"Boss, you might be going insane, but that guy called Diamondhead is right here! You're running the wrong way!" Thumbskull shouted at Zombozo's retreating back.
Pfft!
Acid Breath and Frightwig's faces instantly twisted in mortification. The former even spat out a large mouthful of corrosive liquid that sizzled against the pavement. They both wanted to die from second-hand embarrassment at Thumbskull's display of stupidity!
Ultimate. Absolute. Complete embarrassment.
Zombozo's fleeing figure twitched violently. He spun around and screamed furiously, "NOW! All of you come with me to the circus stage! Hurry up!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The moment they received their orders, Acid Breath, Thumbskull, and Frightwig immediately abandoned all pretense of courage and fled alongside Zombozo toward the backstage entrance of the circus tent!
"Don't run!"
Diamondhead hadn't expected all four of them to be so utterly spineless. His expression froze for a split second before he raised his right arm. The crystalline limb transformed into a honeycomb-patterned Gatling configuration, releasing a devastating barrage of razor-sharp diamond projectiles from countless holes!
Shink! Shink! Shink!
A glittering storm of crystal shards shot through the air, each one gleaming with cold, lethal light.
The four fleeing villains immediately dodged left and right in a panic. Several projectiles came dangerously close to hitting them. Thumbskull was especially unlucky, he crashed into various obstacles multiple times in his desperate scramble, but even that couldn't make him stop running. He absolutely did not want to get hit by those diamond projectiles!
Each crystal shard that missed and struck the ground penetrated completely through the pavement, leaving behind only bottomless cracks with no trace of the projectile itself visible!
"Why are they running so damn fast?!"
Right now, Diamondhead felt like the big boss villain chasing down fleeing heroes. He relentlessly pursued all four of them straight into the circus tent.
He was frustrated and annoyed.
His transformation time was limited, he needed to end this quickly!
"Ben, it's too dangerous to stay out here! Come inside with me!" Diamondhead glanced back at Ben and urged him forward. "We're going to need your help to rescue Grandpa and Gwen!"
"I..."
Ben was still hesitating, his fear of clowns warring with his concern for his family. But when he heard the second part of Diamondhead's statement, he steeled himself and stood up straight. "Okay, Asher. I'll follow you. But let me say this first, you deal with that clown, and I'll take care of the other three! No problem!"
"Let's go."
Diamondhead smiled with satisfaction. The two of them quickly ran toward the circus entrance, bypassing the ticket checkpoint entirely and walking directly into the main auditorium.
The seating area was packed with people, yet eerily quiet. Asher and Ben stood in the aisle between the audience sections, looking particularly conspicuous.
Meanwhile, Zombozo, Thumbskull, Frightwig, and Acid Breath had already taken positions on the stage. They looked embarrassed and disheveled.
"Good evening, everyone! I'm also a special invited guest performer!" Diamondhead announced with complete confidence, showing no stage fright whatsoever despite the crowd's attention. "My performance project is: testing exactly how durable Mr. Clown really is!"
The crystalline alien's right arm morphed into a gleaming diamond blade as he slowly walked toward Zombozo and his henchmen on the stage.
Watching Diamondhead approach, Thumbskull, Frightwig, and Acid Breath all looked extremely nervous. They had no choice but to retreat across the stage!
But Zombozo wore a mysterious, calculating expression. His eyes locked onto a specific audience member in the crowd. "This audience member, please come up and wrestle with Mr. Diamond in the aisle! This is part of your show."
"Hahaha!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, everyone in the audience erupted into laughter. Zombozo's words seemed to carry supernatural power, compelling them to find humor in everything he said.
The audience member who received the order immediately stood up and ran toward Diamondhead, blocking the aisle directly in front of him!
"Mind control?!"
Diamondhead looked at the person blocking his path with a more cautious expression. He didn't dare use too much force, it would be too easy to hurt an innocent civilian.
"GYAHHH!"
The man stretched out his muscular arms and charged at Diamondhead with a guttural yell, genuinely acting like he was some kind of sumo wrestler!
In Diamondhead's eyes, the man's technique was full of openings and utterly ridiculous.
He casually sidestepped, allowing the man to rush straight past him into empty space. The unfortunate civilian crashed face-first into the ground behind Diamondhead.
"Those little tricks of yours won't work."
Diamondhead glanced at the fallen man before turning his cold gaze back to Zombozo. He reconfigured his arm into the honeycomb Gatling form again. He'd use long-range attacks so Zombozo wouldn't have time to issue more commands.
But,
Hahahaha! HAHAHAHA!
One by one, audience members stood up from their seats while laughing maniacally. They formed a wall of bodies that blocked the entire aisle in front of Diamondhead! The sheer number of people completely obscured his view of the stage.
He couldn't even aim at Zombozo anymore because the dense crowd of heads blocked the villain's figure entirely!
"Why are these people laughing constantly?! When will they stop for even a second?!"
Ben, who had stayed behind near the entrance, watched the bizarre scene unfold with growing dread. His heart went cold.
Diamondhead also felt a deep sense of discomfort as he stared at the crowd gathering before him.
He knew this group of civilians couldn't actually threaten him, but their constant harsh laughter and vacant expressions created an unsettling atmosphere that made his crystalline skin crawl!
"Come wrestle with that person called Diamondhead for a while!" Zombozo's arrogant laughter rang out as he despicably used innocent people to deal with the hero!
"I can't attack them at all!"
The ordinary people kept pouring in, wave after wave. Diamondhead couldn't bring himself to strike them down. He could only protect his body while being pushed backward by the growing crowd!
He tried pushing his arms forward to move people out of his way, but there were always individuals who accidentally got knocked into the auditorium seats next to him because of his strength. Some even got injured, bleeding from minor cuts. This made Diamondhead even more reluctant to use force!
He couldn't gamble with innocent people's safety.
More importantly...
"Asher, let's watch Mr. Zombozo's performance together."
"Asher, why aren't you laughing? When you face difficulties, you have to meet them with a smile."
Gwen and Max, two of the most important people in Asher's life, emerged from the crowd and walked directly toward Diamondhead!
"Asher! You can't fight back! Grandpa and Gwen are in there too!" Ben's voice cracked as he shouted from behind, retreating alongside Diamondhead.
"I know! That's the most troublesome part, I can only leave this to them!"
Diamondhead was deeply frustrated. He was quickly being overwhelmed by the crowd, swallowed up by the mass of hypnotized civilians. To prevent anyone from getting accidentally stabbed, he even had to retract the sharp crystal spikes protruding from his back.
His transformation time was almost up, too!
Biu~ Biu~ Biu~
Just as that thought crossed his mind, the Omnitrix symbol on Diamondhead's chest began flashing red and emitting warning beeps. The special sound effects signaled his time limit had been reached!
Damn it!