Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 164 - 156 VS Great Success Rank 4

Chapter 164: 156 VS Great Success Rank 4

Seeing the opponent charge in a straight line wearing "Portal Armor," I first unleashed a vast wave of flames at him.

We were both high in the sky, and he was below me; the massive wave of flame resembled a torrential downpour intended to overwhelm a mosquito flying upwards. Yet, the reality was contrary to the scene observed. The black "mosquito" was not only unaffected by the fiery red "water," but it charged up as if in an invulnerable state.

Sure enough, this level of attack was ineffective against him now.

If I wasn’t mistaken, his ability to manipulate shadows was of the same nature as the Shadow Manipulation used by the weirdos I had encountered in the past.

At the beginning of the fight, his ability to suddenly disappear must have been Shadow Transfer. He likely dove at high speed into the shadow below him and then leaped out from the shadow behind me.

Does that mean he is actually one of those weirdos? But I have never heard of a weirdo reaching the Great Success Rank. Anyway, the possibility that he is Water Navy Xuanwu became almost zero in my mind. He wasn’t associated with the Zhu family but rather with the Human Bureau and Ying Lingyun.

So, what was his purpose in attacking the Zhu family? And now, he seemed intent on killing me. Even though I had struck him first, if his original plan did not involve me, he wouldn’t linger in this battle. Was he merely seeking revenge on me? Or, because I had killed the Weirdo Maker in the past, had I become a target of vengeance for the Human Bureau and Ying Lingyun?

I charged at him to engage in close combat and observed his Portal Armor. Such a situation was undoubtedly favorable for him, who excelled in hand-to-hand combat; he immediately threw a punch at me.

I thought he would ram me directly with his Portal Armor, sending me into the Shadow World. Maybe he saw my Flame Transmission and thought banishing me there would be futile, which was a correct judgment. Despite that, punching me might not be the right decision.

His fist hit me right in the forehead. It was a thoroughly solid contact. And since the contact was mutual, it meant he touched me as much as I touched him. The instant his fist landed, my skull exploded. This explosion was not due to damage but because I had triggered it upon being hit.

A roaring force reminiscent of dozens of large fireballs exploding hurled me far away, covering a radius of three hundred meters in flames.

Even wearing such absurd Portal Armor, aiming to inflict harm with punches required a temporary shutdown of the transmission function, presenting an ideal moment for my counterattack.

However, the scene in my perception surpassed my expectations once again.

He remained completely unharmed; all the flames vanished into the black armor without return.

Had he urgently activated the teleport function of the armor when I counterattacked? That wasn’t the case. I was certain that my retaliation and his attack happened simultaneously. In other words, he was able to strike me with punches while maintaining the armor’s teleport function, influencing me without being influenced himself.

Is such a thing possible? It’s not impossible—I could think of at least one tricky method on the spot: by attaching a force field to the exterior of the armor that could physically interact with the outside world. Unfortunately, it seemed he wasn’t resorting to tricks. I felt no mana fluctuations like those on the armor’s surface, and the pain from his punch was identical to what I felt from previous attacks. He probably achieved something that defied natural laws.

He charged at me at high speed again, and I was forced to maintain distance between us. When it came to speed, I was faster and executing Shadow Transfer was difficult at high altitudes. With my fiery state, there were no shadows on me he could exploit. I needed to figure out a counterstrategy quickly.

In the past, while perusing information on weirdos, I had never seen any of them using "Portal Armor." Although the idea of Portal Armor was quite brilliant, using Shadow Teleportation Gates as a defensive tactic was not unimaginable. The reason it wasn’t used is probably that, even for those adept at wielding Shadow Power, Shadow Teleportation Gates are a highly intricate skill that would collapse with a strong impact from an external magical force.

Moreover, if one wore the gateway on their body, not only would enemies be unable to touch the armor, but the wearer themselves would also be unable to touch it, not to mention wear it.

Yet, none of these limitations seemed to apply to this man.

I recalled a hypothesis I had seen in the demon hunter files based on an analysis from Luo Mountain—that all weirdos likely shared the same source of power, which was also where their seeds of the heart returned after escaping.

