Chapter 2597: City-Crushing Battle
"Hey!" A shout came from afar. Xu Huo looked up and saw a figure over a kilometer away rapidly approaching him. Two two-meter-long metal plates were circling above and beside the person's head, not only blocking the rain but also keeping the opportunistic demon head covers at bay.
The person had issued a warning from such a distance, so Xu Huo naturally stood still and waited. However, the man had barely moved a hundred meters from where he'd shouted when he suddenly vanished from the air, instantly exceeding Xu Huo's perception range. Fortunately, he quickly reappeared, this time stopping a kilometer away and raising his voice: "Put away your props! The head covers you kill will multiply exponentially within the restricted zone. Do you have any idea how many head covers you've spawned just by holding that umbrella?!"
"I didn't see any," Xu Huo said, lifting his foot. The next second, he stood before the newcomer. "Are you a player from the rescue team?"
The other man's anger hadn't subsided. He manipulated the two metal plates to flank Xu Huo from both sides—the area that had been impassable moments ago now offered no resistance. The plates flew toward Xu Huo upright, but their speed wasn't fast; this seemed to be merely a warning.
But Xu Huo didn't hold back. He casually pressed one plate to the ground, sidestepped the other, and quickly tapped it with his finger. Before the entire plate could pass before him, the metal prop turned to ash.
The plate on the ground hesitated for a moment before rapidly cutting into the earth, shifting a hundred meters before reemerging behind that player. This time, the patterns on the plate—the decorative flowers and birds—all detached and transformed into metal weapons, attacking Xu Huo from different directions.
The prop's speed was much faster now, but halfway through, Xu Huo tossed out a handful of glass beads that drew them all high into the air. Gravity and remote manipulation clashed, and the metal flowers and birds couldn't break free for the moment.
Seeing that the other man seemed about to speak, Xu Huo activated the special prop "Silence Here" and watched as the man bit down hard on his teeth. Xu Huo made a shushing gesture.
Although the rescue team player's mouth was tightly shut, blood trickled from the corner of his lips—he must have bitten his tongue with that last effort. Judging by the bulging veins on his forehead, he was absolutely furious.
Xu Huo rotated the "Time Ring" to quiet the surrounding space, while his passive defense device blocked three spatial prop attacks—the "Time Ring" couldn't stop players equipped with spatial devices, so as several props flew out, that player suddenly teleported above him. With a raised hand, the surrounding street buildings were directly lifted up and closed in at incredible speed!
Large, heavy objects usually give a sense of sluggish movement, but the earth being ripped up right now moved at astonishing speed, slamming together almost instantly. The shattered building materials buried the spot where Xu Huo had been standing within seconds. For a moment, there was no movement under the rubble and metal, but the rescue team player's face darkened.
The rain hadn't stopped.
The sound and obstruction caused by the raindrops could somewhat interfere with a player's judgment. In that instant, the rescue team player wavered between two thoughts—that Xu Huo was buried underground or that he had already escaped—because he hadn't accurately tracked the other's movements. But the next second, he suddenly shot forward, propelled by his prop, his figure moving so fast it nearly vanished from the air.
Dodging the spiritual gates that appeared at two successive landing points, the rescue team player leaped onto a nearby commercial building, raised his left hand, and made a gesture. Immediately, three A-class players converged from different directions, each stopping on buildings near him.
Xu Huo stood on the ruins, holding his umbrella with one hand, gazing at the group across from him from a distance.
Even for players, seeing clearly over two kilometers with the naked eye was impossible, but A-class players had plenty of auxiliary props. The four rescue team members were also monitoring Xu Huo's movements.
The heavy rain washed through the space between them, growing heavier by the moment. The raindrops were essentially space ray blades—continuous attacks. The four rescue team members had already deployed their defensive props, but the larger the covered area, the higher the chance of demon head covers appearing.
Amid the clashing sounds of props and devices, the four players maintained their prop and device activation as they accelerated toward Xu Huo.
Small space teleportation props were disrupted by "Rain from the Sky," so the four split into two high and two low, flanking him from above the buildings and from the street level.
Xu Huo observed their flight trajectories. Probably for coordination, the four moved at different speeds, with the front and back pairs separated by at least several hundred meters. This distance was both to facilitate their teammates' maneuvers and to avoid the risk of being wiped out all at once by a powerful opponent prop.
Watching their positions, Xu Huo raised his hand. A sand table floated in the air, and the pieces representing the four players moved rapidly across it. After stacking "Pointing at Soldiers and Generals," he directly moved all four together through a spiritual gate, then used "Dreamlike False Teeth" to issue a command to one of them:
"Embrace your companions."
The two in front, who were already about to collide with the two behind due to the sudden turn, tried to dodge but were grabbed by their companions. Two pairs collided directly. Although the embracing pairs couldn't break free immediately, they could still release props. Several props exploded in succession at Xu Huo's location, churning wind and lightning intertwining, instantly leveling the ruins.
This wasn't the end. A massive thunderball condensed in the sky in an instant, and multiple lightning bolts, under one player's manipulation, repeatedly tracked Xu Huo's high-speed movements. At the same time, the entire city boiled like a furnace. Earth was ripped up, buildings exploded like thunderclaps, colliding in the air one after another, then swept away by the ensuing tornado. Lightning, raindrops, and building debris all became deadly weapons. In just a few breaths, the visible urban area was completely destroyed.
If relying solely on physical strength to move, dodging such catastrophe-level attacks would be extremely difficult. But without a strong space barrier, Xu Huo had no trouble avoiding them using his spiritual world.
The flying debris everywhere blocked visibility. Although he couldn't see the four people, both his spiritual world and spatial perception clearly sensed their every move. This scale of attack aimed to indiscriminately bomb everything first, so the four across from him barely moved, simply maintaining a certain distance while hovering in the air.
It seemed they wouldn't stop until they achieved their goal. Xu Huo paused, then opened over a dozen spiritual gates to cross this thunderstorm zone.
The four players on the other side had been monitoring the surroundings with props. Because of the distance, they couldn't perceive Xu Huo, but the markers on their props showed his position in real-time. Someone who had been several kilometers away just a second ago appeared right before them in the blink of an eye. Judging by the position, it was the one who had first clashed with Xu Huo. Before the four could react, a black umbrella suddenly appeared in their field of vision!