Sweat beads slid down Noah's chin and dripped onto the cold metal floor.
His chest heaved violently, his lungs felt like they were burning, and every breath brought a tearing pain.
Emily, opposite him, still maintained that divine yet indifferent posture.
However, her pure gold eyes flickered faster and faster, as if analyzing every movement of Noah and Claire, every tremor of their muscles, at a speed beyond human comprehension.
The battle had reached a fever pitch from the moment she learned the Crushing Fist.
She was no longer a newborn monster that only knew how to use brute force to build up power.
She had become a terrifying learning machine, a perfect battle mimic.
"Bang!"
Another heavy clash.
Emily's figure closed in like a ghost, a whip kick with a whistle that tore through the air, sweeping toward Noah's ribs.
Her movement was exactly a fighting technique Claire had used earlier to create distance.
Only, with the addition of Emily's terrifying strength and speed, the power of this kick was magnified dozens of times.
Noah didn't dare take it head-on.
He kicked off the ground suddenly, retreating several meters in a posture that defied the laws of mechanics.
He barely dodged the fatal blow.
The sharp wind from the leg made his cheeks sting.
However, Emily's attacks were continuous, like maggots on a bone.
When one kick missed, her body twisted forcefully in mid-air at an incredible angle.
Her other leg, like a battle-axe, chopped down fiercely from top to bottom toward the top of Noah's head.
This series of movements completely ignored the limitations of human joints and muscles.
It was full of non-human eeriness and efficiency.
"Watch out!"
Claire's exclamation and the crisp sound of a gunshot rang out almost simultaneously.
A large-caliber armor-piercing bullet was fired accurately at Emily's forcefully twisted waist.
That was the key node for her power, and it was also her only flaw at that moment.
Facing this fatal sniper shot, a tiny ripple finally appeared on Emily's flawless face.
She gave up pursuing Noah.
Her body bent again in the air as if she had no bones.
The bullet almost grazed her skin, taking a strand of golden hair with it.
She landed lightly on the ground, her feet not even making a sound.
The whole process was as smooth as a dance of death rehearsed countless times.
Both Noah and Claire's foreheads were covered in fine beads of sweat.
The intense exercise was consuming their stamina at an alarming rate.
Every dodge, every block, felt like a direct collision with a high-speed truck.
Their internal organs felt extremely uncomfortable, shaken by that terrifying force.
In contrast, Emily didn't have a single drop of sweat on her.
Her skin, like a white marble sculpture, remained as smooth as new.
However, Noah keenly captured a detail.
The surface of Emily's skin began to show an abnormal faint pink color.
Like a piece of fine jade being continuously heated.
Moreover, her movements seemed to have a tiny, almost imperceptible delay.
Just then.
Emily suddenly stopped all attacks.
Her pure gold eyes locked onto Noah and Claire.
Then she made a move that surprised both of them.
She slowly turned around.
And walked toward the nearby metal wall, which was still relatively intact.
She reached out her fair palm and pressed it lightly against the wall.
The next second.
Countless blood-red, incredibly thin hyphae suddenly burst from her palm.
Like living vines, they crazily stabbed into the hard metal wall.
"Sizzle—"
The tips of the hyphae seemed to secrete some highly corrosive liquid.
The metal wall was easily dissolved into countless tiny holes.
The hyphae took firm root within.
Next.
These eerie blood-red hyphae began to pour out from Emily's entire body.
Her whole person seemed to be lifted upward by a pair of invisible hands.
She climbed up the vertical metal wall as quickly as a gecko.
Finally, like a hanging bat, she fixed herself firmly to the high ceiling of the hall.
Countless hyphae grew and spread wildly from her body.
They quickly intertwined and wrapped around her body, weaving a giant irregular blood-red meat cocoon.
The meat cocoon was still pulsating slightly and regularly.
Like a giant deformed heart hanging in mid-air.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Claire didn't hesitate at all, raising her desert eagle and firing a series of precise shots at the blood cocoon.
The bullets easily tore through the hyphae and shot deep into the meat cocoon.
Splashing out blooms of pale gold viscous liquid.
However.
The wounds torn open by the bullets were wriggling and healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In just two or three seconds, the entire blood cocoon was restored to its original state.
As if those few shots were just tickling it.
"What's going on?"
Claire lowered her gun, which was still emitting faint smoke, her brow furrowed tightly.
"Why did it suddenly run away?"
