Chapter 36: Battle

“Lord Gorton, to capture a mere sergeant, permit me to take care of it.” The one who volunteered was a Shifter named Tim.

Although in the eyes of the demons, all their dark minions were nothing but lowly creatures, there was still a hierarchy among them. They used the rank system of the Frey Alliance—ranked as privates among the dark believers, with the elite being sergeants, and so on. This Shifter was actually just at the sergeant level, a corporal, yet his strength was equivalent to that of a level 6 professional, which was already the standard for a lieutenant in the Frey army. Of course, his overall military competence was far inferior to that of professionally trained Frey soldiers.

“You have 80 seconds (about 5 minutes).” Gorton didn’t pay much attention to Neo. He was more concerned about the battle between Valentina and Vladimir, as something seemed to be wrong with Vladimir.

Gorton’s insight was sharp. Neo’s interference wasn’t just to distract these dark minions; he also used the technique of “soul theft.” Vladimir became frenzied and mentally agitated, and the dark forces themselves had the effect of numbing nerves and reducing pain. Neo knew this from past battles against the dark minions, so he boldly tried it out, delivering several powerful strikes, especially one palm strike to Vladimir’s back of the head. This strike damaged Vladimir’s soul, further confusing his mind.

Vladimir now appeared even more ferocious, but his attacks had lost precision. His Dark Light Sword was no longer as stable as before, and his reactions were slow. His skill level in combat techniques had dropped significantly. Valentina, who had been struggling before, had now completely reversed the odds and taken control of the battle. Ordinary dark minions saw snow flying as Vladimir remained strong, but an experienced fighter like Gorton knew that the balance of power had already begun to tilt sharply in favor of one side. Yet Gorton didn’t realize that the culprit behind all this was Neo.

Tim, who took the initiative to seize the chance to capture Neo, clearly had some intelligence. He was well aware of his own strengths and weaknesses compared to Neo and didn’t overestimate himself. He took off his robe, threw it aside, and transformed into a giant gorilla-like creature over 2 meters tall.

Boom! With a muffled sound and flying snow, Tim’s transformed body weighed over 1,000 pounds, with foul-smelling black smoke swirling around his body. This was his combat energy activation mode. It was clear that although he was at level 6, most Shifters couldn’t compare to professionals of the same level in terms of using and controlling combat energy—Tim was one such case.

Whoosh! Tim waved his fan-like hands, creating a gust of wind that sent snow flying in front of Neo. “Surrender quickly, or I’ll crush your bones one by one!” Tim’s voice was deep and somewhat slurred, but his ability to speak fluently after transformation was a skill reserved for dark minions above the Shifter level.

Neo said nothing and charged straight forward, rushing at Tim.

Tim grinned cruelly, waved his hand, and unleashed his dark combat energy, creating a wall of swirling black smoke with a wide range of impact. If it were Valentina, such an energy wall could easily be broken through with her own combat energy, but for Neo, this barrier was no less threatening than swords—he could only dodge.

Mid-dash, he suddenly twisted sideways, landing beside Tim and closing in again, only for Tim to wave his hand once more…

“What does he look like? Hehe, like a flea, jumping around!”

“It’s still too much of a struggle. Just one of Tim’s moves is enough to keep him busy for half a day, let alone landing a hit—getting close is difficult!”

“More importantly, Tim can take a hundred punches without a scratch, while Neo would probably be in trouble even from a gust of Tim’s combat energy wind.” The dark minions mocked the lopsided battle.

It indeed seemed that way—Neo looked like a rat fighting a cat, agile in his dodges but utterly unable to pose a threat to Tim.

Tim soon grew tired of this teasing game. He deliberately slowed down, creating an opening to strike Neo and then seize him. After all, Neo was quite agile, and Tim admitted he fell short in speed and skill.

Overconfident, Tim took risks, and Neo refused to let him off easy. Bang! Bang! Three punches and a couple of kicks, all hitting hard. Yet Tim didn’t even flinch. Reaching out with his arms, Neo narrowly dodged at the last moment.

