Right on Target (TARGET)
The host shouted, hyping up the atmosphere: "Hermit is also a 'Fantasy-type' contestant! Look behind him—what is that? Wow..." With exaggerated exclamations, he activated an automatic search and, like a magician, pulled out a stack of papers from behind his head and suspended them in mid-air as he read aloud, "It's actually an Asura originating from the ancient Buddhist traditions of the old world!"
Since he was a substitute fighter, there was very little information about Xie Zhenshu, compounded by his deliberate secrecy, leaving the host to improvise on the spot.
The heavily made-up clown shrieked and scattered the papers in his hands across the virtual arena. The sheets transformed into streaks of light before quickly fading away. His face brimmed with excitement as he flailed his arms: "This is a rare ethereal form! Audience members, tonight is truly an unparalleled experience! Look at that divine statue..."
Hermit frantically banged on the partition, but unfortunately, Su Heting couldn’t hear him. He wore a calm expression that screamed "I knew it all along," though his tail betrayed his restlessness as it kept wagging uncontrollably. His heart pounded wildly, itching to stand up and give himself an equally flashy and invincible ethereal form.
Xie Zhenshu’s Asura bore three wrathful visages: "Fury," "Loathing," and "Slaughter."
Among them, "Slaughter" glared with knitted brows and its mouth holding a cannon barrel, one hand gripping a blade and the other wielding a whip, exuding an aura of bloodlust.
"Loathing" had cold, narrowed eyes and tightly sealed lips, one hand carrying a shield and the other forming a mudra, watching with detached indifference.
"Fury", meanwhile, had wide, tiger-like eyes and roared ferociously, one hand raising a cannon and the other clutching a spear, its hair bristling with rage.
The three faces hovered silently, making their presence all the more terrifying.
Fei Yi was still making his entrance, his excessively elongated twin bodies no longer resembling anything human. The massive forms emitted a "creak-creak" sound as they slithered, as if mechanical legs were running beneath them. His serpentine head showed no expression and his eyes vacant, as though the Asura meant nothing to him.
But as Fei Yi’s body fully emerged from the darkness, even Su Heting couldn’t help leaning back—it was simply too enormous! Like two colossal pythons coiling across the arena, their bulk completely occupying the edges.
The venue fell dead silent.
Su Heting wasn’t even connected to the electrodes, yet just seeing it with his naked eyes made him feel suffocated. Fei Yi’s scales pressed close, so lifelike that as he passed by, Su Heting could even catch a glimpse of his own blurred reflection on the head-sized scales.
The "creak-creak" sound grew nearer.
Su Heting saw Fei Yi’s six legs—mechanical limbs nearly five to six meters tall, their joints gleaming with a metallic sheen, straining under the weight of his twin serpentine bodies.
In his pursuit of sheer size, Fei Yi’s ethereal form had become completely unbalanced. Forget fighting—even moving seemed laborious. His head looked minuscule compared to his body, making it seem at first glance as though two headless giant serpents were slithering across the field.
Fei Yi finally came to a stop, his raised forebody towering over twenty meters high, comparable to a small building. The brown blotches on his serpentine scales were as large as an adult human, aligned in a straight line down the backs of both bodies, resembling a pair of eyes on his spine.
The same eerie sensation Su Heting had felt during his fight with King Shen resurfaced.
"Hermit," Fei Yi boomed but his voice did not seem to come from his head, his speech slightly slurred, "please... enlighten me."
Xie Zhenshu’s grip on his blade didn’t waver, as if he hadn’t heard.
"Hit me," Fei Yi dragged his right tail, slamming it against the invisible walls of the arena, his tone flat. "I’ll give you a handicap."
The word "yield" seemed to provoke Xie Zhenshu. Not only did he not advance, but he took half a step back instead. He tilted his demon-faced helmet upward, silent, as if staring at Fei Yi through the visor and wordlessly urging him on.
The host let out an awkward chuckle. "Both contestants are being quite courteous. How about we draw—"
Before the host could finish, Fei Yi's massive front half came crashing down. "I accept your concession!" he declared.
Rainwater exploded outward like a collapsing structure.
Xie Zhenshu remained motionless, pressing down on his sword hilt with his left hand. The Asura behind him abruptly rotated, revealing "Loathing".
Then—BANG!
Loathing raised its arm to block, slamming its steel shield down in front of Xie Zhenshu at an angle, shielding him from Fei Yi's assault.
Fei Yi's body locked in place, his face twisting into a snarl as he lowered his head toward Xie Zhenshu.
Xie Zhenshu lightly released his left hand. Instantly, the Asura's left side, "Slaughter" let out a furious roar, raising a single-barreled cannon and firing an earth-shaking blast straight at Fei Yi's head!
BOOM—!
Fei Yi's head jerked to the side, but his face and neck were covered in fine scales, like a viper's, capable of withstanding such close-range bombardment.
Xie Zhenshu's demon-faced helmet had two horns, with a small bell dangling from one side. He pressed down on the sword hilt again, and the bell gave a soft ding. Slaughter erupted in fury, firing another shot at Fei Yi.
This time, Fei Yi clenched his eyes shut, some of the scales on his cheeks blasted away and a trickle of blood seeped out. He opened his mouth first, then let out a furious roar—the triangular implant at the back of his head instantly expanded.
A sudden gust of wind surged from behind Xie Zhenshu as one of Fei Yi's tails swept toward him with the force of an army. Loathing glared at the serpentine tail and slammed its shield down once more, blocking it again!
The shield stood firm, colliding with Fei Yi's massive tail in a shower of dazzling sparks. The impact between the two colossal entities shook the entire arena, sending rainwater scattering in all directions and splashing onto the faces of the spectators.
