Chapter 1484 (2/2)

...or perhaps it didn’t slow him down at all. The Ghosthound moved so quickly he vanished, avoiding the strike entirely and appearing behind Huang Shou. Before the aging man could even respond, his head was grabbed and he was tossed to the side.

Paolo had somehow predicted the abrupt change in direction and was close enough to launch a sharp elbow strike at the Ghosthound’s temple. But the Ghosthound’s massive left hand tightened into a fist, flicking sideways and shattering Paolo’s elbow with an audible crack. Just as his slender right hand thrust forward to seize Paolo’s face, Alana shot forward with thin white flames running along her spear.

Her eyes glowed. She let her breath slide out between her lips. “The Fifth Revelation: Want.”

Those flames running along her spear immediately brightened. Their white tips seemed to shimmer.

For an extended second, the Ghosthound seemed struck with indecision as Alana shot at his back and Paolo’s indomitable image blazed even brighter, despite his shattered joint. Yet then the Ghosthound twisted so quickly that Lucifer couldn’t follow the movement. His slid outward, fingers pressed together in a deadly point toward Alana’s chest.

Alana seemed to predict this, releasing her spear and stepping to the side. Then her hand, now bearing those white flames, cut downward and severed the Ghosthound’s tail. His right hand veered sideways and ripped into Alana’s shoulder.

“Haymaker!” Paolo bellowed as he threw his punch. His blazing image spun itself into threads and rushed to his knuckles. The Ghosthound brought his left hand across his body in a backhand and effortlessly knocked the punch away. The image of indomitable triumph was shattered. Then he seized Paolo’s face with his immense talons.

Lucifer caught up, his saber raised. He hated that this was all he had, the move he practiced day after day, seeking to catch up to the distant form of the Ghosthound. But this was what he had poured his last several years into. It bore the weight of all his sweat and blood. It had to be enough. “Lucifer Slash!”

His emotions and memories seemed to burn through his fingers and into the blade as he pulled it sharply downward and aimed at the sundered flesh on the Ghosthound’s chest. He felt instantly that this was the sharpest slash he had even unleashed. Yet he couldn’t help but also notice how quickly the Ghosthound responded.

The Ghosthound’s fingers in Alana’s shoulder sprang open, widening the wound and then he threw her to the side. At the same time, Ghosthound released Paolo. Both hands rushed toward Lucifer at a speed that was at least double his slash-

Paolo’s left hand seized the Ghosthound’s wrist that had just released him. His eyes were blazing, and his image exploded outward over the surrounding area, pressuring even Lucifer. “Don’t you dare think I’d go down so easily. Right Hand of the Challenger!”

Paolo planted his left foot and smashed his right fist against the stunned Ghosthound’s jaw. Lucifer slashed downward and cut open another deep gash across the Ghosthound’s midsection.

Immediately, that strange heat source in the Ghosthound’s core flared to life. There was a frozen moment in Lucifer's Perception as he faced the direct ire of the Grim Chimera. Before that sinister gaze, all of the accumulated effort that went into his Lucifer Slash was crushed and obliterated. The weight of that image smashed Lucifer in the chest. He was sent flying backward, vomiting the contents of his stomach.

Paolo was sent stumbling backward as well, shaken, but somehow still conscious. The Ghosthound swayed and hunched over, his face hidden in shadow. Yet others recognized it was an opportunity.

Bang!

Hank drew his revolver and shot a bullet that cleanly punched through the flesh above the Ghosthound’s right knee. The image of the Grim Chimera flared again, but it was truly drained at this point. The heat wafting off of his body was rapidly decreasing. Donny leapt forward and swung his sword at the Ghosthound’s back, but a much thinner tail stretching from his neck snapped upward, slapping the strike to the side.

Donny landed and hopped backward, resetting his stance. The Ghosthound released a deep breath.

Then everything around them shattered as Dinesh activated the move he had been focusing on for the past minute and they appeared in about a hundred meters off the ground.

The sun was just setting, so the sky around them was stained orange and pink. The clouds began to steadily swirl as the image that Huang Li had been steadily nurturing was able to explode outward and rapidly gain traction in the wide-open sky. That wild wind began to form a maelstrom centered around the slightly stunned Ghosthound.

Directly in the center of those swirling clouds, a massive violet moon seemed to descend. It released a powerful light, staining the surrounding clouds with even more wet and unnatural colors. After a suspended moment of floating, all of the arrayed individuals began to fall down toward the wasteland to the Northeast of Donnyton.

A wasteland that the Ghosthound himself had created when he made his Class.

“Don’t hold anything back,” Alana said, raising her voice to carry above the increasingly tempestuous winds. Her helmet morphed and once more wings of pure white beat above her body. Her limbs were trembling, but her image was clear and bright.

Huang Li raised his sword. The wind was singing along the length of his blade the song of the Ghosthound’s defeat. “Sky Slaying Sword!”