Ashlock had not foreseen this turn of events as the two jade-masked bounty hunters stepped foot on the Bastion, but he wasn't exactly complaining. He wasn't often handed walking meat bags of sacrificial credits on a silver platter like this.
"Devouring these two will have made this costly battle worth it." Ashlock reigned in his hunger and wandering thoughts and focused. The two were still threats despite them confidently walking into an area where he was at his strongest. In fact, if he didn't handle this perfectly, it could go very wrong.
Since both cultivators coated their bodies in soul fire to protect themselves from an ambush, he knew their affinities as they stepped through. Spatial and shadow.
Unfortunately, since mutations didn't carry over through {Progeny Dominion}, Ashlock could not discern their exact strengths through his {Demonic Eye}. Still, from how they spoke to Nox and the fact that the blonde one could use Spatial Lock, a relatively high-level technique, Ashlock estimated them to be no weaker than Nox at the 9th stage.
The moment the bounty hunters appeared in the forest, Ashlock opened portals to evacuate the Redclaw Elders back to Red Vine Peak, as he knew they stood no chance since they were out of Qi. Nox's cut-off hand had also been sent back there and was waiting for him to crack open those spatial rings and seize their riches.
With the Redclaws and the hand now safe and sound, Ashlock could entirely focus on slaughtering these bounty hunters who dared go after Stella, and then he would focus back on Nox.
"Hopefully, this fight will only take a moment," Ashlock really didn't want Nox to get away, but he didn't have anyone capable of chasing her alone without risk of death. He had brought Larry back to the Bastion via a portal to join forces with Stella, whom he had just rescued, and Sol.
"Hold on," The dark-haired man raised his hand to stop his companion as the portal snapped closed behind him, and he glanced around. "This place should belong to the Ashfallen Trading Company."
"So what if it belongs to them?" The blonde one with spatial affinity snapped back, "Our bounty is right before us beside that demonic tree."
They were trying to obscure their voices with Qi, but that wouldn't work when they stood on the Bastion, which was within Ashlock's realm of influence. Long-range combat and chasing people who knew of his nature like Nox was a fool's errand, but if someone chose to fight him on his own land? They became the fools.
Ashlock became far stronger near his trunk than his cultivation realm suggested due to his system-granted abilities that he could use without restraint through his progeny and his vast amount of Qi.
"Although I don't have much Qi on hand to fight with," Ashlock mused as he browsed his status screens, "So I will have to defeat them with system abilities."
"Don't be rash. This place reeks of a trap, and although unverified, my cousin listed the Ashfallen Trading Company as a Star Core Nine level threat, and I trust her judgment." The black-haired one insisted, and he was right.
It was a trap, and if the two didn't react in the next few seconds, they would be dead. They were so focused on the tree ablaze with spatial flames and Stella standing beside it, smirking at them, that they overlooked the void lake slowly creeping toward them through the crevices of the black rock.
"But there's nobody here," The blonde man said. It would seem he didn't consider Sol, who stood off to the side, to be anything more than a glorified lamp and Willow as a dumb tree.
"A part of me wonders if Nox sent these people to die," Ashlock mused as the void lake crept ever closer, "A warning to stay away from suspicious trees would have gone a long way in increasing their chances of survival."
After some hesitancy, the dark-haired man lowered his hand that had been blocking the blonde man, and the two took a step forward while summoning swords to their hands. In sync, they strode toward Stella and their deaths.
"Stella, I am going to attack them in a moment. Get ready to jump," Ashlock said through {Abyssal Whispers}. A flash of confusion appeared on her face, but her eyes darted to Sol, and then she gave a small nod of understanding.
Ashlock needed both bounty hunters to be as incapacitated as possible for his plan to work. Sol would handle the darkness cultivator, and he would deal with the spatial one. Ashlock focused intently on the ripples of the blonde-haired man's soul and prepared to use Qi Resonance. Clearly, this cultivator was far above him in cultivation stages, so much like Larry, this man would win in a battle of soul ripples.
But due to how the technique worked, if, for a split moment, he matched the man's soul ripples, the cultivator would need to spend a second to regain control and overpower him, which was all the time he needed.
"Sol, get ready to flash-bang them in 3... 2... 1... now!" Ashlock shouted, and the Ent obeyed its master's orders. The dim floating orb of light that acted as Sol's head used up the last of its Qi to send out a wave of Qi-filled light.
There was no such thing as protection from friendly fire in this world, so upon his suggestion, Stella jumped up into Willow's canopy, where Larry was also lurking, to shield herself from the intense flash bang.
Thankfully, Ashlock was using his {Eye of the Tree God} skill, unaffected by the intense Qi-filled light, he could see the two bounty hunters. Neither seemed blinded by the light, and Ashlock suspected it was because of their jade masks, which suddenly glowed with power.
"So they aren't just there to conceal their identity by hiding their face and distorting their voice. They are actual defensive artifacts." Ashlock concluded but decided to go ahead with his plan anyway. The next step was to activate {Abyssal Whispers} on them so he could distract them with illusions and words within their minds, but the skill bounced off them as if they were stone walls. The jade masks glowed even more.
"No dice, huh," Ashlock was starting to suspect this wouldn't be as easy as he had hoped. The only success from his series of attacks thus far was that the flash of light had wiped out a layer of the dark-haired man's shadow armor.
Targeting the blonde man, Ashlock focused on the ripples of his soul and used Spatial Lock. The man immediately noticed his attempt as his head snapped toward Willow, but it was too late. From their blind spot near their feet, tendrils of void shoot up, and the blonde man could not use Spatial Step to escape.
A loud, distorted cry rang, followed by a thud as the blonde man was impaled by the void and fell flat on his face. Dead. But his more cautious companion managed to barely jump back in time.