The watching dark minions burst into laughter again, finding Neo’s clumsy performance amusing.

Tim even turned to them rudely and said, “How about letting him keep hitting until he’s exhausted?”

They laughed even harder.

Boom! With a dull thud, Neo used a feint to get behind Tim, kicked his waist and hips to leap high, slapped Tim on the head, pressed down hard, then performed a forward somersault with a spin before landing steadily.

Thud! Tim collapsed to the ground as the dark minions’ laughter stopped abruptly.

A dramatic knockout blow? For a moment, many present thought of this astonishing possibility.

But that wasn’t the case. Less than two seconds after falling, Tim sprang back up, leaving four deep holes in the ground that revealed cracked bricks beneath the snow.

“I told you! How could Tim not withstand even a simple Level 4 punch? Just his combat energy shield is enough to handle ordinary attacks.”

Most of the dark minions shared this view, believing Tim had simply been careless.

Meanwhile, at the forefront of the fight, Neo seized the opportunity to attack. As Tim jumped up and barely settled back on his feet, Bang! Bang! Bang! A barrage of punches, kicks, elbows, and knees, each strike targeting vital points. Tim tried to grab him three times but failed each time.

At this point, the Dark Claws could no longer laugh. Perhaps Neo couldn’t do much to Tim, but it had to be admitted that with his superior combat skills, it was clearly Tim who was being mocked now. No Dark Claw wanted to see this—it touched on their deep pain: having brute strength but poor technique.
“The strong may oppress the weak, but not the weak the strong.” Such a mindset was very popular among the Dark Claws. Seeing Tim struggling, many demonized and transformed beings prepared to step in to help, with some impatient ones already shedding their cloaks and transforming.
It was unclear whether Neo’s series of fierce attacks had truly hurt Tim or if the sudden reversal of the battle situation had made Tim feel humiliated. In any case, Tim went berserk, even more violent than Vladimir. He roared as he charged repeatedly, his punches and kicks unleashing dark evil energy once again, creating chaotic gusts of wind that lifted large amounts of snow, blurring the vision of all onlookers.
“What’s wrong with Tim? Why did he go crazy suddenly?” The sudden change in the battle made some of the Dark Claws feel a badpremonition.
On the other side, Valentina’s fight with Vladimir reached its climax. The battle circle kept expanding and clearly moved closer to Neo’s side.
“Down! Capture those two!” Gorton saw the bad signs and had no interest in prolonging the fight. As for the 5 minutes he had promised Tim, believing the Dark Claws’ promises was like believing the devil could be kind—pure stupidity.
The change happened the moment Gorton gave the order.
Valentina, who was fighting Vladimir, suddenly turned and rushed at Tim, while Neo, who had taken control of the battle, intercepted Vladimir, who was chasing after Valentina. The two of them moved in perfect coordination, as if they had rehearsed many times.
The knight’s sword emitted a 50-centimeter-long blade of light, creating a stunning arc in the air. Deep red, foul-smelling blood splattered in that light, serving as the most striking accent. Tim’s upper half of the head was severed by a single strike, killing him on the spot.
Neo’s fists were by no means as weak as they had seemed before. Black energy surrounded his right hand—dark power. Although he was still just beginning to understand combat energy, with Nancy’s guidance, Neo could already use this power in a highly extravagant manner.
Faced with this pure, burning dark power, Vladimir’s protective dark evil energy was not only insufficient to protect him but also seemed to be suppressed and assimilated, like red-hot iron meeting a block of butter. Neo plunged his claw into Vladimir’s body from the side, grasped his core, and pulled it out while “sucking in his life force.”
Vladimir became like a runaway magic puppet whose magical energy had been suddenly removed. His dark light sword and the dark evil energy covering his body vanished in an instant. What had once been a terrifying pursuit of Valentina now turned into aout of control descent, as he crashed into the snow, leaving a long trail behind.

