The air on the stage was a storm of converging power. Six of the allied team's strongest fighters—Huo Wu, Huo Wushuang, Dai Mubai, Yu Tianheng, Feng Xiaotian, and Tai Long—unleashed their ultimate attacks at the same instant.
Huo Wu's "Brilliant Sun" formed, a miniature star of orange flame.
Huo Wushuang, in his "Wrath of the Tyrannosaurus" form, charged like a crimson comet. Dai Mubai's "White Tiger Meteor Shower" lit the sky.
Yu Tianheng's "Thunderous Dragon Head" roared.
Feng Xiaotian became a diving tornado of "Stormwind Demon Wolf's Thirty Six Successive Chops."
Tai Long, his body like forged iron, charged, his fists a blunt-force hammer. From above, Ma Hongjun's "Phoenix Fire Wire" rained down, a net of purplish flame.
It was a beautiful, overwhelming, and desperate assault.
Zhang Tian stood motionless in the center of this storm, a cold smile on his face. He watched the wave of annihilation approach, and his voice, casual and calm, cut through the roar of their attacks.
"Is this it?" he asked, loud enough for all of them to hear. "This is the combined power you were all counting on? Pathetic."
As the attacks were about to hit, he raised one hand. His first four spirit rings—yellow, yellow, purple, black—blazed to life, not one by one, but blending together.
"Self-created Skill: Elemental Purgatory."
It was not a simple vine. An explosion of new energy erupted from his body. It was a storm. A storm of crimson vines, but these vines were different. Some were wreathed in a black fire that seemed to drink the light. Some were coated in razor-sharp, blue-white ice. And others crackled with the violet lightning of his new fifth ring.
The Elemental Purgatory crashed into their attacks.
HSSSSSS!
The black fire vines met Huo Wu's "Brilliant Sun" and Huo Wushuang's "Wrath." The Blazing Academy's fire, a source of immense pride, was smothered. Zhang Tian's black flame was not just hot; it was dominant. It didn't just block their fire; it overpowered it, extinguishing it like a candle in a hurricane.
"My fire... it's being... extinguished!" Huo Wu cried out, her voice a note of pure disbelief.
"His flames are... wrong!" Huo Wushuang roared, his own power sputtering.
CRACK! SHATTER!
The ice-wreathed vines, hard as diamond, rose up like a crystalline wall. Dai Mubai's "White Tiger Meteor Shower" slammed into it. The balls of light, each holding immense power, simply... shattered. They were frozen solid in mid-air and then broken apart by the unyielding, frozen constructs.
"My meteors! They're frozen!" Dai Mubai yelled, his confidence cracking.
KRA-KOOM!
The lightning vines, pulsing with the power of the Thunder Hell Prison Vine, intercepted Yu Tianheng's "Thunderous Dragon Head." It was a battle of thunder. The blue-purple dragon head, the pride of his clan, was torn apart by the crimson-violet lightning, which seemed purer, more violent.
"His lightning... it's devouring mine!" Yu Tianheng grunted, feeling the painful backlash.
Feng Xiaotian's "Stormwind Demon Wolf's Thirty Six Successive Chops" tore through a wall of vines, shredding them to pieces. But more, wreathed in ice and fire, rose instantly to take their place. "They won't stay cut!" he screamed, his attack losing its momentum.
Tai Long's charge was met by a simple, brutal wall of crimson vines that erupted from the ground, absorbing the force of his attack and throwing him back. Ma Hongjun's "Phoenix Fire Wire" sizzled and vanished the moment it touched the chaotic, multi-elemental aura.
The six powerful spirit masters of the allied academies were blown backward by the force of their own negated attacks. The Elemental Purgatory didn't stop. It spread, a tide of crimson and black, ice and thunder, forcing all of them to stop their assault and throw up desperate defensive barriers.
The stage was a chaotic mess of steam, smoke, and flashing light.
In this single, chaotic instant, Xiao Wu saw her opening.
Zhang Tian was focused on the six powerful spirit masters, his hand still raised, his back momentarily exposed.
'Now!' she thought, her battle instincts screaming.
"Third Spirit Ability: Teleportation!"
She vanished from her spot, appearing instantly, silently, behind Zhang Tian.
"First Spirit Ability: Waist Bow!"
She put all her strength, all her frustration, all her rage, into her long, powerful leg, aiming a kick that could shatter stone at the back of his head.
"Don't, Xiao Wu! It's a trap!" Tang San roared from across the field, his Purple Demon Eye seeing the cold, calm certainty in Zhang Tian's posture. But he was too late.
Zhang Tian didn't even turn around. His hands were still, as if casually, in his pockets.
