The Flame Reaver felt the attack descending from the sky, and he felt like he was going insane.
"Why does someone always come to stop me every time I'm about to achieve victory?"
"All I want to do is kill one person. Why is it so difficult?"
"Next time you guys come for backup, why can't you just let me kill the person first, and then come?"
But when he saw the person descending was Derick, the Flame Reaver's rage completely erupted, and he prepared to attack. His demonic swords were all recalled, gathering around him.
Grabbing a demonic sword, he condensed all his strength and unleashed a clear, ethereal blue beam of light, striking directly at the descending Derick.
Derick gathered Titan power in both hands, channeling four types of energy into a mixed-hued core of light for his slash.
The two energy slashes collided, neutralizing and eroding each other. Derick broke through the slash, his weapon crashing heavily onto the Flame Reaver's demonic sword.
The Flame Reaver exerted force with his palm, twisting his wrist and arm to violently push Derick away.
Derick tumbled backward for a distance before landing, while the Flame Reaver's feet dug a deep furrow as he also retreated the same distance.
Seeing this, Derick thought that while his strength had indeed increased significantly during this time, the Flame Reaver's power was also progressing. Those demonic swords on him were allowing him to unlock even more power, and at the same time, making him even more crazed and reckless.
He had descended from the sky, leveraging the terrain and a first-strike advantage, but even so, he hadn't gained much of an upper hand in the fight.
Although the Flame Reaver's figure retreated, his attack didn't stop. As he fell back, he raised his arm, and a dozen demonic swords around him shot directly toward Derick.
Yunli appeared by Derick's side at this moment. Her snow-locust-like small feet subtly shifted on the ground, her figure twisting as if performing a beautiful dance, bringing her in front of Derick. She placed her massive 'Old Iron' horizontally in front of her, blocking the demonic swords flying towards Derick.
Clang, clang, clang—!
Yunli had ample experience dealing with demonic swords, but this was the first time she'd encountered such a large number. Sword after sword crashed onto Old Iron, and Yunli gripped her weapon with all her might to fend off the attacks.
The last sword's attack was also blocked by Yunli's Old Iron, but at that moment, Yunli was knocked back, right into Derick's embrace.
At this crucial juncture, Rappa also stood up and addressed Derick and Yunli:
"Two ninja, may I ask your names and from which school you hail?"
"Ninja? What's that?" Little Yunli looked completely bewildered.
Derick, however, had somewhat adapted to Rappa's peculiar way of speaking. He replied to Rappa: "We're from the Xianzhou Alliance. This time, we came specifically to deal with this guy. My name is Derick, and this is Yunli."
Rappa nodded: "So you are Ninja 'Derick' from the great Xianzhou faction, and Ninja Yunli. I am the wandering Ninja-Knight AKA Rappa."
What in the world was that?!
Yunli was confused by Rappa's words, but at this moment, her mind was solely focused on the demonic swords. Seeing the demonic swords flying back to the Flame Reaver, Yunli stepped forward and charged.
"That, uh, Six-Rappa whatever, you just rest on the side for now. I'm going to hack at the enemy first."
Seeing Yunli's action, Derick immediately followed closely behind.
Rappa watched Derick and Yunli charge forward and let out a small sigh of relief. Although for the sake of his justice and Ninja Way, Rappa was fearless of death, he still wanted to live until he defeated the Ape Commander and gathered more ninja.
As they charged, Derick told Yunli, "Yunli, you deal with those demonic swords, I'll go for the Flame Reaver. Their combined destructive power is immense; it's best to split them up."
Professional matters should be handled by professionals. Yunli was a Sword Hunter; she knew the characteristics of those demonic swords and understood how to deal with them. He himself had fought the Flame Reaver for so long, he knew how to tackle him.
These words were exactly to Yunli's liking.
Derick, holding his lance, thrust it towards the Flame Reaver. The tip of the long weapon glowed with golden light, carrying Derick's concentrated power.
The Flame Reaver casually picked up a demonic sword to block in front of him.
Derick's weapon struck the demonic sword, and the Flame Reaver's figure reeled backward. The Flame Reaver intended to command his demonic swords to attack, but Yunli followed closely behind Derick, severing the flight paths of those swords.
"All of you, get into the melting pot where you belong!"
Yunli shouted at the demonic swords.
Upon contact with the demonic swords, various emotions and scenes instantly flashed through Yunli's mind. There were scenes that enraged her, murderous consciousness, thoughts of apathy, and even an image of a naked Derick appeared in her mind.
Any of these chaotic emotions could make a person lose their self-control and become a slave to these demonic swords.
But for Yunli, none of it had any effect.
Her hatred for the demonic swords was already deeply etched into Yunli's spirit. To some extent, Yunli was even more demonic than the swords themselves.
You cannot spiritually control someone who is already spiritually controlled. The demonic swords' spiritual control was completely ineffective against Yunli.
"Your spiritual influence? You can talk about it after I've melted you down!"
Yunli scoffed.
For her, only a melted demonic sword was a good demonic sword.
A dozen demonic swords, seeing that they couldn't exert any spiritual control over Yunli, resorted to the simplest physical attacks.
