Chapter 1376
Chapter 1376 - 1372: Brute Force
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"Actually, I think I’ve been too excessive..." Looking back, Lu Ping’an never imagined he’d still be considered part of the so-called "benevolent’ faction.
The blooming golden blaze began setting the entire battlefield.
The fusion of contaminated flames had become the backdrop of the war, which might not be good for Chris as she also had to endure the scorching of the Holy Flame.
But for her opponent, it absolutely was bad news!
"Ah ah ah ah ah!"
The Mad Beast, having lost its reason, instinctively feared the flames at first, but the next moment, the act of "fearing evil" itself made it even angrier.
"Ah ah ah ah!"
The "Righteous Judge" swelled up again, its originally slender and even frail muscles abruptly expanded like a muscular gorilla.
But whether it was Lu or Chris, neither thought this was just a typical increase in Battle-profession power; they felt something like a volcanic eruption within those swelling muscles.
"Simple, brutal, and... powerful."
In that instance, the Giant tore through the sea of flames, and the tiny Chris stood in front of him, facing him alone as if confronting both a tidal wave and a volcanic eruption.
Chris took a step back, and most incredibly, the massive monster’s shoulder to arm exploded.
Her small body, utterly unreachable in terms of physical strength, gained the upper hand in that moment of collision.
"How did she do that?"
Lu Ping’an was a bit stunned; it was probably the first time he saw Chris really getting serious.
He could only rely on his eyes to see that in that moment, Chris’s body had managed at least ten movements per second, joints such as ankles, arms, and elbows, crazily coordinating.
"The brain says it understands, the body says what do you understand, the brain says... I probably can’t learn or understand now."
As Lu quickly retreated, he still found time to jest with some hellish humor.
He began to understand why even though the range was limited, Big Cat made him retreat right from the start...
"Have I become a burden?"
Both sides were joyously and fiercely bashing each other, and their clash point was right on the midline between Lu Ping’an and his opponent.
If Chris had stepped back, Lu might have already been ground to dust.
The summoned blaze continued to spread, with the Holy Flame always posing a threat to close-combat professionals...from the current situation, it indeed could damage the opponent’s body surface and continue to wear them down.
Lu Ping’an didn’t stop fighting; he saw that amidst the ongoing collisions, Chris’s body, which seemed to have the upper hand and initiative, started to show evident fractures.
This was a more brutal internal injury than spitting blood, indicating that even though Chris had deflected the force with her full might, the accumulated injuries scattered throughout her body still caused the entire system to collapse.
"Invest..."
Lu Ping’an fell silent for a moment, only then realizing that his omnipotent "Life investment" might not be usable on Chris, seen as part of his own body.
Once again, the fully berserked Demon Sniper Zhu Dakai was sent flying, his body full of numerous wounds and collapses.
But before he even hit the ground, the Berserker combined with the Beastification Man’s outrageous self-healing ability had almost completely restored him.
And just at that look, Lu Ping’an was slightly surprised.
He saw Chris’s "Cat form" again. The white cat ears instinctively twitched, and the small claws emitted a golden sheen.
Clearly, facing the opponent’s Beastification and tempering level physical force advantage, even Chris, who could coordinate her body to its limit, had to choose Beastification to close the gap between them.
"Has it become a cat-and-dog fight?"
Demon Sniper Zhu Dakai had fully beastified, and his two heads left a deep impression on Lu.
One wolf head, like rabies, foaming at the mouth, its blood-red eyes still bore the mark of the God of Justice, but it was fading.
The other dog head, however, was staring firmly...
"Staring at me, you know I’m the main body?"
Lu touched his chin but didn’t leave again.
Operating the "puppet" had limited range, and to have Chris’s body perform optimally, the current distance was already at its limit.
Facing the two-headed Hellhound, Meow didn’t turn around, only her snow-white ear tips turned slightly red.
"Pfft, she’s still shy."
"Lu Ping’an!"
If it weren’t for the huge pressure the opponent was putting on her, she would definitely turn around and smash Lu Ping’an’s head.
"Can we win?"
"It’s tough, the gap in strength is too vast, and that’s while most of their power still can’t be unleashed."
