Following the crack shattered by the blade, and tracing the straight line from where it came from, it stretched inch by inch from beneath my feet towards the end of the passage.
Then pull it up onto the high platform.
John stopped and looked up.
Zod's heavily armored figure was no longer in the same spot.
Therefore, one would assume...
John closed his eyes.
"Thump--!!!"
Next second!
A blurry figure, enveloped in white steam, crashed down from the edge of the platform.
The force of the fall was so great that the entire metal plate of the passage bounced upwards simultaneously before collapsing downwards again.
Amidst churning dust waves.
Zod landed abruptly on both feet.
Within a radius of three zhang, the deck of the turtle was cracked like a spider web.
He didn't stop, because John had already dodged the powerful attack before that.
He's still nearby... He found you...
In the condensed fog with extremely low visibility, Zod spotted the figure.
He then bent his knees, his muscles tensed, and he shot out like a cannonball, skimming the ground.
Steam billowed from the gaps in his armor, leaving a long trail of scalding smoke behind him.
"Whoosh--!!!"
Zod reached out and pulled out the giant blade that was stuck in the pillar.
Despite wielding the giant sword, Zod's speed remained undiminished.
Fifty steps.
Thirty steps.
... Ten steps!!
Zod's massive form tore through the copper mist, creating a series of cone-shaped holes, and hurtled toward John's location.
"They're really persistent..."
John had always respected such stubborn opponents, so he took his hands out of his pockets.
"Bang--!!"
Zod had a knife in his hand, but he didn't use it.
He casually slumped his heavy shoulder, the entire suit of armor carrying a terrifying momentum.
Like a derailed train, it crashed straight into John's chest.
John crossed his arms to block.
"Boom--!!!!"
The massive shockwave exploded out in a ring shape.
Centered on the point of contact between the two, all the ribs within three zhang (approximately 10 meters) bent outwards simultaneously, and the iron grille was lifted straight up like a piece of paper.
The lead slag on the ground was completely swept away.
John's feet dug two half-foot-deep furrows in the deck as he stumbled backward.
"Thump!!"
Zod's next offensive was about to begin.
The blade flashed upwards.
He gathered his strength, then unleashed another ferocious slash, the Blade grazing John's parrying arms, heading straight for his lower abdomen...
Cut straight into the Adam's apple!
"Laugh--!"
The Blade sliced open the front of the suit jacket, tearing it in two from the lower abdomen to the collar.
But what surprised Zod was...
The exposed ends of the two cut suit jackets were visibly wriggling.
Nanoparticles, like liquid metal, flowed out from both sides of the cut, the silvery-gray particles interlocking, weaving, and interlocking with each other.
The seam closes towards the center at a speed of several inches per second, with the threads interlacing and reassembling on their own.
"Shuashua--"
John suddenly staggered back.
Zod's Blade sliced off half of his lapel.
The severed fragments were instantly pulverized into black dust by the terrifying blade energy.
But before these dust particles could land, they transformed back into several streams of silver, flowing backward and swirling back.
Then it is reattached to the cross-section, solidifying into the original shape of the lapel.
John shifted his stance and slipped into Zod's right blind spot.
Elbow strike.
"Thump!!!"
The elbow struck the heavy armor with a muffled thud, sinking in half an inch.
Zod's body was pushed sideways three feet by the force, and the sole of his boot left an arc-shaped indentation on the iron plate.
Zod turned around smoothly.
Using the momentum of his lateral movement, Zod swung his left arm back, his Iron Fist whistling through the air as he aimed straight for John's face.
John tilted his head.
The force of the punch grazed his ear and blasted a crater the size of a washbasin into the iron wall behind him.
Amidst the flying metal fragments, John flipped his right palm, his five fingers gripping the gap in Zod's wrist guard, and twisted it with the force of the movement.
"Gaa--!"
Zod's left wrist was twisted at an unnatural angle.
However, due to the hardness of the Krypton armor, the alloy rib inside the armor only underwent slight deformation and did not break.
Zod merely frowned slightly, the yellow light in his eyes growing increasingly intense.
"Drink--!"
Following the direction of the twist, he used centrifugal force to lift his right knee, slamming it into John's ribs.
"Bang--!!"
John's forearm, which was blocking the shot, was bent inward by the impact of the knee.
Immediately following was a discordant, loud bang.
There wasn't even a red mark on John's forearm after he was hit.
On the contrary, the inner lining of Zod's kneeplate cracked during the recoil, sending fragments flying.
That sound came from here.
Seeing John completely unharmed, Zod's usually cold eyes showed confusion for the first time.
The waxy yellow halo paused slightly and receded by half an inch.
John seized the opportunity to flip over, bracing himself with one hand and springing up.
The distance between the two widened to nearly five meters once again.
At this moment, at both ends of the passage.
Steam and copper mist continued to churn.
John glanced down at his left arm.
The incision that had cut from his lower abdomen to his Adam's apple had completely healed on the front of his suit jacket.
After the nanoparticles drifted across the fabric, they concealed the last glimmer of light within the cuff, thus completing the process.
"..."
John smiled and looked at Zod.
Zod was kneeling on one knee and getting up.
Unbeknownst to him, dark blood began to seep from under his left kneecap.
But he chose to ignore it.
Instead, he flicked his right hand, the giant blade humming as he aimed the tip back at John.
Those waxy yellow pupils gleamed with an even more menacing light.
John tilted his head.
He casually swung his left arm, which had just been struck by Zod's knee, making a few crisp "click" sounds.
"That's interesting..."
White vapor was exhaled from between the lips, then dissipated into the copper mist.
Zod did not reply.
Instead, it stomped heavily on the ground and pounced like a giant beast.
Atlantic Ocean West.
11,000 meters offshore from the Chesapeake Bay.
The sky has long lost its azure hue.
Instead, it was crushed into a viscous, lead-tin-like gray by a terrifying external force.
Gazing into the distance.
Layers of clouds fell and collapsed.
It resembles an ice sheet suspended upside down over the ocean.
On the sea.
The Atlantic Ocean Fleet's escort group is leading the way, leaving a wake tens of meters long on the sea.
Behind the escort formation, two cruisers and four destroyers followed closely behind.
The country is under a DEFCON 2 state of readiness.
All the vertical launch units deployed on the ship were deflected and ready to fire.
Ten thousand meters in the air, preparations are also in full swing.
This is the " Iron Rooster " squadron of the 1st Wing of the America Air Force.
Under the command of headquarters, twelve F-22A " Raptor " stealth fighters were lined up in a V-formation.
And inside the front cockpit.
Colonel Marcus Hall, 39, served as a striker, responsible for clearing the way for the entire team.
The overload suit tightly constricted his lower abdomen and leg muscles, forcibly pushing blood back into his cranial cavity.
But the greatest pressure doesn't come from there.
It was the chaotic radio frequencies on the radio.
" Tombstone " leader! This is the " Watchtower " early warning aircraft!"
High-altitude heat source... Oh my god!
They broke through the Kármán line and cut vertically towards us!
Relative speed Mach 14!
Radars don't have Doppler shift; they... they're distorting atmospheric waveguides!
Behind the eyepiece.
The colonel's eyes narrowed, trembling slightly.
In an instant, the leaden sky cracked open with several fissures.
Then.
Several eerie, chitinous, trilobite-like machines, each fifteen meters long, hung in the stratosphere.