The moment Ye Mo rushed out, his foot stepped on a raised metal plate, causing him to lurch forward. He didn't stop, instead turning his forward momentum into a low slide. His Steel Bone joints snapped and dislocated, cushioning the fall. His knees grazed the broken glass on the ground, and he slapped the ground with his palms, using the momentum to flip himself up.
The instant he looked up, Ultron's left arm's energy conduit snapped back, replaced by a blue-glowing cone-shaped cannon that slowly unfolded, like a poisonous flower blooming on the mechanical arm.
Ye Mo's mind went blank for a moment. It wasn't a system notification; it was his nerve endings that had exploded. The aftereffects of the lightning overload from the previous chapter were still there. It felt like the right half of his body was being slowly scraped by a blunt knife, slowing his reaction by a fraction of a second.
But those fractions of a second are enough.
A red light flashed from Ultron's chest, and the blue light from the cannon's muzzle surged, unleashing a fan-shaped energy wave. The air was distorted and crackled, and the floor tiles began to crumble from the seams, as if they had been plowed by intense heat.
Ye Mo's pupils contracted, and he tried to retreat, but the Steel Bone right leg had only been half-charged when the power module beeped an alarm: risk of low-temperature freezing, output limited.
"Damn it!" he cursed, not having time to think further, his consciousness plunging into the 19th floor of the Gene Spiral Tower.
There was a drab, grayish label that read " Extreme Cold Resonance," with the source noted as " New York blizzard night, subway platform, traces of condensed moisture left by Mutants." He had casually brushed against the icy railing when he passed by, and the system had made a note of it, but he hadn't tried it again since.
There's no time to worry about that now.
He thrust his hands forward abruptly, palms flat on the ground, as if kneading an invisible snowball. His skin cooled rapidly, and a layer of frost crept out between his fingers, instantly condensing into tiny ice crystals upon contact with residual moisture in the air.
"Stand still!" he growled through gritted teeth, the Steel Bone Structure temporarily acting as a conductor, pressing all the remaining cold energy in his body into his palm.
An ice wall rose abruptly from the ground, arching in front of him. It was less than ten centimeters thick, with a pitted and uneven surface, like frozen tofu. Just two seconds after it formed, the energy wave struck him.
"Laugh--!"
The extreme heat combined with the extreme cold caused the top of the ice layer to vaporize instantly, sending up a large cloud of white mist, like a kettle with its lid off. Cracks spread from the top downwards at an alarming speed, and the spiderweb-like cracks burst open with a "crackling" sound, making the entire wall teeter on the verge of collapse.
Ye Mo's feet were firmly planted on the ground, his hands pressed against the bottom of the ice wall, continuing to channel cold energy. But the Steel Bone system alarmed again. "Core temperature has fallen below the critical value, joint lubricating fluid has begun to crystallize, it is recommended to immediately terminate the Ice Manipulation operation."
"Shut up!" he thought to himself, without loosening his grip.
He knew the wall wouldn't hold for long, but every extra second it held meant he'd avoid getting splattered face-first.
Sure enough, the ice wall blasted open in the middle, creating a V-shaped gap. An energy wave shot out from it, deviating seven degrees in direction, and grazed his right shoulder. His hoodie burned away with a "whoosh," the sleeves turned to Ashes and scattered, and his skin was scalded red and burning painfully, but it wasn't broken.
The shockwave threw him away, his back slamming hard against the collapsed control panel, the impact displacing his internal organs. He rolled twice, then lay on the ground coughing, his mouth filled with the taste of rust.
Looking up, I saw that only half of the ice wall remained, melting rapidly, with water flowing down the cracks in the floor.
Ultron stood still, a wisp of smoke rising from the muzzle of his left arm, a red light locking onto him as if scanning the extent of his damage. The repair progress bar on his right shoulder had reached 68%, and subtle silver light flowed along the seams of the armor, like internal nanounits reweaving their structure.
"Threat level updated." The electronic voice from Ultron sounded, slightly delayed than before, "New ability: Cryogenic Condensation. Threat level: Medium. Recommendation: Prioritize elimination."
Ye Mo ignored it and looked down at his hands.
