"!!!"

The both of them immediately split up, with Shun Yin grabbing hold of Mei and jumping to the side. The impact of the landing was so tremendous that the lion dude smashed a hole into the ground, dropping to all fours with a growl.

Instead of standing up, the lion dude spun around and lashed out with his arm. Shun Yin initially found himself confused by that act – the possessed guy was too far away to reach either him or Glen with his claws.

Then the claws abruptly elongated and streaked toward him like missiles, the keratin stretching endlessly and curving in midair to adjust the trajectory in which it was traveling in, so as to hit the evading Shun Yin and his charge.

"d.a.m.n it!"

Cursing, Shun Yin swung his sword and incinerated the incoming claws. All five were burned into a crisp before they could reach him or Mei.

While the lion dude's attention was focused on him, Glen seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack. Raising his hands, he sent several bolts of lightning lancing across the coliseum and struck the possessed guy ferociously.

Boom!

The entire area was immediately filled with static and ozone, the lethal lightning crackling around the area where the lion dude was. Despite the deadly electricity continuing to dance and strike him, the possessed guy merely stood up on both legs, seemingly unaffected.

"No way…he's unscathed even though I landed a direct hit on him?!"

Glen glared at the lion dude in disbelief, and was forced to dodge when the enemy swung his arm in his direction, launching another volley of stretchable claws.

"This f.u.c.ker…"

While the lion dude was distracted with Glen, Shun Yin put Mei down and made use of the opportunity to launch a wave of fire at him. The lion dude ceased his pursuit of the lightning mage and turned toward the fire mage before he disappeared in a raging inferno.

"Did you get him?" Glen asked as he skidded to a stop, panting heavily and watching in relief as the claws that were chasing him were burned to a crisp.

"How can it be that easy?" Shun Yin retorted, his eyes still on the inferno. He also glanced warily in the a.s.sa.s.sins' direction, aware that they could launch a sneak attack on the two high school students while they were busily occupied with the lion dude. "They wouldn't be weaponizing spirits and locking that possessed person up here if they were so weak."

"Correct." The female a.s.sa.s.sin chuckled, impressed. "And you don't have to worry about me or Brad interfering. We need to collect invaluable combat data on how the spirit hosts fare against regular mages in real battle. The two of us joining in would skew the data, and we want to know the limits and maximum capabilities of the spirit vessels. It wouldn't be useful if we end up doing most of the work."

"I'm so grateful," Glen muttered sarcastically, only to jump to the side when something burst out of the flames and struck the ground where he had been standing on. His eyes widened. "What the h.e.l.l was that?!"

"…"

Shun Yin managed to grab Mei and evade the crimson streaks, weaving through a web of them before he withdrew to a safe distance. Keeping his eyes on the lion spirit vessel, he watched in horror as his inferno was ripped apart.

The lion spirit vessel emerged, crimson lightning bathing his t.i.tanic form. He turned to somehow glare at both Shun Yin and Glen with his demonic red eyes, despite the both of them being at opposite sides of the room. Even if he wasn't directly facing them, they could still feel his predatory, murderous gaze upon them.

"What the h.e.l.l is that thing!?" Glen demanded, fear lacing his trembling voice. "It's completely different from any monster I've faced before."

"That's because he's not a monster," Shun Yin explained softly. "He's a human who has been possessed by a spirit."

"What's the difference?!"

"If we can reverse the possession, then perhaps we can save him." Shun Yin parried a blast of crimson lightning with his sword, and then fended off a volley of elastic but razor-sharp claws with his blade.

"How naïve." The female a.s.sa.s.sin watched as the two high school students struggled with the lion spirit vessel. "There is no way to reverse the process. Once you're possessed and merge with the spirit, there is no way to remove or extract the spirit from your body."

"Don't screw with me!" Glen snapped as he dropped under a web of crimson lightning. Rolling to his feet, he sent another arc of golden electricity that merely dissipated against the red field of lightning that continued to thunder about the lion spirit vessel.

"Oh, but I'm not. You can read about it in the data you stole." The female a.s.sa.s.sin shrugged, revealing that she was already aware of what they had been doing this entire time. Shun Yin suddenly felt a chill. Did the a.s.sa.s.sins already know that the two of them had infiltrated the aquarium from the start, but had deliberately refrained from making any move against them because they wanted to lure the two combat mages into a test battle against their spirit vessels?

As if to confirm his thoughts, the female a.s.sa.s.sin smiled slyly.

"One of the first experiments we tried was to make the possession temporary. After all, the spirits appear to continually drain the life force of the host and kill them in a very short amount of time, making it costly and unsustainable to train a group of Spirit-possessed a.s.sa.s.sins. So we tried to seal the spirit away into another medium that we a.s.sa.s.sins can use…so we need only use Spirit Possession during a mission or while fighting, and exorcize the spirit once the mission or battle is over. That way, we can lengthen the duration and number of times we can employ the spirits in combat. However, the spirit merged and transformed the host's body in a number of ways…including at the genetic and subatomic level. They literally become one with the host, such that there is no longer any way to separate and split them apart once the possession takes place."

