Meanwhile.
Reilo's Siphon Technique had locked onto a second Ancient Flame Holy Bird. As he clenched his right hand, the vortex-shaped fire clouds high above turned into a hundred-meter hand and squeezed shut.
Amid a shrill scream, the corpse of the enormous bird, over seventy meters long, plunged from the sky.
A bloody, web-like parasite crawled out of the corpse. It was the Painted Skin Demon.
Floating in the air, it was now a vicious, web-shaped face dozens of meters across, its savage appearance all the more striking on this desperate battlefield. It hurriedly searched for a third target.
Clang.
Suddenly,
a massive energy shield formed around the Shadow Giant, blocking the black-flame sword.
Reilo, who was using the Siphon Technique on a third Ancient Flame Holy Bird, glanced sideways at the swordsman, who was likewise enveloped in a distorted shadow.
He stood less than two meters tall, considerably shorter than Reilo in his Shadow Giant form. Now, he focused all his attention on the tiny cracks in the 1024 Nights Guardian Shield where the tip of his sword had pierced it.
"So you can be hurt, too!"
Man and sword became one.
"You want to kill a god, too?"
A shadowy hand suddenly struck out and seized the shadow.
With a metallic scraping sound, the shadow dispersed, revealing a silver-white metal monster shaped like a stick insect.
It declared arrogantly, "You want to kill me? It won't be that ea—"
Before it could finish, Reilo used Harmless Suggestion to alter its physical form. When the shadowy hand squeezed again, the stick-insect-like creature's head was crushed with ease.
The Shadow Giant casually tossed aside the headless corpse.
With its master gone, the black-flame sword dimmed and fell from the crack in the 1024 Nights Guardian Shield.
The crack flashed and