In the gray mist, the bleeding hole in Lucas's thigh had stopped oozing. His expression slowly turned grave. "What a strange ability."
This injury was the price of not knowing what he could do.
Thud-thud-thud!
A spiked armored Monster loomed out of the mist ahead. Lucas flexed his arms, curved blades sliding into view.
Swish—he shot straight for Han Qi. Dual blades was when he was strongest.
"Argh!" Han Qi roared as Lucas blurred toward him. Spikes jutted from every direction except the ground.
Shhk! Facing four- or five-metre spikes aimed at his face, Lucas swept his hooked blades up, shearing more than a metre off each.
His hands flicked in constant arcs, slicing any spike that came near while he closed the gap.
'No good—my Bone Armor's offense and defense are useless against him!' Han Qi paled inside his osseous shell as the icy-eyed Lucas neared.
Every attack and defense might as well not exist against those two blades; his huge frame was nothing but an easy target.
Within seconds they were two metres apart—more than close enough for Lucas.
"Then let's start by severing your limbs!" Lucas raised both fists and clashed them together; the twin blades fused into one long, slightly curved double-ended sword.
Just as he tensed to explode forward, the armored giant opposite sensed the danger and moved first.
Crack! Crack!
Tiny fracturing sounds reached Lucas's ears; his face changed and he vaulted backward.
BOOM! The bone giant detonated, shards flying in every direction.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh! Each fragment hit like an artillery shell, ripping massive gaps in the surrounding houses.
Rumble—two- and three-storey buildings along the street collapsed. Ten metres away Lucas touched the gash on his cheek.
It was so deep he could see his own teeth and tongue.
"Knew he couldn't win so he self-destructed?" Lucas showed a flicker of regret—he'd almost captured the man alive.
"Hm?" About to leave, Lucas lifted his gaze in surprise.
A three-metre silhouette loomed in the gray mist ahead.
"You're strong," the same stilted voice from their first meeting drifted out.
This time it added, "But I'm stronger!"
BOOM! The two-metre figure burst forward at terrifying speed.
Swish! The mist tore open, revealing a pure-white bone creature. Forearms and shins had become metre-long straight blades; the air around him rippled with constant heat.
Han Qi had staked everything; the heavy Bone Armor would only slow him down now.
"Bone State – Speed Blades!"
'So fast!' Lucas's face tightened, raising his hooked blade to meet Han Qi's twin straight swords.
Clang! The four blades met; this time they weren't sliced through—only a tiny chip flew off. Shock flashed across Lucas's face.
Han Qi's whole body trembled. In this form every bone was compressed to the limit, devouring stamina and spirit at a frantic rate, but the payoff was terrifying: his bones were now several times harder than before.
Swish! Han Qi's left foot snapped upward, aiming a blade straight at Lucas's groin.
"Shit!" Lucas's expression cracked; his hooked blade flashed down to parry the leg-blade.
Clang! Sparks flew as Han Qi's arms blurred, hacking at Lucas in a storm of strikes.
Clang-clang-clang! Forced onto the defensive, Lucas blocked frantically; showers of sparks lit the mist, carving it into tatters.
"Aaaaargh!" Han Qi howled, the four bone blades whirling into after-images.
Yet no matter how fiercely he attacked, Lucas kept pace.
Clang-clang-clang! Every exchange left deep gouges in the ground.
Huff-huff-huff! Lucas's breathing quickened; even his stamina was draining under the Monster's onslaught.
'He's going all-out—if I can just survive this burst—' A flash of white shot toward his eye mid-thought.
Shhk! Lucas jerked his head aside; a bone spike punched through his ear and sped on, blood spraying.
Opposite him, a spear of bone jutted from Han Qi's stomach. Seeing Lucas evade, his pupils shrank: "He dodged that? His reflexes are insane!"
Schlik! Lucas raised his hand and sliced the bone spur in half, his face expressionless as he kept trading blows with Han Qi.
