As predicted by Cinderclaw, Jin had thrown his two shortswords towards him but what he did not expect was that the shortswords suddenly emerged out of the auras of two black and white bears right at him.?re??e??ov?l.???
Bam and Boo had been embodied with Jin’s Maqi to an extent that it was able to create silhouettes of the Pandas diving right at him. The Axe General had no idea whether the silhouettes were real or just a diversion from the strike of the shortswords.
To Jin, they were both real and acted as a diversion for Jin to switch his System Rider to someone which he had been longing to use since the start of the System Rider Belt. His appearance of his System Rider changed into something more demure and even had a gown befitting of the minion he was borrowing the powers from.
When Cinderclaw blocked both of the silhouette blasts, he had been cut by the shortswords that were hidden within the Panda silhouettes but the strikes were not as accurate as Jin hoped to. Yet it was enough of a diversion for him to change his System Rider and the real attack began as the Demon Rat Axe General had been strung up.
“Master! Cool!” ZIther Mistress said as she saw Jin had beautifully and masterfully tied Cinderclaw in a web of strings. With each silk woven string enhanced with Maqi, any slight movement that Cinderclaw made would cause him to bleed excessively.
“Of course, I learnt a little bit about strings when I was away. I thought I could impress you with this.” Jin grinned a little behind his mask but he could already feel that Zither Mistress was elated by the compliment as she thought that she had been forgotten by her master with the slew of new minions coming in to serve under him.
“I teach you! New trick!” ZIther Mistress said as she controlled Jin’s body the way he moved the strings and suddenly Cinderclaw’s arms and limbs fell off in an instant without much strength. The intense gore could have scared any newcomers and perhaps force them to regurgitate like how the broken blood vessels would from the sudden loss of limbs.
Without a doubt, it did not faze both the Zither Mistress or Jin and instead the latter marvelled at Zither Mistress’s manipulation of his Maqi. The rest who were using his body (no pun intended) utilised his magic and his chi channels so roughly that he might feel wasted by the end of the fight. But Zither Mistress’ accurate control of his Maqi despite her first time using it made Jin give ‘mad’ respect for the little girl. (Obviously, he knew that she was a being that lived over hundreds of years but he still treated her as his dear little sister that he never had.)
However, the Panda Cultivator was still wary of Assassin Savant’s advice of Cinderclaw having death immunity and could already notice the regrowth of arms and legs once more. Jin did not wish to waste any more time and used his Maqi to control Bam and Boo to float up and strike Cinderclaw once more.
What he did not expect was the Demon Rat Axe General to retaliate as he saw the Demon Rat use both his tail and mouth to stop the strike towards his heart. And with his tail, Cinderclaw used the momentum of the striking shortsword towards Jin, causing him to break out from his current position and release the hold he had on the Axe General.
“User, you could have tolerated the attack.” The System felt it was a pity that they were at the grasp of winning and Jin let go of such an opportunity. “Your suit of living armour would have the chance of blocking the attack. Even if it pierces through the living armour, User possessed the power of regeneration to a certain extent.”
“And make me feel those worms crawling inside me? Ew no. Thanks. Besides, I honestly do not wish to see a situation where my weapons are pitted against my shields. I would never want to know which is the stronger one.” Jin said as he changed the shape of Bam and Boo into two needles, allowing them to escape from Cinderclaw’s grasp.
And as it returned to Jin, he did not hesitate to attempt another assassin attempt using Bam and Boo in their needle form to pierce through the rat’s head. However, Axe General manipulated the lifestream around him to create a temporary barrier which protected him from the attack, forcing Jin to call back Bam and Boo, turning them into the instrument of choice for the Zither Mistress to use.
“I will kill enemy!” Zither Mistress said with such resolution that Jin could not help that he wanted to root for her even though he planned to switch monsters so that Cinderclaw would remain unaware of the thousand and one tricks he had.
However, Cinderclaw became extremely anxious since he knew that his Cat with Eight Lives are going to end soon if he was not careful. Up till now, the Axe General had yet to place a proper blow against his enemy and worse still, his undead Demon Rats were all killed with his opponent’s minions watching the battle on the sideline.
It was as if they were waiting for their master to slip up so they could swoop in to save the day and perhaps bag the kill of Cinderclaw in their hands so that their master would offer them a generous reward.
“I am supposed to be the great one,” Cinderclaw mumbled…as he took out the last artefact that he initially hoped to use for conquering the other kingdoms. Unlike the Cat with Eight Lives which was shaped like a cat statue and the Skull of Eternal Unrest, a skull, the last artefact he was carrying was shaped like a finger but it was called the Lost Key of the Unticking Clock.
Without any hesitation, he bit it knowing that doing so would potentially end his life.
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