The murky, yellowish water was thick with greasy white foam, offering visibility of barely a meter or two. Upon closer inspection, the water was filled with all sorts of refuse: plastic bags, apple cores, sanitary napkins—a veritable parade of filth. It seemed the facility staff, having heard Fang Senyan wanted the water muddied, hadn't just added yellow sand but had dumped a batch of long-accumulated, unremoved domestic garbage into the mix.

As the yellow water churned and bubbled, one bubble after another escaped Loki’s mouth. Seizing the moment when Loki’s head was momentarily stunned, Fang Senyan swung back, grabbed Loki’s right hand, and slammed his own forehead hard into the bridge of Loki's nose.

Instantly, a plume of smoke-like crimson erupted from Loki’s nose. Pressed close against Fang Senyan now, the two attacked each other with savage intensity. Gungnir, for all its might, was useless in this kind of close-quarters grappling.

More importantly, fighting underwater was entirely different from combat on solid ground. In the water, one’s movements were impeded by currents, and breathing—inhaling and exhaling—was severely restricted. This was why professional special agent training curricula included underwater combat drills.

Though Loki was a 'Hammer Wielder' and his combat ability and adaptability were certainly superior to ordinary humans, he wouldn't take long to adapt to underwater fighting. But Fang Senyan had painstakingly engineered this opportunity; how could he allow Loki time to adjust? After struggling with Fang Senyan for several dozen seconds, Loki quickly found himself losing ground.

Suddenly, veins bulged on Loki’s forehead, and a powerful surge of energy burst from his body. His deformed right arm swept in, moving several times faster than its previous attacks. Then, with lightning speed, his palm shot out and pressed lightly against Fang Senyan’s chest.

On his palm, a clear symbol was imprinted. A faint blue light flowed across it like ripples on water, seeming to sear itself onto Fang Senyan’s retina, before it shot out and stuck tightly to Fang Senyan’s chest.

Though the symbol was unfamiliar, merely looking at it exuded a sense of profound, imposing majesty, making one feel as if they were facing a colossal mountain. This symbol was a Divine Script, and its meaning was “Punishment”!

A punishment written in Divine Script!

Divine Retribution!

The moment this symbol of “Punishment” appeared, it violently threw Fang Senyan back over ten meters. It remained there, like a clear, unmistakable target beacon; no matter how swift or murky the currents, the faint blue glow could not be obscured.

Loki’s mutated right arm tensed again, its three main blood vessels throbbing and spreading out like a net. He then hurled Gungnir towards Fang Senyan, who was floating in the distance.

As this strike was unleashed underwater, the water surrounding Gungnir instantly evaporated, accompanied by a roar like a maddened lion. Between Loki and Fang Senyan, a temporary, spiraling channel opened up.

Gungnir then pierced straight through Fang Senyan’s chest, tearing an opening the size of a bowl in his body. Blood surged out instantaneously, filling the wound, and the murky water around Fang Senyan immediately turned blood red.

More astonishingly, a lingering cluster of faint blue electrical energy remained in the bloody hole in Fang Senyan’s chest, tenuously shackling the wound like the most venomous curse, stubbornly interfering with his body’s recovery! It even attempted to penetrate his chest blood vessels to worsen the injury, but this immediately triggered a counter-attack from the Solar Steps.

After launching the spear, Loki’s right arm instantly reverted to its normal size. Large streams of bubbles escaped his mouth, along with fine, dark-black filaments of blood that he vomited out, his expression listless. Clearly, the time limit for his transformation had expired.

Immediately after, the strange blue light, which he had been suppressing, rebounded completely, spreading over his entire body. Even his hair turned indigo before rapidly vanishing, as the eerie blue had finished its external erosion and now began to corrupt his internal organs!

Loki trembled violently all over, feeling as weak as an ordinary person who had just finished a ten-kilometer run. Yet, at that moment, he saw Fang Senyan, who had appeared stiff and lifeless in the water, suddenly twitch his limbs, open his eyes again, and stare back with a burning gaze!! Then, slipping like a fish in the water, he relentlessly closed in once more.

“Damn it…!! Why isn’t he dead yet?” Loki’s heart lurched. In his calculations, Fang Senyan had already used a Potion of Honor earlier, so after taking his spear strike, he should be on the verge of death, if not already in a near-death state. Yet, he dared to charge again, dared to attack?

