189: One shot and he was dead

In his Falcon Dive Form, Shen Mingyuan's hyper-visual perception captured every movement trajectory of his opponent's bone shields and every precursor to muscle contraction with absolute clarity.

He precisely seized the moment the pseudo-silver skeleton's movements became sluggish due to its severe abdominal injury.

Just as the opponent swung the two front bone shields again, closing in from the left and right like giant guillotines, Shen Mingyuan did not retreat. Instead, he pushed off the ground, his powerful wings on his back flapping fiercely to provide extra lift, and he charged upward like a ghost through the gap in the attack!

He stepped onto the surface of one of the swinging bone shields, using the momentum for a second leap. Dark purple energy patterns flashed across his armor, and his figure became a bolt of black lightning, suddenly appearing above the pseudo-silver skeleton's right shoulder, which was exposed as it looked up to attack!

“The joint!” The red Visor instantly locked onto the target—the area where the bone shield connected to the shoulder exoskeleton. Due to the rapid movement, it hadn't closed completely, revealing a tiny, relatively poorly protected biomass hinge structure.

Without the slightest hesitation, he thrust both arms forward!

From the outside of his armguards, the straight and slender Red Lightning Arm Blades ejected. The bright red energy cores at the center of the blades hummed loudly, and the entwined dark red Bioelectricity danced wildly like awakening angry snakes! The twin blades crossed in the air, carving two sharp death crosses that slashed into the gap with unerring precision!

“Slash! Crack—!”

The piercing sound of tearing and the crisp snap of structural failure erupted simultaneously! Bioelectricity surged through the straight blades and into the joint, destroying neural links and energy pathways.

The two massive bone shields, which served as the primary means of attack and defense, were forcibly severed from the main body!

Losing their support and energy supply, the bone shields instantly became heavy and uncontrollable. Carrying their own momentum, they tilted outward, detached, and slammed heavily onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The pseudo-silver skeleton let out a roar mixed with intense pain and shock, its body shaking violently due to the sudden loss of balance on one side. Its crimson eye sockets snapped toward Shen Mingyuan on its shoulder, and the remaining two bone shields and arms instinctively tried to counterattack.

But Shen Mingyuan was faster! The moment the twin blades severed the connection, he used the reaction force of the slash and the micro-adjustments of his tail fin to complete a turn as swift as a whirlwind in mid-air. As his body spun, his straight Arm Blades followed the momentum to draw a full arc of dark red light, hacking down fiercely from a diagonal angle!

“Puchi—!”

This spinning slash accurately struck the side of the pseudo-silver skeleton's abdomen again, hitting the relatively intact exoskeleton at the edge of the charred wound. The straight blade edges cut deep, tearing and widening the original piercing wound, causing more strange organic fluid and charred debris to splatter out.

The pseudo-silver skeleton's roar turned into a pained wail, its movements completely deformed.

And this was not the end. Shen Mingyuan landed in the posture of a successful raptor. The moment his feet touched the ground, his body lunged forward again with arms extended. The pair of straight Red Lightning Arm Blades, like two indestructible steel spikes, stabbed fiercely for a third time—penetrating deeply—into the abdominal wound that had already been ravaged beyond recognition!

“Ugh, aaaaah—!!!”

The massive piercing force and the violent Bioelectricity exploded a second time within its body. The pseudo-silver skeleton had almost all its resistance destroyed by this continuous series of fatal blows. Shen Mingyuan could even feel the spasms and collapse of the opponent's internal tissues through the blades.

He exerted force with his arms, pulling back sharply toward himself. Using the drag caused by the straight blades inside the wound and his immense strength, he forcibly dragged the opponent's off-balance body toward him! Simultaneously, the Red Lightning Arm Blade on his left arm retracted into the armor, and his freed left hand splayed open, firmly pinning the opponent's head, which was covered by a silver mask!

“Stay—down!”

With a sharp shout, Shen Mingyuan poured all his strength into his left arm. Combined with his body weight and momentum, he pressed down on the pseudo-silver skeleton's head and slammed it violently against the cold, hard ground!

“Bang!!!”

A heavy, dull thud echoed. The ground seemed to tremble. The pseudo-silver skeleton's facial armor collided violently with the floor; spiderweb-like cracks spread across the silver mask, and the light in its crimson eye sockets flickered wildly, nearly fading away. Her remaining two bone shields scraped feebly against the ground, trying to prop up her body, but it was in vain.

Shen Mingyuan stepped on her neck, pinning her head firmly to the ground and cutting off any last possibility of her getting up. Beneath his foot came a faint, unwilling struggle.

Then, the straight Red Lightning Arm Blades on his arms popped out again—this time, the blade edges were aimed at the joints of the last two pale bone shields that were still trembling slightly, serving as support legs.

“Clang! Clang!”

Two clean, decisive slashes. The last two bone shields snapped and tumbled away. The pseudo-silver skeleton had completely lost all its appendages and heavy armaments, slumped on the ground like an insect stripped of its shell.

Shen Mingyuan's gaze was cold, his movements showing no pause.

The moment he retracted his foot, he twisted his waist and swung his right leg like a battle-axe, kicking the opponent's side fiercely!

“Bang!”

The silver body was kicked off the ground.

The wings on Shen Mingyuan's back flapped violently, providing powerful thrust. His body launched like a cannonball to catch up, instantly leveling with the opponent who had no leverage in the air.

