Zakiya felt some threat from the attack so she wanted to dodge but then she noticed that several frozen tentacles came out of the ground and wrapped themselves around her legs.
She made a claw with her hand and sharp curled nails grew out of her fingers, she slashed her nails and broke free from the soil tentacles in an instant but just at this time three figures appeared out of nowhere and surrounded her.
The one on the left grabbed her left arm, the one on the right side grabbed her right arm and the one behind her wrapped his arms around her when he did his hands involuntary felt on her perky breasts, his hands suddenly shivered but there was no change on Zakiya's expression.
'That bastard No.3, should I have switched places with him?' Rex thought as he looked at the third clone grabbing her from behind, because of the connection between the clones he could feel anything they do.
Zakiya had no time to free herself and the attack reached her, at the same time Rex ordered his three clones to self destruct to increase the explosive power.
…BOOOOOM....
The explosion was bigger than what Holy Bomb could achieve at its current level, in terms of destructive power it was Rex's second-biggest trump card.
'Echolocation'
Rex wanted to check the situation of Zakiya inside but suddenly Zakiya leaped out of the dust cloud and attacked him.
She twisted her body in the air and swung her leg vertically from above kicking him on the shoulder.
Rex noticed that chilling black Qi was swirling around her leg so he directly used his best defense ability.
'Diamond Shell'
A purple shield appeared in front of him and protected him from the kick.
[Damage Reflection activated]
When the kick landed Rex was thrown backward but Zakiya wasn't able to make use of this opening as she was also repelled because of Damage Reflection passive physique ability.
Now Rex could see her condition, there were some small cuts all around her clothes, but only a few of them had light traces of blood over them the others just revealed her pale skin.
The cloth was slowly restoring the damaged part because Zakiya deactivated other formations on it, it had lost its normal restoring speed. The cuts on her body were revealing her skin, if it was any other girl she might lose her composure, start to blush, or get angry but Zakiya had no change in her expression she didn't bother to even hide it.
"You never cease to amaze me, after keeping an eye on you for a while I thought I already knew most of the things about you but you proved me wrong. I thought I won't use Shadow Law so early in the battle but I changed my mind," Zakiya said while flexing her shoulder muscles.
Rex was not happy in the slightest after hearing her praise, he was staring back at her.
'Withstanding that explosion without using her Shadow Law, and that absurd power behind that kick…' Rex frowned.
"You are not just a Qi Cultivator are you? a Body Cultivator?" Rex asked with a serious face.
"Heh… you caught up on things fast it's a good habit, you were right about the first part but wrong about the second. My main cultivation path is indeed not Qi cultivation but it's not body cultivation either, I am a Blood Cultivator, you shouldn't have heard about it, it's an old path that is not followed by many in this era," Zakiya said then raised her hand, suddenly her shadow changed shaped then turned into two long whips she held in her both hands.
Rex didn't reply, he had no idea what this blood cultivation was but he now at least knew that it increases the physical strength of the cultivator like body cultivation.
He was also a soul cultivator but he had no soul techniques to use against her and even if he had one it might be useless to use them against Zakiya whose soul strength was already on another level, she might decrease her cultivation base but her soul strength won't influence that much.
Zakiya didn't give him more time to think, she swung her hand and the whip moved towards Rex like a snake.
Rex backed off and twisted his waist in an angle that gymnast can only think about to dodge the attack, but just when the whip got closer to him it changed its direction and attacked.
It didn't just change its direction but shape to, the sharp end turned into the head of a snake-like creature. Then it opened its mouth and tightly bit on his wrist.
'Holy Armor'
A golden glow covered Rex's whole body then turned into an illusory armor but the whip head didn't let go even when Rex tried to pull it off, it had already sunk its teeth deep inside his flesh.
Before he could do anything pulled the whip with a jolt, and Rex flew towards her.
'Dammit, don't underestimate my strength,' The spikes below his feet sunk deep in the ground like tree roots, Rex clutched the whip with both hands and pulled it back.
Zakiya smiled she was about to put more strength but then ten clones appeared around her then surrounded her, the clones didn't waste time and prepared to use a different type of Yang attribute attack the second they appeared. Her eyebrows slightly twitched, raising three clones was one thing but raising thirteen who could teleport just like him and then wasting them in a simple duel… is he being too reckless? she thought.
'Father was right, the best way to know a person is by fighting them. I didn't think he would take this duel so seriously, I should also get serious or it would be an insult to him,' Zakiya thought then she snapped her fingers.
Suddenly the shadows below the clones flickered then wrapped their whole body like a cocoon in an instant.
The clones tried to resist but weren't able to break free, even their Yang's attacks didn't have much of an effect on them.
Just at that time. Rex increased his force pulling the rope but he didn't pull Zakiya towards him but used the pulling-force to dash towards her, Zakiya was already pulling so it resulted in a good boost coupled with Accel it's effectiveness reached on another level.
