Ji Xiaoge appeared somewhat dizzily beside the matching crystal in the stands; the terrifying explosion just now hadn't caused her much pain, as Tian Zhu Mountain's miraculous technology also applied to security.
She and the wild Number Three Chicken had been teleported out the instant the egg barrel exploded, and her HP and stamina had quickly recovered to full, leaving the girl in surprisingly good condition except for the irreversible damage to her equipment.
“Hmm, I seem to have made too much of a commotion.
Luckily, Mo Tan and Ya Ya are fine.” Ji Xiaoge casually took a cloak from her bag and draped it over herself, then leaned over, looking down at the Arena with some worry: “But their condition doesn’t seem too good…”
Lu Jiang leaned weakly against the railing, tidying her long hair as she looked back at the survivors, saying dejectedly, “I should have been able to last longer.
Feimi told me to be extra careful about magic attacks in the Slime state, but I was still burned away by that… uh, what number chicken was it?”
“Second Chicken,” Ji Xiaoge replied casually, then looked at Lu Jiang strangely, hesitating for a long while before carefully lowering her voice to ask, “Um, Lu Jiang, do you have such long hair in real life too?
You manage it much more skillfully than I do.”
Lu Jiang’s movements instantly stiffened.
He cleared his throat twice, answering in an equally low voice, “How could that be?
My hair in real life is only slightly longer than a buzz cut.”
Ji Xiaoge’s eyes widened in surprise: “I can’t imagine it at all!”
“Let me state this seriously again: I am a man, a perfectly normal male in all respects.” Lu Jiang helplessly lowered his head, his large eyes blinking rapidly, his tone particularly despondent: “I like playing basketball, fighting games, physical education, reading books and poetry… and a certain girl who sits in front of me to my right, do you understand?”
“Understood, understood!”
Ji Xiaoge nodded like a pecking chicken, then asked with a smile, “Oh, right, Lu Jiang, is the girl you like pretty?”
Lu Jiang showed a dazed, infatuated smile: “Pretty, she’s the prettiest in our class.”
“Uh…” Ji Xiaoge looked at the ‘girl’ in front of her, who appeared incredibly pure and cute even when smiling foolishly.
After observing for a while, she continued to ask, “Is she as pretty as you?”
Lu Jiang was stunned: “Huh? Does anyone use ‘pretty’ to describe a boy?”
Ji Xiaoge sighed, pulled out her alloy shield—or rather, alloy cutting board—from her bag, which could be used as a mirror, and held it in front of Lu Jiang: “I mean ‘you right now’.”
Lu Jiang: “…”
Ji Xiaoge: “?”
Lu Jiang: “…”
Ji Xiaoge: “Lu Jiang?”
Then Lu Jiang collapsed to the ground with a thud, muttering incomprehensible words with vacant eyes, as if he had been broken, his whole person turning pale.
Ji Xiaoge squatted down in front of him with concern, waving her small hand in front of his eyes: “Hey, are you okay?”
Lu Jiang was silent for about half a minute before he looked up at Ji Xiaoge, distraught: “Gezi… you seem to have made me lose my love.”
“Eh?” Ji Xiaoge was immediately startled.
She subconsciously checked the hair tie on her head, then hopped back half a step like a rabbit: “But I don’t plan on dating right now!”
“That’s not what I mean.” Lu Jiang lowered his head heavily, his delicate and pretty face now ashen: “Damn it, I just realized that my in-game self is even prettier than… what’s-her-name.”
Ji Xiaoge: “…”
“Hey, what are you two whispering about?”
Jia Deka next to them turned his head curiously to look at the two.
This NPC Old Mage quickly became lively after being teleported out, except that his robe, which had turned into rags, was completely unusable.
So he was currently only wearing linen trousers and runic cloth shoes, his upper body completely bare.
When the two (very foggy) young girls looked back, they saw that the Old Mage’s physique could only be described as ‘terrifying’.
No exaggeration, this old man’s muscles were developed to an incredible degree; at a glance, he had the kind of impact where a horse could walk on his fist and a person could stand on his arm.
His eight well-defined abs were even more solid than those of a team of Orc Berserkers they had fought two days prior.
