Sensing new enemies, heightening combat vigilance

Ye Mo's back was pressed tightly against the broken stone pillar. The shattered concrete fragments hurt him painfully, but he dared not move. Not that he didn't want to, but that he couldn't. His right leg had long since lost all feeling, and most of the Steel Bone in his left arm had been broken off in the lightning strike. Blood dripped from his fingertips, hitting the charred ground with a soft "thud."

The starry sky overhead was obscured by dense shadows, like a flock of crows perched on the power lines at dusk. One after another, the newly arrived Dark Elves ships came to a stop, without turning on their lights or making a sound, just hovering silently in the air, as if waiting for some signal. Malekith stood on the high platform, motionless, like a chess piece.

Thor, leaning on his hammer, was breathing more heavily than before. The electricity on the surface of Mjolnir was now as thin as a mosquito coil, flashing and fading intermittently. Emma Frost was still sitting in the same spot, her arms wrapped around her knees, her eyes closed, but her eyelashes were trembling—she was holding on, and everyone knew she was.

Ye Mo stared at the ground, his mind churning.

The system had been silent since Chapter 318, like a phone that shut down automatically due to unpaid bills. He knew this thing didn't issue tasks, give reminders, or show itself; he had to "dig" for it himself. But given the current situation, if he didn't dig out some new stuff soon, the three of them would really become dumpling filling.

He gritted his teeth and pulled his consciousness away.

He wasn't trying to activate any awesome abilities, nor was he hoping to suddenly awaken the Wall Phasing Technique or stop time—those were things for the next chapter. Right now, he just wanted to find something usable, low-energy-consuming, even if it only allowed him to glance at it a little longer.

The second level of the Gene Spiral Tower was the highest level he could reach so far. It was crammed with a jumble of nameless fragments of abilities, all collected from his past encounters with Mutants: a faint mental fluctuation he'd sensed when Emma Frost used Telepathy, spatial disturbances left by Shadowcat as it passed through the wall, and the bioelectric anomaly Bruce Banner exhibited just before his transformation...

These fragments are usually just piled up like data garbage, ignored by everyone. But now, Ye Mo doesn't have time to pick them out.

He closed his eyes and tried to focus his attention on the area of "perception." Not hearing, not seeing, but... feeling. Like when he was a kid playing video games, he could clearly not see the enemy, but he could still feel someone crouching in the grass.

A headache came on immediately.

It wasn't ordinary pain; it felt like someone was slowly screwing a screwdriver into your temple. His ears were ringing, like a swarm of bees holding a concert inside his head. But he didn't stop; he continued to probe deeper.

Suddenly, he "saw" it.

It wasn't with his eyes, but rather a vague sense of the field. In his consciousness, the entire battlefield became a hazy gray area, with each Dark Elves a tiny black dot, neatly arranged in unison, like a military training formation.

But there are a few things that don't seem right.

In the shadows on the left, the third guy's energy fluctuations were erratic, like a weak Wi-Fi signal. The one crouching to the right front had his brainwave frequency interrupted every seven seconds, as if deliberately blocking something. And the one hovering motionless in the air had a body temperature nearly five degrees lower than the surrounding area, clearly not an ordinary soldier.

More importantly, the positions of these three points form an inverted triangle, subtly pointing to the core area where the three of them are located.

"Damn it..." Ye Mo cursed under his breath, then suddenly opened his eyes.

Cold sweat trickled down his forehead and dripped into his eyes, stinging him and making him squint. He didn't wipe it away, but simply turned his head to look at Emma Frost.

"Hey, can you still scan?" He spoke in a low voice, almost squeezed out between his teeth. "Don't probe too deeply, just gently touch the third one on the left, the one crouching in front of you on the right, and the one that's not moving in the sky—their brainwaves have a frequency drop, like they're wearing masks."

Emma Frost didn't open her eyes, but her fingers curled slightly. A few seconds later, her eyelashes trembled, and she whispered, "... There's a shielding layer. It's not a natural fluctuation; it's artificially suppressed."

"That's it." Ye Mo's throat was dry. "These aren't regular soldiers, they're the leaders. They're waiting for orders, or maybe they're waiting for us to make the first move."

He turned to look at Thor, who was staring intently at a row of enemies directly in front of him, seemingly focused, but actually already adjusting his position.

"Thor," Ye Mo called out.

"Hmm," Thor replied curtly.

