Terror Infinity - Volume 20 - Chapter 15.2

Chapter 15.2

Heng, Imhotep and XueYing stood in confrontation with Lionheart at a location not far away from Zheng . More precisely, only Heng was confronting Lionheart . Imhotep was injured from a surprise attack . That dark red flame was the bane of his existence . A single spark ignited a whole sandstorm and knocked him back into human form . Imhotep was lying on the ground motionless with smoke rising from his body .

Lionheart gave a laugh as he rediscovered the confidence that was lost when he fought Zheng . His flame was powerful but it seemed like a helpless child when faced against Zheng, which made him doubted this ability . The torture descended upon Imhotep during the burn brought back his confidence . He didn’t know why this would happen to Imhotep, rendering him disabled but not dead .

“Oh please . Do you think an enchanted arrow can kill me? Not even the strongest person in your team was able to kill me . What do you have over him?!” Lionheart transformed into a crimson light and continuously moved . He stayed a hundred meters from Heng .

Heng held onto his silver bow . The arrow wasn’t aiming directly at the crimson light but Lionheart knew that if he slowed down, an enchanted arrow would instantly pierce his body .

Heng was one of the main combatants in team China after all . His strength was within top three . He wasn’t a close range fighter but still, the enlightenment over Elven energy bestowed him with a fair degree of knowledge of close combat . He knew if Lionheart approached the three of them, they would be killed without question . There was no point in contemplating . Heng drew an arrow and activated Lightning Shot . Lionheart dashed away in his light form from shock . Heng was giving off an aura more powerful than Zheng at this instant and Lionheart sensed a threat that could take his life .

Back when Heng was still under the influence of his mental obstacles, he was able to hold clone Zheng in place with Charged Shot . Clone Zheng wasn’t as strong at the time, but neither was Heng . A skill that concentrated all of the user’s power and faith into one shot could drive anyone running .

The confrontation was in a stalemate . However, Heng was feeling sour over the situation . Lightning Shot was powerful but gave him an equal amount of burden . He was physically strong enough to fire two shots . However, this ability did not operate on a switch where he could fire or halt at will . He was spending a large quantity of energy to remain in the ready state and his mind was tensed . He could only hold it for another minute before he had to release the arrow, and at that point, missing would mean the death for the three people here!

(What should I do? Risk it? I would do it if I am the only one here . Yet, XueLin… if she’s the Guide, then she’s the team’s hope . I can’t throw away the team for my own life . Imhotep… is also my comrade! I can’t give up here!)

Heng clenched his teeth and bit through the tip of his tongue . The pain drew his mind back into place and continued under this stress . He had decided, thirty more seconds, and he would release this arrow… It was better than doing nothing and die .

(Seventeen, sixteen, fifteen . )

Heng counted the seconds . His mind and body slowly calmed down . Wavering on the border between life and death was strangely calming . The movement and path of the crimson light were reflected in his mind . Yet, its speed was too fast for him to aim . It was a speed only second to Zheng using Soru but could last much longer in usage .

Lionheart also sensed something when Heng made up his mind . He moved as fast as he could . The overall speed of the light was slower than before as both people were approaching their limits . They were waiting for that tiny change that would tip the balance of this stalemate .

“I see them, there!”

A man’s voice echoed from the distance . It was ChengXiao . As soon as the two people heard the voice, the crimson light dashed right at Heng and Heng let go of his fingers .

Time seemed to have stopped as the enchanted arrow departed the bow . It was a profound sensation, like the arrow was the only moving object in this space . Within an instant, the arrow was already in front of the crimson light and passed through it when Lionheart finally saw a trace of it . The arrow then pierced through the metallic walls behind . A cloud of crimson light was annihilated in the process . Everything happened as quickly as a lightning strike .

The two remaining clouds of crimson light fused together in front of Heng and transformed into Lionheart’s human form . His face was as pale as a corpse and his body was trembling . The annihilation of one part of the crimson light caused huge damage to him .

This was a high tier Vampire ability that could split the life force of the user into four parts to escape . The user would survive as long as one part remained . However, the loss of two parts also took away half his life . On the other hand, he would have been dead without this ability .

“How dare you! Die!”

Lionheart cried like a maniac, distancing himself from his handsome appearance . He grabbed Heng, who couldn’t lift a finger at this point . Imhotep whipped a powerless sand snake at him but he just ignored it, while he bit on Heng’s neck and sucked blood out of Heng .

