Chapter 192: 100 Demons and 100 Anomalies

Out of all of the qualities valued by adapters, courage reigned supreme.

Courage was the basis for all good things, and it was the mental quality most capable of elevating an adapter's psychic power.

Of course, courage didn't equate to recklessness. On the contrary, reckless decisions were often made out of fear.

At this moment, what King Arthur was feeling was true courage. He didn't fear the challenge that had been laid out before him. As he was reunited with Diana, he felt an unprecedented sense of power.

Diana seemed to have also been infected by his emotions, and she threw her head back as she roared to the heavens.

What happened? Did he suddenly make a breakthrough?

As a seasoned adapter himself, the technomancer could sense that King Arthur seemed to be in a hyper-optimal state of mind, and as a result, he immediately decided that it would be unwise to take on King Arthur in this heightened state.

Emotions that come on so strongly are also quick to fade. Let's see how long you can keep this up!

With that in mind, the technomancer immediately vanished on the spot through the use of his illusory abilities, commencing a game of cat and mouse between the two.

This battle had fallen into an impasse, and Nie Yiyi was also in a similar situation.

In contrast with the Technomancy Tiger, the Shelled Tiger was far less formidable in battle. Overall, he was like a poor man's version of Mummy. His strength and combat prowess were quite impressive, but he was far too maladroit and lacking in offensive variety. Essentially, he was like a giant turtle who would struggle to take down an opponent, but also proved to be quite difficult to take down himself.

A loud clang rang out as Nie Yiyi's blade struck the Shelled Tiger once again, but his limbs had shrunk back into the turtle shell, and the shell was about as hard as Mummy's body, so Nie Yiyi's attack was unable to do anything aside from raise a trail of sparks.

Whenever Nie Yiyi sprang back to try and charge up an attack, the Shelled Tiger would immediately foil her plans. His offensive abilities were quite limited, but so was Nie Yiyi's defensive prowess. Thus, they were locked in a battle of attrition with no end in sight, and neither side was able to overcome the other.

Facing such an annoying opponent, Nie Yiyi had already given up on trying to take him down in a short time. Instead, she was focusing more on the main battlefield than her own battle.

She knew that the outcomes of her battle and King Arthur's battle couldn't decide the ultimate fate of their team.

In the end, the only battle that actually mattered was the one that Adam was engaged in.

If he could beat Oni no Miko and Diamond, then they would come out on top. Conversely, if Adam were to fall, then it would be a simple task for Oni no Miko and Diamond to mop up the rest of his team.

Much to Nie Yiyi's dismay, the situation on Adam's end was looking rather grim.

In the face of such a formidable duo, all Clown could do was run and dodge, seemingly completely unable to retaliate.

The battle had only been unfolding for a short time, but it had already been forced to resort to using clones.

However, this really was no surprise.

After losing the trump card that was Camera, Adam's overall power was only roughly equivalent to Oni no Hanzou's.

Without Camera's surprise attack, it wasn't even a guarantee that Adam would've been able to defeat Oni no Hanzou. In the end, the outcome of their battle had been decided by their stamina reserves.

Oni no Miko's overall power was already superior to Oni no Hanzou's, so it only made sense that she was able to completely dominate Adam with Diamond on her side.

"Where are you going? You're not gonna beat us by running away!"

Diamond was chasing after one of Clown's clones, and with a single punch, he was able to completely obliterate the clone as if he had just driven a freight train into it at full speed.

However, at the same time, another clone stuck a C4 bomb onto his back.

The bomb packed far more destructive power than even the projectiles of the rocket launcher, and its explosion was so violent that many of the nearby buildings were toppled.

However, after the fire and dust settled, Diamond was revealed to have been completely unscathed.

Adam had never seen anyone with such incredible defensive prowess. Even Mummy at its absolute peak couldn't have held a candle to Diamond in this department.

"You think you can kill me with those old ass weapons? Bring out the big guns! Come on!"

In response to Diamond's trash talk, several Clown clones pulled out their gatling guns before firing off a barrage of bullets at Diamond, but those attacks were also completely ineffective.

"Are you trying to give me a warm shower? Keep the bullets coming! Hey, don't run away!"

After allowing himself to be showered in bullets for a while, Diamond recommenced his pursuit of the Clown clones.

He was an unintelligent brute who had no idea which Clown was the real one, so all he could do was kill the clones one by one.

Even so, killing Clown's clones could still whittle away at its psychic power, so it certainly wasn't a completely ineffective strategy.

If he were facing Clown in a one-on-one battle, it was most likely the case that neither side would've been able to defeat the other for a very long time.

Both Adam and Diamond were aware of this, so Adam had only sent around a dozen clones to harass Diamond.

Regardless of how much Diamond taunted him, Adam paid no heed to his trash talk, dedicating the majority of his clones to attacking Oni no Miko.

Thus, Oni no Miko was under far more fire than Diamond was.

Over 100 Clown clones were gathered around her, sending all types of weapons flying her way, including grenades, bombs, bullets, and daggers, transforming the entire battlefield into a sea of metal and fire.

"That idiot's not gonna be easy to kill, but you're just a fragile little woman! I'm gonna blast through your skin and blow up your organs! I'm gonna shove grenades straight down your throat!"

Flames of insanity were raging in the eyes of every single one of the Clown clones, much like the fiery hell before them.

With so many clowns attacking her at once, Oni no Miko didn't dare to take any chances, conjuring up a protective barrier before invoking her shikigami guardian.

The giant shikigami was wearing a suit of Japanese armor while wielding an enormous saber, and it was shielding Oni no Miko from the majority of the oncoming attacks.

However, the shikigami's defensive prowess clearly couldn't compare with Diamond's, and in the face of the relentless barrage of attacks from Clown, cracks quickly began to appear on its armor. Despite this, Oni no Miko wasn't alarmed in the slightest as she pulled out a scroll in an unhurried manner.

The scroll was unfurled, releasing a cloud of sinister black energy.

The scroll bore the iconic Japanese Hyakki Yagyou Emaki, which depicted all types of demonic creatures from Japanese folkore, including demons with cow and horse heads, one-eyed monsters, flying heads, wheels with human faces, demons with necks as long as giraffes, and three-tailed foxes.

In the instant that the scroll was unfurled, all of these depicted demonic creatures were quickly projected into reality amid the cloud of sinister black mist.

The emergence of all of these eastern demons in a barren western town from a century ago presented an extremely peculiar and spectacular contrast.

"I've already seen your Hyakki Yagyou Emaki once before!" the surrounding Clown clones cackled as they opened up some distance between themselves and the army of demonic creatures while continuing to fire their weapons.

A cow-headed demon was struck by a series of bullets, but they only managed to inflict minor wounds onto its powerful body, and it roared as it raised its ax in retaliation.

A three-tailed fox was releasing ghostly flames out of its mouth to incinerate the clowns around her...

A human-faced wheel was crashing through the enemy ranks, crushing everything in its path...

This was a battle between 100 demons and 100 anomalies, and it was truly a chaotic, nightmarish scene.

Just like Adam, Oni no Miko was an invocator, and most of her power stemmed from her invoked entities.

These creatures that she had summoned were certainly not small fry. Instead, every single one of them was extremely powerful.

Not only had Adam witnessed this ability of hers, Nie Yiyi had seen it as well. Back when Oni no Miko used this ability against them, Nie Yiyi was quickly forced into a dire situation, while Shae and the others fared even worse, barely escaping with their lives from that ordeal.

Hence, not only was the army of demonic creatures not overwhelmed by Clown's clones, they were able to gain the upper hand due to thanks to the greater diversity in abilities that they possessed.