233: Super Current

The Starfish Monster's massive yellowish-brown eyes curved slightly in a satisfied, inhuman arc, its lazy voice carrying a peculiar sense of pleasure.

"I see... I understand now. Although there are still many details I haven't fully grasped, this conversation with you all... has made me very happy."

Supporting its body with several tentacles, it slowly adjusted its posture. Its originally casual movements began to gather a certain power ready to burst forth, and the dark red patterns on its body surface seemed to deepen slightly.

"Well then," its voice remained calm, but gained a clear Battle Intent, "as 'enemies' belonging to different factions, although I personally admire you and have developed an interest in the core of your human 'civilization'...

Ultimately, the positions and goals of our species dictate that this battle between us is unavoidable. Therefore—"

It did not get to finish its sentence.

Rapid footsteps approaching from afar echoed outside the shop once more. A lithe figure, predominantly plain white with black patterns and gold trim, swept in through the broken shop door like a gale, landing steadily beside Shen Mingyuan and Lu Jianchuan.

It was Wei Ziqing, who had rushed over at full speed after receiving the message. He had already transformed into that unique biological armor form. The "scabbard" at the back of his waist throbbed slightly, and a slender white bone sword was already gripped in his hand. His deep red goggles sharply locked onto the Starfish Monster ahead.

He turned his head and said quickly to Lu Jianchuan, "Senior, I've decided! From now on, my code name will be—'Hero Shadow'!"

The Starfish Monster's dancing tentacles paused slightly in the air. Its massive eye swept across shadow, silver skeleton, and the newly arrived white figure calling himself "Hero Shadow" in turn, its lazy tone dragging out even longer.

"Oh... I see. No wonder you were so patient to chat with me just now... You were waiting for the third 'guest' to arrive."

It slowly assumed a defensive stance more suited to dealing with a multi-sided siege. Several thick tentacles pressed deep into the slick ground, and the giant eye at the center of its body disk calmly observed the encirclement formed by the three of them.

"Looking at it this way," the Starfish Monster's voice betrayed little tension, instead carrying a sort of resigned banter, "the chances of me successfully slipping away seem to have indeed become... minuscule."

Lu Jianchuan glanced at Liu Hongwen, who lay on the ground incapacitated by his injuries.

Once the battle broke out in full, he would surely die if he remained here in this state.

"Take him away. Watch him," Lu Jianchuan gave a brief command to his motorcycle.

The motorcycle's headlights flashed twice, emitting a low hum in response as it maneuvered nimbly to Liu Hongwen's side. Lu Jianchuan leaned down, lifted Liu Hongwen, and placed him on the back seat.

The motorcycle immediately adjusted its center of gravity, steadily carrying the unconscious avenger as it quickly reversed out of the gap in the broken shop door and disappeared into the shadows of the street. The final concern was removed.

Almost the instant the motorcycle left, Lu Jianchuan moved! His silver-white figure shot out like a cannonball. With a kick that cracked the ground, he traced a straight silver line, crashing directly toward the poised Starfish Monster! Before his fist even arrived, a chilling wind pressure rushed ahead.

Unfazed, the Starfish Monster's thick supporting tentacles suddenly exerted force, and its massive dark red body actually spun at high speed on the spot with an agility that defied its size!

Whoosh—!

Lu Jianchuan's determined punch grazed past the rotating body surface, hitting only an afterimage and splashing water.

At the same time, Shen Mingyuan's support arrived. He did not move close, but stayed firmly in the rear, firing steady bursts from his twin stars pistols. Dark red energy bolts precisely sealed off the paths the Starfish Monster might use to dodge or counterattack, creating opportunities for his companions.

Wei Ziqing—Hero Shadow—cut in from the other side. His figure was like lightning, his plain white armor leaving a blurred white trail in the dim light. The slender bone sword in his hand turned into a flash of sharp cold light, slashing fiercely toward the joints of the Starfish Monster's waving tentacles! His swordsmanship was swift and cunning, not seeking broad strokes but focusing on joints and power nodes.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The blade of the bone sword grazed the surface of the Starfish Monster's dark red tentacles several times, leaving deep incisions. The pale blue neuroparalytic toxin attached to the blade seeped in.