Conjuring a wave of shadows from his hands like a flamethrower, he blasted the void tendrils chasing after him. The void and darkness clashed, and Ashlock watched as credits evaporated from his system screen at an alarming rate.
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Reeling the void lake back toward Willow, his credits stopped plummeting. Void Qi was great for piercing defenses and absorbing attacks but was expensive.
"Okay, one down and one to go. I had hoped to kill them both in that series of attacks, and I would have if not for those darn jade masks."
Ashlock tried to think quickly of a way to kill this shadow bastard. If he escaped now after seeing his capabilities, the man would become a cockroach like his cousin, who should be deathly afraid of trees by now.
Bringing Zeus or Titus over here would be useless as they were both too slow and noticeable with their attacks, and much like Nox, this man had shadow affinity, and he knew firsthand how troublesome this affinity was to deal with. "Hold on... I got an idea."
The dark-haired man slowly walked forward, blasting the area before him in dark flames. "Stella Crestfallen, there's no need to make this difficult for the Ashfallen Trading Company," he called out as he kicked the blonde man's body onto his back and bent down to pull free the spatial rings from the corpse's fingers. "Just accept defeat. You may have killed this idiot with that cheap attack, but I won't be so simple."
"Stella and Larry bait him into a duel. Cover each other's backs." Ashlock instructed, "Get him to come as near to Willow as possible. I'm going to summon a dimension of light."
"As you command, Master," Larry replied gruffly and crawled down from Willow's canopy. Due to the demonic tree being so young and short, Larry could make his way down to the ground in one go by extending his front legs.
While they got into position, Ashlock used {Dimensional Overlap} to summon its menu and quickly found a pocket realm filled with light Qi.
"What in the nine realms." The dark-haired man cursed under his breath as Larry fully emerged. "A guardian beast?" He hastily reeled in his shadow flames, abandoned his efforts of looting the corpse, and raised his sword.
"He's something like that," Stella said casually as she lept down, stood beside Larry, and patted his giant leg as if he were a friendly pet. "Isn't he handsome?"
"Stop messing with me," The man's expression wasn't visible due to the mask, but from his panicked, distorted voice, the appearance of Larry had stripped much of his arrogance.
Stella laughed, "Awww, is the bounty hunter terrified of spiders?"
Despite her quite effective mocking, Ashlock could see Stella's gaze that never left the intruder become tranquil. Her bloodline had likely activated.
Not even a moment later, the now enranged man used Shadow Step to close the gap almost instantly. Stella casually raised her sword to meet the man's and looked at him as if bored through the shower of sparks.
"Such cheap tricks don't work on the observant," Stella sneered behind her blade, "Compared to your cousin, you lack finesse."
Sometimes, Ashlock marveled at Stella's trash talk, considering her arms were quivering under the pressure, and she was on the back foot. Now would be a good time to strike back with his void tendrils as they were locked up in an attack, but Ashlock didn't want the man to retreat. He had him right where he wanted him.
"Larry, now!" Ashlock activated {Dimensional Overlap} after selecting the purest light Qi pocket realm he could find and set the size to encompass the entire Bastion. 800 credits vanished from his system, leaving him with around a thousand as a bubble of light Qi rapidly expanded outward.
The ring of ash orbiting Larry's crown of horns sped up, and an immense pressure blanketed the area. The giant spider then raised one of his front limbs and smashed down on the cultivator, knocking him off balance and flooring him alongside the pressure from his gravity. Stella was also hit by Larry's gravity and struggled to remain standing.
But none of that mattered. Everyone became bathed in a golden and blinding light as if they had been teleported into the center of the sun.
The darkness Qi shrouding the man's body rapidly evaporated away like steam. The environment was simply too much of a counter for his Qi.
He attempted to stagger to his feet, but Larry's pressure kept him suppressed.
Ashlock was losing credits by the second, but there was something he needed.
"Stella, the man can hardly stand. Could you try getting some information from him regarding the Tainted Cloud Sect?"
Nodding her head, Stella kept her distance. She placed the tip of her sword under the man's chin and then forced him to look up at her. "Bounty hunter, tell me about the Tainted Cloud Sect if you want to live. I know your cousin placed a bounty on me, so speak."
At this point, the dark-haired man had to be burning his Star Core to its absolute maximum as the amount of darkness Qi evaporating off his back reminded Ashlock of a coal powerplant's chimney.
"I am one of many," The man said through his jade mask, and even with the distortion, the pain in his tone was evident. "So long as that bounty hangs over your head, they will not stop until you die. You can run to the other side of the realm, and they will still follow. That is what it means to become the enemy of the Eternal Pursuit."
"That doesn't answer my question—" Stella said but fell silent.
The jade mask of the bounty hunter cracked in two. As the two pieces fell to the ground, a phantom-like creature sprung out of the man's mouth at Stella.
She remained calm as she stepped back and sliced the creature in two with her sword. "Was that a heart demon?"
"It seems his Qi has fallen low enough that his suppressed heart demons were unleashed," Ashlock said, noticing dark flames pouring out of the man's eyes, mouth, and ears.
He was going supernova.
"The bastard is going supernova after losing his soul to the heart demons," Ashlock cursed and used {Consuming Abyss}. Hundreds of void tendrils and many black vines covered in thorns began devouring the man.
"Cultivate with one eye open, Stella Crestfallen." The man choked out as he was devoured alive by the abyss.
"If they are all as foolish as you, then I will welcome them with open arms," Stella stepped forward, ramming her sword through his skull. Killing him instantly. She reached into the wiggling mass of vines, cut off his hand with many spatial rings, and stepped back with it.
[+824 SC]
The supernova was prevented, and the void devoured the man, leaving nothing behind. Not even a scrap of cloth survived.
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