Chapter 90: Team Dan Heng Enters the Battlefield
However, the scene that unfolded next left everyone utterly astonished.
That terrifying blow—a strike packing enough kinetic force to permanently alter the terrain and obliterate the very edges of the basin—slammed directly into the bizarre purple shield. Yet, instead of shattering, the barrier merely fluctuated violently. It flickered under the immense pressure, its dark violet hue visibly thinning and fading just a fraction, but holding firm.
The colossal, serpentine body of the Abyssal Erosion: Golden Wolflord was violently shoved back dozens of meters through the air by the sheer shockwave of the impact. It let out a deafening, furious roar that rattled the surrounding debris. But the shield itself remained intact. It was not broken!
To make matters infinitely worse, the scorching wounds inflicted upon the Golden Wolflord by the Phoenix Nirvana strike began to squirm grotesquely. Under the continuous infusion of dense, suffocating abyssal energy, the charred flesh knit itself back together, healing right before their eyes.
"What?!" Stelle's golden eyes widened in absolute disbelief. Her grip tightened on her weapon. Her absolute most confident, shield-breaking ultimate strike had only managed to achieve this meager effect?!
"How is that even possible?! Stelle's strike can literally split mountains!" March 7th cried out, her voice pitching up in shock. She lowered her bow slightly, her face painted with pure astonishment.
Lumine's heart sank like a stone in her chest.
She finally confirmed her worst fear. This bizarre, twisting purple shield could never be broken by sheer brute force alone!
Its underlying defensive mechanism operated on a completely different set of rules! To add to the mounting pressure, the brilliant beam of light illuminating the sky above them had already shrunk to a mere half of its original size. Time was running out.
Just as the heavy weight of the situation threatened to crush their morale, the aggressive, high-octane roar of engines tore through the air from the rear flank!
"We are here!" Dan Heng's clear, unwavering voice cut cleanly through the chaotic clamor of the battlefield.
Team Dan Heng had finally arrived, slicing into the heart of the battlefield like a perfectly honed blade!
Three heavy motorcycles executed a flawless, synchronized drift, kicking up clouds of dust and debris as they slammed on their brakes in an emergency stop, instantly joining the fray.
"Kachina, you need to rest first!" Chasca ordered the moment her boots hit the ground. She immediately dismounted, her weapon already drawn and glowing with elemental energy. A single glance was enough to tell her that the young warrior was completely exhausted, her breathing ragged and heavy.
Paimon, uncharacteristically tactical, did not rush blindly into the center of the chaotic battlefield. Instead, her keen gaze instantly locked onto Kachina. The young girl was currently being supported by Chasca, her face deathly pale, and her natural aura clearly suppressed and polluted by the lingering effects of abyssal erosion.
Little Paimon's usually cheerful expression shifted into absolute seriousness. She instantly zipped through the air, hovering right at Kachina's side. "Kachina, do not move a muscle! You have something really bad stuck to you!"
Barely waiting for a response, Paimon waved her tiny hand. With a sharp flash of light, her iconic silver wrench—pulsing with that strange, reality-bending Optimization Power—materialized out of thin air right into her grasp!
She did not hesitate for a single second. Gripping the tool tight, she brought it down and gave Kachina a rather firm, yet supposedly gentle, tap directly on the center of her forehead!
Buzz—!
A familiar, complex golden magic circle instantly flared to life beneath Kachina's boots, casting a warm glow over the immediate area. Simultaneously, a massive, glowing phantom projection of the silver wrench began to spin rapidly just above the young warrior's head.
Thick, suffocating strands of purple-black abyssal energy were violently yanked outward. Like stubborn filth being forcibly scrubbed from a pristine surface, the corruption was continuously dragged out of Kachina's body, purified by the golden light, and completely dissipated into harmless sparks!
"Ugh..." Kachina let out a soft groan. She could actually feel the pervasive, bone-deep chill and crushing heaviness rapidly receding from her veins. It was quickly replaced by a long-lost sense of comforting lightness. However, the sudden absence of the corruption immediately gave way to an even deeper, overwhelming wave of physical fatigue.
Out of everyone present, she was the one who had endured the oppressive environment of the Night Kingdom the longest. With her body subjected to such prolonged, unnatural pressure, this sudden return to a normal state caused an intense, crashing wave of exhaustion to wash over her entirely!
A similar phenomenon could also be seen previously when they were assisting the fairy.
Even after successfully stabilizing Kachina, Paimon did not relax her guard in the slightest. With another swift motion, she immediately summoned a second silver wrench into her free hand, dual-wielding the glowing tools.
She puffed out her chest and shouted at the top of her lungs, her voice carrying over the sounds of combat. "If any of you start feeling unwell or gross, tell me quickly! I can fix you right up!"
At that exact moment, the air behind the floating guide warped. An extremely exaggerated, hyper-muscular Stand—Star Paimon—spontaneously manifested at her back. The towering, brawny phantom exuded a terrifyingly powerful oppressive aura. Its sharp, glowing eyes vigilantly scanned the chaotic battlefield, faithfully and intimidatingly fulfilling its absolute duty of guardianship over its tiny master.
Belle, on the other hand, wasted no time. She immediately broke off and sprinted straight toward the left flank of the battlefield. Her unique combat abilities would be far more effective when directly combined with Wise's elemental control.
"March!" Belle called out, quickly assessing the tactical layout. "You head over to the right side of the battlefield to back up Iansan and Mualani! Those two are engaging in highly dangerous close-quarters combat with the monster swarms. Your shields will be much more useful over there!"
March 7th immediately adjusted her footing and bounded toward the right flank. "Understood! Leave the shielding to me!"