“It's over.”

Before his voice faded, a rainstorm of punches descended!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

His fists turned into a blur of black afterimages. With the extremely high attack speed granted by the Falcon Dive Form, he poured a frenzy of blows onto the pseudo-silver skeleton's torso, limbs, and head! Every punch was as heavy as a sledgehammer, precisely striking the silver-white exoskeleton parts that were not yet fully evolved, poorly protected, or already cracked.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The sounds of shattering exploded in rapid succession! The unstable exoskeleton simply couldn't withstand such concentrated and violent physical impact; large sections buckled, shattered, and peeled away, revealing the twisted bionic tissue and broken dark red energy pathways beneath. The crimson eyes behind the mask flickered violently, as shock and pain were drowned out by this pure display of violence.

The final blow!

Shen Mingyuan pulled back his right fist, gathering all his strength. His wings folded forward simultaneously to add thrust as he delivered a heavy uppercut from below, slamming it into the pseudo-silver skeleton's already ravaged abdominal wound—hitting a vital spot similar to a human diaphragm!

“Boom!!!”

The immense force fully erupted. The pseudo-silver skeleton was sent flying backward like a broken kite, crashing hard into a solid concrete wall in the distance!

“Bam—Crash!”

Spiderweb-like cracks were smashed into the wall's surface. Her mangled body slid down the wall and slumped to the ground, motionless. Only the scattered fragments of pale bone shields and silver-white exoskeleton debris remained, testifying to the brutality of the battle.

Shen Mingyuan stood quietly for a few seconds after landing, his red Visor locked onto the silver figure at the foot of the wall that no longer moved, confirming that its life signs had weakened to the point of nearly vanishing. With a slight thought, he acted.

The black bio-armor covering his body, equipped with wings and a tail fin, emitted a low and rapid sound of structural reconfiguration.

The “five-colored black” bionic wings on his back and the stabilizing tail fin at his waist retracted and folded, eventually sliding smoothly back under the armor;

The pair of straight, slender Red Lightning Arm Blades on the outside of his arms also quietly retracted, and his forearm armor returned to its sleek matte black silhouette.

The shadow armor had switched back to its low-profile Basic Form, specialized for perception.

He began to walk, unhurriedly approaching the foot of the wall. His boots stepped over the bone shield fragments and exoskeleton debris littering the floor, making a slight “crunching” sound. In this silent underground space, the sound was exceptionally clear.

When he stopped in front of the pseudo-silver skeleton, the silver body trembled slightly. From beneath the shattered mask covering its face came a woman's voice, intermittent and heavy with intense pain and the gasping of the severely wounded:

“...Don't... don't hit me... I was wrong... I was wrong... No... no more fighting... I surrender... I'm willing... to be arrested... handed over to GUPA...”

The voice was weak, filled with a desperate plea for survival.

Shen Mingyuan did not speak. His gaze behind the red Visor fell coldly upon her without any response, leaving only a heavy, suffocating silence.

This silence lasted for about five seconds.

Then, as if he had lost interest or judged that the opponent was no longer a threat, he turned around decisively, his back to the heavily injured enemy on the ground, seemingly preparing to leave the messy battlefield.

The very instant he turned and took his first step—

In the depths of the eyes of the silver body that had seemed to be at death's door, those two points of crimson light suddenly erupted with a final flicker of insane ruthlessness!

“Now's my chance... Die!!”

She roared in her heart, squeezing out all her remaining energy, the pain of the forced evolution's backlash, and her desperate greed for survival, pouring it all into her right arm!

The arm covered in fragmented exoskeleton suddenly lifted, fingers pressed together into a hand-blade. The fingertips even tore through skin to extend a final few centimeters of pale bone spikes. With all her strength, she lunged toward the back of Shen Mingyuan's neck—

The joint between the armor and the helmet, theoretically the most vulnerable point of protection—stabbing silently yet with extreme malice!

This sneak attack condensed all her final cunning and strength; it was fast, accurate, and ruthless!

However—

Just as her arm rose and the bone spikes were about to pierce the air!

Shen Mingyuan, whose back was turned, suddenly spun around without warning, as if he had eyes in the back of his head! The movement was swift, precise, and without any hesitation!

The moment he finished his turn, his hands had somehow gripped the pair of sleek, matte black twin stars pistols from the outside of his armguards. The muzzles—already steady and practically pressed against her—were aimed right at the attacker's shattered face, which was frozen in a mix of shock, madness, and bewilderment!

The woman's thrusting arm froze in mid-air, her crimson eye sockets shrinking rapidly. An unbelievable thought exploded in her crumbling consciousness: ‘How is this possible... His back was clearly to me... How could his reaction be so fast?!’

Her lips parted slightly as if she wanted to say something—perhaps an excuse, perhaps another plea for mercy, or perhaps just a mutter of pure shock—

But Shen Mingyuan gave her no chance.

“Bang!”

A gunshot rang out, not loud but exceptionally crisp.

At point-blank range, a black-red plasma beam entered the center of her forehead with zero delay.

The crimson light in the woman's eyes instantly extinguished, her final expression frozen in massive shock and a hint of confusion. The extended bone spikes went limp, and her entire body tilted back slightly as the impact of the energy piercing her head sent her reeling. Then, she collapsed completely, without another sound.