Three people were running over to assist, WangXia, ChengXiao and Anck-Su-Namun . She was worried after witnessing the dark red flame and forced herself to follow the other two . She knew the biggest protection she had in this realm was her lover . An otherwise normal person’s chance of survival alone was slim, even in a strong team like team China .

The three people arrived at the scene when Heng was seized by Lionheart and Imhotep was lying on the ground sending out sand . WangXia and ChengXiao panicked at the sight of him biting at Heng and rushed toward them with full speed .

However, neither person had movement acceleration ability so they could only watch while it happened . Lionheart sucked Heng for ten seconds then threw him onto the ground . He smacked off the sand coming at him then grabbed Imhotep and bit him in the same way, despite the undying body that Imhotep possessed . Ten seconds later, Imhotep was also thrown on the ground and lay there still .

“Ah! Amazing… people in team China are so strong . Even random members possess so much energy . This feeling, this energy pouring from my body… Once I absorbed every one of them, I will transcend into god!” The color of blood returned to Lionheart’s face . The aura surrounding him grew in comparison to before . His power had a visible increase after draining Heng and Imhotep and he cried arrogantly .

After his excitement, he looked to XueLin who was shocked . He frowned knowing she was a weak normal human . As he was about to simply kill her, a heat wave approached him from behind . He leaped to the side and dodged the attack .

WangXia and ChengXiao became separated from Anck-Su-Namun once they ran in full speed . Then the two were growing further apart as ChengXiao was running faster than WangXia . However, the one that initiated attack was WangXia . He formed several bombs with Demon Energy when he was still a hundred meters away and forced Lionheart away .

Lionheart calmed down from his insanity . He floated in the sky and looked down at the people below with a sneer . “I’ll be honest . Team China is much stronger than I imagined . No wonder you are a team that once won against team Celestial . Two random member’s energy raised my strength by at least twenty percent . And I thought I could wipe you by myself in the beginning… . I look forward to absorbing your leader . He will make me into the strongest person in this realm!”

WangXia and ChengXiao ignored his cries . ChengXiao rushed over to Heng and grabbed him . He let out a sigh of relief finding out Heng was still breathing, although his breathing was very weak . The two didn’t get sucked into a dried corpse and merely lost consciousness .

ChengXiao stood up, shielding the other three people behind him . Lionheart sneered again . “Loser, have you forgotten the wound I gifted you? You are not only going to break a leg this time . ”

“Yeah, one leg is not enough…” ChengXiao muttered . He leaped like a bird with wings spread out . His curled body glided by Lionheart at an inconceivable angle . Sharp air attacks flew toward Lionheart .

The smile on Lionheart’s face never faded while the air attacks cut through his arms and body . Parts of his body transformed into sand and then recovered to human form once the air passed through . He looked undamaged using an ability similar to Imhotep’s . The difference being his clothes were shredded in the process whereas Imhotep’s clothes wouldn’t . His did not perfectly absorb another person’s powers by the look of this .

ChengXiao fell from the air after his attack . Lionheart dashed at him once he recovered . In the blink of an eye, Lionheart was already next to ChengXiao and reached out his arm . A dozen air attacks struck toward him .

“Nanto Suicho Ken – Hien Ryubu!”

Without any point of leverage in the air, ChengXiao managed to turn around . Lionheart’s arms turned into sand at the next second, and ChengXiao landed on the ground without any damage .

Lionheart’s mind blanked out as he looked at his hands . ChengXiao negated the majority of his attack at that instant and countered . When he realized what had happened, ChengXiao was already on the ground .

“Haha… Simply great! There are no weaklings in team China! All of you stay here and become my power!”

Greed overtook Lionheart’s eyes . The ability to turn into sand nullified any damage ChengXiao could cause despite the difference in their close combat prowess . The other person utilized bombs that were powerful but bombs might not be able to damage him through his sand form . Furthermore, he hadn’t even used his flame yet . There was no way he would lose against anyone not named Zheng from team China .

ChengXiao took out a pair of gloves after he glanced at the three people behind him . At the same time, Lionheart’s whole body transformed into sand and swept at them in a wave, looking to drown everyone .

WangXia panicked as he pushed his speed as fast as he could . In the time that he took a few steps, a series of thumps echoed from the center of the sand and Lionheart came out flying in his human form . Wounds that cut deep into his bones covered his body, blood was pouring out from the wounds . ChengXiao leaped after him .

“Hisho Hakurei!”

ChengXiao launched himself forward spinning . Sharp air attacks cut through Lionheart and split him into pieces . The broken pieces of flesh then transformed into parts of crimson light that blinked ten meters away before fusing into his human form again .

