The broadswords were no good. Sea Deer Hunter and Demon Eye Blade were both premium weapons among premium weapons, and two strong cream-of-the-crop adepts wielded them, yet they couldn’t inflict even the slightest damage to the scalding, black-turned-red scales. The scales deflected every attack, so the two decided to disengage and take their time. After all, if they just rushed in without taking the time to understand their opponent, they’d only die for nothing.
Chichen whipped his tail, generating a dense-red smokescreen. The gale he whipped out was strong enough to force the two adepts back involuntarily.
Even though Abels managed to block an attack, he almost lost his weapon when he did.
Chichen hissed, instructing the beasts around to stay back. Chichen then unleashed a scorching-red blast from his body. It wasn’t hard to imagine how many lives would’ve been compromised in the blast if humans still inhabited Nieyao.
Moyan Luohou neither budged nor spoke, yet the flames stopped outside three metres from him, reduced to a wall of flames – courtesy of Evil Eminence Powerfield. Since flames and Evil Eminence Powerfield were formless instruments, the two cancelled each other out. Moyan Luohou thereupon split the wall of flames with his ivy-green blade. The ground along his slash’s trajectory sunk, yet Chichen only noticed the incoming blade when it was by his head. As a result, Chichen was unable to get out of the way in time.
Clang! The impact severed Moyan Luo’s ivy-green energy in two. Moyan Luohou didn’t leave a scratch on Chichen. That said, Moyan Luohou managed to knock Chichen back several metres.
Given Chichen was gifted with a robust and scalding-hot body, there was no exploitable weakness to speak of. No matter how advanced Moyan Luohou’s mental cultivation was, he couldn’t see what didn’t exist. Even so, Moyan Luohou recalibrated his breathing, then reassumed vigilantly observing the golden eyes of Chichen. Eyes could be used as weapons for offence. Animals that possessed intuition could sense danger. In turn, they were susceptible to erring in their judgement. Once they missteped, an opening would show itself. Unlike beasts, humans could apply strategy to overcome situations where the odds were stacked against them.
The livid python flashed its fangs prior to charging at Moyan Luohou. Chichen’s advance was cut short when a formless blue wall denied it ground. Abels Evil Eminence Scripture was the worst opponent for Chichen as Abels could stuff his attacks from afar. That being said, there were other factors to consider.
Abels’ Evil Eminence Powerfield came from his training. In other words, his strength cap was his internal energy cap. Six Evils didn’t possess internal energy or training; all they had wass sheer brute strength they were born with, and that strength was enough to crush the best adepts. Nevertheless, Evil Eminence Scripture wasn’t designed to purely fight hard on hard. Anyone could stand and trade – even if they hadn’t learnt any martial arts.
Abels managed to decelerate Chichen for only a single second before Chichen began smashing and wriggling. Abels, therefore, shifted the focus of his field after a few strikes, redirecting Chichen’s force to the side and, as a consequence, broke Chichen’s centre of balance.
The moment Chichen’s body titled into an unfavourable position, Moyan Luohou cleaved Chichen’s head again. Chichen flew away, unable to absorb his landing.
Abels took a few breaths to recollect himself. Before today, all he, and pretty much the rest of the world, knew about Moyan Luohou was that the latter was vaunted for his skills with a broadsword, had a peculiar personality and was loyal to Shaman Faith. Now, he would have to expand the list to include Moyan Luohou’s ability keep a level head, making him scary, hard to read, control and, for his enemies, impossible to guard against. Despite fighting as a team, Abels couldn’t tell what was going through Moyan Luohou’s mind, while Moyan Luohou was able to work in sync with him when they didn’t say a word to each other.
Abels and Moyan Luohou was the only pairing that had a chance – Abels on defence and Moyan Luohou on attack. If Abels was paired with Feng Xue, Luo Ming or Lai Jingzhen, they wouldn’t have gotten anywhere against Chichen.
Chichen launched himself out of the dust screen he created from his fall, planting himself between Moyan Luohou and Abels. The impact of Chichen’s landing alone sent the two up and away, dropping them on the ground the same way Moyan Luohou just did. It was then that Abels truly understood what Six Evils was really about it.
They didn’t know fatigue. They knew combat as if they were born to preside over every arena. They had defences that didn’t feel threatened. They possessed offensive might that overruled all defences. They even knew how to give as good as they received. And this one was only the son of a dragon.
Abels and Moyan Luohou, unscathed, exchanged eye contact for the first time. Even if they didn’t see eye to eye on anything else, right now, they both agreed on one thing: no way in hell were they going to be able to taken down Chichen as fast as Ming Feizhen hoped for. It was inexorably going to be a protracted match.
