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Volume 2 – Chapter 31: Fighting ModeThough Qin Lun was slapped flying by the Grand Devil, he had already managed to grab a chunk of the small intestine slipping out of its abdomen. Along with the doctor’s frantic escape, the Grand Devil’s intestines were all pulled out through its wound. All its internal organs slid out of its body.
Grand Devils were a type of bizarre evil creature. Their body’s recovery ability was formidable. But faced with a wound like this, death was only a matter of time.
“Augh!” The Grand Devil painfully roared to the sky. Its two arms grabbed the intestines on the ground and actually tried to pull it back from Qin Lun.
Qin Lun, having awoken from the autohypnotic state, sneered. He gave the big black bear behind it another command. The bear ferociously bit down on the Grand Devil’s neck, greedily drinking the Grand Devil’s blood.
“Augh!” The Grand Devil felt the shadow of death envelop its body and couldn’t help but unleash its violent nature. Without caring for its escaped organs, it turned around and grabbed the bear's claws with its two large fists, then suddenly ripped them apart.
“Awoo!” This time, the one howling in pain was the black bear. One of its arms was torn off from the shoulder. The other was dislocated. It was instantly dealt serious damage by the Grand Devil.
However, the black bear, Ben, as a summoned creature, had no fear of death. Instead, the pain aroused its bestial instincts. It once again ferociously bit down on the Grand Devil’s neck. The two huge creatures rolled on the ground together, then very quickly became still, dying together.
“Apostle No. 70053. Your summon has died; its soul will return to the summoning space. Current remaining energy is 35 points. Soul power crystals or shattered crystals can be consumed to revive it. Cooldown time until next summon is 3 days.”
The light in Qin Lun’s eyes flickered. This fighting method was viable!
Since long ago, Qin Lun’s safety had always been dependent on Joey. However, the two completely different personalities did not share control over the body. It was more like a system based on shares.
Qin Lun had occupied the majority of the shares until now, with Joey having much less. In his last few years at the Hebei Supermax Prison, due to the prison putting him in solitary confinement, Qin Lun’s life hadn’t been in any danger, so Joey’s appearances had become more and more infrequent.
However, after Qin Lun entered Shattered Starry Sky, he discovered that Joey began to become more active and appeared more easily. At certain times, he even began to fight over the body.
Qin Lun sensed a deep crisis. He and Joey shared a symbiotic relationship. Even though, when Joey appeared, he could still perceive the outside world, if he completely handed the body over to Joey, he didn’t know if he would still exist or not.
He couldn’t leave all the battles to Joey! After entering Shattered Starry Sky, Qin Lun quickly came to this realization.
Qin Lun didn’t have Joey’s ice-cold, ruthless savagery, but he was more rational; he had a better understanding of how to use this body’s intelligence and knowledge. He exploited the, originally, computer-like Death Notice and created a type of battle mode.
After the Death Notice became a special form of equipment, though it didn’t have the same functions as a computer, it still retained some of a computer’s special properties. All the data the Death Notice had on his body's capabilities gave Qin Lun a burst of inspiration.
Through various tests, data was recorded down on various attributes of his body. After that, data on the outside world was analyzed, such as: wind force, topography, enemy strength, speed, flexibility, etc. All of it was inputted into the Death Notice, forming a database.
Qin Lun used this data as a foundation to establish the Death Notice's battle mode.
The battle mode was roughly divided into three stages. The first stage was battle prediction. Qin Lun would, by observing the battlefield, predict what actions an enemy would take in certain circumstances.
Once successful, battle mode would automatically enter the second stage: battle calculation. Battle calculation used the data library as a source to form an optimal battle plan. After forming a plan, battle mode enters its final phase and begins to direct his body to automatically fight.
This battle mode didn’t really use anything unprecedented; many intelligent robots would operate according to this sort of theory. But, to replicate this battle method with a human body required three conditions that a normal human could never attain.
The first condition was digitalization. Qin Lun combined the Death Notice with the human brain to create a perfect combination, a data operational mode with a rather large margin of error that relies on judgments formed from personal observations.
The second condition was a master level psychological analysis. Predicting an enemy’s actions was very dependent on psychological analysis. If there was an error in prediction, battle mode would be unable to proceed.
The third condition was autohypnosis, in order to not be affected by any state of mind, trauma or pain.
If one had special digitization equipment and were an expert in psychology, then the first two conditions would not be difficult to satisfy, but to guarantee that the hypnotic state would not be affected by any outside influence was something that even an expert would be unable to accomplish.
There were only two types of people who would not be affected by outside influences while under self-hypnosis. One was someone incomparably dedicated to a goal, a genius who would abandon anything else. The other was a madman who always suffers from hallucinations.
While Qin Lun couldn’t be considered a matchless genius, he was a madman who had experienced countless ridiculous hallucinations, satisfying the condition!
