The insect armor shattered inch by inch like a brittle shell, sending metal fragments flying.
Like a speed bump run over by a heavy truck, Uraume was taken out in an instant.
The tremendous impact sent Uraume flying, slamming her hard into the stone pillar behind her.
Weblike cracks spread across the pillar with a sharp crack, and fragments of stone rained down.
Uraume slid down the pillar into a sitting position and spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the fabric over her chest like a lurid flower blooming.
Leaning against the pillar, Uraume slowly raised her head.
The aftermath of the battle was slowly settling, the airborne dust sinking heavily like gray fluff soaked by rain.
Mixed with the thick stench of blood and the metallic tang of cooling liquid metal, it filled the entire breach.
Wisps of dust still rose from the shallow crater left by Perfect Sphere, and loose stones trickled down its edges.
They made faint, scattered sounds that rang unusually clear across the deathly silent battlefield.
The cracks in the pillar were still slowly spreading, and small flakes of its surface peeled away and struck Uraume's shoulder, but she seemed not to feel them.
Bloody foam still clung to the corners of her mouth, and the fabric over her chest had stiffened with blood. Pain from her broken ribs stabbed through her with every breath, yet her eyes were astonishingly bright.
It was not the unfocused gaze of someone near death, but a light steeped in honey, filled with girlish delight and satisfaction, as though she had just attended her own engagement party rather than been defeated by a single punch.
Qingxiao did not pause for even a moment. Black Flash stirred beneath his feet, and he swept up to her.
He formed his