Chapter 127 - 124: I Am Your Father
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!...
The crisp sound of steel cables releasing echoed from overhead as canister-shaped objects began to free-fall from the sky, mixing with the ever-present rain.
Each helicopter had been carrying six liquid nitrogen tanks. A total of fifty-four white tanks now plummeted from the sky one after another, forming an irregular circle that enveloped the Flame Demon.
These little bugs posed no sense of crisis to the Flame Demon, but for some reason, its attention was drawn to the falling canisters.
The Flaming Whip cracked again, but this time its target wasn’t Qin Xiaoxia; it was the helicopters in the sky.
SWISH~
A flash of fire erupted. The two lead helicopters had already started evasive maneuvers the moment they saw the Flame Demon move. However, the other seven, their vision obscured by the downpour, failed to react in time and were all struck by the whip.
Seven fireballs blossomed in the sky.
Inside the two helicopters that escaped, the crew felt no relief, only frustration. The liquid nitrogen tanks had missed their target.
The terrifying monster had actually dodged!
It hadn’t even dodged the artillery shells, yet it dodged the liquid nitrogen tanks. It was completely absurd!
"Attack ineffective! Attack ineffective! It dodged!"
The liquid nitrogen tanks were still in the air, not yet having reached the Flame Demon’s head, when the fiery monster dodged a full body-length to the side with an agility that belied its size.
Before the repeated transmission could come through, just as Norton was about to ask them to report more clearly, he heard a piercing crackle from the communicator.
Qin Xiaoxia gazed at the nine fireballs that had lit up the sky one after another, offered them a 0.1-second moment of silence in his heart, and then crushed the last and largest Magic Energy Crystal he had on him.
"Hah~"
Taking advantage of the moment the Flame Demon’s attention was fixed on the helicopters, he reached out and made a grasping motion.
Under the restraint of his remaining Magic Power, the Magic Energy Crystal’s violent energy instantly spread across the sky, momentarily freezing all the liquid nitrogen tanks in the rain.
At the same time, his body tensed in preparation, the muscles in his legs bulging to a ridiculous degree.
The instant his Magic Power erupted, he slammed his foot into the ground with a BANG, creating a shallow crater. Using the reactive force, he dodged to the side with Doudou in his arms.
At that very same moment.
A long, burning tail scraped past Qin Xiaoxia’s back, striking the spot where he and Doudou had just been sitting.
With a BOOM, the massive tail smashed the entire street surface to pieces.
The searing heat on his back felt like he was being branded. If not for the layer of Magic Power protecting him, it felt as if the heat would burn straight into his soul.
Dodging the fatal blow he had anticipated, amidst the flying debris, Qin Xiaoxia swung his arm fiercely and clenched his fist.
In the sky, under the effect of his wild Magic Power mixed with the energy of the Magic Energy Crystal, the liquid nitrogen was instantly released from all the tanks.
"Hades Gillian Doya~~~"
The color of Qin Xiaoxia’s skin was roasted red by the intense ambient heat. His furious roar of the Magic Language briefly drowned out all the surrounding noise and chaos.
Everything happened in a flash.
The cold air from the liquid nitrogen had just begun to spread when all of Qin Xiaoxia’s Magic Power in the sky, carrying the violent energy of the Magic Energy Crystal, transformed into countless white, rhombus-shaped symbols.
Weaving Technique, Severe Cold!
"HISSSSS... CRACKLE CRACKLE..."
A sound like tearing cloth mixed with the crunch of compressing crystals instantly filled the entire sky.
The surrounding helicopters, which were still regrouping for a second attack run, all noticed a sapphire-blue "aurora" suddenly appear above the target’s location in the distance. It was spreading rapidly.
In that instant, the torrential rain transformed into eerie blue icicles, which rained down like a thousand unsheathed swords.
SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH~~~
In an extremely short time, the Flame Demon was enveloped in a downpour of eerie blue icicles.
The low-temperature icicles couldn’t cause any serious damage to the Flame Demon, but it was like a neat-freak being suddenly splashed with mud—extremely uncomfortable.
’It’s not over yet!’
The icicles were just a phenomenon of spontaneous freezing due to the ultra-low temperature, not the attack Qin Xiaoxia had prepared.
The blue "aurora" twisted, drifting with the wind and rain, and wrapped around the arm the Flame Demon was using to swing its whip.
"ROAR~~~"
Amidst the flashing of fire and eerie blue light, nearly half of that arm was covered in white frost.
Blood streamed from Qin Xiaoxia’s nose and mouth, but the corners of his lips curled into a crescent-shaped arc.
Even though he had risked his life, he never expected this "little surprise" to kill or even seriously injure the Flame Demon.
But!
Briefly stiffening the Flame Demon’s arm and making it drop its Flaming Whip was a gamble worth taking!
"WHOOSH... WHOOSH... WHOOSH..."
Spinning with a whoosh, the Flaming Whip—which could extend hundreds of meters without reaching its limit when wielded by the Flame Demon—was now just a "fiery rope" barely a dozen meters long as it tumbled through the air.
"ROOOOAAAAR~~~~~~"
The Flame Demon let out a furious roar, feeling it had been tricked. It shook its arm twice, and all the white frost vanished, the limb once again glowing crimson.
