Mystic Demonic Divine was like an elemental force of fury.
Even though my Titan Golem lumbered forward to seize him in his thick, volcanic arms, the enemy leader simply punched a hole through him and sent the goliath spirit beast staggering. While my Titan Golem sank to a knee, Mystic Demonic Divine was already surging ahead, confident that he had laid my spirit beast low.
Each sweeping stroke of his scythe obliterated entire squads of dwarven riflemen. Another slash cleaved through the shields of three dwarven shock troopers, their protective screens of little use against such a deadly spirit weapon. In that same blow, the trio of shock troopers were cut in half, their arms and upper bodies sliding off in sprays of blood.
That caused their lines to collapsed. Jun Hai's Steel Tri-horn charged, but Mystic Demonic Divine easily cut through his armored metallic hide with his scythe, causing the bellowing spirit beast to topple over. Jun Hai hurriedly recalled his spirit beast so that he could rest and recover, even as his Violent Salamander attempted to avenge his fallen comrade with a dragon breath attack. Mystic Demonic Divine twirled his scythe about to cut through the lethal torrent of esoteric energies, and then he punched the dragon back and kicked him to his back.
Before he could behead the slumped Violent Salamander, he was forced to dodge fiery streams from Xiao Huo and Xiao Huo Long. He bounded toward my nine-tailed Fire Fox, evading her nine striking tails with an agility that belied his bulky size. She was forced to leap away before he buried the long, reaping blade of his scythe into the ground.
Unfortunately, she was currently in front of a couple of dwarves, who immediately opened fire on Mystic Demonic Divine. He straightened himself, looking amused as the magic bullets harmlessly sparked off his huge body, and then dashed forward to cut them down. To their credit, the two dwarves didn't let up on their fire, squeezing the triggers and pummeling Mystic Demonic Divine's blurry body with whatever mana they could supply their guns with.
His scythe swung down to lop off their heads…only to pass through empty air.
"Hmm?"
He turned around, only to spot the two dwarves stumbling away. I was holding them by their collars and dropped them onto the ground, giving them pushes to chase them away.
"Go," I told them. "I'll deal with that bastard."
"Y…yes!" Both dwarves nodded and ran off, rejoining their comrades in holding off the rest of the demonic cultivators at bay. Jun Hai escorted them, his Venus Serpent and Fly Dragon by his side as they fended off the enemy. He glanced at me.
"You sure about this, big bro?"
"Yeah. Trust me, I can deal with him."
"Oh?" Mystic Demonic Divine chuckled. He stepped forward, one foot caving a small crater into the ground with a single stomp, probably to show off his strength and weight. "I would like to see you deal with me."
I didn't bother with a reply. Kicking off the ground, I drew Azure Dragon and summoned Azure Frost. Mystic Demonic Divine casually raised his scythe, deflecting my blows when I struck with both swords, twirling the long shaft about to counter each weapon that slashed at him from a different direction. Frost slowly expanded over his hands, but his demonic aura destroyed the ice in an instant. He scowled, irritated, and retaliated with a swing that forced me to flip myself up and above.
I landed on the long shaft of his scythe, bending my knees and propelling myself forward once more. Thrusting my swords at him when his guard was down, I pressed my attack when he ducked and dodged my blades with astonishing ease. Despite his immense size, he was surprisingly agile.
He blocked one of my blades with an arm, the gauntlet catching the sharp edge. Even so, I somehow managed to sneak in my other sword with my other hand, but he bent low, my blade just grazing his shoulder.
Mystic Demonic Divine then brought his scythe back, his muscular arms swatting me away in the same stroke. Instinctively sensing danger, I hurriedly jumped away and over him, landing a few meters away. Before I turned around, I could hear metal cracking as the chains that linked his cloak over his shoulders shattered, the armored plate covering his shoulder destroyed from my grazing blow earlier. With a flutter, his black cape dropped to the ground. Dust swirled around the perforated fabric, and the chains crashed with a metallic clang.
"Heh," Mystic Demonic Divine chuckled as he turned around to face me. I did the same. He grinned and narrowed his eyes. "Excellent, young man. It seems like I must fight you seriously."
"Nah," I replied. "Continue going easy on me, please. I'm not worthy of you fighting at your full strength. As you can see, I'm pretty weak."
"Oh, shut up!" Mystic Demonic Divine rolled his eyes. "If you're trying to trick me into underestimating you, then give up. I'm not a fool who can't discern the strength of my opponent."
Well, he certainly possessed far more experience and wisdom than I did, having lived for at least a century. At least, that was assuming the rumors I heard about him were true.
In any event, he didn't waste any more time with the…uh, psychological warfare. He darted forward, slashing and striking at me with his scythe, but I dodged them just barely. Then his eyes widened when the volcanic fist of my Titan Golem barreled into him. Though he somehow managed to parry the blow with his spirit scythe, he was flung across the courtyard and into a tower. His smoldering figure was buried under rubble, but he burst out of the debris shortly after that.
"Ah…of course. I forgot that you're a spirit beast tamer."
"I'm a spirit beast summoner, not a tamer." I couldn't help but throw my hands up in despair, despite still holding my swords. "Why does everyone insist on calling me a beast tamer?"
"Because of that recent anime a couple of seasons ago," Jun Hai replied. "I mean, you literally made a contract with two fairy sisters. It's clear who you're ripping off. All you're missing is a beautiful girl with cat ears."
