Chapter 8: One Step Ahead
The dimly lit fortune-telling room was quiet, two pairs of eyes locked onto each other. After a moment, the Demon Ghost grinned, revealing the interlocking fangs in his mouth.
"Come on, old friend. Besides you and two others, fighting other hunters just doesn't feel right. They're far too weak."
The Demon Ghost leaped down from the table, flexing his left arm. On both his arms, a rough external defense gradually formed. At first glance, this outer armor looked like some kind of metal.
Crack, crack, crack~
The Demon Ghost clenched his fists, and red patterns surged across his chest, spreading rapidly.
Just then, hurried footsteps came from outside the fortune-telling room, and the door was kicked open with a bang.
"Everyone inside, hands up!"
A loud shout rang out. By the light from the street, a man holding a rifle could be seen, his face filled with murderous intent.
The Demon Ghost looked at the dark muzzle, clearly somewhat surprised. He couldn't understand why the enemy would use such a thing against him.
Boom!!
An extremely deafening sound spread. A silver bullet covered in engravings tore through layers of air, finally slamming into the Demon Ghost's head.
With a thud, an explosion occurred, and the shockwave left the fortune-telling room riddled with holes.
"Direct hit."
The man crouching outside the door was somewhat exhausted, his cheek twitching constantly from the erosion of dark energy. This was a new combat system, combining the supernatural power from the Dark Prison with special firearms.
"Don't use, toys, to hit my head."
The smoke around the Demon Ghost's head dissipated. At this moment, he was biting a deformed bullet between his teeth. With a crunch, the silver bullet was crushed.
Shrapnel flew everywhere. The Demon Ghost pressed his thumb against his index finger, aimed at a piece of shrapnel, and flicked it. A burst of air pressure exploded, and the shrapnel turned into a blur, heading straight for Su Xiao.
Ding.
A spark flew up, and Su Xiao vanished from his spot.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Three slashes flashed. The Demon Ghost's arms were crossed in front of his face. On his arms, shallow cut marks could be seen. Before blood could seep out, the wounds healed. He hadn't been injured in years, because no one could hurt him.
The slashes and the air bursts from his fists continued without pause. In an instant, the fortune-telling room exploded, debris scattering everywhere. Both Su Xiao and the Demon Ghost leaped backward.
'Annihilation: Gladiator.'
As soon as the Demon Ghost landed, he punched the ground. The earth around him suddenly rose, and black spikes burst out from the surrounding ground, each several meters long. It looked like in the next moment, they might engulf the entire market.
'Blade Path Sword: Devour.'
Su Xiao slashed diagonally, and a blood-red blade aura appeared. This blade aura didn't fly out; instead, as soon as it left the blade, it rapidly expanded. With a whoosh, a blood-red chain of light slashed through.
Inside the blood-red chain, the Demon Ghost took half a step back, and the earth spikes spreading toward Su Xiao came to an abrupt halt.
From this initial exchange, Su Xiao roughly judged the Demon Ghost's strength. This guy seemed wild, but he was actually a Technique Type, at least a Melee Grandmaster, and no lower than Lv.50.
"The crowd has been evacuated."
The Demon Ghost looked around, but his perception remained focused on Su Xiao. He didn't intend to drag this out any longer.
'Annihilation: World-Shaking King.'
Boom! The Demon Ghost's entire body erupted with violent energy, making it hard to even see his original appearance. Only black and red could be seen—black for his body, red for his already distorted eyes.
Su Xiao held his long blade horizontally in front of him, slightly lowering his posture. The enemy's attack was extremely powerful; if hit head-on, he would at least be severely injured.
Suddenly, the Demon Ghost vanished from his spot, appearing in front of Su Xiao the next moment. His right arm, wrapped in black and red, bent back and then punched toward Su Xiao.
Just as this violent energy was about to spread, the Demon Ghost suddenly concentrated all the energy, gathering it on his right arm.
The Demon Ghost raised his right arm, blocking the long blade that had already slashed toward his neck. With a slash, the blade cut through half his arm. But if he had used 'Annihilation: World-Shaking King,' he would have been hurt even more. In an instant, the Demon Ghost judged this and found a way to counter.
Bang!
Su Xiao kicked straight, and the Demon Ghost staggered back. His right leg remained bent, blocking Su Xiao's kick aimed at his lower abdomen. His right leg was numb.
