Voidworm, Fusion Beast

Vroom, vroom, vroom!

Rover and Lynae rode together on a Motorcycle, racing out of the Academy with the Voidworm in pursuit.

"Why are you here?!"

Lynae clearly hadn't expected Rover to appear beside her, much less carry her out of the Voidworm's attack.

"That's what I should be asking you."

Rover clearly hadn't expected Lynae to give up her chance to escape for her classmates' safety and stand in the monster's path.

"Haha. Before I knew it, my body had already moved..."

Lynae scratched her head sheepishly from the back seat.

"Next, we need to lure the Voidworm to the defense arrays."

Rover glanced at the monster close behind them, her expression resolute.

Before she came to Lahai Luo, the Void Threnodian had devoured part of her frequency. That was why the Threnodian creation behind them was so fixated on her.

But now, that had become an opportunity.

Thanks to it, she could hold the monster's attention.

At the same time, Mo Bai sped along the Voidworm's trail.

One thing was giving him trouble, though.

Speed.

His Motorcycle was also made by the Academy, but it was nowhere near as fast as Lynae's.

"Tch. Who knew a delinquent's ingenuity would come in handy now?" Mo Bai joked with a frown.

If he understood how the Motorcycle worked, he could have modified it and poured in some Cursed Energy to make it go faster.

But he had no time to teach himself now...

Vroom, vroom!

"Hm?"

Just as Mo Bai was struggling with the problem, the Motorcycle beneath him sped up.

Huh?

Beep~

Puzzled, Mo Bai followed the sudden notification sound to the Motorcycle's display.

A pink-haired pixel girl waved at him from the screen, seemingly cheering him on.

"Help from the Academy? Perfect timing. Then while I have the chance..."

Vroom!

Mo Bai twisted the throttle hard, pushing the Motorcycle up another notch.

By then, Lynae and Rover had divided their tasks.

Lynae would keep the Voidworm occupied while Rover activated the defense arrays in different directions.

"Tch. This equipment drains more Resonance than I thought..."

Racing the Voidworm across the wasteland, Lynae seized a brief opening to catch her breath.

The Academy's new equipment could hurt the Voidworm, but it consumed an enormous amount of Resonance.

At this rate, Lynae felt she was nearing Overclocking.

The Voidworm didn't care.

All it knew was that its enemy's weakest moment was the best time to strike.

"Roar!"

It threw back its head and roared, then slithered toward Lynae at full speed.

Boom!

The enormous worm burst from the ground. It looked ready to repay the girl for its injuries with twice as much fury.

Whoosh!

"Divine Dogs! Nue! Eclipse of the Heavenly Dog!"

Lynae heard a familiar voice from afar. Something strange arrived even faster than the sound.

It was a giant wolfhound the size of an adult, with wings and eagle talons in place of the wolf claws on its forelegs.

"Awooo!"

It hurled itself straight at the Voidworm with all its might.

Vroom! Vroom!

"Get out of there!"

Mo Bai pulled up beside Lynae on his Motorcycle and called for her to leave.

"Right!"

Lynae didn't waste a moment. She rode alongside Mo Bai toward safety.

She had plenty of questions for him, but they could wait until the crisis was over.

Riiip!

Behind Mo Bai and Lynae, the fused Shikigami he had summoned—a creature resembling both Divine Dogs and Nue—had already been destroyed by the Voidworm.

"Mo Bai! Your summons..."

Lynae glanced back at the destroyed creature and hurried to warn him.

"It's fine!"

Mo Bai switched his Motorcycle to automatic driving, then formed the signs to summon Divine Dogs and Nue again.

Whoosh!

Another creature identical to the previous Fused Shikigami flew out of the shadows and charged the Voidworm.

Mo Bai had come up with this way to hold the giant monster back on his way here.

It was an extension technique of the Ten Shadows Technique, called Eclipse of the Heavenly Dog.

The original Shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique vanished forever once destroyed, but the Shikigami Mo Bai fused himself were exempt from that rule.

He combined features of Nue and Divine Dogs to create a Fused Shikigami with Nue's speed and ability to fly, as well as the Divine Dogs' strength.

The advantage was that they could not be destroyed permanently. As long as he had enough Cursed Energy, Mo Bai could summon large numbers of them to keep an enemy occupied.

The drawback was...

Riiip!

As Lynae and Mo Bai headed to meet Rover, the Voidworm destroyed the Fused Shikigami Mo Bai had just summoned.

Though Eclipse of the Heavenly Dog was called a Fused Shikigami, it was weaker than the original Shikigami.

This one, for example, had inherited neither Nue's lightning nor the Divine Dogs' sense of smell.

"So how do we beat the big guy behind us?"

Mo Bai asked Lynae while maintaining the hand signs and focusing his Cursed Energy to summon more Fused Shikigami.

He had only just reached the battlefield, and without a Terminal to contact them, there was still a lot he didn't know.

Lynae gave him a quick rundown of their plan.

"Basically, once Rover activates the defense arrays, we can finish the worm off in one go while it's weakened and trapped!" Lynae said, keeping her attention on the road.

With Mo Bai here, she felt sure they could pull it off.

"Got it!"

After summoning enough Shikigami to occupy the Voidworm, Mo Bai and Lynae accelerated toward the final defense array.

Behind them, the Voidworm seemed to have had enough of the countless pests swarming around it. It stopped conserving energy.

"ROAR!!!"

Ignoring the Shikigami biting and striking it, the Voidworm gathered energy in its mouth and aimed at Mo Bai and Lynae nearby.

"Tch! Block it!"

Mo Bai urgently ordered the Shikigami to mass in front of the Voidworm's gaping maw.

BOOM!!

The Shikigami blocked its energy blast, causing it to explode inside the Voidworm's mouth.

"ROAR!!"

The Voidworm howled in pain.

Mo Bai's Fused Shikigami had all been wiped out by the attack, but the explosion had dealt the Voidworm a serious blow as well.

"Effective damage is high. We could do that again..."

Mo Bai's command seemed to have given Lynae an idea. She murmured to herself, determination settling over her face.