Thor in Peril, Ye Mo Rushes to Help

Three hundred meters to his left, the bottom of the new rift valley gleamed with a dark golden light. Ye Mo was walking towards it, stepping on the sloping, barren ridge. The wind whipped sand and gravel into his face. He squinted as he moved forward, his right leg's Steel Bone joints still creaking like an old tractor running out of fuel. The vacuum canister in his backpack pressed against his lower back, pulsating gently and rhythmically, like a heartbeat. He had just taken the Vibranium fragment out of his pocket to give another signal when his wrist suddenly twitched—not by his own hand.

The fragment shook on its own.

Immediately afterward, a "ding" sounded in his mind, and a system notification tone appeared. However, this time it wasn't a regular announcement; instead, it was intermittent and mixed with electrical static. "Detected... emergency... frequency... beacon source... identity confirmed: Thor Odinson."

Ye Mo abruptly stopped.

"Huh? Thor?" He frowned, looking down at the Vibranium fragment in his palm. A faint blue light floated on its surface, as if it had been remotely activated by something. "Isn't this guy supposed to be cruising high in the sky? Why is he sending out a distress signal?"

He immediately crouched down and used his finger to draw a simple orientation map on the gravel ground, while recalling the coordinates of the last light pulse Thor had sent. Two seconds later, he matched up—the signal came from the southeast, about 1,400 meters away, exactly at the edge of the planet's high-energy northern latitude region, a ring-shaped valley filled with fractured rock layers.

"Damn it," he muttered under his breath, "Even birds don't survive three minutes in this place. What's he doing there? Testing his lightning-struck endurance?"

But the thought had barely formed when the system displayed a complete message: "High-frequency Shockwave detected. Energy characteristics match Dark Elves standard weapon. The battle has lasted 7 minutes and 13 seconds. Target's vital signs are fluctuating violently. Threat level: High."

Ye Mo's pupils contracted.

Without further hesitation, he stuffed the Vibranium fragment back into his pocket, then opened the side pocket of his backpack to check the vacuum canister—the green light was steadily lit, indicating a proper seal. He then quickly put away the detector and kicked the previously marked stone into the crack to prevent the enemy from following the trail.

"Alright, I was planning to collect all the particles in one go before resting, but looks like I'll have to be a super firefighter first." He muttered to himself, cracking his shoulders as his Steel Bone joints popped. "Thor, don't die too horribly, or I'll not only have made a wasted trip, but I'll also have to write your eulogy."

As soon as he finished speaking, he took a deep breath and silently recited the command in his mind: Activate flight mode.

This is a combination technique he recently put together—"Shadowcat Wall Phasing Fragment" + "Nightcrawler Spatial Leap Perception" + a coordination algorithm he figured out through guesswork. It can't hover for too long, can't go supersonic, and when it flies, it's a bit like being drunk and floating, but at least it can leave the ground. During the last short-range test, it almost crashed into a mountain, Tony almost burst out laughing when he saw it.

But I can't worry about that now.

With a push of his feet, his Steel Bone legs instantly unleashed propulsion, propelling him into the air. Just as he reached a height of twenty meters, the air currents suddenly dropped, as if the entire sky had been paused. Immediately afterward, a layer of black mist-like energy field pressed down from all directions, the air became viscous, and a low-frequency humming sound filled his ears.

"Damn it, Shadow Technology interference?" Ye Mo gritted his teeth, forcibly adjusting his posture to glide at low altitude, flying close to the rocky ridge. The flight ability cooling prompt flashed red in his mind, but he pretended not to see it, continuing to lower the fuselage and use several protruding rocks for cover as he moved forward.

The closer they got to the signal source, the darker the sky became. The originally gray sky was now completely shrouded in black clouds, and lightning bolts darted wildly through the clouds, but never struck down. Ye Mo's heart skipped a beat— Thor's lightning was being suppressed.

When he finally slid to the edge of the circular valley, he peeked down from a broken wall and what he saw almost made him curse out loud.

Thor stood on a protruding platform in the center, soaked to the bone, his cloak torn in several places, and a deep, bone-revealing wound on his left shoulder oozing blood. Five Dark Elves surrounded him in a pentagonal formation, each holding a jet-black longsword with chain-like energy threads wrapped around its blade. Two of these threads were firmly binding Mjolnir, pinning it to the ground.

Worse still, the ground beneath their feet was engraved with a ring of runes that constantly absorbed the lightning released by Thor and fed it back to their weapons, forming a closed-loop suppression. Every time he tried to summon lightning, he would be bounced back by the array, causing him to stagger backward.

"These bastards are pretty good at playing tricks." Ye Mo gritted his teeth, sweat beading on his forehead. Going down there now would mean fighting on two fronts, and if things went wrong, he'd be killed along with them.

But just as he hesitated about whether to flank and launch a surprise attack, the situation below suddenly changed.