This was completely inconsistent with the behavior of a predator that had just held the absolute upper hand.
Noah gasped for breath, his eyes fixed on the giant blood-red cocoon on the ceiling.
His brain was working rapidly.
Emily's abnormal skin color.
That extremely small movement delay.
And now, this eerie self-imprisonment behavior.
All the clues quickly connected and combined in his mind.
A bold yet extremely reasonable speculation surfaced in his heart.
"Fungi..."
He said in a low, somewhat raspy voice.
"The essence of this body is built on Miranda's fungi."
"Fungi have a fatal characteristic."
Noah's gaze became sharp.
"It has no sweat glands and cannot effectively dissipate heat through sweating."
"Our continuous high-intensity combat just now caused the temperature inside her body to rise sharply."
"Like a supercomputer without a radiator."
"When the temperature reaches a critical point, the fungi that make up her body will begin to lose activity or even gradually die."
Claire's eyes suddenly lit up.
She instantly understood what Noah meant.
She looked up again and carefully observed the blood cocoon.
Sure enough, their attacks were not completely ineffective.
The great power of the desert eagle and magnum could indeed cause damage to it.
It's just that its abnormal healing ability offset this damage in an instant.
"Are there any other weaknesses for the fungi?" Claire asked quickly while keeping a wary eye on the top.
"Temperature, dryness, and pH environment," Noah answered without thinking.
His gaze swept across the pits on the floor corroded by the golden liquid.
"pH and dryness probably won't have much effect on her."
"Don't forget, she was previously soaked in that liquid that can even corrode special steel."
"In other words..."
Claire's gaze became incredibly firm.
"The only weakness is temperature."
She nodded and quickly took out the ammunition for the quad-barrel Grenade Launcher from her tactical backpack.
She skillfully replaced all the original grenades with red-headed, white-bodied Incendiary Rounds.
This was her last trump card.
"If only I had brought that Flamethrower down with me at the time."
She couldn't help but mutter in a low voice.
Knowing Emily's weakness, the almost suffocating sense of pressure in their hearts finally dissipated a lot.
They had a glimmer of hope.
A clear, targeted tactic quickly took shape in their minds.
They no longer sought to confront Emily head-on.
Instead, they would use their flexibility and control over the rhythm of the battle.
To push her.
To force her to constantly engage in high-intensity exercise.
To force the heat in her body to break through that fatal critical point again.
Then, when she was at her weakest, give her a thunderous fatal blow.
The pulsation of the blood cocoon gradually stopped.
The next second.
The hyphae wrapping Emily receded rapidly like a tide.
Retracting back into her body.
That flawless, god-like body appeared in their sight again.
Her pure gold eyes seemed even colder than before.
Without any words.
She leaped down from the ceiling.
Like a meteorite, she crashed to the ground.
The battle broke out again.
This time, Noah and Claire's tactics had completely changed.
They no longer blocked or countered.
They simply dodged.
Emily's speed was at its peak.
Her figure pulled out white afterimages in the hall.
Every attack carried destructive power.
Fist wind and leg wind kicked up sharp whistles in the hall.
However, Noah and Claire were like two leaves swaying in a storm.
Every time, at the moment that fatal attack was about to hit.
They dodged with an incredibly subtle movement, escaping by a hair's breadth.
Their dodging was no longer just retreating and creating distance.
But using everything available in the hall as obstacles.
Broken pillars, collapsed wall panels, scattered metal fragments.
All became the stage for their maneuvering.
Emily's attacks became more and more violent.
She also seemed to have noticed the intentions of these two "ants."
The light flickering in her pure gold eyes was no longer calm analysis and learning.
But a primitive, cold rage generated after being toyed with.
She began to increase her speed and power regardless of consumption.
Trying to crush these two annoying, dodging bugs with the purest absolute power.
However, this was exactly what Noah and Claire wanted.
Time passed minute by minute.
Emily's skin, white as jade, began to show that abnormal, demonic pink color again.
And this time, the color was deeper than before.
Her movements also showed that extremely fine sense of delay again.
Finally.
After a fierce pursuit missed.
Emily's body suddenly stiffened.
She stopped in place and then slowly raised her head.
With those eyes burning with golden flames, she stared fixedly at Claire not far away.
It was that move again.
She turned toward the wall.
Countless blood-red hyphae burst wildly from her body again.
She was going to repeat the same trick.
She wanted to lower the fatal high temperature in her body through dormancy again.
