303: Deep Dark Raid

Bang!

Nefes raised his arm to block, and the punch slammed down, causing a loud, resounding vibration on his gauntlet.

"How can Aoneng possess such power—"

Nefes's eyes narrowed, and he staggered back a step before regaining his balance. He raised a fist and swiftly punched towards Li Aoz's eyebrow, but it was just a feint. In reality, the punch immediately turned into a hand chop, slashing downwards at Li Aoz's shoulder blade.

Sizzle—

The sharp fingertip armor immediately tore through Li Aoz's clothes, but left only a shallow bloodstain.

Smack! Without any hesitation, Li Aoz threw two punches, striking Nefes's forehead and cheeks. But each time his attack landed, scales would immediately pop out from the corresponding areas of Nefes's face, greatly cushioning the impact damage.

Upon their first encounter, the two immediately stepped back, adjusted their stances, and cautiously observed each other.

"Tsk, as expected of the Final BOSS, that damage is really high..."

Li Aoz raised his hand to brush the bloodstains on his chest and clicked his tongue.

Due to the constraints of traveling by Civil Aviation, neither of them exerted their full strength and both were very restrained.

Even so, Nefes, as a [Destruction] type Deified Person, still possesses a significant advantage in close combat.

At this moment, the suppression of the [Bloodline] immediately became apparent. If it weren't for this damage reduction effect, with the 300% damage increase of the Berserker template, Li Aoz probably would have broken his ribs with that hand chop.

At the same level, Nefes, a fighter of the [Destruction] type, is almost invincible in a one-on-one fight.

Nefes slumped her shoulders, her coat being constantly lifted by the reverberating force. Her jagged pupils coldly scrutinized Li Aoz, and she also noticed that she was unable to inflict effective damage on her target.

"Miss Nalia, it seems that Lioz has a way to restrain my abilities."

She reported it to her superiors promptly.

"Limited damage, huh...?"

Nalia nodded and asked:

How are you feeling?

The scales on Nefes's face slowly disappeared, and the bruises from the punches quickly faded. She clenched her fist and said, "It's hard for me to hurt him—but Lioz can't hurt me either."

"The pirates I summoned will board the ship soon. The spaceship is equipped with a jammer, and this star system is a remote and undeveloped area. You just need to stall for time. When the time comes, they will outnumber us and take control of the spaceship as hostages. Lioz won't be able to leave even if he wants to."

Nalia glanced at the "Gambler" wearing a round-brimmed hat beside her. He didn't answer, but instead focused on arranging a set of cards on the table.

As a mysterious ritual concluded, golden light shone before the Gambler's eyes. He took a deep breath and said, "Bones, years, sun."

"How do you interpret this?" Nalia asked.

The Gambler pondered for a moment and said:

"'Bones' represents that we will lose personnel, 'Years' is related to time, and if we don't manage our time well, Lioz may escape. As for 'Sun', it means that we are still in an advantageous position, and even if things go badly, it is still a better outcome."

Upon hearing this, Nalia made a quick decision and instructed Nefes: "Nefes, I will have someone release the Dimensional Anchor. You fight him on the spaceship and don't let him find a chance to escape. As long as we stall until the pirates board the ship, it will all be over."

Nafi nodded, and said without any change in expression:

"Learn."

The next moment, her Zeta-rank aura was released without reservation! Savage, ferocious, cruel, and wild! "It's Zeta-rank!"

"Run!"

"Don't go near her, she could kill us in the blink of an eye!"

The surrounding passengers immediately screamed and scattered, fleeing in all directions, but it was too late. The aura of brutal killing almost formed a visible shockwave, radiating outwards.

Those who couldn't escape immediately fainted upon being slightly exposed to the shockwave. Some even suffered ruptured chests and bleeding, their bones breaking and twisting as if struck by a hammer.

"Aura shockwave, that's the effect of the [Life-Ending Sinister Intent] divine spark—this woman is ruthless, completely using herself as a destructive machine. Could she have chosen [Bone-Crushing Heart-Linking] for the other divine spark?"

Upon recognizing it, Li Aoz immediately prepared to release Space-time Ripple in an attempt to stop the spread of the murderous aura.

[Your current location has been fixed by Dimensional Anchor; all spacetime-related skills are prohibited.]

"The Dimensional Anchor directly locks in space—wow, that's a huge investment."

Li Aoz had no choice but to change his strategy. He stepped forward, raised his hand, and used gravity to move several nearby passengers away. Then, he stepped forward and flicked a blue light blade from the back of his right hand.

Echo Blade!

Dimensional Anchor can only seal off space, Higgs Field can only suppress Aoneng.

All of this is forcing a [Dominator] type Aoneng to step into the disadvantageous realm of melee combat.

However, Li Aoz had already prepared for this.

As an Astral Echoer, the Echo Power they possess cannot be interfered with.

Li Aoz swung his knife repeatedly, engaging Nefes in close combat. He thrust out a straight slash, but Nefes immediately raised her hand to deflect the slash. At the same time, her waist twisted rapidly, like an icebreaker, and her shoulder slammed into Li Aoz's chest.

Immediately afterwards, Nefes kicked the back of his hand, and the Echo Blade shattered instantly.

Bang! Li Aoz took a few steps back and leaned against the chair, the residual shock emanating from his body and then spreading to the chair next to him.

rustle...

An entire row of alloy seats was instantly shattered by the force of the air, turning into tiny particles that spread outwards.

Li Aoz quickly used gravity to intercept them.

The sparks generated by the casual clash between these two Zeta-rank (6) earth deities could destroy a mountain.

These are merely fragments from the aftermath of the battle, yet their destructive power is no less than that of a 500-kilogram aerial bomb, enough to kill a mortal of the Gamma-rank (3).

If they really went all out in a fight, the ship would be torn to shreds in an instant.

In that split second of subtle movement, Li Aoz was kicked again and staggered back a few steps.

"The appearance of Nefes means that Verrazzi Company has its eye on me—that's good, after all, it's Narrative-level civilization that cares about its image, and at the same time, they're sure I won't harm or affect civilians."

After several upgrades, Li Aoz's Intelligence has reached the interstellar median level. At least for this moment, the Intelligence attribute is playing its due role: quickly analyzing the situation and making reasoning judgments.

"A common problem for Echoers is that they're really bad at one-on-one fights. In the universe, she's no match for me. For Echoers, the more enemies the better. But now there are too many civilians, which makes me feel restricted and unable to perform to my full potential."

The advantage of the Echoer lies in its wide-range attack, making it particularly effective against large groups of enemies, especially when facing massive swarms of enemies.

But once it comes down to a one-on-one fight, that becomes very troublesome.

Originally, relying on Space-time Ripple and spatial jumps, their mobility was very high, but who would have thought that the other side would directly drop Dimensional Anchor to seal off space.

Li Aoz racked his brains for a long time, but he still couldn't figure out why he had been targeted.

If Verrazzi wanted revenge, he should have done it long ago. Why wait until now? Does he have something Verrazzi desperately needs? It doesn't seem so.

They wanted to capture him alive, which was tantamount to kidnapping a president of a country, and it had been planned for a long time, which made it even stranger—he had kept such a low profile for the past five years, so why was the company so reluctant to let him go? After going around in circles, Li Aoz realized that his conflict with Verrazzi Company was actually nothing special, far from warranting such a great deal of effort to capture him alive.

This left him completely confused.