However, the expected stiffening of the tentacles and slowing of movement did not occur.

No blood or body fluid flowed from the cuts on the Starfish Monster. Instead, beneath the cross-sections of the incisions, one could see countless smaller, tightly packed micro-starfish individuals!

What the bone sword had cut open was more like a relatively hard outer shell on its body surface, and the dense "swarm" beneath that shell.

The pale blue toxin only affected a tiny amount of the surface starfish that were directly hit. For a whole composed of thousands of individuals, this effect was minuscule and did not even hinder the coordinated operation of other parts.

"This kind of attack..." The Starfish Monster stopped spinning, its tentacles waving to parry the subsequent slashes and bullets. Its lazy voice carried a hint of educational intent. "It isn't very effective against me. Do you know how starfish eat?"

As it spoke, two of its thickest tentacles suddenly pushed against the ground, lifting its main body high. At the center of its rough-textured body disk, the skin abruptly tore open to both sides, revealing a deep, writhing opening lined with tiny tooth-like structures.

"Especially when facing difficult prey..." the Starfish Monster's voice took on a predator's coldness, "we do this—"

In the next second, a mass of translucent, sac-like organs—glimmering with the acidic sheen of digestive juices and showing faint vascular networks within—shot violently out of that opening. Like a launched fishing net, it flew toward Lu Jianchuan's head with a greasy whistling sound and a strong corrosive odor!

That was the starfish's stomach! It could evert its stomach out of its body to envelop prey for external digestion!

Lu Jianchuan's pupils shrank. His rich combat instincts left him no room for hesitation as he instantly exploded with full power, retreating rapidly toward the side and rear!

The massive everted stomach sac almost grazed the edge of his breastplate, sticking to a metal dining table behind him with a "splat."

The hard metal tabletop immediately softened and caved in at a visible rate, emitting a terrifying "sizzling" sound and billowing white smoke!

The large, slimy, and highly corrosive everted stomach sac acted like a living predatory net, relentlessly pursuing Lu Jianchuan's retreating figure. Everywhere it passed, tables, chairs, and the floor hissed, leaving behind charred erosion marks.

Wei Ziqing's (Hero Shadow) gaze was sharp. He noticed that although this stomach sac was launched rapidly, the end was still connected to the mouthparts deep within the Starfish Monster's body disk by a bundle of tough, translucent fleshy cords. He pivoted, abandoning the attempt to continue hacking at the seemingly endless swarm of small starfish, and instead charged toward that bundle of connecting cords, his bone sword turning into a streak of white light as he slashed down fiercely!

The Starfish Monster clearly hadn't expected the opponent to react so quickly and target its vital point. Its massive yellowish-brown eye shrank suddenly, and the fleshy cords connecting the stomach sac retracted at an incredible speed, while the stomach sac itself also pulled back like a startled octopus tentacle.

Swish!

Wei Ziqing's blade grazed the end of the rapidly retracting fleshy cords, only slicing off a bit of viscous tissue fluid, failing to sever them.

"Tsk!" Wei Ziqing clicked his tongue, but was not discouraged. Since he couldn't sever the core connection, he would continue with the original strategy—weakening its whole. He moved again, coordinating with Shen Mingyuan's precise long-range suppressive fire. The bone sword in his hand once again became a dazzling blur of sword shadows. He no longer sought deep trauma, but instead rained down strikes like a gale upon the Starfish Monster's waving tentacles and body surface. Every slash left a shallow mark and a trace of rapidly seeping pale blue. He was consciously expanding the contact area of the "paralytic toxin." Even if it only affected a tiny portion of the micro-starfish individuals each time, the accumulation might slow down the coordination of this aggregate.