The attack obviously damaged Lionheart by the terrible look on his face . He roared and dark red flame emerged from his body, halting ChengXiao from chasing him .

“How is it possible! How did your physical attacks damage me through the sand form? Yes, those gloves are magical items . My flame can melt the sand so your gloves can hit me . ” Lionheart calmed himself after his furious roar .

ChengXiao moved one hand behind and gestured WangXia to cover him, a gesture unique to the Chinese military .

There was no time for Wangxia to think since ChengXiao dashed forward again . He controlled several plasma bombs that moved with ChengXiao .

ChengXiao was below average in the team when it came to combat prowess . He was not exactly weak but he had no specialization aside from his medical techniques . Worse than Zero in long range, worse than Heng, Kampa and WangXia in mid range, worse than Zheng and YinKong in close range . Medical techniques were his irreplaceable skills .

Lionheart dashed at him in a crimson light at the same time . That speed was much faster than his sand form and ChengXiao had no way of blocking this light . Plasma bombs passed by ChengXiao then crashed into the light . The explosions covered a large area in front of him, blocking the light from advancing, while avoiding him under WangXia’s control .

Lionheart backed off at his full speed as if he feared the plasma . Yet, he was not fast enough to outrun the lightning and got consumed .

Still, he managed to escape the center of explosions unlike the aliens . He was only caught by the edge of the explosion . The crimson light was smoking afterward after it escaped .

There were burnt marks on Lionheart’s body once he returned to human form . The marks recovered in visible speed . However, his face looked blue .

Lionheart was feeling terrible . He always considered himself a step above everyone else, which led him to challenge Zheng despite the rumors of Zheng’s strength in the realm . He believed his self-created abilities would put him on par with Zheng . Reality was ruthless and he lost . He ran from fear and it struck a blow to his mindset . That gave rise to his desire to absorb the power of everyone in team China . It was a humiliation to lose to Zheng but it was still within acceptable region . However, losing to anyone else would drive him insane .

“All of you… need to die!”

If he didn’t still want to absorb WangXia and ChengXiao’s powers, he would have burned them to ashes with his flame . With the plasma bombs gone and WangXia needed preparation for his next attack, Lionheart dashed at ChengXiao . There was no way for ChengXiao to back away from this attack .

Neither did he planned to back away . He leaped mid-air toward the crimson light and evaded it by a hair . He even struck it several times on his way .

“My seniors once told me no martial art is indisputably the most powerful . Every enhancement in the exchange system has its pros and unique points . Some might appear weak but correct usage could enhance its power by a hundred times . Nanto Suicho Ken seems like a garbage enhancement . However, if Zheng uses it, he can cut a hundred of you into pieces . As for me, I only have one way of utilizing this ability… through the wind . I will evade your attacks through the wind, attack you with the wind, and finish you with the wind!”

He leaped again and yelled . “Do you think I will let you get away after harming my comrades? You will not advance another step before I die!”

Lionheart paused for only a moment before he dashed toward WangXia, who had only just regained control over his bombs . At this time, ChengXiao spun in a strange posture, conjuring a stream of wind around the crimson light . The wind was moving faster and faster until it became nearly visible to the bare eyes . The crimson light was consumed by the wind . ChengXiao dropped from the air . Sweat was running down his face .

(That’s god damn unlucky . I couldn’t have known this dude’s actually so strong… Please, don’t get up again . I don’t even have the strength to stand . Nanto Suicho Ken utilizes the user’s body to move the wind, but this ability drained all my stamina . I want to just lie down…)

His hands were pushing against his knees and his body bent forward . This ability was more powerful than he thought . A hundred cubic meter area centered around Lionheart was shredded inside the wind . The shredded crimson light was slowly trying to fuse together . However, it was so slow . Lionheart must have been critically injured from the attack .

By the time he returned to his human form, his clothes were had become strips and flesh was missing from parts of his body . There were wounds that cut deep into his bones . He didn’t wait for his body to recover as he dashed toward ChengXiao again with a roar . Fury had taken over his logical senses . Yet, several strikes of lightning pushed him back again .

“Haha . Do you see? No one in team China is easily bullied! It’s a simple task to beat a little bat into the ground . ” ChengXiao mocked Lionheart when he saw the terrible shape Lionheart was in, despite himself being out of stamina . Seeing an enemy like this excited him .

Wounds on top of more wounds actually calmed Lionheart . He took several deep breaths then said . “It’s my fault for underestimating all of you . Team China is a team that team Celestial has acknowledged . I will not make the same mistake again, and I will not restraint myself because I want to absorb your powers . If I can’t do it, I will kill you . The woman over there, if you don’t want to die, then become my woman . I can bring you into team Pacific… Flame Beast!”