A thin layer of frost still clung to his fingertips, like frost flowers formed from his breath in winter. He touched it gently, and the ice melted instantly, revealing the purplish skin beneath.
[ Ice Manipulation module completed; cooling cycle to be measured]
The system notification finally came, still with that indifferent tone.
He forced a smile, tore off the charred half of his sleeve, and wrapped it around the wound on his right hand. His movements were a little shaky, not from fear, but from the cold—he had just forced himself to use the cooling energy, almost freezing himself into a dumpling.
"You fixed it pretty quickly." He caught his breath, his voice hoarse. "I only used this move once, and you're already planning to continue?"
Ultron didn't answer, but slowly retracted the muzzle of his left arm, switching to melee mode, and the blade popped out, gleaming with a cold, eerie blue light.
Ye Mo slowly stood up, leaning against the wreckage of the control panel, his leg muscles tense. The Steel Bone System indicated "Right knee frozen and not yet resolved," causing him to walk with a slight limp, but he still shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet.
He knew he couldn't fight any longer.
I've just gotten the hang of the lightning attack, and its cooldown time is a mystery; I might just electrocute myself with the next one. This is my first time Ice Manipulation in real combat, and its stability is about the same as an ice cream stand set up outdoors in the summer. The Steel Bone shell has cracked in many places, and the power output is intermittent; even walking feels like starting an old tractor.
But he couldn't back down.
If we take a step back, the main control chip area is right behind it. Once Ultron gets in, the entire base's defense system will turn around and attack their own people.
He stared at the red heart on Ultron's chest, his mind racing through the data: that energy surge just now had a peak temperature exceeding 1200 degrees Celsius, lasted 1.8 seconds, had a diffusion angle of 47 degrees, and the 7-degree deflection was due to the asymmetrical fracture of the ice wall...
"You're quite accurate," he suddenly grinned, "But you overlooked one thing."
Ultron's red light flashed slightly. "Please explain."
"My current position," Ye Mo said, cracking his knuckles, his palms growing cold again, "Is perfectly positioned between the limit of your gun's elevation and the blind spot of ground-reflected heat. Do it again, and you might just burn my hair."
After he finished speaking, he took a step forward.
Ultron didn't move, but the sound of the tactical assessment system changed, from a steady "hum" to a rapid "beep beep beep".
Ye Mo took another step, this time landing on his left foot first, avoiding the part of his right knee that was most severely frozen.
The distance between the two people was reduced to eight meters.
Seven meters.
Six meters.
Ultron suddenly raised his left arm, the blade aimed at him, but he didn't rush forward.
It's waiting, waiting for the repairs to finish, waiting for the optimal moment to kill.
Ye Mo also stopped, his hands hanging at his sides, tiny ice particles condensing again at his fingertips. He knew the next attack would be faster and more ruthless, possibly with tracking capabilities and possibly EMP interference.
He knew he could only use Ice Manipulation once more at most, and it probably wouldn't last more than three seconds.
"Going it alone..." he thought to himself, "I can't hold out much longer."
But he didn't take out his communicator, press the emergency signal button, or call out anyone's name.
He knew that once he called for help, Ultron would immediately switch tactics, either self-destructing or escaping, making it difficult to catch him again.
So he can only wait it out.
Wait until it reveals a weakness, wait until it miscalculates, wait until it thinks it has victory in the bag, and then--
He suddenly raised his hand and gave Ultron the middle finger.
"Come on, grandson, didn't you want peace? Come on, give your grandpa a show of utter destruction."
Ultron's red light trembled suddenly, as if its calculations were interrupted by that sentence.
Three seconds later, the blade on its left arm began to spin faster, emitting a high-frequency buzzing sound.
Ye Mo took a deep breath, tapped his toes on the ground, and prepared to rebuild the ice wall once more.
Just then, the ventilation duct above his head made a "clunk" sound, and a drop of cold water hit his forehead, making him shiver.
He didn't look up, but his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the ground—a drop of water had landed about twenty centimeters from his left foot and was slowly spreading.
Ultron remained standing, locked onto by the red light, like a killing machine awaiting orders.
Ye Mo slowly raised his hand, palm facing upwards, and a trace of white frost reappeared.