Even though Chichen was equipped with molten armour, it racked up more and more injuries over time. Despite being blessed with the recovery rate of Six Evils, its healing rate couldn’t keep up with the damage it took. Though its blood would convert into armour once expelled from its body, the special ability didn’t work on injuries suffered inside its body.
It took eight hours, but the odds were finally against Chichen. Chichen’s instant retaliations gradually devolved into primarily defending because its counters were being countered with more pain than just eating the initial shot.
Abels and Moyan Luohou was the only team that stuck to Ming Feizhen’s blueprint, wearing down Chichen with battle prowess, experience, wise judgement and sharp weapons. Abels took on the role of armour and shield, repelling Chichen’s fire and fangs using Evil Eminence Powerfield.
Chichen grew as a combatant throughout the fight, learning to adapt and leverage its body against two opponents capable of giving it a run for its money. The thing was, time wasn’t Chichen’s ally alone. Practically speaking, time worked against Chichen. Despite its ability to learn, it was learning from one match, while Abels and Moyan Luohou had hundreds of fights logged. Plus, Chichen wasn’t the only one who could learn on the fly.
Abels also picked up on Chichen’s movement style and habits. Early on, he had to keep Evil Eminence Powerfield active over Chichen’s body at all times until Chichen’s attack target was clear enough for him to focus his field on that specific spot. Needless to say, that wasn’t remotely optimal, allowing Chichen to plough through several times and hurt him internally. Now, Abels could accurately predict Chichen’s approach and target 80% of the time as soon as Chichen’s tongue surfaced or tail rose.
Chichen zipped toward Moyan Luohou out of the blue. Alas, Abels’ concentrated sphere forced Chichen to pull back.
Abels new sphere was a product of wrapping spheres inside spheres for ten-plus layers, creating a barrier solid enough to stop Chichen breaking through.
Moyan Luohou thereupon moved to swing at the retreating python.
While he was hailed as Nanjiang’s greatest broadsword wielder, his style was far removed from Nanjiang’s martial arts system. The fact that he focused on training his hands, arms, shoulders and eyes proved this point. Training one’s vision before training their weaponry was unheard of for broadsword disciplines. As for his broadsword discipline itself, people believed it was a long-lost discipline from the first Shaman Monarch in Mystical Era. Compared to contemporary broadsword disciplines, a lot of the details wouldn’t fit. Those who weren’t disciples of the discipline couldn’t possibly appreciate how difficult it was to pass down the skills.
At a glance, one would perceive numerous slashes from Moyan Luohou. In reality, only one of the trajectories the eye saw was the one that’d be harmful. As a broadsword user himself, Abels couldn’t help drawing a comparison. Contrary to Moyan Luohou’s style, Abels’ broadsword style was more aesthetic and vicious. Howbeit, those two attributes came at the expense of stability.
At the end of the day, a straightforward attack had less room for error than something more flowery. Straightforward attacks weren’t any less impractical. When the opponent is feinting, a straightforward attack will force them to drop their feint in order to deal with the attack.
There’s so much to learn from just a single slash of his. My only option if I was his opponent is to rely on Evil Eminence Powerfield to defend.
Moyan Luohou etched a new line on Chichen’s face. From the opening of the match, Moyan Luohou focused on chipping away at Chichen’s most robust body part – its head. Accumulatively, he had slashed Chichen’s head no less than a hundred times.
Abels and Moyan Luohou adjusted their qi, preparing to make the last attack the final one. Chichen had a strong hunch its two opponents were methodically preparing something. It had no answer for whatever they had up their sleeve. The two never tried to test their limits, overcommitting to an offence they couldn’t withdraw from, and they never made any errors. Their method could rightfully be described as slow and steady.
For some reason, Chichen hissed, then coiled up. Neither Abels nor Moyan Luohou could tell if it was crying or raging. Either way, that shouldn’t have been how a cornered opponent would behave. Over the next few seconds, Chichen raised its head, coiled, raised it head and coiled… Most importantly, how did it suddenly move faster than its previous attacks?
Chichen chose to disengage for the first time, an uncharacteristic decision given it always chose an eye for an eye as soon as it was caught. Moreover, it was supposed to be slower than Abels and Moyan Luohou owing to its heavy scales, yet it retreated to the armoured soldiers before they could react.
Chichen devoured one of the hundreds of soldiers in one swoop. The soldier wasn’t chewed to death but burnt to death inside Chichen. Chichen then proceeded to gobble more soldiers.
Abels and Moyan Luohou caught up from behind to chop it on either side. Chichen’s spin around sent the two flying. Based on Abels’ calculation, Chichen was approximately 50% stronger than before.
How does he suddenly gain this much strength even if flesh and essence are supplements?
“Dragon-Slaying Formation,” Moyan Luohou remarked.
If it wasn’t for Dragon-Slaying Formation, the four never would’ve stuck around to face off against the adepts. The fact that Chichen was eating humans without hesitation in addition to grown stronger could only mean that the formation was having problems for one reason or another.
“What’s the plan? He definitely hasn’t just grown stronger.”
The wound Moyan Luohou opened on Chichen’s face had begun to close – most probably attributed to devouring the soldier.
Chichen raised its head to load up a fire ball. Moyan Luohou launched himself up, doubled the size of the closing wound and dropped Chichen. Chichen’s body burned the ground as it writhed in pain.
“Kill it without the formation,” Moyan Luohou answered.
