Booom!! An explosion occurred. Several figures flashed here and there. Some collided, some evaded each other. Trinity and Xiao's group had engaged in battle.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Kyle fought with Chen. Chen carried Xiao on his left shoulder while parrying Kyle's sword with a short sword held in his right hand.
Bang! A glass jar was broken and pink smoke spread around rapidly. Trinity immediately felt dizzy. There superior movement speed fell greatly.
"Good job Ming Sheng! I'll hold off this fiery bastard. You deal with the other and then help Kyle." Deodomus said before stomping away.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Each stomp of his enabled him to jump high and far. In this manner Deodomus attacked Uriel many times while swinging a sword.
"Hmph! Childplay!" Uriel snorted and immediately blazing fire erupted from his entire body.
"You're not the only one with fire element technique!" Deodomus smirked viciously and continued attacking. He raised his right palm towards Uriel and fireballs shot out of his hand repeatedly, exploding upon contact with anything solid.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Uriel dodged the explosive fireballs while preparing his move.
"Flame hurricane!!!" He shouted and joined his palms together. They spewed out a torrent of fire towards Deodomus, burning everything to ashes.
"Hundred fiery swirls!" Deodomus shouted and used his recently upgraded move. Two swords appeared in his hands and he swirl rapidly with flames covering his body as well.
Fwoosh! Whoosh!! Deodomus kept swirling as the flame hurricane engulfed him. Within a few moments the hurricane was siphoned off entirely by Deodomus and turned into a fiery ring around his body as he kept swirling.
"Fire Spears!" Deodomus shouted and as he stopped swirling, the fiery ring turned into dozens of spear shaped flames and leapt towards Uriel with greater speed that fireballs.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Dozens of explosions occurred as the two of them battled it out.
Turns out, during their leisure time in the forest these past months, Deodomus, Kyle and Ming Sheng had worked on their combat techniques too, to prepare for the worst. Deodomus used the fire element traits he had extracted from Yana. He learned and mastered the basic moves of her fire element technique as well and practiced them sometimes. He added its moves to some of his moves from other techniques such as Death Spear. Kyle and Ming Sheng similarly improvised their own moves too. Ming Sheng had been pushed to battle not long ago. He saw the potential of his potions and concocted all sorts of drugs and poisonous potions which could be used in battle. The pink smoke from before was one such drug. Naturally he also created their antidotes and gave them to Kyle and Deodomus so they won't be affected by the drugs in case they were used. Thus only Trinity's speed fell and not theirs when they inhaled the pink smoke.
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"Cannabis attack!" Ganza shouted and smoked 6 rolled cigarettes at the same time. In just one breath he consumed them all and then exhaled a thick white smoke that engulfed Ming Sheng, making him dizzy.
"Ugh, such a powerful drug." Ming Sheng wobbled before consuming a suitable antidote. His dizziness faded considerably. As the smoke dispersed, he found Ganza swaying and wobbling. He was completely drugged.
"…" Ming Sheng cautiously whipped out small round glass jars filled with explosive potion. Meanwhile Ganza continued to wobble. He sometimes fell, sometimes crawled, sometimes hopped around. Consuming so much cannabis naturally had its side-effects.
Swish-swish-swish! Ming Sheng moved quickly, throwing the round jars at Ganza.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Several explosions occurred as the glass jars struck the ground. Ganza had dodged them all while hopping around in a funny manner.
"As I thought…he used the drug on himself to use a certain combat technique. I better not get in his rang!" Ming Sheng thought before his eyes widened.
Bam! Bam! Thwok! Two punches landed on his skull and a kick struck his right side, cracking several ribs immediately.
"Ohok!" Ming Sheng coughed out blood while retreating. His nose and ears were bleeding too due to from internal injuries. He immediately swallowed some healing pills.
Swish-swish-swish! Ganza moved speedily once again and attacked Ming Sheng. The latter was in an awkward situation. He kept getting struck and kept moving away speedily only to get struck again.
"The pink smoke's effect has significantly lessened?!" Ming Sheng realized.
"This smart man!" His eyes glistened as he summoned a small potion jar and consumed it. His wounds healed quickly and his movement speed increased.
Ganza had used just one drug to gain three favourable effects. One: He exhaled a drug that made Ming Sheng dizzy for a while. Using that time, Gaza was able to 'get in the zone' as the cannabis drugged him deeply, allowing him to use his close ranged combat technique. Three: It countered the pink smoke drug from earlier, increasing his movement speed.
