Faced with a powerful enemy, Qian Duoduo finally chose to fight using his own martial soul. He was willing to become Xian Lin"er"s s.h.i.+eld.
Xian Lin"er, who was in her Greenflame Dragon form, glanced at Qian Duoduo beside her. Faint light flickered in her eyes as she lowered her voice and growled, "Be careful, old Qian."
"Don"t worry." His Black Dragon s.h.i.+eld"s dragon mouth opened and closed.
The Bear Lord made his move at this moment. The thick and dense golden light on its body suddenly all concentrated toward his twin claws, and his initially dark golden claws instantly became brilliantly golden. Streaks of light that resembled waves flowed on the surface of his razor-sharp claws, eventually stopping at the edge of his claws.
"Go to h.e.l.l, the both of you!" the Bear Lord shouted ferociously as he slashed his sharp claws towards Xian Lin"er, as if he were cutting open heaven and earth.
A terrifying scene appeared. Ten razor-sharp golden blades that were at least a thousand meters long appeared on his Darkgolden Terrorclaws, and ten enormous gashes were instantly torn open in the sky as the bear"s frightening claws slashed toward Xian Lin"er.
The Bear Lord was furious, and the consequences were serious.
Xian Lin"er"s spear did injure him. Even though his wounds weren"t serious, the Bear Lord was irascible and had a terrible temper. He had dominated the Great Star Dou Forest for so many years, and it had been a long time since he was last hurt. His fight had just begun, and his opponent had already injured him! That was incredibly humiliating to him. He was one of the most arrogant kinds of soul beasts, and he didn"t give face to anyone except for Di Tian. Everyone feared him in the Great Star Dou Forest.
The Bear Lord was hurt when he had just started his fight today. It infuriated him!
The attack that he was unleas.h.i.+ng at the moment wasn"t one of his innate abilities. Instead, he had managed to grow it over time, and by relying on his formidable strength. This was similar to a human soul master"s self-invented fighting technique, yet this attack was even stronger than those self-invented fighting techniques, because the Bear Lord was raising his Darkgolden Terrorclaw"s destructive power to its strongest possible level.
The Bear Lord"s giant thousand-meter claws actually tore open the sky. Those deep and hideous gashes produced enormous vacuum forces, and Qian Duoduo and Xian Lin"er were being forcefully sucked towards them. They hurriedly channeled their soul power, and only then could they barely stabilize themselves.
The green dragon head that had condensed in front of Xian Lin"er before this flew forward uncontrollably. Xian Lin"er hadn"t expected the Bear Lord"s attack to have such effects, and she had no time to control her dragon head further. She gritted her teeth and activated all her soul power to propel that green dragon head further.
Dragon roars echoed throughout the sky as the Greenflame Dragon"s head rose through the air. Tremendous disintegrating powers tainted the sky with bluish-green hues, and everything seemed exceptionally gorgeous.
It was a pity that this gorgeousness didn"t last for very long. When those frightening thousand meter-long claws tore through the sky, the bluish-green colors were swiftly consumed by the s.p.a.ce that had been slashed open. Xian Lin"er"s green dragon head was almost instantly torn into a million pieces.
The Bear Lord had coined this attack his Skytear Claw. He had once attempted to challenge Di Tian"s authority, and had relied on this attack to severely wound Di Tian. Of course, Di Tian taught him a very, very painful lesson afterwards because of this very fact. Di Tian treasured the Bear Lord"s strength, so he didn"t kill him for this affront. Otherwise, the Bear Lord would have become Di Tian"s food a long time ago.
The Bear Lord"s Skytear Claw only paused momentarily in the air when Xian Lin"er"s Greenflame dragon head blocked it. Its intense golden light dimmed momentarily before it continued slas.h.i.+ng down towards Xian Lin"er.
Xian Lin"er growled as bluish-green light circles glowed on her Greenflame Dragon form one after another, and surged out continuously. The Bear Lord"s razor-sharp claws had arrived, and these light circles forcefully blocked those claws.
However, the light circles didn"t last for long. The Bear Lord"s Skytear Claw cut through and shattered those light circles one after another, like a hot knife cutting through b.u.t.ter, and his sharp claws were coming closer and closer to Xian Lin"er.
The green lights on Xian Lin"er"s body became stronger, and the green flames burning on her body caused the air around her to twist and contort. But even so, she still couldn"t stop those sharp claws from descending upon her.
Xian Lin"er understood in this moment that she was wrong from the start, and her choice to meet the Bear Lord"s force with force was her gravest mistake. The Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear was most adept at breaking through defenses, and his offensive capabilities were just far too strong. She didn"t stand a single chance meeting force with force, and she should have chosen hit-and-run tactics. Perhaps then she would have been able to hold the Bear Lord down for a longer time.
Unfortunately, understanding everything now was far too late. The Bear Lord"s claws tore open the sky, and those deep gashes in the sky possessed immense suction force. The reason why this attack was terrifying was because his opponent would know that the Bear Lord"s Skytear Claw possessed frightening attacking strength, but the deep gashes in the torn s.p.a.ce would pull his opponent in, so his opponent had no choice but to meet force with force.
Am I going to die just like this?
Right at this moment, Xian Lin"er suddenly felt her entire body lighten, and the pressure in front of her abruptly disappeared. She could see a huge patch of black in front of her.
An enormous black s.h.i.+eld blocked for her, and the Bear Lord"s sharp claws slashed against this s.h.i.+eld with ear-piercing slicing sounds.
