Chapter 1483 (1/2)

Huang Li watched with narrowed eyes as Randidly Ghosthound, the most powerful man on Expira, was opened from shoulder to hip by Lucifer’s strike. The flesh split and flecks of gore were flung onto the floor. Pressing his lips together, Huang Li continued to churn his images around the edges of the arena as he prepared for his opportunity to move. But he couldn’t tear his eye away from the Ghosthound’s wound.

Flesh might have ruptured and bones cracked, but nothing leaked out after the initial biological debris. At least nothing physical. It was a dull red heat that escaped from the wound in his body, hazing the air with waves of heat. As he stood before the stunned Lucifer, Randidly Ghosthound looked more like some deadly machine than any being of flesh. Even worse, his insides were clearly on display. Fleshy red and pink globes pulsed slightly, ostensibly still carrying on their routine functions despite how close they came to being cut in half like a ripe tomato.

The Ghosthound’s smile curled upward as he considered the shock on their faces. When he spoke, more steam escaped his mouth, seeming to glow slightly. “Yea… this is fun, isn’t it?”

There was suddenly something present in the room that hadn’t been there previously. It was only a trace, and that trace was both minuscule and elusive, but a shadow flickered in the heat waves around his body and the Ghosthound’s heaving shoulders. His body had been a cage and now this being could escape. The image of the Grim Chimera leaked outward, staining the air like colored ink does water.

Somehow that small sliver of the image was enough to suppress the surrounding images. It spread its twisted limbs, pushing everything else back. The air suddenly tasted metallic and sour. The Ghosthound’s shoulders and spine cracked as his body shifted and grew. His bones seemed heavier, his muscles coarser and almost charred by that powerful source of heat in his chest. The waves of heat wafting off of him intensified. All but the extremities of his body were blurred and muddled, giving him a strange ghastliness. While his aura darkened, it was only the Ghosthound’s emerald eyes that stayed the same, weighing the surrounding threats.

“Attacks based on images can reach him,” Alana announced. Then she twisted her mouth. “It’s obnoxious, but physical attacks don’t appear to do anything significant. We will tire out before he does. Use your images as much as possible.”

The Ghosthound and sprang into motion. Somehow he only seemed faster with those few inches of height and width that he added with that strange transformation when he had been wounded, moving at lightning speed toward the closed-eyed Dinesh. Paolo and Kayle were instantly there, interposing themselves between the Ghosthound and his target. Both positively blazed with their images.

And then the Ghosthound accelerated. He stepped right and then stepped left with that same preternatural grace and he was past Paolo, leaving only a billowing cloud of steam in his wake from his overheating body.

“Wha-? YOU!” Paolo roared, and his image roared and spun back into his body. Perhaps in some instinctual imitation, that burning flame of triumph that he had spun itself into thin threads that entered Paolo’s body and fueled him to greater heights as he had seen from the Ghosthound. So he twisted as the Ghosthound moved past him, ignoring the steam and pouncing toward the Ghosthound’s exposed back.

Paolo hit the ground without being able to land a strike. He blinked in confusion; he was too slow to catch up.

Huang Li’s hands tightened on his sword, so much so that his fingers were trembling. His strike was not yet prepared, but he would need to use it anyway if Dinesh was in danger while preparing their next move. But luckily, Hank Howard rolled forward and sprung up in the Ghosthound’s path. Both narrowed their eyes as they considered each other; Hank drew his repeater with a speed that could keep up with the Ghosthound and carefully aimed at his opponent’s chest.

The Ghosthound, still with flames licking up out of the gaping wound on his chest, stepped to the side in what appeared to be an attempt to avoid Hank just as he had Paolo. But at the last second, his left hand snapped sideways to snag Hank’s head. Hank leaned to the left as though he had predicted the attack, then fired six bullets out of his repeater into the Ghosthound’s open wound.

Huang Li saw one of the organs exposed in the Ghosthound’s chest pop.

The Ghosthound hissed and spun, his leg arcing up to crack against Hank’s shoulder and send the man sprawling. But that was all the time Paolo needed to catch up to the Ghosthound’s back and bring both of his hands, wreathed in glorious golden light, crashing down toward their quarry’s back.

The Ghosthound twisted and thrust forward with his right arm while taking a step forward. Blood sprayed out of a gaping hole as he opened in Paolo’s shoulder, even while the wounded man in question planted his foot and roared, fully in the Ghosthound’s face. With that thunderous shout came a searing image of challenge that blasted the Ghosthound directly.

The Ghosthound winced and took a half step back.

Which put him perfectly in line for Tykes' massive metal orb to smash toward him. The huge projectile, howled with an image of momentum, seeming to possess all the force of a collapsing mountain. Tykes pumped his legs and shoved it forward with all his strength.

The Ghosthound twisted and lashed out with his right arm. But even he seemed surprised when his bone spear of a right arm skewered through the iron ball and he was still impacted as the ball slid along the length of bone. Then Tykes planted his feet and physically shoved the ball forward, knocking the Ghosthound off balance.

A split second later, the Ghosthound’s back foot smashed down and he stopped Tykes dead. But again, that brief moment was enough of an opening for the powerful warriors they had gathered to intervene.

Huang Shou and Glendel glanced at each other. Then Huang Shou pointed at the Ghosthound. “Be Still.”