"Refreshing! Again."
The Demon Ghost shouted, but in the next moment, two pitch-black energy arms appeared behind him. This ignited the anger in the Demon Ghost's heart. He could die in this battle, but he wouldn't escape like this.
"I'll kill you all!"
The Demon Ghost roared. This "kill you all" was clearly not directed at Su Xiao.
The Demon Ghost's messy hair became even more disheveled, making him look like a demon. But in the next instant, he suddenly vanished from his spot, dragged into the Dark Prison by the two energy arms.
The fortune-telling room fell silent. Seeing this, the man outside the door let out a long sigh of relief. He knew clearly that if the two inside continued their fight, the entire market, no, a large residential area nearby, would disappear.
Su Xiao looked around. The Demon Ghost's aura had completely disappeared. The fact that he came to kill the female hunter in advance was definitely not the Demon Ghost's own idea. This guy was strong, no doubt, but according to the Watch Guild's records, he wasn't a schemer. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone alone to challenge the Watch Guild headquarters, been severely wounded to near death, and then escaped in the same way as now.
Su Xiao walked over to the female hunter's corpse and carefully sensed it. The life aura of the corpse had vanished, but he grabbed its left arm and squeezed hard.
"Rude man, what are you doing to my corpse?"
A female voice came from the nearby debris. A fluid, like water, surged over, spreading along the ground, eventually flowing into the cracked wooden wheelchair and into the female hunter's "corpse." The blood at her severed neck began to turn transparent, and a head gradually formed.
As the saying goes, women are made of water. This phrase perfectly described the female hunter, Tiffany.
"The Demon Ghost came to kill a small fry like me. It must be because of you, Kukulin. The Demon Ghost bit off a piece of my soul. He really wants me dead."
The female hunter, Tiffany, looked somewhat lazy. On her remaining left hand, she wore a very thin silver chain ornament. With her ability, losing a limb was nothing, but she had a huge weakness. Because of this weakness, the souls of her legs and right arm had shattered.
"Probably."
"Dragged into trouble again. One very important thing is... you guys wrecked my home. Who's going to pay for it?"
The female hunter, Tiffany, looked serious. Compared to nearly dying just now, she was more concerned about who would compensate her losses.
"I didn't destroy anything."
"Eh~? You mean I should go to the Demon Ghost and demand compensation?"
The female hunter, Tiffany, rolled her eyes. She didn't expect the famous God Hunter, Kukulin, to try to weasel out of paying.
"Not bad comprehension."
Su Xiao walked behind the female hunter, Tiffany, and pushed the wooden wheelchair out of the fortune-telling room.
The situation was becoming more complicated, but once the key link was figured out, everything became simple. Assuming the Demon Ghost wasn't alone but represented a faction, then the situation was straightforward.
That faction needed a certain item, but that item was in the hands of Major Bart. A sane Dark Demon would never go to "Vick Street" to kill Major Bart. That would be a double provocation to the Rhine Kingdom and the Watch Guild, a direct slap in the face to the Rhine Kingdom.
So that faction sought out the mentally unstable Gluttony Dark Demon. The result was that the Gluttony Dark Demon didn't withdraw as planned but stayed at the crime scene, intending to kill an old hunter before retreating.
The Gluttony Dark Demon's ambush failed, and Su Xiao killed him. This was an important turning point because that faction, as if foreseeing this, asked the Demon Ghost to step in and eliminate the female hunter, Tiffany. Her ability might expose that faction.
Su Xiao felt that this almost danger-predicting method was why many Hunters and Battle Angels had died in this world. Before the enemy was threatened, they could pre-sense the source of the threat and eliminate it in advance.
However, this ability wasn't omnipotent. The fact that the female hunter, Tiffany, was still alive proved this.
Tiffany's "liquefaction" ability seemed to make her immortal, even allowing her soul to liquefy. But she had a huge weakness: she was afraid of Dark Demon blood.
If Tiffany got Dark Demon blood on her, her soul would solidify for a period, becoming as fragile as glass. Her legs and right arm were permanently lost because of this weakness.
The fact that the enemy didn't foresee this weakness of Tiffany's showed that their ability wasn't perfect. It was troublesome but not completely unmanageable.
The most crucial point was that on the two black energy arms that suddenly appeared earlier, Su Xiao saw black tentacles writhing on them.