Joining forces again to drive back the dark enemy

Ye Mo had just tackled the guy with the split chest dripping black liquid to the ground when his right hand was already plunged into the crack in the guy's chest cavity. The stuff was sticky, like living oil, oozing out between his fingers. He gritted his teeth and shoved the Vibranium fragment he was carrying into it. He heard a "sizzle" sound, like hot iron touching ice, and the black liquid instantly solidified a bit.

"Did you pay for a membership to resurrect this?" Ye Mo cursed, panting heavily. Before he could even pull his hand away, the other person's body began to convulse violently. The tip of the giant scythe was less than ten centimeters from his neck, Venom dripped down, burning a small hole in his hoodie collar. "And it even has an automatic renewal feature?"

Before he could finish speaking, Thor made a move.

God of Thunder knelt on one knee, hammer planted in front of him. Arcs of electricity crackled and leaped along the edge of the Hammerhead, but couldn't gather. The dark clouds overhead were too heavy, locking the lightning in place. He glanced in Ye Mo's direction and roared, "Prepare to conduct electricity!"

"I knew you were going to pull this!" Ye Mo rolled his eyes, his left arm instantly Steel Bone Transformation, a metallic gleam flashing by. He rolled to the side, pulling his hand out and slamming the Steel Bone arm to the ground.

The instant the current surged up the metal skeleton, Ye Mo felt his back teeth go numb, the hairs on his body stand on end, and his scalp tingle. But he didn't let go; instead, he pressed his other hand to the ground, forming Circuit.

"Boom--!"

A blinding white bolt of lightning exploded from his spine, shooting straight into the sky and tearing a corner of the dark clouds. Then, the entire bolt of lightning reversed direction and struck the still convulsing Dark Elves head-on. The man didn't even have time to scream before he was instantly blown to pieces, fragments flying everywhere.

The remaining two Dark Elves elves, who had been hiding in the crevices, turned and ran. One had barely leaped up when Thor's Mjolnir caught up with him, striking him squarely in the back, and he crashed into the pile of rocks, motionless. The last one reacted quickly, pushing off with his foot and disappearing into the crevice in the blink of an eye.

The surroundings fell silent.

The wind whipped up dust that stung his face. Ye Mo lay on the ground for a while before finally getting up. His right Steel Bone was completely stuck, and walking felt like dragging a piece of scrap steel. He looked down at his hands; his fingertips were still trembling slightly, and there was a faint blue light flashing beneath his skin—the aftershock of the electrical conduction.

"Could you give me a heads-up next time?" he shouted at Thor. "If this happens again, I'll have a heart attack before the enemy even lifts a finger."

Thor walked over, put the hammer back in his hand, blood still seeping from the wound on his shoulder, his face not looking too good. "If you don't want to be a conductor, you don't have to come to save me." He paused, then a slight smile played on his lips, "But thank you for coming."

"Wow, God of Thunder has actually learned to speak human language?" Ye Mo grinned, leaning against a broken rock as he stood up. "I thought all you could do was shout 'For Asgard!'"

"Don't pretend to be relaxed," Thor glanced at him. "Your right leg is practically a limp tricycle, and you're still rambling on."

"This was all to give you face." Ye Mo cracked his shoulders, his bones popping. "That move just now was a bit ugly, but it worked well. Look, the enemy retreated, the formation broke, and you're still alive. A perfect loop."

Thor ignored the question and instead crouched down to examine the charred corpse. The black liquid had dried, leaving a brittle crust on the surface that crumbled to powder at the slightest touch. He picked up a bit, frowning, and said, "This Regeneration mechanism... I've never seen anything like it before."

"Probably a new species developed by Malekith." Ye Mo took out the detector from his backpack and glanced at it. The green light was steadily lit, and the vacuum tank was still working normally. "Anyway, now is not a good time for biological research. We need to get moving."

"You mean the Aether?" Thor stood up, his gaze sweeping over the undulating rock formations in the distance.

"Yes." Ye Mo nodded. "I collected some in this jar, but the system indicated that there are still fluctuation sources scattered in the outer area. If you hadn't sent a distress signal just now, I would have almost reached the second point."

"I'm not asking for help," Thor immediately corrected, "I'm strategically luring them in."

"Alright, alright, strategic master." Ye Mo waved his hand, "Well, your strategic achievements are quite fruitful, you almost turned yourself into a skewer."

As they talked, the two slowly walked towards the central platform of the circular valley. Traces of the rune array remained on the ground, shattered by the previous attack, the energy field completely collapsed. Ye Mo kicked away the rubble as he walked, confirming there were no hidden devices.

"What's the next step?" Thor asked.

"Are you trying to say, 'I'll go clean up the remaining enemies, you continue searching'?" Ye Mo interrupted directly, "Don't say that, I know what you're thinking."

"Do you have a better suggestion?"

"Of course." Ye Mo stopped and turned to look at him. "First, Dark Elves can resurrect, so going alone is too risky; second, I can't walk very far with this leg, and I can't keep up with you flying; third, this jar in my backpack is still jumping, which means the targets haven't been gathered, and the signal is jumbled, so I have to rely on scanning to locate it."

He paused, then pointed to his head. "I have a system to assist my perception, and you can use lightning to sense energy fluctuations. If we team up, we can clear out the area while searching—that'll be the most efficient way."

Thor was silent for a few seconds, then nodded. "Reasonable."

