The Creatures that We Are

The fog in Heavenly Dog's mind shattered as pain lanced through his back. His eyes snapped wide—Qilin's illusion. Hong Xiaoxiao, still clinging to his back, had driven her blade between his shoulders without hesitation to break the spell.

How did Qilin cast Eidos from such distance? Heavenly Dog wondered once broken out of the illusion.

A second later, he realized that twenty meters from him was a small blue portal the size of a soccer ball, and the other end of the portal was right before Qilin.

It turned out that Wandering Tune had created a small portal to instantly shorten the distance between Qilin and Heavenly Dog.

However, Heavenly Dog and Hong Xiaoxiao were invisible, and Qilin couldn’t use a deep illusion and psychic attack by meeting Heavenly Dog’s eyes—and Eidos’ power was compromised while Qilin controlled a puppet. Thus, Qilin chose to use a weaker illusion that did no damage but had a wide area of effect.

Heavenly Dog had been focusing on using Spatial Shard and thus didn’t notice the small portal in the air in time. Hong Xiaoxiao, on the other hand, had been looking out for any threat and thus noticed it immediately and closed her eyes. Therefore, she avoided the illusion.

Although her eyes were closed, she could tell from Heavenly Dog staying unmoving that he had gotten hit by an illusion. Having been prepared for it, she drew the Black Gold dagger she had on her and stabbed him in the back.

Now awake, Heavenly Dog fought through the pain and retreated swiftly to distance themselves from the portal.

Swoosh. Almost simultaneously, a gleaming Black Gold triangular blade shot through the portal toward Heavenly Dog.

Beyond her Master of Hidden Weapons, she had recently acquired Mirror Man. The sequence had been precise: the moment Wandering Tune conjured the portal, Qilin launched his illusion attack through it to thwart Heavenly Dog's surprise attack. Meanwhile, Harvest Song had predicted their general location and thrown her triangular blade, transforming into light to merge with it. This allowed her to close in rapidly on Heavenly Dog and Hong Xiaoxiao.

The awakener with Killing Expert lite maintained perfect clarity in combat.

Harvest Song tucked her arms and legs together, resembling a black petal about to bloom in midair. A second later, she unfurled, launching countless hidden weapons toward Heavenly Dog and Hong Xiaoxiao's position. Even invisible, they couldn't escape unscathed from an attack with such wide coverage.

Clink, clink, clink. Half a second later, the hidden weapons struck something and fell one after another. Harvest Song startled, quickly realizing an almost imperceptible wind barrier had materialized before her—Nainai's doing!

After acquiring Gale, Nainai had rapidly advanced it to level 4 using the Element Rune Circuit, before the Talent leaped to level 7.

Now she could ride the wind, almost rivaling Heavenly Dog's speed in the air.

War Tiger hadn’t had her go with Hong Xiaoxiao and Heavenly Dog, though, but instead ordered her to shrink into pinky size and keep a safe distance to serve as backup so that she wouldn’t get taken out by the enemies at the same time.

At a hundred meters above ground in the night sky, her diminutive form might as well have been invisible. But to generate a wind barrier strong enough to deflect those hidden weapons, Nainai had no choice but to return to her original size, revealing her presence.

This limitation stemmed from Scale's core mechanism.

When Nainai shrank, her Talents' effects diminished proportionally. The inverse was also true - at larger sizes, her powers became devastating. However, wielding such amplified power risked fatal energy drain. She'd experienced this at the Starcatching Pavilion, where after growing gigantic, her attempt to teleport away with her companions succeeded barely with a shortened distance. Pushing any further would have killed her through energy exhaustion.

"Prison of Air Blades!”

Nainai splayed her fingers before clenching them tight. Hundreds of air blades materialized around Harvest Song, converging to form an inescapable prison.

Swoosh. A massive Black Gold boomerang tore through the air with unstoppable momentum, shattering multiple air blades before losing speed.

Harvest Song seized her chance. With a flash, she merged into the boomerang's reflective surface using Mirror Man.

A second later, the remaining air blades struck the boomerang but failed to leave a mark.

Clink. Responding to its owner's call, the boomerang spun rapidly, dispersing the ineffective air blades before returning to Amon at the bridge's center.

Harvest Song emerged from the boomerang with a thin line of blood on her fierce, delicate cheek.

"Are you hurt?!" One Stone rushed forward in her white coat, medical kit in hand.

"I'm fine," Harvest Song replied.

"Give me your hand." One Stone grabbed her hand, injecting energy. This would optimize Harvest Song's physical condition for eight minutes, following a three-minute delay. It came from Condition, One Stone's third acquired Talent, which she'd already used on the Union's ranged attackers before battle.

Those ranged attackers had been far from idle. Old Seven, Lin Fu, and Small Luo unleashed a barrage at the now-exposed Nainai.

Air bullets, explosive talismans, and energy shots filled the sky. Enhanced by Musashi's Shooter Domain, their power was terrifying. Brilliant explosions lit up the space above the bridge in constant succession.

"Go, go, go! You can hit her!"

"You're all the best!"

"The Ocean River Union will have a landslide victory!"

Rewind's youthful voice carried across the bridge through her megaphone as she used Suggestion to boost morale.

Caught in the projectile storm, Nainai and her invisible companions seemed to have nowhere to escape. But at level 7, her Gale had evolved far beyond the limited version she'd used when bombing the Union's base.

"Haughty Wind!"

Nainai stretched out her arms, her skirt and hair whipping in the rising wind. Wind elements swirled around her, coalescing instantly into a medium-scale tornado that enveloped her and her companions.

Though the incoming barrage was overwhelming, each projectile exploded harmlessly against the tornado's outer rim before being swept into its rotation, becoming part of the maelstrom.

The tornado transformed as tremendous golden energy and explosions merged with its light blue currents, creating a blazing golden vortex that illuminated the night sky and churned the river below. From within their wind barrier, Heavenly Dog and Hong Xiaoxiao watched transfixed as the deadly light show played across their faces.

[Nine Frost: Don't overstay. Retreat.]

A gentle breeze carried the deputy commander's order into Nainai's mind.

[Nainai: Hmph, insects! I'll spare you this time!]

Despite her bravado, Nainai moved immediately. She'd been eager to withdraw - her spectacular display, while impressive, consumed too much energy to maintain.

"Empress' Wall of Lamentation!"

Shouting a name she'd invented on the spot, Nainai recalled the wind elements, dissolving the tornado and reforming them into a temporary barrier against the enemies' concentrated fire.

"Come on!" Hong Xiaoxiao reactivated Invisibility while Heavenly Dog flew toward Nainai.

"Whoa!"

Nainai's waist twisted as an invisible arm wrapped around her, and she vanished from view.

At that moment, Surnamed Li frowned, her closed eyes sensing a new threat approaching in ten seconds. "Left side of the bridge, Raven Shark!"

Everyone turned left, those near the edge peering down at the calm river surface. No threat was visible.

Qilin remained motionless, one hand steady on his cane, as unmovable as Mount Tai.

Two seconds passed. His eyes shifted to deep green as a light green web pattern slowly materialized.

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