Same Old Trick

A giant, ape-like fist crashed into the ground. The fur upon it was black, but the skin that was visible was a deep hue of red–Linfeng only narrowly dodged it.

‘Is he even human?!’

Having only limited time available to him, the script holder rushed forward with all of his might and speed, his fist crashing right into the chest of the transformed scion, and even Enchanted Biological Armour wasn’t able to fully block the damage, the strike managing to push even the monstrous form of Edrick back several steps, but Linfeng wasn’t able to revel in finally being able to deal proper damage as his adversary was quick to strike back.

The fist was nearly as big as Linfeng. It struck his entire body, sending him flying into the dirt, but he nearly immediately burst out of the dust cloud the crash created, attempting to deliver a brutal kick straight to the noble’s leg, but Anoteros leapt into the air and used Spiritual Tail Swipe to launch himself right back at the ground.

The protagonist managed not to be hit directly, but the attack shook the ground violently and spread dust all over the place. Linfeng stomped the ground, creating a blast of wind with nought but brute force, only to realise that Edrick had turned invisible once more.

‘I better brace myself-’

Just as he thought this, a light shone down on the area, revealing what looked like a mass of warm air slowly approaching.

Linfeng looked to the side, seeing that Yen’mila had called upon some man-sized flower which apparently had the ability to reveal invisibility.

‘I always forget how versatile she can be…’

The script holder rushed straight at Anoteros, who quickly dropped the invisibility, revealing that he was now wielding a giant axe, which he swung with practised ease, cleaving the air and ground cleanly as Linfeng felt the wind whistle into his ear. Without hesitation, he struck at the side of the axe, but instead of destabilising his opponent, it helped him.

Anoteros merely dispelled the axe whose weight was dragging him to the side, and used the momentum to deliver a sudden and powerful leg sweep, snapping both legs of the protagonist, who had to use a burst of Yang to rapidly fix them.

Thankfully, the leg that had been partly replaced by solid Yang merely needed to be fed more Yang. Nonetheless, it left Linfeng vulnerable for a few moments, allowing Edrick to deliver a punch straight at him.

Linfeng braced for impact, but it didn’t come as it should have.

“Quick, I can’t hold him for long!”

Once again, Yen’mila had intervened in the nick of time, stopping the scion from using countless vines. Linfeng swiftly got out of the way, and indeed, the plant cultivator was only able to stop the scion for a handful of seconds, as he quickly broke free, doing so by specifically using Aura Bash, causing Yen’mila to receive a backlash which knocked her down.

But in return, this gave Linfeng an opening, allowing him to strike directly and with full force at Edrick’s jaw. Like a burst of flames, the Primordial Yang surged into Linfeng’s arm, allowing him to blast Edrick’s lower jaw right off, the hit powerful enough to send the giant monster he had turned into tumbling to the ground.

‘I can’t let this opportunity go!’ 

Linfeng didn’t take any pause, and moved to attack more, unleashing a flurry of punches at the scion’s head and chest, but the man lacking his lower jaw laughed as he spat blood. His tongue hadn’t been destroyed at all, so it remained, flopping around as though he couldn’t control it from how amused he was.

The script holder didn’t need to hear it to know why he was laughing. That strike that allowed him to deal significant damage had been quite Yang-intensive, and right now, his strikes were struggling to pierce through Enchanted Biological Armour once more.

Using Aura Bash, Anoteros pushed Linfeng off him. He then struck the ground below him with his elbows, pushing himself right onto his feet. It was harder to tell, but the way the muscles on his face moved and the shape his eyes took on, it was quite clear that he was smiling.

Still, he couldn’t speak in this state, so he communicated with a simple gesture, beckoning Linfeng to attack once more by curling his index finger.

“You don’t need to tell me. I fully intend to kill you today!”

Linfeng burst forth, planning on using all of the Yang he had left to either punch a hole through Edrick’s heart or crush his skull. Now that he had endured that heavy blow and was losing blood, it should be much easier to find an occasion to strike. Before, the risk of Edrick dodging or replying in kind by pouring excessive energies into his defensive spell was too great, but now that he was injured, the risk of such a manoeuvre had greatly decreased.

‘Edrick, today you’ll pay for what you did to Fingmi!’

Something’s wrong, Linfeng! Be careful!

Right as the system said this, Anoteros suddenly summoned a spear out of nowhere, thrusting it straight at Linfeng.

‘Holy-!’

He narrowly dodged the attack, using this occasion to get closer to his adversary.

‘Time to-?!’

The script holder suddenly stopped right in his tracks, noticing a trident had been stabbed right through his stomach.

“What the… When did it…?”

The spear he had just dodged was gone, but that wasn’t the weird part, as Edrick had shown that he was able to summon and dispel weapons at will. What was weirder was that the arm holding it was also gone, now instead holding the trident. There was no way Anoteros could have switched weapons, repositioned his arm, and attacked without Linfeng noticing any of those steps. 

It was more like the trident had just appeared out of nowhere.

The Elt scion emitted a rough, drowned chuckle, pushing the trident so that it stabbed into the ground as well.

‘Shit, I need to get out of this!’

He was struck by a grossly overcharged Magus King's Deterrence, freezing him in place for enough time for Edrick to clench both hands into fists and strike at the protagonist’s ears simultaneously.

Linfeng could see his vision darken as his hearing was nothing but a strident hum.

The last thing he felt was the trident being twisted in his stomach and brutally pulled out as the scion stomped right on his chest.

‘Unbelievable… How did things turn out like this… So quickly? I don’t… I don’t even know what happened…’