While I was chanting a curse, the system said I was Xiao Yan?

Chapter 168 Impulsive Action

Hiromi Hiraku picked up where he left off, his gaze returning to the bald, humanoid cursed spirit on the river: "The hammer can be thrown at any angle and then retrieved, so there's no need to worry about it slipping out of your hand. The only remaining issue is its power."

A thoughtful look flashed in his eyes as he muttered, "Since this hammer is part of my technique, then of course it can be strengthened using methods that enhance the body!"

He took two steps forward and stopped beside the railing at the edge of the riverbank. He gripped the hammer in his right hand, and the magical power began to converge along his arm toward the hammer. The light film on the surface of the hammerhead gradually changed from light gray to dark blue, and finally to almost purplish-black.

The energy concentration continued to rise, and even fine cracks, like those seen in porcelain firing, began to appear on the surface of the hammerhead.

I'll try it once.

He raised his hand, his right arm jerked back sharply, and then he threw it forward with all his might. The judge's hammer spun as it flew out of the alley, drawing an arc in the gray air. It was so fast that the air around the hammer was torn apart, leaving a twisted trail, as it headed straight for the bald, humanoid cursed spirit.

The hammer moved extremely fast, and the sound of it cutting through the air was only partially masked by the hissing of the cursed spirits when it was close to the river surface.

But the bald, humanoid cursed spirit's perception was clearly far superior to that of ordinary cursed spirits. When the hammer flew to the left of the center of the river, it suddenly turned its head, and its eyes suddenly lit up.

Two visible pale golden shockwaves shot out from its eye sockets, precisely meeting the flying arc!

The shockwave collided with the judge's hammer in mid-air, violently halting its trajectory.

However, Hiroshi Higurashi saw that the layer of cursed power poured into the hammer exploded the moment it came into contact with the shock wave. Since the distance was already too close, it forcibly tore a gap in the shock wave from the front. The hammer continued to move forward, and although its trajectory had deviated by more than half, it still hit the right arm of the bald humanoid cursed spirit.

"laugh!"

The moment the hammer head made contact with the arm, it snapped the right arm off below the elbow. The powerful force shattered the severed arm into a purplish-black solid-liquid mixture, which then turned into a cloud of grayish-black mist that rapidly spread through the air!

The bald, humanoid curse spirit staggered from the impact, letting out a low, painful roar. Its still-intact left arm rose up, pointing in the direction of the three people.

Hundreds of cursed spirits on the river turned around simultaneously at the same moment.

Countless eyes and countless heads turned towards the three of them simultaneously, like a wall of gazes crashing down on them.

Those postures of prostration and worship have turned into hostile locks!

Hiroshi Higurashi's expression tightened slightly as he saw the hammer reappear in his hand. He glanced at Nanami and said, "...

...missed a vital spot.

Nanami Kento's gaze fell on the cursed spirits that were surging toward them in unison on the river. He drew his sword from his waist.

Nanami Kento turned his head to look at Hisha and Haibara Yu: "That attack just now has already revealed our location, so there's no point in hiding any longer."

His voice was calm and without any hesitation: "We have obtained enough intelligence, we know its attack methods and intensity, and we have also angered them, so let's eliminate them."

Haibara Yuya drew his short sword, stood on the riverbank, and glanced at the surging tide of demons on the river. "Understood. Conserve your strength?"

"We have enough intelligence; now we need efficiency."

Nanami Kento's blade tip pointed towards the river, his magical power condensing into a more solid film of light on the blade. "Let's begin!"

The tide of a hundred demons surged forth, and the crawling, twisted figures accelerated at the same moment, like a wave composed of countless twisted limbs, crashing onto the banks from both sides of the river, so fast that the ground trembled.

After making his decision, Nanami Kento leaped up the moment the wave touched the riverbank, his short sword pointing downwards. The runes on the blade drew a steady line of light in the darkness, precisely slashing into the first wave of surging cursed spirits.

He sliced ​​the two crawling cursed spirits in half at the waist, and dark purple liquid splattered along the trajectory of the blade.

