Chapter 1078: Quick and Brutal.

[Wrath Cutter!]

[Basilisk’s Hammer!]

In less than a blink of the eye, Jin Fang had charged forward and swung her sword directly towards Hu Ken’s fat neck. As she did, the dragon-ape made of black flames broke apart and merged itself with her blade. Even if the attack didn’t fully decapitate His Ken, the burning black flames would definitely leave permanent damage against Hu Ken’s body.

In response to this decapitation strike, Hu Ken swung back with a heavy fist that was covered in purple poison.

Normally, using an attack with a poison attribute against someone using fire was a bad idea, due to the latter having an advantage.

Fire denatures poison.

However, that line of thinking gets thrown out the window in situations where one party was stronger than the other.

Despite Jinju Ren’s bravery, that didn’t change the fact that she was an Aether Grandmaster while her opponent was an Aether King.

In ninety-eight percent of clashes between opponents with a two stage difference, the one with the higher stage would win. In other words, King beats Grandmaster...most of the time.

"Reckless royal, you’ll drown in my venom!"

CLANG!

"Wait, what?"

However, that didn’t happen this time around.

Instead, much to Hu Ken’s surprise, his attack was somehow equals to Jinju Ren’s.

"T-this is impossible!"

Checking over his person, Hu Ken saw that he still had his [Icon], [Astra] and [Regalia] active, meaning that his attack should’ve been way stronger than Jinju Ren’s.

Not only that, but he was still being empowered by that treasured dragon pill that gave him his current form.

So how the hell could this little girl been able to resist his attack, even if taking into account that Dragon Force was a stickler to the balance of nature?!

"Confused?"

"Huh?"

Evidently, the confusion must’ve been obvious on his face, because Jinju Ren was looking particular pleased at stumping the poor bastard.

"Allow me to quickly elucidate exactly how I’m currently able to match you," Jinju Ren said with smug satisfaction. "Firstly, that pill you took may grant you the power of a Basilisk dragon temporarily, but the side effects can be quite devastating. For example, did you know that the venom coursing through your vein is such a potent narcotic that you basically can’t feel any injuries? From what I’m seeing, your body is covered in so many injuries that you’re basically falling apart!"

Jinju Ren wasn’t just blowing smoke when she made this statement.

Zhen Xun Tian had inflicted all manner of wounds and injuries that would’ve been fatal against most other warriors, and she would’ve taken his life right there and then had he not knocked her out of the room they were fighting in.

But as Jinju Ren stated earlier, this wasn’t the only reason why she was able to resist Hu Ken’s attacks.

"As for the second, but not the final reason, you know I’m an imperial princess, meaning you should know about the [Dragon Taming Saber], yes?"

Hu Ken didn’t even bother answering verbally as he developed the feeling he knew where this was going. He did, however, nod.

"Excellent, so you know that as a dragon-blooded now, you now have all the strengths and weaknesses associated with it."

As these words left her mouth, the blade in her hand began to push back against Hu Ken’s fists. "Meaning that my blade has gotten your instincts all worked up."

A sense wide nervousness began to spread throughout Hu Ken’s body as he realized the gravity of the situation he was in. As a direct result of this sudden show of weakness though, his [Regalia], [Icon] and [Astra] all began to waver. Especially when he remembered an important detail not being shared in that moment.

"What’s the final reason?"

At this question, Jinju Ren gave a wide smile.

"My fiancee gave me an amazing gift as an engagement present...that I’ve only used half utilized."

"What?"

As soon as this question was posed, the sword in Jinju Ren’s hand suddenly flared to life with a huge amount of jet black flame, and began to cut into Hu Ken’s fist.

Unlike his other injuries though, Hu Ken felt this one.

"Try to grin and bear it!"

"ARRRRRGGGHHHH!"

"Guess not."

...

[Ink Magnum!]

[Shining Wing!]

After disengaging with one another, Zhen Xun Tian and Alain had charged up brand new attacks before going for each other’s throats yet again.

Zhen Xun Tian manipulated the [Chaos] and aether in her giant ink tentacles to turn them into a pair of giant fists.

