Chapter 246: The Triple Combo

Chapter 246: The Triple Combo

Senor naturally could not gamble that the object thrown by his opponent posed no threat. He immediately dodged aside and flashed into the distance, letting the iron cigarette case sealed by the wall of spirituality fall to the ground.

Then he opened his mouth again and released a scream.

That howl, as though coming from the depths of the spirit body, made Klein’s head ache. Even though he often endured the damage caused by the ravings of the True Creator, Mr. Door, and similar existences and thus had considerable resistance to such attacks, he still inevitably froze briefly. His nose burned, as if capillaries inside had burst.

However, his own resistance, combined with the weakening effect of Bribe, meant that the pause lasted only a single instant. And this was something Blood Admiral Senor could not know.

Therefore, Klein pretended he had not recovered so quickly, revealing a weakened side as he waited for the enemy to take the bait.

In a normal battle, because a Wraith could use mirror-like objects to jump, and because his position could not be predicted in advance, even if Klein created clusters of flames to continuously flash around, he could not keep the distance within five meters at all times. His manipulation of the Spirit Body Threads would always only just take effect before being interrupted.

For this, he planned to take a small risk and lure his opponent into the trap he had dug, ending the battle as soon as possible so he could flee toward the cliff.

Seeing that the target had shown obvious dullness after repeated injuries from Wraith screams, Senor did not hesitate. His aura became deep and gloomy.

At the position of Klein’s eyes, Blood Admiral’s figure swiftly appeared, scaled down proportionally and exceptionally clear.

It did not look like a reflection of the outside world. It was as if the two tiny figures lived inside his pupils!

Just as Wraith possession was nearly complete, the clothing-torn and scorched Klein bent his waist slightly, calmly extending his palm to the left, as though he were a courteous gentleman saying, “Please.”

Creeping Hunger maintained that evil yet noble black color, forcibly distorting Blood Admiral’s target.

And because of the freezing halo from earlier, the surroundings were full of white frost and crystals—equivalent to mirrors!

On the thin layer of ice, Senor’s tricorne-hatted figure emerged, his expression slightly stunned.

At that moment, Creeping Hunger switched again to a deep, dark state. Klein spoke a Devilish word filled with filth:

“Slow!”

Senor, who was about to use a mirror-like object to jump away, stiffened at once. His figure uncontrollably outlined itself. His movements became very wooden, and his attempt failed.

Because Slow could not be used continuously, Klein made the glove on his left palm turn pale and take on a tinge of eerie green.

Zombie!

The frost-white ice sealing the ground intensified again, rapidly spreading to Senor. The pirate admiral, his movements slowed, began freezing from the tips of his toes, transforming into a complete ice sculpture.

Knowing that Wraiths had strong resistance to freezing, Klein did not delay. He spent one second making Creeping Hunger look as if it had been cast from gold.

The illusory clusters of black lines in his eyes vanished. Two dazzling bolts of silver-white lightning erupted from his depths to the surface.

Interrogator. Psychic Piercing!

Under normal circumstances, Senor’s body, which was almost one with his spirit, would only be slightly affected and might even cause Klein to suffer backlash. But he had just escaped Slow and not yet removed the ice seal, so he could only forcibly endure these invisible arrows aimed at the spirit.

It was as if a knife tip had drilled into his mind and savagely stirred. Pain spread throughout his body, causing him to briefly lose reason.

By the time he regained clarity and prepared to perform successive jumps to pull distance, the cold adventurer opposite him once again opened his mouth.

“Slow!”

Shit… Blood Admiral Senor’s movements became sluggish and slow again. Then, without question, he endured another two follow-up waves of freezing and Psychic Piercing.

When he barely broke free, Gehrman Sparrow, with his black hair, brown eyes, and sharp facial lines, expressionlessly opened his mouth for the third time.

“Slow!”

Senor’s heart filled first with anger, then despair. Then he fell into the previous cycle again.

While chaining triple combo after triple combo to control his opponent, Klein had long since begun secretly manipulating Blood Admiral’s Spirit Body Threads.

In truth, his most effective method now would be to use Death Knell and deliver two or three fatal shots while the opponent was unable to break free. But his earlier failures told him that the enemy possessed a mystical item capable of making him lucky. Too direct and too lethal an attack might very likely cause accidents and fail to produce the desired effect.

Precisely because of this, he chose to gradually manipulate the Spirit Body Threads!

Time passed rapidly. While circling Blood Admiral Senor to avoid possible attacks from the Rose School of Thought demigod, Klein manipulated the Spirit Body Threads and gradually reached the state of initial control.

Three seconds. Two seconds. One second!

Senor’s thoughts abruptly became sluggish. Every part of his body felt as though it had grown over with rust.

Klein no longer had spare strength to use Creeping Hunger. He continued deepening control while moving at a pace neither too slow nor too fast.

No… can’t… let this… continue… Senor’s thoughts flashed slowly, and before him condensed a small transparent ice-crystal arrow.

