Beneath the fiery-red magic circle, the earth cracked open piece by piece.
Crimson flames erupted from the depths of the earth, surging toward the succubi in the sky.
As the earth shook and the mountains trembled, Li Xiuman was deeply shaken by this Tier 4 spell.
“Let the dogs fight among themselves!”
Li Xiuman shrank behind Fusuida.
Looking at Fusuida's body, Li Xiuman felt a twinge of regret.
It was a pity he had sliced too aggressively earlier, taking off a large chunk of the boy's shoulder as well.
This made the human shield unable to fully cover his skeleton frame.
“Despicable humans! Just you wait!”
After shouting, Lucia did not plan on confronting them head-on, turning around to fly away.
“Wait! Sister Lucia!”
“Take me with you, Sister Lucia!”
“Sister Lucia!”
Lucia did not respond. With absolutely no intention of tanking the magic, she flew off into the distance.
The atmosphere grew even more tense.
The elderly Mage had not even deactivated his magic circle; he simply stared intently at Li Xiuman.
He wanted to pursue Lucia, but was afraid of some sudden development on Li Xiuman's side.
Furthermore, Lucia's tone made it completely obvious that she was going to call for backup.
They were terrified that if they dragged things out any longer, Lucia would return with reinforcements and throw a wrench into their plans.
“Don't move! Nobody move!”
“If anyone moves, I'll kill this damn freak!”
Li Xiuman was like a cat with its fur standing on end. Crystal Orchid was pressed so hard against Fusuida's throat that it was almost slicing through the flesh, oozing blood.
“All of you, stop! Stop!”
Under the threat of death, Fusuida also had to speak up, ordering his subordinates to halt.
Li Xiuman did not dare make any reckless moves either.
After all, a magic circle was already laid out here. His best bet now was to wait for Sister Lucia to return with reinforcements.
Then he could find a way to break out.
If he ended up with Lucia, at least there was a chance of survival, even if he might get dissected for research.
But if he fell into the hands of these people, he would definitely be brutally tortured before being put to death.
Li Xiuman could clearly distinguish which of the two evils was lesser.
Now, he just needed to—
A giant fireball crashed down toward Li Xiuman, so fast he barely had time to react!
The elderly Swordsman drew his blade without a hint of hesitation and thrust it straight at Li Xiuman's neck.
The surrounding Warriors sprang into action simultaneously, charging at Li Xiuman.
“Are you people crazy?!”
“Stop, or else I'll—”
Li Xiuman made a move to slice Fusuida's throat, but the crowd showed no sign of stopping.
It was as if they truly did not care whether Fusuida lived or died.
Steeling his resolve, Li Xiuman swung Crystal Orchid and chopped off Fusuida's head.
But in the next split second...
...time seemed to flow backward. Fusuida's head reattached to his neck, and Li Xiuman's body moved in reverse as if a rewind button had been pressed, pulling Crystal Orchid backward across the wound.
The sliced wound on Fusuida's neck healed, and the blade retracted from his throat.
“What's going on?!”
Li Xiuman stared at all this in utter disbelief, and then at the source of this phenomenon.
A magic item was floating above his head.
[Clock of Reverse Flow] A clock that runs against the flow of time under the influence of some mysterious power. Story origin: A magic item obtained from a witch by the White-Armored Knight in the Heroic Tale “Heroic Tale of the White-Armored Knight.” In the end, the White-Armored Knight used this magic item to save the princess.
[Special Effects] 1. Time Reversal (Set up a magic circle in advance to lock down a certain range of space within it and reverse the flow of time in that space).
2. Time Regression (Set up a magic circle in advance to lock down a target within it and regress their physical state to a previous point in time).
3. Time Dilation (Lock onto a target to delay their perception of time).
4. Temporal Curse (The holder's lifespan drains ten times faster, and is accelerated to a hundred times faster when using the item).
[Quality] Red (Story-grade)
What a ridiculous magic item!
By this point, the Swordsman had already closed the distance. Li Xiuman had no time to swing his sword again.
He could only summon the snow wolf from Crystal Orchid to block the strike for him.
The snow wolf was impaled by the sword and dispersed on the spot.
The thrusting blade, losing none of its momentum, continued to slash down at Li Xiuman.
A crack was split into the Shield of the King, and the impact sent Li Xiuman flying backward.
“Too fast!”
Before Li Xiuman could even push himself back up, a heavy kick slammed into his ribs, launching him into the air once more.
From Li Xiuman's perspective, it wasn't just the elderly Swordsman.
Everyone's movements had become incredibly swift.
Connecting this with the effects of that magic item, Li Xiuman quickly realized that his perception of time had been slowed down by its power.
What should he do? What could he do?!
Facing such a cheat-like magic item, how was he supposed to fight back?
Li Xiuman's mind raced as he mentally inventoried all of his magic items, desperately trying to find something that could help him handle this situation.
However, Crystal Orchid was the only red, Story-grade magic item he currently possessed.
And Crystal Orchid was clearly not suited for countering a time-based magic item.
As for the rest of his magic items...
The statue!
The Evil God Statue!
An evil god was still a god, after all.
When dealing with something as bizarre as time, only an even more bizarre entity like a god could possibly stand a chance.
Li Xiuman made a snap decision and pulled out the Evil God Statue.
Pray directly?
What a joke. Why would an evil god give him the time of day without receiving any benefits first?
This was an evil god, not some righteous deity.
Even good gods didn't always answer every prayer, let alone a malicious one.
The special effect [Pray] clearly stated that praying to the evil god carried a chance of resolving the current crisis, but also a chance of plunging him into an even worse catastrophe.
He had to offer a sacrifice!
What should he sacrifice to save his own life?
Would ten copper coins cut it?
No, no, no! He couldn't afford to be stingy right now!
He was worth at least five gold coins, right?
Actually, as the only talking skeleton in this magical world, Li Xiuman could definitely afford to properly overestimate his own worth a bit.
Or rather, Li Xiuman probably just wanted to spend as little money as possible, to the point where he didn't mind devaluing himself to achieve it.
The elderly Swordsman charged before him once more.
With great difficulty, Li Xiuman raised the Shield of the King.
In the next second, the Shield of the King was sliced clean down the middle, and the blade continued on a path to sever Li Xiuman's neck.
At the critical juncture, Number Zero rushed forward with its greatsword and tanked the hit, being blown away along with Li Xiuman.
Both of Number Zero's arms were sliced clean off.
“Number Zero!”
There was no time to worry about that now!
Li Xiuman sacrificed both halves of the Shield of the King to the Evil God Statue, along with every single gold coin he had on hand.
“O Supreme and Noble Deity, your devout believer prays to you!”
The Evil God Statue activated.
In that split second, Li Xiuman felt as if he was looking through the Evil God Statue into a pitch-black, fathomless abyss.
Slimy green tentacles intertwined within the space, glowing with an eerie, unsettling light.
And at the deepest core of the mass of tentacles, a goat-like eye with a horizontal pupil snapped open, locking gazes with Li Xiuman.
Then, the space shattered.
The Evil God Statue floated into the air, facing off from a distance against that counter-clockwise clock.
Rate on N.U.
