Chapter 180: Overkill Is An Understatement?
Chapter 180: Overkill Is An Understatement?
CLANG! CLANG! BOOM!
The rushing fireballs—one a vibrant crimson, the other a brilliant blue—collided with a deafening roar. Blades locked, sparks showering the pavement as their rampant auras clashed, generating a sudden blast of superheated air that violently threw them apart. Loki immediately pivoted, utilizing his Wing Chun training to drive a sharp sidekick straight into the Amazon’s torso.
The force of the impact sent both combatants skidding backward. Their boots tore deep tracks into the cobblestone road, kicking up thick clouds of debris that completely obscured the battlefield between the remaining Amazons and Loki.
From within the foggy dust, Loki’s deep, resonant voice echoed, chanting an ominous incantation. The crowd and the six Amazons stood frozen, listening to the chilling words.
"A single tail shatters mountains. Nine will rewrite your destiny! Call Summons!"
The ground rumbled. A blinding flash of pale crimson and emerald light pierced the smog. As the dust dispersed, a massive, thirty-foot-tall Kyuubi materialized over the wreckage. The giant, nine-tailed beast possessed fur of pure, pristine white and fierce, hazel-gold eyes. A feral growl vibrated in her chest—this was Baihu, a 9th Circle powerhouse, unleashing her terrifying true Kyuubi form.
[Loki, leave those five flies to me! You play with the annoying woman, haha!]
Baihu’s voice boomed across the entire square. Her lips didn't move an inch, yet her words broadcasted through the air with absolute clarity, loud enough for every single onlooker and terrified Amazon to hear.
Using Blink Teleport, the giant Kyuubi vanished in a flicker of white light. A second later, she materialized, looming ominously over the frightened Amazons. Realizing their day had taken a catastrophic turn, the warrior women scrambled, forced into a desperate battle against the giant fox.
Loki held his two borrowed blades across his chest and rushed toward Diana. He actively circulated his mana, casting Radiate Scorching Flames magic.
In response, Diana flared her aura, activating her Harden Flesh ability. Their dual blades clashed once more in a dizzying flurry of slashes, parries, and near-misses.
The Master-level swordsmanship Loki had inherited from Xue Wuxia was intoxicating. It was an exhilarating power, but also a recipe for disaster; the sheer martial prowess made him far more aggressive than usual. For some reason, clashing with these Amazons triggered something primal inside his own Amazon bloodline—a red-hot, ancestral rage that demanded he fight, dominate, and completely consummate his skill, dominance, and anger upon these arrogant warrior women.
BOOM!
One of Baihu’s massive tails swung, completely shattering a large section of the Academy's reinforced gates. Nearby, Angelica had already sent the carriage away to safety. She stepped onto the pavement, Lana hovering anxiously right behind her.
Angelica let out a heavy sigh just as Vice Principal Arnaldo Rake arrived. The 8th Circle Dark Strong Knight stood with his sword drawn, surveying the chaos. He turned to her, his brow furrowed. "Principal Cross, do we stop them now? The city guards are already rushing over... Isn't this fight a bit overkill?"
Just as the words left his mouth, the giant Kyuubi in the background opened her massive jaws. A ninety-foot beam of condensed white light erupted from her maw, slamming directly onto the scrambling Amazons.
Angelica slapped a hand over her forehead, groaning. "Overkill is an understatement... Sigh. This is why I hate Amazons. They pick fights without realizing exactly who they've pissed off. Plus, I told Loki to go and de-escalate things, not destroy an entire city block!"
As the destruction continued to level the street, Frigg and Ayala approached, standing beside them to watch the ongoing massacre unfold.
Lana, wringing her hands in absolute worry for Loki, turned to Frigg in confusion. "Frigg, I asked you to help Loki! Why are you just standing here? Why aren't you helping him?"
The nearly six-foot-tall Valkyrie, her long golden hair pulled back into a single tight braid, squinted her cold grey eyes. She casually pointed a finger toward the distance where Loki was systematically dismantling his opponent.
"Lana, I am helping," Frigg stated flatly. "See that Hero Reaping Longsword he just stabbed her with? That is mine. Therefore, I am helping."
Right on cue, the giant Kyuubi let out a thunderous roar. Without her lips moving a fraction, her voice broadcasted across the entire block once more.
[Oops, I didn't mean to kill them... Group Breath of Life! Ah, welcome back ladies! Time for round two, haha... Whirlwind Attack!]
The massive white fox spun in a tremendous, dizzying twirl. All nine of her tails, heavily coated in pure Light mana rather than standard aura, slapped outward simultaneously. The street echoed with the synchronized screams of the Amazons as Baihu began systematically beating them all over again.
