Chapter 190 — A Friend from Afar Must First Have His Resolve Tempered

"Wooooo!!!" At Fu Di'an's command, the Thunderlight Beast spread its white wings, light suffusing them, and in an instant it soared into the air!

Feathers of Light was a skill akin to Wind Wings, a speed-enhancement ability.

But Feathers of Light was far superior to Wind Wings—mid-tier in rank, and of the even swifter light element!

At this moment, though the Thunderlight Beast was not flying at high speed, its figure in the air became like a luminous afterimage, its position nearly impossible to pin down. It was not moving with any great swiftness, yet it gave the impression of extraordinary agility and speed.

Feathers of Light at an extremely high proficiency...

"Thunderlight Drill!"

Fu Di'an's expression was placid. In the next instant, a dozen or so luminous afterimages of the Thunderlight Beast seemed to appear in the sky, their speed pushed to the absolute limit—the perfect-grade manifestation of Feathers of Light: light-and-shadow doppelgangers.

"Can you absorb this one?" He slowly raised his head.

Thunderlight Drill, though still a lightning-type skill, was primarily governed by the light element.

He did not believe the Iron-Eating Beast could absorb light-element power as well.

"You should know what an arcane art is."

Perfect-grade mid-tier lightning skill, Thunderlight Drill, plus perfect-grade mid-tier light skill, Feathers of Light!

Theoretically, this was an ability only a Master-level beast should command! Fu Di'an wore a smug expression.

"Arcane art?"

At this, the Battle Club members showed surprise. An arcane art, was it?

Fu Di'an, not bad—but to flaunt an arcane art before a monster who had already wielded one during a professional assessment... was something not quite right here?

"Indeed, not bad."

Facing nearly a hundred spiraling Thunderlight Drills raining down from the sky, fired from the Thunderlight Beast's horn, Shi Yan Eleven paused slightly.

Of those nearly hundred spiraling drills, a dozen or so were real; the rest, dozens upon dozens, were afterimages.

An ordinary beast trying to withstand this would surely have its scalp go numb, at a loss, able only to gamble on luck and take the hits head-on, unable to dodge properly—and against a light-element skill, dodging was hard besides. But that was ordinary beasts.

"Merely an arcane art." Shi Li: "Eleven, Thunder Armor."

"Awooo!!!"

With a roar from Eleven, lightning seemed to burst from its mouth and eyes.

Masterwork-grade Thunder Palm!

Zzzzzt!!

Wreathed in electric current, Eleven's hardened body glittered brilliantly!

And beyond that—

Perfect-grade Super Vision!

The power of the Thunder Armor arcane art lay in using current to stimulate the muscles, boosting cellular activity and producing explosive speed, thereby amplifying the strength and piercing force of Thunder Palm.

Combined with Hardening and Super Vision, it also granted Eleven formidable defense and reaction speed.

This was what proficiency suppression meant—facing a sky full of Thunderlight Drills, Eleven was utterly unshaken, not even bothering to raise its head.

Now, Eleven's feet stamped the ground, and with a burst of thunder it instantly displayed terrifying explosive speed, its figure flickering away like a bolt of lightning, threading through the arena soon to be reduced to rubble.

Rumble rumble!!!

Its dreadful speed and reaction time let Eleven evade the Thunderlight Drills with effortless grace. True, as Fu Di'an had said, Eleven in its restrained state could not easily take that highly piercing move head-on—but that did not mean it could not dodge.

Boom!!!

After the bombardment, the arena was left with numerous craters.

On ground with not a single stable foothold, Eleven's dust-free body still stood upon the earth.

In its restrained state, Eleven's energy value might be far below the Thunderlight Beast's, but through sheer technical proficiency and tactical dominance, it had achieved a dead-even standoff all the same.

To Shi Qi, this was entirely normal—but in Fu Di'an's eyes, it was utterly absurd.

"This..."

Staring at the little Iron-Eating Beast, wreathed in crackling light, which had perfectly evaded the sky full of Thunderlight Drills and taken almost no damage at all, Fu Di'an clenched his fists, inwardly crying out, What is going on!

What happened next struck him as even more outrageous—there on the ruined arena, the little Iron-Eating Beast... had slowly begun to fly??

"Time we hit back," Shi Jin said. No sooner had the words left his mouth than Eleven, hovering aloft on electromagnetic force, launched itself like a railgun slug!

Skreee.

The interplay of black hardened matter and blue lightning made Eleven look utterly magnificent mid-flight.

In an instant, the full force of the electromagnetic power erupted.

Eleven's flight speed might not yet match that of the Thunderlight Beast, but in that moment, this sudden flight of Eleven's left Fu Di'an and the Thunderlight Beast utterly stunned.

Bang!!!

In the sky, rather than condensing and discharging hardened matter to forge a railgun, Eleven preferred to fire itself as the projectile; under the electromagnetic burst, its arm shot straight at the Thunderlight Beast before it, its fist slamming into the barrier of light that sprang up in an instant.

Woom.

Ripples spread across the light screen, and cracks nearly formed; beneath Eleven's tremendous impact, the Thunderlight Beast in the sky was forced back a distance, its eyes contracting.

This drew a grave expression from Fu Di'an. He could clearly sense that this little Iron-Eating Beast's energy level was far below the Thunderlight Beast's—yet every attack it made affected the Thunderlight Beast to some degree. What did that mean? It meant this little Iron-Eating Beast's skill proficiency was absurdly high, its energy utilization far surpassing the Thunderlight Beast's!

There were actually people like this?

Even in Glory, Fu Di'an had never seen one.

"This is insane—it's actually... flying? Electromagnetic Levitation? How on earth did Shi Jin train this Iron-Eating Beast!"

Many veteran members of the Combat Society were left gaping.

"Boom!!!!"

At the same time, the Thunderlight Beast's thunderclap erupted once more, thunder transforming into a roar that blasted Eleven back through the sky—but Eleven, cloaked in a faint golden glow, shrugged it off with ease thanks to its formidable spiritual power and Impregnable Fortress, which defended against mental attacks.

"High proficiency in the light screen—Eleven's attacks can't break its defense." Shi Jin was still fairly composed.

In truth, Fu Di'an was fairly composed as well. Though he found it somewhat incomprehensible, not once had he believed he would lose.

Neither his beast-taming talent nor the Thunderlight Beast's super-tier skill had been used yet.

Moreover, although Shi Jin's Iron-Eating Beast could briefly hold its own against the Thunderlight Beast, as time wore on and its energy ran dry, the outcome would soon be decided.

Still, letting Shi Jin and his beast seize the upper hand again and again was something Fu Di'an could not accept; he had no desire to win through a war of attrition.

"All right, warm-up's over," Fu Di'an said after a silence.

Warm-up? You call this a freaking warm-up?

The veteran members of the Combat Society wore looks of disgust.

Whether it was a warm-up, you know full well in your hearts!

"You're strong. But next, we're going to use stronger moves."

Fu Di'an had already decided to end the battle as quickly as possible. He slowly raised his arm, and the next moment, pure white electricity coiled around his whole body; with a boom, lightning burst from him in all directions.

In that instant, everyone froze.

And throughout it all, Director He, who had stood to the side, pondered for a moment before speaking again.

"The White Lightning talent? So he didn't inherit his father's talent, but his mother's."

"Mm." Fu Di'an nodded.