The So-Called Pincer Movement

A pincer movement was actually a simple form of attack. The idea came from Tenet: advance through time in both directions toward a single point, forcing the enemy to face twice the attackers and twice the blows.

Put simply, Jodio at level 40 and Jodio at level 60 launched a temporal assault together. One moved forward through time normally, while the other moved backward. Both converged on the position Jodio occupied at level 50 and attacked the enemy there at the same moment.

The enemy at that point had to withstand an attack from both sides. More simply still, Jodio was bringing in reinforcements. More people on his side meant an easier fight.

Fortunately, Jodio's External Soul Bone could reverse time. It could send him back to a point in his own past that he chose. The drawback was that he lost his future memories and abilities. Apart from the Soul Bone, his body and mind reverted completely to their state at that point. It was a lifesaving ability, much like resetting spacetime in The Unmatched Warriors.

The ability's one advantage was that it gave him déjà vu: the feeling that something had happened before. That feeling could steer events in a better direction. It often saved Jodio's life, and that tiny opening could be enough to turn defeat into victory.

But that approach was too timid. Jodio had developed a new way to use it: Tenet.

With a reverse-time retreat, he kept his memories. The problem was that he could not act as he pleased during it; he could only retrace what he had already done, in reverse. If he took a wrong turn while driving and wanted to go back, he had to follow his original route exactly. He could not switch roads halfway and find a new way. This approach had two advantages, and together they made Jodio unbeatable by anyone below godhood.

First, he kept his memories, so he was not left ignorant of the future. Second, someone moving backward through time could genuinely interact with someone moving forward. In other words, if he planned for it at the start of a fight, he could launch a pincer movement. Once the battle reached a certain point, he would reverse time, letting his forward-moving and backward-moving selves strike in turn at crucial moments to deal greater damage.

There was also a double time reversal, but Jodio did not dare try it. One glance told him it was riddled with Ubisoft-grade bugs. He might end up getting himself killed.

That was Jodio's temporal pincer movement—the secret to his sweeping victories. But that damned divine power seemed to take priority, leaving him no choice but to combine his ninth soul ring's Ouroboros Dream with the time reversal of his External Soul Bone.

King Crimson's ninth soul ring, Requiem: Ouroboros Dream, let him travel directly through time. He could move along any timeline he knew, subject to two conditions. First, the timeline had to be known to him. Second, he could not meet his past self directly or make his past self aware of his existence. Otherwise, the resulting paradox would make the traveler vanish. There were no other restrictions. The ability was absurdly overpowered.

But as the name suggested, Ouroboros Dream was only a dream. Traveling into the past could not change what was destined to happen. The ability existed solely to give Jodio a chance to make himself impossible to defeat: he could keep traveling to earlier points on the timeline and survive. If only Scumbag Boss or Yoshikage Kira had it. It would suit either of them perfectly.

But what if he combined it with time reversal? Then he really could change things. Time reversal gave him a new opportunity, because completing it could genuinely alter events on the timeline. Time travel, meanwhile, let him avoid its side effects. Jodio no longer had to erase his memories or retreat step by step, and he could reach an even earlier timeline!

That was how the Self-Created Soul Skill Time Reversal was born. He could leap straight into a past timeline and start again until he reached the future he wanted. That was Jodio's emperor-level power!

This method had a few problems, though. First, traveling to a point in the past where he had not existed demanded immense temporal and mental power. Staying within his own timeline was the only way to avoid that problem; otherwise, the consequences could be unpredictable. He had already seen one consequence. Here, he had felt the barrier between worlds and had been forced back to his six-year-old self with level-five Soul Power to avoid being expelled. He essentially had to level his character all over again.

Second, divine power seemed to have absolute priority in the world of Douluo Continent. Somehow, Jodio's time passage had been discovered, making it easy to destroy ahead of time and force him to interrupt his reversal. An opponent with even a little control over time or gravity could disrupt it more easily still. That was why Jodio could beat up just about anyone on Douluo Continent, yet ran into trouble whenever he faced God King Tang.

Driven into a corner, he had launched his temporal pincer movement. If he stayed on a short stretch of the timeline, Tang San could catch him. But what if he stretched it across ten thousand years? That bastard could not follow him then. To enter, Tang San would have to drop in level and start over alongside him. Otherwise, he could only stare helplessly at the time passage. Even destroying it with a discontinuous temporal jump would do no good; that would not forcibly drag Jodio back.

He did not even have to jump. He could simply wait ten thousand years for the timelines to merge. The Tang San of the future would vanish on his own, and his timeline would be absorbed. Yuhao and the other brothers would suffer for it, though. They surely would not remember any of this. Well, giving them perfect lives and helping them become gods would still count as a great success. If they forgot him, so be it.

