Not far from {Shadow Strike}, a spatial portal was ripped open with a violent crack!
Ester and the others burst through. Instantly, Katie and Dodge assumed their combat stances, syncing their devices to link with their armors.
"Let Lawson go! Right now! Or... don't blame us for getting rough!!"
Facing their threats, {Shadow Strike} showed no trace of fear. She stood tall, her obsidian-black ninja visor radiating a cold, lethal composure.
Dodge and Katie wasted no more words. They surged forward like two arrows released from a bow, tearing through the air.
With a slight tap of her toes, the jumping system in {Shadow Strike}'s greaves ignited. Mid-air, she used the momentum of her flip to activate her anti-gravity soles, "sticking" herself perfectly onto a high, crumbling ruin. She looked down at the ground as if standing on level soil.
In one fluid motion, she hung Lawson in a safe crevice of the broken wall, then coiled her knees and rebounded!
With a sharp click, her heavy arm-plates slid open, launching a barrage of shurikens like a sudden downpour.
{Moon Swift}'s eyes turned cold. Her twin blades danced into an impenetrable wall of steel, knocking down the incoming projectiles with extreme precision.
She leaped into the air, striking directly at {Shadow Strike}.
The two SS-Rank speed-type armors collided in the sky, moving so fast they became mere blurs of light.
On the ground, {Tiger Soul} stood with his head tilted back, staring blankly at the high-altitude skirmish.
He let out a frustrated sigh.
"What the hell... I don't even get a chance to show off? Why don't I have a flight skill? Why am I stuck down here eating dust?"
Suddenly, the tide in the air shifted.
Despite {Moon Swift}'s exceptional agility, her "Water" attribute began to falter under the suppression of {Shadow Strike}'s "Thunder" attribute.
A microscopic delay caused by electrical conductivity exposed a flaw.
She was struck mid-air by the opponent's {Ninjato} and crashed heavily into the ground.
{Shadow Strike} pirouetted elegantly in the air and landed firmly, posing like a reaper ready to harvest lives.
"My turn to shine!" {Tiger Soul} saw his opening. He roared, his boots cracking the pavement as he charged.
"I'm an 'Earth' attribute! Exactly the cure for your arrogant Thunder! Take this!"
"Pointless struggle," {Shadow Strike} snorted coldly. "Behold... my Exclusive Skill!"
High above, Lawson's face paled. He screamed a warning: "Dodge! Watch out! Her exclusive skill is—"
But the warning was too late. The two collided!
Just as {Tiger Soul} swung his steel-tearing claws, the obsidian armor of {Shadow Strike} collapsed like a glitching stream of data, only to reassemble instantly.
In the blink of an eye, the black faded, replaced by translucent, emerald-green plating.
A giant, folding ninja-boomerang on her back shimmered with a sickly green light. {Tiger Soul}'s claws raked across the emerald surface, leaving nothing but a few faint scratches.
{Shadow Strike} backflipped gracefully, drew her heavy weapon, and slammed the ignition.
The giant boomerang roared to life, expanding as she hurled it with terrifying force.
Dodge barely managed to dodge with his clumsy movement, but the boomerang seemed to possess a will of its own, curving in a bizarre arc to strike from behind.
It shredded through {Tiger Soul}'s armor in a high-frequency whirlwind.
Every strike sent brilliant sparks flying, leaving Dodge completely defenseless!
Lawson, witnessing the carnage from above, trembled with rage. Finally, he unleashed a frantic, voice-cracking roar:
"RETREAT! Her exclusive skill is [Attribute Weave: Five-Strike Flow]! As long as she has forged the other 'Strike' series armors of the same tier, she can switch attributes seamlessly in combat! That emerald set is {Wood Strike}, specifically designed to counter Earth attributes!!!"
Hearing this precise analysis, the warrior didn't panic. Instead, a mocking chuckle escaped her throat.
"As expected of a ten-year veteran. You know my armor better than I thought."
She stepped forward with a calm, confident stride, each footfall seemingly treading on their very hearts.
