As the dust settled, Rex removed the barrier to allow the skulk of foxes to check the battlefield. There might be energy remnants of Kraft's Graveyard Combo but the foxes were strong enough to bear the brunt of combo.
In fact, if there were any other minions or even the Sub System Users in the area, the Foxes believed that they would have been eliminated almost immediately. The odd thing was Jin was not 'that strong' even with a supposed grade up and they wondered how he could survive the third stage of Kraft's Graveyard Combo which would pose a problem even to the Foxes themselves. Rex instantly disposed the rest of the residue energy with his own chi, purifying the dimensional instance so that the other foxes could breathe easy too.
"This is indeed a surprise. To have a draw with that old fox was not an easy feat at all even though we know that he was still pulling his punches against him." Pei said and the rest agreed when the two of the competitors remerged back into the dimensional instance, brimming full with life and lots of questions in their minds.
"How the hell did you even manage to survive my attacks!" Kraft shouted as Rex placed his arms through the old fox's armpit and restrained him from moving towards Jin.
"Why should I even tell you about it when you never mention to me about this Graveyard combo technique that you have?" Jin said but honestly, he felt lucky the plan he created on the spot had worked miraculously well.
When Jin was surrounded by the ominous chi aura that Kraft produced, the chi explosion that he made was to give him time to disengage Derek from the System Rider to get a new minion into the System Rider Belt so he could deal with the pesky aura but he figured that it was the Rider System that was protecting him all this time.
Even though the Living Metal armour which was embedded through Jin's body was not of a consequence to Kraft's attacks and strikes, it was still an obstacle for Kraft to overcome should he wish to chop Jin's head into one. So, Jin believed that if he were to trick Kraft and get an attack in if he were to play his cards correctly.
The trump card he had was the powers he acquired with the grade up that he recently obtained upon diving into his subconsciousness. However, the only problem was that Jin does not know how to use it properly because he never tried it before even though his mind, his soul and body know of the technique.
Orochi's Substitution
Many had known that the eight headed serpent had the ability to grow back its head was no brainer but Jin was able to use it was a blessing in disguise. Maybe Ming might have known that Jin would need more than tougher bones and innate healing to survive since he only had one chance in life. Unlike the rest who could be killed and resurrected, there was no such option for the current System User and this was one of the ways to compensate for it.
Naturally, as the skill's name had implied, this was merely a substitution, a clone of his body where he would hide in the makeshift body. So long as Jin's dantian core is up and running along with the required amount of Maqi to produce it, he should be able to get it up as many times as possible. The only problem Jin had was the activation of the skill and the limitations of it. He tried to use it when he had the System Rider on but it was not working as intended so he believed that the only way to do so was through disengaging it.
And thus Jin had decided to use the chi explosion as a cover up so he could allow the technique to take over his body before Kraft attacks him again. After all, there had not been once the old Fox used his shadow step strike that he always used to creep up on Jin so there was a possibility he could have kept the move until the most crucial moment.
So just as Jin disengaged the System Rider, he activated Orochi's Substitution and snakes literally came out from his orifices (Let's not imagine the one that came out from his b_u_t_t hole…) and immediately wrapped around his entire body, substituting it with a fake body with the same amount of details on it. The only difference was that Jin's soul was hiding in the dantian core and thus had to display even more Maqi to control the body.
That was how unbelievable it was, to trick Kraft into thinking that Jin survived the attack.
However, the battle was still a draw mainly because of what Kraft had pulled out from his Graveyard Combo. The Third Stage, the Land of Scars. As the technique had proven itself to be one of the deadliest in the world and possibly the multiverse, there was no way for Jin at his current grade able to survive the continuous barrage of chi induced magic abilities. But because his substitution was based on the amount of Maqi he had, Jin was able to tolerate some hits before going dark.
And hence, he activated his Astral Alter, an exact version of himself to finish the job on Kraft, sneaking behind his back and slitting his throat, as just how the old fox would have done to Jin if he had the chance to do so. But upon doing so, Jin exhausted his Maqi reserves and got obliterated by the punishing damage from Kraft's extreme magic.
Perhaps, to Jin, it was payback as well, a tit for tat of all the torturous training he had gone through and for the Panda to get an inconclusive draw with the fox? In Jin's opinion, he had won the fight.
Not to mention, seeing the irk on Kraft's face was quite a pleasurable sight.