A Dark Elves suddenly leaped up, his black blade aimed straight at Thor's nape. Thor had just raised his arm to block when someone else immediately swept across from the other side, the Blade grazing his calf and adding another bloody gash. Thor roared and stomped on the ground to try and break free, but he slipped and fell to his knees.

In that instant, all the enemies moved.

Five black blades approached simultaneously, their tips less than half a foot from his throat, heart, and eyes.

"Damn it!" Ye Mo could no longer sit still. He flipped over and jumped off the broken wall. His left arm instantly Steel Bone Transformation, and he crashed into the center of the battlefield like a cannonball.

"Clang--!"

He took the blow head-on with his forearm, sparks flying, the impact leaving his entire arm numb. But using the recoil, he spun around and kicked the attacker squarely in the abdomen from his left. The man flew out and crashed into the rock wall, sliding down without moving.

The remaining four people were stunned for a moment, then immediately turned their attention to Ye Mo.

"Oh, a new guy?" Ye Mo grinned, wiping the dust off his face. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Thor's cousin, and I'm in charge of collecting his corpses—preferably still alive, of course."

Before he could finish speaking, two Dark Elves had already surrounded him, their twin blades slashing towards his neck. Ye Mo ducked under the blades, and in the process, he threw a left punch, his Steel Bone knuckles striking one of them in the ribs. With a crisp "crack," the man screamed and fell to the ground.

A third person attacked from behind. Ye Mo had a premonition. He pushed off the ground with his right leg and turned around, raising his arm to block at the same time. The blade struck the Steel Bone with a screeching sound, Mars flying. He seized the opportunity to grab the other person's wrist and twist it, snatching the black blade and throwing it backhand, hitting the fourth person's shoulder blade squarely. The man groaned and fell to his knees.

Only one person remained standing on the field, his eyes cold, as he slowly raised his weapon and pointed it at Ye Mo.

"Oops, there's still one leader left?" Ye Mo gasped for breath, his right leg Steel Bone starting to jam again, making him limp. "Did you guys forget to check the data? I may not look like a main force player, but I'm the one who can handle any kind of challenger."

The man didn't respond; instead, he looked at the bound Thor, his lips moving slightly as if conveying some command.

Ye Mo's eye twitched, and he immediately shouted, "Thor! Bow your head!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he hurled the black blade he had just stolen, aiming straight for the center of the rune array on the ground. Almost simultaneously, Thor suddenly ducked down, clutching his head with both hands.

"Boom!"

The black blade pierced the core of the array, and the entire rune circle exploded with a wave of purplish-black energy, the shockwave sweeping across the entire area. The chains binding Mjolnir's hammer instantly shattered, and the hammer hummed as it rose into the air, automatically flying back into Thor's hand.

Lightning suddenly tore through the sky.

"How many times have I told you," Thor stood up, hammer tip pointing to the ground, arcs of electricity crackling around him, "Don't try any of these little tricks on me."

Seeing this, the last Dark Elves turned to flee, but Ye Mo wasn't about to let him go. He endured the discomfort in his legs and charged forward, tackling the elf to the ground. The two rolled around in a heap, and the elf struggled to pull out a short dagger and stab at Ye Mo's throat. Ye Mo blocked it with his Steel Bone left hand and grabbed the elf's neck with his right.

"Brother, do you know why you guys always lose?" He stared into the man's eyes, his tone as casual as if he were chatting with someone. "Because you always think that wearing a black robe will scare people, but actually, we're not afraid of black clothes at all."

After saying that, he pulled his hand away, and the man rolled his eyes and fainted.

The surroundings fell silent.

Ye Mo pushed himself up from the ground, panting like a broken bellows. The Steel Bone in his right leg was completely stuck; he'd probably have to crawl back to walk. He looked up at Thor and found the guy staring at him with a complicated expression.

"You shouldn't have come," Thor said, his voice low. "I intended to lead them away from your search route."

"Oh, so you deliberately signaled for me to come and save you?" Ye Mo grinned. "Your acting is terrible. Did you really think I couldn't tell you were about to die?"

"I wasn't about to hang up; it was a strategic bait," Thor explained, but a smile still lingered on his lips.

"Alright, alright, you're a strategic mastermind." Ye Mo stood up, leaning against the rock wall, and dusted himself off. "Now that we've taken down the enemy and broken the formation, can we discuss how to get out of here alive? After all, you might have to 'strategically' sell yourself out again later."

Thor nodded, about to speak, when suddenly his expression changed, and he abruptly pulled Ye Mo back.

Behind the two, the Dark Elves who had just been knocked away slowly got up, a crack appeared in its chest, from which a large amount of black viscous liquid gushed out and quickly condensed into a new weapon form.

"Tsk." Ye Mo watched as the thing grew longer and longer, eventually transforming into a giant scythe dripping with Venom. "So you guys even have a resurrection buff?"