As Arthur and Pan Ming charged forward, Hysilens remained rooted to the spot. Though she had declared, "We need to do something too," her true intention wasn't to rush headlong into attacking the True Body of the tentacles.
First, it was crucial to understand their mission on the Eightieth Layer of the Abyss: to thwart the Mother of Flesh's plan. And what was that plan? To use the Abyss as a springboard to invade the Material Plane.
The Mother of Flesh had begun her invasion from Layer Seventy-Nine. Logically, she should have progressed upward through Layer Seventy-Eight, Layer Seventy-Seven, and so on. Yet she had instead invaded Layer Eighty, a rather peculiar strategy.
Given that the Mother of Flesh possessed the coordinates of the Material Plane, it was theoretically impossible for her to have taken the wrong path. This suggested that this route was likely the shortest.
In an instant, Hysilens recalled the Demon Axe's breach in the Northern Territory—the passage Cerydra had repaired, leading directly to the Material Plane.
While the passage had been restored, that didn't mean it couldn't be breached a second time. If the Demon Axe could accomplish such a feat, the far more powerful Mother of Flesh could undoubtedly do the same.
The tentacle before them, and the monsters' target, was very likely the spot where the Demon Axe had pierced the Plane before.
With that thought, Hysilens leaped lightly. A swordfish about a meter long, formed entirely of water, materialized beneath her feet, carrying her swiftly forward.
Despite starting last, she quickly caught up to the others. Just as Arthur made another massive leap and hung in the air, Hysilens swooped in beside him, asking urgently, "Where exactly did you break through the Plane before?"
The Demon Axe paused, looking momentarily stunned, before a thoughtful expression crossed his face. After a moment, he replied, "Right here! Directly beneath this tentacle!"
Arthur blinked in confusion. "Why beneath? The Abyss is beneath the Material Plane. If you were to break through, wouldn't you strike upward to reach the Material Plane? How could you tunnel downward and still reach the Material Plane?"
Hysilens shared Arthur's confusion, but considering the Abyss's unique nature, she didn't bother asking. The Demon Axe continued, "So this creature is searching for the spot where I breached the Plane before? Trying to replicate my method to reach the Material Plane?"
Hysilens nodded. "It seems so now."
As the momentum dissipated, Arthur plummeted toward the ground. Hysilens remained airborne, waiting for him to spring back into the air before saying, "Then what are you waiting for? Chop this thing off!"
But Hysilens wore a look of mild exasperation. After pondering for ages, analyzing the enemy's motives and objectives, she had meticulously planned a targeted counterattack. Arthur, on the other hand, had charged straight in with his axe, as if thinking, I don't care what their plan is—just kill every enemy I see, and we're done.
In the end, both their approaches converged on the same objective: attacking the tentacle's True Body.
With a few more leaps, Arthur finally reached the tentacle. Raising his axe as if felling a tree, he swung a mighty horizontal strike with all his strength.
BOOM!!!
A torrent of flames and a violent explosion erupted at the point of contact between the axe blade and the tentacle, engulfing everything within a radius of several hundred meters.
However, the tentacle was too thick. Instead of approaching Arthur, Hysilens circled its perimeter, eventually reaching another spot.
Gripping her longsword in one hand, she conjured a water membrane that appeared thin but was incredibly dense and spinning rapidly. As the water extended outward from her blade, steam billowed from its surface due to the intense heat in the area.
If it were ordinary water, it would likely have evaporated in an instant. But Hysilens continuously replenished the membrane with her divine power, replacing every drop lost to evaporation.
To any observer, this would have seemed like a tremendous waste of energy. Yet for Hysilens, it was inconsequential. Her divine power reserves were vast; just moments ago, she had even considered summoning a Whale. After some thought, however, she decided that a cutting attack would be more effective against the tentacle.
Pfft—
Unlike Arthur's explosive strike, Hysilens' water blade sliced through the tentacle with only a faint cutting sound, slicing through it effortlessly like cutting through butter.
Water compressed to its absolute limit, like a high-pressure water jet capable of effortlessly slicing through steel, operated on the same principle as Hysilens' water blade.
Simultaneously, Pan Ming's attack arrived from the third direction. As he had admitted, he lacked effective methods against such massive targets. If he were facing this tentacle alone, he would have been utterly unable to defeat it.
But with Hysilens and Arthur present, the situation was slightly different. Pan Ming timed his strikes perfectly, unleashing a flurry of punches against the tentacle's surface. His fists moved so rapidly they left afterimages, creating the illusion that he was attacking with four, even eight, arms simultaneously.
Yet his strikes left no visible marks. The tentacle's surface appeared completely undamaged. In reality, however, vast amounts of qi had been channeled through his fists and injected into the tentacle's interior, rapidly spreading throughout the 'cross-sectional' area where the trio stood. Like a raging storm, the qi began tearing apart the tentacle's internal muscle structure.
At the points where Hysilens and Arthur had severed the tentacle, both above and below, dense clusters of tiny flesh buds had begun to sprout, attempting to heal the wounds. But in the next instant, these buds exploded one after another like firecrackers.
Pan Ming's relentless assault had created an effect similar to "Anti-healing," preventing the tentacle from regenerating.
Hysilens, wielding her longsword, slashed continuously while rapidly circling the tentacle. Arthur chopped with his axe, immediately moving to a new position after each strike. Soon, over half of the massive tentacle, at least five hundred meters thick, had been severed by the pair.
When Hysilens and Arthur converged near Pan Ming's location, Pan Ming unleashed his final punch and swiftly retreated. Hysilens and Arthur accelerated simultaneously, their figures blurring past each other. In that split second, the tentacle was completely severed!
Despite having no pre-arranged battle plan, the trio had executed a flawless display of teamwork. Or perhaps it wasn't teamwork at all, but rather each member simply fulfilling their individual responsibilities to perfection, resulting in this extraordinary outcome.