"I can barely move, but I'm fine" Replied Li Qiu as he slowly stood up.
At the same time, Enbi Arin and Prakash witnessed a silhouette standing within the cloud of dust which suddenly made a horizontally sweeping motion.
This motion of the silhouette cleared away most of the dust clouds present before them.
The moment the team of Li Qiu and the others witnessed the situation inside, they couldn't help but wonder if they had to laugh or cry.
The silhouette turned out to be a rather tall woman, about 170 centimetres in height with an oval porcelain doll-like face but had an aura around her that made her look like a valiant general from ancient times.
They also saw David sprawled on the ground a hundred metres away from the woman in a horribly damaged state.
David had already lost a part of his face and his jaw when Prakash attacked him previously and now due to the powerful blow dealt to him by the woman with the valiant aura of an army general had destroyed the entirety of his right side, from his right hand and right shoulder till his hips.
Suddenly, David's intact left arm twitched in motion. The woman with the valiant aura immediately lunged towards David to deal him with another devastating blow.
But just when she neared David, two blurry silhouettes suddenly rushed in from behind him and attacked the woman.
The woman with a valiant aura was just in time to put up a guard but was still blasted away by the two silhouettes.
"What…." Myra shrieked in shock when she witnessed that the two silhouettes turned out to be a mantis and a panda.
The mantis reached a height of 2 metres while the panda didn't have much difference from its shape and size during the peaceful era, being just short of 3 metres. It seemed that it was the panda that blew away the woman with the valiant aura.
"Akiko, are you alright?" Inquired Hikari with an anxious tone the moment she managed to catch up to Akiko.
"Yeah" Replied Akiko as she wiped out a trace of blood which slowly seeped through her nose.
"Those two creatures are at the Adept stage too" Said Akiko which shocked Hikari and Prakash who had somehow managed to overhear their conversation.
"Y-You're not kidding right" Prakash stuttered in fear as he gazed at Akiko.
Akiko gazed back at Prakash and the rest "I don't have a reason to. If you still have some fight left in you, then stay, otherwise scram"
Prakash looked for confirmation from Li Qiu and Enbi Arin.
"I'll fight. That bastard wouldn't leave without killing me" Said Li Qiu.
"I'll fight too. We are a team after all" Replied Enbi Arin as she gave a wry smile while Myra just gave a silent nod of approval.
Prakash shouted back towards Akiko "We'll fight too"
"Do as you see fit" Akiko snorted.
In the time it took for them to converse, David had almost finished regenerating his face and right shoulder. Only his right hand was still missing.
The moment David laid his eyes on Akiko, he bellowed with laughter.
"Did you come here seeking revenge, Akiko? Hahaha…..how funny. Oh, it seems that you have a companion with you this time" Sneered David as he gazed at Hikari.
Akiko snorted "Humph, I'll pummel you this time for sure and take back what rightfully belongs to me"
"Hehe, don't worry about those Artefacts. I'll make sure that they are put to good use" Said David as he suddenly seemed to gain some interest in them.
"Hmmm, now that I take a good look at the two of you, you both are quite the beauties. Guess I'll capture you for myself" Snickered David in a lewd manner as he gazed at Hikari and Akiko from top to bottom.
"Bastard" Akiko raged and prepared to charge over but suddenly her action was stopped by a loud roar.
"Rooooaaarrrr"
Everyone present at the area simultaneously turned their heads towards the source of roar and saw a 10-metre long blood dragon take off to the skies followed by a blood falcon with a wingspan of 12 metres flying right behind it.
On the ground, walking at the forefront was a huge 4-metre tall blood Tiger followed by 20 humanoid blood red creatures that walked in a two-file manner.
The humanoid creatures consisted of bat-like wings attached to their backs, curved horns on their heads and with dragon-like claws in place of their hands and legs. Each creature was approximately 2 metres in height.
At the end of this battle formation was a huge turtle on whose shell laid a huge throne which shone with a crimson hue.
Above the throne sat a lazy youth with crimson eyes that shone like two glimmering rubies and had two tiny blood fairies that kept playing a peaceful melody on a flute and hovering beside his head in a cute childlike manner.
On seeing this weird setup, it was the first time that everyone present on the scene witnessed a hint of fear and panic creep onto the usually boastful and arrogant face of David.
"B-B-B-Blood d-demon, why is he here. Wasn't he supposed to be in Japan?" David stuttered as his face became flustered due to panic.
