Chapter 100 Xia Ping Zhou VS Oda Takikage (First update, please give me a monthly ticket)
The windows of the abandoned building were sealed with densely packed paper leaves. Only a thin ray of light shone through the paper, casting a mottled shadow on the floor.
Ayase Origami stood quietly by the window, staring at Xia Pingzhu's silhouette.
The moment Oda Takikage disappeared into the shadows, the competition officially began.
Ji Minghuan couldn't see where Oda Takikage had gone, but he gave an order to one of the artillery statues, asking it to load the shells and prepare for firing. His dynamic vision and reaction naturally couldn't keep up with the speed of the ninja, but he understood how an excellent ninja's mindset should be:
Take the enemy's head, cleanly and neatly.
So at this moment, Ji Minghuan's order to the artillery cart statue was:
"Cannon, fire at me."
With a loud "bang", a black shell shot out from the barrel of the black iron gun carriage and headed straight for Ji Minghuan's body!
In mid-air, the shell exploded and turned into a column of fire that eroded forward.
At this moment, Oda Takikage's figure rose up from the shadow behind Ji Minghuan.
The firelight from the side illuminated his cheek for a moment. Oda Takikage was slightly startled, and out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of the Flame Pillar rushing towards him.
The high temperature caused the air to deform slightly, like a mirage.
A thought flashed through Oda Takikage's mind: Isn't this kid afraid of death? He actually fired at himself?
But he did not think about avoiding the artillery fire at the first moment. As a ninja, he must ensure that he kills the enemy 100%!
So he made a quick decision and swung his long sword to cut towards Ji Minghuan's neck, but soon Oda Takikage found that his sword was blocked by a layer of black and white barrier. The blade trembled and hummed in the air, but it could not move forward any further.
"Can't cut it?" Oda Takikage slightly raised his thick eyebrows and increased the force on the blade.
Ji Minghuan was clearly right in front of him, but he was helpless.
At this time, the artillery fire was sweeping in like an overwhelming force. Oda Takikage was quick-witted and quick-handed, and changed his hand to hold the sword in the backhand.
The blade was covered with a layer of dark shadow, dancing a circle of black patterns in the air. The shadow pattern collided head-on with the artillery fire, and Oda Takikage's body bounced back more than a few meters. His feet drew a dark gully on the ground of the abandoned building.
Oda Takikage quickly stood up from the ground, swung his sword in the air to wipe out the flame on the blade, raised his eyes, and found that Xia Pingzhou was still standing there motionless - it was the black and white barrier that protected him and saved him from the erosion of artillery fire!
"No wonder he dared to let the artillery vehicle fire at him..."
Oda Takikage murmured softly, and with his peripheral vision he saw that the black and white barrier came from the scepter of the stone statue of the king - the scepter emitted a thin and long river of light, which continuously spread towards Xia Pingzhou's body.
"The king, it is the king who is protecting him."
Oda Takikage's eyes flashed and he immediately came to a conclusion.
So he changed his attack, and his figure instantly disappeared into the shadow under his feet, and emerged from the shadow behind the king the next second.
At this moment, there was another loud "bang" sound, followed by a familiar high temperature. Ji Minghuan perfectly predicted Oda Takikage's thoughts, and he controlled another artillery vehicle to fire at the king's stone statue in advance!
Amid the deafening sound, the firelight once again illuminated Oda Takikage's ninja attire.
The moment he stood up from the shadow under his feet, Oda Takikage noticed something was wrong again:
"Why would he fire at the king? Isn't the king protecting him? Or is he planning to give up on the king and try to take me down with this attack? Or... is the king, like Xia Pingzhou, also protected by a barrier?"
His thoughts were all over the place at once, but Oda Takikage had suffered a loss once, so he didn't intend to take it head-on this time.
So he did not swing his sword at the back of the king's neck, but instead chopped the ground hard and flew backwards, instantly avoiding the artillery fire from the side.
But soon, Oda Takikage found that all his speculations were overturned.
He looked up at the stone statue of the king, and at the moment when the artillery fire was about to consume the king, a foreign object appeared under the king's feet: it was a demon made entirely of shadow.
