Chapter 38: Useless Detection
Inside the alternate space, statues of ghostly deities stood in rows. Including Adley, the 105 members of the Holy Hall Adventure Group surrounded Su Xiao.
When Adley saw the warning prompt "Dominant Battle Triggered," a sense of foreboding had already arisen in his heart. But after seeing "Skill 18, ???," he fully realized the severity of the situation.
Over a dozen detection methods were activated one after another, some of which even had Charm-type characteristics. Su Xiao's information immediately appeared in the Holy Hall Adventure Group's team channel.
"Dual Grandmaster?!"
Adley looked at the long blade in Su Xiao's hand and immediately ordered in the team channel for the three tank-type members to retreat—retreat to the center of the crowd, not charge at Su Xiao.
To be fair, Adley had considerable command experience. In his view, the tanks in the team likely couldn't withstand the assault, and even with healing support, it would still be dangerous.
Therefore, Adley had the three tanks retreat into the crowd. This wasn't to have others protect the tanks, but to maximize the use of the tanks' domain-type abilities.
Domain-type abilities were unique to tanks. Most domain abilities were large-scale suppression effects, such as gravity fields, cold zones, earth vein awakening, and so on.
Domain abilities had a characteristic: even if the enemy was immune to strong control effects, they would still be affected by the domain, creating suppression and limiting the enemy's mobility to a certain extent.
At this moment, the three tanks of the Holy Hall Adventure Group were positioned around Su Xiao in a triangular formation. Each tank had over thirty contractors around them. What made things more troublesome was that the three tanks had already activated their domains. Looking from above, the three domains were like three circular coins arranged in a triangle, and at the overlapping point of all three was Su Xiao's position.
A heavy pressure weighed down on Su Xiao's entire body. Ripples appeared in the air, and fine grains of sandstone formed on his clothes. The three domains were Gravity, Water, and Earth/Sand characteristics.
"Tanks, don't let him get close. Mental-type control is ineffective. Magic-type abilities are reduced by 40%. Also, pay attention to spreading out the formation. That's basically it."
After Adley gave his orders, most of his nearly one hundred members fell into despair, especially the control-type members. They were confused—if they couldn't restrict the enemy's movements, they didn't know what to do next. Just watch? Or pull out a gun and fire a couple of shots?
"Move!"
Adley shouted loudly. As soon as his voice fell, a young girl with a single ponytail and a white cross tattoo on her forehead raised an old-fashioned rifle.
"God, I confess to you."
A hexagonal star array appeared in the cross girl's right eye. After aiming at Su Xiao with a three-point line, she pulled the trigger.
Bang!
A crisp sound rang out. A bullet formed from mental energy disappeared the moment it left the muzzle, then suddenly appeared right in front of Su Xiao's brow in the next instant.
A sense of crisis emerged. From the very start of the battle, Su Xiao had judged that the girl with the white cross tattoo on her forehead was the strongest among the 105 people present. Her strength was slightly weaker than Gourmet and Mu Xiao, but much stronger than Morei, who was a Battle Angel.
Boom! The mental energy bullet exploded, enveloping Su Xiao. In the next instant, all kinds of attacks rained down, mixed with abilities activated through disposable items.
The statue where Su Xiao had been standing was blasted into powder, and various energies spread outward.
"Biological reaction still present! Continue!"
A perception-type contractor shouted, stimulating everyone's nerves. The melee-type members nearby vaguely formed a circle, preventing Su Xiao from breaking out and charging into the surrounding crowd.
"Buy me three seconds."
After saying this, the cross girl began to chant in an unknown language. But in the next instant, a long blade shot straight toward her head.
Crack!
The long blade was blocked by a layer of light barrier for a moment, but only for a moment. The cross girl's chanting was interrupted, and she leaped backward with all her might.
Pfft.
The long blade pierced through the cross girl's chest. Mid-air, her eyes were filled with shock. She couldn't understand how Su Xiao had broken through multiple layers of barriers and appeared before her.
'Blade Path: Slay.'
Blood Qi clung to Dragon-Slaying Flash, making it appear blood-red. The cross girl was currently impaled through the chest by Dragon-Slaying Flash. If this 'Slay' strike was executed, the cross girl would surely die. She was the type with powerful offensive abilities but mediocre survivability.
Just as the blood-red arc was about to be unleashed, a hand grabbed the cross girl from behind her. Suddenly, she disappeared.