Yunli met the demonic swords' attacks head-on, while Derick was also engaged in fierce combat with the Flame Reaver.
Even with all four types of Titan power unleashed, Derick still couldn't gain an advantage in his fight against the Flame Reaver. His movements were varied and strange, and what's more, the demonic swords in his hand even possessed a stealth effect, making the Flame Reaver's attacks even more unpredictable.
In a blink, the Flame Reaver, who had been right in front of Derick, suddenly vanished. He then reappeared beside Derick, swinging his demonic sword to attack. Derick hastily sidestepped to narrowly evade the strike, but still sustained a wound.
Derick healed quickly.
Seeing this, the Flame Reaver decided to repeat the tactic, suddenly disappearing mid-fight with Derick, and reappearing behind him to attack.
But this time was different from before. Just as the Flame Reaver was about to attack, Derick seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. His long weapon quickly moved behind him, blocking the Flame Reaver's strike.
"What?!"
"What's going on?"
The Flame Reaver was confused.
And at that moment, he noticed that a pile of tiny branches had appeared on the ground where he and Derick were fighting.
These were branches formed by Derick wielding Abundance power. They carried detection abilities, allowing Derick to sense the Flame Reaver's movements even when he was invisible.
Sensing this, the Flame Reaver immediately made a new decision.
He instantly created phantom duplicates, splitting into four and surrounding Derick.
Although they were still phantoms, this wasn't the first time Derick had faced such a tactic. But now, seeing the Flame Reaver's phantoms again, Derick felt that they weren't mere illusions; their attack power was likely not much less than the original body.
"Were they strengthened by the demonic swords' abilities?"
Derick thought to himself.
This meant his pressure had instantly quadrupled.
Derick didn't have the ability to instantly produce duplicates of himself, and facing the Flame Reaver's four-fold duplicates all at once, Derick himself was somewhat overwhelmed.
"But we came as a team,"
Derick thought to himself.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Star Tower had already landed. Derick's reinforcements had arrived.
The breath of the giant dragon-transformed Polyxia, the meteorite lightning unleashed by Hyacine, and March 7th's arrows were the first to arrive, shooting towards the Flame Reaver's duplicates.
The Flame Reaver's main body wanted to intervene, but at that moment, he found a Black Hole appearing before him. He glanced over and saw a tall, slender man wearing glasses looking at him, a Black Hole attacking him.
The Flame Reaver could only abandon supporting his duplicates and concentrate energy in front of him to shatter the Black Hole.
Stelle and Castorice rushed to the duplicates that had already been bombarded once, grabbing their scythe and baseball bat and attacking.
Cipher maintained her peculiar form, zipping erratically around the duplicates.
And Derick, also wielding his long weapon, concentrated Abundance energy within its shaft and attacked the Flame Reaver's duplicates.
With several individuals working together, the Flame Reaver's duplicates, despite their strength, couldn't withstand such an onslaught. They all turned to dust.
Seeing this, the Flame Reaver, even with his mental state in terrible shape and deeply influenced by the demonic swords, couldn't help but feel that ever since leaving Amphoreus, he had only encountered low-civilization planets, whose inhabitants were not strong and could be freely slaughtered by him. This made the Flame Reaver unconsciously think that everywhere outside Amphoreus was full of weaklings.
Today, however, that notion had been thoroughly debunked.
The few people who had appeared, aside from the 'Golden Knights' he already knew, showed strength that was absolutely no less than the Golden Knights. Where had these people come from?
And what's more, they were all helping those 'Golden Family' people.
The Flame Reaver wanted to continue fighting desperately, but the demonic swords by his side were starting to resist.
They were for freedom, not to be melted down.
They knew the Flame Reaver had an immortal body, but they didn't! Before the Flame Reaver died, they would probably be melted first.
So the demonic swords collectively influenced the Flame Reaver's spirit, intensifying his urge to escape.
The Flame Reaver had already retreated numerous times when facing Derick, so retreating again now didn't cause him any psychological pressure.
He just needed to find a direction for a breakthrough.
The Flame Reaver looked around.
"Huh? Wait, why is there a blindfolded person over there?"
This made him instinctively think of Aglaea.
If it was someone like Aglaea, the kind that focused on perception and coordination, their frontal combat ability might be weaker than others.
"Breaking through there shouldn't be too difficult, right?"
________
I'm so, so sorry! I uploaded the wrong chapter today!
The director was so tired yesterday... But I'm uploading two extra chapters to make it up to you!
My apologies again! ;-; S2
_________
🔥 40% OFF! THE TIME TO JOIN THE COMMUNITY IS NOW! 🔥
That's right: a special 40% OFF offer for you to become a member! We're celebrating the arrival of new stories and we want you to join us.
Besides securing your access at an incredible price, your support helps us unlock much more content for the entire community. Our goals are still active:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone! 🎯 5 Reviews = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone!
🚀 And our main goal: 55 MEMBERS = +5 extra chapters of ALL STORIES!
Take advantage of the discount, support our work, and get access to everything! Secure your spot with 40% OFF now: 👻 patreon.com/Walnutchan