Of course, Qin Lun’s battle mode had enormous restrictions. Before the battle, he needed to use a large amount of time to observe the enemy. Each battle mode could only deal with one enemy. Also, his predictions had to be very accurate; if not, the autohypnosis would be immediately broken, and he would be unable to enter the next stage.
It could be said that Qin Lun's ability to kill two evil creatures in a row had a lot to do with their intelligence. If replaced with highly intelligent creatures, it would be much more difficult to predict the enemy’s actions in the middle of a complicated battle. Even if the prediction was successful, once his body suffered a certain degree of damage, battle mode would be rendered useless, no better than chicken ribs.
Whatever the case, Qin Lun now possessed a way to fight without relying on Joey. Looking at the two huge corpses, he threw away the oily Grand Devil's intestines, a trace of a smile on his face.
Soon, the battle began to reverse, and Tony’s mood became much more relaxed. Qin Lun’s performance was beyond expectation. After Qin Lun’s first kill against the eagleman, the second kill against the Grand Devil didn’t leave him stunned.
The Grand Devil was already heavily injured in its battle against the werewolf. Moreover, its body was not nimble enough. Any other exorcist, with the help of the black bear, Ben,, could have gotten rid of it. It was equivalent to an exorcist using the werewolf and the black bear to exchange for a kill.
As for the Maize Witch, who had lost two evil creatures in a row, she was no longer distracted. She merely increased the importance of Qin Lun by a level, no longer treating him as the exorcists’ burden.
Compared to their calm reaction, there was someone there who was staring with eyes wide open, not daring to believe the scene he saw.
“That is… young master Wellington?!”
Looking at Qin Lun, who was currently charging towards the witch, the hunch-backed servant was unable to suppress the tremendously strange feeling in his heart. Frank had felt this feeling before one night at the Albert Castle, The night young master Wellington used a dagger to impale his shoulder and kill the gargoyle.
The hunch-backed servant was bad at interacting with people, but he had grown up together with Wellington Stein. He was all too familiar with his little master. Wellington Stein definitely did not have this courage nor decisiveness. He was only determined to become a doctor and inherit the family business, a young man who liked to show off a bit.
Frank once felt this unfamiliarity before for a very short period of time, but it quickly vanished under Qin Lun’s meticulous care. However, that strange feeling had now expanded by many times and appeared in the hunch-backed servant’s heart, leaving him at a loss.
In the depths of the hunch-backed servant’s heart, a devilish voice whispered to him, nearly driving him mad.
“Your master is already dead. That person is definitely not your young master Wellington!”
The Maize Witch had already noticed Qin Lun approach from the corner of her eye. She couldn’t help feeling regret. The exorcist swordsman in front of her originally had quite the swordsmanship, but thanks to her dodging magic, he had consumed a tremendous amount of stamina and was already starting to be cornered by her.
If another person were to join in, the range in which she could maneuver would be reduced, and she would once again sink into a predicament.
Thinking of that, the Maize Witch felt a burst of helplessness. If not for the gravity spell that was cast on her by the exorcists, she simply would have flown into the forest to escape. Now, hopping here and there, there was not a safe spot to be found.
She had to kill one of them, otherwise, if she were caught, she had no more spare heart cores to lose! The witch’s cracked, white face faintly twitched. Her right hand turned over. On her palm appeared a little beaker with dark red inscriptions.
“His body isn’t much. Compared to that swordsman, he’s practically a commoner!”
The Maize Witch suddenly jumped, once again increasing the distance between herself and Tony. In the air, the little beaker trembled. A dark red fireball rapidly shot towards Qin Lun.
“Careful!” Tony cried out, alarmed. He really didn’t expect the witch to give up on him and use a magic item to attack Qin Lun. He knew the doctor’s physical stats very clearly. He probably wouldn’t be able to dodge the witch’s fireball in time.
“Establishing Battle Mode. Lacking information on fireball. There may be a large discrepancy compared to model… shortening hypnosis time. Unable to enter battle mode…”
“Damn it!” In his eyes, the fireball became bigger and bigger. Qin Lun helplessly raised his two arms in front of him, and his legs exerted a burst of strength, throwing himself to the side. He could only hope to reduce the wounded area by a bit.
“Boom!” The huge flame was like a monster, swallowing Qin Lun whole.
“Kyakakaka!” The witch let out a weird laugh. She knew best how mighty that fireball was. It was definitely no worse than a bomb. Unless they were one of the "Undead," no matter how strong the enemy, they would undoubtedly die!
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Volume 2 – Chapter 32: Fight to the Death“Boom!” In the gorgeous flames, Qin Lun only felt his body enveloped by a gentle white light.
Although there was only a thin layer surrounding him, it was like the red-hot flames had met their natural enemy, dividing into two and blowing past him like a gentle breeze. It didn’t do any harm to him.
