Chapter 377: Venti: Watch Me
The standard Hati Head Dog was infamous for its lethal agility and feral aggression, but the monstrosity looming before them had mutated far beyond its original parameters.
It had swollen to a terrifying, hulking size. Thick, overgrown slabs of purplish-red Aether Crystal armor plated its entire body. The sheer density of the crystalline growths was staggering, forming an impenetrable carapace over its back and vital areas like the skull.
Most alarming, however, was its rear. The creature's original tail had been violently replaced. In its stead, three massive scorpion tails lashed out from the caudal vertebrae, each heavily armored with jagged bony segments and tipped with razor-sharp stingers. These three appendages moved with a sickening, fluid agility, swaying slowly through the heavy air as their tips gleamed with a faint, toxic purple luminescence.
Embedded deep within the center of its broad, crystalline back sat the true mastermind: the core of the Spine King Worm. The parasitic entity had fused smoothly with the host's flesh and internal energy network. Protected by dense, overlapping layers of crystallization, it pulsed rhythmically, functioning as both a command tower and a biological reactor.
"It has implanted its core directly into this high-tier Hati Head Dog," Zhongli observed, his golden eyes narrowing slightly as he delivered his calm, analytical judgment. "By doing so, it secures not only a vastly superior host body with enhanced mobility and raw combat power, but it also gains the ability to siphon Aether energy far more efficiently. The host acts as a conduit, continuously nourishing and fortifying the parasite's core."
He shifted his gaze to the surrounding horde. "As for those High-Grade Ethereals infected by the lesser Spine-Thorn Proto-Insects... they have been repurposed into its personal royal guard. Or, perhaps, they are merely living batteries—reserved nutrients meant to fuel its next evolutionary leap."
"A mutated Hati Head Dog... a parasitic Spine King Worm core... and an entire mob of high-level Ethereal thugs..." Hu Tao muttered, tallying the overwhelming enemy forces. A violent twitch pulled at the corner of her mouth.
She whipped her head around, shooting a lethal glare at Venti. The bard was casually standing off to the side, stroking his chin as if admiring a street performance. The fiery accusation in her plum-blossom eyes screamed volumes: 'Lord Venti, you called this a simple boss fight?! This is a full-blown monster den! We're looking at a brutal war of attrition!'
Venti easily caught Hu Tao's murderous stare, yet the expected sheepishness or guilt was entirely absent from his youthful features. Instead, a bright glint of genuine amusement danced in his emerald eyes. He actually clapped his hands together in light applause.
"Quite the luxurious lineup," Venti remarked, his tone practically singing with appreciation. "It seems the nutrition from those two vials of medicine worked wonders. It spawned a big guy who actually knows how to integrate his resources. Not bad at all! I'd say it qualifies as a decent warm-up."
Hu Tao nearly choked on her own breath. "Hey! Is this really the time to hand out compliments?! Look at their numbers! Look at that composition! There are only three of us!"
"Patience, Director Hu," Venti replied, turning to flash her a brilliant, unbothered smile. It was a look of casual, absolute certainty—the quiet arrogance befitting the Anemo Archon. "The enemy numbers are a bit high, sure, and their quality is certainly above average. But... I just had a wonderful idea that might make our opening act much, much easier."
He paused, letting his playful grin dial back just a fraction. When he spoke again, a rare thread of seriousness wove through his voice. "However, I should probably mention this beforehand: the little trick I'm about to pull requires a small... cost."
He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Conservatively speaking, for the next ten minutes—maybe a little longer—I likely won't be able to freely mobilize my Anemo elemental power for fine control or sustained combat. The heavy lifting for the rest of this brawl will have to fall on you and Zhongli."
Hu Tao's brows instantly knitted together. Voluntarily benching a primary combatant right at the start of a heavily outnumbered fight was tactical suicide. She stepped forward, reaching out to stop him. "Wait, Venti, don't mess around! If we pace ourselves and proceed steadily, we can still—"
"Relax, Director," Venti interrupted gently. He saw the genuine tactical concern in her eyes. His smile lingered, but his gaze sharpened into something impossibly clear and resolute. "I'm not going to break any divine seals. I just need to overdraw a bit of power, which demands an absurd degree of focus and control. In any case... just sit back and enjoy the show!"