On the other side, Shen Mingyuan stayed firmly in the rear, his twin stars firing continuously. Every hit from the dark red plasma beams left a charred hole on the Starfish Monster's dark red surface, with scorched and carbonized edges while the center still writhed slightly in an attempt to repair itself. This high-temperature energy attack clearly interfered effectively with its regenerative abilities, forcing it to divert a portion of its "processing power" and "resources" to prioritize repairing these wounds, causing its movements to show a hint of incoordination.

The Starfish Monster also realized the danger of this war of attrition. It stopped taking the hits head-on. The suckers on its several tentacles suddenly gripped the walls, ceiling, and overturned furniture. Using its powerful adhesion and the elasticity of its tentacles, it performed jaw-dropping high-speed three-dimensional maneuvers within the limited space of the restaurant! It sometimes launched itself from a corner to the ceiling like a slingshot, sometimes spiraled down a pillar, and sometimes swung a tentacle for a sweep or thrust from an unexpected angle, completely subverting the common perception of starfish being slow.

Lu Jianchuan kept moving at high speed, pursuing relentlessly and looking for a weakness. Finally, at the moment the Starfish Monster adhered to the ceiling and attempted to pounce on Shen Mingyuan from above, he predicted its trajectory. Leaping up in advance, he slammed a heavy elbow strike into the side of its body disk!

Thud!

In the dull sound of impact, the Starfish Monster's grip failed, and it fell from the ceiling, crashing heavily onto the floor that was already a mess of seawater and previous combat debris, sending water splashing everywhere.

Now's the time!

The moment Lu Jianchuan landed, he shouted urgently to Shen Mingyuan and Wei Ziqing, "Grab onto something above!"

Although the two didn't know why, they had a fundamental trust in Lu Jianchuan. Shen Mingyuan fired a grappling hook to catch a roof beam, while Wei Ziqing leaped lightly and hooked a metal crossbeam with one hand.

Seeing the two leave the ground, Lu Jianchuan no longer hesitated. He knelt on one knee, right fist clenched, muscles tightening under his silver-white armor. Upon his fist, silver-white electricity—far more dazzling and violent than usual—gathered and leaped frantically, emitting a "crackling" roar that even illuminated the churning sewage around him!

"Hah—!"

With a low roar, he slammed his fist, wreathed in terrifying electrical light, into the stagnant water spreading at his feet!

Boom—Zzzzzzzzt!!!!!

It wasn't the single bang one might expect, but a scalp-numbing, continuous roar of terrifying current!

With Lu Jianchuan's fist as the center, blinding silver-white electrical snakes like out-of-control dragons instantly filled the entire flooded area, even climbing up the surrounding walls and metal objects along the flow of water!

The entire restaurant was illuminated in a deathly white!

"Uh?!" Lu Jianchuan was stunned himself. The intensity and range of this current... far exceeded his expectations! He felt that he hadn't intentionally output such a massive amount of energy!

"Aaaaagh—!!!"

The Starfish Monster, bearing the brunt of it, let out a shrill, distorted howl of pain mixed with countless tiny shrieks! Its body, composed of countless conductive seawater and moist micro-starfish individuals, had become a perfect conductor.

The violent current surged, destroyed, and pierced through every tiny individual within its body!

Its massive body twitched and convulsed violently in the electrical light. Countless small starfish on its surface instantly stiffened, turned black, and fell off. The originally coordinated aggregate almost instantly verged on collapse, slumped in the stagnant water, leaving only slight, uncontrolled twitches. It couldn't even make its lazy voice anymore.

The electrical light lasted for several seconds before slowly dissipating, leaving the air filled with a strong smell of ozone and charred remains.

Shen Mingyuan and Wei Ziqing dropped from the beams, looking at the charred, smoking Starfish Monster that had completely lost its ability to move, and then at Lu Jianchuan, who still had small sparks jumping on his fist and was also wearing a look of shock and uncertainty.

This power... was simply too exaggerated.