“Magic Immunity?!” Seeing the exorcist dive out of the flames with not a singed haired, the Maize witch’s face twisted, and she shrieked gravely.
“This is… an exorcist's guardian power!” Tony looked at the layer of white light, his eyes brightening. He rolled off of the ground and once again threw himself at the witch.
For the first time, the witch’s eyes showed a hint of panic. Exorcists with magic immunity were very rare. They had average bodies, but after they take the Exorcist’s Oath and are assigned a guardian power, they gain an immunity to magic.
If the magic condensed from an "undead's power" cannot surpass the anti-evil guard, the exorcist will not be affected. With this sort of exorcist, the best method would be to use the claws and swords of evil creatures instead of their magic.
“So it turns out you gained magic immunity!” Tony was overjoyed. He finally knew why the doctor’s body showed no change after signing the Exorcist’s Oath.
“Humph!” Annoyance showed in the witch’s eyes as she realized that she was once again caught in a crisis. Fortunately, the restriction of the gravity spell was almost over, so she still had the chance to escape.
Thinking of that, the witch suddenly bounced up, jumping out of Tony and Qin Lun’s pincer attack. Just as she hit the ground, with a wave of her wand, a black light shot towards Tony, interrupting the blond, young man’s assault, repeating the chase from earlier. Only this time, she had to carefully maintain a three-sided relationship with two other people and was no longer able to leap where she pleased.
When the witch was preparing to leap out of the two’s pincer attack for the fourth time, she suddenly felt something tighten around her ankle. Just as she rose into the air, she was pulled back to the ground. Looking at the two exorcists who were rushing over, she was immediately frightened and looked down.
She saw that under her foot was a bloody figure, who was grabbing firmly to her ankle. The figure raised its head. Its eyes that had already become two bloody holes stared at her, then its lips parted, and it noiselessly laughed.
“No!” The witch screamed in alarm. She finally noticed that while dealing with the two exorcists, she had unwittingly been lured to the side of that dying exorcist.
The Maize Witch raised her wand and ruthlessly stabbed towards the bloody holes on Otto’s face.
“Psh!” Otto’s eyes, that had already become bloody holes, released a spurt of blood. The solid as iron, wand was like a knife, stabbing into the exorcist’s head.
Otto’s entire body went stiff. His head hung down, dying without a word. Only his two hands refused to let go. Instead, his grip became twenty percent tighter, like two iron hoops, digging deeply into the witch’s ankle.
“Die!” Tony clenched his jaw, blood flowing from the corner of his mouth. A thunderous boom exploded from his place.
The blond young man’s figure once again transformed into a furious tornado, swirling up countless dead leaves as it moved towards the witch.
The witch’s pupils quickly enlarged. She hurried to raise her wand, wanting to use magic to drive away the exorcist swordsman.
“Clang!” A silver flash arrived first, accurately striking the wand.
“Ugh!” The witch only felt a shock in her hand as the wand was directly snapped by the silver flash. The head of the wand followed the silver sword and flew into the sky. The magic she had barely prepared was ended prematurely, causing her to suffer the backlash in the form of a burst of dizziness.
When the witch recovered, a young face brimming with hatred was already in front of her.
“Aaaaah!” While the witch screamed, the silver longsword pierced through her body, cutting a scar into the mud behind her.
After Tony had launched his sword to intercept the wand, he finally grasped the fleeting chance to stab his other longsword into the right side of the witch’s chest.
“A bit more!” A light flashed through Tony’s eyes.
The sword skill he used was called ‘Flash Thrust‘. Its speed was as fast as lightning and was a type of move that could be done from a long distance. The skill’s only weakness was that its accuracy was too lacking. This strike hadn’t hit the witch’s nut sized heart core.
The blond young man ground his teeth. His free left hand pushed on the hilt in his right. He applied strength with both hands, pushing towards the left, wanting to cut through the heart core in the witch’s chest.
Three hundred years after the end of the war, the witch finally sensed the shadow of death once more. Deep in her heart, a familiar, yet strange feeling made the Maize Witch completely calm down.
She didn’t try to block Tony’s coup-de-grace. As a witch, competing in strength with an exorcist swordsman was very stupid. She only opened her mouth in a nasty grin and spat out a pitch black, ink-like liquid. It covered the hair and face of the blond, young man, who was very close to her.
“Aaaah!” Tony only had time to tilt his head before the black liquid covered half his face. The young man let out a painful howl. The black liquid covering half his face began to evaporate into white smoke, revealing countless blisters, like boiled butter.
“Kyakaka!” The witch raised a foot and sent Tony, who couldn’t help but cover his face with both hands, flying. This incidentally knocked over the rushing Qin Lun.
Tony covered his face and fell to the ground, motionless.
