The Final Odyssey, the fantastical journey of a cat boy

After being struck by Fish's powerful shield, the girl who resembled Sachi slammed into a corner and lost consciousness. Even when Fish approached, she remained motionless, bleeding from the corner of her mouth. Only the regular, slight rise and fall of her chest indicated that she was still alive.

"This... I don't know first aid. What should we do?"

"I have a full set of emergency medical equipment and corresponding plans. Judging from her condition, there are no obvious external injuries, so it's probably internal bleeding caused by your reckless attack just now—and perhaps even ruptured internal organs," Huang Yan said confidently. "But it's not a big problem. As long as she's not dead, this top-level intelligent combat armor can handle most injuries. At least keeping her alive shouldn't be a problem!"

"Is this your excuse for randomly shocking me whenever you're unhappy?" Fish asked with a bitter face.

"Yes—yes!" Huang Yan admitted without hesitation. "So Mr. Fish, you'd better be smart, otherwise—"

"Eek!" Fish instinctively shuddered.

"Alright, let's switch to surgical examination mode first. I need to examine them to determine if there are any internal injuries and how many," Huang Yan said. "However, common injuries aren't difficult to deal with. I just need to convert a portion of the syncytiotrophoblasts that make up the armor into carbon-based nanorobots to restructure organ tissues—what the heck?!"

Just as Fish bent over, the girl in pink camouflage, who had been "unconscious," suddenly opened her phoenix eyes. In the next instant, her small feet, clad in delicate high heels, launched a fierce kick at Fish's crotch!

"Meow—"

Fortunately, although he was caught off guard, just like those cats in the past who absolutely refused to be spayed or neutered, Fish valued his precious cat very much. This allowed him to react with amazing speed at the critical moment, dodging the opponent's fierce attack by a mere few millimeters!

After successfully dodging it, Fish noticed that the heel of the girl's high heel had transformed into a sharp blade, gleaming coldly in the light streaming in from the skylight above.

"This can't be... right?!"

Just as a thought suddenly popped into Fish's mind, the girl in pink camouflage made another astonishing move: seeing that her attack aimed at a vital point had missed, she actually spat a mouthful of bloody saliva directly onto Fish's helmet eye window!

Although Huang Yan only took two seconds to disperse the red liquid with a high-pressure airflow, that was enough time for the girl in pink camouflage: when Fish's vision cleared again, he was surprised to find that a sharp wrist blade had appeared on her arm!

really!

Although intelligent combat armor usually exists in the form of a bodysuit-like combat suit with shoulder armor, arm armor, knee pads, etc., in fact, as long as the user has enough experience and skills, they can also control it to transform. Ange's temporary transformation of her "Golden Soup" into a gorgeous Rococo-style dress was a similar operation.

The pink camouflage outfit worn by the girl is clearly a set of intelligent combat armor in mimicry mode!

"We've been tricked!" Huang Yan said angrily. "This guy is also an armored warrior! His level... is at least 'Agate' level! And we can't rule out the possibility of 'Crystal' level."

Fish quickly raised his shield-like arm armor, deflecting two sharp stabs in quick succession. However, as he attempted to retreat, the girl in pink camouflage immediately launched a relentless pursuit, forcing Fish into close combat.

Of course, Fish understood that the other party's approach was quite correct—initially, when Fish foolishly detonated the anti-personnel directional mine but survived, the other party had already determined that the smart combat armor he was wearing had a fairly high level of protection. And afterwards, deliberately using only firearms, besides further testing Phoenix Flame's defensive strength, was mainly intended to lull him into a false sense of security.

To make the act as convincing as possible, she even deliberately bit her tongue and lips to create the illusion of suffering severe internal injuries and vomiting blood.

And as it turned out, this gamble paid off.

Mistakenly believing they had accidentally seriously injured their opponent, Fish and Phoenix Flame lowered their guard and approached her without further confirmation, nearly making a fatal mistake. Although Fish managed to avoid the worst possible outcome thanks to her timely reaction, she was still put in a passive position.

"This is troublesome! How did this guy move so fast?!"

