Book 9: Chapter 34: Injury

While still in mid-air, the girl’s arms transformed into two sharp, gleaming long blades. With a cross-swing, she sent a cross-shaped light slash flying through the air toward Qin Lun.

Qin Lun’s eyes flashed. Earlier, while watching from the clock tower’s spire, he hadn’t seen either of the two Reincarnators use psychic powers or sword energy slashes. But now that he had appeared, these attacks came one after another. It seemed they had instinctively sensed the threat.

However, after Qin Lun’s promotion to Demon Hunter, dealing with attacks of this level had become very easy for him.

Qin Lun grinned. A glow flashed at his feet, and two overlapping Pentagram Crystal Mirrors suddenly appeared. With a crisp cracking sound, he shot forward directly toward the cross-shaped light slash.

“Bang!” The barrel of Angel’s Praise spat out a beam of light and flame. The moment the bullet left the chamber, it transformed into a pure white Unicorn.

“Neigh!” The Unicorn let out a long cry, raised its hooves, lowered its head, and with a trail of afterimages, crashed into the cross-shaped light slash. Accompanied by a dazzling flash, both the Unicorn and the cross-shaped light slash vanished, sprinkling a shower of light in the air.

Qin Lun’s figure flickered once more in the air, instantly arriving at the girl’s side. Alice’s expression changed slightly. She knew very well the power of her own skill, and hadn’t expected the enemy before her to be completely unaffected.

Nevertheless, the girl reacted quickly. A fierce gleam then appeared in her eyes, and her arms, transformed into blades, instantly changed into two conical spikes, thrusting toward Qin Lun’s waist. Strangely, due to the distance, these two conical spikes were actually more than a foot away from the young man’s body, seeming like a miss.

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Qin Lun’s mouth. He spread the fingers of his right hand and directly grabbed toward the sharp spikes.

A flash of delight crossed the girl’s eyes. The conical spikes formed by her arms suddenly shrank in circumference, but their length extended by over two feet, aiming to pierce straight through Qin Lun’s waist.

The greatest advantage of metal transformation ability was its unpredictability. If one underestimated it due to preconceived notions about cold weapons, they would surely suffer greatly. In actual combat, Alice was essentially a human-shaped weapon that could form at will. From any angle, at any distance, if there was the slightest opening, she could exploit it.

In fact, Alice’s fighting style was extremely effective against close-combat experts. For her, she didn’t need external techniques; her entire body was like a hedgehog. Unless one could completely break through the defense of her metallic body, getting close would be very troublesome.

This was also the main reason why Tietuo and the others, even with three people combined, couldn’t handle her.

Just as the spikes were about to reach Qin Lun’s waist, a trace of mockery appeared in the young man’s eyes. He had watched for so long; if he still hadn’t recognized Alice’s specialty, he might as well dig a hole and bury himself.

A yellowish-brown transparent barrier abruptly materialized around Qin Lun’s waist, blocking the extended metal spikes outside. The spikes penetrated less than an inch before solidifying. The yellowish-brown barrier, like a piece of extremely tough sticky rice candy, firmly trapped the spikes, making them unable to advance or retreat.

This was the Earth Protection from the Earth Drake Leather Armor Qin Lun wore. Previously, due to his low Constitution and defense, he always subconsciously avoided direct combat, opting for long-range attacks, so this Violet Gold leather armor had rarely been truly utilized.

Now, with Qin Lun’s increased strength and significantly enhanced Constitution and Protection attributes, this Drake Leather Armor gradually revealed its power.

Seeing that her transformed arm spikes couldn’t succeed and the ends were firmly gripped by the enemy, Alice remained very calm, not panicking. As a metal transformation ability user, close-quarters combat was her forte. If she lost to her opponent in this aspect, there was nothing more to say.

The charming-faced girl suddenly raised her head, narrowed her eyes, and gave Qin Lun a radiant smile, like a vixen that had just stolen a chicken. The spikes restrained by the Earth Drake Leather Armor, originally only as thick as a finger, suddenly rapidly thickened, returning to the thickness of a normal arm, even exceeding it.

Originally, due to the spike extension, the distance between them was over two meters, but now it was abruptly closed, almost face to face, with each other’s breathing clearly audible.

“Let’s see how you defend now?” A hint of mockery flashed in Alice’s eyes. The next moment, countless spikes sprouted violently from the girl’s alluring body, as if she had instantly turned into a hedgehog person, stabbing toward Qin Lun from all directions.

The Earth Drake Leather Armor’s defense was strong, but Alice’s attack at this moment had already surpassed its critical point. The yellowish-brown protective shield flickered a few times under the assault of countless spikes before quietly dissipating into the air.

“Daring to sacrifice oneself in the face of a powerful enemy, her will and adaptability are top-notch. Truly worthy of being an elite among Reincarnators. What a pity!” A trace of admiration appeared in Qin Lun’s eyes, along with a hint of regret.

If he hadn’t advanced, he likely would have been severely injured by this attack. Of course, if he hadn’t advanced, Qin Lun probably wouldn’t have let Alice get this close.