Even the mantis and panda beside him were acting all jittery after noticing Katsurou coming at them.
The reason was that, a couple of days ago, back in Japan, Katsurou had single-handedly annihilated a Cardinal, 7 Sentinels and a significant number of Ghost wolves and Gargoyles.
They were the entirety of the power that 'Crystal Machina' race had accumulated in Japan.
Through their unique link, they managed to recover some data from their Sentinel in Japan before she was destroyed. All they managed to recover was a one-line transmission which stated "Blood Demon. One man army"
This single sentence alone alarmed everyone in the 'Crystal Machina' race, so much so that even their overlord, the 'Crystal Queen' who was at the Soul Commander stage wanted to personally take action against Katsurou but restrained herself because she had to keep the overlord of 'Thunder Machina' 'Thunder King' who was also a Soul Commander in check.
David snapped out of his reverie as he immediately sent a signal through his system.
"I never knew that you were backed by the Blood Demon. No wonder you had the confidence to act cocky, but I'm no pushover either. Allow me to display the source of my confidence" Said David as he raised his hands.
At the next moment, almost 20 creatures emerged from behind David who were all emitting the aura of an Adept stage expert. They were all Sentinels of the 'Crystal Machina' race. They were then further followed by hundreds and hundreds of Ghost wolves and Gargoyles.
Just the aura alone that they emitted made all the practitioner stage experts from Li Qiu and Myra to Hikari and Akiko feel like they were about to collapse due to the pressure and bloodthirst that coagulated in the atmosphere.
"Hahaha…..Blood Demon, come at me. I'll be the one to kill you" Bellowed David as he lunged towards Katsurou.
"Your opponent is me" Interjected Akiko as she used her innate ability to punch at David.
David used his right arm to guard against her attack but the moment they came into contact with Akiko's fist, his right arm was instantly smashed into pieces.
Still being slightly puzzled and surprised that she could injure him twice past the formidable defense that his crystal body could put up, David, taking no further chances used his left hand to blast Akiko away with his shockwaves at full power.
"Boom"
"Sister Akiko" Hikari screamed as she rushed towards the collapsed Akiko and immediately began to heal her serious injuries.
"Cough….cough" Akiko kept spouting blood from her mouth as Hikari urged her innate ability to heal her faster.
"Damn, if only this was during the night, I could have healed you fast enough" Hikari lamented.
"Sorry for being reckless….cough" Akiko spat some more blood from her mouth.
"Sister, stop talking….." Urged Hikari as she felt tears pour out from her eyes.
It was at this time that a tiny slender hand was placed on her shoulders.
Hikari turned her head around in shock to find the smiling face of an 8-year old boy with exoskeleton armour on his body as he calmly placed his hand over Akiko's.
The next moment, to Hikari's astonishment, she saw Akiko's wounds slowly but steadily heal due to the handiwork of Aurella.
A couple of moments ago, just when Akiko was blasted away by David's shockwaves.
Katsurou coldly proclaimed like a king "White Tiger".
The 4-metre huge Blood tiger sprinted forward and made a paw swipe towards David.
Except for the humanoid blood creatures, he named as 'Demon Soldier', which only had Practitioner stage strength, the other four creatures created by Katsurou had power rivalling Adept stage experts.
Hence, the 'White Tiger' could go toe to toe with David for some time.
Katsurou proclaimed again in a solemn tone "Black Dragon, Vermillion Bird".
The 'Black Dragon' immediately flew towards the 20 Sentinels and released a huge breath made of blood mist.
The strange thing was that the moment the blood mist came in contact with the bodies of the Sentinels, they immediately corroded their crystallized bodies and, made their blood 'pop'.
The 'Vermillion Bird' too soared into the skies as it released a hailstorm of blood feathers like bullets towards the 20 Sentinels.
Both the 'Vermillion Bird' and the 'Black Dragon' acted as crowd controllers as they darted to and fro among their enemies.
The 'Demon Soldiers' acted as the melee unit as they engaged with the Sentinels.
"Abyss Turtle" Katsurou commanded to the turtle above which he was calmly sitting on a throne.
The 'Abyss Turtle' occasionally spewed blood mist which rejuvenated and healed the fighting 'Demon Soldiers' and the other three Adept stage blood creatures and also occasionally created blood shields to defend them from the various attacks unleashed by the other experts of the 'Crystal Machina' race.
