Chapter 16: Explosion
Moonlight illuminated a large stretch of ruins in District 5. Fluorescent blue energy scattered, and the Sanctuary Divine Stick, enveloped within, fell with a thud.
To be fair, the Sanctuary Divine Stick was rather unlucky. If he had summoned his divine incarnation earlier, he wouldn't have been so easily invaded by the spider eggs. By the time he called upon his divine incarnation, it was already too late—the spider eggs had become part of his body.
Uniss's spider eggs had an unknown method of invasion. After entering a target's body, they had a 1-2 hour 'independent period.' In other words, during this time, high-grade props or potions could detect and remove the spider eggs from the body.
Once two hours passed, it was too late. The spider eggs would become part of the victim's body, forming a symbiotic relationship. At this stage, Uniss could command the eggs to hatch into small spiders at any time.
The Sanctuary Divine Stick collapsed on the ruins. One by one, small spiders crawled out from his mouth and nose, heading toward Uniss's location. Looking at the Divine Stick's appearance now, his skin was a grayish-brown, and his entire body was nothing but skin and bones—he had been drained dry.
The small spiders, each about the size of a fingernail, crawled to Uniss, climbed up her legs to her body, and finally reached the back of her hand. With a pop, they burst into a red mist, absorbed by the spider eye on the back of her hand.
The night was no different from day for Uniss. She looked at Su Xiao in the distance, her smile gradually fading. Though tens of meters away, she felt a sense of threat. The object in the enemy's hand was as scorching as the sun and had a certain restraining effect on her.
Uniss had originally planned not to show herself, just to 'plant' spider eggs from the shadows. But after trying, she found it was impossible.
A Blade Grandmaster's close-range perception was absurdly sharp. When the spider eggs 'drifted' within a dozen meters of the enemy, he immediately sensed them. While the enemy was fighting Tianfa, she had tried to plant eggs, but they were nearly sliced apart.
The egg-planting ability was strong, but the risks were also significant. If the drifting spider eggs were destroyed by the enemy, Uniss's own mental strength would suffer irreversible damage. She had experienced that feeling once—like a red-hot branding iron being shoved directly into her brain.
Dozens of meters away, Su Xiao held Dragon-Slaying Flash in his right hand and [Blazing Sun's Wrath: Apollo] in his left. He was certain that the enemy before him didn't have the same survivability as the Blood God.
What he truly feared were her attack-type abilities, her Immortal-rank equipment, and the various trump cards of an Eighth Rank high-level contractor.
Su Xiao sensed the [Blazing Sun's Wrath: Apollo] in his hand. Its internal state was stable. As long as he thrust his mental energy into it, he could trigger an instant explosion.
Conventional means would indeed struggle to defeat this powerful enemy, but if he could get close and make the enemy eat an [Blazing Sun's Wrath: Apollo], the situation would change.
At the moment of [Blazing Sun's Wrath: Apollo]'s explosion, it could deal 15,300 points of True Blazing Flame damage, followed by 7,200 to 21,600 points of continuous burning damage. If at the very center of the explosion, the damage would be even higher, as the item description's damage intensity was based on Apollo's overall explosive power, with a significant difference between the center and the edge.
For an Eighth Rank high-level contractor with life-saving trump cards at full strength, the chance of being directly killed was about fifty-fifty.
Whether the enemy would die, Su Xiao didn't know, but he himself certainly wouldn't. The team's storage space contained [Shelter Badge].
Though he wouldn't die, there was a problem to consider: at the moment of [Blazing Sun's Wrath: Apollo]'s explosion, since he needed to hold Apollo to detonate it, the instant extreme high temperature and impact, plus being at the very center, would definitely cost him his left arm. As for his right arm, even if it was blown to pieces, he could use Banishment + Proud Song to form a crystal right arm.
What Su Xiao truly worried about was damage to his legs and torso. This would affect his subsequent combat. [Shelter Badge] could only restore health, not regenerate limbs.
Su Xiao had faced many powerful enemies, situations more dangerous than this. He had experienced them so many times that he had lost count.
Bang.
The ground beneath Su Xiao's feet shattered. He appeared behind Bubu Wang, grabbed his hind leg, and flung him away.
Bubu Wang broke through a wave of air and disappeared into the night sky behind. After flinging Bubu away, Su Xiao gave Baha a look.
A spider leg suddenly appeared, stabbing down from above Su Xiao. It left a bloody gash on his left arm before piercing into the ground. The enemy was afraid—afraid of [Blazing Sun's Wrath: Apollo].
"This madman!"
When Uniss saw Su Xiao fling Bubu Wang away, she immediately guessed what he was about to do. Her first attack target was Su Xiao's left arm, because that was where he held [Blazing Sun's Wrath: Apollo].
A figure rushed into the distance—Husillo. Having fought together several times, if they lacked this much tacit understanding, he wouldn't have survived in Smoke City until today.