Because they were face to face, Alice immediately noticed Qin Lun’s slightly regretful expression, and her heart sank. But now, the arrow was on the bowstring; there was no turning back. Gritting her teeth, a ruthless glint appeared in her eyes. Her long legs leapt up, firmly clamping around Qin Lun’s waist, entangling the two together in a very suggestive posture.

Now Qin Lun had even less chance to dodge. However, Alice’s own vital points were also completely exposed, relying solely on the inherent defense of her metal body.

Yet, just as the spikes sprouting from the girl’s entire body broke through the Earth Protection, ripples spread around Qin Lun’s body once again. The ripples swept over all the metal spikes like water waves. Wherever they passed, a layer of white frost visibly spread from the tips of the spikes toward Alice’s entire body.

This was Qin Lun’s innate skill after becoming a Demon Hunter—Frost Aura!

Frost Aura provided considerable defense against spell skills and also had some weakening effect on physical attacks. Of course, relying solely on Frost Aura couldn’t completely negate Alice’s fierce assault.

However, a crucial point was that Alice’s attack largely depended on the sharpness of the spikes.

After being covered with frost, especially under Qin Lun’s conscious control, the spike tips turned into rounded little ice balls, like countless ridiculous lollipops poking at Qin Lun’s body. Aside from giving him a massage, what attacking power remained?

Alice shivered involuntarily, widened her beautiful eyes, and tried to loosen her legs to jump down from Qin Lun. But affected by Frost Aura, her movements were noticeably slower.

“Hmph!” Appreciation was one thing, but Qin Lun wouldn’t go easy on her, especially with another pair of eyes watching from the sky!

The pointer on the silver-white dial in his right eye began to spin wildly, leaving trails of pitch-black afterimages, ultimately forming a dizzying funnel-shaped vortex. A beam condensed from countless perception threads shot out instantly toward Alice’s forehead.

But just as the “Stellar Black Hole” beam was about to kill the modern girl, Qin Lun suddenly remembered something and slightly tilted his head. Controlling the beam to narrowly sweep past Alice’s eyes without piercing her skull.

“Ah!” The girl screamed madly and fell directly from the air. Two streams of bright red blood flowed from beneath her tightly closed eyelids.

However, relying on her formidable willpower, she still didn’t give up. Enduring the intense pain, she flipped over in mid-air, lightly touched the roof of a civilian house with her toes, and stumbled into the adjacent buildings.

Though the battle between them seemed long, it actually lasted only a brief encounter. The rapidly changing situation kept the people on the ground watching, mesmerized. Only when Alice was defeated and fled did they snap back to reality.

“Aren’t you running?” Qin Lun didn’t even glance in the direction Alice escaped, smiling as he turned to look at the blindfolded youth.

“Aren’t you chasing?” The blindfolded youth replied with a bitter smile, though his smile carried a trace of bitterness.

His Perception was very powerful, allowing him to “see” more clearly than Tietuo and the other two. But even he hadn’t expected his powerful temporary companion to be defeated so quickly. Moreover, his opponent surprisingly didn’t pursue the already severely injured Alice, leaving him no time to react.

By the time he thought to move, Qin Lun had already locked onto him, making escape impossible.

“Can I use my equipment to ransom myself?” The blindfolded youth tilted his head and asked seriously, “Reincarnators’ equipment, it seems you Apostles can use it too, right?”

“No, I don’t trust you.” Qin Lun shook his head with a smile. The fight with the modern girl had been enjoyable, and he wasn’t willing to pass up a battle with the blindfolded youth.

Besides, killing Reincarnators also yielded dropped equipment and improved Star Void’s mission evaluation. At times, even Star Void’s slight favor could grant Qin Lun a significant advantage in the Quest World. No matter how great the benefits offered by the opponent, how could they compare to Star Void’s intangible favor?

“Alright.” The blindfolded youth sighed, immediately giving up on persuasion. He reached up, untied his black blindfold, and slowly opened his eyes.

“Oh, Eye Technique?” Looking at the youth’s pure, pupil-less sapphire-blue eyes, Qin Lun’s eyes lit up. This was the first time he had encountered an opponent who also possessed an Eye Technique.

“The skill you used to injure Alice just now was also an Eye Technique, right? I heard a professor from Grimm Academy mention this ability once; it seems to be the unique skill of one of their deceased deputy deans!” The blindfolded youth Uka frowned, tapping his temple with a finger. “Let me think… you’re that Grimm Academy’s arch-enemy… Gerthard Heinrich?

I never thought a high-ranking Nazi would be an Apostle… Now I understand. No wonder our identities as Reincarnators were exposed so quickly!” Uka smiled wryly, suddenly clarity dawning on previously puzzling details.

“You’re just unlucky.” Qin Lun chuckled lightly as he walked toward him. With a flip of his hands, Frostwind Chaser and Dagger of Sin were already in his grasp. After becoming a Demon Hunter, he had begun deliberately training his close-combat abilities.