Chapter 140: Battle Between Tanks

That's some impressive strength!

Adam's knife-wielding arm was completely numb after that clash, and a small chip had also appeared on the knife's blade.

Even though he was outmatched in strength, he was elated following the clash.

I've finally found a suitable opponent!

By his rough estimation, his opponent was most likely a level three anomaly, whose overall powerful was roughly comparable with Adam's own in his fused form with Mummy.

Even though the opponent possessed superior strength, Mummy's forte was its defense, so a disadvantage in pure strength wasn't a worthy cause for concern. As long as his opponent wasn't on a completely different level of power, he had the confidence to match it in battle.

Level three anomalies were currently the ideal prey for Adam. He couldn't kill anomalies of a higher caliber than that, while lower-level anomalies wouldn't contribute much to his development, so this was the perfect target.

Right as Adam was reveling in the excitement of finally encountering a suitable target, the sludge anomaly came charging at him once again with its pitchforks raised. It injected all of its strength into the pitchforks, then took advantage of its massive frame to bring the pitchforks down from a staggering height.

Adam immediately tried to dodge, only to find that his feet seemed to have been glued to the ground. He looked down with his peripheral vision to find that sludge had risen up from the marble floor beneath him, and it had enveloped both of his feet to impede his movement.

As a result, he had no choice but to raise his carving knife and withstand the attack head-on.

He had charged up power for his previous attack, yet he had still been outmatched in strength. This time, the roles were reversed, with his opponent seizing the initiative while he was on the defense, and he was immediately struggling to hold up under the pressure.

The carving knife was only able to buffer the attack to a slight degree before the steel pitchforks slammed down onto his shoulder, and the ground beneath his feet was instantly shattered, unable to withstand the tremendous force being exerted upon it.

A resounding boom rang out as a huge hole was smashed into the marble floor beneath Adam's feet, and he was slammed down from the third floor to the second floor.

"That felt good!"

Adam twisted his neck from side to side as he stood up from the giant crater on the second floor.

All of the opponents that he had gone up against recently had been too strong or too weak, and most of them had very technical fighting styles, making the battles feel as if they were games of tag that simply weren't as satisfying as direct and straightforward brawls.

Now that Adam was up against an opponent that also excelled in strength and physical resistance, not only was he not uncomfortable in the slightest, this was right up his alley.

"Again!" Adam roared in provocation to prevent the anomaly from going after someone else and getting out of his line of sight.

In contrast with the likes of Clown and Nun, this anomaly had a much simpler and more predictable personality, and it immediately fell for Adam's provocation, tumbling straight through the hole on the third floor in pursuit of Adam.

As soon as the sludge anomaly landed on the second floor, Adam immediately charged at it again with his carving knife raised.

This time, he wanted to test out his opponent's speed. He rushed toward the sludge anomaly, feigning a full-frontal assault as he swiped his knife through the air, then immediately lowered his center of gravity as he rushed over to the anomaly's side before slashing at its abdomen.

As expected, with its enormous body and its lack of legs, the sludge anomaly wasn't very agile. Even though it attempted to use its pitchforks to defend itself, it was too slow, and Adam's carving knife plunged straight into its abdomen.

However, the attack didn't seem to have been very effective.

The sludge anomaly’s defenses weren't particularly strong, but after Adam plunged his carving knife into its body, the wound quickly healed, and a burst of suction force erupted out of its stomach cavity in an attempt to draw in Adam's knife and disarm him.

Adam was greatly alarmed by this and hurriedly pulled his knife out in a forceful motion, and it was also right at this moment that his opponent's pitchforks came plunging down once again.

In the past, there was no way that Adam would've been able to dodge this attack, but after fighting in so many arena matches, he had accumulated an abundant wealth of battle experience, and his Observation ability allowed him to predict his opponent's movements in advance, so he was already prepared to take evasive measures before the sludge anomaly's attack had even completely taken shape.

He quickly turned sideways, allowing him to evade the oncoming attack, then also altered the course of his attack from a horizontal slash to an upward swipe that was aimed at one of the sludge anomaly's arms.