Fei Yi cursed, "Damn shield!"
As he spoke, his other tail lashed out from the side, sweeping through the rain as it coiled toward Xie Zhenshu.
"Oh no," the host muttered, eyes glued to the fight. "Danger! Fei Yi has two bodies!"
Loathing merely tilted the shield, bracing it horizontally to meet Fei Yi's strike. Fei Yi's tail was equipped with a mechanical foot, which pressed against the shield and suddenly transformed—the sole splitting into metal claws that latched onto the shield's surface. Gears in the ankle joint whirred, and the claws clicked as they twisted, attempting to wrench the shield right off Loathing's arm.
Xie Zhenshu's bell chimed once more.
The cannon in "Slaughter's" mouth flared brightly, as if howling in rage, before firing a shot that obliterated Fei Yi's mechanical foot. Gears flew in all directions, clattering into the rain-soaked ground.
All three forms of the Asura glared furiously and their arms raised as if scolding Fei Yi for his audacity!
Fei Yi let out a pained scream as his mechanical foot was destroyed and both tails retracted into the darkness. He groaned in agony, his serpentine body undulating like rolling black waves as he circled Xie Zhenshu from a distance of over ten meters. The rainwater rippled with each of his movements, lapping at Xie Zhenshu's calves.
Xie Zhenshu tilted his demon-faced helmet slightly, the bell swaying gently, as if puzzled by Fei Yi's actions.
Fei Yi had lost one of his six legs, and his left side moved slower as he crawled.
Still moaning, he muttered incoherent words that, at first listen, sounded like sobs echoing throughout the arena.
"It hurts, it hurts so much..."
"My leg is broken..."
"Please, I beg you, stop fighting, I can't—"
Fei Yi was curled up and his eyes kept darting around with bloodshot veins surfacing. He was sweating a little, making his eyes sting and forcing tears out. Yet he kept them wide open, as if staring at something. When his gaze finally fixed, his expression suddenly twisted into madness, and he shrieked hysterically, "I will win!"
The shout echoed across the arena.
All traces of fear vanished from Fei Yi's face. Chanting "I will win," both of his serpentine tails lashed out simultaneously toward Xie Zhenshu. His head lunged forward, and his massive body rumbled ahead, crushing everything in its path.
Asura met the attack with the "Slaughter" form, raising both arms as cannons roared. The single-barreled cannon fired first, its beam smashing into Fei Yi's head with a thunderous boom. Fei Yi hissed through gritted teeth but ignore the pain, and charged straight through the explosion—
"Slaughter" form's other arm spun its machine gun rapidly as the semi-automatic multi-barrel muzzle spewing flames as bullets rained down on Fei Yi's face like a storm.
Scales scattered from Fei Yi's head as he howled in agony. His heavy tails swung down belatedly, striking nothing but air.
Xie Zhenshu hadn’t moved an inch, as if answering Fei Yi’s earlier taunt of "giving him a handicap."
The high-speed machine gun of "Slaughter" emptied its entire magazine and shell casings scattering everywhere. Asura pivoted, revealing the "Loathing" form, as its cold, indifferent gaze fixed on Fei Yi.
Fei Yi sobbed uncontrollably. Without a human form, he couldn’t wipe the blood and tears from his face, only crying out in vain, "Surrender, I don’t want to keep going. Hermit, listen to me—I don’t want to kill anyone."
The commentator said, "As I’ve mentioned before, Fei Yi isn’t the type of fighter who revels in bloodshed. He’s repeatedly urged opponents to surrender in past matches..."
Fei Yi kept weeping, as if his earlier ferocity had been an illusion. His mind seemed unstable and his words fragmented, as though splitting into two phantom forms had fractured his consciousness.
As he spoke, his back arched, and Su Heting recognized the familiar venom lines—just like the technique Viper had used. The triangular protrusions on his head stored venom, which traveled through dorsal tubes into both bodies.
But soon, Fei Yi proved he was different from Viper. His venom flow suddenly clogged at the brown clusters on his back.
"Fei Yi’s six legs are merely for show—they’re not his true weapons, folks," the commentator grew excited, even leaning halfway out of his seat as his face alight with fervor. "He still has four metal wings—"
The commentator’s voice cut off as the brown clusters on Fei Yi’s back burst open, revealing two pairs of jagged metal wings amidst a spray of venom.
Hermit let out a disgusted "Ew."
The metal wings abruptly extended, unfurling midair into four gleaming rows of spear-like fans. Still weeping, Fei Yi lurched forward while muttering, "If you won’t surrender, you’ll have to die."
The wings shot outward with a series of "booms," hurling toward Xie Zhenshu. Asura blocked with the "Loathing" form’s shield, but this time, the shield shattered after a single impact.
No one could withstand Fei Yi’s metal wings. The spear-like blades pierced through the fractured shield fragments, driving toward Xie Zhenshu.
The bell on Xie Zhenshu’s demon horn clattered wildly in the wind, but his hands remained steady as he suddenly drew his blades.
It was the only time he unsheathed them that night.
Twin blades gleamed coldly as Asura shifted instantly, the "Slaughter" form manifesting head-on with its murderous intent terrifying. The colossal black shadow mirrored Xie Zhenshu’s movements, swinging its blades in unison!
The descending spears snapped in unison, and Fei Yi had no time to react before Asura's blade was already at his throat.
A fierce gale swept through the arena, forcing the spectators to nearly shut their eyes.
Bang—!
Xie Zhenshu had already sheathed his blade.
Fei Yi's head rolled to the ground, landing near him.
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