Chapter 18: Time Lag

In this form, the scarecrow was clearly more powerful than it was in its base form. Adam didn't want to risk his two anomalies, so he instructed them to stay put for now and allow Deranged Pig to test the waters first.

Deranged Pig's defenses were quite exceptional, so he'd most likely be able to endure a few hits and still be just fine.

Furthermore, he was still raring to go.

"You think changing forms will save you? I'm still gonna beat the crap out of you!" Deranged Pig roared as he flew through the air like a cannonball, but on this occasion, he missed his target.

The scarecrow flashed through the sky beneath the dense, dark clouds, leaving a trail of afterimages behind it that was visible even to the naked eye. In the blink of an eye, it had reached its top speed, allowing it to easily avoid Deranged Pig's attack. Immediately thereafter, its scythe came slashing down through the air, and the blade was enveloped in extremely dense black light. The air in the wake of the scythe looked as if it had been stained by ink, and the residual trail was able to linger for several seconds.

The dark scythe didn't just look formidable, its power was even more fearsome than its appearance.

In the sky above, Deranged Pig had nothing that he could use to maneuver himself, and upon being struck by the scythe, a long gash was immediately sliced open on his body, stretching from his neck to his stomach. Black energy was squirming like maggots within the wound, and even the protective golden light around Deranged Pig was unable to approach the area.

"Looks like we might be in trouble."

Adam's brows furrowed tightly upon seeing this.

Even in its base form, the scarecrow's offensive prowess was extremely formidable. Not only was Nie Yiyi incapable of directly withstanding its attacks, even Mummy, which excelled in defense, sustained substantial damage from just a single attack. However, Deranged Pig was able to endure those attacks with ease.

The fact that Deranged Pig had just been wounded so severely by a single attack entailed that in this second form, the scarecrow's offensive prowess had at least increased by threefold.

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"It's alright. While I was running away from the anomaly, I took the time to study this second form."

Nie Yiyi had already completed her recovery process, and she stood up from the ground before adopting a strange pose, in which she began to accumulate energy. As she did so, a tornado-like storm began to take shape around her.

"In this form, its speed and offensive capabilities are greatly heightened, but that comes at the cost of physical resistance, and even ordinary blades of wind are able to harm it."

"So what's your plan?" The fact that Nie Yiyi was accumulating energy immediately clued Adam in to the fact that she was up to something. "Are you looking for an opportunity to inflict a killing blow upon it?"

"That's right! Its defenses are weakened in this form to begin with, and that will only be exacerbated here in the safe zone, so there's a chance that I'll be able to kill it with a single attack!"

"How much time do you need to prepare?"

"Three minutes."

"Alright, leave it to me."

Adam nodded in response before beginning to consider strategies.

Three minutes wasn't a long time, but it certainly wasn't going to be easy to last three minutes against the scarecrow in its current form.

The most difficult part about all of this was protecting Nie Yiyi. The scarecrow had shown itself to be quite intelligent, so upon sensing the threat that Nie Yiyi posed, it would undoubtedly choose to prioritize attacking her, even if Deranged Pig hadn't been taken care of yet. At the same time, they had to ensure that Nie Yiyi's killing blow would be able to land on the scarecrow, which was not going to be an easy task due to its vastly enhanced speed.

Thus, this was actually a three-part mission.

Firstly, they had to last three minutes.

Secondly, they had to protect Nie Yiyi.

Thirdly, they had to find a way to restrict the scarecrow at the final moment so that it couldn't dodge the attack.

Having clarified his thought process, Adam chose not to offer his assistance to Deranged Pig. Instead, he called his two anomalies back to his side and waited on the spot.

Just as he anticipated, Deranged Pig was still quite tenacious. Even though each scythe blow that he was struck by caused him significant injury, his body composition made him the perfect punching bag. On a normal person, the scythe wounds would be deep enough to expose bone, but he was cushioned by his own fat.

Furthermore, his superhuman body and the protective golden light allowed him to remain standing despite enduring multiple heavy blows.

However, the scarecrow was still the one that held the upper hand. Judging from how the battle was progressing, it would only take a few minutes for the scarecrow to take care of Deranged Pig, but after a minute, it abandoned its pursuit of Deranged Pig and turned its attention toward Nie Yiyi.

This was because the wind around Nie Yiyi was growing fiercer and fiercer, and countless leaves, patches of lawn, and even the water in the fountain had been swept toward Nie Yiyi by the ferocious wind. It certainly didn't take a genius to see that something was amiss.

The scarecrow was certainly no idiot, and after witnessing the unfolding phenomenon, it immediately realized that Nie Yiyi was charging up for a destructive attack.

It was quite wary of Nie Yiyi as even though her psychic body was extremely fragile, her destructive power far exceeded that of all of her allies, and if she were allowed to complete her accumulation of energy, the final outcome definitely wasn't going to be pretty for the scarecrow.

Squawk!?

In the sky above, the scarecrow let loose a crow-like cry, then instantly abandoned its assault on Deranged Pig to fly toward Nie Yiyi.

Adam took a deep breath, and his body was beginning to tremble slightly from fear and excitement at the sight of the approaching colossus.

"Hellhound, go!"

A gigantic fireball erupted through the air from the side, hurtling directly toward the direction that the scarecrow was flying in.

The scarecrow's black scythe swept through the air with a loud whoosh, and the fireball was sliced into two before vanishing into the distance.

At the same time, Mummy also rushed onto the scene, leaping up into the air as the bandages all over its body extended forward like spider webs. Taking advantage of the distraction that the fireball provided, Mummy was able to ensnare the scarecrow within its bandages.

Squawk!?

The scarecrow cried out once again, and there was a strange rhythm to its voice, evoking a sense of fear in everyone's hearts.

The energy around Nie Yiyi immediately abated significantly, as if some unfortunate memories had surfaced in her mind.

In the same instant, Adam was also struck by a mental image of his deepest, darkest fear, which was that he would never find out the truth, he would never uncover his own past, nor the identity of his parents. He would continue to be lost and vulnerable, then captured by someone to act as a vessel for their soul. His consciousness would forever be erased, but his body would remain, forced to live out the cruelest existence imaginable.

This was a fear that was constantly dwelling in the deepest parts of his heart.

No! I can't allow that to happen!?

The fear brought on a sense of fury, which allowed him to briefly return to his senses.

At this point, the scarecrow had already severed the bandages with its scythe, following which Mummy was also sliced into two at the waist.

At the same time, a massive gash appeared on Adam's stomach, and a burst of excruciating pain speared through all of his organs.

He had lost one of his anomalies and been severely wounded, but he had achieved his objective.

His plan had never been to completely intercept this formidable opponent on his own. Instead, all he had to do was delay the scarecrow for a few seconds so that Deranged Pig could re-enter the fray.

Sure enough, right after Mummy was sliced into two, a golden figure sprang up into the sky and grabbed onto the scarecrow's scythe.