Ayala gestured toward the brutal, one-sided slaughter and offered poor, broken Lana a comforting, if slightly warped, smile. "See? Loki commanded Baihu not to let anyone die. And Frigg's Hero Reaper Longsword physically won't allow Heroes to perish. So, technically, this fight is perfectly fine."
At that moment, a contingent of 8th and 9th Circle city guards finally arrived on the scene. A female Mage leading the squad marched up to the former Queen. "President Angelica Cross, why haven't you intervened to stop this catastrophic conflict?"
Angelica kept her eyes fixed on the spectacle of the red-and-blue fiery Amazon clashing against the Blue Fire Devil. Shrugging her shoulders, she maintained a perfectly straight expression. "I do apologize, but the fight initiated outside of academy grounds. Furthermore, they are a foreign force. As the Principal, I have no jurisdiction to intervene out here. That is your job."
Suddenly, a thunderous howl echoed from deep within the destroyed gates of the academy.
"Nooooo! Mjolnir Meteor Strike and Bull Rush Stun!"
A streaking, cloaked ball of human-shaped blue lightning and crackling thunder came shooting out of the academy grounds like a railgun, launching itself directly into the swirling vortex of red and blue fire.
BOOM!
Just a moment before that abrupt interruption from the self-proclaimed God of Thunder...
Sizzle! Clang! Slitch!
Loki expertly parried another one of Diana’s wild, ferocious Vital Strikes. Countering instantly, his blade sliced cleanly across her upper left thigh, finally forcing her down onto one knee. He had already pushed Diana to her absolute limits, forcing her to expend her Second Wind ability. Even her passive Fast Healing was rapidly burning through its remaining reserves, struggling to close the deep gashes.
Her skin was severely blistered and charred from the blue fire radiating off his body. His unique flames were vastly superior to her fiery Harden Flesh, easily eating through her natural Toughness attribute.
The primary reason Loki loved utilizing Radiate Scorching Flames as a Vanguard was its sheer utility—it completely overrode all those pesky, high-agility Swift Knight avoidance abilities. The only definitive way to avoid the burning passive damage was to maintain a strict ten-foot distance from him. For a pure swordswoman, staying that far away was an impossible task.
In reality, Diana was far easier to handle compared to the likes of Ayala or Thorin. Her fatal flaw was her lack of advanced training; she hadn't learned how to utilize Dual-Ability from advanced Knight regimens, a sub-system that was notoriously difficult to master in a short timeframe. Thorin, behaving like a typical overpowered protagonist and holding the remnants of a former god's soul, had grasped techniques like Dual-Ability with ease. It was the same way Loki mastered complex magic and obscure gimmicks—as natural as a fish breathing water.
Seeing the proud Amazon warrior down to her final breath, Loki swiftly executed a silent Bull Rush Stun paired with a fluid Wing Chun leg sweep.
Caught entirely off guard, Diana’s balance shattered. She crashed heavily onto her back, her overly large twin swords clattering uselessly to the cobblestones by her sides.
Step. Step.
Loki walked over to her with slow, deliberate strides. He reached up, casually wiping away a smear of blood from his cheek—the result of a narrowly avoided Penetrating Strike she had managed to deliver moments prior. Standing over her fallen form like a dark god, he let out a low, predatory growl.
"Diana, right? I am going to drive this Hero Reaping Longsword straight into your heart. If you aren't a complete piece of shit, the blade might actually let you live. But if you somehow survive this, I want you to go back and deliver a message to your Amazon Queen for me..."
He planted his right foot heavily onto her right shoulder, pinning her to the shattered earth, and raised the Hero Reaper high above her exposed chest.
"First... I'm not an Amazon Devil. I am the fucking Blue Fire Devil! Second, if any of you bastards so much as lay a finger on my Amazon wife or my children, I will march straight to the Amazon Isles and burn the entire fucking place to ash. Goodbye and good luck, Diana!"
Loki reversed his grip on the hilt, his left hand preparing to drive the heavy longsword straight down into her chest cavity. But in that exact microsecond, three distinct voices shattered the air. The first two frantic yells came from Ayala and Thorin, screaming from opposite sides of the plaza.
"Loki stop, she is your cousin!"
"She is pregnant, you bastard!"
And the third sound, roaring out at terminal velocity, also originated from Thorin's booming lungs.
"Nooooo! Mjolnir Meteor Strike and Bull Rush Stun!"
The only words Loki’s brain could process before the impact, as he desperately yanked his blade Wolf Fang up to cover his face, were: "Fuck me sideways!"
