Fierce Battle

“You… cough cough cough!!!”

Yisha tried to speak, but the searing pain in her chest forced the words back down her throat.

“Your reaction was indeed swift. I had intended to shatter your heart directly, but this isn’t far off the mark.”

Kanzaki Tianxing clasped his hands together, then twisted his neck, a series of sharp crackling sounds emanating from his body with each movement.

Granting Yisha no time to recover, Tianxing appeared before her almost instantaneously. He seized her head, lifting her clear off the ground.

A powerful cannon-like punch landed squarely on her abdomen, followed by a brutal knee strike.

“Bang! Thud!”

Yisha’s body was treated no differently than a training sandbag. She was simply sent flying, only to be dragged back and launched anew.

“Cough… cough…”

Pain consumed her mind, rendering her oblivious to anything else. The only sensation she could register was an overwhelming agony, a pain so profound it threatened to blot out the entire world.

“He spoke the truth, didn’t he? But tell me, do you still have the strength to run?”

Tianxing observed Yisha’s previously caved-in chest, noting that the injury had already healed by almost half during the time he had been, quite frankly, tormenting her.

His brows furrowed. Tianxing suddenly found this mission a little troublesome, yet it did not deter him from carrying out his objective.

The hand that had held her head now shifted to grip her neck, while his other hand slowly widened the distance between them.

Yisha looked at him, recognizing the stance.

“Eight Extremities Heaven… Third Form… cough cough… Vigorous Sun…”

She uttered the name, causing Tianxing to pause momentarily before a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

Like the breath of a beast, the wind once again whispered past Yisha’s ears.

The young girl ceased speaking, gazing at him with an eerie tranquility. There was no trace of panic or pain in her eyes, only profound stillness.

Disregarding the girl’s unsettling composure, Tianxing slammed his left foot down. The ground beneath him fractured, massive cracks radiating outwards and spreading across the entire structure.

His fist, laden with his dissatisfaction, rage, hatred, and even his bewilderment, plunged into Yisha’s lower abdomen.

Boom!!!!

The force dispersed violently. The dust that Yisha had previously kicked up by smashing through walls seemed to part ways for this single punch, and the wind whipped up anew, this time solely a consequence of Tianxing’s strike.

Yisha’s body was propelled forward at a speed akin to electromagnetic acceleration, flying through nearly half the urban district before finally crashing to the ground.

Buildings in her path crumbled one after another, the rising dust obscuring the sky.

Boom!!!

The distant roar seized the attention of everyone in the AST.

Indeed, it would have been difficult not to be drawn to it. The source of the booming sound was merely three kilometers away, and with their CR-UNIT enhanced, superhuman physiques, they could clearly discern even a whisper from a kilometer away, let alone a deafening explosion from three!

“Captain, please issue your orders!”

The team members adopted combat stances. Although their instruments had a total detection range of ten kilometers, their accuracy plummeted significantly beyond one kilometer. Furthermore, obstacles also interfered with the devices’ readings.

In other words, if Dancer concealed herself well and had sufficient obstructions between herself and their detection equipment, she could approach anywhere from one to ten kilometers away undetected.

“All units, listen up! Squad One and Squad Two, maintain observation of—”

“You don’t need to go there.”

Before Kusakabe Ryoko could finish her command, another voice cut into their communication channel.

“Why? That could very well be Dancer!”

Kusakabe Ryoko retorted, recognizing the voice of her superior. However, she felt an imperative to be responsible for the lives of her team members.

Currently, Princess was ahead, and Dancer was potentially behind them. Should they be caught in a pincer attack, they might face utter annihilation.

“I’ve arranged for a specialist to handle that area. Your sole task is to keep an eye on Princess and ensure she doesn’t cause any trouble. Assault authorization should be ready in about a minute.”

With that, the voice disconnected from their communication channel.

The AST members exchanged glances, a silent dissatisfaction brewing within them, though none dared to voice it.

‘What “specialist”? Are they reliable? If it’s just some young master or lady trying to gild their resume, wouldn’t everything be ruined?’

‘Though they can be foolish, they wouldn’t be that brainless. We can only pray this specialist truly solves the problem.’

The squad members looked at each other, then complied with their superior’s order, remaining in place to monitor Princess.

In truth, that specialist might have performed even better than they could have imagined… or so they hoped.

Switching his vision to thermal imaging, Tianxing found the world, hazy with smoke and dust, suddenly became much clearer.

He gazed into the distance. In his sight, a young girl lay unconscious.

‘To think the recovery mission would go so smoothly. Ultimately, those two experimental bases were just too incompetent. I’ll need to properly train the guards when I get back.’

