With his younger brother at the mercy of Jin, Yang Hui jumped in front of his brother and ate the next bullet for him. His fully metamorphosed beast form, unfortunately, had an even higher level of demon affinity, causing him to take extra damage from this shot. The bullet went through his right chest and exited his body cleanly.
And the bullet seemed to add insult to his feeble attempt of him protecting his brother even further by coursing out of his body and ricocheted on to hit Yang Rong’s shoulder.
However, the brunt of the Ruby Fire explosion had been reserved for Yang Hui, and it had made a mess of his right lung. Unlike Yang Rong, who had Steel Fur Skin to soften the damage, the explosion was clear for everyone to see as his chest skin ruptured and blood burst out impactfully, causing him to asphyxiate from the gush of blood coming out of his throat.
“Idiot, why did you do that?!” Yang Rong shouted as he desperately tried to use his chi to close his brother’s wounds instead of his own. The relationship between the brothers was complicated due to their father’s favouritism of his firstborn son. Still, they had gone through thick and thin together, especially during training sessions and there was still a sense of camaraderie instead of familial kinship.
“Can’t let the better one of us two die that easily, right? We’ve barely shown this Panda our fangs, and you are already down on the floor. Father must be disappointed with us.” Yang Hui uttered in a weak voice. Jin didn’t like to interrupt such a heartfelt moment, but he was not giving them any chance to recuperate. After all, his accumulated work was still at stake.
“Sorry, but you will have to continue this conversation another time,” Jin said as he ruthlessly shot another Ruby Fire Bullet aimed between Yang Hui’s eyes. Only instead of evading, Yang Rong punched the ground, causing a portion of the garden brick path to disperse and create a temporary distraction as he pulled his brother further back.
Sadly, the arena was limited to prevent the contestants of a duel from running away. Although the Ruby Fire Bullet had been wasted exploding among the brick debris, Jin had more at his disposal. The dungeon supplier continued to fire from afar with Boo first while transforming Bam into a weapon he had seen being used in the Farming World.
A Gunblade.
With three more Ruby Fire Bullets in his Gunblade, he rushed forward the moment the bricks and explosion settled down… only for the Tiger Brothers to have disappeared from his sight.
“Invisibility technique?! Damn, I thought you tigers would fight me from the front after ganging up on me. Didn’t think you’d use these nasty tricks.” Jin taunted them out loud. He quickly focused his chi into his Inverse Eyes to scan the area, hoping to have a sense where the tiger brothers could have hidden. Any delay in finding them will definitely give them an advantage. Thus, the System also assisted him and true enough, Yang Rong had come close to striking Jin while remaining camouflaged among the environment.
Advanced Tiger Technique, Stalking Saunter of the Tiger was a skill that allowed the Tiger Brothers to blend into the environment for either a quick escape or more often to set up an ambush for their enemies. In this instance, Yang Rong had used it to perform both these actions though it did not take Jin by surprise.
Instead, the muscle memory from Ming’s intensive training kicked in, and he tripped sidewards. His body somehow managed to ‘sense’ the impending danger and acted as such to save Jin. The Tiger Duellist was irritated that he could not read Jin’s movement yet again as the fall had been too abrupt.
“Who the fuck can be so clumsy in movement and yet still beat us into this state?! What kind of fucked up situation is this?!” Yang Rong wondered as he forcefully twisted his ankle and changed the angle of his punch once more. He was not sure whether Jin had found a way to see him coming despite the camouflage or if he had been just lucky to trip at that exact moment.
All he needed was to get a hit onto Jin’s body, alas, there had been no chance to do so, making him extremely furious. Yet, as he missed Jin again, he suddenly felt a stinging cut rising up through his torso area. “What the -? How did I?!” And instantly, the same burning sensation enveloped his entire torso, burning him alive.
This time, the fire was even stronger and more vibrant as he could feel his entire body wriggle in pain despite the Steel Fur enhancement and with valid reason. Jin had further enhanced the Ruby Fire Bullet with his Panda Black Fire and the cut from the Gunblade had made sure it would impact deeply.
To make things worse, the Astral Projection that emerged from his tripping doubled the pain he suffered, allowing it to break the Steel Fur enhancement easily.
Jin did not stop there and did a quick side step and stabbed his blade into Yang Rong. But he found it a little too convenient when he did so, and hence immediately found out that Yang Rong was still battle ready, extremely determined to win the fight.
The Tiger Duellist grabbed on Jin’s black blazer despite being engulfed in flames and with his right hand still charged with Chi, he sent it flying towards Jin’s stomach.
“Flying Tiger Burning Strike!!!!” Yang Rong Roared as he did not care of the pain he was enduring right. If he didn’t use this chance, he was unlikely to get another one.
With his perseverance, the gods seemed to be smiling down upon him, perhaps rewarding his struggle. The Tiger Duellist felt that his punch hit onto something hard and was ready to finally execute his deadly Arts Combo.
Now an explosive sound vibrated through the allocated arena, and Yang Rong did not stop for anything else. “Advanced Fist Arts! Triple Tiger Quartet Strikes!” Yang Rong exclaimed as he slammed his elbow towards Jin’s face and the arms now moved lightning fast to execute the Arts Combo. The multiple attacks switched between finger jabs, palm strikes and wholesome punches to ensure that he blocked Jin’s major chi points preventing him from any sort of retaliation.
“Epic Fist Arts, Slashes of the White Moon Tiger!” Next, Yang Rong focused chi on his nails, metamorphosing them to claws that were as sharp as steel swords and grabbed Jin up and flipped him. After being tricked once when he hit a dense silhouette of Jin, he now ensured that the other party would not get any chance to substitute himself against the Tiger Duellist. Upon flipping, he sent out his slashes out to cause Jin to be flying to the skies, and because of the impact of the attack, the minor clan members started to cheer loudly.
“Oof! that must hurt,” Ayse said as they all saw Jin being pushed against gravity time and time again by the continuous number of slashes. With his last breath, Yang Rong shouted and temporarily, the sky turned black with a full moon out.
The Moon slowly descended and cut Jin at the center, visibly causing him to split into two. “Epic Fist Arts, Moon Descends into the Night.” Yang Rong grinned when after he uttered out the Fist Arts name and saw two pieces of Jin falling and bleeding.
Seeing the entire chain of action scenes, his brother slowly came out of the camouflage and showed a victory fist to his brother.
Yuan Ba, who had been watching from the sideline, was delighted by the results. Not to mention he was elated that they emerged relatively safely out of this unexpected fight for territory. Even the Roaring Tigers were clapping their hands, congratulating Yang Rong for having restored the Tiger’s honour.
However, the Tiger Duellist noticed something was amiss. While his side of the field was jumping with joy, the other side of the arena was not sad in the least. In fact, it was filled with chuckles. (All of them seem to have been influenced by Kraft’s evil way of laughing0)
Only then did he realise that the Godly Representative had yet to say anything about the match being over. He just continued to oversee the arena.
It was too bad that by the time he realised it, it was too late.
