Things happened so suddenly that even Qianye failed to deal Noxus a good blow to his weak points.
The little fellow simply stood there in a daze. Having no time to explain things in detail, he roared, “Hide!” Then, he picked the little girl by the neck and tossed her away.
Noxus’ gaze followed the girl into the distance as she vanished into the forest. Only then did he glance back at Qianye with an ambiguous expression.
Qianye stood watching the arachne warlord with the azure sword in hand.
Noxus said, “Are you planning to fight me?”
“It’s not like I can run away.”
“True.” Noxus swung his spear horizontally, sending out a wave of radiance spanning hundreds of meters.
At that moment, streaks of grey energy appeared in the surrounding and weakened the force of the spear radiance. By the time the attack had arrived before Qianye, it contained less than half of its might and was blocked with relative ease.
Noxus was visibly moved. “This domain, this origin power…”
He banged his shield and axe together, summoning a hazy golden glow that resembled an all-encompassing spider net. The arachne warlord’s domain ranged thousands of meters, almost blotting out the sun and sky.
Judging from its nature, the spatial laws within seemed to have been affected. This meant that Qianye would not be able to escape even with Spatial Flash.
Spider webs appeared constantly in the void and drifted down onto Qianye’s body. These webs felt sticky to the touch and uncomfortable, to say the least. This was Noxus’ domain, Stagnant Nation.
The warlord was calm enough, but the distant sword emissaries were dumbfounded.
The movement restriction imposed by Noxus’ domain was famous throughout Evernight. Ordinary dukes wouldn’t even be able to move after touching the spider webs, and even grand dukes would be slowed down significantly. It was easy to guess the outcome of fighting Noxus at melee range in his domain.
Noxus could sense that Qianye’s bloodline aura was that of a duke but probably not a grand duke just yet. Yet he could move around under the effects of Stagnant Nation with little to no impediment.
In the face of Qianye’s charge, Noxus swung his axe down with a growl.
Qianye blocked the blow with his sword and was duly slammed to the ground from the impact.
This time, neither party held back. The clash between sword and axe sent ripples that shattered all rocks within a hundred meters. The ground they were standing on had sunk by one meter.
Noxus raised his eyebrows. “Good strength! Let’s try this!”
He lifted his spear and, instead of thrusting, swung the shaft at Qianye like a staff. Qianye was parrying the warlord’s axe with his right hand. Seeing the incoming spear, he formed a fist with his left hand and blasted out several eruptions of the Excavator.
Yet another rumble shook the entire area. A clearing that was close to a thousand meters wide appeared in the mountains, sinking down almost ten meters before coming to a stop.
A mere duke had charged in to contest the arachne warlord in physical strength. It was already a great feat if Qianye wasn’t slapped to death, but he had actually managed to take both blows from the warlord. One had to know that Noxus was no ordinary great dark monarch. In terms of physical strength, he was far above Sousa and overwhelmingly stronger than the vampires and demonkin.
Qianye’s body trembled ever so slightly, but he managed to block the incoming attacks. In the end, though, Qianye only had two hands, while Noxus had four arms in his spider form.
Noxus’ shield whistled over at great speed and slammed Qianye away.
The warlord didn’t relax after swatting the enemy away. He gave chase immediately, swinging his axe and shield at the target. His empty hands weren’t idle, either—they followed up with punches, slaps, and chops. Sometimes, he would even hold his spear with two hands and try to smash Qianye with it.
Qianye held on with great difficulty and actually remained standing amidst the torrent of attacks. He could no longer deal with the flurry when Noxus started using his front limbs and was duly slammed away.
Qianye flew hundreds of meters away and produced a deep pit as he slammed into the ground. He staggered up soon afterward and stretched.
Noxus’ gaze froze. “Not even a fracture? Good! Try my secret arts this time…”
Bang!
Noxus’ body was jolted about a palm’s breadth to the side. He looked back to find that Little Zhuji had appeared out of nowhere and slammed into one of his hind legs with her shield. This impact was so great that even Noxus was caught off guard and almost lost his footing.
Despite her unstable footing, she tossed the shield away and grabbed an axe from her back. She swung the weapon with a loud cry and struck Noxus’ limb.
The warlord seemed rather amused after seeing this. He simply stood there without making any movement, allowing the girl to hit him as hard as she wanted.
Noxus’ gigantic spider body trembled fiercely as the axe fell. The little girl’s axe actually cracked open Noxus’ exoskeleton and sank halfway in!
