Chapter 36: The Duel

Raj rode on Red’s back, gripping his shoulder tightly, while his other hand furiously shook the Eyeless Bell in Red’s blind spot above his head. Anders’s movements faltered noticeably, and then he squeezed his eyes shut.

“Annoying vermin!”

Anders gritted his teeth, but his vines remained unaffected, shifting direction and continuing their wild assault toward Red. Keira stood at a distance, flicking her fingertips to send several throwing knives flying, severing the vines and forcibly halting their advance.

She exhaled in relief. Fortunately, Anders’s vines had evolved for quantity rather than toughness, so her knives were still effective at stopping them.

In that brief moment of chaos, Ye Mi’s poisoned spear was already pressed against a teammate’s throat; the sharp tip had pierced his skin, and a dark red bead of blood oozed out.

But in that split second, Ye Mi’s pupils contracted sharply—a shadow flashed by.

The vice captain of Squad 13 appeared before Ye Mi in an instant, his right hand, equipped with the Ape Fist, charged with energy. The mechanical joints emitted a piercing whine, and with terrifying kinetic force, he swung straight at her face!

“Tch.”

As expected, he was fast.

Ye Mi abruptly pulled back, pushing off with her feet and rolling sideways. The Ape Fist brushed past her hair, smashing into the platform floor; the hard surface instantly dented, cracks spreading like a spider web.

Her gaze narrowed slightly. If she hadn’t dodged that punch, even her body wrapped in Rust Tide would have been smashed into a colossal crater!

The teammate who had narrowly escaped the poisoned spear felt a flicker of joy, but before he could thank the vice captain, a cold sensation washed over his face—Ye Mi, in her evasive moment, flicked the spear tip, spraying a jet of dark green poison directly onto him.

“Ah!!!”

His piercing scream quickly dissolved into a hoarse moan.

The hissing sound of poison corroding flesh made one’s scalp crawl. His skin sagged like melting wax, his eyeballs liquefied into bloody water in their sockets, exposing a pale skull beneath.

Within seconds, his entire face had become a mangled skeleton; his body jerked twice before collapsing heavily to the ground.

These troublesome grunts—disposed of.

Ye Mi spun around to face the vice captain of Squad 13 head-on.

This had always been part of her plan.

She was prepared to use her Rust Tide against this vice captain. With her many defensive methods, she could make it far easier for the other three to concentrate on holding back Anders. In Ye Mi’s calculations, she alone could handle her opponent.

As long as the three kept Anders occupied, all that mattered was to wait for Ye Mi and the vice captain to settle their duel.

This was also the perfect opportunity for Ye Mi to gauge her own combat strength. If she could devour enough prosthetic bodies, could she wreak havoc throughout the Defense Bureau?

If she succeeded in defeating the vice captain one-on-one, Ye Mi would gain the ability to escort her true self out of the Defense Bureau.

After all, most people in the Bureau possessed prosthetics, as well as a host of metal robots.

Once Rust Tide grew strong enough, entering would be an act of overwhelming force.

So this battle was crucial to her.

In the distance, Raj clung to Red’s back, shaking the bell with increasing urgency. Anders’s vines, disrupted by the ringing, moved sluggishly and were riddled with holes from Keira’s knives.

He roared with frustration, unable to break free from the trio’s control.

The vice captain stood before Ye Mi, eyes sharp, never glancing at his fallen teammate. The Ape Fist charged again, mechanical joints clicking, while a spring-loaded knife snapped from his left hand, its cold gleam aimed straight at Ye Mi’s throat.

His gaze was icy, like a killing machine; every move targeted a vital point.

Ye Mi blocked with her poisoned spear, catching the spring knife, sparks of metal clashing between them.

She used the recoil to leap back two steps, deliberately exposing a weakness—the vice captain closed in instantly, swinging his Ape Fist at her chest!

But Ye Mi vaulted upward with an unnatural agility, far exceeding any normal ability user, soaring three meters high as her poisoned spear stabbed down from a cunning angle.

The vice captain reacted swiftly, twisting aside, but the spear tip still sliced his back, exposing the subdermal armor beneath.

“...What a terrifying cyborg,”

Ye Mi couldn’t help but remark.

This vice captain was a madman; in Lens City, the more prosthetics one used, the higher the risk of triggering cyber psychosis—even losing one’s humanity.

He had so many combat prosthetics; without a resilient nervous system and stable mind, he would eventually lose control.

Unless he was constantly medicated, which would explain his current stability.

No wonder he’d been like a robot from the start, silent, executing commands and actions mechanically.

Even now, after Ye Mi had sliced away a patch of his skin, his expression didn’t change. He prepared to attack again.

Ye Mi showed no impatience; instead, she retreated two steps, her gaze calm as she studied his every move.

The A-65 prosthetic eye from OC Corporation embedded in her Rust Tide was analyzing him, just as his own prosthetic eye was analyzing Ye Mi’s combat data.

[Target moves extremely fast. Right-side Ape Fist prosthetic has a 0.3-second delay after each attack. Destructive power level: 3.]

The AI in her prosthetic eye, designed for combat by OC Corporation, was intimately familiar with the prosthetics recorded in the database used by Squad 13’s vice captain.

He attacked again, this time with his left arm’s spring knife prosthetic, flashing coldly as he slashed at Ye Mi’s neck.

She dodged aside, sweeping her poisoned spear to force him back.

[Spring knife attack range is greater than Ape Fist. Speed is higher, but destructive power is only level 2.]

Ye Mi had her answer.

Suddenly, she dropped low, stabbing her poisoned spear into the ground, releasing a thick cloud of toxic mist that instantly spread between them.

The vice captain snorted, prepared. He retreated swiftly, Ape Fist charging, ready to deliver a lethal blow the moment Ye Mi emerged from the mist.

But he was wrong.

From the toxic haze, Ye Mi did not appear; instead, what emerged was a cold, black, metallic wire about the size of a fist, streaked with subtle bronze rust, not extensive enough to notice without careful inspection.

It seemed familiar to him, though he couldn’t place it at first.

Until it wrapped around his fist.

Then—

The metal joints of his Ape Fist emitted a shrill scraping sound. The vice captain glanced down in shock—his Ape Fist was rusting before his very eyes.

He remembered now.

…it was Rust Tide!