Chapter 378: Chapter 378: A Sense of Déjà Vu (Please Subscribe)
Pei Yan wasn’t surprised that Bals could block his kick, because everyone here was likely a key elite of Shen Yu, possessing such power was not surprising. Pei Yan wasn’t surprised by Bals’s Substitute Technique either. From Jiang Feiyang to Shitang Longsi, and then to some figures reported in the hall with their abilities and equipment, Pei Yan was already accustomed to such things.
But observing the rolling, thick blood at Bals’s rapidly healing wound, Pei Yan exchanged glances with Xia Yu, and they both simultaneously thought of another person, the key figure in this incident.
"Du Guangyuan?" Pei Yan blurted out in surprise.
"No, no, no!" Bals shook his head, which had returned to normal, and touched his bald scalp and baby-like smooth skin with a gesture of dismissal, saying, "I am not the same as him, technically speaking, he is our pioneer."
"Pioneer? What do you mean?" Xia Yu asked in confusion.
Bals twisted his neck with a creaking sound and sneered, "I don’t seem obligated to tell you more information. If you want to know more, beat me first."
With that said, his bare upper body suddenly sprouted layers of fur, soon forming leopard-like patterns: "Time to get serious and send you on your way." As soon as he finished speaking, his figure disappeared from where he stood.
Pei Yan frowned slightly, invisibility? The next moment, he suddenly turned around and pushed Xia Yu aside, as Bals’s huge figure appeared between the two of them, with enormous claws striking down from thin air.
Seeing this, Xia Yu raised her hand and shouted, "Repulsion!" But before her voice could finish, Bals’s figure once again disappeared into thin air, and her attack missed, landing directly on Pei Yan.
"Damn!" Pei Yan cursed under his breath, being knocked into the air by a forceful impact. As he was flung away, he yelled, "Xia Yu, behind you!"
Troubled by accidentally harming her teammate, Xia Yu was extremely angry. Upon hearing Pei Yan’s warning, she immediately activated her domain without turning back, followed by a muffled booming sound.
"Ugh!" Xia Yu let out a painful groan, first feeling a chilling wind surge into her back, followed by a burning pain.
Ignoring everything else, she twisted and turned to look behind her. The already huge Bals had expanded another third in size and was now pinned to the ground by her gravity, Xia Yu roared and leapt upwards, punching towards his head with a thundering sound as her fist smashed into the ground. Bals’s figure slipped away from her grasp once more and vanished.
"Are you okay?" Pei Yan rushed over and looked at the five ghastly wounds on Xia Yu’s back with concern.
"No problem, you know my abilities, don’t you?" Xia Yu shook her head to indicate it didn’t matter, but in her heart, she shuddered at the thought that if she hadn’t used her abilities in time to pin Bals to the ground, allowing his attack to miss, she wouldn’t be as unscathed as she was now.
"I don’t think so, there’s something unusual about that wound." Pei Yan looked at Xia Yu with worry, under normal circumstances such injuries would heal in an instant for Xia Yu, but now there was no sign of healing, and the wound was beginning to turn blue and black.
"I said it’s fine, so it’s fine! We can’t afford to worry about it now!"
As Xia Yu’s angry voice sounded, a scream accompanied by the crackling sound of electrical sparks rang out, and Xia Yu turned her head to see Bals standing in place, twitching uncontrollably.
"I set up electromagnetic mines around here, he ran into one!" Pei Yan said while leaning in to whisper a few words into Xia Yu’s ear. Hearing this, Xia Yu’s lips curled into a knowing smile.
The electric shock from the electromagnetic mine didn’t hold Bals for long. After all, as an elite key member of Shen Yu, he merely suffered from being caught off guard. Before Pei Yan and Xia Yu could counterattack, Bals vanished again.
This time Pei Yan didn’t stand together with Xia Yu, the two of them separated and searched for his tracks. With a thud, a sound came from beside Pei Yan, and he quickly turned around to see that Bals once again targeted Xia Yu.
But this time he wasn’t so fortunate, as soon as he appeared next to Xia Yu, she sensed him, charging telekinetic power she side-kicked him in the stomach with accuracy. With a dull grunt, before he could vanish again, Xia Yu leaned in quickly, pressed against him, catching his descending claws, then hooked his hind leg, tripping him with a back throw to slam him hard onto the ground, then layered her field’s gravity over him.
Seeing her strategy succeed, Xia Yu was overjoyed, leaping forward to deliver Bals a critical blow, but just as she raised her fist, she suddenly stopped, her fist suspended in mid-air.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Bals broke free from Xia Yu’s restraint, rolled to the ground, kicked himself up, and swept a kick at Xia Yu’s face, sending her flying sideways.
Boom! Another explosion was triggered by Pei Yan’s attack, blasting off Bals’s left arm and halting his pursuit, while Pei Yan leapt into the air to intercept Xia Yu, catching her precisely as they rolled to the ground.
"Are you stupid!? What were you spacing out for just now!" Pei Yan shouted angrily at Xia Yu in his arms, seeing her cheek swelling high.
"Pft! Pft!" Xia Yu spat out blood and broken teeth, pushed Pei Yan away without any answer, not because she didn’t want to, but because she couldn’t open her mouth, due to both pain and overwhelming anger.
Just as she was about to strike, she was stunned by an overwhelming mental pressure emanating from Bals. Unlike the deliberate release when they encountered Li Songtao by the pond, it was a kind of instinctual animalistic presence. In that brief instant, Xia Yu felt as though she had angered a primordial beast, locked in by its savage and merciless eyes.
That momentary distraction almost cost her life, had it not been for her instinctively protecting her vital neck area, and had Pei Yan not intervened to absorb most of the impact, her neck might have been kicked, or her head would have smashed into a bloody pulp.
Clearly, they were two people ganging up, yet due to her mistake, they were continuously injured, which was hard for the proud Xia Yu to accept. She shoved Pei Yan who tried to stop her from advancing aside and her silhouette swiftly vanished.
When she reached the spot where Bals had previously stood, the enemy was already gone. Xia Yu didn’t recklessly pursue but instead gently closed her eyes, carefully sensing everything around her.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes and shouted, a powerful repulsive force erupted from her body, centered on herself. Bals, who was closing in mid-air, was instantly blown away. Before Bals could react or become invisible again, an attractive force drew the thrashing figure straight towards Xia Yu.