Book 4, Chapter 131: Fight

The black cloud was made up of the magnified versions of the creatures that exploded out of the bomb. There was a whole horde of them coming his way.

After tossing aside his coat, Xu Chan appeared in front of Heros with a fist that shined with a faint glow.

Even if Winged Rat Monkeys were a threat to Heros, it was impossible for them to take him out. However, if Xu Chan held him back, it would be a different story.

Xu Chan had sprayed scent-concealing chemicals on himself, and the Winged Rat Monkeys were intelligent creatures. Once they saw that he was fighting against their kinslayer, they wouldn’t attack him.

Yet when he threw the punch, he found that Heros moved at an astonishing speed, and his fist would reach him first. He immediately felt a huge pressure.

This was due to Heros’ height and long arms, but Xu Chan always left room to change things when he attacked. With just a slight adjustment of his waist, his fist clashed against Heros’.

Their refined forces scattered from the intense clash, and even the faint glow from their fists melted away, though Xu Chan could tell that Heros still had a bit left. So, just when the fist was about to touch him, he turned his body away and avoided it.

From the first clash, Xu Chan could tell that Heros had a sturdy body, along with great, domineering power. His spirit sense was also greater than Xu Chan’s. This meant that there was no way that he could fight against him head-on.

Fighting was about the overall coordination of abilities, anyway. In a fight to the death, whether or not a martial artist could bring out all of his strengths and avoid his weaknesses depended on their battle performance. The stronger person on paper might not necessarily win.

When Heros saw him avoiding the attack, he twisted his waist as well, shielded his face, and, with his remaining momentum and strength, hurled another punch at Xu Chan. It came at him like a hammer.

Xu Chan sucked in a deep breath and sped up to follow Heros’ movements. He was slightly faster and immediately sent a punch to his ribs. The air was pushed back violently as he did this, but Heros brought his elbow down when he sensed a fist-type refined force coming for him. Xu Chan leaned back and retreated from Heros’ attack.

But Heros instantly caught up. They exchanged a few blows, each one creating a deafening explosion. The sounds caused the water to ripple and the stones to jolt. Xu Chan moved left and right or leaned back. Sometimes, he also ducked down, which allowed him to avoid all of the attacks. Not once did Heros manage to touch him.

The moment they stepped back from each other, Xu Chan saw his chance and pushed forward.

Bang!

Two Heartborn Forces clashed in the air, and he widened the distance between them even more using the push from the blast.

When Heros wanted to come after him, he heard a strange cry, and a black shadow descended upon him. Without even bothering to look, he grabbed it and threw it on the ground, smashing it to smithereens and creating a burst of feathers. The extra movement disrupted his rhythm.

By then, Xu Chan had already gotten enough distance between them and drew a long, thin, flexible sword from his waist. With a flick, the blade curved and went straight for Heros’ throat. There was a light shining on the tip.

Heros had a shortsword, but he had no intention of using it. He brought his arm up to parry the blade. Light was shining on the skin that would be hit. When the two lights met, they melted away, and the sword tip landed on Heros’ skin. With a bang, the sword bounced back, but it didn’t snap due to how flexible it was.

Heros hadn’t expected Xu Chan to have gathered Heartborn Force into the sword tip, so it crashed into him and affected his tensed up mutated tissue. His arm went numb, which rendered it useless for a time.

Heros stared at Xu Chan in slight surprise. The ability to use spirit sense on a weapon was rare enough, but being able to stack it together with a Heartborn Force and in such a subtle manner was impressive. Only two types of people could do it: those with strong spirit sense, and those whose control over spirit sense reached an ingenious level. Xu Chan was clearly the latter.

“Looks like I will have to adjust our assessment of your strength, Mr. Xu, but this isn’t a fair fight. You’re bound to lose,” Heros remarked.

When the sword didn’t break skin, Xu Chan immediately knew that Heros was going to be trouble. If he took medicine, he might be able to fight against him, but he had already used it to lure over the babies of the Winged Rat Monkeys.

Either way, even with the medicine, he didn’t think his strength would increase enough for him to fight Heros on equal footing. He wouldn’t be able to overpower him since Heros’ spirit sense was stronger and he had better control over it.

Based on Xu Chan’s experience, Heros had yet to use his full strength. So, even with the fearsome Winged Rat Monkeys swarming over, his chances of victory didn’t increase by much. It would be better for him to search for a chance to retreat.

When he saw the artifact in the hands of the dead guide, he guessed that his teammates had handed it over themselves and why they did it, but he couldn’t place all his hopes on his enemies fighting each other over the artifact. If he had the chance, it would be better to grab it himself.

