Battle Against Huo Wu

Even though Huo Wu usually acted like a bold, domineering big sister, she was still a girl at heart.

Naturally, she did not want to be beaten up and embarrassed in public, so she chose a private two-person training ground.

The two stood at opposite ends of the training ground, cautiously on guard. A teacher waited in the corner, ready at any moment to prevent an accident.

"Make your move, Sister Huo Wu."

As Lin Huo spoke, he activated Martial Soul Possession. Charmander's Soul Power phantom enveloped him.

On the other side, Huo Wu was unwilling to be outdone and activated her Martial Soul as well.

"My Martial Soul is Fire Shadow, a control-type Battle Soul Master. My Soul Power Level is nineteen. Little Huo, you'd better be careful."

With Huo Wu's warning, the shadow beneath her feet began to undergo a very peculiar change before Lin Huo's eyes.

The Martial Soul known as Fire Shadow was extremely unusual. Though it was a beast Martial Soul, it transformed from Huo Wu's shadow into a humanoid form and attached itself behind her.

Compared to other beast Martial Souls that directly enveloped their Soul Master's body, the form and structure of the Fire Shadow Martial Soul could not have been more different.

Lin Huo stared at the Fire Shadow behind Huo Wu, intensely interested in this Martial Soul.

A Martial Soul formed from one's own shadow sounded like a body Martial Soul, yet Fire Shadow was instead entirely composed of powerful fire elements.

In terms of sheer strangeness, he figured only Ghost Douluo's Ghost Martial Soul could compare with Fire Shadow.

But there was something else he cared about even more.

Your Martial Soul is literally called Fire Shadow. So do you have the Will of Fire to protect Konoha or not?

A washbasin-sized fireball suddenly came flying at him, only for Lin Huo to casually slap it apart into a sky full of sparks.

Huo Wu had chosen to attack first. Like brother, like sister—just like Huo Wushuang, she was fundamentally competitive, domineering, and ferocious.

It was just that Lin Huo had not known Huo Wu for long, and Lin Huo himself was smooth and tactful in his dealings, so he had yet to see Huo Wu's true nature.

When the probing fireball she had thrown was casually slapped away, Huo Wu felt a hint of pressure.

Just as in the battle she had seen yesterday, Lin Huo's fire resistance was so high that it was nearly despairing.

In fact, for today's battle, she had spent the entire previous night analyzing the abilities Lin Huo had displayed in combat and searching for ways to deal with them.

Unfortunately, even after racking her brains until nearly dawn, she still had not come up with a plan that could restrain Lin Huo.

There was no helping it. Lin Huo's abilities were simply too plain and straightforward.

High fire resistance and immense strength—those two traits alone completely shut down every fire-attribute Soul Master, leaving them without the slightest means of countering him.

By now, the only thing she could think of was to circle and wear him down during the battle, waiting for Lin Huo to expose a flaw himself.

As she retreated, she used her Martial Soul's abilities to continuously throw fireballs at Lin Huo, probing him.

Relying on a Soul Master's greater speed over a Soul Warrior's, Huo Wu refused to fight Lin Huo head-on.

Lin Huo was strong enough, and his straightforward bursts of speed were certainly fast, but he lacked flexibility when changing direction.

He could have ended the battle in just a few moves if he got close, yet Huo Wu used the agility of a Soul Master to keep him at bay, and Lin Huo could not even touch the hem of her clothes.

After chasing her around for a while, how could Lin Huo not guess Huo Wu's intentions? He immediately changed tactics and stopped where he was.

"I say, Sister Huo Wu, all you've done while running around is throw fireballs. They hurt less than mosquito bites. Does fighting like this really count as sparring?"

Trash talk could also be a weapon for numbing an enemy, and Lin Huo naturally would not leave it unused.

Sure enough, after that taunt, Huo Wu stopped retreating.

As a nineteenth-level Soul Master being chased all over the field by a sixth-level Soul Warrior, Huo Wu had already found it hard to save face.

Now that Lin Huo had mocked her, her pride made her face flush red.

However, a single cutting taunt was clearly far from enough to make Huo Wu lose her mind.

So although she had stopped retreating, Huo Wu still kept all her attention on Lin Huo and remained cautiously on guard.

Deep down, she was still unwilling to accept it. Even though she knew her performance had indeed been poor, Huo Wu stubbornly snapped back:

"What do you know! Every measure has its limits and strengths. I know perfectly well that I'm far weaker than you in strength. Should I stupidly fight you head-on anyway?"

Lin Huo smiled. "Sister Huo Wu, you're right. In battle, you should indeed use your strengths to strike at your enemy's weaknesses, but..."

Before he finished speaking, Lin Huo exploded forward and rushed at Huo Wu. Yet she still nimbly dodged away.

"Little Huo, Little Huo, I never knew you were this underhanded!"

Huo Wu looked shaken after evading his pursuit. If she had relaxed her guard even slightly just now, the moment Lin Huo closed in and entangled her in close combat, the battle could have been declared over.

On the other side, Lin Huo showed no frustration despite failing to achieve anything. He merely smiled easily. "Sister Huo Wu, don't put it that way. Using words to numb your enemy is also a very practical battle strategy."

"Hmph! That actually makes sense. No wonder you're the dog-headed strategist I picked."

Facing a monster like Lin Huo gave Huo Wu a profound sense of helplessness.

But Lin Huo's words had truly struck her sweet spot, and she gave him a heartfelt compliment.

There was no point in endlessly playing a game of chase and escape, and Lin Huo was starting to find it boring too.

Fortunately, he had found a way to end the battle. He asked Huo Wu one final question: "Sister Huo Wu, do you really not plan on facing me head-on?"

"Face you head-on? Are you joking?" Huo Wu looked at Lin Huo as if he were an idiot.

Even her brother, a Soul Master with the top-tier beast Martial Soul One-Horned Flame Tyrannosaur, could only go flying through the air when facing Lin Huo's monstrous strength.

She was a control-type Soul Master, and she was supposed to fight Lin Huo head-on? She might as well be dreaming.

"Fine. Sister Huo Wu, if you don't intend to compete in close combat, then I'm going to end this battle."

"Big words! You want to end the battle? Then come on and try it!"

Huo Wu naturally did not believe Lin Huo, who could not even touch her. She planned to keep dragging things out until Lin Huo's stamina was exhausted, then claim victory.

Seeing that Huo Wu was truly out of options, Lin Huo prepared to end the match now that he had thought of a solution.

He stomped hard, crushing a small patch of the training ground beneath his foot into broken stones. The powerful rebound force made Lin Huo wince in pain.

Putting all his points into strength and none into defense really was tough when he encountered something hard.

When Huo Wu saw Lin Huo suddenly stomp his foot, she immediately assumed he had done it out of anger. A smug look appeared on her face as she mocked him:

"Hey, why are you stomping your foot in anger? If you can't touch your big sister here, there's no shame in just admitting defeat."

Lin Huo did not care about Huo Wu's mockery in the slightest. He merely spoke in an eerie tone:

"Do you know, Sister Huo Wu? Back then, our ancestors discovered something, and with it, they established their position as the rulers of nature in one stroke."

"What was it?" Huo Wu sensed that something was wrong.

"Our ancestors discovered that living things are allergic to rocks."

Lin Huo had already picked up the broken stones from the ground. With the boost of fourfold strength, fist-sized rocks would become the deadliest of weapons.