Enbi Arin and Li Qiu fought against the Adept stage mantis who could make its scythes unbelievably sharp. During one of their clashes, its scythe cut through Li Qiu's Thermal Sword as if cutting through butter.
Li Qiu was progressively getting more and more irritated when he heard David's occasional laughter and when his attacks proved to be ineffective time and time again.
"Dman it…..damn you…..damn them all…." Li Qiu cursed under his breath.
Prakash and Myra were fighting against the Adept stage panda who could manipulate the surrounding earth as it wished. It could make spikes suddenly emerge out, make a place hollow, create quicksand and erect barriers made out of the earth.
But since Myra was still uninjured and hadn't used much Aria, they were faring relatively better.
At this time, a laser beam suddenly flashed upon the Mantis' eye, singeing it completely.
Li Qiu shouted towards Myra in a flustered tone as he took the opportunity to wound the mantis.
"Why the hell did Stella come here"
"The tunnels have collapsed due to all those shockwaves and it seems she had slipped out during all the commotion…..damn….even Aurella is here and he's even healing the other team" Shrieked Myra.
"Goddamnit" Cursed Li Qiu.
At the same time, around the trio of Akiko, Hikari, and Aurella.
"Do you mean to say that you need to eat more meat to heal her faster?" Questioned Hikari.
*Nod* *Nod* Aurella responded with a nod of his head since he couldn't speak.
"I can't find any suitable ones in this mess...this battle should end now…..they all seem to be listening to David, huh" Hikari thought to herself as she began to slowly walk towards the David who was still engaged with the 'White Tiger'.
Hikari pulled out a knife from her pocket as she activated her innate ability and concentrated the entirety of her Aria into the knife.
When she was almost done charging the knife in her hands, it started to vibrate with a small hum, clearly unable to contain any more power within it.
"Done" Hikari muttered to herself as she threw the knife straight towards David by mustering all of her physical strength.
"Whoosh"
The knife traveled in an almost straight line as it whizzed towards David.
David who was fighting with the 'White Tiger' noticed the incoming projectile through the corner of his eye. Since his movements were currently locked by the 'White Tiger' and a couple of 'Demon Soldiers', David could only grit his teeth as he tried to block the projectile with his hand.
The knife projectile landed squarely on the palm of David's right hand and created a small nick on it.
The nick was only half a millimetre deep. After which the knife fell down on the ground leaving a dumbfounded David who felt that he was being trolled.
Taking his momentary distraction into account, the 'White Tiger' lashed a heavy paw swipe across David's face, destroying his left eye in the process.
"Ugh…I'll deal with you later" David threatened Hikari as he further concentrated on his fight with the 'White Tiger'.
But what happened next would be a nightmare for him for the rest of his life.
The small nick half a millimetre deep slowly became 1 millimetre, then 10 millimetres.
Slowly, it reached 10 centimetres and was still expanding, having already split his right palm into two and was still continuing onto his shoulder.
Even after accelerating his crystal reconstruction to the maximum, the damage was still slowly but steadily rising.
Becoming flustered, David unleashed a massive shockwave that disoriented both the 'White Tiger' and the couple of 'Demon Soldiers' and ordered their retreat as he began to run towards the panda.
The panda immediately carried David and created numerous spikes and barriers on the ground to aid their retreat as they instantly ran away.
"Sigh….they ran away. Chasing them will be more difficult in our current exhausted states. We'll take care of him after Akiko makes a full recovery" Exclaimed Katsurou as he dematerialized all of his blood creatures except the two blood fairies who obediently sat upon his shoulders.
Enbi Arin just laid flat on the ground as she could no longer muster any energy to even blink her eyelids.
Prakash abruptly sat on a nearby rock as he coughed out some blood that was still stuck in his throat.
Myra tried to rally up her brethren and examined the status of Stella and Aurella.
Li Qiu sat on a nearby piece of concrete far away from all the others with a gloomy expression on his face as he began to think back to his helplessness when he faced off against David and heard about all of his boasting and mockery.
All these pent-up emotions inside him burst out into flames, a mixture of both blue and red as it enveloped his entire self. His left took on a blue radiance similar to his Spirit Essence Flame while his right eye became red similar to his Thermal Essence Flame.
"These damn Systems, I Hate them"
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END of Volume 1
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