The shadow demon rose up at an extremely fast speed, then raised its claws to grab the left and right shoulders of the king's statue and pulled the king's body into the "shadow lake" under its feet.
Then the blazing flames passed over Shadow Lake without touching a single hair of the king.
"Shadow Demon?" Oda Takikage frowned and recognized the appearance of the demon.
At this moment, the shadow demon was smiling sinisterly in a shadow, revealing a blood-red smile:
“Hehehe——”
As if mocking Oda Takikage.
Although he was pulled into the shadow under the devil's feet, the scepter in the king's hand still emitted a black and white halo, covering Xia Pingzhou's body. Therefore, in these few short seconds, Oda Takikage could neither attack the king nor Ji Minghuan.
There was only one thing he could do: stay put - and wait until the moment the shadow demon disappeared, the king would naturally float up from the shadow.
In this way, he could naturally cut off the king's head.
"Did No. 12's Sky Exorcist make a contract with the 'Shadow Demon' and use the Shadow Demon to protect the king?" Oda Takikage sighed in his heart, "What a brilliant idea! A first-level exorcist can actually do this."
At this moment, with the sound of rumbling footsteps, three Black Iron Soldiers rushed over like buffaloes.
They held shields in their left hands and swords in their right hands, and placed the shields across their front to form a steel wall.
Oda Takikage ignored this and lightly tapped the ground to jump up. His two-meter-tall figure was as light as a bird at this moment and flew over the shield wall formed by the soldiers.
The Black Iron soldiers swung their swords upwards, trying to intercept him in mid-air, but Oda Takikage simply stepped lightly on the cross-section of the sword with the side of his foot and avoided the tip of the sword.
He immediately landed behind the three Black Iron soldiers. With a sharp movement, the shadow sword drew a black arc, severing the back of each soldier's neck. The headless soldiers slowly knelt on the ground, releasing their shields and swords.
Then, the shadow demon had exceeded its maximum existence limit, so it could no longer laugh: "Jie, jie..." With a stiff voice, it slowly let go of the King Colossus it was hugging tightly.
The king emerged from the shadow lake beneath his feet and stood motionless, like a puppet holding a scepter high.
Oda Takikage slowly walked towards the stone statue of the king. He swung his sword and the head of the stone statue of the king flew out.
Immediately afterwards, the king and the three black iron stone statues turned into chess shadows and returned to the black and white ring around Xia Pingzhou.
Oda Takikage slowly turned around and glanced at Ji Minghuan.
Ji Minghuan had been standing there from the beginning of the battle until now, without even moving a step. What was even more bizarre was that the stone statue of the queen had been with Ji Minghuan from the beginning to the end, not leaving for a moment... I wonder if there was something strange going on?
"The king is gone. There are no pawns left to protect him. Will No. 12 surrender?"
Oda Takikage thought to himself.
But no matter what, he only knew that his target was Ji Minghuan: since he had lost the king's protection, the stone statue of the queen could not be faster than him.
In one step, his knife is faster than anyone else's!
So at this moment, Oda Takikage used his old trick again and hid in the shadow under his feet again. In the blink of an eye, he had already risen from the shadow behind Ji Minghuan, and raised the long sword covered with a layer of shadow, slashing towards Ji Minghuan's back.
However, at this time, the hand of the queen statue was on Ji Minghuan's right arm.
The reaction speed of the Queen's stone statue is indeed slower than that of Oda Takikage, so it cannot swing out the dagger the moment Oda Takikage appears to block Oda Takikage's long sword for Ji Minghuan.
But in addition to physical combat, the Queen's stone statue has another trick up its sleeve, which is the chess power that is unique to her - "nihilism".
"Nullification."
At this moment, Ji Minghuan said silently in his heart, and then the giant statue of the queen and Ji Minghuan's body entered a state of nothingness at the same time, turning into an untouchable transparent object.
It clearly only took 0.5 seconds for Oda Takikage's long sword to pierce Ji Minghuan's back.
But at this moment, the blade hit nothing.
Oda Takikage was slightly shocked. Originally, in his plan, as long as he took a step ahead of the Queen's statue and slashed the sword at Ji Minghuan, this boring game would be over - Miss Ayase would wrap the bodies of both of them with paper to prevent them from hurting each other, and then unilaterally declare his victory.