Based on this, there’s a speculation that all weirdos’ powers stem from the same person who possessed power above the Great Success Rank and was the "original body" of all weirdos.

Was this man I was fighting the so-called "original body"?

I launched another massive fireball at him—I really mustered all my strength this time. The fireball did not only have the power to destroy a street but several more, and the impact on the ground would be unimaginable. I wanted to see if such a powerful attack could forcefully dismantle the Portal Armor.

Yet, he still let the fireball land on his armor, where it disappeared without a trace, like a stone sinking into the sea.

There was no blocking or dodging, the strongest defense in the world was never any complicated technique, rather it was being in a state where enemies couldn’t strike from the very beginning. He was no longer a tangible entity, but a "hole in the world."

His Portal Armor was the ultimate guardian, and in his current state, he probably wouldn’t even get hurt if thrown into the sun.

Since there was no way to break through the armor from the outside, could I possibly try sending flames directly into his body? I tried to perceive the inside of the armor, but still couldn’t manage it. This time, it wasn’t because the mana entangled around him disrupted my focus. My Perception was not so much blocked as it was too unobstructed, passing directly through his Portal Armor and sensing the Shadow World on the other side.

"Just as I’ve heard," he suddenly spoke, "you possess great power but don’t know how to use it. Just now, had you aimed that strike at my soul, I would’ve been dead."

Heard—Who had he heard it from? Was it the supposedly still alive Ying Lingyun?

As for him talking about attacking the soul, I had already deduced that myself.

Logically, since my flames are my own Spirit, or rather derived from my soul, they should innately possess the ability to kill souls.

Actually, I wasn’t sure if my current flames really lacked this ability. Perhaps the reason the enemy was gasping for breath wasn’t entirely due to exhaustion; I might have also damaged his soul. However, one thing was certain: the primary focus of my flame’s killing power wasn’t on the soul.

This was obviously because I lacked a direct understanding of the concept of the soul.

Knowing that souls exist didn’t mean I had actual contact with one.

But now, it was different.

I had personally experienced the agony of a soul and recognized the existence of my own soul through firsthand experience. So now, if I focused on this re-recognized notion, I might be able to directly harm my opponent’s soul itself.

The premise, though, was that I first had to breakthrough his abnormal "shell."

I analyzed his words and caught a flaw in them, "Your armor indeed has its flaws. Otherwise, you would have used it right from the start instead of risking being almost burned to death by me. Does it require certain conditions or is there a price to pay?"

"You seem to think you’ve caught my weak point, which is a huge misunderstanding," he laughed dismissively. "’Shadow Entanglement’ is my basic ability, using this skill neither requires any conditions nor any price to pay."

"Now it’s too late to find a quick fix."

While replying, I also felt that he was mostly telling the truth.

Given his shrewd battle experience shown earlier, he definitely wouldn’t carelessly expose his weaknesses during combat. Though I couldn’t understand why he didn’t use the Portal Armor at the beginning, he probably could indeed use this skill at will. The most I could guess was that this skill had a sustainability issue and he couldn’t use it for an extended period.

But looking at his fighting stance, he showed no intention of rushing the battle. His offensive rhythm and intensity had also not increased compared to the beginning, suggesting a steady and methodical approach, which had nothing to do with being "unable to fight for long."

Could this really be an impeccable defense?

He stubbornly advanced towards me, while I consistently maintained a distance, observing and pondering my offensive strategy. Fighting close-quarters without finding a way to breach his defense, as Zhu Shi would say, was merely "impotent fury." Moreover, I wasn’t the type for close-range combat; he was the true expert in that area. I had no need to confine myself to within his preferred distance.

However, just because I didn’t approach him didn’t mean he had no means to close in on me. This situation, where he was kept at a distance, might be a common challenge for someone like him—a demon hunter specializing in close combat—and clearly, he had his own methods.

He suddenly raised his right hand, launching an ultra-high-speed Shadow Arrow from his palm, aiming for my head.

I instantly turned my head, dodging the arrow. At the same time, he disappeared from his spot, and the moment the arrow reached behind me, it transformed into an exceedingly flat Shadow Teleportation Gate.

His armored arm burst through that dark gate, striking toward the back of my head.

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