All these interlocking factors left God King Tang staring at the time passage in frustration. The world's power would swiftly swallow and absorb most attacks, making it hard to injure Jodio as he was now. Both attacks had been laughable. They were just energy blasts with no tracking ability. Jodio could dodge them easily!

Damn it, Tang San! Once I become a god, I'll turn you into Sister Tang San. First I'll send you to Kars to have your legs touched, then to DIO to be played with like a little bread roll. After that, Scumbag Boss can slice you up. I'll revive you and send you to the priest to serve as a hymn player, then to the commander to play his mysterious little game with his wife. Finally, I'll send you to Tooru and make you touch his rocky parts, damn it!

Jodio cursed inwardly as he beat the Flame Bull to vent his anger. What a ridiculous creature! It was only a little bigger than usual; there was nothing scary about it. If its body was on fire, he would switch to Silver Chariot and keep hitting it. He really was furious. Don't come making trouble when I'm already pissed off! Otherwise, I'll turn you into cumin beef, braised beef, cold-dressed beef, beef balls, beef-bone soup, and beef vermicelli soup, damn it!

"Whoa! Little Jodio, stop! You're going to kill it!" Flender rushed over and blocked Jodio's next blow. Stone Free's strength and Silver Chariot's speed astonished him, forcing him to take Jodio even more seriously. That kind of power would be hard for even a Soul Grandmaster to overcome. At the very least, Jodio could fight above his level.

Even the weakest hundred-year soul beast was still a hundred-year soul beast, let alone a Flame Bull suited to battle. Jodio's first soul skill could actually withstand its strength? Flender could hardly imagine it.

"This Flame Bull's attributes and age are just right for Hongjun. Little Jodio, spare it for him," Flender suggested.

"All right, then." Jodio gradually calmed down. He withdrew Silver Chariot and sat beneath a tree to rest. Hongjun and Oscar heard the commotion and came out. Soon, it was time for Hongjun to happily absorb a soul ring. And just like that, their third soul ring was born.

"Boss! You're amazing! I'll be your little brother for life!" Oscar said, gazing at Jodio in admiration.

"Hmph. You already should be." Oscar's childish words lifted Jodio's mood, and he spoke with his usual DIO-like pride and confidence.

"Let's see what soul skill Hongjun got. If it's a defensive one, the three of us could actually work together," Jodio joked.

"How?" Oscar asked, puzzled.

"You carry Hongjun in front. Hongjun uses his defensive soul skill to take the hits, while you stay behind him and keep summoning sausages to restore his strength and heal his injuries. Then I hide behind you both and attack from a distance. Perfect, right?" Jodio said.

"Boss, you don't hold back," Oscar said with an admiring gasp.

"Boss! I think you're treating me a little badly."

As soon as Hongjun finished absorbing the soul ring, he heard this outrageous proposal. Worse, the two of them began discussing it in earnest. His heart shattered. I'm supposed to be Boss's best brother, aren't I? Oscar, why would you set me up? Was this part of your plan too!?

"What soul skill did you get?" Jodio asked, cutting straight to the point.

"A defensive skill: Phoenix Scorching Flame Protective Shield. It makes the flames around me swell and absorbs fifty percent of Soul Power impacts. The more it absorbs, the shorter it lasts." Hongjun summoned his phoenix martial soul with a roar and activated his first soul skill.

Reddish-purple flames coiled around him, gradually taking the shape of fiery armor. The longer Jodio looked, the more Hongjun resembled that little chubby guy from The Unmatched Warriors. Not bad. Hongjun was bound to have a sinister future; a speed-and-defense build would leave his opponents miserable.

Currently available information:

Martial soul: Evil Phoenix (level 11)

Holder: Hongjun

Soul ring: Yellow (210-year Flame Bull)

Destructive power: B, speed: E+, range: D, stamina: D, precision: E, growth potential: A

Martial soul ability: Summons roaring flames and a phantom phoenix to envelop the user, increasing attack power and speed. This martial soul has poor endurance, however, and is better suited to hit-and-run combat.

Phoenix Scorching Flame Protective Shield halves the impact the user takes and expands the flames' reach. Combined with the martial soul's high attack power and fairly high speed, it can produce excellent results.

Note: The six attribute grades are based primarily on raw values and secondarily on comparisons within the user's current realm. In other words, a martial soul with a major weakness might still receive a C or D in one area even at level 90. Likewise, an advantage within its realm, especially early on, might still earn only a C or D if the raw value is too low.