"Belle! Alternate!" Wise let out a low, focused growl. Searing purple flames erupted violently from his outstretched hands. The intense heat rapidly formed a towering wall of fire that instantly caught and ignited several pouncing Rifthounds mid-leap, turning the monstrous beasts into howling streaks of fire!
"Received!" Belle understood his timing perfectly. The very microsecond Wise's roaring flames began to slightly subside, she stepped into the opening and thrust both of her hands forward with explosive force!
A blast of bone-chilling cold air surged outward. It manifested as a blinding white torrent of jagged ice and frost, crashing mercilessly onto the exact same monsters that were currently superheated and burning from Wise's flames!
Crack—! A harsh, ear-piercing sound of rapid freezing rang out across the scorched earth!
The rapid, violent alternation between extreme high temperatures and absolute zero cold triggered an immediate, severe physical disintegration at the molecular level!
The typically sturdy, abyssal carapaces of the Rifthounds violently burst open, entirely unable to withstand the brutal thermal expansion and contraction. Their exposed forms were then completely flash-frozen into grotesque ice sculptures by Belle's lingering cold current. Finally, Wise followed up with a concentrated line of piercing fire, blasting the frozen statues into a glittering sky full of shattered ice crystals and ash!
The combat cooperation between the siblings had become increasingly tacit, flowing with a deadly, highly efficient rhythm that required zero verbal communication.
Meanwhile, Dan Heng's calm gaze swept upward, analyzing the Golden Wolflord that remained shrouded within its bizarre, twisting purple shield high in the air. He then shifted his attention to the visibly annoyed Stelle and the deeply solemn-faced Lumine. In less than a second, the archivist instantly understood the incredibly tricky nature of their current battlefield situation.
"What specific difficulties are we facing right now?" he asked Lumine concisely, his grip tightening on Cloud-Piercer, the spear already poised and humming with latent wind energy.
Lumine quickly brought him up to speed. "This monster has summoned a type of shield I have never seen before. So far, our highest-burst attacks have had little to no effect on it. To make things worse, the exit portal above us is shrinking rapidly. There really isn't much time left!"
Her golden eyes remained fixed on the constantly twisting, fluctuating purple barrier. Her brain was working in overdrive, analyzing every shift in its energy, desperately trying to find that one fatal weakness in this seemingly impossible situation.
"That purple shield is just straight-up evil!" Stelle pointed an accusatory finger at the Abyssal Erosion: Golden Wolflord as it circled mockingly in the air above them. Her face was a picture of pure defiance mixed with heavy frustration. The Glaze Sword in her other hand was still flickering with stubborn, unextinguished crimson flames.
"I even burned my ultimate, Phoenix Nirvana, just to knock the overgrown lizard down once! But it just got right back up and popped this totally broken shield! My Golden Light Demon Subduing strike hit it like a feather duster, literally just scratching off a tiny bit of skin! Just how much abyssal tonic did this place pump into this thing?!"
As Lumine and Stelle rapidly described the dire predicament, Dan Heng remained silent. His gaze was as sharp and calculating as an eagle's, locked entirely onto the twisting purple shield hovering in the sky.
He watched the way the violet light pulsed. The specific pattern of its energy fluctuations was strikingly, undeniably similar to the defensive shield that had appeared when the Deep Simulated Crystal Tree core was exposed during a past encounter in his memory!
Like a sudden flash of lightning illuminating a dark room, a critical piece of tactical information connected in his mind. During that previous battle, it was precisely when Chasca had activated her Nightsoul state that her elemental attacks suddenly had a massive, significant effect on that exact type of shield!
"I have a working theory!" Dan Heng made a rapid, decisive judgment, his voice projecting steady and powerful across the combat zone.
"The specific energy fluctuation of that barrier is extremely similar to the shield that manifested when the Deep Simulated Crystal Tree core was last exposed!"
He spun his spear, pointing the tip toward the sky. "Chasca! Mualani! Your primary target is the Wolflord's shield in the air! Activate your Nightsoul enhanced states immediately! I need coordinated long-range attacks! Full elemental output!"
"You got it!" The two Natlan warriors instantly understood Dan Heng's tactical intention. They quickly fell back, rapidly creating necessary distance from the ground-level swarms as they searched the ruined terrain for the absolute best firing positions.
Dan Heng did not miss a beat, quickly assigning the remaining combat tasks. "Everyone else, hold your positions! Focus entirely on clearing out the remaining beast tide on the ground! We need to create a completely safe output environment for our snipers!"
"Understood!" The combined team responded in perfect unison, immediately shifting their footing and adjusting their defensive formation to form an impenetrable ring around the Natlan girls.
Although Stelle was still deeply bothered by her completely ineffective attack from moments ago—her fingers twitching with the urge to leap up and deliver another fiercely overpowered blow to the giant beast just to prove a point—she also possessed enough combat sense to know this was absolutely not the time for stubborn pride.
She gritted her teeth, her jaw locking tight. The Glaze Sword in her hands reignited with a roaring torrent of crimson flames. Throwing herself into the fray, she perfectly cooperated with Lumine's sweeping elemental bursts. Together, the two protagonists acted like an unstoppable meat grinder, violently clearing out the endless waves of pouncing monsters and yielding a wide, safe space for the two Natlan warriors to operate.
"For Natlan!" Mualani was the first to let out a fierce, battle-ready roar. She instantly activated her Nightsoul enhanced state. The ambient energy surged around her, causing her hair to whip wildly without a single breeze in the air, while her bright pupils seemingly ignited, burning with an intense, unyielding flame!
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