Chapter 1311: The Hunting Battle
Xu Huo concealed himself along with his items, and made his move the moment he displaced the two advanced players, aiming to seize the initiative before the players protecting Han Yi and Han Yi himself could react. However, he didn't expect that when the black blade struck the back of Han Yi's neck, it suddenly got stuck—whether due to a trait or an item effect, the air around Han Yi had turned into a transparent gel-like substance. The black blade cut in and got lodged right in the middle, tightly clamped, making it impossible to advance or retreat!
Han Yi sensed the attack, but seeing no one around, he first used an escape item. After being blocked by the external "Cannot Break from Within," he quickly took out a jamming device. Under a strobe-like light that flashed at regular intervals, every two seconds, people and things hidden within spiritual power would appear as black shadows.
During this time, Xu Huo used a defense item to protect his body and casually tossed out the micro-bomb he had just obtained.
The defensive layer around Han Yi was breached, and Xu Huo closed in again. But at that moment, Han Yi suddenly leaned back, his body moving backward. Simultaneously, two long blades emerged from his original position, as if they had been slashing out from another space, crossing and sweeping toward Xu Huo!
Almost at the same time, Xu Huo realized that the "Cannot Break from Within" had been destroyed. A gap also appeared inside his spiritual realm—the two advanced players had returned!
"Inviolable Domain" blocked their attacks, but he immediately shifted twenty meters away. The moment he landed, the A-rank player flashed to his side, a sharp weapon in hand striking like lightning toward his throat.
The opponent was likely holding an item. Xu Huo didn't engage head-on, as there was no strict hierarchy of strength among A-rank items; a targeted item could potentially break through defenses.
Stepping back, he fell into a spiritual gate opened on the ground and instantly switched to the fleeing Han Yi's location.
But the B-rank player had been prepared. His defense item rapidly expanded, blocking Xu Huo's attack before he tore off his outer coat and tossed it away. Dozens of small bombs flew out from under the coat.
Dodging the consecutive explosions, Xu Huo switched "Inviolable Domain" to a same-level defense item, "Flower Bloom." A ten-layered petal-shaped defense barrier enveloped him, persisting until completely destroyed, without the three-second switching gap of "Inviolable Domain."
However, the moment the item switched, the A-rank player appeared behind him, shattering three layers of his defense with a single punch from a distance and sending him hurtling toward the B-rank player!
"Vertical Drop!" the B-rank player shouted at him. Xu Huo, still mid-air, was forcibly pulled back to the ground, crashing heavily onto the tracks. He and his defense barrier were embedded into the ground together. In the blink of an eye, the A-rank player from behind pressed down with his right hand. The shattered building debris and twisted metal frames in the underground passage were forcibly stripped away and shot out like a volley of arrows!
These remnants seemed to have been imbued with special power. Some of them struck with force rivaling bombs, efficiently draining the "Flower Bloom" barrier. At the same time, the B-rank player suppressed him with his trait.
These two players worked in perfect sync. Throughout the process, the spatial barriers and spiritual interference Xu Huo constructed failed to interrupt them. Seeing that the "Flower Bloom" barrier was about to be completely destroyed, he used the special item "Send You to the Crossroads" to teleport the A-rank player fifty meters away to the ground. Then, he pulled a pre-laid tangent to force back the B-rank player, successfully escaping their pincer attack. After that, he simply used "Mini Mushroom" to collapse the entire area, then used the spiritual realm's trait to open a gate and move near Han Yi.
During the three-way fight, Han Yi had already run far away. He probably thought that as long as he was far enough, he could escape Xu Huo's spiritual realm. So, at the next station exit, he came up from underground to the surface.
The outside was indeed the real world, but since he hadn't left the spiritual realm, he couldn't call for help from other players. And after Xu Huo blew up the underground passage, Han Yi fell back into the passage with the collapsing ground, getting hit head-on by a passing subway train—the spiritual realm couldn't completely detach people from the real world, so trains made of special metal weren't within the range of overlapping passage. When the real-world debris buried the underground passage, the train plowed straight into the rubble, its front end fully wedged in, precisely trapping Han Yi in the wreckage.
The front of the train wasn't equipped with passenger cars, but it was hard enough to break through all of Han Yi's defense barriers. If he hadn't valued his life enough to use plenty of items, he would have died on the spot. But even so, his situation wasn't much better. He was completely buried under the debris, with his right leg pierced by a metal rod, completely immobile.
The two advanced players who had been displaced had already returned. The A-rank player immediately used a levitation item to move the debris in the passage. But above this underground passage was the collapsed building. Moving things bit by bit was too slow. The best option was to use a long-distance teleportation item or a spatial teleportation item. With rubble all around, only spatial teleportation was feasible.
However, they were still in the spiritual realm. The mirror world began to appear, making the already chaotic place even more crowded. Visually, it was impossible to distinguish what was fake and what was real. And although the mirror world wasn't true reality, it was nearly impossible for anyone without Mental Super Evolution to destroy it through clever means. They could only brute-force it with powerful items or weapons, but that would trigger a chain reaction, making the current situation even worse.
Thus, the two advanced players could only retreat step by step as the mirror world emerged. The B-rank player had already been affected by the mirror world, his hands turning into diamond shapes.
"You go call for help," the A-rank player said to his companion. "We should be inside the family's instance grounds. Have a Super Evolver come to rescue."
The B-rank player immediately withdrew. After locking onto Han Yi's position, the A-rank player was suddenly wrapped in a transparent barrier. His body went horizontal, and like a bullet, he shot through the rubble.
"Save me!" Han Yi shouted in his direction. But before the words faded, several eye-like patterns appeared around him. They looked simple but stared at him like real eyes.
He had already activated a new defense item, so he felt emboldened, coldly watching those eyes. "Putting on a show!"
The vertical pupils proved with action that it wasn't just a show. Half of the dense eyes suddenly melted, turning into black liquid that gathered in the air and formed a thin line. From front to back, it lightly passed through his throat.
(Chapter End)