146: Distorted protection

The probing ended.

The giant beast did not roar. It merely lowered its massive body slightly, and the next second, like an out-of-control heavy tank, it launched an incredibly brutal straight charge toward Shen Mingyuan! Its heavy footsteps pounded the ground, producing a sound like muffled thunder, shaking the earth.

Just as the charge was about to hit him, its thick bone tail, utilizing the force of its turn, swept horizontally from the rear side like a fierce steel whip, accompanied by a shriek that tore the air, blocking Shen Mingyuan's escape to either side!

Shen Mingyuan was prepared. The moment the giant beast moved, he had already pushed his physical capabilities to the limit of the "shadow" form.

He did not attempt to block or counterattack. Instead, he identified the blind spot between the sweeping trajectory of the tail whip and the charge path. In a split second, he slightly bent his knees, the leg armor erupted with powerful thrust, and he leaped swiftly backward and upward like a wisp of black smoke!

"Boom!!!"

The bone tail swept past the air beneath his feet, shattering a rock where he had been standing! Shen Mingyuan, using the force, pushed off the trunk of a large tree behind him, changed direction again, and landed lightly on a higher branch.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

While airborne, his twin guns immediately opened fire! The dark red energy bullets were not aimed at the thick bone armor, but precisely at the giant beast's relatively vulnerable eyes, the inside of its open maw, and the gaps at its joint connections!

However, the monster's reaction and defense were equally astonishing. It shut its eyes abruptly, and the secondary bone plates covering its eyelids deflected the bullets aimed at its eyes;

It shook its head, dodging the attack aimed at its mouth;

As for the joints, the energy bullets hitting the thick keratin and muscle only raised scorched marks and caused insignificant pain, failing to impede its movement at all.

"As expected, I can't break its defense..." Shen Mingyuan understood this immediately and showed no desire to fight head-on. The moment the giant beast slightly slowed down from the impact, he leaped down from the treetop, and without stopping after landing, he turned and retreated at full speed toward the deeper, more complex terrain of the mountain forest!

He wasn't here to fight a brute-force battle. Engaging in close combat against an opponent that utterly overwhelmed him in strength, defense, and recovery was suicide. His advantage lay in speed, agility, and... precise strikes from mid-to-long range.

"Roar—!!"

The escape of its prey completely enraged the giant beast. It let out a deafening roar and took heavy strides, smashing through every obstacle in its path like a bulldozer. Trees as thick as bowls snapped and fell before it like stalks, as it relentlessly pursued Shen Mingyuan.

Shen Mingyuan pushed the speed of "shadow" to the maximum, moving like a phantom through the forest, constantly changing direction and maneuvering using the trees, rocks, and undulating terrain.

Although the giant beast possessed terrifying strength, its ability to turn and navigate complex terrain was clearly less flexible than his. After several missed charges and countless broken trees, the distance between them gradually widened.

Finally, with a skillful sharp turn behind a dense thicket, Shen Mingyuan's figure completely vanished from the giant beast's sight and perception.

The giant beast lost its target and restlessly paced in place, sweeping its tail around, knocking down several small trees, and emitting angry, confused grunts.

What it didn't know was that about a hundred meters above and to its side, on a cliff protrusion obscured by dense tree canopy, Shen Mingyuan was holding his breath and concentrating.

He quickly docked, rotated, and locked the "twin stars" pistols in his hands using their unique interface. With a few soft 'click' mechanical sounds, the two guns seamlessly combined into a compact, streamlined black and red sniper rifle.

He didn't aim immediately. Instead, he gripped the rifle firmly with both hands and concentrated. The armband transmitted the pulse of energy output, and the dark red biological veins on the rifle body began to glow, throbbing like blood vessels.

Visible, subtle scarlet electric arcs began to gather and swirl in front of the muzzle, seemingly compressing and accumulating terrifying energy. At the muzzle, a blinding point of dark red light grew brighter and emitted a heart-stopping fluctuation.

Charging required time.