Black Dragons circled around the s.h.i.+eld, and waves of dragon roars sounded like laments as nine soul rings sparkled continuously. They released soul skills one after another in an attempt to block the terrifying sharp claws, but the s.h.i.+eld itself was quivering violently. Xian Lin"er was behind this s.h.i.+eld, but she could clearly see cracks starting to appear one after another.
"No!" Xian Lin"er shouted at the top of her voice, and bolted forward in a flash so that she could continue blocking those Darkgolden Terrorclaws.
However, a ray of black light shot out from behind the s.h.i.+eld and coc.o.o.ned her. Black light burst out from the s.h.i.+eld immediately afterwards.
Vigorous booms rang out continuously as the Bear Lord"s Skytear Claw finally erupted into golden dots that dissipated into the sky, and the deep gashes in the sky closed up at the same time.
Black light descended from the sky, and plummeted to the top of Shrek City"s western wall.
Everything happened too quickly, to the point where Shrek Academy"s various powerful individuals were too late to reinforce Xian Lin"er even if they wanted to. They could only watch everything unfurl before their very eyes.
The Bear Lord"s radiance was conspicuously dimmer than before after he unleashed his Skytear Claw. His chest heaved up and down as he panted faintly. Even with his four hundred and seventy thousand years of cultivation, he still had to take a breather after using all his strength in one attack.
A green beam of light surged into the sky above Shrek City and blocked the Bear Lord. It was Elder Song, who had a furious look on her face.
Elder Song hadn"t partic.i.p.ated directly in the fighting. Instead, she had coordinated with everyone and supported them from one side so that she could respond to any emergencies or dangers that might occur on any front.
Xian Lin"er hadn"t expected the Bear Lord to use his signature move from the get-go, and Elder Song didn"t see that coming either. She was originally focused on another side of the city. From her perspective, with her daughter and her daughter"s husband teaming up against the Bear Lord, they would be able to hold him back even if they couldn"t defeat him. Who would have thought that the Bear Lord wouldn"t follow conventional behaviour and unleash his Skytear Claw at the start of the fight?
Xian Lin"er and Qian Duoduo had already clashed with the Bear Lord"s Skytear Claw by the time Elder Song realized what was going on.
Elder Song instantly transformed into a green beam and rocketed towards the Bear Lord, using her martial soul true body, her Greenshadow G.o.dly Hawk.
The truth was that Elder Song"s abilities were the best counter to the Bear Lord. She could best evade the Bear Lord"s destructiveness with her speed.
---
Back at the top of the city wall...
The black light struck the city wall and revealed its original form... Qian Duoduo.
Both he and Xian Lin"er were back in their human form at this point. Xian Lin"er was in his embrace, but Qian Duoduo"s tall and strong body was full of cuts and gashes that wove across his entire frame. Flesh and skin rolled and folded, and glaring white bones were revealed on many parts of his body, as if he were a man made of blood.
"Wah..." A mouthful of blood spurted from Qian Duoduo"s mouth onto Xian Lin"er"s body. His muscular frame swayed as he forced himself to put Xian Lin"er on the ground before he crumpled down next to her.
"Duoduo." Xian Lin"er hugged him tightly, and her eyes were filled with tears.
Of course she knew what Qian Duoduo had just done. In order to block the Bear Lord"s attack, Qian Duoduo chose to detonate his Black Dragon s.h.i.+eld. He had relied on the formidable offensive strength that a t.i.tled Douluo could produce by detonating his martial soul to dispel the Bear Lord"s frightening Skytear Claw.
However, Qian Duoduo was severely injured because of that. Was detonating one"s martial soul that easy? Martial souls were a part of any human on the Douluo Continent, and the stronger one"s martial soul was, the more intimate its fusion was with one"s body. To say that one"s martial soul was the most important part of one"s body for t.i.tled Douluo couldn"t possibly be wrong.
Qian Duoduo didn"t just detonate his own martial soul , as he had to take the rest of Skytear Claw"s remaining force as well.
Fresh blood fountained from Qian Duoduo"s mouth. His pupils were already starting to grow slack and disorganized, but his face was strangely full of smiles.
"Duoduo, how are you, Duoduo?" Xian Line"r wasn"t good at healing at all, and she didn"t know how to help him. "Why are you so foolish? Why did you take the brunt of everything by yourself? You…"
Xian Lin"er was sobbing uncontrollably at this point.
"Lin… Er. Heh… heh. I"ve always… wanted… to call you… that. Except… I never… dared to… on normal days. But… at a time… like this… I dare… Because, if I don"t… call you that now… I may never… get the chance again…" Qian Duoduo"s voice was quivering, but he tried his best to steady his voice. Blood continued flowing from his mouth as he spoke, and even his nose and ears were bleeding profusely. The Bear Lord"s attack wasn"t just razor-sharp, it also possessed immense vibratory force!
Right at this moment, a shadow swiftly flew over to Xian Lin"er and Qian Duoduo and landed right next to them. He pressed his hand down on Qian Duoduo as countless verdant bluish-green vines surged out from his hands and quickly attached themselves to Qian Duoduo"s body. Nine soul rings emerged from beneath his feet and circled around his body. His first, fourth, and sixth soul rings glowed first as gentle bluish-green light flowed continuously into Qian Duoduo.
This man who came forward in time to treat Qian Duoduo was the only elder of the Sea G.o.d"s Pavilion who was adept with healing and treatment: Elder Zhuang, who was an auxiliary-type t.i.tled Douluo.