In Honkai, But Integrated Strategies Activated

Highmore, who had taken the brunt of the attacks, was already slumped over Xia Ling like a corpse.

However, their efforts weren't entirely in vain. At least Flame Willow hadn't depleted too much Honkai Energy and could enter the eighteenth floor in a relatively good condition.

"See, this is why you don't make rash declarations," Xia Ling said, pointing at Flame Willow. "You were all 'Don't worry, we'll win,' and now look. Vill-V has prepared a trump card for you. Go on."

Flame Willow felt like crying. "I didn't expect the system to be so unreliable! Can you blame me?"

"Anyway, now that we've passed the seventeenth floor, our trial is considered complete," Xia Ling said nonchalantly. "Just do your best. Like I said before."

"If you can pass, great. If not, we'll just reload and revive. Your body is still outside, so you don't have to worry about being camped."

"Just play it by ear."

After saying this, Xia Ling and Highmore vanished into thin air.

Before Flame Willow could even catch her breath, the space of the seventeenth floor began to shake violently. The surrounding scenery seemed to shatter and crumble layer by layer.

At the same time, a teleportation gate with no markings appeared before Flame Willow.

"Alright, alright, fine. If I don't go in, I don't go in, right?"

Muttering to herself, Flame Willow quickly dove into the teleportation gate.

The next moment.

"Hiss... it's so hot. Where is this?"

Flame Willow looked around blankly, finding herself seemingly in a sea of flames.

Flame Willow herself used fire, so high temperatures were nothing new to her. Yet, an environment that could even make her feel hot...

Flame Willow couldn't help but consider a rather unpleasant possibility, her eyes widening in an instant.

"Wait, no way, could it be..."

Looking at the raging flames that constantly rolled, burned, devoured, and destroyed within this floor, Flame Willow's heart sank.

"Hm? Who's there... Come out!"

A torrent of ferocious flames surged towards Flame Willow, illuminating her dejected face.

"Vill-V, you're such a little darling! You threw me at Brother Chijie's place, didn't you!"

Chapter 50: It's Exploding, It's Exploding, I'm Exploding with Brother Chijie

"Uh... H-hello, Brother Chijie, I'm from World Serpent..."

"Your name is unimportant." Chijie's gaze swept over her body, particularly her swaying tail, and he confirmed his address: "Little Lizard."

"Little... Little Lizard?" Flame Willow's mouth twitched. She couldn't help but glance at her own unconsciously wagging tail. "This is clearly a dragon tail!"

"That's all irrelevant!"

As if sensing something about Flame Willow, Chijie's emotions suddenly surged. "Don't lie to me. I can tell you're different from those other trial-goers."

"Listen, Little Lizard, I don't care how you got here, nor do I care what your purpose is."

"Because I have no interest in getting to know a dying person. Whatever you want, first, survive my flames!"

"Hahahaha, hahahahahaha!"

Accompanied by Chijie's signature maniacal laughter, a figure wreathed in flames rapidly grew larger in Flame Willow's vision.

"So fast!" Flame Willow's pupils contracted, and she instinctively brought her weapon in front of her.

The next second, a fist engulfed in flames slammed heavily onto Flame Willow's staff. The immense force sent her flying backward, her body propelled over ten meters away.

"Cough... cough cough..."

Golden flames began to automatically ignite on Flame Willow's body, healing the internal injuries from the previous blow.

"Tch, monstrous strength..." Seeing Chijie attack again, Flame Willow adjusted her breathing and quickly dodged to the side.

Simultaneously, Flame Willow activated her own Activation, reinforcing herself. The surge and activation of Honkai Energy within her granted her a slight ability to resist.

Then, with blazing crimson flames erupting from both her weapon and her arms, Flame Willow began to meet Chijie's fists.

"Even if my strength and abilities can't match Chijie's, with the boost from Activation's recovery speed, I should be able to hold on for a while." With this thought, Flame Willow swung her spear horizontally, attempting to parry Chijie's attack.

However, she found herself terribly mistaken.

Instead of directly confronting the spear blade, Chijie's figure instantly sank down, sliding beneath Flame Willow's spear.

