Chapter 170: Chapter 88: The Return To Basics (Part 2)
Sona: "A spear?"
She makes a dumbfounded expression as she sees the little Psychic conjure up what looks like a 12th-century spear.
Chang Lu: "Yeah, I feel comfortable fighting with them is all."
Regardless of what he says, sees him trying to handle a spear larger than his size is certainly jarring. Can he even stand straight with that in his hand, one may come to wonder.
But,
Chang Lu: "Now then, ready to dance?"
He yells with excitement and jumps up into the air, with the spear that he was struggling to handle just a moment ago now kept as straight as any trained spearman can keep it, and targetted right where Sona is standing.
It's not hard to dodge for her. Not all all.
She dodges with much ease in fact.
But, seeing the impact the spear makes when hitting the ground is what makes her gape her mouth open.
Sona: "I am not surprised that you are using Psychic to control that spear but exactly how much energy are you putting into that thing?!"
The impact of the spear caused the large pebbles at the ground to be shattered and become mud and the after-impact sent the mud flying, forming a small crater in the ground. The force that would be required to do so is certainly not something a child could handle, especially with a weapon bigger than his size. So, everything that happened must have happened because of the Psychic energy he put into it.
In which case,
Sona: "What kind of idiot would put that much energy into a blow that was so easy to dodge?"
Chang Lu: "Oh my, oh my, oh my, why are you getting all worked up if your opponent is the one who did something 'stupid'?"
Sona: "Tsk!"
Chang Lu mocks her words as if they hold no value. But, to Sona, and to anyone else who would have seen it, this waste of energy would certainly be considered inconceivable.
And yet, Chang Lu seems to be about to laugh at the confusion on Sona's face.
Realizing that comprehending what's going through his mind is not something she would be able to do very easily, she steels herself again and sends the best Spirit she has to rival an opponent that uses too much strength.
Sona: "Sagzear!"
Calling out to the Vampire-child-like Spirit, who is almost as short as his opponent holding a spear, she says with a calm but aggressive voice,
Sona: "Keep your guard up against him! And with that being said, go freaking destroy him!"
Sagzear, with his orders being clear, pounces on Chang Lu, who dodges the same way Sona dodged his attack earlier.
However, Sagzear's blow, that ends up landing on the ground doesn't cause any craters to form. And while one may think that it means he's less powerful than Chang Lu, and that could certainly be the case, the fact remains that the crater wasn't formed because the Spirit had something else in mind.
Chang Lu: "What the-"
The Hellfire struggles to keep his balance as the pebbles on the ground erupt upon him, following the impact line of Sagzear's punch.
Clearly, the Spirit's technique is far more efficient and effective than the mindless power play of the Hellfire.
Or so one would think.
Chang Lu: "Is that all you got?"
He says, unimpressed, as all the pebbles flying at him are cut to pieces by a second spear, one that he formed in the fraction of a second he got before the pebbles hit his face.
This second spear, much shorter than the previous one, seems to be a suitable weapon choice for him.
But,
Chang Lu: "Oh my, oh my, oh my, you guys seem to be underestimating me a bit, or, a lot."
Sending a walloping amount of Psychic energy in the spear, the short spear's length is increased to 1.5 times of what the first spear is, and before anyone gets a chance to react to that, Chang Lu flies with that spear aimed straight at Sagzear's abdomen and with no chance of him possibly dodging.
Sona: "Shit!"
She curses as her Spirit is dragged to the wall at almost the speed of sound with a sharp spear sticking out of his abdomen.
Chang Lu: "What say you now?"
He asks with a grin,
Chang Lu: "Still think I am an easy catch just because my spears are bigger than me?"
Excitedly, mockingly, angrily and at the same time, condescendingly, Chang Lu asks the question he himself has just answered. And so,
Sona: "Well, certainly not."
The Spirit-user replies with an unnerving calmness.
And in just the next second, Sagzear wings his hand down like a chop, shattering the long spear, making the conjured item disappear into the thin air and using the momentum to land a blow at Chang Lu's abdomen.
Fortunately for the Hellfire, he is fast. Really fast. Fast enough to be able to dodge the blow that would have thrown him into the last century.
Sona: "And now that you have oh-so-graciously hurt my Spirit to make me realize that, I think it's time I make you realize not to underestimate ME!"
While burning with the rage that once struck fear in the heart of a legendary Dragon, her bloodshot eyes threaten Chang Lu with hostility encapturing the air around them.
Chang Lu: "Y-you …"
Speechless by how just her emotions have so easily overpowered the surroundings, the Hellfire tries to step back, only to realize that running away is not at all an option.
Sona: "Going somewhere?!"
