Seeing Cheng Lixue emerge from the ambush site, Luo Lin felt the situation grow more difficult.
The girl raised her sword in frustration. "Didn't I tell you to hold back a bit longer?! You came out too early!"
"Junior Sister, don't push yourself. I'll cover your retreat..."
From Cheng Lixue's perspective, most of Luo Lin's body had been charred black by the pseudo-Herrscher. With every slight movement, black powder from her body drifted in the wind. Blood continuously oozed from the cracked wounds, then coagulated into new black blood clots due to the high temperature.
Seeing this level of injury, Cheng Lixue wished they could trade places with the bait team.
"I sense you're blaming yourself? No, you made the right choice. Although I look terrible, I still have the strength to fight. Senior Sister, you can't."
Luo Lin spoke the truth. Hundreds of days and nights in the Abyss had made her fearless of pain and death. Combined with the continuous recovery provided by her Stigmata and passive skills, Luo Lin's health gauge hadn't dropped by eighty percent yet.
"To think there are still bugs! Disgusting! Die, all of you!"
The pseudo-Herrscher shook her fingers and exaggeratedly smiled to conceal her panic when she saw Cheng Lixue rushing out from the side. Then, she formed an even larger fireball and hurled it at the two standing side by side!
"Lixue!"
Watching the girl's blue hair flying in the flames, memories surfaced from Fu Hua's depths—
Cheng Lixue...
The little girl held Fu Hua's hand as they walked through the long night.
Fu Hua watched this blue-haired girl grow from five to adulthood. She taught her to read, write, and play the zither...
What surprised her even more was Cheng Lixue's talent in practicing the initial version of Edge of Taixuan. So Fu Hua personally taught her how to punch, how to wield a sword, and even picked a well-preserved one from the limited inventory of the [Key of Domination·Xuanyuan Sword] for her to use.
Unfortunately, as an S-rank Valkyrie hidden by Schicksal, Otto's partner, Fu Hua was usually busy with affairs, traveling around the world, spending little time with Cheng Lixue.
To compensate, Fu Hua often cooked wonton noodles for her by hand—although wonton noodles weren't her specialty, they were at least presentable compared to her specialty, preserved spring longevity.
Until one day, Fu Hua saw Cheng Lixue come to her with a conflicted look on her face and asked cautiously:
"Master... Can I... call you Master?"
Looking at the nervous blue-haired girl, Fu Hua touched her hair and smiled, saying, "Sure."
Unfortunately, the next day, Fu Hua was urgently called back by the Schicksal's emergency communication. With the advancement of modern technology, the frequency and intensity of the Honkai incidents had gradually increased. Fu Hua inevitably plunged into continuous battles and never had the chance to visit Cheng Lixue again.
When they met again, Fu Hua found that Cheng Lixue had become a Valkyrie fighting for the people, fighting side by side under the banner of Schicksal.
Then... came the second eruption...
Burning memories with Fenghuang Down, rapidly fading memories, and Cheng Lixue's determined gaze.
"Master, this time it's my turn to protect you."
She widened her eyes, staring at the fiery ball flying towards Cheng Lixue and Luo Lin.
"Stop it!!!"
Fu Hua flew forward, intercepting the scorching flames. She clenched her fist, and Fenghuang Down emitted a dazzling light!
[Divine Style: Showering Swallow]!
"How could this be!?"
But the attack from the Herrscher didn't stop with her at all. Her own strength condensed was like a mirage, only able to watch as the fireball passed through her body and smashed into the two Valkyries.
"Boom!"
Luo Lin countered with an attack, directly using the mimicry [Star of Eden: Remnant] to collide with the fireball, while also allowing Cheng Lixue who was consuming a large amount of honkai energy and somewhat weakened, to quickly retreat from the collision scene.
"Nice!"
Cheng Lixue's eyes lit up. She hurriedly asked, "Junior Sister, can you still use this move?!"
"I can, but she should already be wary of this move—I have an idea, listen to me!"
Luo Lin pulled out her submachine gun and sprayed it towards the smoke generated by the explosion. Although it seemed futile, it was actually intentional on Luo Lin's part to trigger the passive skill on her Valkyrie panel.
[Each normal attack restores the health of all characters. When a certain amount of health is accumulated (including the overflow value from the Valkyrie Stigmata effect), the whole team gains a small amount of SP.]
Every... single... normal... attack!
Haha, it's really satisfying to use a high-dps weapon like a submachine gun to trigger passives!
Luo Lin held Cheng Lixue's hand and injected a subtle but real healing power into her under the astonished gaze of the latter, stabilizing the injuries she had suffered from her confrontation with the pseudo-Herrscher, and even showing signs of healing.
"I have healing abilities, you don't need to worry about me," Luo Lin said rapidly, "and then, I'll pretend to be too weak to fight again, lowering the pseudo-Herrscher's vigilance. When the pseudo-Herrscher attacks again, no matter who she is targeting, I will use all my strength to attack the pseudo-Herrscher—"
"Okay."
Although Cheng Lixue didn't know where Luo Lin's confidence came from, she decided to wholeheartedly believe in her Junior Sister.
"Annoying! Annoying! Why can't you just obediently die!?"
Agata appeared from the dissipating smoke, and with her intense emotions, the temperature of the flames surrounding her increased again, even boiling the magma!
Cheng Lixue held Water's Edge and took a deep breath as she shot ice cone water pillars at the pseudo-Herrscher, making Agata even more annoyed, causing her fireballs to miss their target.
While Luo Lin shot with the submachine gun, she also pulled out the golden square hairpin with her other hand.
As mentioned before, Luo Lin found three design drawings in the [Key of Revelations], namely [Star of Eden], [Oath of Judah], and [Fenghuang Down].
Now, Luo Lin wanted to try mimicking a part of [Oath of Judah], just like she had mimicked the crippled version of [Star of Eden] before—what Luo Lin needed was a [Spear] capable of breaking through the opponent's defense and striking directly at the vital points!
This will be her imitation of Theresa vs Sirin in the Second Eruption!
Luo Lin took a deep breath, suppressing her external mimicked fluctuations, pretending to look exhausted.
As a flamboyant pseudo-Herrscher, Agata was not good at sensing subtle mimicry fluctuations, and Luo Lin's slight movements did not alert her.
Glancing around, Agata saw on one side Cheng Lixue, who seemed somewhat imposing but not very threatening to her, and on the other side, the Valkyrie who had been continuously attacking her with sword ki before, despite being heavily injured. She was like a buzzing mosquito in her ear, quite annoying.
"Let's deal with the annoying little bug first!"
The pseudo-Herrscher revealed a cruel smile, turning into a blaze and flying towards Luo Lin.
Meanwhile, Fu Hua was on the verge of despair.
Isn't this supposed to be the Consciousness Space? Why isn't Fenghuang Down working properly...
Fu Hua held Fenghuang Down in her hands, pursing her lips, feeling somewhat at a loss.
What should I do!?
Just then, Fenghuang Down emitted a faint, soft light, similar to the red feathers and damaged clay-like substance seen before, extending towards the distance, as if something was calling out to it...