She spread her arms, announcing a truth that plunged everyone into despair:
"In that case, let me crush your hope entirely. I have already completed the forging for every attribute in the [Strike] series! Before me, any elemental resistance is child's play. On this battlefield, I am the Absolute Sovereign of All Attributes!!!"
The center of the battlefield was a scene of total collapse.
Under the near-miraculous suppression of {Shadow Strike} ability, [Attribute Weave: Five-Strike Flow], the once-mighty {Moon Swift} and {Tiger Soul} were now like flickering candles in a hurricane.
The screech of shattering armor, mingled with the pained grunts of his friends, echoed across the desolate wasteland.
Lawson hung precariously from the edge of a high ruin, his pupils reflecting the tragic sight of his fallen friends.
At this height, any mortal without the protection of armor was holding a one-way ticket to death. One slip, and only a mangled corpse would await him below.
"Damn it... Move, body! Move!"
Lawson struggled frantically amidst the tangled rebar of the ruins, his brain overclocking at an unprecedented speed.
In the gap between the urge to save his friends and the sheer terror of being crushed to pulp, he ruthlessly executed his primal survival instinct.
He decided to challenge the very underlying logic of this world.
"[Grace of the Armor God]—if it claims to 'immune all damage,' then the impact caused by 'gravitational acceleration' should, by all logic, count as a form of 'damage,' right?"
It was a gamble with his life as the stake. If the system's judgment failed, he would become a splash of red on the pavement; if it succeeded, he would become the wild card that broke the deadlock.
"Let's bet it all!"
Lawson exerted a burst of strength, his eyes overflowing with a resolute golden glow.
The skill activated instantly, covering his body in a thin, translucent, yet indestructible film of golden light.
He lunged forward, slipping his arms out of his caught trench coat and leaving it behind like a cicada shedding its skin.
In the next second, gravity took command.
Lawson's silhouette turned into a falling golden star, tearing through the air with a piercing howl, plunging toward the hopeless battlefield in an act of absolute defiance!
BOOM—!!!
The earth let out a heavy groan. At the center of Lawson's impact, the ground buckled as if struck by a meteor, sending spider-web cracks racing in every direction.
As the dust settled, Lawson stood firmly in the center of the crater.
He hadn't just won the gamble; he had shattered the physical law known as "gravity" with his bare flesh.
From beneath {Wood Strike} cold metallic visor came a burst of rapid electronic static. For the first time, her voice flickered with shock:
"Impossible... A mere smith without a single piece of armor... How can you bypass the system's forced judgment? Is this the so-called 'Veteran Player's' final trump card?"
Lawson slowly stood up, brushing the dust off his shoulder. His gaze was calm, chillingly so.
"My confidence comes from every soul on this battlefield worth protecting. For them, I wouldn't hesitate to challenge even a God."
As he spoke, a golden light erupted from his palm.
The heavy, divine {Mercy Hammer} manifested out of thin air with a space-shattering hum, gripped firmly in his hand.
"Arrogant! A mere mortal dares to swing a hammer at an SS-Rank Armor?" {Wood Strike} raised her head high, eyes filled with disdain.
"Since you want to be a hero, I'll cripple you first and pack you away!"
"Lawson! Get back! You can't even take the shockwaves!"
"Don't be a hero, run!"
In the distance, {Tiger Soul} and {Moon Swift} watched with bloodshot eyes.
They forced their engines into an overdrive of roaring flames, ignoring their injuries as they charged toward the heart of the storm.
The battlefield descended into a suffocating three-way melee, the energy aftershocks grinding the ruins into fine powder.
Yet, amidst this chaotic torrent, golden light flickered across Lawson's retinas.
He saw through the fundamental truths of all things, the corner of his mouth curving into a confident smirk.
"[Attribute Weave], is it? Sounds perfect, but as long as it's armor-related... I can rewrite it."
Lawson's voice, calm to the extreme, pierced through the explosions with an irresistible authority:
"From this moment on... your Five Elements... are rewritten and LOCKED by me!"