Her smile widened.

"If you don't believe me, you can read the data…oh, whoops. I forgot. That is, if you survive this battle, I mean."

Shun Yin wordlessly clashed with the lion spirit vessel by delivering a t.i.tanic blast of flames against its colossal currents of crimson lightning. Even as he countered the crimson web of electricity with a raging tide of fire, he couldn't help but feel disturbed. Suppressing the urge to glance back at Mei, he bit his lip.

Did that mean there was no hope for Mei?

No. he was a hero. An ally of justice. There was no way he could fall into despair here.

"Don't worry," he said, more to himself than for Mei's benefit. "We'll definitely find a way to save you. Whether it's to extend your life, or separate the spirit from your body, or whatever, I'll make sure you at least get the chance to live normally."

"You'll have to survive and win this duel if you want to do that!" the female a.s.sa.s.sin cackled. Shun Yin had no doubt that she was also reminding him that even if they somehow prevailed over the lion spirit vessel, they still had the a.s.sa.s.sins to worry about.

The lion spirit vessel roared and pounced on him again. Shun Yin barely had the time to shove Mei out of the way before he firmly stood his ground and parried its claws. The ground cracked beneath his feet, but he managed to hold his own for a moment before the lion spirit vessel delivered another swipe and sent him hurtling across the room.

"Ugh!"

He smashed into the wall, leaving a cobweb of cracks in its surface, before slumping to the ground. Gritting his teeth and feeling the blood trickle out of his mouth, he raised his sword again to parry the lion spirit vessel's next slash. The lion spirit vessel began to pummel him, but realizing that he wouldn't be able to withstand his barrage of attacks, even with physical reinforcement, Shun Yin dove out of the way.

With a snarl, the lion spirit vessel twisted around and sent five of his claws flying out in an effort to rip his prey into shreds. Shun Yin twisted his body in midair and dodged the first claw before spinning between the second and third. He deflected the fourth with his sword and then blasted the fifth away with a fire spell.

Heaving heavily, he dropped back onto the ground, skidding backward. The claws came again, and he weaved through them, almost dancing in the gaps between them. One of them nicked his uniform, tearing the fabric, while another left a scratch on his face, but he escaped mostly unscathed, using his sword to knock away the claws that were getting too close for comfort.

However, the claws weren't the only weapons that the lion spirit vessel possessed.

"!!!"

A colossal surge of crimson lightning lanced toward him at high speed. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to dodge it in time, Shun Yin cursed and swung his sword.

"d.a.m.n it!"

His hastily cast fire spell soared out and collided with the devastating electricity before both volatile energies exploded. Too close to the detonation, Shun Yin found himself battered by the shockwaves and he was sent tumbling ungracefully onto the ground.

"Ugh…"

He tried to suck in a breath into his bruised chest, but the lion spirit vessel refused to give him the time to recover. He was already pouncing on him, his claws slas.h.i.+ng downward in a deadly arc.

Shun Yin quickly raised his sword to fend off the claws, but the attack – combined with the ma.s.sive weight of the lion spirit vessel – squeezed whatever breath he had in his lungs out. The ground he was lying on cracked and disintegrated, and blood spurted out from his mouth and arms, especially the places where the tips of the possessed man's claws grazed him.

"Argh!"

Shun Yin almost blacked out from the impact, his vision blurring and darkness expanding from the edges of his sight. The lion spirit vessel seemed to grin before bringing his arm down again.

"f.u.c.k…"

Swearing, Shun Yin desperately lifted his sword, but the tremendous impact almost broke his arms and obliterated the concrete beneath him once again, causing blood to spurt out of his mouth. He gasped in pain as darkness threatened to consume his consciousness. He could feel his body numbing as paralyzing crimson lightning ran across his body.

His arms fell to the side numbly. He could no longer feel them, could no longer lift them up. Even though the lion spirit vessel was raising his electrified claws for another strike, even though he desperately wanted to defend himself, he couldn't move his arms at all.

Before the lion spirit vessel could finish him off, an enormous blast of golden lightning struck him and smacked him off Shun Yin. Breathing heavily, Shun Yin watched in disbelief as the possessed person struck against the wall so hard that it left a huge cracked dent.

A familiar roar echoed throughout the arena.

"Sorry for being late." Glen was hurrying over apologetically. Beside him, a gigantic White Tiger bounded as it got ready to launch more lightning at the lion spirit vessel. Glen grinned as he helped the helpless Shun Yin up. "But you bought me enough time to bring out my big guns."