"Figures..."
The two of them appeared quite relaxed, yet the pressure was indeed not low.
In a way, they had encountered the worst kind of opponent, a leviathan whose brute force could shatter any strategy.
The enormous buffs brought about by his Mythical Beastmen bloodline, coupled with a high-level Berserker’s melee and the enhancements from his basic panel, made him an outrageously savage war barbarian even though his main profession of "Justice" wasn’t fully activated.
Even though Chris had already bridged the gap between them using her ninth-order Quasi-God Fighter skills, and even though she managed to equalize their injuries and cause her opponent’s wounds to burst open instantaneously, she still had her limits.
"Is the gap over a hundredfold?"
"Possibly."
Chris sighed. She stared silently at the monster before her, feeling for the first time the frustration of being completely overwhelmed by an opponent’s panel.
At the Upper Gold level of the panel, the gap between each tier could be tenfold or even a hundredfold... At least now, even when Chris had transformed into a beast, she still felt the crashing difference between a "little finger" and a "big truck."
She could dance on a silk thread, but no one could predict how long she could hold out. The opponent’s nearly despair-inducing self-healing ability was the direst reality she faced.
"Can we win?"
"We could, but no."
That simple phrase locked in their strategic decision.
Keep fighting, bring out all the cards, they might not lose... But here in the Snow Mountains, the current opponent, Zhu Dakai, utilizing the "Judge’s" powers to catch up quickly, wasn’t likely the strongest nor the only one above the eighth tier.
If it were just a battle or a duel, they could give it their all, but if it were a war, squandering all their resources right at the start would be akin to a death warrant.
"Let’s retreat."
"Let’s avoid this for now."
When both agreed, Chris was the first to act.
Transformed into a cat, she accelerated in an instant, vanishing into thin air, then exploding in a burst of golden light as she struck from the enemy’s blind spot.
The fighting style of a Fighter combined with Beast Tamer was simple and brutal—stacking "Traits" was the norm. Even now, with not many cards left in her hands, Chris was confident she could maximize what she had.
On her blades were various "toxins" and "Curses"; even if she couldn’t kill the opponent, she could severely slow his regeneration and mobility.
Meanwhile, Lu Ping’an also set forth more blooms on the battlefield.
He knew that in the face of such a desperate eighth-tier Hunter, Chris alone was not sufficient; he must share the burden.
Lu Ping’an chose not to engage closely, just as the earnest Chris could effortlessly kill him, Zhu Dakai at the same level likely possessed the capability to annihilate him with close combat skills.
One Bloodvine after another was flung out, these newly created Biological Weapons pulsed and went berserk right from their release.
The extreme natural environment twisted the battlefield further,
Lu Ping’an’s strategy was apt; in a high-level battlefield like Chris’, what he could contribute was limited, but merely by evening out the harsh environments detrimental to both sides, Chris could use her experience to gain some advantage... Even just being familiar with the attacking styles and trajectories in harsh environments was enough to grant her an edge in such battles.
"Lu Ping’an!"
But Chris’s anxious call was too late.
Like many who had underestimated Lu Ping’an’s limits, he had also underestimated what a desperate eighth-tier could achieve.
The blood-crazed Bloodvine and Holy Flame were all breached by the Two-headed Wolf.
When Chris switched from defense to offense, she also cleared the barrier in front of Lu Ping’an... In just a blink, the beast was already standing before the boy.
Retreat, summon barriers, fire off attacks; Lu Ping’an responded perfectly.
But... It was meaningless!
Wolf merely swung his claws lightly, a simple move of "Flat A."
The boy, had lost his upper body!
All defense was futile, pure "Power" shattered everything, and Lu’s upper body was completely turned into fragments. The last scene he recalled from his memory, was the anxious face of a "cat."
"Lu Ping’an!"
In Chris’s eyes, one saw torn flesh, and on the other side, there was Lu Ping’an, who had been intact just a moment before.
She blinked, and the "image" was replicated, covered over.
The Lu Ping’an from a second ago, reappeared in the same spot!
"Moon Factor" had accomplished its first rescue, and Lu had fired off his first Revival Armor.
— End of Chapter 1376 —