Chapter 141: Another Level Three Anomaly

At this rate, Adam was going to be defeated, and he knew that he had to alter his strategy.

Throughout this entire battle, he hadn't invoked any of his other anomalies to help him, and the reasons for this were very simple.

Firstly, encountering an opponent with a similar level of power and similar attributes to himself was quite rare. Such a direct and brutal brawl had contributed a great deal to his accumulation of battle experience, and he didn't want to give up any opportunity to become a more seasoned fighter.

Secondly, his opponent was a level three anomaly, and aside from Mummy, Adam's most powerful anomalies were only level two anomalies. A level two anomaly could easily perish in battle against a level three anomaly if he weren't careful.

His carelessness had already led to Vampire's demise, and he didn't want to waste any more of his invoked entities.

However, the situation was different now. Just like Adam, the sludge anomaly was a completely spent force, retaining only 20% of its peak power at a generous estimate. At its current level of strength, it was going to struggle even against level two anomalies, so this was the perfect opportunity to call in reinforcements.

With that in mind, Adam didn't hesitate any longer as he invoked Distortion, Hellhound, and Nun, in that particular order.

The first to be invoked was natural Distortion. It lacked the ability to discern friend from foe, but it was also Adam's most powerful level two anomaly. As soon as it appeared, it immediately pounced onto the sludge anomaly, twisting its body into a distorted ball of sludge.

The sludge anomaly was fighting to maintain its form with all its might, and one second, it was able to retain its shape, only for its body to be completely distorted again in the next second.

It seemed that the two were roughly evenly matched, and thus, a massive ball of constantly shapeshifting sludge had appeared on the ground in the shopping mall.

The second anomaly to be invoked was Hellhound, and under Adam's instructions, it blasted two jets of flames out of its mouths at the sludge that was sealing the crater that Adam was situated in.

The scorching temperatures of the flames baked the soft and viscous sludge into hardened chunks, and Adam was able to break apart those clay-like chunks to free himself.

The third anomaly to appear was Nun, and by the time it was invoked, Adam had already freed himself from the pool of sludge. Its job was to attack the sludge anomaly, which was still constantly being twisted and warped by Distortion.

A torrent of sewage gushed out of its mouth, and the sludge anomaly's struggles instantly became a lot weaker.

While the sewage was contaminating its body, it was also being bombarded by Hellound's Explosive Fireballs.

In the face of the alternating sewage and fire attacks, the sludge anomaly's body quickly began to harden and wither away until finally, it fell completely still.

Adam approached the hardened pile of sludge, then raised his carving knife before bringing it down in a violent motion to deal the final blow.

In the face of this relentless assault, the sludge anomaly's tolerance threshold was finally breached, and it was shattered into a pile of black, scummy residue.

Following its demise, large amounts of anomalic power began to seep out of the sludge anomaly's remains, and Adam's anomalies immediately tried to pounce on the feast like a pack of starving wolves presented with a pile of fresh meat. However, Adam didn't give them the opportunity to enjoy the feast and immediately withdrew all of them back into his body.

"I'm sorry to do this, but I need to allocate every last bit of power available to me as efficiently as possible. Otherwise, I won't be able to deal with the dangers to come."

The anomalic power left behind by a level three anomaly was an extremely precious resource, and it would've been a downright egregious waste to allow his anomalies to split it among themselves. Only by focusing this power could he achieve big things.

If Adam were to absorb all of this anomalic power now, it still wouldn't be enough to trigger an evolution in Mummy, but it would've definitely been able to increase Mummy's powers by twofold. That was clearly a far superior option to allowing a bunch of level two anomalies to split this anomalic power.

However, Adam didn't intend to do this. As opposed to enhancing an existing level three anomaly, the better choice was to nurture another level three anomaly.

Mummy was too cumbersome and limited in its abilities, making it very ill-equipped to deal with unforeseen circumstances. Out of all of his anomalies, Adam wanted to evolve Camera and Nun the most.

This was because both of these anomalies possessed a diverse range of abilities that could make up for Mummy's shortcomings in this area.

If I had to choose between Camera and Nun, Camera seems like the better option.

Camera's abilities complemented Adam better than Nun's did. Firstly, it possessed incredible offensive prowess, able to wound a defensively oriented level three anomaly even while only being a level two anomaly itself.

Its offensive abilities made it capable of posing a potent threat to opponents of a higher caliber than itself.

By Adam's estimations, it would be very difficult for the average level three anomaly to harm the likes of Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko, but Camera was a different story.

Furthermore, not only was Camera an offensive juggernaut, its abilities were also nothing short of incredible. There was no need to elaborate on just how amazing its ability to temporarily stop time was, and in addition to that, it also possessed that extremely useful scouting ability.

With all of these attributes up its sleeve, even if couldn't defeat an opponent in an initial clash, it would still be able to secure useful information on the enemy.

The only problem was that this anomaly's attributes were extremely skewed.

In stark contrast with its incredible offensive prowess, its defenses were pitifully weak, making it a bona fide glass cannon. Adam recalled that even as a level two anomaly, its defenses were still inferior to those of a half-anomaly. Its body was so fragile that it was virtually a walking house of cards.

Despite all of that, it's still the most suitable option.

After some extensive contemplation, Adam still decided to invoke Camera in the end.

Due to the fact that it had only just been captured, it was still in its infantile form, standing at only around the same height as a small child. Its thin body was supporting a disproportionately large camera head, presenting a rather adorable sight to behold.

"Eat up."

Camera didn't require any encouragement from Adam as it instinctively pounced onto the anomalic power as soon as it caught a whiff, eagerly devouring the feast as quickly as it could.

As it continued to absorb anomalic power, its stature also began to grow, swelling to around 180 centimeters in height, while the delicate little sprouts on its arms also transformed into a pair of scythes.

Looks like it's already become a level one anomaly.

At a certain point, the anomalic power being absorbed by Camera seemed to have reached a certain threshold, and its body elongated once again, this time exceeding two meters in height. At the same time, its scythe arms had also become sharper, but its entire body had a rather gray complexion, most likely due to the influence of the sludge anomaly.

However, this wasn't a cause for concern.

As it continued to absorb anomalic power, Adam was unconsciously growing a little anxious.

He recalled that the first time Hellhound and Mummy evolved, they were unable to absorb further anomalic power after a certain point. It was as if they were full and were unable to digest any more.

However, thankfully, Camera was a level two anomaly to begin with, so Adam was confident that it should've been able to evolve further.

Adam looked on with bated breath as all of the anomalic power on the ground was finally completely devoured, but Camera showed no signs of reaching the limits of its absorption capacity, and it began to evolve on the spot.

This time, it didn't grow any further in stature. Instead, its body had taken on a slightly blurry and transparent appearance, much like an assassin hiding in the shadows or a soldier in camouflage uniform, allowing it to blend in with its surroundings.

At the same time, its scythe arms had also grown sharper, and even Adam couldn't help but feel intimidated by the menacing gleam that they were giving off.

"Is the evolution process complete? Here, take a swipe at me."

.

Adam was ecstatic to witness Camera's growth, and he extended an arm forward with the intention of testing out Camera's powers in its current form.