In the Church District of North Tivian, above the hazy sky, an intense battle was still ongoing. In the previous fight, the Sky-Splitting Soldier Harold had always held the upper hand, using his aerial and ranged advantages to suppress the Fearful Demonic Wolf Duval on the ground. This caused Duval considerable damage, with many pieces of his flesh being scraped away by strong winds, consuming a significant amount of his Spirituality. However, since Duval had come to Tivian to cause trouble, he wouldn't be unprepared for an encounter with a Scarlet Wind Art User. In a wave of sneak attacks utilizing his splitting ability, he successfully affected Harold.
Facing the two split Demonic Wolves currently falling, Harold, suspended mid-air with a grim expression, first quickly applied a talisman to himself. He then consecutively shot out two wind blades, directly hitting each of them. Under the cutting of the wind blades, the two Demonic Wolves were sliced into two more sections each, becoming four pieces. However, this didn't matter to Duval. After gaining the splitting ability mutated from a Vampire, this kind of cutting would only cause him to split into more individuals.
"Cutting, for me..."
"...is useless."
"This is a tactic specifically for you Sky-Splitting Soldiers..."
"...that I prepared!"
During the descent, Duval's four pieces of flesh were rapidly twisting and mutating into four new Demonic Wolves. The original two wolf heads and the two newly grown wolf heads simultaneously spoke different parts of the same sentence, directly and bluntly mocking Harold.
Among the attack methods of the Storm Path, high-speed cutting wind blades are its most famous characteristic. Therefore, Duval specifically chose Vampire canned meat as a tactical reserve for this operation, precisely to counter the opponent's cutting ability. And now, it seemed the effect was excellent.
Watching the originally enormous Demonic Wolf split into four parts, and his cutting offensive almost completely neutralized, Harold's eyes showed no sign of disappointment. His attention was still focused on the small Demonic Wolves after the split. Seeing the moment they were about to fully land, he raised his hand from below upwards.
"Rise..."
Instantly, a powerful updraft suddenly rose in front of him. The fierce wind blowing from bottom to top firmly lifted the two Demonic Wolves into the air, preventing them from landing. Suspended without any point of support, they could only flail and struggle wildly. Bound in mid-air and unable to land, a look of astonishment appeared on the faces of all four Demonic Wolves.
"What..."
Updraft Prison. This was a binding move used by Sky-Splitting Soldiers, creating a powerful rising wind field to blow enemies up and trap them in the air. It was especially effective against enemies without flight capabilities. The reason Harold hadn't used this move to trap Duval before was because he was too heavy. A Fearful Demonic Wolf, standing over ten meters tall, weighed approximately twenty to thirty tons. Without prior preparation to accumulate strength, Harold couldn't create a wind field capable of lifting an object weighing twenty to thirty tons.
But the situation was different now. Duval had split himself into four parts. The four small Demonic Wolves after the split, whether in size or weight, were only about a quarter of the original, reaching a point where they could be lifted by the wind field.
Therefore, seeing the four small Demonic Wolves who were temporarily unable to dodge during their descent, Harold did not hesitate at all and instantly raised a wind field beneath them. Within a specific area, a strong upward hurricane rose, blowing them into suspension, ensuring they could never land.
Heavy ground combat units like the Fearful Demonic Wolf, which lack flight capabilities, are basically in a state of helplessness once airborne. Unable to exert force, they can only struggle wildly and claw in all directions, but to no avail.
Seeing the four small Demonic Wolves successfully controlled, Harold finally let out a sigh of relief. Then, without hesitation, he began his offensive. With a wave of his Stone Sword, countless incredibly tiny and slender wind blades were released, slashing densely towards the Demonic Wolves.
These wind blades were only a few to about ten centimeters wide, extremely tiny compared to the large wind blades over ten or twenty meters long that Harold had used before. While incredibly small, the sharpness of these wind blades was not significantly reduced; they could still cut through a Werewolf's skin, but they would quickly dissipate after embedding in the flesh.
Compared to large wind blades, these small ones were extremely numerous. Harold could release hundreds with a single swing of his sword. These incredibly tiny wind blades shot through the space at high speed, slashing towards the four Demonic Wolves bound by the wind field like a tide, hitting their bodies like raindrops and bursting into countless mist-like blood spatters.
In an instant, countless tiny wounds were cut into the bodies of the four small Demonic Wolves. Blood sprayed outwards like mist. Such a high density of small wounds left the four Demonic Wolves with hardly an inch of intact skin all over their bodies. Each wolf was enduring the ultimate torture of slow slicing, struggling desperately amidst continuous painful howls. However, due to the Updraft Prison, they could not escape their current state of cruel execution in the slightest.