This was Noxus’ shell after all! The arachne warlord’s shell was one of his best protective gears, far stronger than a grade nine armor. Even Qianye’s azure blade only managed to hack slightly deeper than this.
Little Zhuji’s all-out attack actually managed to chop Noxus!
Her cheeks puffed up as she pulled the axe out with her childish strength, raising it again for the next blow.
Noxus didn’t dare remain careless after receiving the first strike, so he shifted his giant frame to the side. He might be gigantic, but each of his legs weren’t all that thick. They might just break if he let the girl hack a couple more times, and that would be quite the funny scene.
Fortunately, the axe cracked and shattered as Little Zhuji started to exert some force. This weapon used to be Basil’s, so its quality wasn’t bad at all; however, it ultimately failed to hold out in a collision between Noxus’ peerless body and Zhuji’s terrifying strength.
Noxus heaved a sigh of relief.
Noxus’ expression shifted drastically after grabbing Little Zhuji. He immediately propped his shield up in front of his body, which erupted with a green hue.
A scarlet gold origin bullet—superimposed with the image of a black feather—struck the shield at this moment.
The shield burst into countless pieces, pushing the warlord one step back.
A hundred meters away, Qianye was holding Dragonsgrave with a pair of luminous wings behind his back. “Put her down or else!”
Qianye was stunned halfway through his words. He saw that Noxus’ upper body was turned backward, his four arms shielding Little Zhuji safely within. The flying shield fragments landed on the warlord’s body without harming the girl.
Qianye had barely managed to hold his ground against the arachne warlord just now and was rather badly shaken a number of times. Only after coming to did he realize that the little girl had snuck back to attack Noxus and that she had been captured.
In his urgency, Qianye immediately fired a Shot of Inception with Dragonsgrave, which Noxus blocked.
It would seem that this attack was so powerful that he had almost hurt Zhuji.
Noxus turned around and glanced at the girl in his hand struggling with all her might. Her actions were so vigorous that even the great dark monarch was finding it hard to keep her in place.
Failing to extricate herself, the little lass bit down on Noxus’ large hand, her steely fangs drawing blood almost immediately.
Even the arachne warlord came close to letting go because of the pain. Noxus grabbed the little girl and tried to pull her off, but she simply wouldn’t let go.
Noxus didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. He quickly circulated his origin power to protect his arm, or else the little girl might just bite a chunk of flesh off. The kid was extremely strong, and her sharp fangs were even sharper than Basil’s axe.
This was a delicate task, and Noxus couldn’t quite catch how much force he should be using. He was afraid that he would damage Zhuji’s teeth.
Noxus heaved a sigh of relief after finally removing the girl. Sensing an ominous premonition, he looked up at the sky all of a sudden.
Qianye was right above him, surrounded by a vivid cloud of greyish origin power as he bore down with his sword.
As a peak expert of the Evernight World, Noxus could guess that this was Howard’s azure blade. However, the sword was now giving off a much more dangerous sensation after being shrouded in grey energy. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have felt so restless even if Howard were the one wielding the blade.
The arachne mostly relied on their strong combat instincts, and Noxus was no exception. He moved dozens of meters away the moment he sensed danger, so fast that it looked like he had teleported.
After evading Qianye’s strike, Noxus found that his hands were empty. Little Zhuji had returned to Qianye’s arms at one point.
Qianye edged back slowly with Zhuji in one hand and his sword in the other.
“You actually snatched her from me, now that’s quite the feat.” Noxus laughed as he closed in. His massive frame pushed the floating grey feathers away and soon arrived before Qianye.
Qianye glanced at the golden spider webs on his body. These webs were restricting his movements, but the grey origin power from Qianye’s body transformed into grey feathers that revolved around his body, dissolving all the spider webs closing in on him.
This went to show that Noxus’ domain had little effect on Qianye.
Qianye looked up at Noxus and said, “I wanted to fight you, but plans have changed since this troublesome girl is here. See you.”
Qianye’s figure blurred out and vanished with Little Zhuji in tow.
However, the first thing Qianye saw when he emerged from the void was Noxus.
This time, a voice echoed from up above. “What’s the rush?”
That unusual voice was cold and raspy, almost like a cool breeze on a hot, humid day. Just hearing the voice made Qianye’s skin crawl. It was an inexplicable feeling.
This was an unfamiliar voice and aura, yet it was so special that even a complete stranger would immediately know its owner’s identity.
Qianye’s expression turned quite unsightly.