"What do you mean by 'reasonable'?" Ye Mo laughed. "So you're finally admitting that mortals also have brains?"

"That's not what I meant," Thor sighed. "I just feel... that working with you is definitely more reliable than going it alone."

"Tsk tsk, did the sun rise in the north today?" Ye Mo looked up at the sky with feigned surprise. "Thor actually backed down? When I get back, I'll have to record a voice message and post it on my WeChat Moments with the title 'Shocking! The Proud Warrior Bows Down to a Man in a Hoodie.'"

"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll throw you into the next crack in the ground." Thor pretended to be stern, but his eyes betrayed his true intentions.

Ye Mo chuckled and stopped teasing. He knew that for such words to be spoken on the battlefield was itself a sign of trust. He used to feel like an outsider, relying on the system for a living, but now it was different. Even though they had only fought side by side in a small battle, he felt like he had truly become part of this team.

"Let's go." He patted Thor's arm. "Let's check the area to the east first. The Vibranium fragment reacted earlier; there might still be some energy points that slipped through."

Thor responded and followed. The two walked one after the other through the rubble area. The sky was still gloomy, but the oppressive feeling had obviously weakened. Ye Mo tried to activate flight mode, but as soon as he took off two meters, the leg cooling indicator flashed red in his mind.

"Never mind." He landed and rubbed his knee. "This function still needs to be sent back to the factory for an upgrade."

"I suggest you permanently shut down your 'flying like you're drunk' skill," Thor said without turning his head.

"What do you know? That's a tactical deceptive maneuver," Ye Mo retorted stubbornly. "When the enemy sees me swaying and staggering, they'll think I'm poisoned, lower their guard, and then—" He suddenly raised his hand in a surprise attack motion, "Snap! Counterattack."

"And then you fell into the cesspool," Thor added casually.

Ye Mo was speechless for a moment, and could only cough twice to cover up his embarrassment.

They arrived at a collapsed rock crevice, the bottom of which was pitch black, and they had no idea where it led. The detector vibrated slightly, and Ye Mo took it out to take a look; the pointer deflected slightly.

"There's something down there," he said. "The energy readings are unstable; it could be residual Aether, or it could be a trap."

"Then let's go down and take a look." Thor gripped his hammer. "I'll go first."

"Don't push yourself. You're pretty exhausted from that fight." Ye Mo stopped him. "Let me handle this. I'm tough as nails, I won't die from a fall."

Your right leg is almost ruined.

"My left leg is still usable," Ye Mo grinned. "Besides, I have a backup plan."

After he finished speaking, he took a piece of cable from his overalls pocket, tied one end to a nearby sturdy rock, and wrapped the other end around his waist. Then he took a deep breath and slowly shuffled down.

Thor stood atop it, staring intently, his brow furrowed. "Your handling... is utterly unprofessional."

"Leave the professional stuff to the professionals. I'm just a temporary worker right now," Ye Mo retorted as he slid down the stairs. "My wages haven't gone up, but the risk of workplace injuries is hitting new highs every day."

Once on the ground, he untied the rope and looked around. There were faint, dark golden marks on the rock wall, like the traces of liquid flowing through it. He reached out and touched them, getting a little on his fingertip, and placed it into the small detection slot next to the vacuum tank.

With a "ding," the system notification reads, "[Trace amount of residual Aether detected. The concentration is below the collection threshold. It is recommended to expand the search range.]"

"Did you hear that?" he shouted, looking up. "This place used to be there, but it's been emptied out. The target is still moving."

"Which way?" Thor asked.

"Northwest direction." Ye Mo put away his equipment. "And they're moving quite fast; someone's probably collecting data."

"One of Malekith's men?"

"We can't rule it out," Ye Mo said, stretching his stiff neck. "But we can't stop. Since they're also searching, it means they haven't collected them all yet. We still have a chance."

He looked up at Thor, his gaze becoming more serious. "So from now on, it really depends on you. You can sense lightning fluctuations, so you might be able to detect the energy frequency of the Aether. I'll handle the ground tracking, you'll provide aerial coverage, maintain distance but don't lose contact."

Thor looked at him, then nodded after a moment. "Deal."

Ye Mo smiled and was about to say something when he suddenly felt a slight tremor in the ground beneath his feet. He looked down and saw a faint golden light slowly seeping out from the edge of the crack.

"Damn," he muttered under his breath, "Not again?"

"What's wrong?" Thor immediately became alert.

"This place... isn't quite dead yet." Ye Mo took a step back, his Steel Bone left arm silently preparing. "Either the particle residue activated something, or—"

Before he could finish speaking, the crack suddenly expanded, and a dark golden mist surged out, condensing into a blurry humanoid outline in mid-air.

Ye Mo immediately stepped in front of him, his left arm held horizontally in front of him. Thor leaped off the platform, his hammer poised to strike.

The mist slowly descended, eventually transforming into a floating ball of energy that hovered quietly about a meter above the ground, pulsating slightly like a slowly beating heart.

"This isn't the enemy," Thor suddenly said.

"How did you know?" Ye Mo squinted at it.

"It's not aggressive." Thor took a few steps closer. "And... it's responding to my lightning."

As he spoke, he raised his hand, and a faint arc of electricity leaped out. The ball of energy trembled slightly and actually shifted slightly in the direction of the lightning.

"So he's a natural at making friends?" Ye Mo muttered. "Looks like we're lucky; we've found a stray GPS device."