Once she had them at the ready, she rushed forward like a raging bull, ready to smash Alain into a million tiny pieces.

On the other side, Alain had begun to charge his wings with [Chaos], causing them to glow with all the colors of the rainbow. Once they were fully saturated, he released a shower of feather shaped light arrows that cut through the stone flooring and pillars like hot knives through butter.

"Oh now we’re talking!"

Surprisingly though, these arrows didn’t cut through Zhen Xun Tian’s flesh.

Using her inky fists as a shield, Zhen Xun Tian blocked most of the incoming arrows, and proceeded to punch out the ones that managed to get through.

"You’re mine!"

BOOM!

"Hey! Get down here!"

"Fuck you, no!"

However, just as Zhen Xun Tian was in punching distance and slammed her giant ink fists down in an attempt to smash in Alain’s head, he managed to get out of the way by flying through the air faster than she could react.

His plan after doing this was to descend at a speed that would goad Zhen Xun Tian into flying upwards and giving him the chance to fire an attack at a weird angle.

However, he didn’t end up doing so due to an unexpected turn of events.

First, he was down an ally.

"You still haven’t defeated that winged fucker yet, Grandmother-in-law?"

"Not-wait, you already defeated that scaly bastard?"

"You softened the hell out of him earlier. I was going to decapitate him, but I figured you’d want him back in his cell...or interrogation."

"D’awww, well aren’t you filial."

Off to the side, the slumped and defeated form of a now human Hu Ken could be seen leaning against a wall.

’Ah, bollocks.’

Then, he received a message from the Fallen’s resident anima wielder.

...

’Well...shit. Looks like I’ll have to go all out and-’

[Alain, retreat to the edge of the city now.]

’Oh, perfect timing! Hu Ken got defeated and I’m about to fight tow against one. I need back-up to...wait a minute, what, why?’

[Our secondary objectives may have been foiled, but our primary ones have been achieved. As such, we’re going to move on to phase 2b. Also, we can’t send reinforcements because two of our Grafted warriors have been defeated and captured.]

’Ah...very well, proceeding to phase 2b.’

...

With the fight now in their favor, Jinju Ren and Zhen Xun Tian were all set to join hands and-

[SEE YA, BITCHES!]

"Huh?"

"Coward!"

-and become incredibly annoyed that Alain just bitched out of the fight by turning into a streak of light and flying away.

While this was technically a victory in the grand scheme of things, Zhen Xun Tian and Jinju Ren were still annoyed as fuck at this turn of events. More so the former than the latter, strangely enough.

"Well that’s annoying," Zhen Xun Tian said in a huff as she sat on the ground. "And here I figured I’d go out in a blaze of glory while running my fist through some fake-ass angel. That would’ve been a helluva tombstone."

"Yeah...hold on, what did you say?"

"Oh, I guess I should explain. Years ago I l...wait a minute..."

Before Zhen Xun Tian could explain that she had once received a death fortune several decades ago, she had sensed something weird.

Not in the surrounding aether though, but in the ground beneath her feet.

Just to be sure though, Zhen Xun Tian dismissed her [Regalia] and placed her ear to the ground.

Once she did, she began to hear a rumbling from the earth below.

"No fucking way..."

"Grandmother-in-law? What’s wrong?"

"Xiao Xun Po!," Zhen Xun Tian called out as she got to her feet as quick as a blink. "Can you lead me to where, you and Cornileus left those councillors?"

"Of course, matriarch," Zhen Xun Po nodded. "But why?"

"Because if anyone knows this city’s natural disaster response, they would know. Now lead me, time’s wasting!"

"Right!"

...Meanwhile...

"Buzza! Torture Elder! Why are we running away instead of waiting for further reinforcements?! We still have other Grafted warriors in the city, right? Why not summon them to deal with those other kaijin?"

"Becauzzze, Matriarch, we have already fulfilled our objectivezzz in the tomb. Now the only thing that remainzzz izzz to fulfill our objective with at the gatezzz."

"Oh?"

"After that, we move on to the part where we prevent any future izzzzuezzz in the bud."

"Oh...very well, let’s get going."