Kapitel 107: Desperate Fight
Chen Wei remains calm after delivering a clean slash that left a deep, blood-stained gash across Huo Xue's chest, along with a cut to his neck that sent his head flying into the sky.
If he were a more compassionate person, perhaps he would be sighing in pity for the young man who lost his head simply due to the misfortune of being distracted at the wrong time in front of the wrong person. However, such futile thoughts that only lead to death don't cross his mind. Instead, his eyes quickly scan the entire battlefield in less than a second, searching for potential threats and new targets.
"....!!!"
In that brief moment, not one of the Huo clan's Gu Masters utters a word, but none of them are without deep shock at what just transpired.
And Chen Wei, who watches them as if reading open books, can clearly see their tension reflected in their actions, with some reacting swiftly like seasoned veterans and others still processing the shock of what happened.
But Chen Wei has no intention of exchanging words or offering explanations for what just occurred to ease their hearts. Instead, he doesn't hesitate to grab the decapitated body in front of him and hurl it with all his might at one of the nearby Gu Masters who seems to have reacted quickly to attack him.
Using the back of the large red lizard as a base, he propels himself forward with a jump, positioning himself just behind the body flying through the air.
"Combat formation!!!" Huo Tie shouts his command, glancing sideways at the naked man covered in mud advancing without the slightest hesitation or fear towards Huo Hei.
Chen Wei, in less than a second, sees all the Gu Masters around him controlling their lizards' reins, some moving to distance themselves from him and others closing in, even with the difficulty of the muddy terrain. At this moment, most of them are already taking action, and he can feel the aura of several Gu being activated.
But he doesn't have time to think about that when three fiery spearheads pierce the body in front of him with force, pinning it in the air and preventing him from advancing as planned.
"Now!! His movement is delayed!!" Huo Hei, still somewhat shocked by the sudden appearance of Chen Wei, who had evaded his Heat Vision Gu, shouts loudly. While, he tries to ignore these emotions as he controls the reins of his lizard, which is advancing rapidly, leaving Chen Wei's back exposed to attacks from all sides.
".... not today," Chen Wei, extremely familiar with these tactics, doesn't feel nervous at all, even though he can see out of the corner of his eye blue snake-shaped flames and Gu Masters approaching.
In fact, his heart is filled with calm as he realizes he must quickly kill or incapacitate the enemy in front of him.
With this resolve, he firmly grabs one of the fiery spearheads, slightly burning his mud-covered hand. In a fluid and clean motion, he twists his body in such a way that he is now using the decapitated body to shield his back.
But he doesn't remain still, quickly propelling himself forward to avoid a large yellow fire arrow launched by Huo Hei, who is surrounded by a thick, vibrant, and wild red fire armor.
"I'll take your head!!!" Chen Wei shouts fiercely, acting like a person driven by rage, staring directly into Huo Hei's eyes.
Huo Hei, hearing this, remains serious as he raises his arm to protect his head, not even trying to dodge the wild, fury-filled attack that seems clumsy, cutting at a strange angle that doesn't seem to have the necessary fluidity to carry the force and sharpness of a proper strike.
But unlike what Huo Hei expected, the impact of the slash never comes. His eyes follow the strange, poorly executed slash of the blood blade, only to find his eyes trembling in fear.
The reason is that the target of the attack wasn't his head, as he now discovers due to the almost completely severed neck of his lizard, with his head hanging on by only a bit of the underside skin.
At that very moment, the lizard's legs, which were running powerfully before its death, tangle with each other, causing it to tumble forward with all its might.
"Damn!! Fu-!!" Huo Hei doesn't even have time to finish his words as his world spins at a frightening speed.
In an instant, he feels as if the world has collapsed, crashing down on his legs and stomach, almost knocking him completely unconscious, but fortunately, he only ends up heavily disoriented.
"Argh! Argh..." When he finally regains his senses, he finds his lower body crushed under the massive lizard, weighing over a ton, while both of his arms protect his head, what allowed him to maintain consciousness.
"Damn..."
"My... argh... armor... is going to collapse!" He speaks with difficulty, noticing that the armor still keeping his legs and stomach from being completely crushed is weakening and vibrating as if about to break.