The sludge anomaly's lower body was entirely comprised of sludge, but the texture of its upper body resembled that of a statue, and in contrast with its thick and bulky abdomen, its arms were obviously far thinner.

Sure enough, Adam's quick thinking immediately reaped dividends, and in the face of his all-out attack, the sludge anomaly's arm was sliced off cleanly before falling onto the ground.

However, before he had a chance to celebrate this development, an arm suddenly spouted out of the sludge anomaly's abdomen before sending him flying with a punch.

Adam flew back through the air and crashed through a pair of glass doors before clambering back to his feet in a luxury store, where he cast his gaze toward his opponent.

After sending Adam flying with its attack, the sludge anomaly didn't set off in pursuit to press its advantage. Instead, it picked up the detached arm on the ground before placing it back in its rightful place.

As soon as the arm was reattached, the sludge anomaly's statuesque upper body began to turn as soft as mud, and the two parts of the arm were quickly fused back together again.

The only minute difference from how the arm had originally been was that the section of the arm that contained the wound seemed to be of a slightly lighter color, but that was truly only the most minor of differences.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

While the sludge anomaly was completing the arm reattachment, the third arm that had spouted out of its abdomen slowly shrank back into its body, indicating that it clearly couldn't maintain that form for very long.

So it possesses regenerative and bodily mutation abilities. That's about what I expected.

Adam wasn't afraid of this opponent, despite the problems that it posed, because he had some experience in fighting similar opponents.

In order to defeat a sludge entity with outstanding regenerative abilities, the key was to constantly whittle away at its body. In the process, it would be forced to deplete its anomalic power to heal itself, thereby making it weaker and weaker over time. If the circumstances had been right, he should've completely destroyed that detached arm. That way, even if the sludge anomaly could grow a new arm, its body would slowly become smaller and smaller.

Time and patience were the keys to fighting an anomaly of this nature.

After devising a suitable strategy, Adam raised his carving knife and engaged himself in battle against the sludge anomaly once again.

A short while later, he was sent flying back by the anomaly's pitchforks yet again.

However, Adam was following an overarching strategy, so he was unfazed by these minor road bumps, and he continued to clash with the sludge anomaly over and over again.

Over the course of their battle, the entire shopping mall was completely demolished.

Both of them possessed immense physical resistance and destructive capabilities, and they were quite massive in stature, so they resembled a pair of tanks that crashed directly through everything in their paths. All of the shops and railings that were unfortunate enough to get in their way were instantly destroyed, and even the walls of the surrounding buildings were smashed through with ease as if they were nothing more than papier-mache structures.

This battle between giants was truly a stunning visual spectacle to behold, and as the battle wore on, Adam was gradually running out of stamina.

After over an hour of intense battle, he was beginning to gasp for air.

In this form, I probably rank somewhere in the lower mid-tier among level three anomalies.

After warding off another one of his opponent's attacks, Adam could feel that his stamina was severely depleted. His legs were like jelly, and he felt as if he were treading on cotton. Even the carving knife in his hand had become particularly heavy.

As for his opponent, its massive frame had also been whittled down significantly during the course of their battle, but overall, it was still in better condition than Adam.

It seemed that the outcome of the battle was about to be decided.

Both of them were completely spent forces that had nothing more left to give.

The sludge anomaly seemed to have identified this, and while Adam was stumbling around unsteadily, it swung its pitchforks down over and over again, not giving Adam a chance to catch his breath as it smashed him deep into the ground.

Adam was only able to block a few more attacks before his legs gave out from under him, and he collapsed down onto the ground.

The sludge monster immediately adjust its method of attack, stabbing at Adam with its pitchforks to send sparks flying in all directions, but Mummy's steel-like skin was so hard that the pitchforks weren't able to inflict much damage at all.

The sludge anomaly could see that its attacks weren't very effective, to say the least, so it split off a part of its body to fill the crater that Adam was laying in with sludge, attempting to kill him through compression and asphyxiation.

This was a much more effective method of attack, and soon, Adam's was becoming feebler and feebler as he struggled to breathe.