Chapter 45
Chapter 45
“Huff…”
“It’s so hard… so big… I can’t take any more…”
Luo Yue panted heavily. Sweat ran down her cheek and dripped onto her collarbone.
Qin Lan stumbled in the middle of the fight and glanced back at her resentfully.
“I know you’re under a lot of pressure, but I’m fighting over here. Could you phrase that a little more clearly?”
Luo Yue snapped back, “It is hard! And it can keep going forever! I’m almost out of stamina, and it’s still bursting with energy. Who could possibly take this?”
Qin Lan nearly choked. “For fuck’s sake…”
The enormous Glass Slipper charged again. It had no special effect whatsoever, relying solely on brute force. The impact sent both subway security guards flying and plowed two deep trenches into the ground.
It really was absurdly hard.
Even after Qin Lan struck it repeatedly with his baton, only a few cracks had appeared across its surface.
They were still a long way from seriously injuring it.
The Glass Slipper also possessed astonishing endurance. Even while fighting Qin Lan and the two security guards from three directions, it still found opportunities to counterattack during their prolonged clash.
The pressure on Luo Yue, who was controlling the cursed artifact, was even greater.
She did not have much curse energy to begin with. After maintaining the artifact for so long, she was almost unable to suppress the Public Opinion Mouthpiece’s curse resurgence. She could hold on for ten more seconds at most before she had to recall it.
Otherwise, Qin Lan would find himself facing three hostile anomalies at once.
“Do I really have to use my class ability?”
Qin Lan was reluctant.
He had always been confident in his strength. Even if he could not defeat a Three-Star anomaly, he had believed he could at least handle one without trouble. Yet a shoe had somehow forced him into this position.
If he invoked the Backup Reaper’s power and placed a curse on his opponent, he could weaken it enough to end the fight quickly. But that would expose his hidden trump card to Luo Yue.
The two of them might be acquaintances, but he did not trust her completely.
Even Lu Xingshan knew nothing about his special class. Why would Qin Lan willingly let Luo Yue learn about it?
As Qin Lan hesitated, Luo Yue finally lost her temper.
“Fuck!”
“Do you really think I’m a pushover just because I haven’t shown my teeth?”
“I’ve had enough of you, you stinking high heel!”
Luo Yue snarled. With a low cry, she unleashed a dense surge of curse energy.
“Oh? Is this her Talent?”
Qin Lan immediately pulled back. The brief respite gave him a perfect opportunity to observe Luo Yue.
He only knew that she possessed a B-rank Talent, not what it actually did. This was a rare chance to find out.
The next second, Qin Lan’s eyes went wide.
“What the hell? Shadow clones?”
“Where did Naruto come from?”
He had good reason to be stunned. The two subway security guards who had just been sent flying had become six.
Six hulking, muscular men surrounded the high heel and began delivering a brutally righteous beatdown.
Their batons struck the Glass Slipper with a nonstop series of metallic clangs. Anyone who heard them without seeing the fight might have thought they were performing some bizarre new percussion piece.
“What is going on?!”
“Did the curse go out of control?!”
Qin Lan’s first thought was that the cursed artifact had undergone curse resurgence and escaped its restraints.
But he immediately realized that even a curse resurgence would not cause two security guards to multiply into six.
He turned to Luo Yue and found her deathly pale, as if she had expended an enormous amount of stamina.
Her whole body swayed, and she looked ready to collapse at any moment.
“Heh…” Luo Yue wore a proud smile. Despite her exhaustion, she forced herself to remain standing. “Let’s see if you’re really that hard to break!”
Qin Lan darted forward to support Luo Yue just as the last of her strength left her and she slumped into his arms.
“Well…? Isn’t big sis impressive?”
Her voice was weaker now, but it still carried that playful note of pride.
Qin Lan looked ahead.
The Glass Slipper, which had been rampaging only moments ago, was now covered in cracks. Even when it occasionally knocked one or two subway security guards away, the others immediately resumed their frenzied beating.
“Impressive. Very impressive!”
Qin Lan’s praise was completely sincere.
Luo Yue nestled closer, enjoying the heat radiating from his body as she explained softly, “My Talent can temporarily copy any summoned creature… That includes anomalies summoned by cursed artifacts, as well as creatures summoned by other people’s Talents…”
“And if I shorten the duration of the effect, I can double their number again…”
Qin Lan shuddered when he heard that.
What an astonishing Talent!
She could copy anomalies summoned by cursed artifacts? He had never heard of anything like it!
“No wonder Lu Xingshan bought the Public Opinion Mouthpiece for her… Two become four, and when she pushes it, four become six. Who wouldn’t fall to their knees against that?”
Qin Lan was deeply impressed.
Without using his class ability, he would probably have been in an even worse position than the Glass Slipper.
After all, he was not hard enough.
At least, not when it came to taking a beating.
“Its duration must be why the Talent was rated B-rank. It also seems to consume far too much stamina. If she uses it in battle but fails to restrain her opponent, she’ll put herself at a disadvantage first.”
After observing for a moment, Qin Lan understood the weaknesses of Luo Yue’s Talent.
Compared with Luan Zimo, whom he had encountered in Final Destination, Luo Yue’s Talent was clearly burdened by far more restrictions.
Luan Zimo’s Talent, Myriad-Form Divine Artificer, could enhance not only cursed artifacts but anything she held, and its use had shown no obvious drain on her stamina.
From a purely practical combat perspective, Luan Zimo’s Talent was several tiers above Luo Yue’s.
“No wonder Tianming Academy is cultivating her as one of its key geniuses… Even across the entire Central Region, she must rank among the very best.”
Qin Lan sighed inwardly.
After leaving the instance, he had searched for a great deal of information about Shanhai Pavilion and Tianming Academy. He had also focused on the academy landscape of the Central Region, giving himself a basic understanding of its elite geniuses.
The more he learned, the more wary he became.
Fortunately, Luan Zimo had been focused entirely on finding clues to the special class mission inside the instance. She had deliberately kept Qin Lan alive to draw Death’s attention and buy herself more time.
Otherwise, if she had taken offense and attacked him, then even with her physical strength suppressed, the cursed artifacts she carried could probably have killed him hundreds of times over.
If another person killed him inside an instance, he could not resurrect.
“Han probably would have stopped her, though. He seemed terrifyingly strong too…”
As Qin Lan’s thoughts wandered, he abruptly realized something was wrong.
“Shit! My kill!”
The Glass Slipper was on the verge of shattering and emitted a shriek filled with resentment.
Just as the burly guards were about to beat it to death, Qin Lan appeared above it and brought his baton crashing down.
Bang!
The enormous Glass Slipper finally broke apart. With a thunderous crash, it exploded into hundreds of tiny fragments that shot in every direction.
Qin Lan landed steadily and released a long breath.
“Thank goodness. The kill was mine…”
He wiped away a trace of cold sweat. He had gotten so lost in thought that he had nearly forgotten what mattered.
[You have drawn power from an enemy’s death.]
[Constitution +4.5. Curse Resistance +10.]