Blood-Burning Rage Fist
"Don't think you're the only one with backup!" Mo Fan let out a cold snort.
Moonlit Star Motes materialized rapidly before him — like a slow-falling meteor tracing a precise course through the air. Each time the trajectory bent, a new Star Mote winked into existence.
Seven in all. The Star Motes carved a silver arc through the air and tore open the fabric of space itself, splitting a rift that led into a dimensional pocket.
**"AWOOOOOOO——!!"**
A howl from another world surged through the fissure.
In an instant, a violent gust blasted from the rift, whipping up a Sand Tempest that swept straight toward the Greenish-Yellow Demoness closest to Mo Fan.
The Greenish-Yellow Demoness never expected such savage force to come roaring through the dimensional gate. She had no time to dodge — the Sand Tempest punched clean through her, riddling her body with dozens of perforations, her greenish-yellow scales rotting and crumbling where it struck.
**"SKRIIII——!!!!"**
The Scalehide Demon-Mother shrieked a furious command, ordering her spawn to tear the human to shreds.
Mo Fan didn't budge. Just as two Greenish-Yellow Demonesses came leaping at him, something else burst through the dimensional rift — a massive, savage wolf-beast with long dark-blue fur.
**"ROAR!!"**
The wolf exploded from the fissure with bone-shaking force and hurled itself directly at one of the lunging Demonesses.
The Gloom Wolf Beast's raw explosive power was terrifying to behold, and with its densely muscled body behind the charge, the small Greenish-Yellow Demoness simply couldn't absorb the impact. She was sent flying like a toddler bowled over by a grown man — crashing to the ground so hard that blood gushed from her mouth and every bone in her body shattered.
The Gloom Wolf Beast wasn't finished. After flattening the first Demoness, it sprang up in a single savage leap, its massive jaws snapping wide — and clamped down with terrifying accuracy on a second Demoness that had been swooping toward Mo Fan.
**"CRUNCH!!"**
Those jaws seized the Demoness while she was still airborne. The bite drove teeth deep into flesh, snapping bones too numerous to count. The Demoness thrashed her limbs desperately, but not a shred of strength remained in her.
The Gloom Wolf Beast bit down again with that same crushing force. The Demoness went limp, her life snuffed out. The wolf gave her a casual toss, flung her aside, and didn't spare her another glance.
Two Greenish-Yellow Demonesses eliminated in seconds. The rest froze where they stood — not one dared press forward.
Feral dominance.
Since Mo Fan had tempered the Gloom Wolf Beast with Beast-Refining Blood, the wolf's power had grown even beyond what it had shown at the Freshman Tournament. Slaughtering these ordinary Servant-class creatures cost it practically no effort at all.
"Hold off the small ones for me," Mo Fan told his beast.
Fresh blood still dripped from the Gloom Wolf Beast's fangs. It fixed the surrounding Greenish-Yellow Demonesses with a bloodthirsty glare. Belligerent as always, the wolf wouldn't hesitate to pick a fight even with creatures stronger than itself — these puny little Servant-class weaklings were barely worth a single bite. Let them come. It would crunch through every last one of them.
"You wretched demon — I'll put you down today or my name isn't Mo Fan!" Mo Fan glared at the Scalehide Demon-Mother, burning with fury.
**"SKRIIII——!!!!!!"** The Scalehide Demon-Mother was equally incensed. If her spawn were going to be pinned down by that wretched wolf, then she would deal with this cursed human herself.
Her patience had run out. She slammed her hind legs into the ground and launched skyward like a coiled spring. Her claws gripped with extraordinary force — the moment she landed on the enormous LED display screen, she clung to it like a suction cup, utterly motionless.
She adjusted her angle — and sprang again.
At that speed, with those razor claws, not even a Sickle-Bone Shield would be enough — shield and wielder alike would be carved to pieces.
"Shadow Fade: Phase!"
Mo Fan's foot struck the ground and he vaulted backward into the shadows cast by the overlapping stage lights. His silhouette seemed to melt into the dimness — dissolving piece by piece into the dark. By the time a new beam swept across that spot, Mo Fan had vanished without a trace.
**"SKRIIII!"**
A claw raked through the air — like a blood-red cutting blade slamming down — and gouged a long, jagged furrow into the half-steel-reinforced stage floor. Three meters, easily.
The Scale-Skin Mother Demon seemed to sense the strike had missed. Those malice-filled eyes swept across the overlapping pools of light and shadow, hunting for Mo Fan's hiding place.
**"SKRIIII!!!!"**
Cold light flashed in the Scale-Skin Mother Demon's eyes. She vanished from where she stood.
An instant later, she materialized behind the stage in the drum kit area. Her claws swept left and right in a savage cross, shredding everything before her.
The metal drum kit was sliced apart as cleanly as paper — each piece cleaved into two neat halves. At the same moment, a blurred silhouette lurking behind the kit split apart as well, a fracture slowly widening until it tore in two.
Shadow Fade was no invincible technique. If an enemy pinpointed your location and struck directly, a Mage in Shadow Fade state was actually far more fragile than normal — a blow that might merely tear open a chest under ordinary conditions could rip a Shadow Fade user completely in half.
The Scale-Skin Mother Demon had spotted what she believed was Mo Fan's shadow lurking there and struck without hesitation. Watching that silhouette slowly separate into two pieces, a savage, triumphant grin spread across her monstrous maw...
"Fool. Ever heard of a mirror?" From the exact opposite direction, an identical silhouette slowly emerged from the dark.
At that same moment, the spot the Scale-Skin Mother Demon had just ravaged rained down a cascade of shattered mirror shards. The humanoid shadow that had seemed to be Mo Fan dissolved right along with the breaking glass.
"Rose Flame!!"
Mo Fan roared, and rose-red flames erupted from the ground at his feet.
His body was already soaked with his own blood — and that blood was nearly the same color as the fire now blazing around him. As the flames surged upward, the rose-red streaks of blood were swallowed whole into the Rose Flame.
"Blazing Fist!!"
Star Trails wove through the air in interlocking arcs, passing Magical Energy back and forth through the flame again and again.
Then the Star Chart manifested. An even more overwhelming tide of Rose Flame heat radiated outward from Mo Fan in all directions, flooding the space around him.
"Heavenstrike!"
Everything aligned. The scorching wave that had been rolling outward suddenly reversed — compressing inward in a violent rush. The vast ring of rose-red fire swirling around Mo Fan collapsed in an instant, every last ember funneling down onto his wrist.
His eyes blazed like twin furnaces, locked on the Scalehide Demon-Mother charging straight at him.
"Die!!"
Burning with roaring, raging fire, Mo Fan screamed and drove that fist — packed with overwhelming, concentrated power — forward with everything he had.