Little Trick

Bucciarati fearlessly strode forward.

Steel Chain Fingers, on the other hand, casually wielded the weapon he tightly gripped, swinging this ordinary, thick wooden stick with impressive skill and power.

The situation reversed instantly.

Anthony, who had previously gone to great lengths to get Bucciarati to appear, now felt an indescribable pressure after finally getting his wish.

Looking directly into Bucciarati's eyes, which were filled with surging anger beneath a calm exterior, he had a strange feeling that he was destined to be defeated and killed.

"Hateful."

"They actually used such a brainless tactic."

Anthony pursed his lips tightly, his eyes gradually hardening under the pressure:

"In that case, let's have a fair and square match!"

"Let's see if you can break through the blockade and attack me first, or if I can devour you before you succeed!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the black toad suddenly stepped forward.

It stood firmly in front of Anthony, perfectly protecting its master with its massive body.

Meanwhile, Bucciarati, protected by Steel Chain Fingers, also approached.

Finally

Bucciarati reached within 7 meters of the black toad, the maximum distance that long tongue could reach.

"King of Rivers!"

"Steel Chain Fingers!"

Two soft shouts rang out simultaneously.

The dark red tongue, like a flying ribbon, swept through the air, leaving a phantom trail.

In the blink of an eye, a gust of wind swept by, and the phantom was so fast that it was impossible to see clearly.

But the Steel Chain Fingers can stop it.

It accurately grasped the direction of the enemy's attack and, while running forward, unleashed a "sword light" from bottom to top.

Bang!

The wooden stick and the long tongue collided at high speed in mid-air.

With a crisp, resounding crack, a dark red fish-shaped mark suddenly appeared on the wooden stick, while the much larger, wider tongue was violently thrown backward by the enormous impact.

The Steel Chain Fingers gripped the wooden stick tightly, its arm trembling suddenly, but its forward thrust remained as steady as ever.

The battle line has advanced to 6 meters.

Anthony instinctively covered his mouth.

That blow was quite powerful; his tongue swelled and turned red with pain once again.

But Anthony did not stop there.

The thrill of direct confrontation suppressed the pain, and the immense pressure of life-or-death battles also brought out his potential.

He used his burst of mental power to drive his Stand to fight back with all its might.

The long tongue that had just been knocked away immediately twisted and turned rapidly in mid-air, and in an instant it struck again at the head of the incoming tongue that had just connected.

It is extremely fast, and its attacks are swift as a shadow.

Steel Chain Fingers swung his bat again to meet the attack.

Snap!

It's like a samurai fight in a sword movie, or a swordsman's duel in a fencing competition.

The "sword" and the "whip" clashed swiftly in mid-air, then immediately separated after the strike.

Steel Chain Fingers emerged victorious once again.

At the cost of adding a fish-shaped mark to its wooden stick, it once again repelled the enemy's invasion.

The spearhead had already approached to within 5 meters.

"Again!"

Anthony also got really aggressive.

Ignoring his battered tongue, he desperately urged the King of Rivers to continue his attack.

The nimble long tongue was like a venomous snake that had been thoroughly enraged. It tensed its body in mid-air and suddenly exerted its strength, lunging at the Steel Chain Fingers with all its might.

Soon, a third resounding boom suddenly erupted in the forest.

The fish-shaped markings on the wooden stick were stacked up to three, and in the next instant, they vanished from the hands of the Steel Chain Fingers.

4 meters.

The fighting power unleashed by that black-skinned toad should not be underestimated.

The tongue, which had been knocked away, whirled back and desperately blocked Bucciarati's path.

Steel Chain Fingers raised its second wooden club and drew its sword to meet the attack again.

3 meters.

At this moment, Bucciarati was only two large steps away from the giant black toad.

He could even see the hideous, terrifying mouth of the black toad, and the sharp, frightening teeth inside.

At this point, the two sides clashed again, and the marks on the wooden sticks had accumulated to two.

2 meters.

The third mark appeared, and the second stick was inexplicably swallowed along with the flying tongue.

The last meter.

In that brief instant...

Bucciarati advanced 5 meters, while Steel Chain Fingers engaged the enemy in 6 quick exchanges.

They lost two sticks they had picked up from the woods, but in return they gained an opportunity—a chance to engage the enemy head-on.

"Ali Ali Ali Ali Ali!"

Without hesitation, Steel Chain Fingers threw a punch at the black toad that was right in front of him.

The blue fist shadows slammed into the giant toad's enormous, spherical body like a whirlwind, instantly creating ripples of flesh.

"Well!"

Anthony, who was standing next to the giant toad, then let out a cry of pain.

At the same time, the large black toad also staggered backward a large step uncontrollably.

"This?"

Bucciarati's pupils contracted.

He was somewhat surprised to find that the maximum firepower that Steel Chain Fingers had just unleashed did not seem to have caused any serious damage to the enemy.

After retreating slightly, the large black toad quickly regained its footing. The deformed flesh on its body wobbled a few times like jelly before rapidly returning to its original shape.

It's like a lump of clay that you can't break no matter how much you knead it.

"Hehe."

Anthony wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and returned Bucciarati a bloodstained, cold smile:

"Do you think the King of Rivers's body is as easily injured as its tongue?"

"Let me tell you, its ability to withstand impacts is much stronger than you think!"

The Stand reflects the injuries back to the user, not 100% of its power.

Otherwise, if two Stands with Force A were to punch each other, the original user would probably have been killed by the "original" feedback force long ago.

Therefore, Stands actually have another hidden attribute—the ability to withstand blows.

