The Herrscher of Evolution tilted his head slightly, as if pondering what to choose for the next course on the menu.
That almost lazy pause, on the battlefield of life and death speed, was ridiculously chilling.
But for Kallen, this less than half a second of "leisure" was the only life-saving straw in a desperate situation.
Arahato's damaged body was shrouded in heat-dissipating steam. That miserable appearance looked like just continuing to stand was already exhausting all its strength.
And the Herrscher of Evolution's brief contemplation finally ended. He seemed to have thought of the most suitable move to end this "encounter" and raised his hand towards Arahato.
This is the moment!
In the split second when the Herrscher of Evolution's attention shifted from "what to do" to Arahato, creating a blank in his thinking, Arahato's body suddenly trembled violently.
Not an attack. No one knew better than Kallen how foolish an attack would be at this moment.
So she chose a more foolish approach—recklessly injecting all residual energy into the attitude adjustment nozzles and leg auxiliary engines!
Arahato's body was forcibly controlled to kick off the glass curtain wall beside it, diving brazenly diagonally downwards—into the narrower gap between two buildings filled with external pipes and cables!
At the same time, the back armor plate popped open with a "click," dumping all remaining interference chaff, smoke grenades, and even nano-scale reflective scales used for camouflage backwards in one go.
Not to hurt the enemy, only to maximize visual obstruction and interfere with locking.
The Herrscher of Evolution watched Arahato pulling away, his expression unchanging.
He wasn't surprised that Arahato could still resist. The hesitation just now was also considering what trump cards this guy still had... He would never arrogantly think he was invincible.
Just the fact that his thinking was still the linear thinking of ordinary creatures and hadn't iterated to a higher-dimensional omniscient perspective was enough to make him capsize in the gutter.
But looking at it now, Kallen's every move spoke of her exhaustion of ammunition and food. His suspicious heart calmed down instead.
During the dive, Arahato barely raised its damaged left arm. The wrist armor opened, firing several adhesive high-explosive sticky bombs at several load-bearing nodes and a thick main cable at the pipe intersection ahead.
"Boom——"
The explosion wasn't intense, but it precisely destroyed the structure.
Broken pipes sprayed white steam, and thick cables sparked as they drooped and twisted, instantly forming a double obstacle zone of physical and electromagnetic barriers in the narrow passage!
Evolution's steps paused. Vakh calmly watched Arahato, who had set up heavy obstacles for him, his other hand still in his pocket.
Arahato itself barely scraped past the drooping cables and surging steam. More sparks were scraped off the body surface, but the speed increased instead of decreasing—
Kallen simultaneously activated the emergency chemical fuel thrusters built into the mech, originally intended for short-distance sprints.
The vector injection device on the back sprayed blazing white tail flames, giving this heavy, broken body an irregular, unpredictable secondary acceleration and direction change, drilling towards a semi-open large ventilation shaft opening behind the obstacle zone!
This series of actions was completed in a flash—
Changing direction with leverage, full barrage cover, creating obstacles, traversing danger, secondary burst, changing path...
Every step was risky to the extreme, yet interlinked, squeezing the machine's residual performance, environmental utilization, and tactical deception to the limit.
This was the brilliant splendor of experience, intuition, and desperate struggle erupting from a top warrior in a desperate situation.
However—
The permeating smoke was easily smoothed by invisible power, like wiping dust off a table.
The drooping cables and pipe wreckage, at the moment the Herrscher of Evolution passed, flashed purple on the surface. The structure seemed to "learn" self-decomposition, silently turning into harmless metal dust and scattering.
Those interference chaff and nano-scales lost all reflective properties before even getting close to ten meters around him, falling like ordinary dust.
He still had one hand in his pocket, the other hanging naturally by his side.
He didn't even change his posture of action, just lifting his foot and "stepping" over the obstacle zone Kallen regarded as a life-saving straw with a speed more constant and calmer than Arahato's burst.
A visual impact like shrinking the earth into inches!
Arahato had just poked the front half of its body into the shadow of the ventilation shaft. Kallen could even see the fleeting hope of detour brought by the complex structure inside the shaft.
But the Herrscher of Evolution arrived later but acted first, gently placing his hand on Arahato's damaged shoulder armor.
No light, no screech.
But the chemical fuel thruster nozzle at Arahato's tail, which had just flamed out and was still in a high-temperature state, its internal high-temperature resistant ceramic coating and precision adjustment blades suddenly "came alive"!
They seemed to be endowed with weird life and unified will, instantly twisting, proliferating, fusing with each other, and completing a structural "evolution" within a thousandth of a second—
From a propulsion component that shouldn't give birth to life, it turned into an abstract monster crazily expanding outwards, twisting hideous flesh in the steel gap!
Bang!
A muffled sound came from Arahato's tail. It wasn't earth-shattering, but it made the whole machine spasm violently!
The tail structure was severely deformed, and the last mobility was completely extinguished. The impact of the explosion instead "pushed" the heavy mech more fiercely into the depths of the ventilation shaft, rolling and colliding.
Amidst this ear-piercing noise of twisting metal and splashing sparks, Arahato completely lost all power and fell uncontrollably downwards!
A smell of burning permeated from the depths of the ventilation shaft.
The figure of the Herrscher of Evolution, like a weightless ghost, fell into the dusty ventilation shaft, slowly landing beside the twisted, deformed wreckage of Arahato emitting electric sparks.
He didn't even look at those damaged armor plates and broken pipelines. His gaze fell directly on the cockpit in the chest armor section that had been violently torn open, exposing the internal structure.
The cockpit was empty.
Only scattered control lever fragments, flickering and extinguished dashboards, and neat cuts on the seat restraint straps quickly severed by some sharp weapon remained.
On the seat, there were still some fresh blood stains and human body impressions, indicating the pilot had not left long ago.
The Herrscher of Evolution's face showed no surprise, instead revealing an expression of "as expected" understanding, even with a trace of indifferent approval like "finally somewhat decent."
He had long sensed that at the moment before Arahato rushed into the ventilation shaft, the life response inside the machine and that special "hope" fluctuation had an extremely brief abnormal separation perfectly covered by explosion and chaos.
Shedding the golden cicada shell, a very basic tactic, but being able to use it in that situation at least showed that the pilot wasn't just a brute who only knew how to charge recklessly.
"Boring trick." He muttered to himself, losing interest in continuing to check the wreckage.
For him, finding the "correct" target and clarifying the source of "anomaly" was the real business.
He closed his eyes slightly. Invisible perception spread out like mercury pouring on the ground, extending from him as the center to various forks, pipes, and even broader urban space of the ventilation shaft.
Residual Honkai energy traces in the air, lingering charm of life fluctuations, and even microscopic airflow changes caused by moving objects... all became clues for his hunting.