It was stained with traces of eerie green, as if paying tribute to the surrounding forest.

Having watched the other party’s slow-motion actions throughout the entire process, Klein calmly retracted his left hand, took Travels of Groselle from his chest, and assumed the right posture.

Whoosh!

The ice-crystal arrow finally shot out. It appeared to be heading straight for Klein’s chest, yet it suddenly changed direction midway, flying diagonally upward!

This should have been an extremely sudden, fatal change. But Senor’s manipulated thoughts had slowed considerably, and the ice-crystal arrow only received the “order” when it was about to reach Klein’s body. The change was insufficient and hurried. Klein merely shifted Travels of Groselle slightly and blocked it easily.

Senor’s face seemed to grow a little paler. After several seconds of thought, he slowly opened his mouth, trying to unleash a Wraith scream.

Klein had prepared for it. He spoke first:

“Bang!”

An air bullet shot out quickly, striking Senor’s mouth and knocking his head backward. Teeth flew out, and the scream died in his throat.

Seeing his control deepen bit by bit, and seeing Senor’s resistance collapse again and again—even the madman-like eruption of nearly losing reason was interrupted—Klein felt a surge of delight.

Just then, a shrill, sharp, terrifying infant’s cry abruptly appeared, echoing through the forest.

Goosebumps bulged across Klein’s body. Travels of Groselle fell from his hand with a plop. His mind felt as though it had been tightly squeezed by an invisible palm, and for a short time, he lost his sense of all things, including the Spirit Body Threads. Senor was released from control as a result.

Over a hundred meters away, the large black infant whose skin was swollen and wrinkled, yet seemed to have just emerged from water, separated from its illusory state and returned to reality.

Its limbs were thin and long. Its face had only one irregular hole, within which were countless white teeth arranged in a full circle.

At that moment, Jakes’s body had many obvious, deep wounds. They pierced through the black, swollen skin, allowing rotten black-green liquid to gush out from within.

After appearing, this Rose School of Thought demigod no longer dodged or fled. Like a madman, he roared and released a cry like that of an infant, forcing both Klein and Senor into a half-fainting, half-painful state. Their bodies even showed signs of losing control.

Four blond-haired, red-eyed heads leaped out of the void. All of them opened their mouths at the same time and released a soundless scream, bringing that terrifying crying to an end.

Reinette Tinekerr and Jakes again launched into battle, sometimes in the spirit world, sometimes in reality, swiftly moving through leaves, weeds, insect eggs, ice crystals, and thorns.

Blood Admiral Senor and Klein both stood dully in their original positions, doing their utmost to break free from the effect of the infant’s cry.

In this aspect, Senor believed that as a Wraith, he possessed an advantage others could not match. The corners of his mouth subconsciously lifted a little.

He had already decided how he would deal with his opponent next.

But at that moment, in his eyes, the cold adventurer with torn clothes had already regained clarity!

Only one second had passed since the infant’s cry stopped!

With his extraordinarily rich experience, Klein recovered first and discovered that Senor was still dull and sluggish.

Opportunity! His heart stirred. He did not attempt a ranged attack with many possible accidents, nor did he choose Spirit Body Thread manipulation, which required even more time. He pushed off with his right foot and shot toward the enemy like a cheetah.

The glove on his left palm was deep and dark, trailing behind him as it condensed an enormous weapon formed from lava and fire, its shape closer to a saber.

Apostle of Desire. Lava Sword!

Thud!

Klein’s body crossed past Senor’s left side, while the burning greatsword swept across the pirate admiral’s chest and abdomen, lodging in the middle.

With a whoosh, Senor was ignited by pale-blue flames. But his body was only damaged, not killed. He screamed endlessly from pain.

After the two brushed past one another, Klein directly abandoned the Lava Sword. His left foot stomped down, his body turned, and he faced Blood Admiral’s back, pressing the iron-black Death Knell revolver against the back of the other man’s head.

He did not use Fatal Attack. He directly pulled the trigger.

Amid the bang, his body suddenly swayed, because the place his foot had stepped on seemed to be a hollow. As a result, Death Knell abruptly slid downward, and the pale-golden bullet struck the side of Senor’s neck.

Eerie-green blood spurted out. Blood Admiral lost almost half his neck. His body pitched forward and collapsed, unconscious, yet still not dead.

Just as Klein was about to fire another shot, the sky above abruptly darkened, and an arm reached out!

The arm was a full ten meters long. Its surface was black and sticky, covered in strange protrusions that were either skull heads, three-dimensional eyes, or tongues with sharp teeth. The moment it appeared, the entire forest shook.

All green leaves withered. All insects stiffened and died. All wild animals either collapsed paralyzed on the ground or began crazily tearing into themselves, their bodies drenched in blood!

Klein’s premonition of danger reached an extreme intensity. He abruptly shut his eyes and pounced toward the ground in front of him. Then he followed the momentum into a roll, grabbed Travels of Groselle, and held it in front of his face!