But he was wrong.
Totally wrong.
The blade of the long sword...did not touch Ji Minghuan's body at all, but Oda Takikage's body leaned forward slightly. His pupils shrank slightly, and he found that his figure actually overlapped with Xia Pingzhou's figure?
It feels like... Xia Pingzhou has turned into air!
At the same time, the stone statue of the queen had already swung out the dagger at the moment when Ji Minghuan's body turned into nothingness.
The angle at which she swung the dagger was based on Ji Minghuan's instructions, and she perfectly predicted Oda Takikage's movements - because Oda Takikage was confident that he could end the match with one strike, so when the blade missed, his body would unstoppably lean forward.
So at this moment, the dagger was precisely placed in front of Oda Takikage's neck.
"Stop. It's over." Not far away, the girl in ochre kimono who was staring at the two of them spoke.
I actually... lost?
Oda Takikage was stunned for a long, long time, then lowered his eyes to look at the dagger against his neck. If it was an inch closer, his neck would be cut off by the dagger. But Ji Minghuan controlled the distance very well, and didn't even cut a bloody line on his neck.
Oda Takikage looked sideways and saw cold blue flames burning in the eye sockets of the Queen's stone statue. If the monarch had not stopped her, she would have slashed with her sword and killed the person who tried to hurt the monarch.
While his attention was still on the aggressive stone statue of the queen, Xia Pingzhou's indifferent voice came from the side:
"Number 4, you can't hide your body in the shadow when you attack, right?"
After a pause, Xia Pingzhou continued to speculate: "So if I want to catch you, I can only take advantage of the moment when you attack me. Facts have proved that I succeeded."
Oda Takikage was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then he smiled silently. He didn't expect that after just one battle, Xia Pingzhou had already observed him to such a detailed level.
Meeting his gaze, Ji Minghuan continued, "I feel like you're letting me win. I don't believe that this is all you have."
After saying this, he ordered the Queen's stone statue to retract the dagger from Oda Takikage's neck, and together with the two artillery carts, it turned into chess shadows and returned to the black and white ring road.
Then he put away the SkyDrive, and the bird's-eye view and the ring road disappeared together. The abandoned building seemed to be a lot wider for a moment.
Ayase Origami came over and said, "Takikage does have many tricks that he hasn't used yet. Maybe he thinks that teasing a kitten... only requires some basic tricks."
"It is true that I was careless." Oda Takikage nodded slightly, "But misjudging the opponent's strength is also an important factor in failure. Mr. Xia Pingzhou's strength is indeed beyond my imagination..." When he called Ji Minghuan, he changed his name instead of the brigade number.
He sincerely praised: "Your Sky Drive ability is very special. It occupies a great advantage in a one-on-one battle. I am afraid it is difficult for an enemy to break through your defenses on his own."
After a pause, Oda Takikage sheathed his sword and said calmly:
"I lost."
Ji Minghuan thought for a moment and suggested, "How about we play again later when my chess pieces recover. Don't let me down. Let me see your other moves."
"That's not necessary." Ayase Origami said, "If Takikage gets serious, this building will collapse."
"real?"
As Ji Minghuan spoke, he met Ayase Origami's gaze, seemingly unwilling to believe that a ninja who specialized in surprise attacks and speed could possess the kind of power that Ayase Origami described.
"Really." Ayase Origami said, "The kitten is rebelling... and doesn't believe the master's words."
Ji Minghuan ignored her and turned to look at Oda Takikage, "In fact, if I didn't know what your ability is, I might not be able to defeat you in an encounter... A ninja who can suddenly appear in someone's shadow is hard for anyone to guard against."
"No, losing is losing. There's no need to find excuses for me." Oda Takikage shook his head. His eyes and tone suddenly became warm, as if he had changed into a different person. "Let's go back and prepare."
"What are you preparing for?"
"Three members of the group will arrive in Tokyo tonight. We will wait for them in the cafe."
"Where is the captain?" Ji Minghuan only cared about this.
"The captain hasn't arrived yet." Oda Takikage replied.
(End of this chapter)
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