Turning Offense into Defense × Youpi's Death

"Boom!"

The roar of the battleground resumed.

The Palace, which already had a huge gap in the middle due to Youpi's self-destruction, trembled violently once again, and a corner of it collapsed.

Gravel and rubble poured down like a torrential rain, stirring up thick dust that obscured the moonlight.

Amidst the billowing smoke and dust.

A figure leaped into the air like an arrow released from a bow.

It was Kevin.

He hovered in mid-air, his sharp eyes fixed on a certain spot in the smoke and dust below.

Pull your right arm back to its limit, like a full-moon bow.

Layer upon layer of Hexagonal Barrier lay before him, burning fiercely. The scorching heat instantly distorted the surrounding air, producing tiny crackling sounds.

"Red Comet."

Call out-!

A sharp, piercing screech seemed to reach my ears, a sound like the air being roughly torn apart.

Kevin's figure vanished into thin air in an instant, leaving only a faint, straight, pale red trail in the air after the air was torn apart.

"Bang!"

A deafening explosion rang out, and the entire ground instantly looked as if it had been bombarded by a meteorite. Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the edges, and the surface floor and rubble were shaken up and thrown into the air as if weightless.

And at the very center of the landing point.

The overwhelming impact forcefully pushed aside and crushed the surrounding smoke and dust, creating a clearly visible vacuum zone.

"Ah, cough cough!"

What followed was a piercing scream, followed by painful coughing.

Kevin calmly stood up from the deep pit.

Youpi's enormous body was now deeply embedded in the pit.

The area from the waist and abdomen to the hips was completely rotten, as if it had been repeatedly run over by a ten-thousand-ton truck.

This shockingly rotten area is being repaired by the writhing of his flesh, but the repair process is noticeably slower and no longer as rapid as before.

The scorching temperature was spreading wildly and burning the surrounding area. The repaired flesh and blood turned charred yellow under the residual high temperature, then blackened, until it turned to ashes.

The parts that are relatively intact at the top and bottom, thanks to their evolved and tougher outer shell, are able to barely withstand the high temperatures.

This is a defensive ability that Youpi gained after his body evolved; his outer shell can withstand high temperatures.

However, once Kevin's heavy blow precisely penetrated this outer layer, the relatively fragile flesh inside could not withstand such high temperatures.

Furthermore, if the body's resistance to high temperatures is enhanced, then the pure physical defense will naturally decrease; the two cannot be achieved simultaneously.

"Aaaaaah!"

Youpi unleashed a final burst of madness, roaring as the remaining energy within him coalesced into a beam and shot out of his mouth.

Its limbs also transformed into different tentacles, attacking indiscriminately in the surrounding area.

Kevin made a light back jump, creating distance between them.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Youpi gritted his teeth, barely managed to heal his injuries, and struggled to jump out of the pit.

At this moment, Youpi was bent over heavily, breathing heavily, clearly indicating that his injuries would not be easy to heal.

His face was a mixture of pain and anger, his bloodshot eyes burning with fury as he stared intently at Kevin.

He no longer had the energy or strength to evolve additional eyes around himself.

Kevin stood opposite him, calmly waving his hand.

"You're really tough, I'm sure I can take a beating. I haven't killed you yet." Kevin said with a hint of helplessness and a touch of admiration on his face.

Youpi stopped roaring and cursing as before and became unusually quiet, almost deathly still.

This long and brutal battle had forced him to calm down; neither useless anger nor absolute composure could truly help him defeat his opponent.

In this situation, staying calm is the only option; you must force yourself to rationally control your anger.

He's reached this stage again.

However, through this brutal confrontation, he has come to understand his responsibilities with unwavering clarity, and his goals have never been so steadfast and pure.

After Kevin easily tore off one of his arms, Youpi finally understood.

What he needs to do now is not to kill Kevin or eliminate Kevin, but to return to the King's side.

All he had to do now was stand there, right in front of Kevin, and do everything in his power to stop Kevin from going to the king's side.

Such an enemy, if he were to appear before the king, would surely cause him immeasurable harm.

This is a huge threat.

So before that, he had to risk his life to hold the other side back.