Husillo's usual travel speed wasn't fast, but he was quick when fleeing. More amusingly, during his escape, he even picked up a large cloth bag from the ruins. Even at this point, he hadn't forgotten about selling the female mystic arts master.
Spatial fluctuations appeared. Baha materialized behind Uniss's neck, its talons descending. But just as its claws were about to pierce her neck, it shuttled through space and disappeared.
Inside an alternate space, Baha was covered in blood, cut by nearly invisible spider silk. Around Uniss, the area was filled with these perception-blocking, razor-sharp spider threads.
Several bloodstained spider threads were behind Uniss. The blood was quickly absorbed by the threads. Uniss ignored this—the enemy was already charging at her with a high-power explosive in hand.
This made Uniss feel a surge of frustration. Her hand moved forward.
Almost simultaneously, Su Xiao felt a binding force around him. It wasn't a control effect, but suddenly appearing spider silk wrapping around him.
Crack, crack, crack~
The spider silk squeezed the crystal layer on Su Xiao's arms and torso, causing cracks. At that moment, a nearly three-meter-long spider leg, seemingly forged from metal, appeared in front of Su Xiao, thrusting straight at him.
The spider leg pierced through Su Xiao's head. Not only that, but the binding spider silk also wrapped around empty air—Su Xiao had entered a Space Penetration state.
In Space Penetration, Su Xiao ignored all of Uniss's attacks, turning into a blur as he charged straight at her. The Space Penetration state had a very short duration; he had to use this chance to get close.
One after another, spider legs stabbed into empty air. The writhing spider silk around him couldn't catch Su Xiao either. He was only 10 meters from the enemy.
Uniss didn't retreat. Given her speed, retreating was meaningless. The enemy was constantly shuttling through space at an absurd speed. She wasn't a speed type. Comparing speed with a melee-type like Su Xiao would be utterly ridiculous.
A brooch appeared in Uniss's hand. With this life-saving trump card, she believed that at this distance, her chances of being killed by the explosion were very low.
Indeed, the center of the explosion was the most powerful. Therefore, Su Xiao planned to press Apollo against the enemy's face for an instant detonation.
Su Xiao exited the Space Penetration state. At such close range, Uniss immediately sensed this. Her gaze turned fierce. When the enemy fought Tianfa, he had penetrated space. The cooldown for such an ability was at least 2-3 minutes.
This thought had just appeared in Uniss's mind when she felt a sense of crisis. The moment this feeling arose, she first felt numbness in her body, then heard the roar of thunder.
[Thunder Guide]
Category: Equipment/One-time Prop
Prop Effect: After use, this item will shatter and attach to the surface or clothing of a designated target. The user can activate this item at any time to summon a supernaturally charged heavenly thunder to attack the designated target.
Boom!
Uniss was engulfed by a bolt of lightning nearly two meters thick. Within the lightning, her hands clenched empty air.
Spider legs appeared around Su Xiao without warning, piercing through his body. No blood appeared—he had entered the Space Penetration state again. Dragon Shadow Flash could be forcibly used, but the cooldown would increase. It would take several hours for this cooldown penalty to wear off.
The lightning had just dissipated when Su Xiao appeared in front of Uniss. He had leaped from ten meters away. Mid-air, his left hand pressed toward Uniss's face. The gradually reddening Apollo filled her entire vision. Her vertical pupils contracted.
'This madman!'
Uniss almost roared in her heart. The ring on her left hand shattered. A massive maw appeared behind her, swallowing her whole.
Boom!
A massive fireball appeared, like a small sun falling, illuminating the night. Solar flames spread, covering the surrounding two kilometers.
Moments later, inside an abandoned warehouse, the massive maw appeared and spat out Uniss. Covered in saliva, she stood up and looked at the warehouse's wooden door, which had already begun to burn.
"Close call. If you want to die, go die yourself."
A ring shattered on Uniss's finger, making the corner of her eye twitch. Her heart bled. An Immortal-rank, 1498-rated life-saving prop, consumed just like that.
Bang. The abandoned warehouse door shattered. Uniss walked out. Less than a hundred meters ahead, the solar flames were still rising.
Seeing these solar flames, a hint of confusion appeared in Uniss's eyes. The next moment, she appeared before the flames, thrusting her right arm into them to be scorched.
Hiss~
Uniss's skin was burned, but not as fatally as she had imagined. The power of this explosive was several times weaker than she had expected. Yet the oppressive, heart-stopping feeling of a sun falling had been real. Uniss was certain of this—otherwise, she wouldn't have fled.
At the center of the explosion, Su Xiao, covered in a crystal layer, stood within the solar flames. If these were the solar flames produced by [Blazing Sun's Wrath: Apollo]'s explosion, the crystal layer could only block them for an instant. But if they were the solar flames from an ordinary Apollo's explosion? The answer was that the crystal layer could withstand them.
The long leather coat on Su Xiao was covered in sparks. He walked across the scorched ground. A spatial vortex appeared, and he stepped into the alternate space opened by Baha.