Chapter 685: Is That All

Chapter 685 Is That All

“Is this the punishment? Is that all?” Tian Lie sneered and he turned to shake his head at Zero. In the meantime, the black sword in his hand stabbed out once more, piercing another wooden puppet, reducing it to ashes. “It should send at least ten times more!”

However, the six remaining wooden puppets around Tian Lie did not choose to continue attacking him. Instead, they quickly retreated to group up with the remaining wooden puppets.

As Tian Lie had killed off two wooden puppets earlier, there were 29 out of the 31 wooden puppets left.

After the 29 wooden puppets were gathered together, they quickly formed a strange-looking formation.

Every one of them had their wooden swords pulled out, some holding their swords straight while some held their swords with a backhanded posture. Some held their swords with their right hands while some held their swords with their left hands. All of them were focused on Tian Lie.

“A battle formation?” Tian Lie sneered as he lashed out his left hand. Another black sword emerged from the palm of his left hand.

As the sword was emerging, a pair of black-coloured wings unfurled from his back to bring him up into the sky.

“Angel Killer form?” Nicole gave a soft harrumph.

Nicole had seen Tian Lie utilize this form once, back in the Tokyo instance dungeon. It was back then that Nicole and Chen Xiaolian’s team had faced near total annihilation.

Just now, Tian Lie had spoken with a disdainful tone. However, for him to be unleashing this form meant that he knew very well not to underestimate those wooden puppets.

Back then, Tian Lie had taken in every steel bar in the vicinity into himself, allowing his body to expand until it was as high as a building. At present, however, Tian Lie was unable to repeat that same feat within the space provided by the stage and his body remained the same size.

“I must remind you two that the rules have been broken,” said Zero, who stood behind Nicole. “Originally, you can pass each match by simply defeating the wooden puppets for the respective matches. If, in the process, you feel that you are incapable of obtaining victory, you can choose to leave the red circle. At present, however, there can only be two possible results – you two can either be killed off or kill every other wooden puppet.”

Even at this juncture, Zero’s tone remained calm. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, as the administrative program for the system, he could only make logical decisions without emotions of his own.

“What two results?” Tian Lie shouted arrogantly. “They can only be killed by me! There are no other possibilities other than that!”

Without saying a word, Nicole flew up to the sky to hover beside Tian Lie.

“What are you doing here again?” Tian Lie glanced at Nicole through the corner of his eyes. “Was the earlier beating not horrible enough?”

This time, Nicole did not reply. Instead, she reignited the Ion Pulse Sword on her right arm.

No matter how annoying Tian Lie was, he had indeed saved her life earlier.

However, Nicole was a lofty person with her own sense of pride, thereby making it hard for her to accept and admit it.

By then, the 29 wooden puppets had finished assuming their battle formation. Next, they abruptly brandished the sword in their hands.

Although every one of them had assumed differing stances and had swung their swords in a somewhat different manner, every one of their swings sent a silvery sword beam out.

The 29 sword beams merged together in the middle of the air, transforming into a large sword beam, which then shot toward Tian Lie like a raging river.

“Cover your ears!”

Right after saying that, Tian Lie opened his mouth, causing his lower jaw to fall all the way down to his chest. A seemingly tangible shockwave erupted out as he unleashed a bellow and the shockwave slammed into the incoming sword beam.

The instant Nicole heard Tian Lie’s warning, she had hastily plugged up her ears. Likewise, the shockwave that Tian Lie created was not aimed at Nicole. Even so, Nicole could feel her eardrums ringing as a result of Tian Lie’s action.

Unexpectedly, after hitting the sword beam, the shockwave failed to do anything to it in the slightest and was instantly dispersed. As for the sword beam, it continued shooting toward the two of them.

Seeing the sword beam arrive before them, Tian Lie gritted his teeth and hastily shoved Nicole aside. Unfortunately, he was incapable of dodging the attack in time. The sword beam shot through part of his body and both his left arm and one of his wings disappeared instantly.

“Quite… … powerful!” There were neither pain nor fear on Tian Lie’s face. Rather, there was a hint of excitement.

Silver light shone out from his body, flowing toward the arm and wing area that was annihilated by the sword beam. In just an instant, both the arm and wing had been restored to its original form.

However, his stature became smaller compared to earlier.

“Stay away from me and don’t get in the way.” Tian Lie swung his newly re-formed arm and smiled, revealing a pair of white teeth. Then, with a flap of his wings, he rushed toward the wooden puppets’ battle formation.

The 29 wooden puppets had swung their wooden swords once more.

Nicole knitted her brows. This time, however, she chose not to follow Tian Lie. Instead, she activated her side thrusters to distance herself from him while her mech armour popped up to reveal their energy blasters once more. She aimed them at the wooden puppets and opened fire.

Given the amount of battle experience that Tian Lie possessed, he had long since seen through the special characteristics of the wooden puppets battle formation.

The individual strength of the wooden puppets was not too formidable. Their movements were neither stiff nor sluggish and they possessed a high level of swordsmanship. Even so, they were not living creatures. They could only follow the predetermined combat settings set down by their creator to do battle.

After having assumed their battle formation, the sword beam unleashed by the 29 wooden puppets was indeed extraordinarily powerful. However, there was an important factor there – Tian Lie had destroyed two wooden puppets earlier.

Tian Lie had only destroyed the two wooden puppets after the red circle disappeared. As for the re-formed wooden puppets, only the ones that Nicole had destroyed were re-formed.

In other words, their sword formation was incomplete. Two spots were vacant.