Clang, clang, clang! Under the high-intensity fight Han Qi's speed began to drop; behind his Bone Mask his face was twisted with unwillingness as he roared, "Damn it, why are you this strong? Just fall down already!"
Lucas heard the monster opposite him roar something he couldn't understand, but his expression didn't change. "What language is that? I've never heard it."
His own speed had already slipped a bit, yet the White-Bone Monster opposite had declined far more—both speed and strength were noticeably weaker than before.
Clang! After parrying another strike from the bone creature, its body froze for an instant.
Boom! He raised both fists and smashed them together, re-forming the double-headed blade from earlier. Glaring at the bone monster he bellowed, "Shredding Wheel!"
Lucas's body suddenly spun, the two curved blades at the outermost edge slicing everything around him.
To Han Qi's shock, the whirling Lucas shot straight at him; Han Qi slashed out with his straight sabre in a frantic block.
Clang, clang, clang!
Under the high-speed rotation the curved blades crashed against the Bone Sabre; in less than half a second the two blades had already struck the Bone Sabre hundreds of times.
Bang! The white-Bone Sabre snapped under the revolving strikes, and to Han Qi's utter disbelief Lucas spun straight into his chest, the curved blades hacking at his body again and again.
Clang, clang, clang! Sparks erupted everywhere; Han Qi's bone plating was instantly breached and the curved blades bit into flesh beneath.
Schlik, schlik, schlik!
Aaaargh!" Han Qi screamed as his body was cleaved in two, the upper half thudding to the ground.
Schlik! A torrent of blood gushed from both severed parts.
Lucas stopped spinning and stood there gasping, "Huff… huff… almost killed me from exhaustion."
He looked at the monster whose upper body still struggled on the ground. "Stubborn thing—but let me dig out the secrets inside you!"
Lucas strode toward Han Qi. From Han Qi's lower half thick white bone grew, sealing the wound; he tried to push himself up with both arms, but the intense fight and being cut in two had left him with no strength left.
"Damn it… I was so close… is the gap really this big?" Han Qi ground his teeth.
He wasn't worried about Lucas—this was Monster Association territory after all.
Tap, tap, tap!
Just then, footsteps echoed from the grey mist. Lucas turned, instantly on guard, looking toward the sound behind him.
"Old Han, you failed." A voice Lucas couldn't understand drifted from the fog.
Then he saw a 2.1-metre-tall figure emerge from the haze: a blade-like horn on its forehead, white fur on its hands and feet, and a bead embedded in its chest.
Seeing Li Yong appear, Han Qi exhaled in relief. "This guy suddenly exploded like he was cheating—be careful."
Lucas didn't understand their chatter; he merely flexed, the curved blades at his elbows lifting again as he eyed Li Yong seriously. "Another one? Looks like we've really stepped into someplace nasty—enemy after enemy. But I, Lucas, will never go down that easily!"
While he spoke he was secretly recovering stamina.
"You're strong; even here you'd count as a top fighter." Li Yong suddenly switched to words Lucas could understand; thin white threads of energy appeared between his fingers.
Lucas watched him warily. "Who exactly are you people? What faction?"
Before the words finished, Li Yong's body shot toward him; Lucas clenched his teeth and charged, curved blades leading.
Li Yong raised his hands; the threads lengthened instantly. Muscles tensing, he clawed downward from seven or eight metres away.
Whoosh! Ten threads shot out ten metres long and slashed straight at Lucas.
Lucas lifted both blades, slashing at the threads.
At the same moment, on his left in the grey mist a tiny point of light had silently appeared behind him.
Just as his curved blades were about to meet the threads, both the threads and Li Yong himself vanished.
Schlik! In the next instant ten threads re-appeared behind Lucas, slicing vertically from the crown of his head to the ground, carving ten deep gouges into the floor.
Lucas froze, disbelief filling his eyes.
He tried to lift an arm, but thin red lines began to appear across his face and arms.
Slither! In a heartbeat Lucas disintegrated into chunks of flesh that slumped to the ground, blood and broken organs pooling out.