Chapter 392: A Trapped Beast's Struggle
Bringer's ghoul-transformed body cratered into the unforgiving earth, kicking up a massive, choking cloud of debris. The bloodshot eye fused behind his shoulder spun in a frantic, erratic frenzy, transmitting a chaotic flood of signals to his brain. His consciousness fractured, suffering a jarring discontinuity, yet the agonizing pain tearing through his mutated nerves remained brutally real.
Before the monster could even process the absurdity of his situation, the source of his torment eclipsed him like a descending shadow.
"Ora! Ora! Ora—!!!"
Paimon Star's compact, absurdly muscular physique erupted with a terrifying kinetic force entirely disproportionate to its size. The spectral entity closed the distance in a heartbeat.
Its fists blurred into a storm of violent afterimages, hammering into Bringer like a relentless pile driver. Bringer's mutated frame had swelled to a towering five meters, his skin coated in a thick, dull layer of hardened keratin that resembled a grotesque fusion of jagged rock and twisted metal. Yet, beneath Paimon Star's devastating barrage—each strike laced with a bizarre, rule-bending power—that formidable defense splintered. Jagged fragments of armor flew into the air amidst a continuous, deafening staccato of heavy impacts.
"Roar—!!"
Bringer unleashed a deafening bellow, thick with agony and blind fury. Confronted by this ghostly, terrifyingly strong phantom, his primal combat instincts hijacked his bewildered mind. He crossed his massive, armored arms over his chest, desperately shielding his vulnerable head and vital organs from the onslaught.
At the same time, the three Aether Eyes hovering ominously behind his shoulder flared with crimson light. They swiveled rapidly, attempting to lock onto the high-speed target and unleash searing interference rays. However, Paimon Star's attack angles were maddeningly erratic. Its footwork defied physics, pivoting sharply mere milliseconds before the lethal beams could converge. The missed shots scorched the earth, while the Stand's relentless fists continued to pulverize Bringer's flanks, knee joints, and exposed blind spots.
This precious window of absolute suppression, violently carved out by Paimon Star, did not go unnoticed. The Astral Express crew seized the opening with ruthless precision.
"Now! Attack!"
The very instant Paimon Star dissolved into shimmering motes of starlight—its summoning duration exhausted—Stelle, Dan Heng, and March 7th launched themselves into the epicenter of the chaos. They moved like three lethal arrows loosed from different angles, their offensive perfectly synchronized.
"Hah!" Stelle led the vanguard. The re-formed stellar blade in her grip ignited, wreathed in the volatile, destructive energy of her Path. She carved a blazing crimson arc through the air, aiming directly for the exposed joint of Bringer's right arm—a vulnerability laid bare during his desperate defense against the Stand. She had completely discarded the standard-issue firearms provided by the Chat Group; against a monstrosity of this caliber, only her raw Path power and honed instincts could shatter its defenses.
A heartbeat later, Dan Heng's Cloud Piercer struck out like a lunging dragon. The spear tip condensed a singular, blinding point of frigid emerald light, piercing silently yet with terrifying velocity toward the back of Bringer's left knee. His movements were a masterclass in lethal efficiency—devoid of a single wasted breath. Every calculated thrust hunted vital points, exploiting joints and optical sensors. Paired with his fluid footwork, Dan Heng continuously generated suffocating localized pressure, forcing the beast into awkward openings.
Meanwhile, a warm, unyielding earthen-yellow halo—the Jade Shield—quietly materialized over him and his teammates. The Geo construct pulsed with ancient stability, bracing the trio for any devastating counterattacks that their evasive maneuvers couldn't entirely escape.
March 7th anchored herself at the perimeter, her fingers a blur as she continuously drew her crystalline bow. She abandoned the pursuit of singular, high-damage shots, opting instead to unleash a rapid volley of Six-Phased Ice arrows, each heavily imbued with absolute freezing power. Her frost-tipped projectiles struck Bringer's massive feet, rapidly encasing his steps in jagged frost to cripple his mobility. Other arrows precisely intercepted the three floating Aether Eyes, detonating into icy blooms that violently disrupted their energy matrices.
Arrow after arrow blossomed into chilling ice flowers across Bringer's hulking torso. While the Six-Phased Ice couldn't fully penetrate his dark, crystallized armor, the continuous, biting corrosion of absolute zero took its toll. Bringer's violent thrashing grew visibly sluggish, and the ominous flow of dark red energy coursing across his carapace began to stutter and dim.
Lumine did not immediately throw herself into the frontal assault.
Instead, she stood at the edge of the ruined docks, her golden eyes calmly scanning the chaotic sprawl of mangled freighter wreckage and crushed shipping containers. She focused her elemental sight, zeroing in on the subtle, abnormal fluctuations of spatial energy and the faint, phantom cracks webbing through the air.
Bringer possessed an uncanny familiarity with this terrain. They absolutely could not afford to give the creature another opportunity to tear open a spatial rift and escape.
