Trapped

Seeing all Ten Rings light up, Alex could not help but worry. These ten rings were simply too powerful, and he was not sure whether he could withstand them.

As he worried, Alex noticed that although all ten rings had lit up, Mandarin was not using them at once, but one after another. Alex also noticed Mandarin’s tightly pressed lips and the beads of sweat that occasionally appeared on his forehead. An idea struck him: using the Ten Rings must put pressure on Mandarin too. It was not as effortless as Alex had imagined.

With that thought, Alex relaxed somewhat, though he remained vigilant.

After easily dodging the Freezing Ray, Alex was about to close in when a Lightning Storm suddenly blocked his path. The flickering silver light reminded him of the sea of lightning from not long ago.

Instinctively, Alex activated Energy Absorption, preparing to absorb the Lightning Storm completely.

Just then, Alex felt something move against his palm. A flash of pain jolted his entire body. Looking down, he saw a long, narrow wound on his right forearm that had appeared at some unknown time, deep enough to expose bone, with blood pouring out like water. Alex was stunned for a moment before coming to his senses and hurriedly circulating the energy within him to heal the wound. Yet his mind was still trying to figure out where it had come from.

As he thought, Alex quickly raised his head and warily scanned his surroundings.

The Lightning Storm that had been right before him had vanished without explanation. The desert was gone as well. All around him was darkness, and he could not see anything at all.

"What happened?" Alex blinked repeatedly, staring around him in disbelief. The pitch-black darkness made him nervous, and layers of Energy Shields tightly protected him in the middle.

As he hesitated, a crisp sound rang out. Alex instinctively arched his waist and flipped backward into a bridge, feeling as though an arrow had pierced through the clothes on his back by a hair’s breadth. Looking more closely, he discovered that the Energy Shield to his left had already been pierced by a finger-thick hole.

Before Alex could react, a fierce gust of wind swept toward him. He raised his hand to block it, only to feel a rough touch—it was Mandarin. Taking advantage of the darkness, he had chosen close combat again.

Alex turned and retreated, his mind constantly searching for a solution. In the darkness, he could not see anything. He could still use his keen Energy Sense to anticipate some energy attacks, but there was no way to guard against physical combat.

If it were only physical combat, Alex would not have been too worried. With Energy Absorption, he would be invincible. But Mandarin still had the ten magic rings on his hands. From their previous exchanges, Alex had already roughly understood the abilities of the Ten Rings. If Mandarin activated one of their powers during a moment of close contact, Alex had no confidence he could block it.

And just as Alex had guessed, that was exactly what Mandarin had planned. From their earlier battle, Mandarin had also figured out Alex’s abilities. Neither energy attacks nor close combat could truly injure Alex, so Mandarin could only place his hopes on the special powers of the magic rings.

At first, using the Lightning Storm as cover, he successfully injured Alex with the Cutting Beam from the ring on his right ring finger. After that first success, Mandarin repeatedly activated the magic rings. First, the Black Body Ray created a space of darkness that blocked Alex’s vision, then he used the Cutting Beam to attack Alex.

Although Alex had dodged the second attack, it also proved that Mandarin’s plan was highly effective. The only pity was that the Cutting Beam required a certain cooldown period. Otherwise, if he could fire it continuously, Mandarin could have dealt with Alex easily.

After his initial panic, Alex quickly calmed down and carefully considered the abilities he possessed: Teleportation, Energy Control, Energy Absorption, Metal Manipulation, Red Impact Beam, and invisibility. He had many abilities, but under the current circumstances, none seemed particularly useful except Teleportation for escape.

Alex had already guessed Mandarin’s intentions. Energy Control and Energy Absorption were no longer of much use. With the space shrouded in darkness, he could not find his target with his telepathy, making Metal Manipulation and Red Impact Beam equally ineffective.

"Invisibility? Maybe it will work." Thinking of his last ability, Alex felt somewhat hopeful. It had played no small role during his battle with the Inhuman Tashim.

Unfortunately, the moment Alex vanished into the darkness, Mandarin lurking in the shadows noticed it. The ring on his right index finger glowed with purple-red light, and powerful sound waves instantly spread outward.

Alex’s invisibility was broken without the slightest surprise. The moment his body reappeared, Mandarin’s attack followed close behind. The tremendous gravitational force left Alex unable to react at all, and in an instant, he was buried beneath the sand. Just as Alex struggled, he suddenly discovered that the surrounding sand had compacted, as if it had turned to stone, pinning him into the ground.

"If I don’t show my strength, do you really think I’m Hello Kitty?!" After being tormented again and again, Alex finally snapped. With a furious shout, he immediately activated Teleportation, vanishing from underground and appearing directly outside the dark space.

It had to be said that Teleportation was absurdly powerful. Since coming to this world, Alex had been virtually unstoppable except for a few occasions. Nothing had ever been able to block him.

When Mandarin realized that Alex had escaped his confinement, he frowned. Alex’s teleportation had exceeded his expectations. Even the carefully prepared "dungeon" could not trap him.

The moment Alex emerged from the dark space, he fired a Red Impact Beam at the black-hole-like space in the desert without a second thought. The arm-thick red beam instantly pierced through the black hole. But that alone was not enough to show Alex’s fury. Using Teleportation, Alex appeared in every direction around the black hole within seconds, firing a Red Impact Beam from every position.

By the time Alex stopped, the first Red Impact Beam had just emerged from the other side of the black hole!

In an instant, dozens of Red Impact Beams tore apart the black-hole-like space of darkness, exposing the real scene inside. It was completely empty, with no one there.

As Alex wondered what was going on, his whole body suddenly shook, and he was abruptly lifted into the air. Before he could recover, Alex found himself magically pressed into a massive boulder. Then, in an instant, the boulder turned into a dazzling, transparent diamond.

Knowing things were bad, Alex instinctively tried to activate Teleportation. Then something horrifying happened—Teleportation failed! Just moments ago, he had been thinking that Teleportation was unstoppable, yet he was stumped in the blink of an eye. Alex’s heart immediately sank to the bottom.

"So that’s how it is!" Seeing Alex trapped within the diamond, unable to move, Mandarin instinctively touched the ring on his right index finger. To trap Alex, Mandarin had activated the powers of all ten rings at once just now, ultimately using the Electromagnetic Wave emitted by the ring on his right index finger to keep Alex behind.

Third update delivered. Scorpion was going to rest for a while…