The Rover's Strength

What kind of power was that?

Mo Bai saw that every Shikigami around the Rover had slowed to a crawl.

Because they were his own shadows, Mo Bai could choose whether to share their senses.

The instant he connected his mind to theirs, he cut the link.

Slow.

Around the Rover, the Shikigami's movements had slowed, and so had their thoughts.

It was almost as if time had stopped.

"Tch."

Seeing this, Mo Bai immediately recalled the Divine Dogs on the ground into his shadow.

The Rover had used such a strange power without hesitation. She could surely move freely within that time-stopping field.

To be safe, he had chosen to recall the Shikigami.

They had been slowed in every way, but as long as they had somewhere to land, he could still pull them back.

There was nothing he could do about the Toads from the Bottomless Well in the sky, though.

Whoosh!

The Rover made her move.

Dark light stirred in her golden eyes, and a black-purple wing emerged from her back.

Mo Bai remembered that she had used this power to catch Lynae earlier.

Now she flew upward, and a huge black scythe suddenly appeared in her hand.

"Ribbit! Ribbit!"

In an instant, she destroyed every Toad from the Bottomless Well Mo Bai had summoned.

"Hey, come on. Isn't that a little overpowered...?"

Mo Bai's mouth twitched as he thought back over everything she had just done.

If she was a speeding truck, he was basically playing the part of a speed bump...

Phew.

After clearing out the Shikigami, the Rover turned her cold golden eyes on Mo Bai in the distance.

He knew they were only testing each other's moves, but under that gaze, he still swallowed involuntarily.

Thud!

The next second, the Rover charged at Mo Bai with her scythe raised.

That pressure was intense!

Watching her close in at terrifying speed, Mo Bai racked his brain for a way to respond.

Summon more Shikigami?

No. The Toads from the Bottomless Well had already served as speed bumps. His Shikigami simply weren't strong enough to take her head-on.

He had two options.

One: reinforce himself with Cursed Energy and meet the Rover head-on.

Two: try the Ten Shadows Technique's Shikigami inheritance mechanism.

A destroyed Shikigami could never be summoned again, but its power would pass on to another Shikigami.

The result could be greater than the sum of its parts.

According to the inheritance information the technique had poured into his mind, destroying the White Divine Dog would greatly strengthen the Black Divine Dog that had been born alongside it.

But...

In that moment of thought, he remembered the way the White Divine Dog had looked at him when he was torn over whether to rescue his companions in Lynae's dorm room.

Thud!

Mo Bai kicked off the ground and wrapped his fist in Cursed Energy.

In the end, he chose to face the Rover himself.

Clang!

The sound of a sharp-edged weapon striking something rang across the grassland. The Rover noticed that Mo Bai held no weapon.

He had shaped his hand into a claw and was using it to attack her scythe.

Animal-Form Fist.

Since Mo Bai could share his Shikigami's senses, he could feel how they attacked.

Then he could apply some of their abilities to himself.

Right now, Mo Bai was attacking with the Divine Dogs' Wolf Claw.

"Clever idea."

After that word of praise, the Rover suddenly pressed harder.

Splash.

Mo Bai had no intention of continuing to meet her head-on. He sank into the shadows instead.

When he had first unlocked this ability, he could only hide in place.

But during his later fight against the Voidworm, he had discovered that he could move freely through shadows.

Splash.

Once the Rover's scythe cut through empty air, Mo Bai surfaced from the shadow behind her.

Fwoosh!

As flames of Cursed Energy ignited around Mo Bai's fist, the shadow beside the Rover began to roil.

Whoosh!

A huge serpent's tail burst out of it.

An attack from both sides?

Sensing the attack beside her, the Rover remained calm.

But when she saw what was coming from the front, her brow furrowed slightly.

It was her Blood Pact, hurtling straight toward her.

She knew it had to be part of Mo Bai's plan.

After using Nue to block the Rover's earlier attack, Mo Bai had initially intended to leave the Swift Blade alone.

He had seen her summon weapons out of thin air and assumed the blade was bound to her.

But when the Rover switched to a scythe, Mo Bai decided to take a gamble.

He bet that once she switched powers, she could no longer control the Swift Blade, since the weapon seemed tied to her wind-controlling ability.

So far, the Rover had displayed three kinds of power.

Wind pressure, time, and the immense destructive force of that dark-purple energy.

Surely she couldn't be monstrous enough to use all three at once...

So Mo Bai had stored the Swift Blade in his Shadow Space.

Then, while the Rover was busy dealing with his attack, he used the finely crafted blade to draw her attention.

It was her weapon, after all, and it looked expensive.

It did feel a little underhanded, though.

At least so far, Mo Bai's plan was going smoothly.

The Rover said nothing as she watched the Blood Pact fly toward her. She simply raised a hand and stopped it.

Got her!

Seeing that the Rover really was occupied with retrieving her weapon, Mo Bai was delighted.

That feeling lasted until he saw her stamp her foot.

Bzz—

That strange time-stopping power swept over him again. This time, it caught not just his Shikigami but Mo Bai himself.

Worse, both his feet were off the ground. He couldn't sink into a shadow even if he wanted to.

Then, suspended in midair, Mo Bai saw something he would never forget.

The Rover held her scythe in her left hand, aimed at him. With her right, she aimed the recovered Blood Pact at Great Serpent's tail and wreathed it in wind pressure. All the while, the power of time beneath her feet held steady.

She really could use all three powers at once...

"Yay! The Rover wins!" Abu announced, as though the outcome had been obvious from the start.

At Abu's words, the Rover withdrew her power, reached out to Mo Bai on the ground, and smiled.

"Man... that was terrifying. I feel like you could've handled that Voidworm all by yourself."

Mo Bai took her hand and got to his feet, muttering as he did.

"That was an emergency. Without you and Lynae helping, the Academy would have been in serious trouble," the Rover said, shaking her head.

Mo Bai still felt she was being modest.

"Hey! What are you doing here? Good heavens! Why are there so many huge holes?"

At that moment, an Academy teacher arrived with his students to survey the area.

Looking at all the craters, he felt as though his world was falling apart.

It had taken him forever to find this perfect site!