Tyrannical and frenzied, its only desire was to vent its rage through slaughter!
A "TSS~" sound made it pause.
"TSSS~" "TSS-TSS-TSS-TSS~"...
First a single drop, then a sheet of it. Rainwater was falling directly onto the Flame Demon’s body, causing an itchy, tingling sensation.
Suddenly, it realized that in just a few moments, it had consumed an enormous amount of stamina and felt a long-forgotten exhaustion.
But how was that possible! How could it possibly feel something like exhaustion!
’It’s him! That creature from the Otherworld, and that bizarre Magic Power!’
THUD! THUD!
Its legs lost their strength, and it collapsed powerlessly to its knees.
Starting from its feet, the crimson flow within its body began to rapidly dissipate, just like the World Fragment had at the beginning.
It turned its head wearily.
"GON~LO~DO~NING~MO~~~!!!!"
With two of its four legs already buckled to the ground, the Flame Demon roared at Qin Xiaoxia, who was struggling to move to Doudou’s side. Its anger was now tinged with a hint of fear.
The gale it stirred up, combined with the rain that hadn’t weakened in the slightest despite the loss of the Reaction Technique supporting it, slammed into Qin Xiaoxia, making him feel the disgusting sensation of being spat on.
"Cough, cough... Ptooey! I’m your daddy!"
A vagrant that had barely survived by assimilating with a broken world. Now that it had lost that strange whip, its nature was less like a Spirit Body and more like the World Fragment it had devoured earlier.
Qin Xiaoxia couldn’t squeeze out any more Magic Power to use the Magic Language. He lost his footing and stumbled, falling next to Doudou.
He had never felt such intense weakness since his Magic Power first awakened. Even that time he was almost shot in the head, it was only from excessive blood loss.
"Doudou... Wake up... If you don’t get up now, we’re both going to be dissected by the Americans..."
Perhaps the impression was too strong, because the word "dissected" clearly had a special effect on Doudou.
The unconscious Little Elf shot up in an instant, looking around in a panic. First, they spotted their half-dead cousin, and then they saw the Flame Demon, who seemed to be in even worse shape.
"Holy crap! Cousin, what did you do?! You took down a Mogalons Ancient Demon!!!"
"Less... less talk. Make a Wish... Alter... our traces..."
Qin Xiaoxia had to take several breaths after saying that one sentence. He then pointed at the whip, which was no longer burning and lay on the ground in the distance like a long, black rope.
"Cough, hide that... underground..."
Doudou looked at their cousin, who was as terrifying as a malevolent ghost, and acted immediately without the slightest hesitation.
While making the Wish, Doudou tossed a seed toward a nearby manhole that was missing its cover.
In the midst of the torrential downpour, a Wish Coin was used.
Several dark green vines shot out from the manhole opening, dragging the still-hot black "rope" into the sewer.
The rain continued to wash over the ravaged street, and Qin Xiaoxia and Doudou had vanished from the spot.
...
In the sky, when the eerie blue aurora had appeared, the helicopter squadron had instinctively retreated to the perimeter, thereby avoiding the subsequent rain of icicles that would have been dangerous for them.
Once the eerie blue light faded from the sky, the terrifying monster’s roars also seemed to have weakened considerably.
The lower half of the Flame Demon’s body no longer glowed, appearing exceptionally dim. It was completely immobilized and felt intensely cold.
This was a terrifying sensation.
They—Flame Demons—only felt cold when they were on the verge of death!
The sound of helicopter rotors grew louder, approaching from the distance.
’These annoying things again...’
The lava throbbing in its chest also began to cool. Its body was surrounded by white steam, shrouding it from view, but its features became somewhat clearer as one got closer.
"Sir! Something seems wrong with it!"
No reminder was needed. Anyone on the helicopters who wasn’t blind could see that the ferocious monster was not in good shape.
"Command, this is the helicopter deployment team. The target appears to be severely injured. The rain is now able to fall on it."
Real-time video footage was also being transmitted from the onboard cameras to the screens in the command vehicle.
Inside the somber command vehicle, everyone’s spirits were suddenly lifted.
"What happened? Did the first wave of liquid nitrogen work?"
If that was the case, the effect was so outstanding it was hard to believe.
"No, I don’t think so..."
The major in the helicopter described the blue aurora and the rain of icicles that appeared after the incantation was heard. He couldn’t see what happened after that very clearly, as they had been busy evading and had flown out of observation range.
Norton rubbed his chest, calming his wildly fluctuating emotions.
"Maintain observation. Do not approach. I’m sending ground troops over now."
The ground troops, who had withdrawn to cover to minimize casualties, slowly closed in, surrounding the Flame Demon’s position. Every Soldier was tense.
By the time the encirclement from the air and ground had converged on the same street, the heavy rain was gradually letting up, and the dark clouds that had filled the sky were slowly breaking apart.
The terrifying flame monster was now dim gray all over, leaning against an office building in a kneeling posture. Aside from the rising steam, it showed no signs of movement.
PS: The second Chapter for today. I know 3,000 words is still on the short side...
Congratulations to reader 160831102609489 on becoming the second Sect Leader of this book~ The bonus Chapter for this, along with the one for reader Uncle Black Bear’s Sect Leader status, will be released this weekend.