Having made up his mind, Tianxing approached the girl’s location. To his perception, she appeared to be knocked out, showing no signs of movement even now. However, he considered the possibility that she might be deliberately luring him closer…

Click, bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Powerful bullets shattered the girl’s limbs. Tianxing, using a shotgun from his invisible, accompanying arsenal, crushed any possibility of her retaliating.

“Hmph, unexpectedly simple.”

Muttering this, Tianxing stepped closer to the girl. Although something felt amiss, how could someone with severed limbs possibly contend with him? Even a Spirit, unless they possessed the ability to instantly heal wounds, would be helpless. And even if Dancer truly had such an ability, Tianxing could pump her with several more shots before she fully recovered.

Crouching down, Tianxing grasped the figure, intending to retrieve it and leave. Yet the instant his hand made contact, the sensation revealed precisely what was wrong.

It wasn’t the soft, yielding feel of human skin he had expected; the object in his hand was incredibly hard.

Deactivating his thermal vision, Tianxing saw the true form of the object he held.

It was an entirely green, humanoid figure, almost identical to Dancer, lying there dressed in her clothes.

‘Damn it!’

Almost simultaneously, a powerful warning surged within him. The young man swiftly turned, crossing his arms to block a whip-kick so forceful it made him question if he was fighting a mechanical magician.

Tianxing inwardly cursed his own foolishness. In his haste to confirm if the enemy was still there, he had switched to thermal vision, forgetting that it would strip him of the ability to discern colors.

And it was precisely this opportunity that Yisha had seized to escape his sight and launch her counterattack.

‘How did she manage to create a decoy and evade thermal detection in such a short amount of time?’

Questions flooded his mind like a surging river, but he had no time to ponder them, for Dancer’s attack was already upon him.

The dust parted as Tianxing met the incoming object with a palm strike, only to be sent flying higher and farther than before.

‘What was that thing?’

In his magician-enhanced state, Tianxing’s physical capabilities were more than twice that of an AST member. Coupled with his unique methods of exerting force and breathing techniques, he possessed four times the strength of a superhuman. Yet, he had been sent flying?

“Boom!”

An explosion erupted as Yisha burst through the dust, appearing before him. The object in her hands swept violently towards him.

At that moment, Tianxing finally recognized the assailant’s weapon: a two-meter-long, thirty-centimeter-wide black metal cannon!

Unable to fully defend, the massive cannon slammed into Tianxing’s chest, swatting him from the air to the ground like a fly.

Tianxing, still reeling from the impact, had barely recovered when a second explosion rang out, and Yisha’s figure rapidly expanded in his vision.

“!”

Using small thrusters concealed beneath her armor, Yisha descended with the giant cannon onto the exact spot he had just occupied. A massive crater, reminiscent of a Spatial Quake, appeared on the ground—though unlike a Spatial Quake, this was achieved purely through kinetic energy.

‘What kind of fighting style is this? Using a cannon for close combat!’

Tianxing was momentarily stunned. He quickly adjusted his body, preparing for the enemy’s next assault, but then he heard a roar significantly softer than the previous ones.

Immediately, a violent explosion erupted directly on his defensive Territory field. Shockwaves, blast winds, and intense heat savagely assaulted his body.

Tianxing had no choice but to pour more magical energy into his defensive Territory, using his memory to evade the enemy’s position and potential attack vectors as he fled the center of the explosion.

“Hello there.”

As the explosion’s power began to wane, Tianxing’s ears caught a voice carried on the air. He sharply turned his gaze towards the direction from which a whistling sound now came.

A dark silhouette rapidly grew larger, its form reflecting in Tianxing’s eyes: a shape identical to a standard military tank shell, and nearly the same size.

Boom!!!

The explosion once again engulfed everything. Tianxing’s body was sent flying by the impact, and in the direction he was propelled, a graceful figure already waited.

Forcing down the pain in her chest, Yisha inhaled a vast amount of air. Power surged through her entire body, and she swung the ‘Annihilation’ in a wide arc, smashing it into Tianxing’s form.

As she swung ‘Annihilation’, she continuously pulled the trigger, accelerating the cannon’s kinetic energy.

“Crack!”

A crisp sound echoed, and then the enforcer, who had so arrogantly tormented Yisha moments before, dropped to the ground like a broken sack.

Yisha once again aimed the cannon at him, pulling the trigger. The recoil from the exploding shell propelled both her and ‘Annihilation’ into Tianxing’s body. This time, Tianxing had no chance to evade.

Countless plumes of dust erupted from the impact, then settled. Tianxing lost consciousness, falling into a coma.

