Jason tugged on the end of the rope beneath Allen's armpit, and sure enough, his hands were freed.
In less than three seconds, Allen undid the rest of the ropes himself.
Seeing this, Jason turned to support Dick instead.
At that moment, Allen looked at Ethel, who had not managed to escape. Holding a bundle of rope, he advanced step by step and asked, "Do you remember what I told you?"
"What?"
Terrified and muddleheaded, Ethel could not recall anything at all.
"Don't act tough in front of me next time," Allen reminded him.
Ethel suddenly remembered. It seemed Allen really had said that.
"Remembered now?" Allen said with a smug grin. "You acted tough just now."
"Hehehe..."
At that moment, Allen's smile was simply terrifying to Ethel.
How could it be described? His upper teeth bit down on his lower lip, while his smile pulled his upper lip taut enough to expose the gums above his teeth.
"You lunatic!"
Ethel sensed that something was terribly wrong and turned to run for his life.
But the rope suddenly tightened around his neck. It had already looped around him, and a tremendous force yanked him backward.
"Don't leave. Try out my handiwork."
Allen's voice at his ear was like the whisper of a demon.
"No, don't do this. I apologize..."
As Ethel begged for mercy, he watched himself get bound and curled into a ball.
His limbs were folded up, his head pressed down toward his abdomen. He could no longer stand upright, and even turning onto his side was impossible.
"Perfect."
Allen was extremely satisfied with his masterpiece. Striking the pose of a soccer player winding up for a kick, he shouted, "Sea Cucumber Possession, Golden Right Leg!"
Bang!
Ethel was kicked away like a soccer ball, tracing an arc through the air before smashing into a Talon.
The Talon tried to catch the Court of Owls' judge, but completely misjudged the impact and was knocked flat on his back.
"Yeah, what a shot."
Allen sighed to himself. "If I hadn't drunk too much kelp soup back then and developed gout, forcing me into early retirement, I would've led the national team to a World Cup title long ago."
With his posing over, he went to support his teammates.
Allen swiftly arrived beside the barely breathing Ethel and raised his foot to kick the ball again.
"Ultimate Move: Golden Sea Cucumber."
Ethel flew like a ball toward another Talon.
Having learned from the previous example, this one did not try to catch him head-on and simply dodged aside.
"Justice Flying Kick."
He could dodge the obvious attack, but not Allen's hidden arrow.
A flying side kick struck the Talon squarely in the waist.
The Talon suffered a fatal injury but did not die. Still, he needed time to recover; Serpent's Blood and Amber Gold both required time to take effect.
"Crow Sits on Plane."
Allen attacked the other enemies again. He leaped high, curled up his body, and crashed heavily onto his target, planting his butt on the man hard enough to paralyze him.
He picked up the sabers of two fallen Talons, easing the pressure on Dick and Jason.
"So I can use off-hand weapons!"
Allen looked at his left hand in disbelief. The Promethium Battle Saber was covered in a layer of shadow power, gaining the same effect as Shadow Blade.
With his weapon disadvantage made up for, defeating the Talons became easy.
He casually picked up another saber from the ground, held it in his mouth, and struck a pose. Speaking indistinctly around the blade, he said, "I promised her I wouldn't lose again."
"I'm Strongest Swordsman Hiyori Zoro."
The atmosphere was painfully awkward.
At least both sides in the battle temporarily shared the same thought.
That accent had the distinct flavor of a pancake wrapped around a scallion.
In a flash, Allen launched himself forward and charged into the group of Talons.
Sharp flashes of steel appeared again and again. He fought six enemies alone while still holding back.
At that moment, Allen was not fighting alone. His former and current selves were fighting together.
His hands slashed left and right, while he shook his head and swung the saber in his mouth, fully displaying Crazy Three-Sword Style.
Dick and Jason avoided his edge for the moment, because his indiscriminate attacks could easily injure them by mistake.
Before long, Allen stood proudly in place, surrounded by fallen enemies.
Clang. He released the saber from his mouth.
"This move packs a lot of power, but it's a little hard on the mouth."
Allen opened and closed his mouth, relaxing his jaw.
"Find Master and evacuate immediately, before the enemy can react," Dick urged.
This was the Court of Owls' lair. Who could guarantee there were not more Talons?
They had seen how formidable the Talons were. They were no weaker than well-trained superheroes. If they had not been wearing the same owl armor, they might have already been dead beyond saving.
Allen was the exception.
From start to finish, he had not looked like he was struggling at all.
And anyone who truly thought he was stupid was an idiot himself.
They had no clue how to find Master, yet they had only managed to infiltrate the enemy's lair thanks to Allen's advice.
Allen gathered up saber after saber, then took darts from the enemies' bodies.
Using a grappling rope, he tied the sabers to his back and tucked the darts away on his person.
"Below immortals, I am invincible. Above immortals, I trade one for one. I, Commander Zuo, will fight you demons to the death! Yah..."
Allen ran toward a passageway, completely forgetting about his two teammates.
"Keep up, keep up."
Dick and Jason got a headache. By the time they chased him around a corner, he was nowhere to be seen.
Jason could not help saying speechlessly, "Let him go. Finding Master is more important."
Allen's strength was obvious. If he really encountered danger, there was naturally nothing they could do to help.
Yah...
Yah...
Yah...
By then, Allen had been sprinting for quite a while. His throat was nearly smoking from all the shouting, yet he had not encountered a single enemy.
"Cough, cough... Is this place a maze?"
After circling around, Allen found that every passage twisted and turned. He had long since lost his sense of direction.
He stopped running and instead walked calmly through the maze.
After observing for a long while, he reached one conclusion: there was no conclusion.
"Anyone home?"
"If nobody's here, I'm coming in."
"Kind stranger, would you like to buy a nuclear bomb? I'm just a poor little girl selling nuclear bombs."
"Calling Zero-One, calling Zero-One. This is Zero-Two, this is Zero-Two. The containment objects are out of control. We're running away. I repeat, we're running away."
"Question: What transcends everything? Friendly reminder: it isn't OAA, it isn't First Firmament, and it certainly isn't the Beyonders. Answer: 404."
"Author, if you don't give me a hint soon, I'll die right in front of you."
The Talons hiding in the shadows watched Allen mutter to himself like a madman, and their scalps went numb.
Could Bruce have fallen so low that he would even associate with someone like this? He was simply unbearable.
After passing around a corner, Allen entered a spacious hall.
Inside the hall, stone coffins were lined up neatly, their lids all open.
Allen walked to one of the stone coffins and saw that it contained nothing but a pool of green liquid.
These were the containers the Court of Owls usually used to store Talons. The liquid inside was a special medicine made by mixing Serpent's Blood and Amber Gold.
It could resurrect the dead and control them through commands.
"I get it."
Allen suddenly realized. "This is a grand tomb. I need to use Dragon Seeking Art to find the way."
At once, he stood one saber upright and balanced the tip of another saber against it, making it spin.
Allen muttered, "Tame dragons and divide gold, watch the winding mountains. For sausage, eat Beggar Among Beggars. One section beats six sections. For jelly, choose Happy Mother. For instant noodles, only Pangmailang. For soda, pick Big Thunder Pepsi. After eating, diarrhea shoots through the grass, only to find there's no toilet paper, so rub your bare ass on the grass..."
When the saber stopped spinning, it pointed directly toward a passageway.
"Ha, damn it, the skills left behind by our ancestors really do work."
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