Chapter 165: The Falling Devil
One of the two bagua sabers in Quanxi's hands was already ruined, having been completely wrecked from hacking off heads too aggressively just now.
She casually tossed the ruined bagua saber aside.
"Clang!"
As the bagua saber hit the ground, the heads of those Devil Church members also tumbled down one after another.
"And here I thought they were going to be tough, turns out these guys are nothing special after all~"
Pingtsi covered her mouth with a smirk.
Seemingly oblivious to the fact, this batch of enemies was merely cannon fodder specifically sent to stall them, while the real main force had all gone to attack the school.
"Another batch of enemies has come, but these should all be 'cannon fodder' meant to hold us back..."
Watching yet another wave of enemies recklessly charging over from not far away, Quanxi realized the situation. "Ladies, we need to move."
Hearing Lord Quanxi's words, Pingtsi finally realized that these fellows were just cannon fodder.
She promptly followed along with her three fiend companions to catch up with Lord Quanxi.
"Damn it! They've caught onto our intentions. No matter what, we have to stop them from going over to reinforce!"
"There's still a squad of ours up ahead; we can catch them in a front-and-rear pincer movement to intercept them."
"That damn bitch Quanxi is too terrifying; we probably won't be able to stall her for even a few seconds, but buying every single second counts!"
These Devil Church members completely disregarded their own lives, willing to fight to the death just to stall Quanxi and the others.
Faced with a pincer attack from front and back, Quanxi wasn't comfortable leaving the fiend girls behind to deal with these enemies.
Although doing so somewhat violated the order to "provide support immediately," out of personal partiality, she still wanted to protect her fiend girls well.
"I'll clear a path for you, stay safe."
With those words left behind, Quanxi drew the third bagua saber from her back and once again wielded dual blades to slaughter the enemies ahead.
This batch of Devil Church members was smarter than the previous one; before being decapitated, they sacrificed everything to gain the maximum level of devil power.
Yet, after all, they treated devils like their "daddy," unwilling to summon the actual physical bodies of their contracted devils out of fear that Quanxi would cut them down as well, so this still wasn't the absolute fullest extent of devil power.
The ultimate devil power was having the devil's true body fight in person, controlled directly by the devil hunter.
Even so, the desperate, do-or-die strike unleashed by sacrificing their lives was extremely powerful, and their target wasn't Quanxi, but rather Quanxi's fiend companions.
All four fiends—including Pingtsi—fell into the "squishy" category. Aside from the Cosmos Fiend's ability having a certain aura of prestige, their combat capabilities were weak one and all. Against these fanatical lunatics fighting for their lives, they were in genuine danger.
Quanxi was forced to slaughter enemies while simultaneously protecting her fiend companions, which significantly slowed down her killing speed—achieving the Devil Church members' objective.
"Excellent! Just like that, everyone attack those fiends!"
"Hahaha! Those fiends really are Quanxi's soft underbelly. What truly inferior devil hunters, to actually have a weakness like that!"
"If possible, it'd be best to kill all those fiends. Devils working hard for the Devil Hunter Association are definitely not the devil lords we worship."
The surviving Devil Church members were all smugly congratulating themselves, even though they were about to die shortly anyway.
This finally enraged Quanxi, and she almost couldn't help pulling out the arrow in her right eye to transform into the Crossbow Hybrid.
Yet, she still held back.
Unless it was an absolute last resort, she didn't want to expose her identity as the Crossbow Hybrid, as it was a secret known only to a very few high-ranking officials.
If she transformed into a hybrid in such a conspicuous place, even if all the enemies were killed by her, there was no guarantee it wouldn't be witnessed by ordinary citizens or media personnel. Once exposed, it would trigger numerous complications...
......
Thanks to Reze and the other weapon hybrids having originally been operatives, they had detected the Devil Church's movements well in advance.
The Devil Church certainly could not have anticipated that several of Otonashi Chiya's subordinates had once been the top operatives of the Soviet Union.
Before the Devil Church began their invasion, Otonashi Chiya had already mobilized all the teachers and students of the school to hide in a secure shelter at the fastest possible speed.
Such shelters were typically built to cope with devil attacks and were indispensable standard equipment across various important locations in China.
Otonashi Chiya specifically concentrated his forces to guard the entrance and exit of the shelter, preventing any single Devil Church member from breaking in.
"What on earth are these freaks?! Why! Why are there so many weapon hybrids?!"
"Weapon hybrids aren't invincible either! Hold them down as much as you can, the rest of you, follow me and charge right in!"
"That's right! We have enough numbers; they won't be able to handle all of us!"
Reze, Furiya, and the other weapon hybrids had already blocked and killed quite a few Devil Church members. Since Otonashi Chiya had told them to go all out, they didn't hesitate to transform into their hybrid forms.
Shingetsu's performance was hardly inferior to the weapon hybrids, because her ability made her invincible when dealing with lesser foes; only exceptionally powerful enemies capable of shattering her absolute defense could give her a hard time.
In contrast, the official devil hunters sent by the Devil Hunter Association to act as instructors weren't performing as well. Dealing with such fanatical, suicidal enemies was extremely taxing for them, resulting in injuries and close brushes with death, meaning they couldn't be relied upon to stop very many people.
Yet the terrifying part was that this time the Devil Church had mobilized at least a thousand people—all of them devil hunters who risked their lives the moment they struck, and all carefully selected elites of the Devil Church.
Even though Shingetsu, Reze, and the other weapon hybrids were exceptionally strong, they still couldn't intercept the massive wave of enemies approaching from all directions.
The main issue was that the enemies weren't coming after them, but were solely focused on rushing into the shelter, making interception immensely difficult.
However, guarding the "very last line of defense" was none other than Otonashi Chiya.
Seeing only a single boy standing outside the entrance, the Devil Church members who had rushed over immediately felt a surge of elation.
Although they also noticed the boy's shoulder insignia symbolizing SSS-rank, even the strongest SSS-rank devil hunter would find it hard to hold off so many of their elites.
"There's only a kid over there! Care less whether he's SS or SSS rank, use human wave tactics to bog him down just like before, and use the opportunity to rush into the shelter!"
"All of you fucking charge! Whoever dares turn back, I'll kill him myself! Even if only a few people manage to kill their way in, our mission is a success!"
"Lord Devil! I offer up my life and the lives of my entire family, please grant me the most powerful devil strength ahhhhh!"
With only this seemingly frail boy in front of them, the morale of the Devil Church members skyrocketed as they shrieked and charged at Otonashi Chiya.
Watching hundreds of frenzied devil hunters bear down on them, Otonashi Chiya's expression remained completely calm and devoid of fear.
Just as he was thinking of trying out the Famine Devil's power, he might as well use these fellows as targets.
As a thought flickered through his mind, a miniature version of the Falling Devil materialized in his hand, looking just like an action figure.
That's right, it was none other than a Primal Devil on par with the Darkness Devil—the Falling Devil!