Smaller Stands are less resistant to damage; for example, Sex Pistols.

If those six little guys were squeezed even slightly, Mista, as the main body, would be seriously injured and cough up blood.

Conversely, the larger the Stand, the stronger its ability to withstand blows.

Like this big black toad, this guy has a wide face and a big mouth, is as strong as an ox, is ten feet tall, and has a waist ten spans wide. Standing there, he looks like a small mountain, and the fat on his body is as thick as a city wall.

Faced with such a thick defense, the strength that Steel Chain Fingers was so proud of became a complete joke.

"This is bad!"

"I just used all my strength, but I didn't expect it to only cause minor injuries to the main body."

Bucciarati's expression stiffened.

Both wooden sticks had completely disappeared, and the attack opportunity that had been created with great difficulty failed to inflict the expected powerful damage on the enemy.

Now that Steel Chain Fingers is unarmed, if the fight continues, he can only rely on his body to tough it out.

"No way"

"Since we're already here..."

In that split second, Bucciarati made a swift decision.

He had already gotten close to the giant toad; it was too late to retreat.

Since attacking the Stand won't be effective, why not take a gamble in this desperate situation and try to attack Anthony's main body directly?

Thinking of this, Bucciarati immediately turned around.

Together with his Steel Chain Fingers, he bypassed the black toad's obstruction and charged towards Anthony was standing two meters away.

"It's useless!"

Anthony shouted, his face contorted in pain:

"Now it's my turn!"

As soon as he finished speaking, that long, flexible tongue shot out again.

Steel Chain Fingers is now out of weapons, and the fish-shaped mark that was originally on its body has not yet disappeared.

In other words, if the Steel Chain Fingers are hit by that tongue twice more, they will disappear from this world.

And at this critical moment...

Bucciarati leaped forward and suddenly blocked the Steel Chain Fingers.

Humans absolutely cannot dodge the high-speed attack of that tongue, but it is still very easy to go up and get hit.

With his strong physique honed over many years of training, Bucciarati quickly raised his left arm to shield himself, taking the full force of the thick, long tongue's high-speed attack.

The black toad's attack power is not particularly strong, roughly equivalent to that of a trained human.

So even after taking that slap, Bucciarati only suffered minor injuries and was still able to stubbornly continue standing in front.

"I see."

"I want to use my own body to block the blade for my Stand, so I can take more hits from the tongue and bear more layers of marks."

"But so what?"

Anthony stared intently at the freshly made red fish-shaped mark in Bucciarati's hand.

His eyes gleamed with an unusual excitement:

"Since you want to block it, then I'll let you block it!"

"Let's see if you can attack my main body first, or if I can throw you into the belly of the King of Rivers first!"

At that moment, Bucciarati and the Steel Chain Fingers were only two meters away from him.

But those two meters were enough for that incredibly swift long tongue to launch a series of attacks.

"Again!"

Amid Anthony's tense and excited shouts

Bucciarati charged forward with his Stand, and the black toad's long tongue attacked again.

Just like before.

But this time, what blocked the tongue was no longer a wooden stick, but Bucciarati's own body, his outstretched arm.

"It's two floors now!"

Anthony was overjoyed.

He held his breath, anticipating what would happen next.

"King of Rivers!"

The black toad suddenly flicked out its massive, dark red tongue.

The tongue lunged at Bucciarati like a leaping lightning bolt, its speed terrifying.

At that moment, Steel Chain Fingers was charging towards Anthony with all his might.

It seemed to have completely forgotten its master, who already had two layers of markings on his body, and was only concerned with protecting himself and getting his master to protect him, completely ignoring the tongue that flew towards it.

The roles of the stand-in and the original seem to be reversed here.

Then

Unsurprisingly, the tongue struck Bucciarati's arm for the third time.

On that arm, three dark red fish-shaped markings gleamed in the dim light.

"Hahahaha. Now's the time!"

"Swallow him!"

Anthony shouted excitedly.

The black toad suddenly opened its blood-red maw, and an invisible yet terrifying spatial force was activated silently in an instant.

In that very instant

Bucciarati's left arm, the one that had withstood three attacks and was covered with three marks, disappeared.

However, only an arm was missing.

He's only missing an arm; he's still standing there perfectly fine, and could even be charging at Anthony with his Steel Chain Fingers at the next second.

"How is this possible?!"

Time seemed to stand still.

Anthony's expression also turned extremely ugly.

It was like he had just subscribed to a membership and downloaded the game, only to find that the resource he found was the complete series of Calabash Brothers. He had suddenly fallen from heaven to hell, and was completely dumbfounded.

"Why is Bucciarati alright? Why did he only swallow one of his hands?!"

The King of Rivers's ability has always been to devour the entire marked object.

Unless the object is extremely large, it is impossible for such an unexpected situation to occur where only a portion of it can be swallowed.

Moreover, what is even more shocking is

After his arm was swallowed, Bucciarati showed no signs of pain, and the wound did not bleed.

It was as if that arm wasn't his.

"Wait... could it be..."

Anthony was utterly shocked as he realized something.

"I'm sorry, I lied."

"Although I wanted to defeat you fair and square, I still secretly used a few little tricks:"

Bucciarati said calmly:

"I wasn't hiding in the shadows to pick up sticks, I was picking up my arm."

"This is actually the drug addict's hand, but I sewed it onto my own body with a zipper."

In other words...

With those cold words, the figure of Steel Chain Fingers had already pounced on Anthony.

These words echoed slowly in the almost frozen time, like a death knell tolled by fate:

"The guy your clone just swallowed wasn't me at all!"