The Heavy Armor Beast lifted its foot and stomped down hard again onto the Steel Thorn Turtle.
Once again, the result was the same as before. The Heavy Armor Beast's foot was pierced repeatedly—the back spikes of the Steel Thorn Turtle were unimaginably tough.
Letting out a roar of pain, the Heavy Armor Beast refused to give up, raising its other foot to stomp. Lin Shen quickly ordered it to retreat.
The Steel Thorn Turtle looked ordinary, but it was far from a regular Steel Thorn Turtle.
Reluctant though it was, the Heavy Armor Beast had no choice but to obey Lin Shen's command and charged at other Steel Thorn Turtles instead.
One foot per turtle—the Heavy Armor Beast regained its invincible stance and crushed several Steel Thorn Turtles in a matter of moments.
The seemingly ordinary Steel Thorn Turtle, which was anything but, tried to chase the Heavy Armor Beast for a fight. Lin Shen forcefully controlled the Heavy Armor Beast to avoid it.
The Heavy Armor Beast's speed was quite slow compared to other Alloy Level creatures, but it was still slightly faster than the Steel Thorn Turtle. No matter how frantic the turtle's pursuit, it couldn't catch up, helplessly watching the Heavy Armor Beast stomp one Steel Thorn Turtle after another.
Lin Shen suddenly noticed that the Heavy Armor Beast's speed was slowing down. Even its gait became irregular, appearing uneven and hobbling.
"Was the injury earlier really that severe?" Lin Shen felt puzzled. *If the hurt foot was impairing its mobility, why are the symptoms only showing now?*
Looking down at the injured foot of the Heavy Armor Beast, Lin Shen immediately realized it was likely more than just an injury.
The wound on the Heavy Armor Beast's foot wasn't leaking Base Mutation Fluid, and the injury itself didn't look too serious. However, the entire leg seemed to have lost its ability to bend. As it walked, its steps were stiff and awkward, as though the leg were nothing more than a stick or cane.
"This is bad—that Steel Thorn Turtle's spikes seem to carry some sort of toxin." Lin Shen identified the cause of the issue.
The toxin-like substance appeared to be spreading through the Heavy Armor Beast's body, increasingly limiting its mobility.
The Steel Thorn Turtle caught up and savagely bit the Heavy Armor Beast's ankle. No matter how violently it tried to shake the turtle off, the grip remained firm.
It attempted to use its other leg to kick the turtle, but the leg was now stiff as wood, unresponsive to its commands.
"Hesitation leads to chaos." Lin Shen gritted his teeth and summoned the Meteoric Iron Swallow.
Taking advantage of the Steel Thorn Turtle's unrelenting bite on the Heavy Armor Beast's ankle, the Meteoric Iron Swallow transformed into a black, flying blade and slashed toward its neck at lightning speed.
Unexpectedly, the Steel Thorn Turtle, despite its sluggish movement, managed to retract its neck with incredible swiftness. It loosened its grip on the Heavy Armor Beast and narrowly dodged the Meteoric Iron Swallow's strike.
After evading the Meteoric Iron Swallow's attack, the Steel Thorn Turtle extended its neck like a flash, attempting to bite the Heavy Armor Beast's leg once again.
What it could never anticipate was the Meteoric Iron Swallow, which had been flying forward at great speed, suddenly making a strange reversal. With a velocity faster than before, it returned in a sharp arc and slashed at the Steel Thorn Turtle's neck once more.
First, the Steel Thorn Turtle never expected such a maneuver. Second, the close distance and lightning-fast speed of the Meteoric Iron Swallow left no opportunity for the turtle to withdraw its neck again.
A black streak bolted past with a sharp crack—the Steel Thorn Turtle's neck was severed by the flying blade-like Meteoric Iron Swallow.
Its neck lacked the hardness of its shell or back spikes. Amplified by the dual enhancements of Swift Slash and Swallow Return, the Meteoric Iron Swallow delivered a fatal blow.
"Killed a Mutated Steel Poison Spike Turtle..."
After the Steel Thorn Turtle's demise, Lin Shen showed little joy. Instead, he ordered the Heavy Armor Beast and Meteoric Iron Swallow to eliminate the remaining Steel Thorn Turtles more quickly.