Through the scope, he calmly observed the giant beast pacing below like a headless fly. The crosshairs moved slowly, sweeping past its thick back armor, past its ferocious head, and finally settling on one of its relatively thick hind support legs, where the joint defense might be slightly weaker.

'Lethal, or debilitating?' The cold choice flashed through his mind instantly. The creature before him no longer bore any resemblance to a human, looking more like a biological killing machine driven by hunger and rage.

How much of Zhou Zihui, the "person," could possibly remain after such a horrifying mutation? Perhaps ending this monster was the final... closure... for the vanished boy?

He took a deep breath and held it. The red light at the muzzle was now blazing like blood; the charge was about to reach its peak.

Forget it. Since the charge is complete anyway, I should first cripple its offensive and movement capabilities.

Whether to kill him or spare his life, I'll decide later.

Below, the giant beast seemed to sense something. It nervously turned its body in place, raised its heavy head, and its murky eyes scanned the forest above.

Now!

Shen Mingyuan pulled the trigger.

There was no deafening roar, only a muffled "Vwoom—Boom!!" resulting from extreme compression.

A thick beam of energy, solid as liquid ruby, tore through the air and shot down from above the cliff at a speed too fast for the eye to track!

The beam was not aimed at the leg, but precisely at the mid-section joint of the heavy bone tail!

A sniper round fully charged with bio-electric energy had power far exceeding that of a regular shot.

"Pshhh—Boom!"

The moment of impact, the high-energy beam first melted and vaporized the bone armor and muscle it struck. Immediately afterward, the contained violent bio-electric energy was fully released, creating a localized, violent explosion!

Shards of bone, charred chunks of flesh, and smoking biological tissue scattered everywhere!

The heavy bone tail snapped instantly where it was struck! The larger portion of the tail crashed heavily to the ground like a severed battering ram, twitched a few times on its own, and then went completely still.

However, the expected scene of the monster roaring and thrashing wildly in agony did not occur.

The giant beast's body merely gave a violent shudder and stumbled forward one step. Sparks of electricity and scorch smoke rose from the severed tail stump.

It slowly turned its head to look at its missing tail. In its murky eyes, there was no sign of intense pain, but rather something resembling... confusion and fury over mechanical damage.

As Shen Mingyuan had speculated, the biological structure of this massive external shell, forcibly created by mutation, focused more on function and defense. The neural connection to the internal core might be crude but efficient, yet pain-sensing nerve endings were either scarce or severely dulled.

For it, losing its tail was more like the loss of a "weapon component" than a deep, agonizing injury.

"Roar—!!"

But this loss clearly enraged it. It had lost a vital organ for attack and balance, and its movement would inevitably be affected.

It threw its head back and let out an even more ferocious roar. It stopped searching aimlessly and locked onto the approximate direction from which the beam had struck. Dragging its mutilated body, it charged violently toward the base of the cliff where Shen Mingyuan was, smashing through every obstacle.

Although it had lost its tail, the sheer brute force and ferocity of this giant beast were undiminished.

Having successfully landed a shot, Shen Mingyuan did not linger. He knew the sniping position was exposed.

The instant the bullet left the barrel, he had already rolled away from his spot and began moving rapidly along the complex terrain of the cliff edge toward the other side.

Although the giant beast had lost its tail, its charge became even more frantic, relying on its massive body and terrifying bite force for collision and tearing.

Shen Mingyuan originally intended to use the terrain again to create distance and find a high point to snipe, but the giant beast seemed to anticipate his intention. A powerful charge was aimed not directly at him, but preemptively blocked the path he needed to take toward a towering rock face!

"Do you still... intend to use the same trick?!"

A low, heavy, hoarse voice, seemingly mixed with the grating of stone and the resonance of flesh, suddenly burst forth from the giant beast's ferocious maw!

Shen Mingyuan's rapid evasive movement paused slightly, and the shock on his face beneath the helmet was undeniable. This monster... spoke? And that voice was definitely not Zhou Zihui!

"You have independent consciousness?! You are not Zhou Zihui... you are... the brother he 'devoured'?" Shen Mingyuan demanded sharply while rolling to evade another claw strike.

