Chapter 202: Encountering a Persona User, Unable to Win Even With All Efforts
"Interesting."
The Blackwatch Commander's attack had failed. At the same time, he noticed Yuuki Asuna and Sakurakawa Rikka in the distance preparing to rush over and support Asagiri. A strange dark red light flickered in his blind gray white eye, and the next moment, a wall of rising crimson blood surged up from the ground, separating Yuuki Asuna and the others from Sakurakawa Rikka on the opposite side.
Then, from the area where Yuuki Asuna and the others stood, several humanoid figures rose out of the viscous blood and gradually took on familiar forms.
"This is... the Groom, the Doctor, Twin, the Chef... and..."
Looking at the tall monster slowly taking shape from the dark red fluid, Yuuki Asuna, Iwanaga Kotoko, Kato Megumi, and Sakurakawa Rikka all grew grave.
"Chris Walker..."
Yuuki Asuna and the others had all witnessed Chris Walker's terror firsthand. Although he had only been the boss guarding the Third Floor, his raw strength far surpassed Twin and the Doctor from Floor B2. The system had never intended for Players to defeat him head on. At this stage, most Players simply did not possess the power to contend with a monster like that.
What was even more terrifying was that he possessed bizarre immortality. Fighting him inside Kyozan Mental Hospital, his own territory, was basically unwinnable.
Yet at that very moment, an unexpected scene unfolded.
A black light suddenly bloomed across Chris Walker's body. Then his newly reformed figure exploded on the spot, dispersing into a reddish black mist.
"This is..."
Sakurakawa Rikka could not help showing a look of shock.
With her intelligence, and with what she had already seen on the Third Floor, namely the black light of the Supreme Magic Bullet turning and plunging underground, she immediately grasped what had happened.
That attack from the handsome boy had not only been capable of erasing an "immortal" anomaly once. Even when the Blackwatch Commander tried to reconstruct Chris Walker using the power of this floor, it had erased him again.
That was absurd.
It was already a terrifying power that operated on a conceptual level.
As for whether that power had limits, Sakurakawa Rikka did not know. But she could say with certainty that its threat level stood above the very strange origin of Kyozan Mental Hospital itself.
"They're coming!"
Just then, Sakurakawa Rikka saw that the other monsters formed from the dark red blood had not disappeared. Instead, they were rushing toward them, so she immediately stepped forward to block them.
Although Chris Walker had been destroyed, the remaining enemies, Twin, the Doctor, the Groom, and the Chef, were still a huge burden when combined, especially with Asagiri occupied elsewhere.
"We can only use that..."
Seeing that Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi were starting to struggle against Twin and the Doctor, Sakurakawa Rikka, who was dealing with the Groom and the Chef, erupted into a cloud of black mist and forced the two enemies back for a moment. Seizing that hard won gap, she pointed the long sword in her hand toward Kato Megumi in the distance and said softly,
"Enhance."
Black mist immediately covered Kato Megumi's body. It did not harm her. Instead, it lifted her spirits, restored some of her stamina and mental strength, and even granted a tangible boost to her physical power.
"An enhancement type skill... so she really is a support type Healer."
Iwanaga Kotoko frowned slightly at first, but this was no time for personal opinions. After seeing that Kato Megumi and Yuuki Asuna's side became much less pressured after the enhancement, while Sakurakawa Rikka herself started to fall into danger, she immediately raised her hand.
"Netherworld Grip."
A mass of pale ghost hands appeared, interfering with both the Groom and the Chef. At the same time, Iwanaga Kotoko created two black figures from her Black Particles and sent one to aid Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi, while the other went to support Sakurakawa Rikka.
Once the IBM joined the fight, both fronts immediately stabilized.
After all, the bodies formed from Black Particles were incredibly sturdy. Their curse resistance was not particularly high, but these enemies did not rely on pure curse damage. Twin and the Chef, for example, were more like physical attackers with a layer of curse damage attached.
Elsewhere, the Blackwatch Commander, whose body had just been torn apart by Human Asura, reappeared from the sea of blood beneath his feet.
"Knowing your teammates are in danger, yet being unable to help them at all... you must be worried, right?"
"That's it?"
Asagiri merely shook his head.