Kevin looked at Youpi across from him, discerning the determination in his eyes, and roughly knew what the other was thinking.

After Youpi changed his strategy, he clearly noticed that Youpi's offensive methods began to change, and his physical modifications gradually shifted to a focus entirely on defense.

In other words, Youpi has now become a stubborn punching bag, standing in front of Kevin with unparalleled tenacity and no skill whatsoever.

He was determined to use his own life to hold Kevin back.

He couldn't do anything to Kevin, but if Kevin wanted to kill him, he would have to pay a considerable price in time.

It takes some effort to disassemble a turtle's shell.

"Sometimes I really admire the structure of your tribe. Whenever anything relates to someone you're Loyalty to, your minds start working like clockwork," Kevin said, somewhat helplessly.

The guy opposite him was essentially a brainless brute, but the moment Kevin's strength threatened the Queen, his brain seemed to be forcibly opened.

We have found the best solution at present.

After saying that, Kevin stopped looking at him, stood still, dusted off non-existent dust from his clothes, and turned to look solemnly in a certain direction.

That was the direction Netero led the Ant King away in.

Almost a thousand minutes have passed since the Ant King left.

Judging by the time, even if it's slow, they should have already reached one of the expected locations, which means the battle there is probably about to begin.

Or perhaps it has already begun.

He didn't have much time left and couldn't afford to waste any more time on this heavy "sandbag" in front of him.

That concludes the warm-up.

As he spoke, Kevin's eyes suddenly sharpened, like a predator locking onto its prey, fixing their gaze on Youpi. He leaned forward slightly and crouched down.

Looking at Kevin's poised and ready stance, as if he were determined to kill him.

A suffocating, indescribable power swept over like a tsunami.

Youpi, whose very being is constructed purely from the genes of wild beasts, was completely aroused by instinctive fear, as if it had seen its natural enemy.

Those blood-red eyes widened suddenly in horror.

Then a low growl came from his throat, his teeth were clenched, his body was rooted to the ground, and he almost instinctively assumed the strongest defensive stance.

When Kevin's gaze locked onto him as if it were a tangible presence.

Death, inescapable, inevitable destruction.

These cold and desperate feelings and thoughts were like countless electric drills relentlessly drilling into his head.

Youpi's body began to change uncontrollably and wildly.

The muscles bulged and stretched, layer upon layer, transforming like a living thing, creating layer upon layer of thick, solid mass.

The armor-like shell resembles that of a fortress.

They wrapped themselves up tightly in layers upon layers of clothing.

He had completely lost the will to run away or hide; he only wanted to stay where he was and do everything in his power to withstand the attack.

Because there was no room to escape or hide.

That's what his deepest fear instinct told him.

Kevin's Snake Scale began to appear like flowing water, and they appeared on his right fist.

From his fingers to his entire shoulder, he was covered in Snake Scale that shimmered with a cold silver light. In front of his fist, a hexagonal barrier, like countless glass Chip, had completely materialized and appeared, tightly packed together, like a constantly rotating, energy-accumulating gauntlet.

The Hexagonal Barrier, its temperature soaring rapidly, became as scorching as the core of a furnace, transforming into something akin to a red-hot branding iron, radiating a blinding light.

And from the gap in his clenched fist, a kind of viscous, pitch-black smoke, filled with pure malice, faintly emanated.

The pervasive black smoke and dust seemed to flow and entwine subtly like living things in the gaps between the overlapping Snake Scale.

The entire arm seemed to be steaming and spraying some kind of black smoke from the inside out, but this smoke did not dissipate; instead, it was like ribbons of smoke that were alive and tightly bound to the hand.

A gentle breeze whispered softly, sweeping over and enveloping Kevin.

Within his body, multiple abilities acquired through the drug began to fuse in the crucible of his will.

This is a move that cannot be used under normal circumstances because the preparation time is too long and too troublesome.

At least that's how it is for Kevin right now.

The consumption isn't much; it's just that to precisely and stably integrate so many abilities into a single move requires expending one's mental energy, layering, compressing, and guiding them little by little.

At least in the fight against Netero, this move is completely unusable, because Netero won't give him even a second to prepare.

Now, this overwhelming destructive power alone is enough to completely suppress Youpi.

