blogombal Chapter 49 Entrapment
Chapter 49 Entrapment
"Whoosh—! Splat!"
Silver steel thorns bloomed once more, and dozens of spiral spears rained down on the individual named "Miki".
Miki, with Goto's personality taking the lead, is now displaying astonishing biological functions.
Although he lost his left arm, his remaining right hand transformed into a massive bone broadsword, and his body twisted wildly at an angle that defied the structure of his joints.
Sideways movement, backbend, roll.
With each dodge, those deadly quinque steel spears grazed his skin, severing strands of hair and even tearing his skin, but never managing to penetrate his core.
"Is that all?"
Goto's beast-like vertical pupils were fixed on Pei Qi. On the verge of life and death, his brain was like an overclocked biological computer, frantically analyzing the attack patterns of the tin-clad monster before him.
"The attack frequency is fixed."
"After each of those large-scale puncture bursts, the box in his hand would 'freeze' for about 0.5 seconds. That wasn't because he was hesitating, but because it was the time that some kind of mechanical structure needed to reset."
A cruel smile curled at the corner of Goto's mouth.
As long as you seize that opportunity...
"Now!"
Just as the silver spear was about to retract after exhausting its momentum, Goto moved. The ground beneath his feet instantly cracked, and he moved like a cannonball, poised to launch.
However, just as he was about to launch a surprise attack, the sight before him made his pupils shrink.
There was no retraction process, nor any mechanical reset sound.
The replica IXA, which had originally unfolded into a terrifying killing machine, vanished into thin air, as if a data packet loss had occurred.
"Disappeared? Was it spatial folding technology?"
Goto's movements paused for a barely perceptible moment.
This completely unreasonable "slowness of sheathing the sword" completely disrupted his offensive rhythm.
"Quickbar switching" allows you to use several items instantly by switching between slots. In the real world, this means "zero recovery time".
"Chance!"
Despite his doubts and uncertainties, Goto knew that this was the only window of opportunity to retaliate.
No matter what tricks the opponent plays, without that dangerous long spear, this tin can is definitely no match for me in close combat.
"Kill him!"
Goto's bone sword on his right arm grew to three meters long, whistling as it tore through the air, aiming straight for Pei Qi's neck.
To his surprise, Pei Qi neither dodged nor blocked.
The heavily armored man, however, was like an out-of-control tank, charging towards him with a "suicide pact" mentality.
"What is he thinking? Can that kind of armor even withstand my strike?"
Goto's intuition kicked in, sending a strong alarm. As a battle-hardened soldier, this unusual behavior made him suspect a conspiracy.
"No... his goal isn't to fight me to the death."
Out of the corner of his eye, Goto caught a glimpse of Hirokawa Takeshi, who was staggering as he crawled into the entrance of the secret passage.
"He's forcing me to get back on defense!"
If he insisted on attacking, he might be able to hit the strange man, but Hirokawa would definitely be exposed to the opponent's attack range. For the sake of that "brain", Goto forcibly twisted the power of his waist and abdomen, abandoned the original sure-kill strike, and instead blocked with his sword, using the momentum to slide to the side and back.
"If we can delay for just a few more seconds... Hirokawa can enter the secret passage, which is a labyrinth connecting to the underground waterways. Once inside, no one can find us."
Goto stood firmly in front of the secret passage, adopting an absolutely defensive stance.
Just as Goto was fully focused on defending against Pei Qi's charge, Pei Qi suddenly stopped.
The distance between the two sides is fifteen meters.
With a subtle flick of his wrist, Pei Qi tossed out a dark green sphere that emitted an eerie glow.
The thing didn't fly towards Goto; instead, it drew a high parabola, flew straight over Goto's head, and crashed into the entrance to the secret passage behind him—the very spot where Hirokawa Takeshi had just disappeared.
"That is..."
Goto's nerves instantly tightened to the extreme.
He clearly remembered that just a minute earlier, after such a green sphere landed and shattered, the black-armored monster instantly "teleported" behind them and launched that terrifying backstab.
"Space jump coordinates! He wants to skip directly to me and kill Hirokawa!"
"Don't even think about it!"
At this moment, Goto displayed a reaction speed that surpassed the limits of biological reflexes.
He didn't have time to chase the ball, but he could shoot it down.
Goto stomped his left foot hard, sending a pebble flying.
He grabbed the stone with his only remaining right hand in an instant, his muscles undergoing a process of compression, hardening, and explosive release.
"Shoot it down!"
"boom!"
Under such terrifying force, the ordinary pebble produced a sonic boom like a cannonball.
0.1 seconds.
The pebble hit the dark green sphere precisely in mid-air.
"Smack."
The sphere exploded in mid-air.
