225 Chapter 225: Lion versus Tiger (1/2)

The lion spirit vessel growled as he struggled to his feet, but White Tiger didn't give him the chance to recover. With a roar, White Tiger lunged at the lion spirit vessel and smacked him across the face, drawing several red lines of blood from his gray face and tearing out chunks of hair from his thick mane.

Snarling, the possessed man retaliated with a swipe of his own, his claws exploding outward to tear into White Tiger's flesh. However, the summoned spirit deftly dodged the counterattack, and then returned with another slash that the lion spirit vessel somehow managed to deflect away with his arm. The possessed guy twisted the claws' trajectory in midair, having them turn almost 180 degrees to stab White Tiger's back.

As if it had eyes on the back of its head, White Tiger ducked downward, allowing the claws to sail past its head and clip the edges of its white fur. The lion spirit vessel snarled, but somehow stopped his claws from stabbing himself in time.

With a single swipe, White Tiger smashed the claws into shards of keratin, showering the lion spirit vessel with fragments of its own nails. Far from defenseless, the lion spirit vessel immediately cast a spell and blasted White Tiger with crimson lightning.

However, the White Tiger possessed powerful electricity of its own. Golden lightning surged out of its body to clash against the web of crimson energies, the two violent storms erupting in an explosion.

White Tiger tumbled out of the smoke and landed on all fours, growling ferociously. Apart from singed fur and some smoke rising from its body, it was unscathed. In contrast, the lion spirit vessel crashed out of the fumes, bloodied and burned. He raised a paw and sent another volley of claws spiraling toward White Tiger, but it was clear that his movements had slowed down drastically. White Tiger effortlessly dodged the attack before sending another bolt of golden lighting at its foe. The lion spirit vessel was sent hurtling back against the wall, debris raining down around him as he slumped down on the scorched ground.

”I'll take care of that thing. You deal with the Assassins.”

Shun Yin raised an eyebrow at Glen's instruction. ”You're putting an awful amount of faith in me, thinking that I can handle two professional Assassins by myself.”

”Heh.” Glen grinned at him. ”You're the guy Angie fell in love with and the person I recognized as a comrade. I have very high expectations of you.”

”…I'll leave Mei to you then.”

When Glen nodded, Shun Yin gently pushed her toward his friend's direction before turning to face the two Assassins.

”Oh dear…seems like the experiment failed. The spirit can't even take care of a single summoned Soul Beast.”

The female Assassin's voice was tinged with mocking dismay. Shun Yin ignored her remark and drew his sword before lunging forward.

”Brad, leave this brat to me.”

The huge Assassin made no movement, but he clearly complied with the girl's request. The female Assassin lunged forward and slashed at Shun Yin with her daggers. Even though he was hurt, Shun Yin still somehow parried her strike with his sword.

However, her speed almost caught him by surprise. The female Assassin spun around and delivered a kick to his head, but he ducked it, only to block her right dagger with his sword. He withdrew a step as she stabbed at him with her left dagger, barely avoiding getting grazed by the tip. Noticing some fluid spread across the blade, Shu Yin surmised that the daggers must be poisoned.

I've to be careful.

Far from discouraged, the female Assassin relentlessly pressed on with her attack, scything her daggers toward his neck. Shun Yin retreated another step, and then countered with a riposte that forced her to jump backward.

”Oh, how skillful!”

Giggling, the female Assassin spun about, almost as if she was doing a waltz, and struck Shun Yin from two different directions. Shun Yin dodged the first one, and then deflected the second one, but his opponent reversed the first dagger in her hand and stabbed downward.

”!!!”

Shun Yin whirled about and slammed his elbow into her wrist, knocking the blade away from him.

”You even prevented that attack!”

The female Assassin sounded shocked now, but she kicked Shun Yin, who blocked her foot with his knee before swinging his blazing sword. She did a cartwheel and flipped herself backward, and then tossed one of her daggers at him.

Shun Yin struck it away, but the enemy had already produced a new dagger and was lunging at him again. Shun Yin desperately fended off her relentless hail of attacks, parrying, blocking, deflecting and defending, but her speed only seemed to increase.

I can't let her cut me even once, or it's all over!

Ducking under one of his opponent's swing, Shun Yin kicked her squarely in the gut, but she didn't seem fazed and instead stabbed down toward his leg. Fortunately, Shun Yin already withdrew his limb in time and attacked her with his flaming sword. The female Assassin parried the blazing blade with her dagger and struggled to drive him off.

”Huff…”

Shun Yin allowed the momentum of her blow to send him flying several meters back, so as to maximize the distance between them. Finally skidding to a stop, he held his sword in both hands and took a deep breath.

Behind him, the furious battle between lion and tiger continued. The lion spirit vessel clawed at the White Tiger, sending streaks of crimson lightning flying, but the Soul Beast effortlessly evaded the deadly web of electricity. In response, it launched golden bolts of lightning at its foe. The lion spirit vessel struggled to dodge through the crackling electricity, his agility helping him to swerve past several of them. Spinning in midair, the possessed human sent another volley of elongating claws at the darting and dashing tiger.

A searing blast of lightning lanced forward and disintegrated the lengthening claws before they could reach the dodging White Tiger. Lowering his smoking hand, Glen smiled grimly. The lion spirit vessel turned to roar furiously at him…

…only for White Tiger to decapitate him. Lightning wreathing its claws, the immense Soul Beast literally swiped the lion spirit vessel's head from his shoulders, effectively beheading the monstrous enemy. The headless gray corpse teetered for a moment before toppling over. The body began dissolving into nothingness and faded away.

”No way!” the female Assassin gaped at the impossible sight. Slightly shifting her attention away from Shun Yin, she glanced at the scene of the lion spirit vessel's death. She clicked her tongue, annoyed. ”Damn it, the technology is far from completed. So the spirits still aren't as strong as Soul Beasts, huh? Or perhaps it's the type of spirit we summoned…we should have summoned a much more powerful spirit…”

”Does it matter? You'll never be allowed to conduct this sort of experiments again.” Glen turned toward the female Assassin, his White Tiger flanking him. At a mental command, his Soul Beast pounced on her, lightning erupting from its body.

”Brad!” the female Assassin shouted. The huge guy nodded once and leaped forward, intercepting the massive Soul Beast and tackling it to the ground. The White Tiger wrestled with Brad, the latter holding off the former's claws, but just barely.

And then lightning exploded from White Tiger's body, bathing Brad in deadly electricity. The huge Assassin gathered mana to physically reinforce himself to withstand the lightning spell, but Glen arrived while he was still pinned down by his summoned Soul Beast.

”Heads up!” he said gleefully as he poked Brad's forehead with a glowing finger. Brad struggled to knock him away, but the White Tiger continued to pin him down, crushing his arms with its heavy paws. ”Shining Finger!”

A highly concentrated bolt of lightning arced out of Glen's finger and bore a hole through Brad's forehead, drilling past skin and skull to melt the brain within. Even with the physical reinforcement spell, the highly focused mana that Glen gathered and concentrated into a single tiny point was enough to penetrate the large guy's defenses.

Brad went into spasms, his body shaking violently as the electricity flowed through his body. Not that it would help much – his brain had already melted into a puddle caged within his skull, and blood was dripping from his eyes, nose and mouth.