But before he can even weakly attempt to crawl out from under the lizard, he feels a deep killing intent when a series of slashes fall one after another on his arms, targeting his head.
"Help!!! Quickly!!!" Huo Hei shouts at the top of his lungs with all his strength as he remembers who put him in this situation, whom he momentarily forgot due to the shock of the fall.
Soon, he feels his armor completely collapse, his arms being cruelly severed, and his legs and stomach being crushed once and for all by the weight of the massive lizard, making him close his eyes as he accepts death.
But unlike what he expected, he doesn't feel a cruel slash severing his head and sending his soul to the door of life and death.
This causes him to open his eyes, only to see both Huo Ni Ma and Huo Lee desperately fighting against Chen Wei, who has an irritated expression on his face as he deals with their attacks with some difficulty.
-----
*Moments Before*
As soon as Chen Wei felt the impact of the fluid, strange strike that required great effort and skill coursing through his arm and spreading throughout his body, he had only one thought: Success!
In that very moment, he saw the lizard stumbling, flipping head over heels in the air, and descending at an astonishing speed before hitting the ground with such force that it made the entire earth tremble, sending mud flying everywhere.
'It's now!' Chen Wei roared within himself as he began to run toward the body of the great lizard, struggling due to the deep mud.
But his advance was halted when he sensed a strong aura burning like hellfire attacking him from behind with killing intent.
Chen Wei quickly fixed his gaze on the muddy water in front of him and, using the reflection caused by the blue flames, swiftly estimated the location, speed, and direction of the flames' attack.
Making a split-second decision, he lowered his body without hesitation while shifting his center of gravity, placing his left hand on the ground, and rapidly spinning 180 degrees.
In that half-second spin, he caught sight of the backside of the blue snake-shaped flames that had narrowly missed him before he locked eyes directly with Huo Tie, who was responsible for the blue flames.
Seeing this opportunity, he swung his right hand with impressive fluidity, releasing several blood blades that soared through the air with surgical precision, aiming both at the advancing blue flames and Huo Tie, their creator.
However, he didn't even have the luxury of seeing the result of his attack as, upon completing the other 180 degrees of his spin and regaining his footing, he could only continue advancing without looking back.
Not that he wanted to look back, of course, because during the entire action—which in his mind was detailed and complex, requiring multiple complicated maneuvers but appeared as a stunning movement to any observer, taking no more than a second—he had only one thing in mind: killing Huo Hei, who was being crushed by his lizard.
'Seems like they really won't let me kill one of their comrades?' Chen Wei lamented to himself.
After advancing several meters, now just a few steps away from Huo Tie, volcanic-looking rocks reached him, forcefully piercing the ground right behind him.
But Chen Wei felt a sense of relief seeing the great lizard within the effective range of the Rotting Blood Gu, so he quickly used it like a lasso, wrapping it around the lizard's leg and pulling himself with great force, swiftly escaping the futile pursuit of the volcanic rocks.
"...!!"
Chen Wei now bore a cold expression as he stood face-to-face with Huo Hei, who was pathetically lying on the ground, crushed by the lizard's body, with his flame armor, which burned the surrounding mud, almost completely collapsing.
And collapse it did, under the barrage of cuts made by Chen Wei that fell one after another with breathtaking precision and speed, striking all the weak and vulnerable points of the flame armor, which, despite being a rank 2 gu, collapsed in an instant.
But he never got the chance to deliver the final blow to send Huo Hei straight to the Life and Death door, as he felt a sudden attack aimed at his head, falling at a speed difficult to follow with the naked eye.
Chen Wei quickly activated the Light Armor Gu while dodging his head just enough so that the reptilian claws, burning like hot iron, merely grazed the light armor surrounding his body.
"Arrr!!" Huo Ni Ma, who was charging alongside Huo Lee, didn't miss this opportunity and quickly lunged at Chen Wei with the ferocity of a wolf.
Seeing the young man with the spirits of two wild wolves, one black and one white, floating above his head, Chen Wei desperately dodged, avoiding the skillful punches of the young man.
Of course, Huo Lee didn't stand still, running swiftly to attack Chen Wei with his long lizard claws that glowed red due to their temperature, surpassing that of most flames.