The Steel Thorn Turtles guarding the Base Mutation Egg fought fearlessly to their deaths, charging at the Heavy Armor Beast in suicidal assaults.
Given the choice, Lin Shen wouldn't have wanted to exterminate them entirely. The steel materials were of low value, and it was unlikely he could transport too many back through the portal anyway.
The reason for commanding the Heavy Armor Beast and Meteoric Iron Swallow to accelerate the slaughter of the Steel Thorn Turtles was Lin Shen's growing concern.
Soon enough, Lin Shen's fears began unfolding in the worst possible direction.
The Heavy Armor Beast's injured legs both became entirely immobile, and its body started stiffening, making even walking an arduous task.
What's worse, the Meteoric Iron Swallow's wings began to stiffen, throwing its flight path into chaos. Its speed diminished severely, and it almost plummeted from the air several times.
Fortunately, both creatures were Alloy-level—superior to the Steel Thorn Turtles by one tier—or they would already have been killed by the swarm of Steel Thorn Turtles.
Lin Shen had refrained from personally investigating the Mutated Poison Thorn Turtle's burrow out of fear he'd be infected by the unknown toxin. Instead, he had sent the Meteoric Iron Swallow to test the waters.
The results were disastrous. Even the uninjured Meteoric Iron Swallow succumbed, and Lin Shen could only watch helplessly as their bodies stiffened piece by piece, until they could no longer move at all. They looked like lifeless metal statues.
Only around a dozen Steel Thorn Turtles remained alive. Thankfully, Lin Shen still had the Supersonic Gunman, who rapidly opened fire, landing consecutive headshots to eliminate the rest.
"We have to get out of here now." Lin Shen dared not linger any longer, worried the corpses of the Steel Thorn Turtles and the Base Mutation Fluid spilling from their bodies might attract other Base Mutation Creatures.
Even the Base Mutation Eggs buried in the sand pits—Lin Shen decided to abandon most of them, taking only a few in his backpack as emergency supplies.
"I wonder if the Mutated Poison Thorn Turtle laid any eggs here..." Lin Shen was still pondering this when the Death Powder coiled around his arm suddenly began to move on its own, slithering out from his sleeve and crawling snake-like toward a sand pit.
"Death Powder, get back here! Don't mess with my Mutated Base Mutation Eggs." Lin Shen's heart sank as he slowly made his way toward the sand pit, struggling as if his waist were locked in place, each step excruciatingly difficult.
But unfortunately, the Death Powder ignored his commands, diving headfirst into the sand pit. Before Lin Shen could get close, it emerged and darted toward another pit.
Lin Shen gave up chasing it, watching helplessly as the Death Powder dashed through one sand pit after another, checking hundreds of pits in rapid succession.
After inspecting the final pit, the Death Powder lunged at the corpse of the Mutated Poison Thorn Turtle. Its body and mouth swelled dramatically, consuming the corpse in one gulp.
"I haven't collected the Base Mutation Fluid yet... That's rare Mutated Base Mutation Fluid..." Lin Shen felt bitter disappointment—valuable materials ruined. This was high-value Mutated biological material.
Though the level was low, the "Mutated" label alone granted significant worth.
What hurt more was the likelihood that the Mutated Poison Thorn Turtle had laid eggs—Mutated Eggs that were probably devoured by the Death Powder.
If Lin Shen had acquired them, he would have been able to perform a Base Mutation, surpassing other Steel Mutators entirely.
As Lin Shen contemplated ways to fully control the Death Powder, it unexpectedly crawled back, coiling onto his arm. Its body contracted while climbing, ultimately transforming into a capsule in the palm of Lin Shen's hand.
"Base Mutation Evolution in progress..." Lin Shen read the message displayed on the capsule.
"Oh, come on... Evolving now? Are you kidding me?" Lin Shen tried to unlock and summon the Death Powder, jamming the key several times to no avail. It was entirely unresponsive.
In this perilous place, the damned thing had stuffed itself full and decided to evolve, leaving Lin Shen fuming to the point of cursing it to the eighteenth generation of its ancestors.