How indeed.
Bubai was sure plenty of people were curious.
But will he be some 2D villain who will explain how everything worked to others? Out loud? Haha...
Bubai can't help but smirk and tapped his temple. "Want to know?"
The supporting role stared back with the pathetic hope of someone who thought he just succeeded at buying some time.
But his hopes got dashed by a teasing sneer. "Heh. I just won't tell you."
"You—!"
That distorted face that looked like he just ate a fly… man, that look made Bubai quite happy.
Dear Merlin, he really didn't expect it to be so fun to irritate his enemy like this.
Alas, his little mystery was only enough to tease this noob, but not the old monsters above nor the peeps beyond the fourth wall.
Since the divine sense of those old fogeys were sweeping every inch like invisible floodlights, he's pretty sure none of his actions went unobserved.
As for those peeps beyond the fourth wall? Were they left in the dark?
Well, here's the thing.
Based on his experiencing from reading novels, Bubai knew...
If his life was a story, then his every thought will probably get scribbled out on paper just because some unscrupulous author wants to pad the word count.
Heck, those shameless authors might even crack open every underlying secret of his magic escape plan.
A true magician never reveals his tricks, but to satisfy the reader's curiosity, an author has no qualms breaking such a rule!
Then, they'll come up with a bunch of BS plot armor to explain how everything worked out using half-baked logic.
But this was reality and Bubai knew there was no such plot armor involved here!
It all boiled down to what he'd been saying all along: the wall is his best friend. Ahem. Not the fourth wall, but the arena wall.
In elite battles like this, positioning is important. Bubai has always kept that in mind.
That's why, even whilst knowing his Cloud Ascending Steps was strong enough to help him stick to the arena floor…
He chose to humbly take a detour around instead of bulldozing straight through the tornado like some hot-blooded tank.
This detour achieved the purpose of keeping him closer to the wall.
Not only that, by a stroke of luck, that saved him from getting turned into a human torch by the tornado's abrupt transformation into an infernado!
Then… once the man avoiding nature game started, everything was straightforward.
No matter how many turns he made, he still ran for the wall.
Even when turtled up, that didn't change. He did his best to scoot towards the closest wall till the bitter end.
Once he made it to the wall, just toss aside the melting shell, set up a cape of water as defense, then spidey-climb to safety.
Simple as that!
...Okay, fine. It sounded simple, but in truth, there were a few other key factors that he can't do without.
Physical speed and brute power aside, what played a big part in his success was, naturally, his ability to stick to the ground without getting sucked away by the tornado.
Cloud Ascending Steps. Truly an ace in the hole!
He had one person to thank for this awesome housekeeping skill. His Xiao Lan Sensei. The real MVP!
Man oh man, he'll make sure to reward her lots once he gets back. Ahem.
Of course, that was only a part of it.
Another big-time unsung hero to this success was… the water.
That's right! It was the generous sponsorship his high-grade storage pouch swallowed up during the last round!
How did that help? Well...
When Bubai first saw those black flames get blown away by the wind from the fan, an idea flashed through his mind.
Since the wind can push them away, what about running water?
Even if those black flames were the legendary Amaterasu that can't get extinguished by water…
If there's enough water, there should be no problem in temporarily deflecting or repelling those flames, right?
That's where he took the gamble.
Then lo and behold, it worked!
Thanks to the running water washing outwards, a path got opened in the field blanketed by flames, buying him the precious buffer time he needed to scurry over to the wall!
Sure, most of the water got turned into steam, but since he had a whole small lake at his disposal… no problemo!
Totally reasonable. Not half-baked logic at all! Ahem.
Then the rest was just a matter of racing against time.
The result?
Lady Luck smiled. Before the melting umbrella caved in, he reached safety.
But oh—it gets even better!
The vaporized steam should've been a debuff to his vision, but this time, it actually gave him a cover to run all the way around for an ambush!
Honestly, Bubai never imagined he could really sneak up so close.
