Now that was something Ferris didn't expect at all.
But what rattled him more was the question of when Zipperman got inside his sword.
Snarling, he tried to clamp his free hand around the villain's wrist, intent on yanking him out by force if possible.
However, he noticed that his body had slowed considerably. But thankfully, his instincts kicked in and immediately figured out the cause.
Resonance. He's trying to resonate with my essence with physical touch?
Using an essence gaze was hard enough because of the distance.
So physical touch was an easier alternative, but of course.
The drawback was that the target would easily notice the enemy's intent.
You could do a lot of things with resonating with someone, either freezing them or making them do whatever you want.
But in this case, it was now so obvious to Ferris.
In order to open up a zipper onto someone, Zipperman needs to resonate with them first!
There was no way Ferris would allow something like that, so he steeled his mental resolve and prevented the unwanted resonance.
Of course he could slip into an inanimate object like my sword so easily…
But a sword is also an extension of myself, Ferris decided to erupt his sword with his essence and extended his mental guard onto his mindless sword.
Almost immediately, the zipper on Ferris's sword began to fluctuate and lose its coherent shape.
Once he was able to move freely, Ferris grabbed Zipperman's wrist tightly.
He could feel that Zipperman was trying to pull his arm back inside.
Now I wonder what will happen... Ferris breathed in, maintaining his death grip on Zipperman's wrist.
If I do this!
Ferris poured everything he had into the sword. Every rule and every technique about using sword essence, he threw them all aside.
But now, there was no blade formed by his sword essence as it no longer followed the structure of his longsword.
Only a wild, incoherent blaze of raw essence spilled out like a flood.
Fortunately, It was good that Ferris didn't have to maintain such a wasteful sword essence, because the zipper shattered almost instantly when he erupted his sword essence to such a high degree.
All that was left now was the severed forearm of Zipperman.
The rest of Zipperman's body burst out from the other flat edge, he hurled across the field like a cannonball.
He managed to twist in midair and cushion his landing, but the damage was obvious. His body wasn't in good shape anymore.
Zipperman's clothes now looked like they were burnt.
Zipperman glanced at his severed arm, he quickly placed a tight zipper on it to stop the bleeding, and he also placed a zipper on the detached forearm to stop the bleeding.
So he can put zippers on himself and ignore range... Ferris felt that the severed forearm was beginning to feel colder and colder.
Smirking, he looked at Zipperman. "You want it back?"
Zipperman only sharpened his gaze, glaring at Ferris with murderous intent.
"I'll take that as a yes." Ferris threw the severed arm towards Zipperman.
But before it could go any further, Ferris sliced and diced it until nothing remained but a rain of shredded flesh and splintered bone.
It was a perfect display of speed, agility, grace, and focus that only master swordsmen could perform.
The result sprayed across Zipperman, splattering his face with a mix of mushy pulp and jagged shards, like being struck with paint and glass at the same time.
"Motherfucker..." Zipperman said to Ferris, although he was still smiling despite the situation he found himself in.
"You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Ferris replied as if he wasn't being a slight hypocrite right now.
Without a second to wait, Ferris followed up his provocation with a vertical slash in the air
Essence blade.
A deadly and invisible projectile made its way towards Zipperman.
Despite his injuries, Zipperman felt the danger coming its way towards him, and he retreated back into his own zipper dimension by summoning one under him.
"Start running!" Ferris ordered Judas, and they continued running around.
A minute of silence passed as they continued circling around the observation deck.
There were still no signs of Zipperman's reappearance. Did he finally retreat?
If he wasn't going to ambush them again, then it was finally time to get the hell away from there.
At the start, Ferris's plan was to pass off as a villain and cause mass havoc within the villains' presumed base, and hopefully coordinate with Elizabeth so that the hero faction could effectively paralyze the villains within their hysteria.
He was sure he could do that exceptionally well.