"It's... me..." The voice was intermittent, yet carried a deep-seated resentment and a twisted form of obsession. "He's... inside. All these years... it was him... Now, it's my turn... If I deal with you... I can be... truly free..."

"Free? And then what? What do you intend to do?" Shen Mingyuan pressed urgently while moving quickly and maneuvering around the giant beast.

He needed information, and he also needed time—his next charge was about to be completed.

"Freedom... revenge..." The giant beast's voice was filled with primal fury and a childish obsession. "Everyone... who bullied Zihui... who hurt him... teachers... classmates... those who spoke ill of him... must... pay the price! He said... 'I'll kill you'... I heard it all... They deserve to die!"

Shen Mingyuan's heart sank. Sure enough! That twisted scene of slaughter originated here! "That was just angry talk! It was an uncontrolled venting of frustration when a person is angry. It doesn't mean he would actually do it! And it certainly doesn't mean those people deserve to die!"

He tried to appeal to the monster, which was dominated by twisted logic.

"If it's said... it's sincere!" The giant beast's logic was simple and brutal; it couldn't comprehend the complexity of human emotion. "He is my brother... I heard it... so I must protect him... and eliminate... all threats!"

"Protect?" Shen Mingyuan seized upon this unusual word. "You don't... resent him? You were 'devoured' by him!"

A brief silence followed, broken only by the giant beast's heavy breathing and the rush of wind from its attacks.

"No... resentment." That hoarse voice actually contained a hint of... almost gentle obsession? "In the womb... I was... stronger... but I didn't want to... hurt my brother... I... chose... to be encompassed by him..."

Its consciousness emerged earlier, yet it voluntarily relinquished dominance, choosing to "accompany" him in another form.

It wasn't until Zhou Zihui's murderous "death declaration" that it was fully activated and twisted from its long slumber and protective obsession, like the sharpest key.

It didn't understand the world, and its mind might still be stuck in a nascent state of Chaos. Its only logic was: my brother is threatened, I must eliminate the threat and protect my brother.

This extreme, twisted "desire to protect," built upon tragedy, was the root cause of that massacre and everything happening now.

Just then, a strong pulse emanated from the armband on Shen Mingyuan's left wrist—the charge was complete!

The giant beast also seemed to sense the dangerous energy condensing again. With a furious roar, it opened its maw and launched its fiercest lunge toward Shen Mingyuan's location!

Now!

Shen Mingyuan did not retreat. Instead, he rushed toward the direction of the lunge, pushing the speed of "shadow" to its maximum, executing a perilously low slide that skimmed dangerously beneath the giant beast's lower jaw!

In the instant they crossed paths, he pressed the weapon, now reassembled into sniper form with its muzzle glowing with blinding red light, directly against the joint on the rear side of one of the giant beast's thick hind legs!

That was a weak point in the heavy armor coverage.

He did not hesitate for a moment.

He pulled the trigger.

"Boom!!!"

The power of the point-blank shot was undiminished! The thick, blood-red energy beam penetrated at zero range, easily melting through the outer armor, tearing muscle and bone, then piercing through the other side of the leg, and maintaining enough momentum to also strike and penetrate the same spot on the adjacent support leg!

"Awooo—!!!"

This time, the area connected to the core motor nerves was severely damaged, and the intense, debilitating pain finally caused the giant beast to let out a mournful shriek!

With two support legs crippled almost simultaneously, its massive body could no longer maintain balance. Like a collapsing mountain, it crashed sideways to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust. It struggled, but could only paw the ground with its forelimbs in vain, unable to stand again.

Shen Mingyuan quickly retreated, holding his rifle alertly, his breathing slightly ragged. This single strike had nearly depleted most of the bio-electric energy he had stored for the sniper shot.

As the dust slowly settled, the giant beast lay on the ground, its murky eyes fixed on Shen Mingyuan. Its hoarse voice, filled with pain and reluctance, sounded intermittently:

"Brother... can I... not protect you anymore..."