Harold continuously wielded his Stone Sword, creating hundreds and thousands of dense small wind blades that scraped against the bodies of the four Demonic Wolves, scraping off their skin and flesh in the form of the tiniest blood foam. This kind of body residue, fine to the point of blood foam, could not be used by Duval to generate new clones, because it was simply too fine and too small.
Just like this, in this seemingly endless slow slicing by wind blades, the four Demonic Wolves, while continuously howling and struggling in pain, completely turned into four blood wolves. Their fur had been entirely scraped off, and the exposed muscles were also being rapidly eroded by the small wind blades. The flesh in some areas had even been scraped clean down to the bone. If this situation were to continue, Duval would foreseeably be completely scraped away until not a single bit remained, directly stripped of all flesh and slow-sliced to death.
However, at this very moment, an unexpected change occurred. Harold, whose complexion was already poor, suddenly looked even worse during the continuous slow slicing of Duval. His brows were tightly furrowed as if he couldn't bear something. The hand wielding his weapon temporarily stopped attacking. Trembling, he clutched his abdomen and vomited disgustingly. His entire body, flying in the air, suddenly became shaky.
This... was a sign that the illness Harold had been suppressing within him had finally worsened further. Not long before, when Duval last displayed his splitting ability, he successfully got close to Harold with a jumping clone. Although Harold, with superhuman acuity, managed to evade it through elementalization, when the direct attack missed, Duval's clone immediately spat out a mouthful of plague miasma. A part of this miasma was conveniently swept away by the elementalized Harold.
The airflow into which Harold's body had transformed was mixed with the pathogenic miasma. The direct result was equivalent to Harold himself inhaling this miasma. The miasma quickly affected Harold's body. After noticing that something was significantly wrong with his body, Harold immediately slapped a talisman onto himself to enhance his physique and suppress the illness. He then focused his energy on dealing with the enemy before him, wanting to resolve Duval before the illness fully flared up.
However, the vitality of the Fearful Demonic Wolf still exceeded his expectations. After being subjected to high-intensity slow slicing for many minutes, with even bones being scraped out, the Fearful Demonic Wolf was not only still alive but also maintained a certain degree of mobility. Harold originally intended to persevere and scrape Duval's flesh clean, but the illness within him had already worsened to an uncontrollable degree. Harold was not an Extraordinary involved with the """Cup""". Even with the aid of talismans, his body couldn't hold out much longer.
Harold's worsening illness directly affected the release of his abilities. Not only was he unable to release the continuous lingering wind blades, but the wind cage trapping Duval also began to waver. The output of the rising wind field began to weaken significantly, and the four blood wolves, whose bones were scraped bare, fell directly from mid-air, hitting the ground heavily and kicking up a cloud of dust.
Struggling, the blood wolves, whose bodies were scraped bare of good skin, struggled to get up. At this moment, they were so weak that they couldn't even stand steadily. Due to the large amount of flesh and blood peeled off, the Spirituality of each blood wolf was greatly reduced, and for the "Cup" Extraordinary, the less Spirituality they had, the slower their wound recovery rate would be. If they remained in a split state now, it would be too dangerous, so their top priority was to reintegrate and unify.
Dragging bloody trails, the four weak blood wolves, without fur, covered in wounds, and with some bones exposed, weakly crawled together. Then they huddled together, and their incomplete flesh and blood began to rapidly merge. The four damaged bodies quickly stuck together, and finally recombined into a tall wolf shape, and began to regrow black fur.
Finally, Duval returned to his original two-headed demonic wolf form. Due to being severely damaged by the lingering wind blades just now, his body size had shrunk, and he was now only about seven or eight meters tall.
The newly integrated demonic wolf panted heavily, looking with resentment at the figure in the sky who was swaying and being tormented by illness to the point of losing consciousness. He leisurely picked up a large handful of stones from the ground and threw them straight into the sky. At this time, Duval, still in shock, was somewhat afraid to jump high and play air combat in front of Harold. He had never felt so close to the ground beneath his feet.
Immediately, countless high-speed flying stones struck Harold. Harold, who had almost lost his ability to react, barely dodged, but was eventually hit by a stone and fell from the sky, landing in another part of the Church District, disappearing from Duval's sight.
"Now... it's time to damn retreat..."
"No! That guy must die! Must swallow him!"
At this time, Duval's more sensible choice would be to take the opportunity to leave the scene as soon as possible and continue to retreat, but because of the extremely cruel torment he had suffered before, the wildness in Duval's heart, which yearned for revenge and consumption, had already burned to a point where it was difficult to suppress.