Zakiya was not negligent. She dispersed the whip Rex was using as a boost and raised the whip in her other hand preparing to meet him head-on.
Close combat was her strong point and Rex's weakest, he already knew if he engaged in fair close combat that it was good as over for him.
'Instant Transmission'
Just when Rex was about to come in contact with her he disappeared, Zakiya didn't panic she closed her eyes for a brief moment then turned around to meet him head-on.
But the second she turned around what greeted her was not Rex's fist but four red tentacles zooming in her vision.
Furthermore, the tip of those tentacles had turned into sharp pointed black metallic lances.
Her body reacted on its own, she raised her left hand and her whip turned into a thin spherical black shield that instantly covered her whole body providing 360' defense. Unfortunately for her, the shield was not strong enough, and was pierced by the four tentacles the next second.
Rex had also coated his tentacles with his Yang Qi although it wasn't that helpful against Zakiya because her Qi purity was on another level but as they say… mosquito meat also counts.
Zakiya grabbed two of the tentacles with her bare hands but the other two mercilessly attacked her stomach, the tentacles weren't able to completely pierce her body but the impact threw her several meters back, Zakiya touched the ground with her hand after thrown back changing the angle at which she was about to fall on the ground and landed on her feet instead.
Although not too big but Rex could see two bottle cap size holes in her stomach, the blood leaking out of the wounds left its trails on her black cloths as it fell on the ground.
Zakiya wiped the blood from the corners of her lips, as she looked at Rex with full seriousness in her eyes.
[We aren't taking it too far right? We have gotten too much of her help and already put too many restrictions on her to fight but even so fighting like we are going for the kill, I don't care about her but with your temperament, you might feel guilty and I don't want that]
'Something's wrong,' Rex stared back at Zakiya.
[What's wrong?]
'It shouldn't be that easy,' Rex thought but suddenly his Spider-Sense alerted him, he immediately tried to dodge.
"Too Late," Zakiya's voice came from behind.
Zakiya slashed at his back, her sharp nails were no less lethal than any spirit weapon, coupled with her enhanced strength because she was a Blood Cultivator, the attack carried an unstoppable force and Rex was thrown forward without any resistance.
Zakiya snapped her fingers then shadow tentacles dug out from the ground and imprisoned Rex.
"Ouch.. it burns, you have no heart," Rex stared at her with an annoyed expression.
Zakiya didn't reply and just smiled.
Rex turned to look at the injured Zakiya from before, she turned into a shadow then retracted into a small hole in the ground. Rex sighed deeply, he understood what happened.
Earlier when Zakiya made a spherical shield it was just a cover, she used shadow law and drilled a hole in the ground… a small canal to be accurate. She may have used an ability similar to Shadow Switch Rose talked about, the difference was just that this one was way above what Rose talked about, then she also used another ability similar to his trait Shadow Dive and traveled using the small tunnel underground then quietly merged with his shadow without him knowing it.
The Zakiya in front of Rex didn't have any injury from before which meant that the injury the substitute clone showed was fake, it was to let his guard down. The problem was Zakiya could even betray his Mini-Map so using it in battle was already useless or else he wouldn't be deceived so easily.
'Rose you didn't say that she could possess such strong divine abilities, did you made a mistake?' Rex asked.
[I'm not sure either, her divine abilities are way stronger than what they should be, I am sure I didn't make any mistake... maybe we are just not that capable.
One more thing Rex, she implanted her Qi in your body while attacking so it will take quite some time to restore the injury,]
"You did better than I expected, you even made 13 clones and used them in battle, I have to say I am impressed if you except defeat now then I can release them, so do you accept defeat?" Zakiya asked with an expressionless face.
No matter what technique someone uses, raising a clone takes a lot of resources, effort, and most importantly… time.
Rex was also receiving notification telling him that his clones trapped in Shadow Cocoon were receiving average damage of 1P every two seconds.
"Hehehe… you got my thirteen clones and thought that you won?" Rex said with a smirk.
Zakiya raised her eyebrows, in the next second 15 figures appeared around her using Instant Transmission.
'Just how many clones did this brat raised?' Zakiya thought. It was quite some time since she had seen someone crazy enough to do that. Only people who have a lot of time on their hands and so much money that they lack the space to store it would do something like that.
"Looks like you won't give up until you have no card left," Zakiya snapped her finger then the shadow imprisoning all ten clones and the one imprisoning Rex retracted and enclosed her in a spherical black shield-like before, isolating her from his vision.
When using a low cultivation base, her control over her law would also decrease… decreasing its range and power as a result if she wanted to use the shadow law at its current full power again then she would have to release shadows imprisoning the clones and Rex first.
'What is she planning to do? use the same trick again or maybe using a new trick in the disguise of using the previous trick again… in any case, does she think that I would give her so much time, even if it's just a substitute Shadow Switch technique creating something strong and realistic must have taken her some efforts so if I destroy it then it should do her some loss right?' Rex thought.
Rex raised both his hands upwards.
'Flame Bomb'