Besides, he had already brought the Winged Rat Monkeys’ babies. If he didn’t throw them over, he would have had to bear their wrath himself. So, by the time Xu Chan reached the clearing, he was basically forced to fight.

Now that he had figured out that this path forward wasn’t a viable one, he wasn’t going to stubbornly insist on it. With a fling of his arm, he sheathed his sword, turned around, and ran away. In an instant, the distance between them grew.

Heros turned to give chase, but the moment he took a step forward, more Winged Rat Monkeys arrived. They were staring at him with bloodshot eyes full of fury. Some of them screeched and rushed him.

He killed them with his refined force, and they fell off him. Even so, more came. After seeing what happened to their kin once they jumped on him, they didn’t grab onto him anymore. Instead, they flew around him and used their claws to tear at and scratch him. Most of them concentrated their attacks on his face.

Heros had attacked them using mental energy before, but it hadn’t been effective. It felt as if his energy had scattered, and once it reached them, it just disappeared.

This left him with only his fists and legs to defend himself. The moment he flung his arm, the creatures were ripped apart as if he had torn the air itself. There was a trail of torn flesh and blood forming the shape of a scratch where he had ripped the air. Even so, the Winged Rat Monkeys continued circling him fearlessly and getting in his way. Sharp screeches assaulted his senses.

After tearing through more of the Winged Rat Monkeys, he examined their movement trajectory, distance, and positions from which they attacked. In an instant, he found some spaces through which he could move and shot out of the encirclement. In no time, he caught up to Xu Chan.

Just as he was about to increase his speed, Xu Chan turned around, drew his sword, and thrust it straight at his face.

Heros stared at the glowing tip before turning his eyes forward. Since he wouldn’t be able to block it with his arms, he ducked his head. Light shone on his forehead, and it made contact with the sword tip. The lights melted into each other, and he neutralized the Heartborn Force that hid behind Xu Chan’s spirit sense. The attack did not slow him down in the slightest. In another two steps, he reached Xu Chan, clenched his fist, gathered his power, and threw it forward so hard that the air in front of his hand exploded.

When he got past the sword’s optimal striking distance, Xu Chan let go of the sword and calmly pushed his palm toward Heros’ fist. The light on the hands melted into each other, and their Heartborn Forces collided. Xu Chan’s bones broke and tendons snapped with an audible pop. The skin and flesh were also torn.

Heros threw his other fist forward. It, too, was glowing. While Xu Chan was injured, he remained calm and quickly brought his other arm up to block the fist.

As the light from their spirit senses melted, Xu Chan had more spirit sense left this time, so Heros’ fist halted. Cracking sounds came from Heros’ arm.

As a shockwave blasted out from between them, they retreated in opposite directions.

Heros was quite surprised. He had distributed his spirit sense between both hands equally, and Xu Chan had made use of this. He concentrated more spirit sense in his second hand and traded injury for injury.

Even though Xu Chan was clearly weaker than him, he managed to fight on equal grounds with him. It had been a long time since he met someone like this.

It was precisely because of this that he couldn’t let Xu Chan escape. Otherwise, who knew what sort of trouble he would create later? As long as he could keep Xu Chan around for a few more minutes, his team would arrive, and they could kill him.

Just as he was about to continue the fight, he sensed danger and reached up to grab whatever was coming his way. It was a wooden short spear. The moment he grabbed it, it shattered into several pieces.

He had almost been unable to catch it.

Shocked by the force in it, Heros looked over and saw a huge bird with long wings above him. The person laying prone on top of it jumped down, did a flip in the air, spread his limbs out, and landed steadily on both feet. A large cloud of dust shot up around him.

The man straightened his body and revealed his tall form with broad shoulders and a thin waist. He had angled eyebrows and wore a sleeveless martial arts uniform, which showed off his muscled arms. His smooth skin was a sign of great vitality. While he wasn’t as tall as Heros, he gave off an incredibly intimidating air, and Heros felt threatened by his presence.

Qi Qianyang cast a glance at Xu Chan, then at Heros before shifting his gaze to the artifact. “Looks like I came on time. It’s still here.”

By the time he said his last word, he was before Heros. Their gazes met, and Heros’ eyes went wide. Qi Qianyang smirked, and the next moment, Heros was sent flying. He crashed into a pile of rocks, and a large cloud of dust rose into the air.

Qi Qianyang was already holding the ball and tossed it into the air a few times.

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