Tony was the Albert family’s heir. Even though he had become an exorcist very early on and was not lacking in courage, he always had other exorcists to act as his shield up until now. With his own agility on top of that, he had never received such a serious injury before, causing him to unexpectedly pass out from the pain.
“Aaah!” Just as Tony received the serious injury, the other battle had also determined its victor. Will had lost too much blood and his stamina could no longer hold on. Just one mistake and he was cut by the human-faced mantis.
The shiny, satin-like black scythe cut down from Will’s left collar-bone, through his chest, nearly cutting the young man’s body into two.
Seeing the annoying little fly finally get cut down, the human-shaped mantis wore a proud expression on its human face. It raised its other scythe and stabbed into the young man’s stomach and raised him up high, as if showing off its prey.
Will’s two hands hung by his body. His face was white as a sheet, his pupils rapidly dilated, and his lips faintly trembled; his life was on the verge of being snuffed out.
In only an instant, a blush suddenly appeared on the youth’s face, as if he had been aroused from his slumber. His eyes opened wide and his hand shook, throwing out the only weapon he carried.
“Father! Little Will won’t let you be ashamed!”
“Psh!” The saber in the youth’s hand turned into a wheel of light, abruptly slashing into the mantis’ face.
“Aaaah!” The human-faced mantis screamed. Normally, it could have used its scythe to deflect this sort of attack, but both scythes were currently stabbed into its prey. It actually let the dying Will get a strike in.
The human-faced mantis violently waved its scythe. Will’s body was completely torn through. The top and bottom divided into two parts and were thrown into an underbrush. The human-faced mantis, with a saber embedded in its face, madly roared and charged into the forest, getting further and further away.
Will calmly lied in the corner of the underbrush. His two eyes had already lost their light, like dark glass marbles staring at the sky. On his face was an innocent and serene smile.
The Maize witch cast aside the remaining half of her wand. Her two hands gripped the longsword in her chest and slowly pulled it out.
“Tssss~~” Tony’s silver longsword had an additional evil-slaying effect. As it was drawn out, dark green blood could no longer be contained and rushed out, making the Maize witch’s mind grow dizzy and eyes blurry. She felt a burst of weakness set upon her.
“You’ve actually inflicted such an injury upon the respected witch, Mesa. I’m afraid the dormancy that has lasted over a hundred years can no longer continue!” The Maize Witch, who called herself Mesa, said hatefully. Her eyes swept through the area and very quickly noticed the nearby Qin Lun.
“You can die too!” The witch raised the longsword and dashed at Qin Lun.
In the earlier battle, she had already noticed that, though this exorcist had magic immunity, his body was merely at the level of a commoner’s. Even if she didn’t use magic, with her body as hard as wood and stone, as well as her superhuman strength, she had the confidence to kill Qin Lun.
Qin Lun stared at the witch with a gloomy expression. His right hand turned over, and the dagger, Crime, appeared in his palm.
During this time, he had already obtained quite a bit of data on the witch’s body. He could just barely establish a battle model, but without Tony’s help, he had no hope of victory.
“Clang!” Sparks appeared between the black dagger and silver longsword. Qin Lun couldn’t help but stagger under the tremendous force.
“Target’s strength deviated greatly from predictions, the following prediction has lost approximately 80% of its effectiveness. Battle Mode interrupted. Ending auto-hypnosis!”
In just one exchange, Qin Lun had discovered that he had underestimated the witch’s strength. His vacant pupils refocused once more. Facing the longsword right under his nose, he could only desperately roll backwards to avoid the witch's follow-up attack. If not for the witch being unfamiliar with swordsmanship, he would have already been injured by the sword.
The witch knocked Qin Lun over with a strike and began to cry out excitedly. She waved the longsword around like a stick, chasing after him. She had been chased by Tony for half the day and was feeling thoroughly gloomy, but now that she directed her vengeance at the other exorcist, her heart felt great.
As the two of them struggled in a melee, a large figure suddenly appeared beside the witch, crashing into her.
“Young Master, run away!” Unexpectedly, Frank had approached the two and appeared between them, blocking in front of the witch.
“You want to die!?” The witch was careless and had been knocked unstable by the clearly ordinary, hunchbacked servant. She was immediately enraged. Raising the longsword, she ferociously stabbed it into Frank’s chest.
“Run… Hurry, run!” Frank seemed to have purposely let the witch stab him. His two big and rough hands firmly grabbed the sword in his chest. He turned his head and showed Qin Lun his ugly smile.
The witch sneered. She twisted the longsword, and Frank’s fingers were instantly cut off by the sharp blade.
However, the witch clearly didn’t want to let the hunchbacked servant, who had interrupted her revenge, go just like that. She forced the sword's hilt forwards, stabbing over half the longsword into Frank’s body.
“Psh!” A sharp point penetrated out from Frank’s tall, hunched back, slowly dripping with blood.
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