At that time, he really thought he could punt this Amaterasu-ripoff boy straight into the sea of black flames!
That would've taught him that a good lesson about playing with fire!
Pity… he was still a step too late.
Even if it was just an early-stage, foundation builders weren't so easy to kill.
They might be running on dry fumes in one moment, but the next, they've recovered enough to go a couple more rounds.
Unlucky for him, this vigilant boy just happened to recover enough to throw out a spiritual sense at the last moment and detected him…
That gave him enough time to react and offload a great part of the power from his kick.
Then the battle for the fan was uncomfortably close but earned him nothing in the end.
Alas...
Still, it wasn't all for naught.
Just from the fact that this fan boy's spiritual sense was down for the most part told him a lot.
Poor boy must be running so low that even using his radar became a luxury.
Hardly surprising though.
After all, to pull off that ultimate infernado move, he popped a forbidden pill that shaved off a decade of his lifespan.
The side effects were strong, and so were the aftereffects...
It's quite shocking that this man could still stand and fight back despite his weakened status!
Bubai gotta admit: this Ge Tianqi didn't shame his title as a genius.
Too bad. Genius or not, that won't save him from what's to come.
A train of thoughts ran through Bubai's mind, but in reality? Only mere seconds passed.
That didn't give the poor fan boy much chance to recover.
Staring at that fan boy panting like a dog in heat, Bubai grinned. "Running out of gas already? Then, it's… my turn—!" SHUA!
A blink later, Bubai already flashed over with his claw reaching for Ge Tianqi's face!
But instead of evading, Ge Tianqi's face turned ruthless and his mouth snapped open, firing out an arrow shaped from flames that shot straight at Bubai's eyes!
Those ruthless eyes of his were practically roaring: "Even if I go down, I'll take an eye with me!"
Naturally, a simple lift of Bubai's arm was enough to shield his eye from that arrow and such a counterattack hardly affected the claw reaching for the man's face!
But before that any attack even struck, true Qi gathered in Ge Tianqi's fist and an uppercut came straight for Bubai's little brother!
Naniii?! A dirty lowblow?! How sinister! How ruthless!
Bloody Merlin! This dog was basically trading his life to bite a piece off him! Crazy!
Follow through with his attack to win and either sacrifice his eye or his family jewels?
Was Bubai willing to take this gamble?
Nope, nope, nope! No way. How can he be willing?!
Note that he's already riding the high tide of victory. All bets were in his favor. He can take it slowly and still win. Why risk it?
Besides, this gamble's definitely not worth the risk!
Sure, it didn't matter if he traded injuries because he can probably regenerate any damage he suffered later, but… why take the blow in the first place?
He wanted a beautiful win.
If he ended up with some crippling injury again… then the cycle of challenges won't end until everybody learns what color his underwear was!
That'll really suck. After all, most of those hyenas had nothing valuable to bring on stage except their lives.
Considering all this and the warning from his Bubai tingle, Bubai felt helpless inside. Guard!
The claw, that was about to grab the other's face, changed into talons that dived down to intercept the incoming lowblow—SLAP!
Qi exploded on contact!
Above, the flame arrow struck his other arm, barely tickling him with a light burn before sizzling out.
But right at this moment when both his hands were occupied, Ge Tianqi still had a fan free!
And Bubai already sensed the sharpness coming from that fan piercing toward his heart like a sword!
It's too late to block!
But the early warning already got Bubai's leg moving and his leg snapped up to boot the other right in the guts—bam!
That kick opened a gap between the both of them, and that fan skewered nothing but empty air.
In that exchange, there seemed to be no clear win, no clear loss.
But that breath of space was all that Ge Tianqi needed. His hands immediately flashed through a series of seals...
Just when Bubai flashed over again for melee combat, the ruthless dog just within his grasp suddenly blurred like a mirage...
A shimmer later—Bubai's claws closed around nothing but empty air.
Huh?! Bubai looked around and frowned. His prey… was gone?!