Tombstones raised from the ground, erupting from the depths of both fresh and decomposed bodies as Jin revealed his trump card against the faceless Zeru.
But his opponent was not giving him any time to breathe, much alone to retaliate against him. The first Lotus technique was something Jin had never seen before and since none of them ever shout their techniques out, he could only use his inverse eyes to predict the possible feints and attack pattern coming to him.
Unfortunately, Jin had decided not to evade the attack because of the long casting time for the Land Of Scars extreme magic spell. If he were to break his concentration right now, the magic would backfire against him and there was nothing he was able to do to match against Zeru.
Petals of the darkest lotus flew around Jin momentarily as if they were finding their position to target him. And since he was stationary throughout the entire time, it seemed as the lotus petals found their optimal spots before it swiftly pierce into Jin's body.
Needless to say, the Astral Panda Cultivator had already erected a mana barrier in hopes to delay the inevitable attack and it was successful in preventing the flurry of petal strikes …for a few seconds. The mana barrier broke among the onslaught of the energised petals, only to encounter another layer of barrier once more.
"I am not that dumb to put one thick barrier to block your attacks! I remember seeing a pattern that your lower grade skills consisted of layered attacks to overwhelm the enemy." Jin smiled to himself, happy that he had guessed right.
Yet that confidence was also short lived as the storm of petals revealed Zeru personally rushing to strike the barrier down. With one slash, the series of layer barriers broke simultaneously, only allowing Jin a minute of a second to stop the slash with his left arm.
With Maqi infused to channel the extreme spell, Jin used his left hand as a shield to stop the attack as he continued to unleash his Maqi into the spell activation so that the Land Of Scars could be cast. The only problem (well, one of the few problems.) was that he had no idea how much Maqi he had to put out in order for the spell to work properly.
And since he had already been delayed by Faceless Zeru's attack, Jin had no idea how the extreme spell would work. The only consolidation was that his left hand was holding firmly into the Faceless Zeru's sword, preventing the fake master from executing his entire combo of strikes.
Yet again, he did not expect the Faceless Zeru to be reactive against his rash action. Compared to the other faceless soldiers he had encountered, Faceless Zeru felt as if he was living right inside this battlefield, fighting against Jin with all his might and wit. Does that mean Suzaku had always been holding back with her other soldiers in this particular aspect or it was just that Faceless Zeru was one of her trump cards to prevent Jin from completing the challenge that he had embarked on.
Still, Suzaku did not make a sound after her self declared pity story and continued to watch the duel in the endless battlefield. And just as Zeru emerged a wakizashi from the back of his palm, Jin's heart raced and unconsciously sent a rush of Maqi into the channelling circle beneath him, causing the extreme magic to finally activate.
The tombstones that were erected throughout the endless battlefield rumbled loudly and all the rotting corpses surrounding started to vibrate and resonate with the Maqi being poured out of the tombstones.
Unknowingly, Jin had used the Land of Scars spell to form an army of faceless armed zombies against Suzaku's faceless soldiers. Some of the zombies that had woken up instantly threw themselves towards Zeru, causing him to evade and retaliate, allowing Jin to have a quick breather.
Suzaku's stoic smile turned to a moment of shock as she saw the waves of zombies turning against the faceless soldiers. And to top it off, those zombies retained their ability and techniques which they had used previously against Jin and his clones. This meant that they were no ordinary undead that were meat fodders but a meat shield that could bite back (literally).
The new development somehow angered Suzaku and her hand lit up with chi as bright as the sun but suddenly, someone grabbed her wrist, stopping her from doing what she intended to perform.
"As per contract. No interference from you yourself for this trial. I already gave some leeway to you to send your champion in for the fight. But if you were to interfere with Jin's fight with Zeru, I would not hesitate to -"
"Those zombies! Those undead! You never told me he is a necromancer too! How dare you let a necromancer defile my battlefield!" Suzaku shouted at Ming who was obviously restraining her from entering the battle. "You remember that of all the people I hated, necromancers were at the top of the list for their insolence towards life."
"You saw that it was not him that did it but the technique he copied. Those zombies were just a byproduct of the magic he imitated. If you looked carefully, they were filled with his Maqi and being animated rather than given independence of their actions. They are puppets rather than the living dead." Ming said as he used his own chi to calm Suzaku down and cast a scan spell to show her what was going on with the soldiers.
"You did not state in the contract that there could not be any puppets for the fight. It just so happened he did have the power and ability to do so on a wide scale." Ming said he slowly pushed Suzaku back to the bench and asked her to watch the end.
"And trust me, despite his show of force, I believe your champion would emerge victorious." Ming remarked as he too sat beside her to watch the chaotic battlefield unfold even further as the animated faceless soldiers clashed with the ones under Suzaku's command.