The two clashed anew, resembling two battered beasts roaring and frantically tearing at each other’s flesh. But Fang Senyan still held the advantage. Although Loki managed to land another heavy blow to his head, Fang Senyan smashed a fierce punch into Loki’s stomach. Loki’s instinct was to groan in pain, but what emerged were gurgling gulps of icy, salty, murky water. More dark red blood surged out, mixing with the murky water and continuously rising to the surface.

Though the current was swift at this point, having traveled this distance, the water flow was no longer sufficient to entirely fill the tunnel. This meant air was beginning to exist near the top of the channel.

Loki, already lacking any underwater combat bonuses and fighting in the depths consuming massive amounts of oxygen, was nearly suffocated. He immediately struggled to swim upwards. Fang Senyan could not allow this. After a series of attacks, seeing Loki desperately trying to breathe, he thrust two fingers sharply towards Loki’s eyes!

However, Gungnir proved worthy of its legendary status. While useless in close combat, its surface suddenly shone, manifesting a cross imbued with holiness—the spirit of the Spear of Longinus manifesting trouble.

This artifact seemed capable of signaling danger to its owner. The cross, composed of milky-white light, floated and vibrated automatically, projecting a highly condensed beam of light straight at Fang Senyan’s fingers. But Fang Senyan’s agility underwater was in no way inferior to land; using the water’s momentum, he shifted his angle, narrowly evading the light to stab again at Loki’s eyes.

But the light beam, missing its target, managed to refract in the water one more time, striking Fang Senyan’s finger. Holy flames instantly erupted, scorching Fang Senyan’s finger black, causing his seemingly certain strike to lose its aim. Loki also frantically kicked and thrashed upwards, trying to reach the space at the tunnel ceiling to gasp a breath of precious air!

Yet, Fang Senyan’s power underwater was not to be underestimated. For most, the buoyancy significantly reducing their weight in water was difficult to adapt to, but for Fang Senyan, it was an undeniable boost to his agility.

Even though his attack was thwarted, he immediately adapted, twisting his wrist in a flash, and countered with lightning speed.

This grasping move underwater was incredibly swift, stirring up countless bubbles as his hand clamped down precisely on Loki’s ankle! With a fierce exertion of force, he yanked Loki down, like a ferocious, agile shark opening its massive jaws to seize its prey and drag it into the deep sea!

Loki’s nose and mouth were mere centimeters from the water surface when Fang Senyan viciously yanked him back down! He felt a crushing pressure in his chest that threatened to explode, and the wounds previously inflicted by Fú worsened tenfold. Furthermore, Loki had to forcibly suppress the urge to breathe… if he accidentally inhaled water into his trachea, he would be coughing and sputtering for several minutes even on dry land, let alone the chain reaction that would follow underwater.

“Damn it! Damn it!!” Loki’s heart was truly filled with unwillingness and an indescribable fury at that moment!

If only his previous injuries from fighting Fú had healed, If only the mission timeline hadn't been so urgent, If only he hadn’t been submerged in water, If only he could have regrouped with his teammates!

Had even one of these four conditions not occurred, Loki would have been certain of killing Fang Senyan! But the confluence of so many negative factors had thrust Loki into such a wretched predicament!!

Suffering from oxygen deprivation, Loki was scrambling haphazardly, but he knew this flood must have been temporary storage and wouldn't last long, so he gritted his teeth and held on desperately.

Fang Senyan saw his chance, slammed another heavy headbutt into Loki’s skull, grabbed his throat, and slammed his head repeatedly against the nearby stone wall. Blood streamed down. Although Loki’s nose and mouth were now above the surface, Fang Senyan’s grip choked his neck, making breathing difficult. But Loki was single-minded, pouring all his strength into prying open the left hand gripping his throat.

Just as he managed to draw in a breath of fresh air, Loki felt a warmth near his ear, and a gentle voice whispered:

“Aren’t you always puzzled about one thing—why Fú never brought out the demonic sword Apophis to fight you?”

Loki inhaled the oxygen, and his body instinctively felt weak and limp—the natural relaxation response of muscles. But upon hearing Fang Senyan’s words, his heart plummeted uncontrollably!

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