Whoosh——
At that moment, the few Heliobi that had just possessed others also returned to Cirrus's side in a sorry state. "Boss, we can't hold on anymore. What do we do now?"
"Can't… hold on?"
Cirrus, who had already been expelled, stood frozen in place for a moment before saying in disbelief, "How could you not hold on? Didn't you already possess them?"
"Yeah, Boss." The Gluttony Heliobus said pitifully, "But… but they really can attack their own people! We were all beaten out forcefully."
"Especially that guy named Jing Yuan. He was going all out! Scared me to death!"
"The one I possessed was the same. These people hit harder than we do ourselves. Boss, why don't we call the cops?"
Bang!
Cirrus angrily slapped the Envy Heliobus. "Did getting beaten make you stupid? The other side is full of Cloud Knights!"
"Then what do we do?"
"·······"
"Hey, haven't you guys had enough yet?"
Just as Cirrus and the Heliobi were still discussing their next move, Stelle was already standing behind them with her arms crossed. "I won't give you time to discuss and then let you find a chance to run away."
"The bomb threat on the first layer has already been resolved by me. Now, surrender obediently."
"Y-y-you!" Cirrus retreated several steps in a row. Her gaze toward Stelle was full of fear. If it weren't for this person just now, she would have successfully detonated the bomb!
That way she could have escaped! Everything should have been foolproof, but it was all because of this person…
"Hmph! You think we'll really surrender just like that?"
Cirrus's voice grew heavy. "Brothers, at this point, we have no other choice!"
"It's time to merge into one! I'll form the head!"
Stelle raised an eyebrow slightly. "Oh?"
Envy Heliobus: "I'll form the limbs!"
Pride Heliobus: "I'll form the body!"
Gluttony Heliobus: "I'll form the stomach!"
Whoosh whoosh whoosh——
The other four Heliobi, along with the three trapped inside the gourd, all converged together and merged into the flames Cirrus had transformed into. The eight Heliobi became one, and the flames at the center naturally began to expand——
"Eeya!"
Cirrus's body swelled to dozens of meters tall. She raised her clenched fists to both sides of her head. "I… will not lose…"
"Trailblazer, assemble!"
Before Cirrus could even finish her boss opening speech, the dense crowd below rushed forward together. All kinds of skills were thrown at her at once:
"Flame Lance! Charge!"
"Canglong Cleansing the World!"
"Heavenly Freeze Myriad Phenomena!"
"I'm hungry——!"
"Who? Who's shooting from behind?!"
"Why are you looking at me? It wasn't me!"
"Revenge for grudges, payback for debts! Fight to the death today! Kill!!"
"I'll fight you to the end!"
Clang clang clang——! (Battle sound effects)
·····
The final result was, without a doubt, Cirrus's defeat. With so many people gathered together, even beating Phantylia would have been more than enough, let alone a mere Cirrus.
However, according to the post-battle casualty statistics, this team battle victory could only be described as "miserable."
Although no one died, under an absolute numerical advantage, there were still heavily injured people. This was very strange. It was said that the two heavily injured individuals were Jing Yuan and Blade, both stabbed in the back. According to them, they had accidentally bumped into it themselves.
Fortunately, one of them had an indestructible diamond body and the other had an undying Abundance body. Their injuries healed in the blink of an eye, so it was no big deal.
The lightly injured were Jingliu and Dan Heng. No one knew how the former got hurt. As for the latter… it was simply because he was unlucky. General Huaiyan accidentally stepped on him while chasing Blade.
·····
Some time later.
"Stelle, the Martial Exhibition Ceremony ended today. Did you check the final rankings?"
Early morning. March 7th had a piece of bread in her mouth and a copy of the Luofu Daily in her hand as she asked.
"Martial Exhibition Ceremony?" Stelle thought seriously for a moment. "Hah, I forgot if you hadn't mentioned it. I've been busy with the Heliobus matter these past two days and didn't have time to pay attention. Why, was there an upset?"
——"There really was."
Dan Heng, who was beside her, calmly picked up the conversation. "Everyone originally thought that Bailu, the Luofu Dragon Lady, would definitely take first place, so everyone placed heavy bets on her in advance. I heard the boldest one bet thirty million credits…"
"In the end, it fell through. Quite a few people were clamoring to jump off buildings just now, and many Cloud Knights had to go maintain order."
"Huh? It wasn't Bailu?" Stelle widened her eyes. In her impression, although Bailu's intelligence really wasn't high, her combat power at the Emanator level was unquestionable. At the very least, she was on the same level as March.
And she still lost?
"Could it be Miss Yunli from the Zhuming?" Stelle asked doubtfully.
If it was Yunli, it would still be understandable. After all, Stelle had seen this child who had been "tormented" by General Huaiyan. She was young but already had the same problem as the original Jingliu. Such results were well-deserved.
Dan Heng took a sip of milk and shook his head. "No. It's said that Miss Yunli withdrew midway through the competition because she felt the match was boring, so she stopped playing."
"Hah? Isn't… isn't that too arrogant?"
"What she said was the truth." Dan Heng said, "Remember when we dealt with the Heliobus incident a few days ago? Because you called people for help, Screwllum and Clara—the two hot favorites—missed the competition and were considered to have forfeited automatically."
"Bailu, Helm Master Lingsha, Helm Master Huohuo… even Yanqing didn't make it in time."
"Plus Miss Yunli's withdrawal… the final winner is someone you know too. It's Skott from the IPC. He got byes all the way and ultimately won the championship in the finals."
"This whole thing is… hah."
Stelle's mouth twitched. "This really is the mantis and the oriole, with the lone wolf profiting… Forget it, forget it. He was so miserable before anyway, so just consider it a gift to him."
"Oh right, there's one more thing I forgot to mention."
Dan Heng raised a finger. "Jing Yuan just called me. Do you still remember that red-haired gentleman who was possessed by a Heliobus at Stargazer Navalia that day?"
"You were a bit too heavy-handed at the time. Although he himself doesn't mind and even thinks you did the right thing, I still think you should go see him."
Oh no!
The moment Argenti was mentioned, Stelle immediately felt a little embarrassed. Yes, the situation was urgent at the time. In order to quickly drive Cirrus out of Argenti's body, she hadn't thought too much…
"I'll go right now." Stelle grabbed the milk and chugged it down fiercely. After finishing it, she put on her clothes and headed out.
"Stelle, I'll go with you." March 7th followed closely behind.
Dan Heng sighed. "Shouldn't you two ask me where he is first? Never mind… I'll take you there."
"Oh right, let me say this in advance. This Mr. Argenti is a Galaxy Ranger. His way of speaking might be a bit straightforward, so be mentally prepared."