"Hahahahha! So much for it being a one on one fight!" Kraft 'complained' as he watched the transformation of the System Rider. He was aware that technically this was still 'just' Jin he would be fighting since the System Rider merely allowed the Dungeon Supplier to borrow powers from his minions.
But even though he felt a bit unfair for Jin to change into System Rider Zombie, the Original Bellator allowed the transformation to proceed without any interference. After all, he was curious how the new Rider would look and it would give Kraft a bit of insight on what to expect from his challenger.
For the Zombie version, the System Rider's armour was similar to the original design of System Rider Panda but there were purposeful cracks within the armour with signs of the nano suit being greenish and mouldy in nature. The Mask that Jin was wearing had a red eye on his left instead of the usual black eyes and the chin was dyed with blood. It was as if the System Rider Panda itself turned insane and deteriorated into a Zombified Panda. Unbeknownst to Jin, even the posture of System Rider Zombie was somewhat hunched as if he became feral from the possession of the Half Ghoul Lord Derek.
Derek stormed the front when it finally completed its transformation and slammed Kraft who accidentally kept his guard down when he watched the transformation scene in its full glory. "That was not very nice when I gave you my full attention, Derek." Kraft said as he tried to shake System Rider Zombie away when Derek managed to catch Kraft's left arm and bit it. Nevertheless, that annoyed him and forced the old Fox to increase the intensity of the Black Hurricane of the Fox Graveyard even further by emitting even more chi, causing System Rider Zombie to be blown away.
As the hurricane winds continued to exist, it started to rot the walls and caused the lights to be flickering and it was to the point that one would wonder how much chi Kraft was able to dish out a room wide damage and debuff technique for so long. (Even scarier was that this was just barely the second stage of his Graveyard Combo!) In the meantime, the Fox merely healed his wound before it festered and brought more problems which made the System Rider Zombie even more cautious of a more powered up Kraft.
"Now I can see why you summoned me." Derek smiled as he unsheathed Jin's twin swords with a hardened grip. He even poured some of his own magic to make sure that the swords had a bleeding effect if they happened to cut the fox's flesh. But before the System Rider Zombie was able to complete its enchantment, Kraft did not hesitate to emerge right at the side of the System Rider to engage with him in a close combat melee.
Thankfully, with the Half Ghoul Lord's natural endurance as a zombie, the constant debuff Jin had started to suffer from became a minor issue and this would have enabled his master to withstand Kraft's onslaught. Even as the Zombie wielding two swords were rather unwieldy due to its feral stance, the Rider's movement was relatively unhindered by the black hurricane, allowing him to stay on par with Kraft's combat prowess.
"Sorry to drag you into this, but you are the only one who will help me resist his debuff magic and rot powers," Jin explained as he came to the front of his consciousness to take control over the System Rider while Derek was pushed to the back momentarily. He had already analysed that the Black Mist of the Fox Graveyard was not just reducing his capabilities magically but he could physically feel the deterioration of his body when exposed to Kraft's chi.
"Now I understand why Kraft kept coming to me and talking about necromancy and its other counterparts. It seems that he had dabbled quite a fair bit of it himself. Thanks for taking over, I was not much of a frontline fighter to begin with." Derek did not mind the back seat and in fact was relieved to hand Jin back the reins over his body when Kraft came in contact. To the Panda Cultivator's dismay, the swap of consciousness came at the nick of time, forcing him to experience the pain of receiving Kraft's Scythe attack.
He could feel his arms dislodged momentarily and had it not been for the Vampire Bones in his body, as well as the aid of the System Rider, he was certain his arms would have been cut off instantly from the blow.
Suddenly the hurricane turned menacing as more fox silhouettes emerged to hit Jin as well while he exchanged blows with Kraft. Seeing how Jin was covered from top to bottom with living armour, the old fox became even more relentless with his strikes.
Each time his scythe attacks did not connect, it gathered more chi energy from the surroundings, enabling the next attack to be even more destructive against his victim. Jin's only saving grace was that Bam and Boo were swords made by the System. Although it considered them to be failed products, any other weapon would have snapped into two by now.
It was pretty obvious that the entire situation was to the advantage of the fox no matter how one would look at it. But as things were starting to get grim for Jin and Kraft getting more c.o.c.ky with every slice stripping bits of living armour away from Jin's System Rider suit, the Astral Panda Cultivator went back to the basics. He used his Panda Swipe against the No Mercy Scythe using the back of his sword's hilt to knock Kraft away from him.
Kraft smiled knowingly, his gaze telling Jin that he had expected this scenario. The next moment a skulk of fox silhouettes flew from behind Kraft's back in the opening that Jin had intended to use and struck him hard. The System Rider was severely knocked back until he crashed into the wall. The skulk of foxes immediately merged into one giant fox head and bit Jin on his torso. Its fangs bit through the Living Armour and into the sides of Jin's body.
As the Panda Cultivator was in shock from the knockback, he could not retaliate immediately against the Giant Fox's bite. To make things worse, Kraft closed the gap and emerged from his side, swinging the Scythe right towards his immobilised master.
All of the other foxes were ironically on the edges of their seats, hoping Jin could get out of the situation even though their gut feeling told them that Kraft's revenge for losing first blood to Jin was complete elimination.
"It would take a miracle to save Jin now," Evon said about what was on the mind of every fox.
Kraft swung his scythe, already looking forward to the sight of Jin's lobbed off head, yet contrary to his expectation his weapon got stuck in the wall, something that should be impossible. Unable to slice through it, there was only one explanation for it.
"F.u.c.k you, System! How DARE YOU intervene now?!" The Old Fox shouted with rage as he looked towards the ceiling, his eyes glowing with a dangerous glint, the chi aura in the surroundings took on a darker hue, getting closer to black.
This was because this particular dimensional instance was made by the System and while the System should be impartial in every fight and argument, this was the first time in a long time that it had intervened for the sake of its user. Still, seeing how Kraft had played a fast one by activating an executive command and overwriting the User's orders, payback was in order, it was a matter of when.
"Wow, you really managed to jinx-" Before Kiyu could finish her sentence, Evon grabbed the popcorn from her bowl and stuffed it into her mouth, preventing her from saying anything else. The rest chuckled a little but subsequently turned their attention back to the fight.
These were the only few chances Jin could get and he better make use of it or else, what the System had done was for nought.
"Thanks…" Jin placed his hands on the Giant Fox silhouette which continued to 'nibble' on his torso and a streak of Astral Lightning blasted the silhouette into nothingness. However, Kraft was not going to let Jin go that easily especially after he finally got him immobilised.
Just like Jin, he wasn't limited to just his primary weapon. He materialised a 12 gauge short barrel shotgun, with miniature fox cravings on the wood handle and instantly fired it off. Instead of pellets, this time it was a string of laser beams flying towards Jin's head.
Kraft figured that even if Jin wanted to counter it with his Panda Yawning Beam, there was no time for him to even activate it. As much as Kraft would like to finish Jin with No Mercy, the final strike would be Just Business.