"Don't focus on the front," Ye Mo said. "Those in line are bait. The real killing moves are hidden on the sides. Once we break through or counterattack, they'll attack from three directions simultaneously, specifically targeting our weaknesses."

Thor finally turned his head and looked at Ye Mo's face. Neither of them spoke, but the exchange of glances in that instant was clearer than anything else.

A few seconds later, Thor slowly nodded, Mjolnir shifted slightly, no longer facing directly forward, but tilted slightly to the left. The current, though weak, had already re-condensed at the end of the hammer handle, ready to erupt at any moment.

Ye Mo breathed a sigh of relief, then tensed up again.

He knew that simply discovering them wasn't enough. The reason these hidden, leader-level enemies hadn't acted was because they were observing, assessing, and waiting for the optimal moment. And now, they had been exposed.

Next, either the opponent changes their strategy, or... they engage in a direct confrontation.

He forced himself to calm down and continued to scan the three unusual spots out of the corner of his eye. The one on the left was still standing, but its center of gravity had subtly shifted to its right foot; the one crouching to the right had its hand resting on the hilt of a knife, its knuckles slightly white; and the one in the sky had dropped less than half a meter in altitude, almost imperceptible.

"They're preparing," Ye Mo thought to himself. "Not a charge, but an encirclement."

He recalled the time outside the Hellfire Club when Emma Frost was nearly Mind Control —that feeling of being pulled by invisible threads. The current situation was somewhat similar, only this time it was reversed; the enemy was laying a net, and they were still in the center of it.

"Emma Frost," he spoke again, his voice even lower, "How much longer can she hold on?"

Emma Frost opened her eyes, her pupils shrinking to pinpoints, her face deathly pale. "One minute. Any longer, and I might have a brain hemorrhage on the spot."

"That's enough." Ye Mo nodded. "Just know they're making a move. Warn them immediately the moment they attack."

Emma Frost gave a soft "hmm" and closed her eyes again, as if she had fallen asleep.

Ye Mo looked down at his hands. His left hand was still bleeding, and his right hand was clutching a piece of reflective film, its edges worn and frayed. He had used this thing to interfere with light last time, but a large portion of it had been swept away by a thunderstorm. The few pieces left were his last smokescreen; he might be able to use it to bluff someone sometime.

He didn't try to activate his Steel Bone again, nor did he intend to use Vibranium to control the temperature. Doing such an energy-intensive operation would cause him to go into shock on the spot. His only asset now was the rudimentary sensory ability that he had just "dug out".

Although it was unstable and caused headaches and tinnitus, it did allow him to see things that others couldn't.

That's the key point.

The most frightening thing on the battlefield isn't having many enemies, but not knowing who the real threat is. Now he knows.

He leaned against the stone pillar, slowly adjusting his breathing to calm his heartbeat. Being too excited or too nervous was no good; this kind of sensory ability was like an old radar with a weak signal, requiring manual frequency tuning.

In the distance, the newly arrived fleet finally closed the distance. The lead ship slowly came to a stop, its prow bearing the night totem gleaming eerily under the starlight, like an altar for some ancient ritual.

Malekith raised his hand, but this time he neither gave a signal nor spoke.

But Ye Mo could clearly see the curve of his lips.

It wasn't a laugh, it was confirmation.

He was confirming that his trump card was in place.

Ye Mo's fingers twitched slightly, shifting his grip on the remnant of the reflective film. He knew anything could happen in the next second—a surprise attack, an encirclement, a trap, a self-destructive charge—anything was possible.

But he also knew that they could no longer passively respond as they had before.

Advance prediction is essential.

We must keep a close eye on those three points.

He took a deep breath and pressed the tip of his tongue against the roof of his mouth, a little habit he used to have when he was nervous before exams, which helped him think a little faster.

Then, he whispered something only he could hear, "System, oh system, if you don't step up your game soon, I'm uninstalling you."

Of course, the system didn't respond.

But it doesn't need to react either.

Because at this moment, Ye Mo was no longer the rookie who could only shout "The system notification tells me to do this".

He leaned against the stone pillar, his gaze calmly fixed on the direction of the three anomalies, his fingers gripping the reflective membrane tightly as he waited.

The one on the left has shifted its center of gravity again.

The one on the right front, his hand was already fully gripping the hilt of the knife.

The one in the sky showed an extremely slight deviation in its flight path.

Ye Mo's Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

They've arrived.