I ignored my brother and focused on Mystic Demonic Divine, but he batted me away with another swing of his scythe. A scythe that, to my shock, was transforming. Miasma was wreathing it and its shape appeared to melt and reform, turning from a grim reaper's scythe to a deadly spear with a blade as long as a sword's. The only reason why I knew it was a spear was because the shaft remained pretty long, almost twice as long as the blade. A skull adorned the spot where the blade was joined to the hilt, giving it an ominous feel.
"Heh, this is the true form of Hades," Mystic Demonic Divine said, running his fingers along the blade. "You should be proud, having forced me to use this shape."
"Can't you change it back to the scythe?" I asked. "I think the previous shape looks cooler."
Not to mention, it was a lot easier to fight against and more impractical to use in combat. Earlier, I had gotten under his guard because of its weird scythe shape, making use of its unwieldy form to get in close and counter. Of course, the only thing I managed to achieve was cutting off his cape, but I dreaded to think what this new form of weapon could do.
Mystic Demonic Divine's response was to charge forward, swinging his new spear shaped Hades in a rampage. Despite blocking his blows as best as I could, I could see the razor shaped blade gouge out thick furrows in the fortified concrete of the dwarven courtyard. Each strike felt like a hammer, almost jarring my swords out of my hands and knocking me back. My arms felt achingly numb as I parried, blocked and deflected, and my legs were actually shaking because I was barely able to withstand the raw violence of his blows.
"Damn it! The true form of his spirit weapon is so much more powerful!"
I crossed my swords and intercepted another of his strikes, my knees buckling under me even as the ground shattered and caved in. Within the crumbling crater, I had to leap away before he obliterated the entire area with another vicious swing, the lance piercing through the reinforced rock and sending rubble showering me.
With a swing of Azure Frost, I froze the incoming debris, but Mystic Demonic Divine charged through it and stabbed at me with his spear. Exhaling, I spun away from his next thrust and then struck the shaft with both of my swords in a desperate attempt to deflect it away from my vulnerable body. Sensing danger, I jumped high up as his leg swept below me in a devastating kick that would have broken half of my bones if it had connected.
Cartwheeling in the air, I nicked his neck and shoulder while he was turning around, making use of my superior speed to counteract his greater strength. I twisted away to avoid his retaliating thrust, but he then swung his spear about to swat me away like a bug. Fortunately, I was able to bring my swords close to my body and crossed them to parry the blow before I was sent hurtling away.
I spun about and slammed my feet against a tower, leaving a couple of cracks in the wall, and then launched myself once more. Azure dragons swirled around me as I struck, the serpentine energy forms lashing out to devour a chuckling Mystic Demonic Divine, who proceeded to cleave them apart. However, he was then bathed in flames from Xiao Huo and Xiao Huo Long.
"It's useless!" He guffawed, chopping the flames up and extinguishing him with shockwaves generated from swings of his spear. Black demonic miasma leaked from his Hades, ominous and menacing as they consumed the flames. "No matter how many of you there are, you will not be able to defeat me!"
Right after he extinguished the flames with sweeps from his Hades, I struck him like a missile, punching my swords through his chest. He bellowed and swatted me away, but I managed to pull my swords out in time and cartwheel aside. Even so, the narrow misses left grazes on my body, and I gritted my teeth in pain as blood spurted from deep cuts on my shoulder and side.
Landing on my feet, I spun around just in time to parry a blow from a vengeful Mystic Demonic Divine. The tremendous impact caused me to cough out some blood before I was sent tumbling to the side. Fortunately, before my opponent could finish me off with his bloodthirsty Hades, he was forced to turn around and block a devastating punch from my Titan Golem.
Twirling his Hades, he managed to cut a chunk of magma rock from my staggering Titan Golem, his spear biting deeply into a spirit beast renowned for his high defense. The Titan Golem silently toppled over, belching fumes from his wounded form. Before Mystic Demonic Divine could finish him off, my Emperor Crab pulverized him with his Crab Hammer, burying him into the ground.
Wiping the blood from my mouth, I hopped back and observed the destruction that my Emperor Crab had wreaked. Then I waved for him to retreat.
"Fall back!"
My Emperor Crab obeyed without question and hesitation, linked to me telepathically as he was. And not a moment too soon, for a spear erupted from the pile of debris in a violent detonation. Seconds later, Mystic Demonic Divine dragged himself out of the crater, shrugging off dirt and rock from his battered body. He slashed out almost on instinct, but fortunately, my Emperor Crab was able to catch his Hades with his oversized pincers.
While the both of them were locked in combat, Xiao Huo and I struck from the flank, catching him unaware. Her nine tails stabbed into his body in nine different spots, sending out spurts of steaming blood as flames blazed along her red tails. As for me, I managed to hit him in the chest while he was still wrestling with Emperor Crab, his Hades locked in the latter's pincers.
"You…!"
My only reply while he let out a gurgled growl was to hit him with a freezing nova, encasing his heart in ice and shattering it.
For a moment, I thought we had finally won. We had succeeded in bringing down the leader of the Mystic Demon Sect. After all, who could survive getting his heart destroyed?
But my triumph turned into astonishment when a black demonic miasma erupted from Mystic Demonic Divine's body, flinging me, Xiao Huo and my Emperor Crab away from him. As I hit the ground, coughing out blood and feeling the corrosive demonic energies burn away patches of my skin, I glanced up and caught sight of the enemy shaking the embers and frost off his ravaged body and patting his chest. Despite the blood dripping from his mouth and the terrible wounds my spirit beasts and I had inflicted upon him, he appeared to be fine.
"Good attempt," he sneered as he swung his Hades, demolishing a wide swathe of the ground beside him. "But it's useless."