Taking a slow, steadying breath, Lumine closed her eyes. She vividly recalled the complex formation Zhongli had imparted to her during the grueling Natlan campaign—the very same array used to quarantine the devastated lands ravaged by Bakunawa. Having only witnessed the Prime of Adepti execute it once, she naturally couldn't replicate the divine scale of that ancient art. However, by fusing her deep mastery over the Geo element with her acute sensitivity to spatial distortions, a simplified, highly practical sealing array rapidly took shape in her mind.
Lumine's figure blurred into a streak of azure wind. She darted rapidly across the battlefield, mapping out eight specific cardinal points around the epicenter of the brawl. At each calculated coordinate, she dropped to one knee, slammed her palm against the cracked earth, and channeled a surging torrent of pure, golden Geo energy deep into the bedrock.
"Starfell Sword, descend!"
Amidst a deep, rumbling tremor, eight majestic Geo meteorites erupted from the earth. These constructs were far denser than her usual elemental creations, their surfaces glowing with complex, interlocking Geo sigils. They were not scattered at random; each pillar stood in strict, arcane alignment, forming an inescapable perimeter.
As the final Starfell Sword locked into position in the northeast, the invisible Geo force field bridging the eight pillars instantly ignited. Golden light flared, connecting the constructs and sealing the area within a sturdy, octagonal column of absolute elemental lockdown.
Within the boundaries of the formation, the volatile, flickering spatial cracks were forcefully smoothed over by an invisible, crushing pressure, vanishing without a trace.
[Mountain-Suppressing Spirit-Locking Array: Simplified Version], complete.
The bloodshot eye fused behind Bringer's shoulder twitched violently. It was the first to process the despairing reality of their situation: the surrounding space had been entirely locked down.
His escape route was permanently severed.
Without wasting a single second to admire her handiwork, Lumine reached out, her fingers wrapping tightly around the hilt of her Prototype Rancour. She shot a quick glance toward Paimon, who was hovering safely at the edge of the glowing barrier, still excitedly pumping her tiny fists in celebration of her muscular Stand's 'highlight moment.'
"Paimon, stay outside the formation!" Lumine instructed sharply. "Keep an eye out for any external threats, and be careful!"
"Got it! You fight hard too, Lumine!" Paimon nodded vigorously. The tiny guide kept her distance, floating just beyond the golden light of the barrier, her large eyes scanning the perimeter with uncharacteristic vigilance.
Lumine's golden eyes sharpened into deadly slits. Riding a sudden updraft of Anemo energy, she vaulted directly into the core of the melee.
Her swordsmanship was a blur of nimble, surgical precision. She smoothly wove exquisite Geo barriers and razor-sharp Wind Blades into the microscopic gaps between Stelle's savage, heavy-handed strikes and Dan Heng's blinding spear thrusts. Whenever the Aether Eyes attempted to flank her allies, Lumine was there, her Prototype Rancour flashing to deflect the searing energy rays, drastically alleviating the pressure on the Express crew.
However, Bringer was no ordinary beast. Having gorged himself on a massive influx of Aether energy, his physical defense far exceeded their worst expectations.
The dark, crystallized armor plating his mutated flesh was absurdly dense. Stelle's brutal, Path-infused strikes often did little more than carve deep white gouges into the carapace, sending showers of sparks raining across the battlefield, but failing to shatter the plating in a single, decisive blow.
Dan Heng's surgical spear thrusts met a similar fate, glancing off the hardened shell unless he managed to perfectly thread the needle into the microscopic gaps between the monster's joints. March's relentless barrage of ice arrows could only stack thicker layers of frost over the beast's exterior, dragging down his momentum but failing to inflict lethal damage.
To make matters worse, the three floating Aether Eyes operated like autonomous, malevolent turrets. They spewed dark red energy rays at blinding speeds. These beams didn't just burn; they carried a sickening, corrosive decay and emitted a low-frequency hum that disrupted the mind. The constant need to dodge and deflect these psychological attacks forced the team to constantly break their offensive rhythm, preventing them from chaining together a fatal combo.
Clang!
Stelle brought her blade down in a vicious, two-handed overhead chop, slamming directly into the thick armor of Bringer's raised forearm. The sheer kinetic recoil sent a violent shudder up her arms, forcing her half a step back. She gritted her teeth, unable to hold back a frustrated groan.
"Seriously? He just chugged a few extra cans of Aether fuel, didn't he?!" Stelle complained loudly, adjusting her grip on her weapon. "Why does it feel like he swapped his skin for starship-grade alloy?! Just a minute ago, we were chasing him around the docks like a kicked dog! Maybe I should down two cans of that junk to level the playing field!"
March 7th hastily materialized a thick layer of Six-Phased Ice over Dan Heng's shoulder to absorb a glancing blow, immediately snapping back at her teammate. "Don't you dare cause trouble, you idiot! Is that toxic sludge something you can just casually drink?! Aren't you afraid of mutating into an ugly ghoul like him?!"
March's blunt warning proved highly effective. The mental image of sprouting a giant, bloodshot eyeball on her shoulder instantly murdered Stelle's chaotic urge to taste-test the volatile Aether fuel.
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