"He's an Empyrean doctor!" Ming Sheng exclaimed in his mind as he realized, no longer considering his medical expertise as an advantage over Ganza. Whatever drug Ming Sheng had; Gaza definitely would have a cure for it but hopefully vice versa too. But Ganza was young and had a combat technique on him while Ming Sheng was old and had no combat technique. He was bound to lose.
Swoosh! Ganza closed in.
Swish! Ming Sheng dodged and escaped towards Kyle. They were all several meters apart, fighting their own separate battles. Since Ming Sheng was at an advantage, he intended to borrow Kyle's strength.
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Clang-clang-clang! Two swords continued to strike one another. Kyle had used all the tricks in the book already but they were of no use against Chen who seemed to be a veteran at sword fighting. Not to forget, he was thwarting away all the attacks with just one arm! His other arm firmly carried Xiao.
Speaking of Xiao, she was still in a lustful state and completely naked. Her big round hips were facing Kyle and were often flinching and revealing her cute butt-dimples. This alone was a huge distraction for Kyle! Not to mention that obviously Chen was threatening Kyle with Xiao's safety. At any moment, Chen could use Xiao as a meat shield! This Chen person was definitely ruthless and shrewd.
"Damn it! Yeti Power!!" Kyle roared and threw away his sword. His eyes reddened, muscles bulged and within a few moments, he turned into a tall burly yeti-like man with his hair elongated and skin thickened like armour. Then he pounced at Chen in a deranged frenzy, attacking ruthlessly.
Bam! Bam! Boom! Kyle punched and stomped, wanting to squash Chen. Chen quickly retreated while squinting his eyes. He could tell that Kyle had lost much of his control and sanity due to Yeti Power technique. It was a brute-force type combat technique with apparent drawback. Chen immediately stowed Xiao into his spatial ring, realising that he can no longer threaten Kyle with Xiao's safety as the former no longer cared.
"11 mirror swords!" Chen shouted and swung his sword in a full circle in front of him. It left behind 11 sword images that floated in the air. Then Chen pointed towards Kyle and the swords leapt at him.
Shwak! Shwak! Shwak! The 11 swords pierced Kyle's broad shoulder and arms. He cried out in pain and fury.
"Wake up Kyle! It's an illusion!" Ming Sheng shouted at this moment and threw a jar at Kyle.
Bang! It broken open on Kyle's head. Potion smoke entered Kyle's nostril and the 11 illusory swords disappeared. Chen narrowed his eyes and swung his sword again in a full circle.
"22 mirror swords!" This time 22 swords attacked Ming Sheng who was immediately struck by the illusion.
"Brandy Attack!" At the same time, Ganza attacked Ming Sheng, literally throwing a liquor bottle at him.
Bang! Boom! The bottle struck Ming Sheng with an explosion and his body caught fire. Intense pain assaulted Ming Sheng and he rolled on the ground to snuff the flames while barely managing to convince himself that the 22 swords which were stabbed into his body were just illusory and the pain was not real.
"Champaign fury!" Ganza struck again, this time with a different liquor. A jet of pale-yellow liquid burst out from the bottle and targeted Ming Sheng who barely dodged in time.
Hissss!!! The ground gave up smoke as it melted when the liquid fell upon it.
"Damn it! This is too much! Kyle is no help in his state either. I must get away!" Ming Sheng thought and doused the flames with yin liquid before running moved away from Kyle and Chen, focusing on fighting Ganza alone. He now chose a battle of attrition. Being a doctor, it was fairly easy for him to heal himself. As long as Ganza fought alone, Ming Sheng could hold on until reinforcement arrive.
"If only we had Lyra's aid... She could have wiped the floor with this guy!" Ming Sheng cursed internally.
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"Hahaha! Where has all your vigour suddenly gone to?" Uriel mocked as he chased Deodomus.
"Damn it! How many elemental stones does he have? I have negligible fire element traits left while he keeps using fire element techniques on me." Deodomus muttered while running away.
Uriel was at level 3 Master realm. This alone was too much. Deodomus having fought against him thus far was already a feat. Now he was even luring him away. This way Kyle and Ming Sheng will have a chance at survival and escape.
Boom! Suddenly a chi blast struck Deodomus.
He fell and rolled down a slope of the mountain before regaining his footing and glancing swiftly at his ambushers.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! 4 masked cultivators landed on the ground, surrounding him.
"Attack!" One of them shouted and they all hurled all sorts of moves on Deodomus.
Boom! Boom! Bam! Clang!
Deodomus barely managed to escape the encirclement and summoned a spear in his right hand to parry their attacks. His gaze turned increasingly cold. His body was riddles with injuries. On one side stood Uriel, still ablaze; on the other side were 4 masked opponents.