Putting everything else aside, if Jia Deka’s head were cut off, he would be a living, rare strong man; even if it wasn't, he was still a rare strong old man.
“Uh, just chatting, just chatting.” Ji Xiaoge laughed and changed the subject, then casually tossed a long robe to Jia Deka: “I think you should put something on…”
This was a task reward she had received earlier, a random piece of excellent quality equipment.
Unlike others, Ji Xiaoge, who had no combat profession (very, very foggy), received extremely random equipment rewards, ranging from cloth robes to heavy skirt armor, from short-handled staffs to mountain-splitting axes—anything and everything, so she could always casually pull out some replacement equipment for everyone.
After all, although the Tian Zhu Mountain Arena had a certain defense mechanism that prevented contestants from dying and a matching crystal that could quickly heal anyone’s injuries, broken equipment, consumed items, and drunk potions would not return to their original state.
By the way, in the Arena in public areas, equipment durability and consumables below excellent quality would reset after the battle.
Jia Deka gratefully took the long robe and quickly put it on.
The next second, the kind-faced, white-bearded Old Mage was back.
Just then, a high-pitched roar came from below.
The three quickly leaned over to look, only to see Ya Ya holding Second Chicken by the neck with one hand, pressing him to the ground, and sprinting wildly!
“Ya Ya lost control while you two were chatting.” Jia Deka spread his hands, routinely gave his staff a cold compress, and chuckled somewhat gleefully: “I don’t know if that’s good news.”
Lu Jiang looked excitedly at the berserk beast-eared girl, who had finally ‘shoveled’ Second Chicken to the edge of the Arena, two excited blushes appearing on his small face: “Of course it’s good news!
We weren’t there when Ya Ya went berserk, and even if she loses control, she basically won’t attack Mo Tan!”
“Agreed.” Ji Xiaoge also nodded vigorously, smiling brightly: “Maybe we can win this promotion match; Ya Ya is even stronger than usual, and Mo Tan, he’s always been very strong~”
Jia Deka also nodded: “He is the fastest-improving among all the young people I’ve dealt with, uh, although most of the young people I’ve dealt with are some rookie adventurers, Mo Tan is different, you understand what I mean…”
…
The different Mo Tan was currently fighting Zero Chicken.
His situation was not optimistic; the loss of HP and stamina made Mo Tan feel very tired, and his movements became stiff and slow.
He was almost purely relying on prediction to last until now, and despite the huge defense bonus provided by Steel Spirit, his HP was still steadily declining at a rather unfavorable rate.
“I can last two more minutes at most, and that’s if First Chicken still doesn’t plan to participate in the battle…”
Mo Tan quickly made a judgment, swinging his longsword to force Zero Chicken back two steps, gaining more room to maneuver, then raising the small round shield on his left arm to barely block the opponent’s methodical, precise, yet extremely sharp counterattack.
He desperately held on, striving to ensure he wouldn’t be eliminated before Ya Ya dealt with Second Chicken.
Mo Tan hadn’t expected that the beast-eared girl, who usually only went berserk from Jia Deka’s staff and Gezi’s cooking, would be enraged by the previous explosion.
This sudden situation gave him a glimmer of hope for victory; although the probability was still small, it was by no means hopeless!
Zero Chicken had sustained many injuries while dealing with Jia Deka, and had also been hit by a heavy sword strike from him earlier, so its current state was definitely not good.
Although First Chicken was powerful, it had also been injured in its previous one-on-one fight with him, and the short time since then was definitely not enough for it to recover much.
And while Second Chicken, who had dealt with Lu Jiang, was still in good condition, it was completely suppressed by Ya Ya, who had already fallen into a berserk state.
Thus, as long as he could hold on until Ya Ya dealt with Second Chicken, the number of participants on both sides would be even again.
Although Wang Wang Squad would still be at a disadvantage, a disadvantage did not equal defeat, and the possibility of victory was still quite high.
Even if he wasn’t in his Absolute Neutral personality at this moment, Mo Tan could easily calculate this.
And while Ya Ya hadn’t calculated anything, her fighting spirit was high enough; to be precise… it was a bit too high.
Boom!!!
Second Chicken was violently slammed against the protective shield at the edge of the Arena, and the entire chicken was instantly disoriented.
