As soon as Chen Mo finished shouting, the black-and-red tendrils at his feet rapidly retracted, pulling in the food they had caught.
Several superhuman soldiers whose ankles had been ensnared were dragged over rubble and through flames before they could cry out, then slammed down at Chen Mo's feet.
"Relax." Chen Mo looked down at them, sounding quite affable. "Doesn't your company love talking about resource integration?"
Black-and-red flesh blossomed from beneath his feet, wrapping around the soldiers in an instant.
Their screams were cut short, smothered by the churning flesh.
Homelander hovered in midair, his expression gradually darkening.
He could see that the places on Chen Mo's body that had just been scorched, torn apart by electricity, and slashed open by blades were healing even faster.
And he was doing more than just healing.
His black-and-red armor was thicker than before, and his bone spikes were sharper, as though every injury made the monster grow something better suited for battle.
Was that reasonable?
"Don't let him eat any more." Homelander kept his voice low as a red light flared in his eyes. "Pin him down and kill him."
As soon as he spoke, two beams of Heat Vision crashed down from above.
Chen Mo glanced up and loosely curled the fingers of his right hand, yanking hard with his telekinesis.
An overturned armored vehicle flew off the ground, turning sideways to shield him.
The Heat Vision cut through the steel plating in an instant, splitting the vehicle apart like a hot knife through butter.
"Vought's got a pretty generous budget, huh?"
Standing beneath the wreckage, Chen Mo grinned. "I've got to say, this new ability's pretty handy."
Stormfront dived down from the side, arcs crackling between her hands. Purple-white electricity curved around the wreckage and struck Chen Mo hard across his shoulders and back.
Crackle.
Great scorched patches erupted across the surface of his black-and-red armor. Chen Mo swayed, but instead of retreating, he used the force of the current to take a step forward.
Black Noir slipped out of the shadows and closed in.
Of everyone present, he wasn't particularly fast or strong, but his timing was perfect every time he coordinated an attack.
A short blade stabbed out at an angle from beneath the firelight, aimed straight at Chen Mo's ribs.
Chen Mo sidestepped, letting the blade scrape across his armor, and seized Black Noir's wrist with his other hand.
"You again?" Chen Mo said helplessly. "Are you addicted to stabbing people in the back?"
Black Noir gave no answer. His other hand was already reaching for his waist.
But Chen Mo gave him no chance.
His telekinesis pressed down hard, sending half a car door flying in from the side. It struck Black Noir with a bang, knocking him and his blade away.
Lamplighter stood at the rear, his face deathly pale.
He backed away, gripping his lighter tightly as the flame at his fingertips swelled violently, growing into a roiling wall of fire.
"Don't come any closer." His voice was hoarse, as if even he didn't believe his own words. "Stay away from me."
Chen Mo had just eaten several superhumans, rapidly replenishing what his body had expended. Hearing that, he laughed.
"Buddy, the way you're talking, you'd think you were the victim here."
Lamplighter's fingers trembled at those words, and the wall of fire surged higher, bearing down on Chen Mo with searing heat.
Chen Mo didn't dodge.
He braced himself against the electricity Stormfront poured into him from behind, pushed off, and crashed straight through the wall of fire.
His black-and-red armor glowed from the heat, while arcs of electricity darted wildly across his back, as though someone had given him a layer of flashy special effects.
Lamplighter's pupils contracted, and he turned to run.
But the distance between them was too short, and he was too slow.
Chen Mo knocked Homelander aside with a punch as he came to help, then appeared in front of Lamplighter.
Lamplighter hurriedly raised his lighter. The flame had only just leaped up when a hand covered in black-and-red armor clamped down on it.
Crack.
The metal lighter was crushed into a lump of scrap.
Lamplighter froze.
Without a source of fire, he was just an ordinary middle-aged man with psychological problems.
"Find a different company to work for in your next life," Chen Mo said quietly.
A black blade sprang out, piercing Lamplighter's chest in an instant.
Lamplighter opened his mouth. There was no anger in his eyes, only an indescribable weariness and relief.
Chen Mo didn't pause.
Black-and-red flesh spread along the blade, swallowing Lamplighter whole.
The flames suddenly faltered, as though out of control.
Then the sea of fire churning around them seemed to find a new master. It flowed back along the Blacklight biomass beneath Chen Mo's feet and gradually wound around his armor.
Stormfront stopped in midair, her expression changing completely.
Homelander froze for a moment too.
He watched with his own eyes as the flames stopped merely burning Chen Mo and instead curled upward along his black-and-red armor plates, flowing over his bone spikes like a layer of living fire.
Chen Mo looked down at his hand.
Flames flowed quietly between his fingers.
"Oh-ho."
He looked up and grinned. "Now the barbecue chef is mine too."
Homelander's expression twisted instantly.
"You monster."
The red light in his eyes blazed to its limit, and two beams of Heat Vision tore through the night, blasting straight at Chen Mo's head.
Chen Mo stood where he was, unmoving.
He watched the two beams draw closer and closer without so much as blinking.
The next second, a blazing white light shone in his own eyes.
Two lasers shot from his eyes and collided head-on with Homelander's Heat Vision.
Boom.
A ball of blinding white light exploded in midair.
Homelander's body jolted, and clear astonishment appeared in his eyes for the first time.
"Surprised?" Chen Mo tilted his head up, his voice carrying out from the flames. "Vought delivered it right to my door. How could I not accept it?"
Stormfront gritted her teeth and joined the attack again from the side.
She thrust both hands forward, sending a mass of purple-white electricity converging into a thick pillar that slammed toward Chen Mo.
At the same moment, Homelander intensified his Heat Vision.
The two streams of energy bore down from different directions. The old highway cracked inch by inch under the impact, and nearby wreckage exploded in succession.
Chen Mo's feet sank half a foot into the asphalt.
His black-and-red armor kept splitting apart and closing again. Flames spurted from the cracks, as though a blazing furnace had been stuffed inside him.
Chen Mo opened his mouth.
A torrent of flames sprayed from his mouth and, together with the lasers from his eyes, pushed the attacks back.
"Now I'm not lacking anything!"
Black-and-red flesh burst from his shoulders and back. Flames, lasers, sound waves, and telekinesis erupted outward together, forcibly driving back Homelander and Stormfront's attacks.
Stormfront's expression changed as the blast sent her flying backward. She crashed through part of a searchlight frame and nearly fell into the sea of fire.
Black Noir rushed out from the side and caught her. His feet carved two long trails across the ground before he barely managed to steady himself.
Homelander was also driven back more than ten meters by the blast's shockwave.
He hovered in midair, his blond hair scorched and disheveled, his face smeared with ash. The trace of blood at the corner of his mouth stood out in the firelight.
The surviving superhuman soldiers below no longer dared move forward.
They stared at Chen Mo amid the flames, the muzzles of their guns gradually lowering.
This was no longer a coordinated assault. It was more like peasants taking on a Tiger tank with pitchforks.
Homelander's chest rose and fell.
He could hear his own heartbeat, much faster than before.
This thing wasn't just impossible to kill.
He was evolving in battle.
The abilities he gained by devouring others were even more powerful than those of their original owners.
Homelander stared at Chen Mo. For the first time, there was more than killing intent in his eyes.
There was a trace of something he was least willing to admit.
Fear.
Chen Mo seemed to notice something and slowly raised his head.
"Why'd you stop fighting?" Flames climbed up his shoulder armor, and his tone sounded quite sincere. "Weren't things lively just now?"
Homelander didn't answer.
He simply shot upward, his cape snapping open behind him as he turned into a blue-and-red blur and headed straight for the night sky.
Stormfront looked up, her expression visibly stiffening for a moment.
Black Noir stopped moving too.
Chen Mo stood in the sea of fire, looking up at the rapidly receding figure as his mouth slowly spread into a grin.
"No way. The leader's retreating first?"
He raised his hand and slowly closed his five fingers.
Flaming black-and-red tendrils burst from the ground with a roar, snapping shut like a giant net thrown up from underground and grazing Homelander's cape.
In the night sky, Homelander's figure came to an abrupt halt.