"This is the end for you Deodomus!"
"You will die here for your crimes!"
"How dare you abduct and rape our princess!"
"We will bring your head to our lord Zen!" These four people shouted.
Deodomus and Uriel understood immediately that these four were from Gen state.
"Let me guess, one of you is the old man I struck a deal with back then?" Deodomus smiled viciously.
"Indeed." One of them spoke, stepping ahead and removed his mask. Apparently these 4 were the spies whom Deodomus had ambushed and forced into trading information; before the battle of Gen capital. Back then the old man and his apprentices had no choice but to give in. But now they were all out for revenge!
"The shame of you having burnt our palace, caused our lord's death & kidnapped our princess, can only be washed away by your blood, Deodomus! Die for us!!" The old man shouted and lunged forward.
"Bloodied Dagger Frenzy!" He shouted and threw a dozen poisoned daggers at Deodomus. These daggers swirled around him and attacked from all sides.
"Hmph!" Deodomus snorted and parried them by swinging his spear around and waited for the old man to get in his range.
"Quake!" The 3 apprentices suddenly shouted in unison and stomped the ground which then shook heavily and Deodomus lost his footing.
Shik-shik-shik-shik-clang-clang! While a few daggers were struck away, few managed to stab into Deodomus' back and shoulders, poisoning him immediately.
Swish! Swish! The old man and the male apprentice closed in, taking advantage of this chance to engage in close combat and the female apprentices maintained distance to support them from afar. This was a well-practiced method of theirs. They had trained intensely to deal with Deodomus! This was also a trap. Like the last time, if Deodomus came for the girls, they had prepared a trump card move for him.
Meanwhile Uriel maintained his distance. He had no intention of intervening. He glanced over at his comrades. Ganza and Ming Sheng were panting. They had been at a stalemate, both being Empyrean doctors and possessing counters to one another's techniques. But when the spies attacked Deodomus; Gaza and Ming Sheng were intervened by another group of 4 assassins. One of them was Joseph!
At the same time Chen and Kyle were ambushed by a knight team.
"Die you scoundrels!" The knights shouted and attacked fiercely!
"Rrrahhh!" Kyle growled and went berserk on them, fighting barehanded while taking multiple injuries.
Chen retreated while scrutinizing the situation. Apparently, all these people were from Gen state. They had 3 Master realm warriors, each in charge of 1 team. At the same time, Chen could already sense another team hiding not far from them. They were the backup. There was another possibility that an entire battalion might be on its way to them. Chen, Ganza and Uriel secretly exchanged glances.
"Stop targeting only me, old man! I did all this to complete the Consulate's mission! This fiery guy and his friends can testify!" At this time, Deodomus shouted.
"This motherfucker…" Uriel flinched. Deodomus was apparently trying to drag Consulate's Trinity into this fight. Using them as scapegoats, he obviously intended to flee with his own group.
"Uriel, let's join forces! These Gen bastards tortured and amputated bishop Lyra's all limbs!" Deodomus added.
"They what?!" Uriel's expression turned ugly as he let out a burst of fire and attacked the spies' group. Deodomus had succeeded in dragging at least Uriel into this fight. Uriel's first target were the two females.
"Gather!" The old spy suddenly shouted.
"This is the chance!" Deodomus' eyes gleamed as he threw his spear at the old man.
Boom! It broke through sound barrier and immediately pierced through the old spy's chest, blowing his entire back off! The shockwave shook everything and everyone stumbled at once.
"Exchange…" The old spy murmured while smiling viciously.
A gap appeared on Deodomus' chest. It was as big as a fist and completely pierced his body. His back was devastated with broken bones sticking out. Deodomus coughed out blood and wobbled. At the same time, the old spy fainted. He had used all his chi and even hidden yang chi to use this unorthodox move which allowed him to exchange his injury with the inflictor.
"Master!" The 3 apprentices rushed at him and immediately brought him away.
"Where are you going?" Uriel suddenly asked as he appeared right behind them. The effect of the pink smoke from earlier had faded. Trinity regained their full movement speed advantage!
Booom!!! A fiery explosion blew the 4 spies to smithereens. They died a horrible death.
Meanwhile Deodomus dazedly turned around on his heels. He saw Ganza and Ming Sheng fighting side-by-side against assassins. He also saw Kyle getting butchered by the knights and Chen retreating casually. But nothing made sense to him. His thoughts were hazy & his eyes turned blurry.
"Xiao…" Deodomus uttered before closing his eyes and falling off the mountain cliff behind him.