let the fist-wind strike his face like a heavy hammer, bruising his right cheek, and then slammed his hands together.

"Close!"

The open spatial gate snapped shut, the rift in space recoiling to its original position. The slender arm caught within was severed cleanly at the elbow; against the force of collapsing space-time, ordinary matter had no room to resist.

Provence reeled as if struck hard, a wave of intense exhaustion washing over him.

While spatial gates were miraculous, they were not dedicated spatial-cutting abilities. Cutting objects imposed a massive mental burden on the user, proportional to the volume, mass, and molecular bond strength of the object.

In short, the harder and heavier the object, the greater the toll.

Normally, cutting through a hundred standard industrial carbon steel bars would leave Provence only as tired as a commoner jogging a kilometer. But this slender arm felt like he had sprinted that kilometer at full speed; he was nearly drained.

His unease amplified rapidly. If the strength of just one arm could reach this level, then what of Adonsa herself...?

The gate was closed, but the danger had only just begun.

The severed arm did not fall to the ground. Instead, it emitted a trail of exhaust from its stump and lunged toward Provence’s face even faster, like a rocket-propelled fist.

Provence’s expression changed. He opened another spatial gate right in front of his nose, transporting the limb away at the final second to save his handsome face.

The targetless flying fist slammed into the grey earth, kicking up dust like a meteorite impact and causing a significant tremor.

The fist did not lie still; instead, it deformed violently. Its five fingers elongated and turned black, a massive mouth sprouted from the palm, and it began to devour the sand and soil, swelling in size.

It transformed into a car-sized monster, fingers digging into the ground, elbow raised, resembling a malformed giant scorpion.

Provence snorted, and a small box at his waist automatically injected a stamina potion, rapidly restoring his lost energy.

But just as Provence prepared for a fierce battle with the creature, the scorpion hissed in frustration, clung tightly to the ground, and was forcibly dragged away by an invisible hurricane, flying rapidly back toward Adonsa.

Adonsa had already regrown her arm, so the independent scorpion was simply compressed by an unknown force and pulled back into her body.

Adonsa had wanted to play with Provence using only one hand, but the power of sloth was too strong; it was difficult for her to resist its recursive pull.

Although Provence didn't know what had happened, his expression grew even more grave.

Suddenly, he widened his eyes and shouted, "Kazan, don't!"

While Provence and Adonsa’s arm were entangled, two others launched a surprise attack.

Kazan erupted with streams of blood-snakes, which shot toward Adonsa with malicious intent. Conde, meanwhile, unleashed his final high-frequency oscillation sword.

"Damn it, this fight has set me back to the Stone Age! I've spent everything I had!"

Conde’s wail echoed through the mental link, but no one had the luxury to respond.

Adonsa deliberately caught one of the black blood-snakes, feeling a stinging pain spread from her fingertip. However, it was nowhere near enough to corrode her nano-sulfur-carbyne skin, which was tough enough to withstand depleted uranium armor-piercing rounds.

Adonsa carelessly crushed the blood-snake and ignored the gaunt, vein-covered man.

But when she intended to seize the high-frequency oscillation sword, she encountered unexpected resistance.

Just as her two fingers were about to pinch the vibrating blade, Conde accelerated. The high-frequency blade ground against Adonsa’s incredibly hard, fair palm, throwing off dazzling sparks and with great difficulty carving a shallow, inch-long cut into her skin.

With the aid of his nano-combat suit and tactical simulation system, Conde had managed to keep pace with Adonsa’s reaction speed, even slightly surpassing her due to his mature neural crystal calculations.

Conde then decisively activated his optical stealth device, further interfering with Adonsa’s senses; she could only sluggishly reconstruct his trajectory from the chaotic air currents.

In one second, Adonsa engaged in over a dozen perilous exchanges with Conde. The high-frequency sword unleashed vacuum sword-qi, carving deep gouges into the ground and leaving several seemingly messy wounds on Adonsa’s body.

For a moment, Adonsa was unable to suppress this black-clad cyber-human through raw speed and technique alone.

Conde’s long-range firepower was ill-suited for a single target, but the fundamental reason he had charged into melee combat was that he was the only one who could barely engage in equal combat with Adonsa. Others like Ran Bingqing or Kazan would struggle to do so, likely being swatted away before they could even track her attacks.

But Conde was suffering in silence. The excessive computational load was not only causing his mechanical brain to overheat but was also triggering agonizing pain in his biological brain. The battle was far harder than his simulations had predicted, and he couldn't hold out for much longer.