Without giving him any opportunity, Yisha used ‘Annihilation’s’ smaller explosive rounds to shatter Tianxing’s limbs.

Having accomplished this, the myriad injuries her body had been suppressing instantly flared up.

Kanzaki Tianxing’s previous attacks and torment had not been in vain; with each strike, magical energy had seeped into Yisha’s body through his hands and knees. It was only by forcefully suppressing them with her Spirit power that Yisha had managed to maintain her combat ability for so long.

Now, the suppression failed.

Yisha could no longer feel the pain. The only sensations she registered were coldness and darkness.

She took deep, gasping breaths, but why was she breathing? Yisha was confused. She no longer felt anything, so why still breathe?

Her entire body felt numb. She could see things before her, but all she could perceive was the act of “seeing” itself.

“Cough, cough cough! Cough cough cough cough!!!”

Her body instinctively coughed, expelling clumps of blood from her mouth. Coldness invaded her, numbness plundered her, and darkness called to her.

She bit down hard on her tongue, but felt nothing. She could no longer feel.

Cold. She felt cold, the same cold as in the past.

She knew this was only temporary. She wasn’t a fragile Spirit; a damaged heart, excessive blood loss, a disintegrating body—these were minor issues before that Angel.

But when she called for the Angel, she received no response. The world was slowly darkening.

‘What’s happening? Why can’t I use it?’

In her dimming vision, a glimmer of light gradually grew larger. Yisha was slightly surprised; her brain, somewhat frozen, couldn’t identify who it was.

However, her instincts told her it was someone she could trust.

Darkness swallowed her whole, and at that very moment, the light arrived by her side.

“Sister, Sister!”

Hanging up the phone with her sister, Yina sighed softly as she gazed at the scorched forest, ravaged by ‘Annihilation’s’ blast. In her mind, she called out their names.

“Zadkiel (Source of Life), Michael (Lord of All Things).”

The liquid moon-ring once again manifested behind her head, then shifted its form according to her will, transforming into a long blade.

Clutchching it, Yina’s senses were flooded with unfamiliar perceptions. The objects in her vision glowed with varying intensities of light, and her ears were assailed by a cacophony of sounds: admiration, pain, fear, and, of course, gratitude.

Though she felt a twinge of apology for some of the suffering beings, Yina did not dwell on them excessively; that was a matter for later.

‘Strange, it’s gone, even its aura…’

She had come here at Yisha’s instruction, and the purpose was self-evident.

Yina moved back and forth under the Angel’s cover, practically turning the place upside down, but ultimately found nothing.

A headache began to throb. She had witnessed the power of that cannon blast firsthand. Although they had clashed long ago and she had managed to scare the opponent away by bluffing, it seemed her sister hadn’t used her full strength back then; taking a direct hit had left no trace.

‘What exactly are we fighting against?’

Thinking this, Yina rubbed her temples.

Before she could search again, a sudden unease gripped her heart.

She looked towards where her sister should have been, and almost instantly, her unease materialized into reality.

Boom!!!

Her excellent vision allowed her to clearly see an object piercing through the distant city. She involuntarily held her breath.

‘Sister is angry?’

Yina felt something was wrong. Immediately after, the long blade transformed from the Angel in her hand vanished.

‘Damn it!’

If it were merely the city being pierced, Yina would have considered it normal; after all, they could cause such destruction whenever they wished. The crucial point was why her sister needed to create such a massive commotion to deal with whomever she was fighting.

But now even the Angel had vanished. This could only mean one thing: Yisha’s situation was life-threatening, requiring Zadkiel (Source of Life) to heal her body and ensure her ability to fight!

Understanding everything, Yina swiftly focused all her energy on Michael (Lord of All Things), using the Angel’s power to rush to Yisha’s side.

‘Please, I have to make it in time!’

The young girl soared through the sky, making this fervent wish.

“Sister, Sister!”

Yina cradled the young girl in her arms, attempting to rouse her, but the grayness in Yisha’s eyes told Yina that it seemed impossible.

‘Don’t shout. Hurry and save her. Let her sleep.’

A voice echoed in her mind, calming Yina’s emotions, which had been overwhelmed by Yisha’s injuries.

Touching Yisha’s wrist and confirming a pulse, Yina breathed a sigh of relief.

For Zadkiel (Source of Life) was the strongest Angel in the world, assuming categories were to be drawn.

Yina controlled the Angel, transforming it into a humanoid form resembling Yisha. It descended, slowly permeating Yisha’s body.

Information continuously flowed from the Angel into her mind. She couldn’t resolve all the problems at this moment, able only to perform simple repairs on the most critical injuries to ensure they wouldn’t endanger Yisha’s life during subsequent transport.