Theoretically, the Phoenix Flame on Fish's body far surpasses the pink camouflage uniform worn by his opponent. However, the problem is that, due to the similarity in their basic structure and physical properties, the difference in the overall strength of intelligent combat armor lies more in aspects such as the level of intelligent assistance, information perception capabilities, and adaptability to external weapons and tools.

In comparison, at the most basic level of power, although there are certain differences between different levels of intelligent combat armor, they have not reached a level that can trigger a qualitative change.

More importantly, in melee combat between armored warriors, intelligent combat armor exhibits a significant "high attack, low defense" characteristic: while even the lowest-grade "Jade" intelligent combat armor can withstand the firepower of most individual firearms, it falls short when facing the single-molecule cutting blades of other intelligent combat armor melee weapons. Combat between armored warriors is much like a duel between swift swordsmen of the Renaissance era who wore no armor; a single, decisive blow can decide everything.

Even the Phoenix Flame could not withstand such an attack.

The girl, who looked remarkably like Xiaoxing, continued to wield the slender wrist blades that transformed from her arm armor, maintaining her sharp and swift offensive. Her swordplay was neither complex nor flashy; it was entirely based on a precise understanding of human anatomy, executed through meticulous calculations provided by her intelligent combat armor—a high-speed, aesthetically devoid attack.

Simple and unpretentious, yet effective. That was Fish's first impression of this fighting style.

Of course, Fish knew very well that turning the tide wouldn't be difficult: with the speed boost provided by Phoenix Flame, he could easily strike first and suppress the opponent's offensive with an active attack. However, Fish also understood that he couldn't do that—even now, he still couldn't completely rule out the possibility that "that was Xiaoxing."

Without daring to use his trump card, Fish really didn't have any better options than passively parrying and retreating step by step.

"Ugh—"

Although Fish's series of parries and dodges were fluid and effective, deflecting the vast majority of attacks with the help of Phoenix Flame's calculations and movements, the undeniable fact remains that purely passive defense cannot be foolproof forever. After blocking and dodging dozens of attacks, Fish finally took a hit on the tail.

Although the damage was very minor—only a tuft of fur was shaved off and a small scratch appeared on Fish's tail—Fish still felt uneasy: "Hey, do you have any ideas? Like, a way to subdue the opponent without causing harm?"

"As the highest-level intelligent combat armor created in the old civilization era, I have 11 standard non-lethal methods to subdue targets, including but not limited to electric shock, striking specific nervous systems, and drug paralysis," Huang Yan said.

"That's pretty good." Fish managed to deflect an attack with the shield on his left arm. Because he dared not attack first, his left arm armor was still in the form of a small shield, while his right arm had transformed into a broadsword without a sharp edge, defending in a manner similar to the sword-and-shield warriors of the Iberian Peninsula in the past.

"but……"

"But what?"

"However, the effectiveness of the above methods is questionable, or even unusable, when dealing with personnel also equipped with intelligent combat armor," Huang Yan added. "All models and levels of intelligent combat armor can generate protective insulation layers as needed, providing necessary functions such as antidotes and air filtration, and offering a certain degree of protection against attacks. You know that."

"Great, so what should we do now?"

"Then of course... lie down immediately!"

Although he didn't understand why Huang Yan said that, after spending so much time together and getting to know each other, Fei Shi had learned one thing: when he didn't know what to do, he should just do what Huang Yan asked.

After swinging his shield to deliver a powerful blow, temporarily deflecting the longsword wielded by "Xiao Xing," Fish immediately fell to his side and sprawled on the floor. Less than half a second later, a burst of blood erupted from "Xiao Xing's" thigh: a high-speed armor-piercing bullet fired from above had struck her, piercing through the smart combat armor that had transformed into a short skirt.

"Damn, that was close!"

As "Xiao Xing" collapsed, clutching her wound and writhing in pain, Huang Yan had already completed the trajectory calculations: sure enough, the bullet came from a high place—more precisely, from the metal walkway suspended beneath the warehouse ceiling. More importantly, it had originally been aimed at Fish's back of the head and nape!