In the time it took for one breath, two key members were killed or severely injured. By then, all the Dark Claws present realized they had been tricked—especially Neo, who was by no means just a level 4 warrior. Valentina’s competence was obvious to all. Thus, the sudden reversal in Tim and Vladimir’s situations must have been orchestrated by Neo, though no one yet understood exactly what cunning trick he had used.

“Liars!” The feeling of being deceived enraged the Dark Claws. Though much of this was due to their own arrogance and superficiality, “the main fault is never ours” was another characteristic of most of them. Their hatred surged like water boiling instantly, bursting out from every pore of their bodies. Without Gorton needing to remind them, even Imorton and William rushed at Neo and Valentina. At that moment, they were like starving hyenas pouncing on a pile of carrion.

Neo and Valentina had anticipated this and had already planned how to break through.

Blade Slash! Valentina unleashed this most common technique at its peak, a terrifying blue light shooting toward a Mutant in the north with a sharp whistle. The Mutant was in the midst of transforming, swinging his claws twice with dark evil blade slashes, but still unable to fully counter Valentina’s attack. He had no choice but to dodge to the side.

Neo had been waiting for this moment. As soon as Valentina launched her attack, he activated his warrior skill, Second Charge! On the first charge, he retrieved the packages and weapons he had placed there earlier and locked onto his target. On the second charge, he rushed straight at the Mutant who was dodging.

Neo’s bravery enraged the Mutant, who swung his claws again, forcing out a third dark evil blade slash in an instant. Though this slash wasn’t at its best, it was more than enough to deal with Neo—provided it landed.

Neo’s Second Charge was meant to force the Mutant to use up all his remaining moves with Valentina’s support. Now that he had succeeded, he slid his feet and twisted his upper body. The dark evil blade slash whistled past him from less than 5 centimeters away, tearing a piece from his leather jacket and drawing blood. Yet, Neo’s risky move also bought him precious time. Before the Mutant could react, his left hand grabbed the Mutant’s face—Life Siphon!

At that moment, three transformed Mutants from the sides and behind unleashed their dark evil blade slashes. Although doing so in such a situation risked harming their own, they never cared about that.

Valentina managed to dodge one blade slash and used her shield to block another for Neo, while she took the third hit with her body. Despite the protective energy around her, the strike still injured her, causing her to stagger forward two steps with bloodstains appearing on her back.

Neon was in just as bad shape. The three nearest demonized beings rushed at him as he dealt with the mutated one. He barely dodged one of their attacks and used his right sword to block another. He managed to evade half of the third one’s claws, but three blood gashes appeared diagonally across his chest.

Yet, Neon never released his grip on the mutated being with his left hand. The mutated one tried to counterattack, but its consciousness had been severely damaged by “life absorption” by the time it swung its fist. Still, driven by inertia, the fist struck Neon hard, breaking two of his ribs on the right side.

It was better to have broken ribs than no ribs at all—choosing the lesser of two evils. Though hit by the fist, Neon pulled the mutated being’s body forward, using it to block the second attack from one of the three demonized beings. He deflected another attack with his right sword, while the third demonized being was unlucky—it had a chance to seriously injure Neon, but it was too focused, and was quickly killed by Valentina’s another blade strike.

At the same time, two more demonized beings arrived with six blade strikes, and even Gorton stepped in, firing dark energy in the form of a black skeletal figure wrapped in a blood-red mist. Seeing Valentina in danger, Liz’s clone appeared in the void behind her. She spread her arms, creating an arc-shaped light barrier. All the blade strikes, including Gorton’s, exploded against this barrier, releasing a series of dazzling flashes.

Pfft! Pfft-pfft!

Ah… Amidst screams, two demonized beings were split in half by gorgeous purple light slashes, while one mutated being lost half of its leg. Liz, who had been hiding in the shadows, appeared—her presence took all of the dark minions by surprise, and her positioning was perfect. She immediately destroyed three of their combatants.