However, the expected spatial distortion did not occur, nor did it produce the crisp sound of glass shattering.
The sphere, like a ball filled with slime, burst into a meaningless blob of green slime with a "poof," which dripped onto the ground.
Item: Slime Ball
"Fake?!"
Goto's pupils contracted sharply as a sense of humiliation and crisis, a feeling of being "tricked," surged into his heart.
This is not spatial coordinates at all; it's just a bait thrown out to exploit his "habitual thinking."
It's like training Pavlov's dog to see a green ball and think it's teleportation.
"Oh no!"
Just as Goto's attention was drawn to the slime ball in the air, Pei Qi moved.
This time, it was no longer a tentative charge.
A blue-white vortex suddenly erupted beneath Pei Qi's feet, a sign that Swift II had taken effect.
He instantly gained an abnormal 40% movement speed boost.
The heavy lower-dimensional alloy armor seemed to lose its weight, and the person turned into a purple-black afterimage. During the moment when Goto was stunned after raising his hand to throw the stone, he forcefully crossed the ten-meter distance and rushed in front of him.
"Since you enjoy being a bodyguard so much, then you can be one to your heart's content."
Pei Qi's voice came through the mask, tinged with mockery.
"Who said my target is that good-for-nothing Hirokawa? My target... has always been you, the most special symbiote."
Goto only realized it at this moment.
This human was acting from the very beginning. He used Hirokawa as bait, and the fake ball as bait, his real purpose was to make himself reveal his weakness because of his "protective instincts," thus forcing him to confront him head-on.
"Trying to hold me back? Dream on!"
Goto glanced behind him; Hirokawa had completely disappeared into the depths of the secret passage. Mission accomplished.
"We're too close now; there's no chance of winning if we get entangled with him. We have to retreat!"
Goto made a quick decision, his leg muscles bulging as he prepared to use the recoil from his throw to propel himself backward and escape using the terrain.
However, just as he was about to jump...
"Sizzle—"
A very faint sound, so faint that it would be imperceptible to anyone other than the parasite's hearing, rang out.
Goto felt something lightly brush against his chest. Looking down, he saw a red and white toy-like buoy.
Behind the float, there is a thin, almost invisible transparent thread.
The other end of the silk thread was held in Pei Qi's hand.
Sometime later, the briefcase in his hand had disappeared, replaced by a seemingly ordinary wooden fishing rod.
"What is this? A toy?"
Goto instinctively swung his bone knife, trying to cut the obstructing line.
In his mind, a bone blade that could cut through steel could cut a fishing line as easily as breathing.
"clang!"
Sparks flew everywhere.
Goto was shocked to find that his bone knife had struck the thin, thread-like line, but the line not only did not break, it didn't even have a slight gap.
"This is impossible! What kind of material is this?!"
This isn't a matter of materials. This is a matter of rules.
In MC's judgment, unless the player actively reels in the line or it breaks due to excessive distance, the fishing line is considered "absolutely indestructible".
"Your turn is over. Now... it's my turn to fish!"
Pei Qi gripped the fishing rod with both hands and swung it backward sharply.
"Come here...!"
A completely unreasonable, seemingly forceful displacement force from the very bottom of the world acted upon Goto.
This force ignored his weight, the friction he exerted to resist the ground, and even inertia.
"Whoosh!"
Standing nearly two meters tall and weighing over one hundred kilograms, Goto was like a small fish out of water, forcibly pulled back from the air and flying straight into Pei Qi's arms.
The distance between the two instantly shrank to less than three meters.
"Oh no! It's a trap!"
Goto, as expected of a combat genius, quickly adjusted his posture amidst extreme shock.
"Since you've dragged me along, I'll just kill you while I'm at it!"
Using this pulling force, he channeled all his strength into the bone knife on his right arm, transforming himself into a spinning drill, ready to pierce Pei Qi through, armor and all, at this distance.
This is a desperate, do-or-die strike.
However, when he flew along the fishing line to Pei Qi, what awaited him was not that fragile fishing rod.
The fishing rod vanished instantly.
Instead, there was a heavy firearm with a rugged design, a barrel so thick that a fist could fit inside, and an all-black body.
【TaC Module - AA-12 Fully Automatic Shotgun】
The dark muzzle of the gun was now less than ten centimeters away from Goto's astonished face.
This is practically face-to-face output.
Pei Qi even had the leisure to give Goto an innocent look as if to say, "You bumped into me yourself."
"You're the one who ran a red light and tried to scam me by pointing a gun at me..."
Pei Qi's finger pulled the trigger, his voice as cold as ice.
"I didn't ask you to willingly walk into my line of fire. Now that you're here, you're not leaving."
"boom--!!!"