Chapter 123: Battle [3] – The Fat Dog’s Counter-Attack!
The clash between the kaiju-like Jojo and the Present was finally nearing its end.
For a moment, the two beams remained locked against each other.
Then Jojo began losing ground and his energy blast weakened.
The Present’s dark beam overwhelmed it.
Boom!
The explosion swallowed him as the massive panda was thrown backward.
His gigantic body crashed into the battlefield and rolled several times before finally coming to a stop.
The impact shook the surroundings.
A moment later, his enormous form shrank rapidly and Jojo returned to his normal size.
His face had become deathly pale.
Meanwhile, Bonjour continued his assault.
The black Arder surrounding him grew increasingly ominous as he leaped through the battlefield.
Like a possessed warrior, he arrived before the Present and immediately exchanged blows with her.
The scythes coated in Enhanced Aura repeatedly struck him.
Yet surprisingly, the Black Arder flowing from the skull tattoos blocked the attacks.
Every collision released violent shockwaves.
At the same time, a blue tornado surrounded the battlefield, or rather, it only looked like a tornado.
In reality, it was Caelum.
Using [Infinite Ways], he circled around them at incredible speed as his figure became a blue blur.
Again and again he changed directions, accelerating further while gathering momentum.
He was waiting, waiting for a single opening.
A single moment to unleash an attack powerful enough to threaten even a Master.
Meanwhile, the [Soul Banner of an Evil Cultivator] fought independently, suppressing nearby ghosts while protecting the recovering Jojo.
"HAAA—!" Bonjour roared.
His muscles screamed in protest and every part of his body ached.
Yet his fighting spirit only continued to rise.
It had been a long time since he had experienced a battle like this.
A true life-and-death struggle and like a real barbarian, he abandoned defense entirely.
He simply attacked, again and again, accumulating injuries with every exchange.
The Present also seemed to realize that Bonjour would not stop.
Throughout the battle, she had been silently chanting something incomprehensible as ghostly energy gathered around her.
A spell was taking shape.
Then, when Bonjour moved close enough, the scythes suddenly changed.
In an instant, they became thick ropes.
And before Bonjour could react, they wrapped around both his arms, halting his movements.
[This pest is quite annoying...]
The Present conveyed her intention without speaking as the ropes tightened.
Bonjour immediately felt his strength being drained away.
The nature of the ropes had changed.
They were no longer weapons, but acted as restraints.
Then something even stranger happened.
A third arm suddenly emerged from the Present’s chest and the pale hand reached forward.
Compared to her gigantic body, Bonjour seemed tiny.
The hand gently touched his head.
Then the Present completed her spell.
[Nightmare]
Dark light erupted outward, spreading across the battlefield like a wave.
Every corner of the world was covered and everyone saw their own nightmare.
For a brief moment, the battlefield froze.
The strange thing was, nothing happened.
At least, nothing important.
The overall situation remained unchanged.
The Present blinked if ghosts could do blinking.
Even she appeared confused, after some time, she actually paused her attack.
Because the results were... strange.
Bonjour was completely unaffected despite being the closest target.
The barbarian simply continued struggling against the ropes.
Elsewhere, the reactions of the others were equally bizarre.
The Nightmare spell had worked.
Everyone had definitely seen something.
But for some reason, the battlefield wasn’t descending into chaos as it should have.
Instead, an awkward atmosphere slowly spread across the entire fight.
Even the Present seemed uncertain about what exactly had gone wrong.
***
Paul found himself facing his dream, or rather his nightmare.
Somehow, enormous books had taken ghostly forms and were chasing him.
Books on Magic Engineering, Artifact Knowledge, Alchemy, Runic Theory and many other subjects he absolutely did not want to study now.
"!!!"
Paul tried to scream but no sound came out.
At the very front of the horde was an enormous job application letter.
The paper itself was taller than a house with the stamp of Annum County.
It was rapidly approaching him.
Paul immediately turned around and ran.
He didn’t want a job right now! No way in Heaven or Hell!
Meanwhile, Skyler was experiencing a completely different nightmare.
Unlike Paul, he didn’t see any specific illusion.
Instead, he simply felt it.
His greatest fear, all his wealth, was gone.
Every coin, every treasure, every future investment, stolen by thieves.
His heart trembled, his eyes turned bloodshot as rage replaced fear.
"I WILL KILL YOU ALL!"
With the fury of a righteous merchant, Skyler charged at the ghosts.
His divine power exploded outward and the surrounding specters were instantly blasted apart.
The nightmare had somehow made him even more aggressive.
Similarly, Ryan wasn’t affected much.
At the moment, he was still under the influence of the sword spirit’s technique as his mind remained calm.
His sword moved steadily and ghost after ghost were guided toward their destruction.
Sénior, however, had a completely different reaction.
A distant look appeared in his eyes and the aura around him changed.
As if he had become some ancient expert who had lived for countless years.
His fear was simple.
One day, he feared becoming invincible.
A being without equals.
Someone who stood alone at the very peak.
Though he never showed it, Sénior was a long-term planner and hidden schemer.
"The top is too lonely..." He sighed.
Then his control over the ancestral totems suddenly increased.
The totems moved through the battlefield with incredible precision.
One of them immediately descended and crushed several ghosts chasing Paul.
Sénior casually saved him, not because he had to.
But because Paul was his friend and he was doing him a favor.
For some reason, his bizarre mentality had actually strengthened his abilities.
Meanwhile, Jojo gritted his teeth as he quickly activated a hidden technique.
A black-and-white glow flickered across his body and the effects of the Nightmare spell were forcefully suppressed.
However, the cost wasn’t small.
His face became even paler.
"WOWOWOWFFFF!"
At the same time, Voomie was experiencing a completely different situation.
After being launched into the air earlier, she was still falling.
Suddenly, a golden light covered her body before vanishing.
"Woof? What was that?" Voomie blinked, and before she could think further.
Crash!
She slammed into something and her paws instinctively grabbed whatever she hit.
Looking downward, she froze.
A terrifying face stared back at her, though it barely resembled a face.
And somehow, both her paws were stuck directly in its eyes.
"WAAAOOOFFFF!" Voomie released an awkward scream.
She wasn’t terrified, she was just... slightly scared!
Instinctively, she began scratching.
Her paws repeatedly rubbed against those strange eyes.
The Present twitched at the fat dog’s weird behavior as several additional arms burst from her body.
They immediately reached toward Voomie.
Apparently, she had decided that this abnormally fat dog was a threat.
Unfortunately for her, Voomie had another problem.
Her stomach was churning violently.
"Uh oh..."
The fat dog made a troubled expression.
Then she used the Present’s head as a stepping stone.
Boing!
She jumped away.
And exactly mid-jump, giving a satisfied expression, she felt a tremendous sense of relief.
A very natural sense of relief.
The Present also chose that exact moment to unnaturally tilt her head upward, to scare the fat dog.
The timing was way too perfect!
Plop.
The battlefield froze.
The green flames flickering within one of the Present’s hollow eye socket abruptly vanished as something entered it.
That thing disappeared inside her ghostly body.
Nobody knew where it went.
It simply vanished.
"..."
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