Whoosh! A massive blood-red arc slashed out. The contractors within a dozen meters in front of Su Xiao stumbled backward, their health dropping sharply as intense pain wracked their bodies.
An oversized warhammer swung at Su Xiao from behind. Judging by its momentum, it was clearly aiming to smash Su Xiao into pieces.
Spatial fluctuations spread, and Su Xiao suddenly vanished from his spot.
Thud!
The oversized warhammer slammed down, sending out a shockwave. A crater formed as the surrounding ground cracked extensively, with gravel clattering and bouncing everywhere.
The one wielding the oversized warhammer was a bald man. From his somewhat clumsy movements and immense destructive power, it was clear he had developed a single attribute—True Strength.
The bald man's hammer strike missed. Just as he was about to pull the oversized warhammer out of the ground, he felt pressure on his shoulder, as if someone was stepping on it. The next instant, darkness engulfed his vision.
With one slash, Su Xiao severed the bald man's head. He had already entered a state of spatial penetration. He could continuously penetrate space because he had activated his Demon Hunting Hour ability. With his current Stamina attribute, even if he activated the 100-second Demon Hunting Hour, he wouldn't completely exhaust himself.
Facing a siege of over a hundred contractors, Demon Hunting Hour was extremely useful. Continuous spatial penetration allowed Su Xiao to evade a large number of attacks while gaining nearly unstoppable speed.
Due to the force of the bald man's death, the oversized warhammer detached from the ground, spinning into the air.
Su Xiao penetrated space and appeared 12 meters away. Around him were three contractors—two with their backs to him, and one facing him. The contractor facing him was an assassination-type wielding a short blade.
The short blade was covered in emerald-green patterns. It looked like an energy weapon, but in reality, it was coated in deadly poison. Su Xiao could tell this at a glance through his Alchemy knowledge, which provided combat advantages.
The assassination-type contractor directly in front of Su Xiao was very sharp. The moment Su Xiao appeared, this assassin had already leaned forward, thrusting his short blade straight at Su Xiao's head.
The short blade pierced through the air. Almost simultaneously, Su Xiao's Dragon-Slashing Flash slashed toward the assassin's neck. The short, stocky assassin was decisive—he had already judged that before the enemy could strike him, he could pierce through the enemy's head.
The emerald-green short blade stabbed into Su Xiao's head, passing through without any resistance. Su Xiao was in a state of spatial penetration.
While in spatial penetration, Su Xiao slightly turned his body, allowing the enemy's short blade to exit his head. His long blade's slashing momentum didn't stop. Just as it was 0.6 centimeters from the enemy's throat, he deactivated the spatial penetration state.
Swish! Blood sprayed violently. A head flew up. Even in death, the short assassin couldn't figure out what had happened.
Su Xiao vanished from his spot. After a horizontal slash, he disappeared into the crowd again. Coming and going without a trace.
Pfft, pfft, pfft...
Several blade arcs slashed through. Boom! The previously airborne oversized warhammer finally hit the ground. This showed just how fast Su Xiao had killed eight people in succession. Being able to freely penetrate space, he didn't care about being surrounded at all.
Including Adley, no one present noticed that the eight people Su Xiao had killed were arranged in an octagonal formation around him, and Su Xiao's current position was exactly at the center of this octagon.
'Blood Beast: Blood Blade Chain.'
While in spatial penetration, a blood-red glow surged in Su Xiao's eyes. The blood splattered from the eight people he had just killed all floated up from the ground, turning into a gaseous state. Just moments ago, the split-form Banishment had quietly merged into this blood. Now, this blood formed countless fragments of blades, all converging toward Su Xiao at high speed. This was a fusion of Banishment + Blood Qi.
A large area of blood-red blade fragments converged toward Su Xiao from all directions at ultra-high speed. Most of the nearly one hundred contractors around Su Xiao were caught in the path of these blood-red blade fragments. There were simply too many of them, and they were extremely sharp.
"What the hell kind of ability is this?"
"My throat... it's been pierced... Borbosa, save me!"
Screams and grunts came one after another. The contractors used various methods to dodge, but even so, over fifty contractors were injured by the blood-red blade fragments. These fragments appeared too suddenly, and they all came from behind.
Thousands of blood-red blade fragments converged around Su Xiao. He thrust his long blade into the ground. Thud! The thousands of blade fragments that had just converged all shot outward in all directions. This time, the power was even greater.