Arondight: the Unfading Light of the Lake was in Wu Ling's hand as he cut down toward the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's neck.
The force of the blow, amplified by falling momentum, pressed the tiger's limbs down until they bent. Even so, Wu Ling could clearly feel that he had not broken through its defense.
"So this is Evil God's Protection. What a ridiculous defense. No wonder it could block the Sea God's Trident in the original story. Arondight is indestructible, but after turning into a demonic sword, it cannot use its original ability. Breaking the defense is not impossible, but it would drain far too much strength. Rule Breaker is more cost-effective."
After settling on his plan, Wu Ling used the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's own rising force as leverage and leaped away again. While still in midair, he switched the weapons in his hands, moving the dagger to his right hand and the greatsword to his left.
If Arondight could not pierce the enemy's defense, then its durable blade was best used as a shield. Once Rule Breaker shattered the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's defense, switching back would not be too late.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Wu Ling had only just changed his grip, and his body had not yet touched the ground, when several ripping sounds tore through the air. Dozens of black-red blades of light appeared beside the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger and slashed toward him at high speed.
Those blades were formed by fusing wind and evil-attribute energy. With the cutting power of wind and the corrosion of evil power, their might was astonishing, not inferior to Spirit Skills released from fifty-thousand-year black Spirit Rings.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang.
Wu Ling blocked the wind blades with Arondight. From the side, Arondight itself remained completely unharmed, but his left arm had gone numb from the impact.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's hind legs had already bent and gathered strength. It had predicted where Wu Ling would land and was waiting to rush over in the next second.
Then a roar suddenly exploded from its side.
Wu Ling's fifth clone, Berserker, appeared with a huge stone axe in hand and smashed it viciously against the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's head before the tiger could react. Even with Evil God's Protection active, the heavy blow still rattled it.
Because its hind legs had already been pushing against the ground, friction kept it from being knocked flying. Still, its claws tore nearly five meters of grooves through the earth.
The moment the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger steadied itself, its hook-shaped tail straightened into a stabbing spear and aimed at Berserker.
The next second, another roar came from behind it.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, whose attention had already locked onto Berserker, had not expected anything to appear behind it as well.
It used all its strength to twist its tail, which was aimed forward, back around. The movement was like forcing a car that had not even started to perform an abrupt one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. It was extremely difficult. At the same time, all four limbs tensed again, preparing to leap away.
But just as the windup for those actions passed, another blast of force came roaring down and smashed into its head.
When the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's head was driven into the ground, it finally saw the one attacking it. The figure wore pitch-black armor all over and held the same greatsword the human had used just now.
Then the tiger suddenly remembered something.
"Where did the original human go?"
Berserker's mad pressure was too intense, so the tiger had focused on him almost completely. It had not ignored Wu Ling outright, but Wu Ling had definitely fallen to second place in its attention.
Now that it thought back, if that human was the main body, then he had to be doing something. At almost the same moment, it sensed another presence appear behind it.
After learning from the previous two surprises, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger did not hesitate. It rolled across the ground in the ugliest possible way, but it still felt something cut across it.
For its body and its defense, that light scratch should have been insignificant. A moment later, however, its ultimate defense shattered with a crash.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was shocked. Its defense had been broken before, but only by the serpent and the monkey using their ultimate moves. How had it been broken so easily this time?
And that ability to appear suddenly, switch positions suddenly, and hide so thoroughly was just as troublesome. It had encountered Soul Beasts with clones before, but these human clones were so concealed that even it could not detect them before they attacked.
Again and again, Wu Ling overturned its expectations. At last, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger began treating this human as the true threat, rather than remaining cautious only of whoever stood behind him.
After Wu Ling made several clones sink back into the shadows, he noticed layers of gray light emerging around the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's body. That light then condensed into a spherical mass around it.
Wu Ling remembered this move. It was one of the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's extremely powerful abilities. It fused its own Spirit Power and evil force, then unleashed them in a terrifying burst. The attack contained wind, lightning, and evil attributes. In the original story, even Tang San had to use the Golden Trident's second form, Empty for a Thousand Years, together with the Deathgod Domain to break it.
Against an attack of that level, Wu Ling had no intention of stupidly taking it head-on.
Just as the light cannon was about to slam into his face, Azure was once again sent to the front line.
"A light cannon this time. Honestly, not a bad way to die."
Azure went offline.
Even the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger could not use an attack of that level perfectly. After firing it, its momentum dipped. Seizing that opening, Berserker and Shade appeared again on either side of the tiger. Each held his own weapon and hacked down at it in a frenzy.
This time, however, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was prepared. More than a dozen light blades appeared at once and shot outward from its body toward Berserker and Shade.
The two clones did not fear death. They endured the attacks and brought their weapons down heavily.
"Roar!"
With a roar of pain and anger, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's shoulder and waist were split open. Flesh tore apart, and white bone was faintly visible at its shoulder.
The price of that result was Shade going offline and Berserker going offline.
In truth, even the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger had not expected Shade and Berserker to be so reckless. In its memory, clones could indeed be sacrificed at will, but since they possessed the main body's memories, fear was only natural. It had always been able to seize that tiny opening to counterkill or avoid damage without injury.
This time, those two had not even tried to dodge.
It had been wounded, but the result was still acceptable. After all, it had eliminated three of that human's clones. Once the main body exposed himself, it could use its Life-and-Death Arena to restrict him. Then the result would be obvious.
"In the end, I will still be the one who wins!"
Just as the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger roared inwardly with excitement, Wu Ling revealed himself in the distance.
"A little far. But at this distance, two seconds is enough!"
The tiger's four limbs were just about to push off when the sight before it left it stunned.
The three clones it had just killed while taking injuries appeared again beside Wu Ling. One of them, the blue-haired one, even looked at it with an expression that practically said, "I'm back again, damn it."