As Xiao Wu's heel was an inch from his skull, his head tilted slightly to the left. Just enough. Her attack, filled with all her power, missed by a millimeter. The wind from her kick whipped his hair across his face.
Xiao Wu's eyes went wide. 'He dodged? Without even looking? Impossible! At my speed... he couldn't have…'
She was already twisting, her momentum carrying her into a follow-up kick with her other leg, a desperate attempt to recover.
She was too slow.
Zhang Tian's right hand flashed from his pocket. It moved like a striking snake. He didn't grab her attacking leg. He grabbed her slender waist.
His grip was like an iron band. He yanked her forward, her momentum working against her. He spun her around, pulling her flush against his chest, and locked his arm around her waist. He had her. He was holding her in a one-armed embrace, her back pressed against his front, her body a shield.
A hostage.
The entire arena, all one hundred thousand people, let out a collective gasp.
"He... he caught her!"
"Damn…That was a crazy movement!"
"First time watching something like this happen in the middle of a match?!"
Flender, in the stands, made a sound like a dying chicken. Yu Xiaogang's face, which had been a mask of stone, turned white as a sheet.
"XIAO WU!"
Tang San's roar tore from his throat. It was not a sound of anger; it was a sound of pure, primal terror. His mind went blank, replaced by a searing, red rage. He was still fighting the parasitic vines that were trying to erupt from his shoulder, his body on fire with pain, but this... this was too much.
His hand blurred to his sleeve. He didn't think. He reacted. He fired his strongest, fastest hidden weapon—a single, black bolt from a miniature crossbow hidden on his wrist. A bolt tipped with his new, potent Purple Spirit Grass poison.
"DIE!" he screamed.
The bolt shot through the air, a black streak aimed directly at Zhang Tian's heart.
Zhang Tian saw the bolt coming. He didn't move. He didn't dodge. He just… held Xiao Wu in its path.
The bolt, aimed at his heart, was now aimed directly at her back.
Tang San's rage turned to a blast of ice-cold terror. "NO!" he screamed, his voice cracking.
His "Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon" lashed out, a desperate, invisible hand of psychic force. He poured every last ounce of his mental energy into that single, desperate pull.
The bolt, which had been a blur of deadly speed, suddenly wobbled. Its momentum died. It clattered uselessly to the stone stage, inches from Xiao Wu's feet.
Zhang Tian laughed. It was a low, warm, and utterly cruel sound. "Tsk, tsk, Tang San," he said, his voice carrying across the now-silent arena. "Trying to kill your own lover just to get at me? How cold-blooded."
Tang San was shaking, his face pale, his mind a warring storm of rage and self-loathing. 'I… I almost… I almost killed her. He… he used her against me.'
As Tang San was frozen in his own horror, Zhang Tian tightened his grip on Xiao Wu. His other hand, the one that had been in his pocket, came up. He gently, almost tenderly, caressed her soft, beautiful face.
"Let me go!" Xiao Wu shrieked, her body rigid with fury and humiliation. She struggled, she kicked, she tried to elbow him in the ribs. But his arm was a cage of steel. She couldn't budge.
"Hmm. She really is quite delicate," Zhang Tian said, his voice loud enough for Tang San to hear. He deliberately ran his hand from her cheek down the long, smooth line of her neck. "And so soft. I can see why you like her so much. She has spirit."
"You bastard!" Dai Mubai roared, his voice thick with disgust. "Let her go! Fight us!"
"He's right!" Huo Wushuang shouted, his own face grim. "She isn't your match and will be helpless against so you should let her go! We are still here. Fight us!"
"Helpless?" Zhang Tian replied, his voice a purr of amusement. "She attacked me from behind. In my eyes, that makes her a threat."
Tang San was still struggling to purge the parasitic vine from his shoulder. The pain was immense, but the sight of Zhang Tian touching Xiao Wu, taunting him with her, was a pain a thousand times worse. 'He's doing it on purpose,' he thought, his hatred a cold, sharp blade. 'He's trying to break my mind. To make me reckless. I can't let him. I have to stay calm. I have to save her.'
But "calm" was a distant, unreachable shore.
"I'll kill you!" Xiao Wu screamed, her eyes red with furious, helpless tears. "Let me GO!"
She activated her third ability again. Her body, her very essence, dissolved, preparing to teleport. "Teleportation!"
She vanished from his arms... and instantly reappeared. In the exact same spot. Still locked in his iron grip.
Her eyes went wide with a new, dawning terror. "What... what? Why didn't it work? My teleportation..."
She looked down in horror. A single, almost invisible crimson vine, thin as a thread, had wrapped around her ankle. It pulsed with a faint, dark light, a current of Zhang Tian's spirit power flowing through it.
"What… what did you do?!" she whispered, her fight draining away, replaced by a cold dread.
