S-Class Judge: My ability is parasitism.

The darkness is not pure the moment the lights go out.

The faint light from the city seeping through the stairwell window outlines a blurry silhouette.

Following Li Yiran's warning, Xu Nuo quickly took half a step back, his back pressed against the cold door frame. In the moment of visual persistence, he saw Wang Hu's figure suddenly swell up in the darkness for a moment.

The bones emitted a teeth-grinding "clunking" sound, and a wild, fishy smell intensified.

"Yiran." Wang Hu's voice grew rough in the darkness, carrying a wolf-like growl. He moved with lightning speed, precisely grabbing Li Yiran's wrist as she tried to stop him, the force so great that Li Yiran groaned. "I can't bear to really hurt you. Since you can't bear to part with this wild man..."

"Then I'll rip out his heart and taste it right in front of you!"

The last few words were a roar, and two eerie green lights suddenly lit up in the darkness—the pupils of the wolf-like awakened beings at close range.

A strong wind rushed towards him, and Wang Hu's other hand had already transformed into a sharp claw, tearing through the air and aiming straight for Xu Nuo's chest!

"Xu Nuo!" Li Yiran cried out in alarm, struggling desperately, but her wrists were as if locked by iron hoops, and the abilities granted to her by her rabbit genes seemed powerless under the absolute suppression of power.

Just as the wolf's claws were about to touch Xu Nuo's clothes—

rustling...

Strange sounds rang out in rapid succession. They didn't come from the outside, but rather emerged directly from under Xu Nuo's skin and inside his clothes.

Countless slender vines, slightly thicker than a hair and pale gold in color, spread and coiled at an astonishing speed, instantly enveloping Xu Nuo's entire body.

The armor was particularly densely interwoven on his chest, forming a flexible yet strange layer of armor.

"laugh--!"

The wolf's claws gripped the vine armor tightly, making an unpleasant scraping sound.

The vines were torn slightly, but more quickly wrapped around the beast-like claw, tightly gripping it and preventing Wang Hu from pulling away for a moment.

"This is... a plant-type gene awakener?!"

Wang Hu's dark green pupils suddenly contracted, filled with shock and anger. He abruptly turned his head to look at Li Yiran, whom he was holding, his voice filled with disbelief and the fury of betrayal.

"You're an official! Yiran, you've actually mixed up with the government's henchmen?! Do you know what you're doing?!"

Li Yiran's face was ashen in the dim light, but her eyes were unusually sharp and resolute at that moment.

She knew that once Wang Hu discovered this, there was no way things would end well.

Given his personality and "loyalty" to the organization, he would definitely report it immediately. At that time, not only Xu Nuo, but she herself would also face the organization's most brutal purge for "colluding with foreign enemies".

"Xu Nuo!" She stopped trying to break free from Wang Hu's grasp and instead shouted at Xu Nuo with all her might, her voice resolute, trembling with despair, "We must kill him now! We can't let him get away!"

These words were like a final verdict, completely igniting Wang Hu's murderous intent.

"You bitch! I'll tear you apart first!" Wang Hu roared furiously, his grip on Li Yiran's wrist tightening violently, the bones cracking under the strain.

The other claw, entangled in vines, unleashed even greater power, its muscles bulging as it snapped several vines in two and swung at Xu Nuo again, this time a sweeping attack aimed directly at Xu Nuo's neck!

The narrow stairwell instantly transformed into a prison where life and death were fought.

Xu Nuo's eyes narrowed, and he leaned back slightly, using the vines to pull him away, narrowly avoiding the fatal sweep.

The wind whipped up by the wolf's claws stung his cheeks.

At the same time, the pale dodder wrapped around Wang Hu's arm underwent an even more bizarre change.

They are no longer just constraints.

Like a needle with life, it pierced through the pores of Wang Hu's arm through the tiny wound caused by the vines breaking off, silently drilling into his skin and spreading deep into his flesh and blood vessels.

"Bang! Thud! Sizzle!"

The sounds of punches, the thuds of bodies hitting walls, and the ripping of claws through the air and clothing mingled together in the darkness.

Wang Hu's offensive was fierce, revealing the power, speed, and ferocity of an awakened wolf; each swipe of his claws was enough to shatter stone tablets.

Xu Nuo used the unique flexibility and variability of the dodder to block and deflect force. His movements seemed dangerous, but he always managed to avoid vital points at the last minute.

Li Yiran kicked Wang Hu in an attempt to distract him; her leg strength was extremely high, and each kick repelled him.

The battle lasted less than two minutes.

"Ugh—!" Wang Hu's fierce claw was once again deflected by the intertwined vines, striking the wall and leaving a deep groove.

But he suddenly let out a painful groan, his outstretched arm trembled strangely, and he could no longer muster any strength.

Not right.

An indescribable feeling of weakness and numbness surged wildly from the depths of his body, from every part of his limbs.

It's not an external injury, it's more like... a rapid loss of life force?

The muscles began to spasm and twitch uncontrollably, and the body, which was originally full of explosive power, now felt a strange "dryness" and "contraction".

It was as if something was drawing flesh and blood away from the inside.

My heart was pounding, but not with strength; instead, it was filled with a panic-like sense of exhaustion.

"What...what did you do to me?!"

Wang Hu looked down in horror. In the dim light, he was horrified to discover that under the skin of his arms and neck, there were countless tiny, pale golden veins, like a spider web, wriggling slightly.

These golden threads are exactly the same as the dodder that keeps extending from Xu Nuo's body.

He tried to unleash his power, but felt an unprecedented stagnation.

The wolf's ferocious genes still roar, but its body is like a rusty machine, malfunctioning.

The triple sensations of weakness, numbness, and absorption made it difficult for him to even stand up straight.

"It's over." Xu Nuo's voice rang out calmly in the darkness, revealing no emotion.

Taking advantage of Wang Hu's stagger and loss of strength, Xu Nuo lunged forward and delivered a powerful but not flashy side kick, striking Wang Hu squarely in the chest and abdomen.

"Thump!"

The once ferocious wolf awakener now collapsed to the ground like a piece of rotten wood, even its protective instinctive bestial transformation was rapidly fading.

He lay on the ground, convulsing violently. His eerie green pupils began to dilate, and his skin lost its luster and became shriveled at a visible speed.

The pale golden veins wriggling beneath the skin became increasingly clear, greedily absorbing the last of the nutrients.

The convulsions stopped in just over ten seconds.

The hallway fell silent again, save for the heavy breathing.

Wang Hu was nowhere to be seen on the ground.

Instead, there was a withered, dried corpse tightly wrapped in tattered clothing, its face extremely distorted.

The pale dodder on Xu Nuo's body receded like the tide, shrinking back into his body.

She staggered backward, leaning against the wall, her chest heaving violently, staring incredulously at Wang Hu's dried corpse on the ground, then suddenly looked up at Xu Nuo.

His eyes were extremely complex, showing lingering fear, shock, a hint of instinctive dread, but more than anything, a sense of utter horror that defied all reason.