235 Chapter 235: Far from Over (1/2)
”Stuart Swordsmanship, First Stance.”
Lionel Stuart had his eyes closed and his hand placed on the hilt of his katana, crouching low as he prepared to draw his sword.
”Ten Thousand Splinters.”
In a flash, tens of thousands of razor-sharp splinters rained down upon the giant Shaggrowth, peppering it with deadly destruction.
”Stuart Swordsmanship, Seventh Stance.”
This time, a blizzard of petals swirled around Lionel in an elegant manner, a myriad of colors filling the air.
”Blossoms of Life and Death.”
The millions of petals swallowed the gigantic Shaggrowth, behaving like a single, enormous living tide. The dark creature wailed with a bubbly noise before it was consumed and disintegrated by the mystical petals.
”Hmph.”
Sheathing his sword, Lionel turned away from the completely annihilated Soul Beast and watched the battle between his friend, Yuan Dao Yue Guang, and Ying Bu Si. The Umbra Assassin was getting pinned and obliterated by his longtime buddy. Another punch grazed his cheek, leaving a trail of blood streaming downward.
”That hurt!” Ying Bu Si complained, still as flippant as ever despite losing his Soul Beast and getting increasingly cornered by his opponent. Yuan Dao Yue Guang did not fall for his tricks and continued to pummel him mercilessly, knocking the multiple shadowy appendages aside with nothing but his fists.
Stomping on the ground and changing his stance, he punched through another net of shadows, his fist smashing through the hastily conjured barrier and catching Ying Bu Si in the chest. The latter vomited blood as he was sent hurtling across the air before landing untidily on a heap.
”Whoa…I really didn't expect this.” he tried to get up, but grimaced and held his chest before coughing out another mouthful of blood. ”I never thought there would be a human capable of fighting so many of my shadows with nothing but his bare hands. Even though I've attacked you from so many different directions, you deflected every single one of them. What are you, some kind of prodigy? No, you're a monster.”
Yue Guang didn't bother responding to his compliments or taunt, merely impassively charging forward and punching through another web of shadows that Ying Bu Si rapidly summoned to aid him. Twisting around, he kicked the Umbra Assassin just as he was getting up, smashing his knee into his chest and causing him to double over. Without missing a beat, Yue Guang whirled around and delivered a roundhouse kick that caught Ying Bu Si at his neck, smashing him onto the ground.
”Ugh…what monstrous strength!”
Lying on the ground, stunned, Ying Bu Si raised his head slightly. Parts of his body were literally missing, having been obliterated by the sheer, overwhelming power of Yue Guang's barrage of attacks. Thin threads of shadows tried futilely to rejoin and weave his broken body back together, but they dissipated before long.
”Armament Ba Qi…truly a terrifying skill indeed. I can't believe you were able to hone Ba Qi to such an extent that you can physically destroy my otherwise elemental body and disrupt the mana flow of the enchantments.”
Yue Guang silenced him by stomping on his head, but Ying Bu Si quickly rolled away. Even when fatally wounded, he was still able to evade and move. An incredible feat that demonstrated his amazing tenacity.
However, the burly bodyguard was far from impressed. He methodically pressed on with his attack, relentless and merciless. When his stomp missed, he was already calculating and executing his next attack, a kick that swerved from the opposite direction and right into the trajectory of Ying Bu Si's writhing body.
”?!”
Ying Bu Si wasn't able to muster a witty remark when Yue Guang's foot caught him fully in the face, lifting his body up and sending it flying like an arrow into the air. his jaw shattered and blood streaming from his nose and mouth, the Assassin tried to flip himself up in midair and right himself.
However, he wasn't given any chance to recover. As he struggled to halt his momentum, he found himself bursting into a storm of vividly colored flower petals.
For the first time, Ying Bu Si's face paled and he lost his composure.
”Oh, shit.”
The flower petals closed upon him, their razor-sharp edges slicing into him and utterly destroying him. Even with his elemental, shadowy body, Ying Bu Si wasn't able to withstand the ferocious spell, which was also imbued with formidable amounts of Armament Ba Qi that ignored his normally intangible and elemental form to cut him apart.
However, even as he was disintegrating, Ying Bu Si managed one final parting remark.
”See you on the other side, young men. I'll be waiting in hell for you.”
With a peal of laughter, he vanished as Lionel Stuart's petals utterly annihilated and erased his existence from Earth.
”I am sorry for taking so long to finish off my enemy, to the point where you had to intervene.” Yue Guang lowered his head apologetically as he turned to face the approaching Lionel. ”I am ashamed of my deficiencies.”
”Nonsense.” Lionel snorted. ”You had the battle well in hand, and were perfectly capable of eliminating that bastard in another few minutes. I just thought I should save us some more time so that we can get to the bottom of the temple as quickly as possible. That kid from earlier might need our help. Besides…” he grinned. ”I'm the one who should be ashamed for claiming the easier fight. Even though that monster was big, it was pretty simple-minded and easy to destroy. That Umbra Assassin was one hell of a sneaky bastard, and if you hadn't given me an opportunity to launch a surprise attack, even I wouldn't be confident of killing him with one spell.”
”Everybody! Are you all right!?”
A beautiful girl was jogging toward them, and she immediately went for Yue Guang to help him up.
”We are, Zi Yang,” Yue Guang assured his girlfriend. She scowled.
”Sit down for a moment and let me heal you!”
Lionel watched the couple for a moment, his expression unreadable. However, his eyes clearly lingered on Zi Yang's gorgeous form for a few seconds more than necessary, and he forced himself to turn away to assess the situation of his comrades. Depending on how they fared, he would either assist them or if they had the matter well in hand, he would proceed downstairs to help Huang Shun Yin destroy the device.
Michael Porter was still clashing with the relatively skilled Assassin, but he evidently held the upper hand. The latter had cuts all over his body, but he wasn't bleeding because the sheer heat from the flames of Michael's sword had instantly cauterized the wounds. Above, the Vermillion Phoenix was overwhelming the ghost-type Soul Beast by bathing it in flames and minimizing the amount of shadows it could escape into.
It wouldn't be long before its defenses crumbled.
As for Glen Porter and his White Tiger, he was still struggling against a superior number of foes, even if these weren't necessarily the elite Assassins. In fact, judging from their skills, they were most likely rookie Assassins, fresh out of the training programs in their sects…no, they might even be trainees from the various sects, sent out on official missions to gain invaluable combat experience.
As talented as Glen was, he was also still very young and relatively inexperienced. Realizing that, Lionel stepped forward to aid him. The greenhorn Assassins didn't even realize that he was intervening, even as he swung his sword and unleashed a couple of them with his Stuart Swordsmanship, slaying them before their comrades even knew they were under attack.