335: No, there's more?

Lin Xun's full-force sacrificial flying kick was barely parried by the evolved creature's raised tail, resulting in a dull thud.

Shen Mingyuan seized this brief moment of stiffness and took the opportunity to dash in close! He didn't choose to shoot; instead, he slammed the bodies of his twin pistols hard against the opponent's chest and abdomen—where there was only recovered human skin, uncovered by metal armor.

"Take this!" Shen Mingyuan growled, exerting force with both arms. He slammed his entire body's strength through the gun stocks into the opponent's body, followed immediately by a swift high kick that landed squarely on the jaw, sending the creature staggering backward!

The moment the opponent lost its balance, the twin guns in Shen Mingyuan's hands fired again! Black-red Plasma Bolts whistled out at point-blank range!

The evolved creature was forced to raise its metal-covered arms to protect its head, face, and vital chest area.

"Sizzle—!"

The plasma reacted violently with the special metal, not only causing an impact but also generating an instantaneous, terrifyingly high temperature! The metal bracers turned glowing red and scalding hot!

"Roar—!!" The evolved creature let out a wail of pain. The searing agony caused its movements to stall.

Meanwhile, Lin Xun had already prepared his next wave of offense! He appeared like a ghost in the opponent's frontal blind spot, his hands suddenly grabbing both sides of its metal helmet, using his momentum to charge forward and press down!

"Get down!"

A standard grappling throw! The two of them slammed heavily onto the damp ground together.

Shen Mingyuan also pounced. Without a word, he swung his gun stocks and began a frantic beating on the opponent's unprotected areas, such as the waist and shoulder blades!

Thud! Thud! Thud!

"Hungry, are you?! Pouncing, are you?! Hard-headed, are you?!"

The two gave the opponent absolutely no chance to breathe or counterattack. Between the close-quarters wrestling and the blunt force trauma, the New Evolver was left dazed and disoriented. It could only wave its claws and tail in a futile attempt to parry, constantly exposing new openings to be beaten.

As they fought, Shen Mingyuan's movements suddenly paused as if he had remembered something. He stopped the gun stock strikes and instead pressed the muzzles of his twin stars pistols tightly against the opponent's unprotected chest and abdomen, which were heaving violently from the pain.

"Wait, I think... I have another function I haven't used?"

With a thought, the biological circuits of his armor and firearms connected. High-voltage bio-electricity instantly erupted from the muzzles of the twin guns, pouring unreservedly into the opponent's body!

"Sizzle-zizzle—!!!"

Blinding arcs of electricity exploded in the narrow space. The New Evolver's entire body convulsed violently, unable to even let out a scream. The red light in its eyes quickly dimmed until it finally went completely limp, losing consciousness.

Only the lingering sound of electricity and the heavy breathing of the two men remained in the sewer.

Lin Xun let go, looking at the smoking, completely unconscious opponent, then at the guns in Shen Mingyuan's hands. His tone was somewhat subtle: "...You have an electric shock function?"

Shen Mingyuan retracted his guns and scratched his head. "Yeah, pressing them against a conductive target can release a high-voltage shock... Since I never had a chance to use it, I completely forgot about it."

Lin Xun remained silent for two seconds. He pointed at the unconscious evolved creature on the ground, then at his own arms, which were trembling slightly from the intense melee combat:

"...Then what exactly was the point of all that punching, kicking, and gun-stock smashing we just did?"

Shen Mingyuan was also silent for a moment, then shrugged and said in a 'what's done is done' tone:

"Let's just call it... pure satisfaction."

The evolved creature: ...

"Nice, very nice. Senior, it had to be you." Lin Xun looked at the electrocuted evolved creature and twitched his lips. "Alright, let's get this big guy out of here quickly, or call someone to move him."

"I'll go call for people. You stay here and keep watch, be careful." Shen Mingyuan put away his guns and pointed at the unconscious target.

"OK, don't worry, Senior." Lin Xun nodded, standing guard alertly on the spot, his gaze scanning the dim surroundings of the sewer.

Shen Mingyuan's footsteps quickly disappeared into the depths of the pipes. The nest fell silent, leaving only the sound of distant water droplets and the faint breathing of the unconscious captive. However, this silence did not last long.

Lin Xun suddenly felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. An extremely faint but deeply unsettling 'feeling' brushed past his heart—it wasn't a sound or a smell, but more like a biological instinctual alarm, as if he were being watched from the shadows by some apex predator extremely skilled at hiding!

Without even thinking, relying on the intuition honed through countless battles, his body reacted before his mind—a swift tactical roll forward!

"Swish—Snap!"

The moment he left his original position, a thick, long, slimy dark tongue with a hammer-like bulbous tip shot down like a whip from the shadows of the overhead pipes. It slammed hard into the spot where he had just been standing, even scraping a shallow mark into the concrete floor!

Lin Xun knelt on one knee after the roll and quickly looked up, following the direction the tongue was retracting.

In that instant, aided by the dim light of the emergency lamps at the edge of the nest, he caught a glimpse of the attacker—it seemed to be an exceptionally large Chameleon! But its silhouette clinging to the pipes flashed for less than half a second before it 'disappeared' into thin air, like a pencil mark erased by an eraser! It wasn't a gradual blending into the background, but an almost abrupt, total visual obscuration!

"That's impossible!" Lin Xun's heart tightened. Although this new form of his armor didn't excel in super-perception, its dynamic vision and detail-capturing abilities far exceeded those of ordinary people. Ordinary protective coloration or mimicry could never achieve such a 'total invisibility' effect under his full-alert gaze, especially in an environment with fixed lighting and a simple background!

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. The opponent didn't continue the attack; it seemed to be waiting, or... moving?

Lin Xun cautiously approached the general direction where the tongue had come from with minimal steps, his entire body tensed and ready to react to an attack. When he was about two or three meters from the estimated position, he suddenly rolled to the side again!

The expected attack did not come. The position he had estimated was empty.

"A feint? Or has it already moved?" Lin Xun didn't dare be careless. He slowly stood up, alertly scanning his surroundings while reaching out to tentatively feel the rough, damp concrete wall beside him. The touch was real, cold, with no abnormal protrusions or temperature differences. He expanded his search, quickly and carefully touching several nearby locations where something could hide—pipes, wall corners, the surfaces of discarded items... nothing. It was as if that sharp tongue strike and the fleeting glimpse of the silhouette were all just his hallucinations.

"Could it be that I'm just too tense?" Just as this thought arose—

"Boom—!"

A massive, heavy force slammed into his abdomen without warning! It came from the very wall surface he had just repeatedly confirmed was empty!

"Urgh—!" Caught off guard, Lin Xun was sent flying off the ground by this immense force, slamming heavily against the opposite Reservoir wall before falling to the floor. Clutching his agonizingly churning abdomen, he coughed a few times, his face beneath the helmet filled with unbelievable shock.

"How... I clearly touched that spot just now... there was nothing!"