A slender yet condensed stream of Nen Aura shot out like a thin thread, instantly and precisely striking and anchoring itself on Youpi's body.

The thin thread, like a taut rope, was deathly still, connecting him to his body.

"Round"

An extremely concise, thin, and straight circle.

"Boom!"

It wasn't a real loud noise, but a deafening roar that shook the very soul, followed by a deathly silence that annihilated everything.

It was as if some invisible force was forcibly pushing away all the surrounding sound waves.

The moment Kevin threw a punch like a drawn bow.

His body also shot forward in sync.

It's like a straight line, guided by the absolute principle of "circle".

The scorching hexagonal barrier first collided with the opponent's outermost shell.

The scorching barrier carried a temperature hot enough to melt gold and fossilize it, and an overwhelming force that could not be resisted.

With a crisp "crack," the first outer shell shattered instantly.

As the outer shell cracked, the terrifying high temperature instantly eroded and spread, melting a charred hole with a hissing sound.

The force of the impact remained undiminished, and it continued forward.

Only after it forcefully broke through the two layers of hard shells Youpi could the barrier exhaust its energy and collapse.

Immediately afterwards, the fist, covered in cold, Silver Scales, slammed solidly into the Third Tier of defense without any fancy moves.

The pure, concentrated power erupted at this moment, and the concentrated force instantly blasted a large hole, just wide enough for a fist to pass through, with cracks all around the edges, through the Third Tier hard shell.

Once the core of the hard shell is breached, the entire hard shell structure collapses instantly, becoming extremely fragile.

The Third Tier, fourth, and fifth layers of defense—the subsequent defenses crumbled one after another like paper.

It seems very slow.

But it seemed to shatter in the blink of an eye.

Youpi's chaotic thoughts couldn't comprehend why time seemed to move at different speeds, and why his own thoughts seemed to stretch out in varying lengths.

All he knew was that his body was pinned to the spot by that terrifying aura, unable to move.

Thoughts raced faster than the body, and the body wouldn't obey.

The fist covered in Silver Scales rapidly magnified in his vision, almost within reach. He could clearly see the scales on the fist reflecting a soft, moonlit glow.

I saw black smoke emanating from between the fingers, from the gaps in the scales, like the aura of Abyss.

I could feel the sheer malice emanating from that fist, a pure and unadulterated malice towards the ant race, a force that seemed to hold all their will.

Malice is so cold and pure.

The sole purpose was to exterminate the Chimera Ant species.

This malice, this aura, in this state of mental and temporal distortion, seemed to have made Youpi's dying consciousness sense something.

"Is this the meteorite that Youpi was talking about? The meteorite that came from outer space and caused a mass extinction of our race?"

The frenzied exclamations of Youpi, fueled by his emotions, became crystal clear at this moment.

He didn't know why the poetic descriptions that Youpi had been spouting like a madman had suddenly popped into his head.

But he just remembered.

The fist finally landed on his face.

At that moment, time seemed to speed up suddenly.

But he could no longer feel it; his thoughts were completely severed by the absolute force the moment the fist touched him.

"Boom!"

A truly deafening roar echoed through the night sky.

From a distance, the last corner of the Palace that had been standing behind Youpi was blasted through by the sudden, invisible force that pierced through it like a beam of energy.

It was as if some kind of impact, like a devastating hammer blow, had struck.

The building collapsed with a deafening roar, its broken walls turning to dust, and all the sand and stones sprayed out like cannonballs.

A long, completely flattened passageway appeared, empty of everything; all obstructions vanished in an instant.

The power of this punch was unleashed without reservation.

Kevin slowly exhaled, his arm trailing a wisp of white smoke, and withdrew.

Before me lay Youpi's red body, or rather, his corpse.

Because it no longer has a head.

From the neck upwards, there was nothing left, along with that angry expression, all vanished.

In an instant, at the moment of fist contact and the explosion of force, the brain is completely destroyed.

Youpi's body didn't have time to make any changes or alterations. Even if there was a theoretical opportunity, the hard shell he used to block had already been completely exhausted.

The lifeless, massive red body swayed, knelt down, and then collapsed heavily to the ground.