Chapter 30: Hearing That Makes It Even More Hopeless
Nailuo landed, vomiting a mouthful of blood. Due to the terrifying lethality of that slash, her cheek twitched uncontrollably.
When she took Su Xiao's first strike, Nailuo initially thought it was some kind of ultimate move, which was why it carried such high true damage. But after the second slash, she realized that every single one of his attacks was like this—it wasn't a special move. That was truly terrifying.
Now Nailuo finally understood why Tieshu hadn't sent back any intel on the enemy before dying. It wasn't that Tieshu didn't want to, but that he simply had no time. That massive true damage was practically a main tank killer.
"Do you have a grudge against him or something? Stop coming at me!"
Nailuo stared at Su Xiao not far away. He was half-crouched on a broken concrete pillar, blood dripping from his blade.
Fighting Su Xiao—or rather, fighting him while he had activated Demon Hunting Hour—made perception completely useless. In fact, perception would only mislead you.
Nailuo spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva. The metallic taste in her mouth made her breathing even more ragged. She was certain that if things continued at this rate, she would die soon.
"Ss..."
Before Nailuo could utter another word, Su Xiao appeared right in front of her, a flash of cold blade light filling her vision.
Nailuo instinctively manipulated her spider mech to block in front of her, but in the next instant, Su Xiao appeared behind her. The psychological shadow this cast on Nailuo was immense. Even Stan, who was trying to support from a distance, could only rely on prediction—no one knew where Su Xiao would appear next except himself. Just as Nailuo prepared to summon the spider armor on her back, Su Xiao had already appeared at her side.
Although Su Xiao was constantly penetrating space, the trajectory of his descending blade never stopped. When he appeared beside Nailuo, the edge of Dragon-Slaying Flash had already touched the skin of her neck. In that moment, Nailuo's perception seemed to slow down. She felt the sharp blade slowly cutting into her neck. There was no pain, only an icy cold sensation, along with a slight numbness.
Nailuo felt she was about to die. The enemy's speed wasn't just fast—it was teleportation, and without any interval. In roughly 0.2 seconds, the enemy had moved three times. She couldn't even think of how to defend against it.
Though Nailuo's thoughts were quick, her body could only slightly turn. A hint of helplessness flashed in her eyes. Since she couldn't dodge, she could only die in front of the enemy.
Clang!
The long blade swept past, sending half a palm flying. Su Xiao's body suddenly felt heavy, and his legs sank into the ground with a loud crash.
Stan appeared at Nailuo's previous position, but he had lost half his palm. In that severed half-palm was a slowly shattering piece of parchment—it was this item that had saved Nailuo's life.
Su Xiao stood right in front of Stan. He felt an intense pulling force and heavy pressure, especially the pressure on his internal organs, which was the most lethal.
Su Xiao's vision was tinged with red. He raised his blade and slashed at Stan by instinct. Compared to Nailuo's speed, Stan's was as slow as a crawling turtle, but his immovable, mountain-like presence was impossible to ignore.
As Dragon-Slashing Flash neared Stan's throat, the slashing speed was affected by the strong gravity, slowing down more and more.
Stan reached out to grab Su Xiao, but naturally caught nothing. The moment Su Xiao appeared behind Stan, eight emerald-green spider legs shot toward him—it was Nailuo, having re-equipped her spider armor.
All eight spider legs missed. When Su Xiao reappeared, he was already over ten meters away from the two.
Drip, drip...
Blood from the couple dripped onto the ground. They exchanged a glance and saw the hidden helplessness in each other's eyes.
Indeed, when dealing with Su Xiao who had activated Demon Hunting Hour, Stan and Nailuo were as uncomfortable as could be. Not only was he elusive with unlimited teleportation, but his blade was also incredibly sharp. At this point, Stan's survivability even exceeded that of their team's main tank, Tieshu. In fact, he was the true core tank of Blood Gate, but he rarely acted unless it was a critical moment.
"What do we do? A melee fighter with teleportation plus the Demon Hunter set is practically unbeatable."
Nailuo covered the side of her neck with one hand, coughing up blood as she spoke.
"73 seconds left."
Stan spoke. As the leader of a fourth-rank large adventure group, he naturally knew the abilities of the Demon Hunter set. Su Xiao's Demon Hunting Hour still had 73 seconds remaining.
"Hearing that... makes it even more hopeless. I suspect the Demon Hunter Ring we fought for in the Naruto World ended up in his hands."
Nailuo's guess was actually correct. That Demon Hunter Ring had indeed fallen into Su Xiao's hands. Because of that, he had the chance to complete the Demon Hunter set. Interestingly, it was precisely because Blood Gate went to the Naruto World to compete for the Demon Hunter set that they became enemies with Su Xiao.
"Talking about this is meaningless..."
Before Stan could finish his sentence, Su Xiao had already slashed out a large wave of blade light, and his figure vanished from their sight in an instant.
Stan and Nailuo stood back-to-back to prevent Su Xiao from approaching from behind again. Unfortunately, this tactic was of little use.
The blade light came slashing toward Stan. He clenched his fist, and a massive hand formed from dark gravity appeared in front of him. As this giant hand clenched, gravity and attraction intertwined, shattering all the blade light.
Clang.
Dragon-Slashing Flash appeared in front of Nailuo's throat, but what surprised her was that only the blade appeared—Su Xiao himself was nowhere to be seen.
Bang! Su Xiao kicked Nailuo's shoulder, sending her flying with a whoosh. She crashed into the wall of the underground space, her condition unknown.
With Su Xiao's summon, Dragon-Slashing Flash flew back to him. The moment he grasped the blade, a giant hand slammed down from above.
With a thunderous crash, as if an earthquake had occurred, a bottomless pit appeared. Su Xiao stood at the edge of that pit, blood dripping from his chin.
Under Stan's astonished gaze, Su Xiao slashed at his own chest. He was preparing to use a combination technique that could only be used during Demon Hunting Hour.
The Demon Hunter King on Su Xiao's hand began to change, transforming into a pendant form. Before the battle, he had already prepared to use this combination technique, so the [Space-Time Dominator] pendant forged by Lide had long been stored in his storage space.
The Demon Hunter King had three forms: ring form, pendant form, and gun form. Of course, no matter what form the Demon Hunter King took, its set attributes remained unchanged; only the base attributes changed.
The ring form of the Demon Hunter King reduced the duration of all abnormal statuses by 40%, while the pendant form delayed the onset of a near-death state.
Unyielding (Passive): When the Demon Hunter King is in pendant form, if health falls below 10%, the onset of a near-death state is delayed by 20 seconds (this ability has a cooldown of 3 natural days).
Dragon-Slashing Flash repeatedly cut into Su Xiao's chest, rapidly lowering his health. In an instant, it dropped below 35%, meeting the conditions for using the Shadow Flash ability.
It was important to note that Su Xiao had activated Demon Hunting Hour, and Shadow Flash was an ability derived from his blade technique. This was naturally his own ability, so Shadow Flash now had no cooldown. Even if he couldn't kill the enemy, he could use it continuously, provided his stamina held out.
Seeing Su Xiao "self-harming" with his blade, Stan immediately became alert. Dark lines appeared around him—this was dark gravity so dense it was nearly visible. If Su Xiao hadn't activated Demon Hunting Hour, killing Stan would have been no easy task. The area within a few meters around Stan was almost an unreachable zone; anyone with weaker constitution might be torn apart by the alternating dark gravity and dark attraction.