"Claire!" Noah roared.
There was no need for his reminder at all.
The moment Emily turned around, Claire had already moved.
The quad-barrel Grenade Launcher in her hand was already aimed at the white figure climbing upward.
Her gaze was calm and focused.
Her index finger pulled the trigger heavily.
"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—!"
Four ear-piercing sharp whistles of breaking air almost merged into one.
Four Incendiary Rounds, trailing orange-red exhaust flames like four angry fire dragons.
With unparalleled precision.
They slammed into the blood-red meat cocoon that had just begun to form.
"Boom—!!!"
A violent explosion suddenly rang out.
The high-explosive warheads shattered instantly.
Then, countless white viscous incendiary agents were evenly splashed across the surface of the entire meat cocoon by the impact of the explosion.
Orange-red flames burst into life.
The extremely high temperature ignited the entire blood-red meat cocoon in an instant.
"Sizzle—!!!"
A terrifying burning sound that made one's scalp tingle echoed through the hall.
The meat cocoon composed of hyphae, under the roasting of the terrifying high temperature of over a thousand degrees.
Quickly shriveled, curled, carbonized, and lost vitality.
"Aaaah—!!!"
A shrill roar of pain that didn't sound human suddenly came from the flames.
That voice no longer had that high-and-mighty indifferent divinity.
Only the most primitive and pure endless pain and malice remained.
Emily, hanging from the ceiling, lost the fixation of the hyphae.
Like a giant ignited fireball, she fell heavily from above.
"Boom—"
She hit the metal floor with a loud bang.
The burning flames did not go out.
Instead, because of some special substance in her body, it burned even more vigorously.
In the orange-red flames, Emily's small body twisted and rolled in crazy pain.
She was no longer perfect, no longer holy.
She had become a monster struggling in the fire.
Just when Noah and Claire thought the battle was about to end.
Another change occurred.
"Bang—!!!"
The burning remains of the blood cocoon wrapping Emily suddenly exploded.
Countless burning carbonized hyphae fragments shot out in all directions.
Next.
Three pairs of giant Bone Spikes gleaming with a cold light.
Suddenly burst through the flesh on Emily's charred back.
The Bone Spikes were like the sharpest giant appendages.
New blood-red hyphae quickly crawled over them.
Those hyphae quickly intertwined and spread on the surface of the Bone Spikes.
Finally forming a pair of giant, eerie wings composed of blood and bone, slowly unfolding behind Emily.
At this moment, she slowly stood up from the fire.
Her naked body was covered in charred scars.
The giant blood-red bone wings behind her flapped gently.
Every flap brought a wave of hot air, slowly blowing out the remaining flames on her body.
Her pure gold eyes looked at Noah and Claire again.
The pain in those eyes had disappeared.
Replaced by a deeper, crazier, bone-deep hatred.
She was like a fallen angel or a Vampire Queen crawling out of the abyss of Hell.
Full of evil yet fatal beauty.
"It looks like..."
Noah's voice was a bit dry.
"She found a new way to dissipate heat."
The giant bone wings were like two huge radiators.
Quickly conducting the fatal high temperature in her body into the air.
"Then..."
Claire reloaded her magnum.
She looked up, her eyes cold as she looked at the new, even more terrifying enemy.
"Cut off its radiator."
With the bone wings, Emily's continuous combat capability had undoubtedly been greatly improved.
She no longer had to worry about falling into dormancy due to overheating.
But these giant bone wings also became a kind of restraint.
Greatly limiting her mobility in narrow spaces.
These wings couldn't really make her fly.
But they gave her a new, even more fatal way to attack.
Emily's body suddenly sank.
The blood-colored bone wings behind her suddenly closed forward.
The spear-like sharp Bone Spikes at the tips of the wings, with a whistle that tore through the air, stabbed fiercely at Noah and Claire.
"Clang! Clang!"
The two of them hurriedly raised metal plates to block.
The Bone Spikes and metal plates collided heavily.
Splashing a series of dazzling sparks.
An irresistible force came from the metal plates.
The two were knocked back several steps by this force, their arms going numb.
And the metal floor beneath their feet, as well as the metal wall behind them.
Had been easily slashed by the sharp Bone Spikes, leaving several deep, hideous gashes.
The cuts were as smooth as a mirror.
Noah and Claire, who had just recovered a bit of strength.
Fell into an even more difficult struggle again.