Lionheart came down onto the floor . A cloud of flame appeared in his hands and stopped ChengXiao from approaching . ChengXiao could sense the power contained within that flame . It was a power way beyond his Nanto Suicho Ken .

Lionheart laughed . The dark red flame only made his laughter more hideous . The flame surged with a twist of his hands and enveloped a ten-meter area around him . It spun in a reverse cone shape then it leaped at the other people like a monster .

“Get down behind me!”

WangXia cried then threw his plasma bombs out . The bombs merely slowed down the flame monster . Once the plasma dissipated, it would certainly come at them again . WangXia blasted a small pit on the ground while at the same time took out a tactical nuke . “ChengXiao! Bring them all into the pit! Hurry!” The tactical nuke flowed to his front .

ChengXiao threw the other three people into the pit then just as he grabbed Anck-Su-Namun and XueLin, a huge explosion occurred, blowing him and the two women away .

WangXia controlled the tactical nuke with his complete focus . This was a weapon much more powerful than the plasma bombs and one mistake could cost their lives . This was the time to test the result of his training .

Everyone in the team had their own way of training and growth . ChengXiao discovered the wind from Nanto Suicho Ken . WangXia practiced precision control over his bombs, yet his training hadn’t started for long . The explosion of the tactical nuke was draining all his energy . Veins surfaced on his body and then one vein busted, then another . He was covered in blood when the tactical nuke exploded .

The explosion surged outward and blasted the flame monster into pieces . Then it consumed the whole passageway with the brilliance of a sun . The only spots holding themselves from the explosion was a dark red flame on its own and an empty area behind WangXia . The passageway began to collapse from the explosion .

At last, the explosion subsided . The passageway was beyond recognition with many areas broken off . Looking through the cracks was a bottomless abyss .

“Ah!”

A piece of metal fell and a wail followed . The metal piece landed on ChengXiao’s legs and crushed his knees . If it were off by a little more, it would have crushed his life instead .

WangXia crawled up from the shattered metals . His body was covered in tears and dark and red blood from the bleeding . He looked around, then rushed over to ChengXiao . The passageway suddenly trembled while he ran, knocking WangXia to the floor . He lost consciousness . Perhaps he hit his head on the fall or perhaps he was out of energy . The only two people still standing intact were the women .

“… Anck-Su-Namun, help me…”

A weak voice came through . It was Imhotep . The voice blew away the look of lost on Anck-Su-Namun’s face . She immediately ran toward the voice but stopped in front of a broken part of the passageway .

On the other side of the passageway was a large boulder hanging by the edge . Below it was a bottomless abyss . Imhotep was grabbing Heng’s arm while hanging on the boulder . The two of them could fall at any time . There was no way for Anck-Su-Namun to give them a hand since the gap between them was over four meters apart .

Imhotep turned his head around with difficulty . He saw her standing on the other side and said . “Help me, I can’t turn into sand . That man drained my strength… Help me . ”

She looked back, undecided . A pile of flame was slowly rising behind her . Imhotep also noticed the flame and a bad feeling struck him . The moment she turned around and ran, his world fell apart .

He had never loved anyone so deeply that he abandoned all the wealth his had, his life, and even faith . This was a love that lasted thousands of years . He joined team China for her, then became aware of the movies of his world . He never believed the same endings would come to him but those endings planted a seed in his mind . And now, he finally experienced the pain that the same him in the movie felt . If he wasn’t holding onto Heng, he would have let go of his hand and drop to the bottom of this abyss .

Anck-Su-Namun took off her coat as she ran and stopped after ten meters . She tore the coat into a long strip then turned around with determination . With a short path of acceleration, she leaped through the gap . As soon as she came on her feet, she threw the strip of cloth down on the boulder . “Imhotep! Catch it… I saw the movies but… stop thinking of the nonsense . I love you too!”

Imhotep’s mind blanked out as he saw the cloth . She urged him again before he grabbed it and was pulled up .

The dragon blood and prototype T-virus were also given to her so the weight of two men didn’t pose a difficulty . She dragged the two men up from the edge, threw Imhotep over her shoulder, grabbed Heng with the other arm, then pulled them onto the floor . She let out a sigh of relief . Imhotep finally realized what had happened . He embraced her and kissed her . Tears were forming in his eyes . “We will never part . Not in a hundred years, a thousand years, in our next lives . We will be together forever!”

The flame on the other side was growing .

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