Because in his previous life, Yaromech was the one to teach him the ways of the sword and the life of a knight.
But when Yaromech was called to a certain mission, they parted ways for some months. And in those months, Yaromech personally asked his comrade Alaric to act as a substitute.
Compared to Yaromech's general teaching, Alaric's teachings were purely for combat, specializing in brutal ambushes and penetration tactics.
But shock attacks were practically useless to use against the mindless spawns of Jörmungandr.
So Ferris back then only applied it to combat against the followers of Jörmungandr. But in this present case, the villain faction, however.
I'll push that plan on a later date...
The presence of Judas would only hinder Ferris.
He was then reminded of Asmadeas's good vision.
Good vision? Ferris gloomed.
He accepted the fact that he regretted following another skewed prophecy.
What they experienced with Zipperman was not at all a good vision.
There is no good vision if Ferris had to constantly look after Judas while doing such a dangerous mission.
"Ferris, let's just go back!" Judas said to Ferris as he ran towards the entrance door of the observation deck.
Ferris nodded, "Yeah."
We'll just return to the mall, there I'll drop off Judas and ignore that gothic lady. He solidified his plan.
The two started running towards the door.
But while running, something bothered Ferris a little. And his instincts were subtly warning him.
Alaric's teaching helped with his combat style. But Alaric also helped Ferris to hone his combat instinct.
Even without fully knowing the situation, Ferris's instinct could always guide him to the correct direction, to the correct slash,
And to the correct way of avoiding an enemy's attack.
He unconsciously remembered how he got here in the first place.
Zipperman used his blessing to transport everyone in the room to City XXIII. The city he was currently stuck in.
And since the trip started in his home city, City XIII.
The trip was way too far, it was almost a 9,000 kilometer distance!
No matter how odd blessings were to Ferris, they still operated by using essence.
You would have to be a dragon-level villain to pull off such a feat.
And Ferris had never seen Zipperman utilize his blessing's assumed long distance for attacks.
He could've done things like summon a zipper that connects with the planet's core and dump hot iron-nickel alloy onto his enemies,
or tearing one open to the endless void of space and letting the cold vacuum rip them apart.
But Zipperman did none of those!
So that led to Lumine, who seemed to always be by Zipperman's side.
Perhaps her doorway blessing was not constricted by distance, but rather the number of doors she could use.
He then remembered that Zipperman said goodbye to Lumine. But why say goodbye when retrieving Judas was so important? Shouldn't Zipperman and Lumine work together instead?
That goodbye was a complete lie.
Ferris reached out to Judas who was already opening the door.
"Judas, don't!" he yelled.
But it was already too late. Judas's foot landed on the far side of the door, only to find nothing but empty void beneath it. His balance broke, and he started to fall forward.
A zipper split open directly in his path.
Zipperman had been waiting for this moment. Ferris lunged as quickly as his body allowed it, hit hand shooting out to seize the back of Judas's clothes.
But now that he was solely distracted by Judas, Zipperman took the opportunity to open a zipper pitfall which caused Ferris to trip as well.
But that did not stop Ferris, as he precisely stabbed the back of Judas's clothes in a way that he could pull him back using his hilt as a lever.
I should've trained my wrist muscles more! Ferris struggled to pull Judas's weight with only his wrist, made worse because of his uncomfortable position of having nearly all of his legs being dropped on the zipper pit.
Thankfully for Ferris, his will to pull Judas back was eventually starting to work as intended.
It was better for them to fall together in the same zipper pit than be separated.
You're a persistent one! Zipperman suddenly emerged from Ferris's blind spot.
With him, he held a zipper dagger that was targeted at the arm used to pull in Judas.
If he let go now, all his effort to save Judas would turn to nothing.
Stab!
Despite the zipper's teeth digging into Ferris's wrist, he did not let go, he did not even cease tensing his muscles.
A knight must protect the weak.
That alone drove Ferris more than his own essence!