As he closed the distance, Chijie grabbed the long spear Flame Willow was trying to pull back and, ignoring the flames burning on the weapon, yanked it inward forcefully.

Instantly, caught off guard by this maneuver, Flame Willow didn't have time to release the spear and was pulled towards Chijie by the momentum.

Seeing Flame Willow practically throwing herself at him, Chijie's lips curled into a sneer. He put force into his right arm, extended it forward, and landed a solid hook punch squarely on Flame Willow's chest.

Accompanied by the dull thud of breaking ribs, Flame Willow was once again sent flying.

"It's over." In the preparation room, Highmore and Xia Ling came to the same conclusion almost simultaneously.

"The difference in strength is too great, both in raw power and combat experience."

"We thought Chijie would go for a head-on confrontation given his overwhelming strength... but we were wrong. Chijie is, after all, a warrior. His primary goal, no matter the situation, is always maximum efficiency in dealing damage."

"Is that all? Too weak!"

"With this kind of strength, you don't even give me a chance to vent my anger!"

"Tsk..." Feeling the injuries within her body constantly healing, Flame Willow wiped away the blood at the corner of her mouth.

"At this rate of recovery, even if Chijie wasn't serious, I might not last five minutes... What a terrifying gap."

Forcing herself to focus her scattered attention, Flame Willow abandoned any thought of counterattack and concentrated her Honkai Energy on defense and repair.

But she forgot one thing: while this "cowardly" fighting style might allow her to last for a while, it would clearly ignite Chijie's rage even faster.

"You have all this potential, and you just let yourself be used as a punching bag like this?"

"In that case, come on!"

"Give me one last desperate struggle to see!"

Amidst Chijie's roar, the flames and Honkai Energy emanating from him intensified another notch, bombarding Flame Willow relentlessly.

"Let me see what your flames can protect!"

"This kind of weak power can't even protect yourself!"

"Damn it..." Continuously enduring Chijie's attacks, even a clay figurine would have some temper, let alone Flame Willow, who was being beaten while also being "taunted" by Chijie.

Finally, under Chijie's relentless assault, and the effect of a certain silently acting commandment, Flame Willow's eyes gradually became consumed by rage.

"What can I protect? I've held on this long precisely to protect everything in my sight!"

"If you want to see my strength, then watch closely!"

Using the momentum from being hit, Flame Willow retreated a distance, and then, she completely retracted the golden flames from her body.

Without the repair and pain suppression from her activation ability, for an instant, the protests from every part of her body almost made Flame Willow's legs go weak. However, accompanying the retraction of the golden flames was a surge of fiery red, almost black flames.

Flames of this output level wouldn't normally appear on Flame Willow herself, but when they did, it meant she was prepared to... risk her life.

Under the stimulation of high-intensity activation, every cell was desperately squeezing itself, releasing its last bit of energy in a suicidal manner.

At the same time, in Flame Willow's pocket, an invisible short gun began to emit a faint glow. Accompanied by a strangely potent force, Flame Willow's physical condition was briefly stabilized by the King's Set at the intersection of explosion and exhaustion.

Wielding nearly infinite energy, Flame Willow unreservedly poured her flames toward Chijie.

Her idea was simple: since she couldn't win in combat experience, she would abandon all tactics and engage in a pure energy attack.

"Hahahaha, now that's more like it, little lizard!"

Bathed in Flame Willow's flames, Chijie roared with laughter, completely unfazed by the burns on his body.

"Congratulations, you've given it your all and finally proven yourself worthy of being killed!"

"But this isn't a battle, it's a hunt!"

"You give it your all too, and start running!"

Chijie, already in a semi-collapsed state, also unleashed terrifying energy, easily breaching the trial grounds' defenses and spreading throughout the Elysian Realm.

"Who's running! In one minute, I'll make you retract your contempt!"

Flame Willow, completely "ignited" by her own abilities, had eyes that had turned the color of flames. She activated all three of her skill output modes, displaying her resolve to Chijie in her strongest state.

While the two of them were still immersed in the thrill of battle, Elysia, who was rushing to the scene, was already anxious.

Sensing waves of Honkai Energy fluctuations that made her heart pound, Elysia clearly understood that Chijie had definitely gotten serious.

