Ye Mo's palm was still suspended in mid-air, the chill spreading from his fingertips, freezing the first "self" that rushed forward. The clone froze, a hint of confusion flashing in its eyes, but it quickly returned to its cold, synchronized state.
Tony's Palm Cannon had already fired, a blue light exploding in the center of the passage, blasting the two clones that had just formed stone skin back several steps. The blast wave overturned the duct, steam spewed out from the rupture, and white mist instantly filled the first half of the hall.
"Don't let them get close to the resonance chamber!" Tony roared, igniting his armor thrusters and skimming low over the ground while firing at the neural terminals on the platform.
Ye Mo didn't reply. He was busy compressing the effects of the Consciousness Seal into short pulses and sending them wave after wave to the nearest clones. These people's abilities were replicated, but their nervous systems were still alive. As long as the interference was fast enough, it could buy a half-second window of opportunity.
He pushed off with his foot, and the ice layer grew wildly along the ground, forming an arc-shaped ice wall in front of him. Three wind blades struck, shattering with a few cracks, leaving only a small crack in the ice wall.
"You're pretty tough," Tony chuckled over the radio. "Get me one next time too."
"Save your energy, there are still more than twenty waiting in line." Ye Mo swung his hand back, and ice spikes shot out from the ground, piercing through an electrical clone that was trying to flank.
The man convulsed twice and fell to the ground, but stood up again five seconds later, his fingers flashing with electricity once more.
"Damn, it can even reboot like this?" Tony cursed, his shoulder-mounted missile locking onto the target and blasting the body away with a bang.
But more clones were climbing off the metal beds, their movements perfectly synchronized, like puppets tethered to the same string. They didn't shout or dodge; they simply moved forward mechanically, attacked, were knocked down, and got up again.
"This isn't a battle," Ye Mo gritted his teeth. "This is an assembly line producing enemies."
"Then don't try to reason with the production line." Tony suddenly raised his arm, charged his palm cannon to its maximum power, and fired a shot at the left wall.
boom!
A large hole was blasted open in the concrete, revealing the entrance to the maintenance passage behind it. An iron ladder extended downwards, bathed in dim light.
"Go!" Ye Mo reacted immediately, turned around and rushed towards the cave entrance.
Tony retreated while firing, unleashing a barrage of miniature missiles to suppress the pursuers. The final armor-piercing round struck the edge of the resonance chamber, causing the entire hall to vibrate. The Mutants still connected convulsed collectively, and some of the clones experienced a brief lag in their movements.
Taking advantage of the moment, the two leaped into the passage. Ye Mo then flung out a piece of ice crystals, sealing the entrance. The thick ice layer barely withstood the first impact, but the tremors continued, and cracks began to appear on the ice surface.
"I can't hold on much longer." Ye Mo gasped for breath, looking down at his hands. His fingertips were numb, and the Gene Spiral Tower was buzzing in his mind, as if something was about to burst out of its shell.
Tony leaned against the wall, checking the armor's status, a wisp of black smoke billowing from the thruster on his right arm. "Overheat warning, cooling system damaged. We need to hurry; I don't want to end up running on foot."
"You think you can run on foot?" Ye Mo smirked. "That shot just now almost blew you up."
"Art always requires sacrifice," Tony shrugged. "But you're right, we'll have to try a different approach next round."
They had no time to rest. Footsteps echoed from the depths of the passage, orderly and dense, approaching from afar.
here we go again.
Ye Mo closed his eyes for a second, focusing all his senses on his Thermal Vision. Thirty meters ahead, seven figures were approaching, their abilities clearly distinguishable—ice, electricity, wind, stone, fire, Wall Phasing, and Self-Healing.
They were all opponents they had fought before.
"Have you noticed?" Ye Mo suddenly spoke up, "These people have replicated their abilities, but they don't know how to use combination techniques."
Tony squinted. "What do you mean?"
"It means they only copy actions, they don't innovate. It's like... they only know how to copy homework, they don't know how to write an essay."
"So what?"
"So when we fight them, we shouldn't play by the rules," Ye Mo grinned. "For example—how about ice plus fire?"
Tony paused for a moment, then laughed, "When did you learn to play with elemental reactions?"
"I'm putting what I've learned to use." Ye Mo raised his hand, a ring of cold air condensing within it. "You start the fire, I'll control the temperature."
