Caught off guard, Huai Shi had no time to react. Instinctively, he leaned back into a bridge, narrowly avoiding the gruesome fate of having his skull smashed apart.
Then he felt a fierce gust blowing into his crotch.
Only then did he realize that hammer had struck the ground right between his legs. It had nearly hit the wrong target and almost cost him his dear friends and family.
He wanted to call for a timeout, but the blood-crazed Crowned One gave Huai Shi no chance at all.
"Die, Current Realm man."
The bloated, obese Crowned One, a mountain of flesh, wielded four weapons in its four arms: a bizarre cleaver, a black iron wok, a giant spatula, and a rolling-pin-like iron hammer—tools that felt especially familiar to a Culinary Demon. The huge mouth on its chest roared:
"I'm going to coat you in batter and roast you into Beef Wellington for a snack!!!"
"Don't, brother."
Huai Shi dodged miserably. In his Overlimit State, his Yu Steps were incredibly swift. "There's not an ounce of fat on me. I'm tough as hell, won't render any grease when roasted. You'd be better off making soup."
"Soup? With so little meat, you don't even count as seasoning, and you want to make soup!"
The mountain-of-flesh Crowned One grinned viciously. More than a dozen huge eyeballs spun across its face, locking tightly onto Huai Shi's evasive path. Its four arms rose, and the enormous cleaver and rolling pin slammed down in an unending barrage, closing in from both sides.
The raised iron wok suddenly overturned, spewing out an ocean of thick, fragrant gravy. Everywhere it passed became like lava, heating iron and stone until they glowed red and scorching away more than half of Huai Shi's waist-length hair, leaving him utterly bedraggled.
Yet