From her long observation, she knew Flame Willow's strength intimately. She was only slightly above what they called S-rank Valkyries, not even as strong as a Herrscher.

Facing Chijie... Elysia dared not think further.

Although she knew that Flame Willow was essentially just a clone of Xia Ling, she also knew that if such a synchronized clone were destroyed, the damage to Xia Ling would be no less than a fatal injury. Moreover, she had the opportunity to prevent things from reaching this point.

"If I hadn't hesitated just now..." Elysia's eyes were filled with regret as she followed Vill-V, praying silently.

Chapter 51: Flame Willow: Did I Get the Cat's Script?

"Hahahaha, this is the killing intent, this is the moment!"

Dozens of seconds had already passed. It was clear that Chijie was very satisfied with the potential Flame Willow was unleashing in her desperate situation.

"Avenge me—let me break your sharpest edge, let me... annihilate everything!"

Visibly, Chijie's entire body was transforming into a collapsed state. His exposed skin now resembled flowing lava, radiating a terrifying heat.

Under Chijie's renewed burst of flames, Flame Willow's counterattack, which had shown some signs of pushing back, was once again forcibly suppressed. Unlike before, without using the Collapse Paradigm or Cipher Plate, Flame Willow had no hidden strength left as a trump card.

Of course, Flame Willow had no intention of using those things. While these unexpected killing moves might have dealt Chijie a heavy blow, such an action was meaningless.

After Flame Willow used the King's New Gun, perhaps because the King's Set's combat continuation cleared some of her negative status effects, she suddenly realized her own abnormal emotional fluctuations from before.

Undoubtedly, it was the effect of the commandment.

However, Flame Willow now understood Aponia's intention. When facing an opponent like Chijie, words and schemes were indeed meaningless. Putting everything aside and fighting with one's true heart and full strength was the best approach.

It's just that, thinking about Aponia saying she could see her imminent future, she should also know that she could revive, right?

Even so, she still used the commandment to guide her into unleashing her full power. Tsk, it seemed like poor Chijie might have trouble sleeping tonight.

At this moment, Flame Willow didn't know that in the future Aponia saw, Chijie wasn't the only one who would have trouble sleeping.

"Come, throw yourself into the flames with me, let me see…"

"Who will be… burned to nothing first!"

However, at this moment, surrounded by countless flames of tribulation and with her space to survive shrinking, Flame Willow suddenly felt a wave of weakness wash over her entire body.

It's time…

The scorching red flames that had been stubbornly resisting around Flame Willow instantly scattered like a receding tide, even faster than Chijie's tribulation flames propulsion.

The sudden end brought by the King's New Gun completely drained Flame Willow of her strength. Her body went limp, and she nearly collapsed.

Even Chijie was caught off guard by this sudden turn of events. If not for his far-above-average self-discipline and control, allowing him to retract his power in time, the spreading flames might have directly incinerated Flame Willow.

Chijie slowly approached Flame Willow, looking at her, now completely drained and only able to lean on her spear to barely stay upright, he shook his head.

"Heh, that's all you've got."

"I'll give you one last chance, surrender…"

"Hm?"

Chijie sensed something was wrong.

After all, he hadn't intended to kill Flame Willow. Besides, the fact that someone could appear before him without him noticing was already strange enough.

Along the way, Flame Willow had encountered many Herrschers, and Chijie could naturally sense the traces of different Herrschers she carried.

When he wasn't acting as the examiner for the final trial, Chijie was reluctant to go too hard on her. As for himself being the examiner… well, that could only mean the trial-taker lacked self-awareness.

Chijie had originally planned to teach this little one who ran around so much a small lesson, but he hadn't expected her to unleash a potential that even he found noteworthy. And in the battle, she had proven she possessed the will to match it.

Honestly, up to this point, he quite admired Flame Willow.

But upon closer inspection, Chijie realized that Flame Willow's aura had already weakened to its absolute limit. Chijie could sense that she wasn't old, but at this moment, she was enveloped in a strange feeling of being at the end of her rope, a feeling so profound that even describing it as "at the end of her rope" felt optimistic.