The Spirit that was once sticking to the wall after having been injured by his spear now is standing behind him. And just as he notices, he is made aware that it isn't an illusion either as his teeth come flying out and his body gallops through the air with his cheek reddening by a blow from a brick-like hand.
Not given the luxury to land and get back up though, his back is broken in mid-air by a Spirit that jumps faster than his own blow sends his victim away.
Being slumped with a painfully jaw-breaking impact on the ground, Chang Lu barely dodges the next hit that was aimed at the bones of his neck, which may have just finished him off.
Using the dodge to run and run until he hit a wall and there's no place left to run back to, Chang Lu breathes with ragged breaths, horrified of the monstrous aura around the Spirit-user as well as her Spirit.
Sona: "Well, that was a good enough trailer, right?"
She says so with a raging calmness.
Sona: "Now, for the actual fight, let's send my speedster out."
Her speedster? So that wasn't even her fastest Spirit and it could still break his bones? The massively powerful Vampire-like Spirit and her so-called speedster are now going to combine their forces to gang up on him.
Chang Lu: "Oh my, oh my … oh my, t-that'd be … terrible!"
No way can he stand against that!
And so, in the next second, no, in the next millisecond, as if all the energy stored in his body existed for just that millisecond, Chang Lu rushes up to Sona, leaving Sagzear and her unable to move an inch, and does what he needs to do to stop her.
A Spirit-user does two things to summon a Spirit.
They yell the name and if it is bound with an enchantment then yell that too. And they use their hands to position where exactly the Spirit is to be summoned.
In which case, if she doesn't have her hands, then she can be stopped, right?
She won't be able to summon any other Spirits, would she?
Following that line of logic, a pale and lean hand flies off into the air and the sounds of cracking comes from the other one.
Sona: "Agh! AAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!"
The Spirit-user loses both her hands, rendering her incapable of summoning any Spirits whatsoever.
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Having been abandoned by the entire third faction, members of Heise struggle to get the upper hand on the Vermilion members, especially the Volcanoes.
Li Wei, their leader, curses his own stupidity for trusting in them and trying to run off with them earlier, as that has caused him to lose some influence among his members too.
A double defeat, one could say.
Yet, for what it's worth, he hasn't given up, and neither has any other member of Heise.
And so, as he goes head-to-head with a Volcano and overpowers him alongside breaking his arms, Li Wei asks,
Li Wei: "Why are you people here anyway? Fighting us like this will only cause harm to you. You don't have anything to gain here."
The Volcano, crying in pain, as he hears those words, retorts,
Volcano: "Nothing to gain, you fucking kidding me, jackass? We all get promoted if we succeed in this mission."
Li Wei: "What!?"
Volcano: "If those three are able to do their job, they'll become the new Phoenix. And with them as Phoenix, every member here will be promoted a rank. You still think there was nothing to gain-AAAAHHH!!!"
With his crushed hand twisted even more, he shuts up, giving Li Wei the time to wrap his head around what he has heard.
Li Wei: "T-that means the Phoenix is …"
If it really is true that the three, by completing the mission of killing Abgere, will become Phoenix. Then, the current Phoenix would probably retire.
And if that happens, if the politically most powerful and overall second most powerful human being in the entire world steps down and retires, the supernatural world will be thrown into chaos.
Everything will go out of balance.
The political standings, the financial standings, the respect and the fear, with the man commanding all of it with his overwhelming strength gone, all of it will be up for grabs.
And then, just maybe, a chance for the Vampire Kingdom to make a striking blow that would turn the tables and give them the advantage might come along as well.
But, more than anything else, it will be utter chaos and bloodshed.
It will be a disaster.
And so, considering all of it, for the first time in a long time considering how much Reid Vezalius Rosevelt means to the world, Li Wei stands in shock, not realizing until it's too late for him to react to the incoming blow by the charging Volcano.
However, fortunately for him, a different Volcano enters the fray, throwing the one attacking him off course and then kicking another Volcano into the ground, standing over her and giving a dramatical bow after a dramatical entrance.
Seeing that Volcano, Li Wei realizes who it is.
Li Wei: "Angela Holystone!?"
Angela: "Good job remembering me, Li Wei!"
She says with a smirk, and right then, out of hiding come many Aurals, all belonging to the one faction that stands against Heise as their centuries-old rivals.
Li Wei: "You people!"
There's no way he couldn't have recognized. After all, the face of your biggest rival is quite hard to forget.
Li Wei: "Eshin!"
Eshin Mir, the leader of the Aural group Baise, stands in front of him with a smug face as his Aurals overpower the distracted Heise members as well as the members of Vermilion.
Eshin: "It's been a while, hasn't it, old friend?"
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