"Do you need my help?" Dr. Banner proactively offered.
Noah was a bit puzzled, as Banner at this stage should have been quite resistant to transforming into the Hulk, only doing so when absolutely necessary and generally not choosing to transform voluntarily. It was only during the Avengers period, as powerful enemies became more numerous, that Banner transformed into the Hulk more and more frequently, and only then did Banner gradually accept the Hulk.
But now, Banner was proactively offering to transform into the Hulk, which surprised Noah. Had something happened to Banner during his time camping in the forest? Did he ponder life alone in his tent and then have an epiphany?
The reason Banner proactively offered to transform into the Hulk was indeed due to a change in his thinking during his camping trip. Earlier, Noah thought Banner might be bored staying there, so he gave him a mobile phone with global internet access and an anti-eavesdropping system. After receiving it, Banner immediately called his girlfriend, Betty. After escaping the military Base, Banner worried that calling Betty might risk being eavesdropped on, so he hadn't contacted her. However, the phone Noah gave him was immune to eavesdropping, so during his camping trip, Banner spent most of his time chatting with his girlfriend on the phone.
During their call, Banner discussed with Betty what happened after he escaped the military Base, sharing details about the mutated Gamma creatures. He then mentioned that he was currently cooperating with Swift Wind Swordsman to deal with those mutated creatures. This surprised Betty; she remembered Swift Wind Swordsman had given Banner a business card, but at the time, Banner thought he could cure his internal issues after finding 'Mr. Blue,' so he hadn't thought of contacting Swift Wind Swordsman. He didn't expect to still form a connection with Swift Wind Swordsman now.
During the call, Banner also told Betty about his transformation being interrupted by Noah using Michael's Blessing, though he didn't mention Noah used a magic bell to stop him, only that the other party had some means to prevent his transformation. Then, Banner mentioned to Betty the wonderful feeling of having his sanity in a half-transformed state after his transformation was interrupted.
Previously, after Banner transformed into the Hulk, his sanity would directly go offline, as if being squeezed out by another entity. After returning to human form, he also didn't have complete memories of his Hulk form, only sporadic fragments. However, after Noah interrupted his transformation using Michael's Blessing, Banner's squeezed-out sanity was forcibly brought back online. He experienced for the first time transforming into the Hulk while retaining his sanity, though it wasn't a complete form. This experience gave Banner a new understanding of the power within him.
Betty had always believed that the Hulk and Banner were the same person, because after seeing the Hulk for the second time, Betty thought the Hulk possessed Banner's memories. She had also mentioned this to Banner at the time, but Banner was not interested in discussing it; he only wanted to resolve the Hulk within him as soon as possible and wasn't interested in anything else.
Thus, under Betty's persuasion, and with Noah's miraculous magic, a thought suddenly struck Banner: perhaps he really didn't need to view the Hulk as a disease?
And now, Banner planned to make a new attempt. This was his first time proactively intending to transform into the Hulk; previously, he had always been forced by circumstances to transform to protect himself.
Above the forest, two more lasers shot out, followed by a figure glowing with blue light leaping into the air. Several sounds of flesh tearing reached Noah's ears.
"If you don't mind, I have no objections." Since Banner chose to join the battle proactively, Noah had no objections. He had already opened the mission panel, preparing to see if any B-rank missions had appeared.
Pressing the refresh mission button, as Noah expected, the mission list refreshed with 3 missions: two C-rank and one B-rank.
"[C-rank Mission: Hunt Beast XX]"
"[C-rank Mission: Hunt Beast XXX]"
"[B-rank Mission: A large wave of mutated creatures is about to attack. Summoner, please defend against this assault.]"
"[Mission Accepted]"
Noah ignored the two seemingly strange C-rank missions and directly accepted the only B-rank mission.
"Defend? I choose total annihilation!"
"Dr. Banner, get ready, they're coming!" In Noah's perception, a large number of mutated creatures had already entered the forest and were heading towards their location.
Some smaller mutated creatures advanced rapidly, using the forest terrain to leap through the bushes, while larger, obviously power-type mutated creatures directly knocked down trees, charging through unimpeded.
"OK." Banner swallowed, he had already heard the sounds from not far away, but this was also his first time transforming proactively, and he wasn't sure what to do.
The sounds grew closer, and the first wave of mutated creatures was about to arrive. A dozen green figures leaped through the tree trunks. These figures were all mutated from the same creature; from their appearance, they seemed to be wildcats?
After mutation, the wildcats' bodies had grown to two or three meters long, their fur had receded, revealing their mutated green skin. With no fur to cover them, their surface muscles were gnarled, growing in an irregular shape, and their limbs also became more strangely elongated. When their sharp claws moved through the forest, they could easily cut through branches as thick as an arm.
As they advanced, a deadly killer was hidden in the dense canopy, waiting for its prey to enter its hunting range.
A mutated monster cat leaped onto the trunk of a towering ancient tree, its sharp claws directly embedding into the hard wood, as easily as chopsticks piercing tofu. After its hind legs landed, the monster cat pushed off again, intending to leap to another large tree a dozen meters away.
"Swish!"
Just as the monster cat was flying through the air, a black figure with a streak of red light shot out from the canopy like a sharp arrow, directly slamming the monster cat in mid-air to the ground.
"Clang clang!" (Claws hitting hard metal sound)
"Tear, tear~" (Flesh tearing sound)
The monster cat was directly tackled to the ground by the ambushing creature. In its panic, the monster cat swung its sharp claws, attacking the figure in front of it, but its usually effective claws failed to work, only producing sounds of metal colliding. Its claws were ineffective, but the other party's claws were different.
Red-glowing claws swung down, directly slicing open the monster cat's unusually tough skin after mutation, and green blood splattered.
The monster cat let out a piercing shriek of pain, but as if enraged by the figure riding on it, the opponent's red claws began to fall again, continuously tearing at the monster cat's flesh, drawing streaks of red light in the air.
In one second, those red claws rose and fell countless times, and the mutated monster cat's upper body was directly minced into a pile of green paste, while its lower body was still twitching.
The other monster cats had stopped their movements when their companion was tackled, clinging to the trees. Because the figure's speed was too fast just now, they hadn't even clearly seen the opponent's appearance before their companion became meat paste. Now, they could finally see what the attacker was.
A black body, sharp claws and a tail emitting a blood-red glow. The attacker was Warwick, but he had changed his skin, from his original White to a black suitable for night combat.
Warwick shook the green blood from his claws. His wolf head looked at the mutated monster cats on the trees, who were hissing and intimidating him. Warwick let out a hoarse, low laugh:
"Blood is flowing, leave none alive!"