“Aren’t you very arrogant? Weren’t you very arrogant just now?!” Ya Ya bared her small fangs and roared, releasing Second Chicken’s neck, then grabbing its long, crimson tail feathers and slamming it to the ground with a thud: “Don’t you like setting fires very much?
Weren’t you having a great time burning me just now? Burn me! Try burning me again, I dare you! Broiler!!!”
Clang, clang, clang — Thud!!!
Three more consecutive ground slams followed, and the poor Second Chicken was completely dazed.
Ya Ya, consumed by rage, even headbutted it in the end, sending it flying far away.
“Tch!”
Second Chicken instinctively squawked, instinctively adjusted its posture, and finally instinctively flicked out a seemingly less dense elemental flame at Ya Ya.
“You! Really! Dare! To! Burn!?”
The beast-eared girl immediately became furious.
She casually swatted the flame away with a claw, then arched her body like a female leopard, pouncing towards Second Chicken at least twice as fast as before, roaring lowly, and crossing her clawed hands…
Splat — Crack!
In the blink of an eye, the Second Chicken, struck in mid-air, vanished into a white light, while Ya Ya deftly turned around and quickly dashed towards Mo Tan and Zero Chicken, muttering something…
Five seconds later, just as Mo Tan had no choice but to take a direct claw strike from Zero Chicken, Ya Ya appeared between them with a low growl, then kicked Zero Chicken away with her smooth, fair, long leg.
“Can you still hold on?”
Ya Ya glanced back at Mo Tan, baring her sharp little fangs, her tone unfriendly: “If you can’t, then hurry to the back; I’ll protect you.”
“Barely.” Mo Tan smiled, riding his sheep to Ya Ya’s side: “How’s your condition?”
“Not good.”
Ya Ya narrowed her eyes, which had turned crimson at some point, and cracked her seemingly delicate knuckles: “I just used Dog Language Magic · Wang's Claw, which that big blue dragon taught me before, and now I feel completely out of sorts, very uncomfortable, but I can still protect you.”
“Very uncomfortable?” Mo Tan cautiously looked at Zero Chicken and First Chicken, who had reunited not far away, and asked with concern: “Physically? Is it an external injury or…”
Ya Ya impatiently waved her hand, stirring up a sharp gust of wind: “So noisy, so noisy, so noisy!
It has nothing to do with that, let’s hurry up! I’ll protect you!”
For some reason, after this girl started speaking more fluently, she seemed to keep saying ‘I’ll protect you’ to Mo Tan…
Although Ya Ya threw Mo Tan behind her and charged forward alone after saying this, it still touched him somewhat.
“Let’s go, you two pieces of trash!”
Ya Ya roared as she rushed in front of the two chickens, raising her right hand and fiercely clawing at Zero Chicken.
Under the double enhancement of Dog Language Magic · Wang's Claw and her berserk state, this girl’s strength at this moment had reached an incredible degree; this casual strike even generated several blade pressures comparable to low-level wind magic!
But Zero Chicken still dodged, without any preparatory movements, its body moving half a meter backward in a manner completely defying common sense, narrowly avoiding Ya Ya’s claw strike.
And the latter’s right hand continued to smash into the ground with undiminished force, and then…
Bang!!
Crunch…
Ya Ya stumbled somewhat awkwardly; her claw had slammed hard into the ground, not only missing Zero Chicken but also breaking the blade claws fastened to her wrist.
“Damn it!” Ya Ya angrily shook her arm, then pounced at Zero Chicken again, this time raising her left hand: “Turn into chicken head, chicken neck, chicken breast, chicken ribs, chicken heart, chicken gizzard, chicken leg, chicken intestines, chicken liver, chicken feet, wing tips, wing middles, and wing roots, ahhhhhh!!!”
A purple chicken shadow knocked Zero Chicken aside.
First Chicken, with wide eyes, blocked Ya Ya’s attack path, and a light curtain composed of numerous light green polygons quickly appeared in front of it.
Screech, screech, screech — Crack!!!
After a series of ear-splitting, grating sounds, the blade claws on Ya Ya’s left hand also shattered into dozens of fragments.
Under her own strength…
Chapter 247: The End