The Steel General was no longer just a tall man. He had evolved into a massive, metallic centaur-like monstrosity. His heavy leather trench coat had become a living bio-armor, oozing pitch-black engine oil that fused him to his heavy motorcycle like writhing tentacles. His lower body was permanently locked into the bike's skeleton; thick brass exhaust pipes protruded from his spine, belching dark red sulfurous smoke with every breath.
The alloy plating on his chest was shattered, scarred by countless blade marks—the humiliating brands left behind by players who had "corpse-camped" him in the Old World. At the center of his chest sat a transparent glass vessel housing several pulsing, dark-red cores. These cores ground against each other, screaming as they generated near-infinite energy, sending violent red electrical arcs dancing across his skin.
He gripped a colossal blade known as {The Forgotten}. It was a living weapon; its edge was composed of millions of magnetic metal shards. With every swing, the shards vibrated at a frequency that mimicked the wailing of ten thousand souls—the concentrated fury of being farmed 9,999 times.
His red hair stood up like steel needles, dark as dried blood. His glowing red eyes had evolved into high-frequency scanning visors that encased his head, capable of detecting the slightest data fluctuation within a kilometer—including the desperate, heavy footsteps of the approaching Lawson.
As he screeched to a halt, the entire intersection buckled under his weight.
"Nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine times... that goddamn nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine... and that pain..."
When he looked down at the warriors, his voice was no longer human. It was a synthesized roar layered tens of thousands of times over, vibrating with ear-splitting intensity.
"Every time you killed me, my code gained a layer of agony. Every time you farmed my core, my soul gained a layer of curse. The 'Rare Material Gift Box' you once loved... has come back to collect your debt!"
He swung the Greatblade. A dark red crescent of energy sliced through the silence. Two abandoned skyscrapers on either side of the street were severed like toy blocks, collapsing in a heap of rubble.
The Steel General's scanning visors flickered with cruel light as he locked onto Lawson, who was still sprinting toward them three blocks away.
"Since that 'Ten-Year Trash' wants to play the Armor Smith game," the General sneered, his voice sounding like gears grinding on gravel, "then I'll tear you 'little spare parts' to pieces right in front of his face! Let's see if he can fix that!"
The fire of hatred snapped the last string of Edith's reason. Facing the enemy that had given her eternal nightmares, a hoarse growl erupted from her throat. She shattered the ground beneath her, transforming into a bolt of black lightning that surged into the air!
"DIE—!"
With a sharp cry, her wrist launchers roared, sending lightning-cloaked shurikens through the air. Simultaneously, she unsheathed her {Ninjato}, aiming the blade directly at the General's alloy-clad throat with the crushing momentum of her fall!
"The weak never learn."
The General's visor emitted a contemptuous electronic chime. {The Forgotten} suddenly deconstructed and extended. With a sickening clack-clack of metal teeth, it transformed into a spiked steel whip that lashed out in a blood-red arc.
Edith, driven by madness, didn't dodge. With a suicidal resolve burning in her eyes, she slammed her blade against the whip!
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Sparks exploded like fireworks. Even though Edith managed to halt the whip's momentum, the primal "General-tier" strength hit her like a tidal wave. Dark red energy tore charred gashes across her precision armor. She stumbled as she hit the ground, electrical sparks dancing in her armor joints as the system wailed in overload.
"Is that all? My turn!"
The General laughed maniacally. His rear motorcycle wheels reared up, and his front hooves slammed into the earth. A fan-shaped shockwave of Earth-attribute energy erupted. The ground buckled and rolled like a wave, roaring toward Edith with devastating pressure!
"WATCH OUT—!"
{Tiger Soul} let out a beastly roar, sprinting into position. Like an iron tower, Dodge shielded Edith. His hydraulic bearings screamed under the overload as his steel claws dug into the asphalt. With a heave of pure strength, he literally tore a massive chunk of the street out of the ground, transforming it into a wild stone shield!
BOOM—!
The shockwave hammered into the stone shield. Dodge groaned. Even though he took the brunt of the impact, the shock shattered his chest plating. Metal fragments flew like shrapnel, revealing his black undersuit. Every step back he took left a deep crater in the ground. The defense was crumbling.
In this chaotic split-second, {Moon Swift} remained as calm as an ice spring. The faint blue light in her visor flickered as her [Eye of Omnipotence] parsed the enemy's core data.
"Everyone, listen! His primary attribute is 'Earth'!" Katie's voice cracked across the comms. "Edith, switch to {Wood Strike} form immediately! Attribute suppression is our only chance!!"
The moment the words left her mouth, Katie took a deep breath and activated a domain cold enough to freeze the soul— [Absolute Zero Domain]!
Absolute zero frost exploded outward from her. The bustling intersection was silenced by the chill; thick rime spread like a white plague, stripping the moisture from the air and crystallizing it into razor-sharp shards. It should have been an absolute prison, but the dark red arcs around the General only grew more violent in the cold.
"You think mere frost can lock an engine fueled by vengeance?!"
With an ear-splitting roar, the General's massive frame leaped high, his shadow swallowing the ice. A second later, his hooves slammed into the surface—
THUD—!
It wasn't a collision; it was the mourning of the earth. A visible shockwave exploded in a ring. The ice, hard as steel, disintegrated instantly into a cloud of white powder. The vibration shattered the [Absolute Zero Domain] into beautiful, tragic snowflakes, sending the spirits of the four warriors into a tailspin.
Seeing the damaged {Tiger Soul} and the struggling {Shadow Strike}, a flash of resolve crossed Katie's blue monitors. She knew that against absolute attribute suppression, only "extreme speed" could break the deadlock. She summoned her Crescent Frost Blades, her voice cold as ice:
"Acceleration units... Overload Power... ALL ON."
ROAR—!
The thrusters behind her boots exploded with blinding blue flames. She vanished from space, becoming a blurred blue afterimage refracting through the ruins at a frequency the eye couldn't track. Guided by her [Eye of Omnipotence], every strike was like a viper's bite, digging precisely into the gaps of the General's armor.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
She was like a marlin darting through the deep sea—strike and fade. Every time the heavy Greatblade swung with the force of thunder, {Moon Swift} had already predicted the path and slid out of the death radius, only to return with a backstab the moment the General's move finished.
Simultaneously, Edith's voice echoed: the black aura on her armor rearranged and transformed into a vibrant yet lethal deep green. {Wood Strike} form: complete!
One blue, one green—two streaks of light wove a cyclone around the crumbling intersection. This beautiful yet deadly "duo concerto" made the General's massive body look clumsy. The heavy blade repeatedly hit empty air, failing to touch even a shard of their armor.
However, facing this humiliating encirclement, the Steel General didn't retreat. Instead, a bone-chilling laugh erupted from deep within his chest:
"Playing with speed against me? Hilarious! You fleas... do you really think these 'scratching' attacks can touch my core?!"