Thus, in less than a second, the fight, which began with basic moves, turned into a desperate struggle. To the surprise of both opponents, Chen Wei, instead of trying to create distance to use his gu, fought head-to-head and not only that, he managed to hold his own against the two in this battle.
'Low strike... sweep from the left... direct thrust... leg kick....' Chen Wei thought as he fought masterfully against the two, using all his experience and skill to his advantage.
He followed the movement of their feet to gauge where they maintained their centers of gravity and where they would move next to continue attacking him, trying to surround him.
Or he followed their shoulders and hips, which allowed him to easily determine the origin of their strikes, whether punches or kicks, and together with observing their eyes and head movements to know their targets, it allowed him to handle the two attackers effectively.
Even so, Chen Wei constantly found himself receiving powerful blows that, despite all his skill, became inevitable simply due to the difference in strength and agility between him and the Transformation Path and Strength Path gu masters, as well as the fact that he was also dealing with two other Rank 2 gu masters who constantly attacked him from a distance.
His eyes quickly scanned the battlefield, briefly catching sight of Huo Tan in the distance, who constantly hurled volcanic rocks at him or created lava pits on the ground to hinder his free movement.
Soon after, he saw Huo Hou Hui, who took the opportunity while he was occupied fighting to aid Huo Hei. Huo Hou Hui was now kneeling beside Huo Hei, desperately trying to heal him after pulling him out from under the lizard. But upon seeing his crushed lower half, he had a look of helplessness.
Finally, he saw Huo Tie, who had created a flame zone over a large perimeter and constantly attacked him at the most inopportune moments, which had caused him heavy injuries, though they were healed by the Blood Orchid Gu.
'Found it!' Chen Wei thought as he caught, out of the corner of his eye, a torrent of blue flames emerging from Huo Tie's hands and rapidly heading toward him.
Huo Lee and Huo Ni Ma quickly backed away a few steps, shifting from defensive to offensive stances, waiting for Chen Wei to leave an opening in his defenses while trying to dodge Huo Tie's attack so they could make their final moves to either kill him or at least incapacitate him from fighting.
But Chen Wei, who had so far purposely left openings to avoid such attacks, didn't do the same this time. Instead, he charged with all his might at the two while activating the Light Armor Gu.
"Damn it!!" Huo Lee, who wasn't prepared for this, found himself in a terrible defensive posture and exclaimed in fear.
The blue flames struck Chen Wei directly, burning his flesh in a terrifying manner as it burned and weakly regenerated, but he didn't change his expression as if the burns weren't even his.
"Double formation, quick!!" Huo Lee, who was the focus of Chen Wei's gaze, shouted desperately to Huo Ni Ma.
"R...right!!" Huo Ni Ma, beside him, felt his body freeze in fear as he awkwardly tried to form a defense and enter formation.
But before he even realized it, Chen Wei, now not only covered in mud but also blood and gruesome cuts that, while bad, were not worse than the burns on his chest, was already face-to-face with the two of them.
"Damn it!" Huo Lee couldn't even explain the source of the terror that made him feel as if he were facing a true demon, but that's exactly what he felt.
*slash* *slash* *slash*
"Ahhhrrrggggh!!!ahhhh!!!!Argggghh!!" Huo Ni Ma screamed as he desperately backed away, his eyes wide with shock as he saw both his arms horrendously cut, with one of them still hanging from his body by the skin even though the bone had been cut with force.
Huo Lee, who witnessed it all, felt endless shock because, unlike what he expected, the strange and unnatural cut wasn't aimed at his head but instead struck Huo Ni Ma's arm, who was now running and stumbling desperately, losing all the composure of a warrior.
"Wait...!!!" Realizing this, Huo Lee began desperately retreating as well, now aware that he was about to face Chen Wei alone in a fight.
But to his relief, Chen Wei simply remained still, his gaze sweeping around with his dead, dark red eyes.
'Lady's Torment Gu is indeed useful for battle...' Chen Wei thought as he healed himself while looking around to see all the gu masters with expressions ranging from shock to terror, with none of them were light-hearted at this moment.
"...truly, I say...you are worthy of being called the elites of the Huo Clan...." Chen Wei spoke as he ran his hand over the numerous burns on his chest that were slowly healing.
"....but this fight has only just begun, so don't think it will end anytime soon!"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein