Perhaps Luke Morgan felt that Li Xingkong had caused him so much trouble that letting him die quietly like this would hardly be enough to quell the hatred in his heart. So he came.
For one thing, their repeated clashes had allowed them to feel out the limits of Li Xingkong's combat strength. For another, he did not believe Li Xingkong could escape from such a predicament.
Now that he had caught the enemy he had been thinking about for so long, he naturally could not let him die so easily.
He wanted not only to torture Li Xingkong physically, but also to break him mentally.
"Kid, I still admire your defiance."
He walked slowly up to the curtain wall and raised his right hand, as if to touch it. His whole manner was utterly unruffled, and he spoke with ease.
Just before his hand reached the surface, he stopped, as though touching the wall would dirty it.
He beckoned, and the old butler accompanying him handed him a lit cigarette. Smoke curled slowly upward.
"I remember someone telling me that if you do something wrong, you should be punished."
He slowly took a drag, closed his eyes in enjoyment, and blew a perfect smoke ring.
"So you and this old fellow can be decorations in my home. Of course, don't die too soon. I'll leave your head above the cement."
He spoke slowly, savoring the feeling of torturing someone, which gave him an immense sense of accomplishment.
As for the people who had died outside, they were nothing but dogs. In his view, however many died, just as many would appear in the city the next day.
Li Xingkong was still trying to find a way out, but he really had not anticipated his current predicament.
First, he had already used his strongest attack against the room trapping him and still could not break it. Second, the cement covering him would become harder and harder to break free of as time passed.
Mike was not doing well either. His hands were still bound, forcing him to stand in an awkward position. Without his hands to keep his balance, the slightest movement would send him toppling into the cement.
That was no laughing matter. Getting the stuff on his face would make it hard to breathe, and he could not free his hands to clear it away.
Li Xingkong struggled a few steps forward and slapped a hand against the glass curtain wall.
It was not as if he had not tried attacking it with Shotgun Spell, but the glass was clearly more bulletproof than he had expected.
Seeing Li Xingkong struggle, the people outside grew even more unrestrained. This was about more than simply catching an enemy.
It was more like winning a difficult hunt.
And Li Xingkong was the prey.
People were obsessed with hunting to their very bones. From hunting game to fishing, countless men were addicted to it. Even in modern society, those who had the means would most likely go fishing and cast a few lines, while those who did not would go urban hunting, shooting rats with slingshots. Those too lazy to leave home would even spend all night catching dragons on Sapphire Star.
People preferred powerful prey. The sense of accomplishment that came from conquering an opponent stronger than oneself was unrivaled.
The more Li Xingkong struggled, the more they enjoyed it, so naturally they would not end it all too soon.
But this was also Li Xingkong's chance.
They were hunting, but wasn't Li Xingkong a hunter too?
Though his body was still struggling, his mind was now working at full speed, searching for a sliver of hope.
He had to find a way to save himself before the cement hardened.
He had already developed plenty of uses for Shotgun Spell: attacking, defending, clearing enemies out of confined spaces, and using various types of ammunition. His use of the spell had become quite refined.
In his current predicament, Shotgun Spell really was of little use, because no matter what he did, its attack power had a fixed upper limit.
That left Explosive Reactive Armor.
It was a purely defensive spell and did not seem to have any ability to break through a strong defense.
Li Xingkong's thoughts raced, because he could feel the cement around him constraining him more and more.
If nothing else worked, he could only leave it to the system to act.
"I suggest you think again about how Explosive Reactive Armor works."
Speak of the system and it appeared. The moment the thought occurred to him, its voice rang out.
It and Li Xingkong were one to begin with, so it naturally knew what he was doing. But things had not yet reached the point where it had to intervene. As far as the system was concerned, their current predicament was nothing more than a trifle.
Since the system had given him a hint, Li Xingkong naturally wasted no time. He immediately recalled how Explosive Reactive Armor worked.
When Explosive Reactive Armor was attacked, it used a mana structure on the surface of the armor to create an explosion in the opposite direction, canceling out the force of incoming bullets.
In other words, the core of Explosive Reactive Armor still lay in the word "explosive."
Li Xingkong's eyes lit up. The key to breaking out lay in that word, "explosive"-in his own Explosive Reactive Armor.
Having figured that out, he opened his eyes and stopped struggling pointlessly. He shifted his stance and pressed his right arm tightly against the curtain wall.
He circulated the mana throughout his body and calmed his mind. The Explosive Reactive Armor covering his entire right arm solidified.
As mana gathered, a small round shield formed from his Explosive Reactive Armor, centered on his right arm, pressed firmly against the curtain wall.
That was right. Nothing said Explosive Reactive Armor could only be detonated passively.
It had always been possible to detonate it deliberately, but there was no benefit to doing so. An explosion at close range would also have an adverse effect on one's own body, so naturally no one used it that way.
Afraid it would not be powerful enough, Li Xingkong poured the vast majority of his mana into the armor.
He was betting everything on this one strike!
Though Li Xingkong's movements were conspicuous, the people outside did not panic at all. As they understood it, no one could break out of a cage like this.
Even the Terminator would come to grief here.
The only thing in their eyes as they watched Li Xingkong was the amusement of watching a dying creature.
Explosive Reactive Armor was ready. Li Xingkong took a deep breath. This blast would mean either death or life.
Then he deliberately detonated the reactive layer's mana structure on the outside of the armor.
At his mental command, the mana structure across the armor's outer layer gave off an unsteady glow. The light joined together in the pattern of a magic seal, and then a roar erupted.
What a tremendous bang it was! It was as though someone were frantically hammering beside their ears. Everyone in the entire prison building was startled by it.
On the heels of that thunderclap came an endless blaze of light.
The sudden burst of light whited out the entire room.
It had to be said, this way of setting off an explosion really was powerful.
The curtain wall across the front of the box was blasted to pieces, and a great mass of cement poured out through the shattered wall.
The shards of glass sent flying by the explosion were as deadly as bullets, spraying directly into several people in front.
With that kind of force, they would certainly suffer for it.
Li Xingkong and Mike, on the other hand, were hurt much less.
That was because the half-solidified cement counted as a non-Newtonian fluid: it yielded to softness and hardened against force.
That also allowed the two of them to escape the enormous explosion with their lives.
When the cement stopped churning, they saw that he had blasted a hole as tall as a person in the front curtain wall.
Outside, some people had been injured, and the blinding light and tremendous noise had left the entire area paralyzed.