Duval craved consumption, to consume the enemy who had just tormented him so much. Even though this was unnecessary for his current mission, Duval had reason, but this reason could no longer restrain the boiling beast blood that craved revenge. He had been tormented too badly by Harold just now.
"Eat him! Blood for blood!"
Finally, Duval began to act again. He sniffed Harold's scent and rushed forward. At this moment, Harold was so weak that he couldn't even hide his scent. What he was about to do after arriving was just a one-sided feast.
Following the scent, Duval advanced all the way, crashing through walls and charging straight ahead. After directly and violently breaking through another wall, he entered a tall chapel. Here, the external sunlight shone through the colorful glass into the spacious chapel. The altars of the Three Saints and the Radiant Savior were bathed in sacred colors under the various lights. The dome of the chapel was painted with large religious paintings, and many places were decorated with exquisite decorations.
Duval, who had broken into the chapel, could smell that Harold's scent was ahead. He only needed to break through one or two more walls to find Harold.
However, at this moment, another scent in the chapel attracted Duval's attention. He turned his head following the scent, and then in front of the Light altar, he saw a white figure. The nun with platinum-blonde hair was wearing a white nun's habit, her hands placed in front of her, quietly looking at the huge demonic wolf that had broken in, her eyes full of peace.
"Greedy evil... kneel before the Lord, hand over what is not yours, and accept the punishment you deserve..."
Looking at the huge demonic wolf in front of her, Vanya spoke calmly in a tone of admonition, and her seemingly condescending tone seemed to anger the demonic wolf. The head on his right side couldn't help but suddenly open its mouth and roar.
"Where did this nun come from? Go to hell!"
Saying that, the furious demonic wolf went on all fours and rapidly pounced towards the nun in front. Facing the demonic wolf's actions, Vanya had already foreseen it with her mind's eye. She lightly dodged, avoiding the demonic wolf's furious pounce. The demonic wolf's violent attack completely destroyed the altar behind Vanya.
"Roar!!"
Roaring a fearful howl, the demonic wolf bared his fangs and claws and attacked Vanya again. Just then, a black swift Shadow fell from the ceiling, swiftly sweeping across the demonic wolf's body. Then, the tendons in the key parts of the demonic wolf's legs instantly broke, spraying a burst of blood. The demonic wolf, having lost the strength in his legs, suddenly lost his balance and fell, hitting the ground heavily. After the swift Shadow stopped in the distance, the figure of the AnecdotalNightmare appeared.
After the demonic wolf fell, Vanya retreated several steps to distance herself from the demonic wolf. Then she assumed a stance, extended one hand upwards, and devoutly chanted.
"Lord... grant me Light!!"
Suddenly, a dazzling light burst out from Vanya's hand, and quickly extended, instantly expanding into a light spear five or six meters long, radiating light as dazzling as the sun! Using the massive amount of faith and rich Spirituality collected in the St. Yong Cathedral, Vanya used the sunlight spear and increased its power to the limit she could reach at her current level, creating this extra-long, large light spear.
"Die!!"
After his legs rapidly healed, the demonic wolf roared and attacked again. Facing the obviously abnormal Vanya, his boiling fury made his attack continue to be unstoppable. He first sprayed a burst of miasma towards Vanya, and then pounced on her.
Facing the approaching miasma, Vanya closed her eyes and held her breath, then applied the Holy Healing power, enhanced by the St. Yong Cathedral, to herself, directly confronting the disease brought by the miasma.
Facing the huge demonic wolf that had pounced in front of her, Vanya saw through his appearance and movements with her mind's eye. At such a close distance, she did not throw the sunlight spear in her hand as she usually did, but instead swung it directly as a melee weapon, dual-wielding it and slashing at the demonic wolf.
When the more than five-meter-long light spear was first swung in Vanya's hand, it cut onto the demonic wolf's hands, and then severed the demonic wolf's claws by vaporizing the flesh and blood of the hit area. The demonic wolf, in painful howls, pressed his body down and bit at Vanya. Vanya met the attack, swinging the sunlight spear and vaporizing more than half of the demonic wolf's two heads in one go. The Remains of the demonic wolf, having lost his eyes and brain, struggled and thrashed desperately. After avoiding the exposed impact, Vanya seized the opportunity and pierced the demonic wolf's chest with a spear, piercing and vaporizing his heart. Then she stirred the light spear and slashed across a large area of the demonic wolf's body, vaporizing more parts.
At this point, the exhausted demonic wolf, in his fury, finally gradually stopped breathing.
"Witness... this Dragon hunting technique..."