BOOM!
The impact was cataclysmic. Hit squarely by the thrown, blazing blue, thundering mass of the Black Iron Maul, Loki's vision instantly blacked out for a fraction of a second. He felt his feet violently leave the cobblestones as his entire body was launched into a perfectly horizontal flight path, rocketed directly toward the famous bistro across the street.
Crash!
His back violently collided with the structural brick wall, causing the entire storefront to cave in and bury his body under tons of rubble. Thankfully, the moment he was buried, he utilized the brief window to activate his very own Second Wind. A rush of rejuvenating energy coursed through him, fully knitting his fractured ribs and resetting his broken bones in an instant.
[Fast Attacks!]
Baihu's eerie, unmoving voice broadcasted through the air.
BANG!
Outside, Thorin suddenly went flying in the exact opposite direction. One of Baihu’s massive, Light-infused fox tails had snapped out like a whip, swatting the man out of the sky like an annoying insect.
[Master, here I come to dig you out! Blink Teleport!]
Her voice resounded again, her giant muzzle remaining perfectly still as she teleported.
While pinned beneath the debris, Loki took a moment to reflect on how he and Thorin had managed to come to blows this time. It all traced back to his own explicit pranks involving the Xia Bing and Gu Recording Stone footage. Because of those scandalous recordings, an enraged Thorin had abandoned him inside the Dragons Graveyard Secret Realm. While separated, Thorin had apparently run into this utterly brainless Amazon woman—who, according to Ayala’s frantic shouting, was somehow part of Loki's extended family. He let out a mental sigh.
Was he genuinely furious at Thorin for attacking him over the woman? No, not really. If the roles were reversed and he discovered he was seconds away from executing a pregnant woman, he would have wanted to punch himself into a brick wall too.
The debris shifted as Baihu effortlessly lifted the collapsed restaurant wall and roof off his trapped, bloody, but now fully healed body. Before he could even stand, a massive, wet fox tongue slapped across his face, thoroughly licking him clean.
The giant white Kyuubi grinned down at him, her massive jaws parted. Without moving her lips, her voice projected widely for Loki and all the gathering guards to hear:
[Look, Loki! While you were busy flying through the air, I snatched your swords before they could even touch the ground! I played fetch with you, haha! Hey, Loki... do you want me to beat those Amazon bitches some more to help vent your anger? Maybe I can go break a few more of their bones?]
By this point, behaving exactly like the police forces back on Earth, the City Knights and Mages finally decided to swoop in. They began moving to apprehend the downed Amazons, corral the dazed Thorin, and attempt to lock down Loki. However, the towering, thirty-foot-tall white Kyuubi aggressively bared her fangs, keeping the entire perimeter of guards at bay.
Spying Angelica standing in the far distance with a thoroughly amused smirk on her face, Loki sighed and took his blades back from the tails. "Thanks, my dear Baihu. Go on and head back to the Sect for now. Later tonight, I'll summon you properly to scratch your belly as a reward. Sigh... I think I'm going to get to spend another lovely day in a jail cell for the mess I've made here, haha."
Baihu gave him a playful wink and immediately began channeling her exit spell. Given her immense power, none of the surrounding guards dared to step forward to stop her departure.
[Loki, don't forget to sing those sad songs while you're locked up in jail! Remember, that's exactly how you met Sylvia, haha... Safe Haven Portal!]
Her booming voice filled the plaza one final time. Just as the flash of bright white magic enveloped her form, she rapidly shrank down into her humanoid fox-hybrid state—her true, intimate form. She leaned in, planted a swift, loving kiss right on his cheek, and vanished into thin air in one seamless motion.
Only after her terrifying presence departed did the approaching Knights and Mages finally find the courage to close the distance, moving to arrest Loki for the catastrophic public brawling and extensive property damage.
Naturally, Loki didn't offer a single shred of resistance. He raised his hands willingly, fully aware that he was guilty as fuck.
As the heavy, glowing cuffs of magical suppression were snapped around his wrists, locking down his aura and mana channels, he overheard one of the frontline Knights surveying the leveled street.
"Wow... summoning a 9th Circle monster out here. That was completely insane."
Loki flashed a thoroughly amused, unbothered smile at the officer. "That was a little overkill, right?"
The remarkably pretty but thoroughly exhausted Mage lady leading the arrest looked down at him, entirely unamused. "Overkill is an understatement..."
With a flash of spatial energy, Loki was promptly teleported away by the Royal Mage, escorted directly to his brand-new accommodations pending a very long investigation.