"You're trying to interfere with me through cheap words? Stop using such childish tricks. All they do is expose how powerless you are."
"Is that so..."
The Commander answered indifferently. Then his figure flashed forward and he charged at Asagiri, throwing a vicious whip kick.
Bang!!
Asagiri raised his arm and blocked it, though the force still shoved his body sideways for nearly two meters. Then he looked up, golden light bursting from his eyes.
"Mita."
Human Asura vanished, replaced by Prototype Mita.
The moment it appeared, its jaw began trembling, and with the clicking sound of puppet joints, its neck instantly stretched out, lunging to bite the Blackwatch Commander.
Thump!
The Commander's arms transformed into dense, tangible blood mist and intercepted Prototype Mita's pounce. But in the next second, Asagiri had already appeared in front of him. A faint golden glow flickered in Asagiri's eyes, and he lashed out with a whip kick of his own, smashing the Commander across the temple.
The Commander's head exploded instantly.
The blood mist tentacles he formed lashed back at Asagiri, but they did not harm him in the slightest. They did not even make his body sway.
"Just as I thought."
Watching the Commander's headless body sink back into the blood sea, Asagiri calmly scanned the battlefield.
TL: I'll now change any instances of Anomaly, Supernatural, strange, and other same words to Cursed Spirit till the end]
"You're not a pure Cursed Spirit. You're a hybrid that can switch between a human body and a Cursed Spirit form. When you become a Cursed Spirit, your attacks deal curse damage. When you become human, your physical power rises sharply, but you lose access to curse abilities."
"So you saw through me after only a few exchanges..."
The Commander's body reformed in the distance, and this time, there was unmistakable wariness in his gaze.
"And curse damage doesn't seem to do much to you either..."
As he spoke, the Blackwatch Commander suddenly drew a handgun from his waist, aimed it at Asagiri, and fired several times without hesitation.
Bang, bang, bang!
Two bullets to the chest, one to the head.
"Trying to make me laugh?"
After taking the shots head on, Asagiri simply raised his hand and dusted off his chest.
"Firearm resistance. I have that too."
Seeing that scene, a single word surfaced in the Blackwatch Commander's mind.
Monster.
The "Shadow" standing before him was a complete and utter monster.
Cursed power could not hurt him. Bullets could not hurt him either.
How was anyone supposed to defeat something like that?
"Hm? Thinking of surrendering?"
Hearing Asagiri's lightly amused voice, the Commander drew a long breath and tried to steady himself before speaking in a low tone.
"Surrender? Give up? I am a Commander of Black Watch. My will does not bow to anyone, especially not to someone like you..."
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you."
Before the other side could finish, Asagiri cut him off.
"The strength of power has nothing to do with willpower or conviction. That is an objective fact. No one cares how unyielding you are or how tough your resolve is. Today, you're going to disappear completely, and..."
As he spoke, Crazy Mita's grotesque puppet head suddenly shot forward and snapped toward the Blackwatch Commander. Just as the latter was about to react, Asagiri's voice sounded from beside him.
"Human Asura."
"Cold Frost Spear."
When the Commander turned his head, he saw Human Asura, its massive frame wrapped in dark red anomalous patterns and radiating suffocating pressure, attacking at the same time as an ice spear wreathed in frost.
Bang!!
The Commander threw up both arms to block, but the ice spear still pierced straight through his body. Yet just as Human Asura was about to grab his shoulder, he sank back into the blood sea beneath him.
"Running away again? That ugly struggle for survival is almost funny."
Asagiri's expression and eyes remained completely calm. There was even a trace of a smile in his voice.
"I've already found your weakness. Your battle posture is strange. No matter what you do, even when sprinting, one of your feet always stays in contact with the ground. If I'm not mistaken..."
"The moment your body is destroyed while disconnected from this sea of blood, that will be your true end."
Hidden within the blood sea, the Blackwatch Commander was shaken.
He had never expected that after only a few rounds of combat, "Shadow" would already see through the flaw in his ability.
How could anyone possibly defeat such a monster?
He possessed overwhelming combat power, immunity to bullets and curses, and insight sharp enough to tear through a secret with only a glance.
Even if they gave everything they had, victory was still impossible.
.....
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