A God's Name (4)

Morr's transformation had made humanity's chances even slimmer.

As long as she had the strength to hold Elfa off for an extended period, no one could stop Ji from doing as she pleased. Once the cannon fodder was slaughtered, the two of them could join forces against the more troublesome opponents.

It looked like a situation where they were almost certain to lose.

"Should we retreat first?" Xu Ying had had enough time to observe the battle. After seeing the situation clearly, he asked Xu Muchi.

Before this, no one—not even Gu Yan—had expected that so many powerful fighters would still suffer such an ugly defeat. Nearly half of the top-tier combat power had been lost, while the Herrscher remained full of vitality.

The main reason was that the Herrscher's anti-biological energy shield was far too effective against the powerful fighters of this world. If Gu Yan had not witnessed it personally, he would never have been able to imagine such a defense.

Xu Muchi had been clashing with Ji the entire time. Ji had also set her mind on picking off the weak. Before Ji, those people could forget about resisting—they did not even know how they had died. Even Xu Muchi was powerless to save them.

Should they retreat?

If they withdrew now, given the Herrscher's speed, it would merely turn the hunt into a chase. Besides, where could they retreat to? If none of them could stop the Herrscher, who else could?

The entire world was Ji's hunting ground, and she could kill as she pleased!

Xu Muchi's thoughts raced, though in reality only a brief instant had passed. Then she withdrew her sword aura.

"Trying to leave?"

"Then the nuclear weapons inside Madega will... Hm?"

Boom!

An explosion occurred inside the fortress, but the shield kept it from leaking outside.

Ji frowned. Just before the explosion, she had lost control of all the nuclear weapons inside the fortress, and she could no longer track their location.

Had they vanished into thin air?

Gu Yan had already slipped away from the area around Madega and appeared among the people besieging Ji. The nuclear weapons had also been taken into Mustard Seed Space.

While Ji was distracted, Xu Ying and the others were still some distance away, but someone reacted first and appeared behind Ji, striking out with a palm.

Bang!

That person was an old hand, and he had not intended to injure Ji. He merely struck the shield with his palm, disrupting Ji's balance. Sure enough, he succeeded, and Ji's figure staggered.

An opening!

Gu Yan had already charged forward. He brought his foot crashing down heavily from above the shield. Because he used Honkai Energy, the kick punched a hole straight through the shield!

Seizing the opportunity, Xu Ying directly drew upon his life force and condensed it into chains, sending them into the shield to bind Ji's limbs.

Hiss!

Sword light flashed. Xu Muchi's strike found its mark, piercing Ji's "heart."

Another spray of blood blossomed. Gu Yan's right hand transformed into a blade, and he slashed diagonally across the back of the Herrscher, leaving behind a hideous wound.

When Ji broke free of Xu Ying's restraints and vanished before reappearing, she was no longer cutting down powerful fighters. Instead, she stood there with an injured body and a frigid gaze.

The heavy stone in everyone's hearts fell. The god was bleeding!

"Where are you looking?"

Elfa had already transformed into human form. He slammed a fist into Morr's back, heavily injuring his distracted opponent.

After becoming a living being, Morr had gained the ability to feel pain. He staggered two steps from the blow, but his gaze remained fixed on Ji.

"You'd better worry about whether you can stay alive!" Elfa snorted.

"Heh heh... Hahahaha!" Ji's laughter carried a touch of madness, making everyone's scalps prickle.

Her wounds were still bleeding, especially the one from Gu Yan's blade, which refused to heal.

"You can't kill me." Her tone was certain, as if she were merely stating a fact.

Gu Yan remained vigilant, his palm constantly sweating from tension.

"She's at the end of her rope! Kill her!"

Someone shouted, and a dense barrage of attacks immediately locked onto Ji. In her condition, she could not withstand them head-on. The shield shattered, and although it finished repairing itself, its radiance had already dimmed. Before everyone's eyes, the Herrscher seemed like a flickering candle in the wind.

"Ignorant and fearless insects."

Ji's figure vanished before she charged into the crowd. She held a blade in one hand and a sword in the other, moving no slower than before.

The blade swept horizontally. One person failed to dodge in time and was cut in half. The sharp sword thrust out, and another person was pierced through the chest.

Xu Ying tried to close in, but Ji directly threw both weapons at him. He could only twist aside to avoid one, while the other blade stabbed straight into his flank. The entire blade sank in, and the impact of the hilt knocked Xu Ying backward.

At that moment, Gu Yan saw the Herrscher's gaze lock onto him, and his warning bells went off. He watched her movements closely, extending one arm to block in front of himself and protect vital areas such as his heart from attack.

Ji charged and appeared beside Gu Yan. He had been watching her the whole time, so his reaction was equally swift. He kept one hand in reserve for defense and thrust the other at her, attempting to break through the shield again and create an opportunity for the Ability User.

"Weak!"

With a bang, Ji struck Gu Yan's lower back with a whip kick, directly shaking his internal organs until they bled. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. If he had not been prepared in advance, he would likely have been sent flying.

"Cough, cough!"

The Herrscher left after merely delivering that kick. She had no intention of killing Gu Yan at all, leaving him both shaken and deeply puzzled.

That kick had been brutally vicious, though.

If his constitution had been even fifty points lower, that kick would have sent him straight to the grave.

"She definitely knows I'm a Herrscher. Otherwise, I'd already be dead!" Gu Yan reached a conclusion.

Xu Muchi followed closely behind Ji. The moment Ji paused after heavily injuring Gu Yan, Xu Muchi immediately prepared to strike. She had thought Gu Yan could hold Ji up for a moment, but the Herrscher had left after only kicking him, without pausing at all.

Even so, Xu Muchi had judged the Herrscher's next move during that brief instant. She directly slashed out several streams of Sword Qi, injuring the Herrscher again.

"It's useless. It's useless!"

Ji's voice came from nowhere. When everyone looked toward the source, she had already appeared in another direction.

Crack!

The sound of breaking bones rang out. Ji, already covered in more than a dozen wounds of varying sizes, appeared again with one hand clamped around a person's throat. Her seemingly delicate fingers were like the claws of the Grim Reaper, crushing the person's cervical vertebrae.

Her chest rose and fell continuously, clearly showing that she had expended an enormous amount of stamina.

"Let's see how much longer you can keep holding on!"

Every person she killed added to her injuries. As long as those people were not killed instantly, their desperate counterattacks would damage Ji's shield and body.

This slaughter had been going on for a long time. Even the sea wind could barely disperse the stench of blood. Almost all the A-Class fighters had died, and the S-Class fighters had suffered losses of one-third. The Herrscher had killed them as easily as crushing ants.

"Are humanity's powerful fighters only capable of running their mouths?"

"You keep calling us humans, but in the end, you're still going to die at our hands!"

The battle temporarily came to a halt. It was not only the Herrscher who was running out of stamina—the flesh-and-blood humans were even more exhausted.

"Hmph!"

Ji snorted coldly and tilted to one side.

Sword light flashed. Xu Muchi stood with her sword in hand where the Herrscher had just been.

"How pitiful~"

Ji's voice drifted over. Xu Muchi reacted swiftly and immediately thrust forward.

Ding!

Ji stood gracefully on the tip of Xu Muchi's sword. Her expression was impossible to make out, and she was still carrying the corpses of two Ability Users. She had apparently just charged into the crowd again and crushed the two people to death.

The sight struck everyone with tremendous force. Even though they were unafraid of death, this scene still filled them with a fear that came from the depths of their hearts.

And with it came the despair of realizing that humanity could never stand against her!

"Curious why I keep calling you humans? Because—"

"Everything I say and do is the will of God!"