Before his final word even faded into the heavy air, Venti let his eyelids flutter shut.
When they snapped open a second later, the usual carefree poetry and laughter had vanished from his emerald eyes. They had transformed into two bottomless pools of ancient jade—serene, calculating, and terrifyingly focused.
He slowly raised his right hand, turning his palm upward toward the cavernous ceiling.
At first, nothing happened. Only a subtle, nearly invisible wisp of clear wind coiled lazily around his index finger. But a fraction of a second later, the atmosphere violently ruptured.
Centered perfectly above his open palm, the ambient Anemo energy in the environment began to frantically converge. It let out a low, ominous whistle that quickly escalated into a deafening howl. This was no longer the gentle, melodic breeze of Mondstadt that carried songs and soothed the soul. It had weaponized. The air became hyper-concentrated and razor-sharp, acting like millions of microscopic, transparent blades spinning, colliding, and compressing at terrifying speeds.
The piercing shriek of tearing air grew exponentially louder, completely drowning out the sizzling hiss of leaking Aether fuel and the guttural roars of the surrounding Ethereals.
The atmospheric pressure inside the plaza collapsed into chaos. Violent, visible cyclones ripped across the ground, sweeping up heavy dust and shattering loose debris. Hu Tao's coattails and Zhongli's formal suit snapped wildly in the gale-force winds.
Hovering just inches above Venti's palm, the hyper-condensed Anemo energy took physical shape. It formed a sphere—a sphere that rapidly expanded in diameter. Its edges were violently unstable, pulsing with a blinding, greenish-white luminescence.
The surface of the orb was far from smooth. It was a chaotic storm of countless miniature wind blades, vibrating and rotating at such extreme velocities that they emitted a dense, grating screech of continuous cutting.
Then came the true spectacle. Four massive, scythe-like vanes materialized out of thin air. Forged entirely from highly concentrated Anemo energy, they locked into place around the violently rotating core and began to spin at an even more furious, blinding speed, forming a colossal shuriken of pure wind.
[Wind Release: Rasenshuriken]
This skill scroll had originated from an entirely different universe. Paimon had casually tossed it into the Chat Group's shared warehouse at some unknown point in the past, slapping it with a warning label that read: Requires fine control and long charging time.
Now, in the hands of Teyvat's Anemo Archon, the alien technique finally displayed its true, terrifying potential.
Venti's eyes were practically glowing. A wild hint of excitement danced across his face, looking exactly like a child testing out a highly dangerous new toy.
"Do you see it?" Venti's voice somehow cut cleanly through the deafening shriek of the Anemo storm, taking a casual moment to lecture his two companions. "That interesting little gadget Paimon shoved into the warehouse is called [Wind Release: Rasenshuriken]. You've both seen the [Wind Vortex Sword] that Lumine uses, right? The one that gathers Anemo energy to form a localized vortex for attraction and cutting? Well, this—!"
He hoisted the violently screeching energy construct higher into the air. It had already swelled to nearly two meters in diameter, resembling a massive, apocalyptic millstone of greenish-white light. The four outer wind blades were spinning so fast they had blurred into a solid, lethal halo.
"—This can be understood as a super-sized, hyper-concentrated version of the [Wind Vortex Sword]... except you can throw it!"
Venti's tone dripped with flamboyant satisfaction. "However, after I applied a few personal enhancements to the formula, its cutting and tearing effects might be just a little bit stronger than the original."
A little bit stronger was the understatement of the century.
Both Hu Tao and Zhongli could viscerally sense the sheer, unadulterated destructive force contained within that terrifying sphere. The energy rotating above the bard's palm radiated a lethal pressure capable of grinding solid steel into microscopic dust.
The intensity of the elemental fluctuation was so overwhelming that even the Spine King Worm in the center of the plaza took notice. It abruptly stopped gorging itself on the ambient Aether Mist. The colossal beast raised its armored head, letting out a low, wary hiss as its three scorpion tails whipped restlessly through the air, sensing the impending storm.
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