The 29 wooden puppets swung their wooden swords once more, unleashing 29 small sword beams, which merged into one large sword beam. The large sword beam then shot toward the incoming Tian Lie.

As the sword beam was shooting toward him, Tian Lie swiftly jerked his body to the back, moving a portion of his body away from the trajectory of the sword beam.

The sword beam was as fast as lightning, but was only able to graze Tian Lie’s body slightly, cutting off the tip of one of Tian Lie’s wings. 

Tian Lie, who was flying at a high velocity, was immediately faced with a loss of balance as a result. His figure swerved unsteadily, drawing a curve in the sky.

However, even his swerving motion was within his calculations.

Tian Lie plummeted into the middle of the wooden puppets’ battle formation. His landing point was the two vacant spots within the formation.

The instant Tian Lie landed, he opened his mouth wide, not even bothering to steady himself first, and sent out another roaring shockwave.

At the same time, the two black swords in his grip drew two black lines.

Having the vacant spots on the battle formation seized, the wooden puppets faltered slightly in their reaction. The shockwave attack erupted from within the group of wooden puppets and over ten wooden puppets were immediately shattered apart.

As for the wooden puppets standing beside Tian Lie, they were cut into pieces by the black swords.

The moment the wooden puppets’ battle formation was disrupted, Nicole’s laser barrage, too, descended upon them like rain. The wooden puppets, caught unaware, had no time to block the beams, and were struck before bursting into flames.

In but an instant, the wooden puppets’ side had lost over half their number.

By then, the wooden puppets had responded to their attacks. They backed away in an orderly fashion, in groups of three and two as they swung their swords to defend themselves against Nicole’s laser barrage. 

However, Tian Lie rapidly flipped himself to his feet. Without wasting a single moment, he charged into the middle of the wooden puppets.

Hack!

Chop!

Stab!

Nicole had never expected that. Tian Lie relied not only on his tough and near-immortal regenerative power of his body in a melee battle. Instead, his level of swordsmanship was just as formidable.

More peculiarly, the sword techniques he was using… … was actually similar to the one that the wooden puppets were using.

Still, despite the strength of Tian Lie’s swordsmanship, the wooden puppets, in their groups of two and three possessed the advantage in numbers. Most importantly, Tian Lie chose not to dodge most of their sword attacks.

Despite having hardened his body, turning them into a silvery white colour, Tian Lie was still incapable of blocking the incredibly sharp, silver luminescence-covered, wooden swords. Every time the wooden swords stabbed into him, they would leave a see-through wound on his body.

And yet, the wounds were incapable of hindering Tian Lie’s movements in the slightest. Right after the wooden swords were pulled out, metallic streams of data would immediately repair the wounds, restoring it to its original state.

The number of attacks that Tian Lie cared about made up of only 30 per cent of the total attacks sent his way, attacks that would sever part of his body. After all, re-growing a cut body part was something that would require quite some time.

It was only in face of those attacks would Tian Lie swing his black sword to deflect them. Despite the sharpness and durability of his black swords, they were still weaker compared to the silver luminescence-covered wooden swords. Every clash would leave a deep nick on the black sword. However, the data stream would quickly restore the black sword to its original state.

More often than not, Tian Lie would let the wooden swords stab into his body while countering by stabbing his own black swords into the wooden puppets’ bodies.

Nicole, who was up in the sky, continued to provide fire support for Tian Lie with her energy blasters. After having their formation destroyed, the wooden puppets could no longer re-assume their battle formation and use their wooden swords to deflect the beams. One by one, they were struck and ignited by the beams before falling to the ground. 

Finally, the last wooden puppet fell to the ground, transforming into ashes in the process. Then, a key appeared while a door gradually appeared before Tian Lie.

The two black swords slowly merged back into Tian Lie’s body. Flicking both his arms, Tian Lie then picked up the key from the ground.

Nicole, too, landed on the ground. She moved to stand beside Tian Lie and looked at him with a cold stare.

Tian Lie gave Nicole a glance, his face seemingly set in a smile and yet not. To Nicole’s surprise, Tian Lie said nothing.

“Hey, why aren’t you saying anything?” Nicole, who was finally unable to refrain herself, asked.

“What is there to say?” replied Tian Lie as he rolled his eyes.

“Sarcastic words. Isn’t that would you do best?” answered Nicole coldly. “For example, if I had let you go right from the get go, this stage would have been easily completed or something along those lines.”

“Don’t you already know that? Since you already know, is there a need for me to say it again?” answered Tian Lie with a smile before turning to Zero, who was moving toward them. “So, do we just enter?”

“You!” Biting her lips, Nicole abruptly pulled out several assault rifles from her storage equipment and tossed them at Tian Lie’s feet.

“What are you doing?” asked Tian Lie as he looked at Nicole.

“You are wounded, aren’t you? There are no metals in this place. Take them.” Nicole sent a downward glance at Tian Lie and said, “After becoming an Irregularity, the Exchange System is no longer available. You have never been to Zero City either. The present you must have nothing, right?”

In the intense battle earlier, Tian Lie was stabbed by the wooden swords quite a number of times. Although his body could rapidly heal up, quite a bit of his body was consumed as a result. Thus, the present him was actually half a head shorter than Nicole.

“It’s rare to see a kind side from you.” Tian Lie laughed out and he placed a foot on the pile of rifles. Instantly, the rifles transformed into metallic streams of data before flowing into his body, which swelled up by several notches. Although he had yet to regain his former stature, he was once again taller than Nicole.

“Not enough?” Nicole looked at Tian Lie. “I only have that much. There is nothing else I can do.”

“Thanks.” Tian Lie waved his hand at her before inserting the key into the door lock.

…