'...Looks like we're going to have to turn shit up a notch.'
When Sunny returned to the battlefield, immediately putting pressure on Jing Yuan in order to prevent him from regrouping with his magnetic armaments and taking down Fu Xuan, he noticed that the Saint was moving a little more frantically. His strikes carrying a little more ferocity.
Cirrus realized what he and Fu Xuan were planning, and thus, decided to destroy that plan.
Oh, but the damn Heliobus would have to kill them both, first.
And they would not die easily.
The glass surface of the Cradle of Madness reflected the light flashes of electric bolts, forming a kaleidoscope as Sunny dexterously twirled it between his fingers. Prismatic Lotus was, at its core, a defensive battle art that implemented physics to gather momentum.
Being the uneducated swine that he was, Sunny couldn't possibly explain how any of the mechanics worked. What he did know, however, was battle.
And in battle, force, energy, and violence had to be released somewhere.
Studying Jing Yuan's instantaneous Essence technique, which struck like lightning and was followed by thunder, Sunny allowed the great tiger's claw to deflect his spear. Twisting his hips, Shadow Essence surged into his legs as he leaped, avoiding the follow-up and gaining the opportunity to lash back.
Naturally, a seasoned warrior like Jing Yuan would easily see such a maneuver coming.
So, Sunny disappeared.
In his place was Fu Xuan, the elegant woman bearing grievous shock wounds, spreading across her once unmarred skin in beautiful patterns. Jing Yuan, having failed to account for her smaller frame, barely nicked her shoulder with an annihilating railgun.
He was punished for this mistake, taking a dreadful palm strike to the head. Shockwaves rippled outwards, tearing apart the reinforced platform bearing the Creation Furnace.
Sunny, on the other hand, was already in motion. Carrying the momentum from earlier, he found himself knocking away an arrow from Jing Yuan's steel bow, curving at an awkward angle in its attempt to skewer him.
Sucking in a deep breath, eyes darkening with grim violence, his legs slid smoothly across the ground as they spread, pulling him down in a splits maneuver. The jian blade cut right above his head, having threatened to decapitate him with its electric edge.
He slammed his hand on the ground...
...Right upon the shadow of his own spear.
Three weapons fell upon him — Jing Yuan's signature guandao returning to its owner to be enlarged and wielded in its maw. A javelin shot out at Sunny so swiftly that sound barrier collapsed in upon itself manyfold times, to the point where he believed that even if only for a split moment, the concept of sound itself had been annihilated.
The steel bow fired rapidly, arrows appearing automatically each time its drawstring was pulled by thin air. They curved and pierced through the air like homing missiles, finding solace in the idea of burrowing themselves in Sunny's sweet porcelain skin.
The jian blade was a weapon of legends, extending out by multiple meters as its edge was supercharged and lengthened by pure energy. Plasma cut through the air, promising to leave nothing left if he didn't find a way to avoid getting dismantled.
Sunny's hand pushed off the ground, carrying him upright once more. In his hand was the shadow of the Cradle of Madness, sharply contrasting the resplendent nature of the weapon that cast it.
Then, he danced.
He became a blur of shadow, his spears lashing out rhythmically, yet unpredictably in a whirlwind of darkness and glass. He knocked one arrow into another, both projectiles detonating on his face just to be absorbed by a black mist. Using the shadow spear to perform a pole vault, Sunny curled his weapons to his side as he twisted through the air. The jian's hypercharged blade nearly cut off the tip of his nose, while the javelin of lightning almost blew his scalp clean off.
Narrowly avoiding multiple fatal blows, Sunny noted the arrow of True Light being fired by Saint through his shadow sense. He turned, ignoring the sword lunging for his neck.
Instead, he threw the shadow of his spear.
It flew across the battlefield. Through Jing Yuan's unique Memories, over Fu Xuan's head...
And piercing the hide of the General's side.
As the steel blade of the jian was moments away from leaving him headless, Saint's assistance had arrived. Her arrow struck true, diverting the sword's trajectory and thus, saving her master. Golden cracks spread across the jian's steel surface, but it was not Destroyed yet.
Saint's job was to use her elemental Light to spread Destruction throughout Jing Yuan's weapons. If he knew what was good for him, he'd avoid being struck by such arrows directly, using his weapons to defend himself.
But once those weapons were gone, how would he be able to divert the attention of Sunny and Fu Xuan.
The latter snapped her fingers, and instantaneously, Sunny was already lunging forward at breakneck speeds. Jing Yuan was faster and more reactive, jumping into the air to pounce down on him.
Stepping through the shadows, he reappeared from the General's, seizing his shadow spear imbedded in his flesh... and pulling down, splitting flesh further apart.
The wound was not fatal. Nor was it even major. It wouldn't even cause Jing Yuan, possessed by Cirrus, to flinch from the pain. All it did was serve as a distraction... which it did.
As shadows spilled from the lantern hanging from Sunny's waist, they rapidly realized themselves into the form of myriad, yet ghastly hands. They clawed at Jing Yuan's prodigious form, unable to tear flesh, not even able to stop him... but they slowed him down for a moment.
Two seconds passed before he escaped their grasp. There were too many hands, so he couldn't have possibly moved any faster.
In that small time frame, Sunny used his Awakened Ability to sneakily leave a cut on his hind leg, slightly slowing the General down. Now, however, he had to allow himself to get blown back as Jing Yuan used his jaw to swing his guandao.
Despite the pain spreading across Sunny's frame as he rolled across the battlefield, thunder roaring around him as Jing Yuan readied another attack, he couldn't help but be further fascinated by how Saint's used their Essence within their Transcendent form. The flow was obviously altered to suit their new physiology, but beyond that, they also had to implement an entirely new fighting style for their metamorphosis.
Wielding a guandao within a tiger's mouth was... it was ridiculous, and pretty unfathomable. Sunny never met any real tigers, but he was pretty sure they didn't have the physicality to wield a weapon with their jaw, even if the skill was somehow present. Turning their heads so much would just be impractical.
Even for a Transcendent, it should have been awkward. And yet, the General made it work, relying on his extremely sophisticated Essence technique to iron out the kinks in his current anatomy, bridging his animalistic state and martial prowess together.
A rush of dark glee rose within Sunny's chest. He just had to see what comes next!
Would he manage to complete the process of shadowing Jing Yuan, taking all his skills for himself, or would the General reach his limit before then?
Would Sunny rise first, or would his opponent fall before he even got the chance?
Time to find out.
"Psst! Come here, kitty kitty~"