Zhang Tian leaned in, his hot breath making her shiver, his voice a secret, devastating whisper in her ear. "My vines are an extension of my spirit. By binding you, I've bound you to me. You can't teleport away from a part of your own captor. You can only teleport with me. And I'm not going anywhere."
Despair, cold and absolute, washed over her. She was trapped. Her greatest, most reliable escape ability, the skill that had saved her a dozen times... was useless. She stopped struggling, her body going limp in his arm.
In the stands, Yu Xiaogang's face was ashen. "He… he neutralized her teleportation with such a simple method. This is... this is a perfect counter."
"How does he have perfect counters for everything," Flender moaned, slumping in his seat. "It's over. It's all over."
On the stage, the remaining strong spirit masters—Huo Wu, Huo Wushuang, Dai Mubai, Yu Tianheng, and Feng Xiaotian—stared in horror.
"He's… he's just holding her," Huo Wu said, her voice trembling with rage. "He's using her as a shield! The coward!"
"And what do we do?" Feng Xiaotian asked, his eyes darting between Zhang Tian and the still-recovering Tang San. "We can't attack him! We'll hit her!"
"This is insane!" Yu Tianheng growled, his draconic arm crackling with frustrated lightning. "Is this how the Emperor Team fights? By taking hostages?"
Zhang Tian was still holding Xiao Wu pinned against his body with one arm, his hand resting possessively on her waist. He looked at the five horrified, hesitant warriors.
"What's the matter?" he taunted. "Are you afraid to attack? Or are you just now realizing that you've already lost?"
The taunt, the sheer, arrogant disrespect of it, was the final spark.
"He's distracted! He only has one arm free! ATTACK HIM NOW!" Dai Mubai roared, his desperation making him reckless. "We aim for his legs! His head! Just don't hit Xiao Wu!"
"He's right!" Huo Wushuang bellowed, his own pride as a warrior overriding his caution. "We cannot let him win like this! Charge!"
The five remaining strong spirit masters charged again, their ultimate attacks blazing, all aimed at the man holding the hostage.
Zhang Tian just laughed. "You think I need both arms to deal with you? How insulting."
He tightened his grip on Xiao Wu's waist, holding her like a trophy. She yelped as his fingers dug in, a small, pained sound that sent another jolt of pure, white-hot fury through Tang San.
Unseen by the others, Zhang Tian's hand on her waist had already done its work, leaving a fresh, invisible layer of his parasitic spores on her skin. A backup plan.
"Third Ability: Wrath of the Tyrannosaurus!" Huo Wushuang charged, his body a crimson inferno.
"Third Ability: Defying Flame Ring!" Huo Wu unleashed her pushing skill, a wave of fire designed to blast Xiao Wu free from his grasp.
"White Tiger Vajra Transformation!" Dai Mubai roared, his body glowing gold as he charged from the left.
"Dragon Transformation!" Yu Tianheng's draconic claw flashed, charging from the right.
"Stormwind Demon Wolf's Annihilation!" Feng Xiaotian dove from above, a tornado of wind blades.
The arena watched, horrified, as five ultimate attacks converged on a man holding a helpless girl.
Zhang Tian moved. He was still holding Xiao Wu, but his speed was blinding.
He used her body as a shield against Huo Wu's "Defying Flame Ring."
The concussive, fiery force slammed into them, pushing both of them back a step, but his grip was like a mountain, and the fire, though hot, was harmless against his own spirit-power-infused defense.
Xiao Wu cried out, but she was unharmed.
"Self-created skill: Crimson Lightning Serpent!"
His free left hand flashed out. A whip of crimson lightning, as fast as a striking snake, snapped from his palm. It intercepted Feng Xiaotian's diving attack, the sound like a thunderclap. The "Stormwind Demon Wolf's Annihilation" was shattered, its wind blades dissolving into harmless wind. Feng Xiaotian himself was sent sprawling, his body crackling with residual lightning.
"How… how is he so fast?!" Feng Xiaotian gasped from the ground.
At the same time, his Blood Silver Grass erupted from the stage floor. A wall of his new, ice-wreathed vines rose to block Huo Wushuang's fire charge. The clash was a hissing, steaming stalemate.
A cage of his lightning-vines sprang up to trap Dai Mubai and Yu Tianheng, forcing them to waste their powerful attacks shattering the crimson prison.
He was fighting. All of them. With one hand. While holding a hostage.
And he was winning.
The battle continued, a desperate, messy, and vain struggle. The five spirit masters were exhausted, their spirit power draining rapidly. They were not just fighting Zhang Tian; they were fighting his endless, intelligent vines, and they were terrified of hitting their own teammate. They were being completely, hopelessly outmatched.