A scorching storm swept down.
Facing Lu Xing's all-out, sure-kill attack, the Knight Captain likewise did not hold back.
Deep cyan, dazzling white, eerie purple.
Three colors of light converged simultaneously on the incomparably sharp Knight Lance.
The terrifying Honkai energy caused the lance's volume, especially its length, to increase explosively by more than threefold.
Even the Honkai energy halo constantly rippling within its beast-form body dimmed noticeably during the凝聚 of this move.
"Whrrr!"
A cold wind spun rapidly around the tip of the lance.
Yet its direction was diametrically opposed to the "Tengen Toppa" from high above!
Spinning, counter-current, surging.
Facing the terrifying tornado pressing down猛然, the lance in the Knight Captain's hand thrust out furiously—
"Swoosh!!"
Spiral Lance Kill versus Tengen Toppa!
No retreat, no evasion, tip against tip, they clashed without reservation!
The next instant—
"Tzzzzla!!"
The fierce gales, colliding head-on, disintegrated at their meeting point.
The diffused airflow scattered like countless invisible wind blades, swiftly and ferociously carving innumerable gashes of varying depths into the surrounding buildings and ice layer.
The sand, stone, and ice fragments scattered by the impact strafed the surroundings like submachine gun bullets.
Neither side backed down.
The ever-more-surging tide of energy continuously compressed and condensed at the point of convergence, until the very moment both sides were about to exhaust their strength—
"BOOM!!!"
A terrifying pillar of light shot skyward, illuminating half the city like a star.
The elemental storm that followed immediately engulfed the two closest to the explosion.
"Swoosh!"
Diametrically opposite directions, entirely identical outcomes.
The explosive shockwave blasted the Knight Captain backward by more than a hundred meters. The ice layer beneath its beast-form body's feet was peeled up in sheets, and its body, pressed hard against the ground, plowed a trench nearly two meters deep into the solid earth.
On the surface of its already battered shell.
Dense white scratches almost "repainted" its dark body anew; the wounds that hadn't healed since the start of the battle were torn open into more than ten new fissures, each over half a meter long.
————
The Knight Captain's condition was definitely dire.
Lu Xing, whose body was far less durable than the Knight Captain's, should have been in an even worse state...
Yet, he wasn't!
Ranger-class Honkai Beasts had the smallest average tonnage among all Honkai Beasts.
Their streamlined body shape allowed them to utilize the power of "fluids" to the maximum extent.
The instant the explosion occurred.
Lu Xing didn't choose to fight against the impact. Instead, he adjusted his angle, flipped his wings, and "went with the flow" in the direction the shockwave was heading!
In the blink of an eye.
While the Knight Captain was still struggling against the explosion.
Lu Xing had already been blown by the violent gale directly beyond the horizon, out of sight.
The Knight Captain, its body extremely stiff and its Honkai energy circulation severely impeded, was "tending" to its injuries and chose not to pursue the "fleeing" Lu Xing.
In fact.
Even if the current Knight Captain wanted to pursue, it couldn't. After all, there wasn't even a shadow of its opponent left.
The battle was decided...
Yet, it wasn't!
Lu Xing had made ample preparations for this battle—not just in terms of Honkai energy reserves, but also by devising countermeasures for the Knight Captain's various tactics.
The previous exchange of blows.
Lu Xing's chosen method of "tactical retreat" was both to avoid the damage from the explosion and to set up for the next round of confrontation in advance!
1 second, 2 seconds... 5 seconds.
The black dot that had disappeared high above reappeared, rapidly magnifying in the Knight Captain's perception!
The Knight Captain's aura still persisted.
After any round of engagement, if Lu Xing couldn't break out of the domain's range, he would inevitably be affected by the cold air, subsequently losing the initiative in the ensuing fight.
Creating distance.
This was the prelude to his every attack.
Now, the distance between him and the Knight Captain was absolutely safe—before the aura could envelop him, the flames generated by the intense friction with the air, and the high temperature continuously searing his own shell, would be enough to completely dissipate this chill before impact!
"Have you ever seen a technique..."
Each round of engagement began with this move!
The advantage brought by the sky was the conversion of all potential energy into kinetic energy, thereby providing unparalleled speed and power!
"...a meteor falling from the sky!!"
————
Lu Xing's move wasn't difficult to dodge.
Even though the Knight Captain was severely injured, it wasn't immobile.
Although the visual effect of the "meteor fall" was exaggerated, its power wasn't necessarily stronger than the previous exchange of blows, and the straightforward attack wasn't a guaranteed hit.
But in the Knight Captain's dictionary, the word "dodge" seemed not to exist.
As a "[Leader]," regardless of its condition, the Knight Captain feared no challenge—
"Bang!!"
Its Honkai energy reserves had already dropped to a very dangerous level.
It clearly couldn't use an attack like the previous one again. At a time like this, the only thing it could do was obviously...
Lean back, raise its arm, the tip of its lance pointing straight at the sky.
Roar, raise its hoof, a stream of light converging into a single line.
A true "all-or-nothing gamble"—
"Swoosh!!"
The black lance streaked across the sky, hurtling straight towards the dive-bombing Lu Xing!
Crimson and cyan-black intersected.
In a fleeting instant!
"BANG!!!"
The Knight Captain's invincible Knight Lance, after a deafening roar, was actually sent flying by Lu Xing's dash!
No... it wasn't a dash!
In the brief half-second before the lance hit, the six wings, spewing energy jets from behind, instantly combined and interlaced, forming a shield before Lu Xing like a flower in full bloom!
[Hold Shield]! This was the [Hold Shield] skill Lu Xing had mastered not long ago!
While the sent-flying Knight Lance was still spinning in the air, the shield before him had already reconfigured into an irregular pyramid.
Reinvesting the power just nullified by the impact into this all-out collision—
"[Shield Bash]!!"
The Knight Captain was now unarmed; it had no way to block this attack... "Fuck!"
A clash in a flash of lightning and flint.
Lu Xing had no time to open his mouth and curse; even if he wanted to, he lacked such a physiological function.
The Knight Captain met the attack head-on.
It wasn't that it didn't know how to adapt, but that it had long been prepared for certain victory!
In the instant the [Shield Bash] was merely a dozen meters from the Knight Captain, its right hand, which should have been empty, suddenly slashed out with a one-handed sword, identical in hue to the Knight Lance, that had never been seen in battle before!
Lance-Concealed Sword!
This structure was completely identical to that of Black Abyss White Flower!
Swift, sudden, and completely unexpected—seeing the longsword slash towards him at the last moment, Lu Xing, with no way to change his move, could only crash straight into it...
As if!
It was precisely to guard against the Knight Captain's hidden moves.
That Lu Xing had never poured all his Honkai energy into this [Power Strike]-enhanced [Shield Bash]!
At the very, very end.
"[Space-Time Rend]—"
"BOOM!!!"
————