"Bang."
Dense, drumbeat-like muffled thuds rang out one after another from above. Beneath her mask, Xina's golden eyes radiated an eerie golden glow.
Centered on her, a wave of energy nearly imperceptible to the naked eye spread in all directions.
Then, countless white buds sprouted from the emerald-green canopy. When they bloomed, innumerable blackish-purple specks of pollen drifted from within, clinging to everything around them and producing the distinctive hissing sound of corrosion.
"Why... do I suddenly... feel so sleepy..." The Herrscher of Thunder, contaminated by the pollen, felt her eyelids growing heavier and her body becoming increasingly weak. Forcing herself to endure, she weakly questioned Xina, "You... what did you do to me?"
"Hey, don't make a perfectly normal fight sound so weird, okay?" Xina stared expressionlessly at the dispirited Herrscher of Thunder below, gesturing in frustration.
"Honestly, I really want to split your head open and see whether there's actually a brain inside! I said this thing was used to prevent Honkai energy from leaking out. Did you really think that was its only function?"
"Not only did you fail to stay away from something whose nature you didn't understand, you stupidly walked right into it yourself. After getting hit, instead of immediately thinking of escaping, you chose to ask your opponent why. Such... such laughably foolish behavior as yours really makes me..."
Mid-sentence, Xina suddenly turned to look at an empty spot beside her. No, more precisely, she looked at the mosquito-sized miniature Assault-Class Honkai Beast at her side.
"You're saying Schicksal's people are already on their way and will be here soon?" Xina gauged the distance between herself and Schicksal's Valkyries through the perspectives of the Honkai Beasts outside, then estimated how long it would take her to take down the Herrscher of Thunder.
In the