Tony's Palm Cannon began charging, its blue light reflected on the HUD of his helmet. Ye Mo, meanwhile, flung the Ice Ring forward into the corridor, rapidly freezing the ground and walls to create a sealed, low-temperature space.
When the first batch of clones rushed in, Tony didn't hesitate to fire a high-temperature incendiary bomb.
boom!
Flames burned fiercely in the frozen space, the temperature soaring and causing the ice to expand and shatter rapidly, shards sweeping across the area like bullets. Three clones were instantly pierced by ice spikes, one fire ability user lost control and spontaneously combusted due to the overheated environment, and the rest were knocked to the ground by the shockwave.
"Great!" Tony patted Ye Mo on the shoulder. "Your brains finally paid off."
"Enough talk, keep going." Ye Mo walked forward, leaving shallow ice marks on the ground with each step. His Ice Manipulation Ability was becoming more and more stable, and he could even draw long, thin ice threads in the air to set up traps in advance.
After turning a corner, the passage narrowed, and many control panels appeared on both sides. Ye Mo scanned the area with his Telepathy and discovered that one of them was still transmitting data.
"They're uploading the battle log," he said, "To save our strategy from just now."
"Then stop them from transmitting it." Tony walked over, took out his tools, and directly disassembled the motherboard. "Same method, physically disconnect the network."
Just as he made his move, the ventilation duct above his head suddenly burst open, and a petrified clone jumped down, its fist slamming into Tony's back with tremendous force.
Ye Mo had a premonition; an ice shield instantly formed, forcefully withstanding the attack. The impact forced him to slide back three steps, his feet carving two deep grooves into the ice.
"Thanks." Tony didn't even turn his head, delivering an elbow strike to the man's temple, then twisting his arm in a backhand motion and slamming the man against the wall.
Click!
A piece of the stone body shattered, but the person immediately began to Regeneration.
" Self-Healing type?" Tony frowned. "This guy's got some trouble."
"Leave it to me." Ye Mo reached out, and the cold air crawled along the ground, condensing into an ice spike at the person's feet, piercing straight into the sole of their foot.
The clone paused, Ye Mo immediately activated the Consciousness Seal, causing its brain to shut down for two seconds due to the brief mental shock.
Tony seized the opportunity and delivered a powerful punch to the opponent's chest, causing an implosion. The stone shell shattered into pieces, and the person inside collapsed to the ground.
"Done." Tony tossed his hand. "Next."
They continued forward. The deeper they went, the more frequently the clones appeared, with a group of guards almost every ten meters. Some had learned to avoid the ice walls and fire traps and began to flank and attack from both sides.
But Ye Mo and Tony's teamwork became increasingly seamless. One was the main attacker, the other the support; one controlled the battlefield, the other cleared out the monsters. Their fighting style was crisp and efficient, without any unnecessary movements.
At a certain moment, Ye Mo suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?" Tony asked.
"There's someone up ahead..." Ye Mo squinted. "Not a clone, but a living commander."
Tony looked up at the end of the corridor, where there was an alloy door, red light shining through the cracks.
"Finally over?" He cracked his knuckles. "Let me guess, do we still have to play a qualifying match before we can even get in?"
"I suppose so," Ye Mo sneered. "But this time, we won't wait for them to open the door."
He pressed his hands to the ground, and the cold air spread wildly, instantly freezing the metal walls of the entire passage. The ice layer thickened at a visible speed, blocking all the side passages and ventilation openings.
"What are you doing?" Tony asked, looking at the surrounding environment that was gradually being frozen over.
"Let's create a closed battlefield." Ye Mo stood up. "I'm going to use my ultimate move later, and I'm worried about hurting innocent bystanders."
"You still have a killer move up your sleeve?" Tony asked in surprise.
"Now it's here." Ye Mo closed his eyes, Gene Spiral Tower within his body vibrated violently, the twenty-first layer slowly opening.
An unprecedented surge of energy coursed through my entire body.
The next second, he opened his eyes, his voice calm:
System notification: Battle begins, Gene Spiral Tower unlocks its 21st floor.
Before Tony could respond, he saw Ye Mo raise his hands, and the ice layer of the entire passage suddenly contracted inward, forming countless high-speed rotating ice blade storms.
The alloy door was shredded into pieces within three seconds.
Behind the door stood three operators in tactical uniforms, staring blankly at the monitor screen. They hadn't even had time to press the alarm before they were swept inside by the ice storm.
The image freezes on the last frame: an operator's finger is only half a centimeter away from the red button.