"It was indeed very dangerous. If your evasive maneuver had been 600 milliseconds slower, the best outcome would have been high-level paraplegia due to severe cervical spine damage—and even I couldn't heal that level of injury in a short time," Huang Yan said. "In the current situation, that basically means you're dead."

"And now?"

"Now is the perfect time for us to strike back," Huang Yan said. "The sniper has been locked on, and I've marked his location on your helmet display."

"Understood." Fish used the shipping container as cover to quickly move to a new position, then activated the ion gun built into his smart combat armor, leaping out from a corner that a sniper wouldn't notice at first glance and aiming at his target.

Then he hesitated again.

The girl holding a large-caliber anti-materiel rifle was wearing a more practical gray camouflage cloak with a hood, but her face was exactly the same as Xiaoxing's!

"What happened?!"

"I understand!" Huang Yan suddenly said, "That's definitely not Xiao Xing! Fire!"

"Uh? Oh, okay!"

Hearing Huang Yan's words, Fish finally made up his mind to fire. The girl sniper, who looked just like Xiao Xing, also realized that something was wrong and began to turn her gun towards Fish. However, having gained the upper hand, even after hesitating for a second or two, Fish still managed to aim the crosshairs at the girl's head before she could react.

At a distance of just over fifty meters, the difference in accuracy and range between the two weapons was not an issue at all; "who fires first" was the only decisive factor. The moment Fish completed his aim ahead of time, he felt a sense of relief... Unfortunately, this feeling only lasted for a moment.

Because in the very next second, he lost his balance.

"Meow!"

When a pair of hands grabbed Fish's ankles from behind, he was caught off guard and immediately fell backward, landing face-first in the dirt. If it weren't for Phoenix Flame's helmet protecting him, he would probably have broken several teeth in that fall—and the guy who attacked him in this way was none other than "Little Lucky," who had been hit by a sniper rifle bullet and fallen to the ground injured earlier.

If it were anyone else, being shot like that in the groin area, where major blood vessels are concentrated, would likely cause them severe pain, making movement difficult and forcing them to prioritize self-preservation. However, this girl in the strange pink camouflage uniform, like a Terminator whose body had been blown off halfway, struggled to crawl to Fish's side and, at a crucial moment, literally "held him back."

"You—" Fish, who had fallen to the ground, kicked the other man away, but he knew it was too late: because of this delay, the sniper girl on the high ground had already locked onto Fish. And being on the ground, he had no chance to dodge before the other woman fired.

However, fate played another trick on everyone at this moment: just as Fish was about to give up hope, another accident occurred: the third Kosuke suddenly appeared out of thin air and fired at "Kosuke" who was holding a sniper rifle with a miniature crossbow installed in his arm armor.

Judging from the familiar tight-fitting combat suit and the distinctive surprise attack tactics, this is clearly the real Koyuki.

Previously, in the tower complex and on the "Waves," Xiaoxing successfully wiped out a large number of opponents using the "stealth" + "close-range ambush" tactic. Whether they were chimeras or human enemies, their attacks were impossible to defend against. But this time, perhaps because she also possessed intelligent combat armor, the girl wielding the sniper rifle reacted at the last moment, using the rifle barrel to block the crossbow bolt coated with deadly neurotoxin.

Then, the sniper, unable to fire in time, slammed his rifle butt at Xiaoxing, who easily sliced ​​him in two with a curved blade formed from her armored gauntlets. Both then abandoned any further attempts to shoot and began fighting with their swords.

"Hey, you stupid cat! What are you standing there for? Hurry up and help!" Huang Yan shouted.

"Ah, I'm... huh?" Fish, getting up from the ground, raised his ion gun, ready to fire. But he immediately realized something was wrong: shortly after the attack, the sniper who looked exactly like Xiaoxing had changed his clothes. The gray camouflage cloak rapidly transformed during the fight, eventually becoming a purple bodysuit-like armor identical to Xiaoxing's!

"Mr. Fish? Help me!" one of them shouted after noticing Fish's voice.

"Don't believe her!" another person shouted immediately. "I'm Xiaoxing!"

"Oh no, what do we do?!" After hearing the two shouts, Fish was completely stunned—because even their voices were exactly the same!