Without pausing, he turned sideways the instant the blade retracted, slicing a long-armed cursed spirit that pounced from the left from shoulder to hip. The cursed spirit's body split in two in mid-air and began to dissipate before landing.

His goal was clear: quickly kill these minions, get close, and then kill the bald, humanoid cursed spirit!

Haibara landed slightly to the left, and his short sword had been swung continuously ever since it was unsheathed.

Hiromi Hiraka's landing point was right in the middle of the three. His judge's hammer had already been swung out the moment it hit the ground, and the hammerhead smashed into the chest of a cursed spirit that looked like a fat baby, causing its entire body to cave in backward.

Then the body flew backward like a stone thrown by a catapult, knocking down the other two cursed spirits behind it.

All three had the same goal, so they all sped up and rushed forward.

The bald, humanoid cursed spirit's eyes shone with a pale golden light, and it shot out almost as soon as the three landed. The shockwave shot out from its eye sockets and accurately hit the location where Nanami Kento was!

However, Nanami Kento reacted quickly and blocked it with the flat of his blade.

A tremendous impact came from the blade, and Nanami's body was thrown backward as if hit head-on by a speeding truck, crashing into the dense swarm of cursed spirits behind him.

Haibara Yu and Hiroshi saw that they did not stop. The two of them went around the spot where Nanami had fallen, one on the left and one on the right, and rushed forward along both sides of the riverbank.

Haibara Yu held his short sword horizontally in front of him. The cursed power on the blade was no longer as stingy as before, but was directly injected into the inside of the blade, making the entire short sword emit a faint blue light. The cursed spirits that tried to intercept him were cut in two the moment they touched the blade, with a smooth cut and no resistance.

He noticed something interesting: the laser from the bald, humanoid cursed spirit would occasionally glide across the bodies of ordinary cursed spirits during its sweeping attack. Each glide would leave charred, penetrating marks on the bodies of the struck cursed spirits, and some would even have their entire upper bodies vaporized.

During a sideways dodge, Haibara deliberately moved closer to a larger cursed spirit. The laser beam followed his trajectory and struck the large cursed spirit's body before hitting him, significantly reducing the impact and allowing him to dodge the next attack at a lower cost.

"I see."

Haibara Yu memorized this pattern and adjusted his movement route. From then on, every time he dodged, he stayed close to the nearest cursed spirit, letting those cursed spirits' bodies take the brunt of the laser's penetration for him.

Hiromi Higurashi's fighting style is more direct. He swings the Judge's Hammer much faster than before, and the sound of the hammer hitting the cursed spirit's body is dull and crisp. Each blow can completely shatter the head or torso of a cursed spirit.

However, the effective range of the hammer is limited after all. Faced with the cursed spirits rushing in from all directions at the same time, he began to be unable to keep up with the speed of his hammer swing.

As he struggled forward, another question raced through his mind: could the shape of the hammer be changed?

This was the first time he had seriously considered this possibility. The hammer was part of his spell, generated by his spell, so its form should be directly related to the way the spell power was output.

He tried to change the way he channeled his magical power from his palm into the hammer handle from "strengthening" to "infusion." If before it was about extracting quality, this time it was about extracting quantity.

The hammerhead has changed!

What was originally a normal-sized hammer has been transformed in the blink of an eye into a giant hammer that is two meters wide!

Hiromi Hirashiro's hands gripping the hammer handle suddenly felt a slight weight; the weight of this new form exceeded his expectations, causing him to sag slightly, but he quickly regained his balance.

A giant hammerhead swept out!

The wind pressure generated by that swing was almost a visible shockwave, and the three cursed spirits in front of it were simultaneously knocked away. Two of them shattered into dark purple fragments during flight.

With a single blow, the cleaning efficiency more than doubled!

But Hiromi Hirashiro felt his face turning pale; the way he poured a lot of magical power into changing the shape of the hammerhead consumed far more energy than he had expected!

He realized he had made a common mistake for beginners: focusing too much on power and neglecting efficiency. He had repeatedly poured far more spell power into the hammerhead than needed. If that wasted spell power had been accumulated, it could have sustained the hammer for a much longer period of time.

His movements began to slow down almost imperceptibly. The bald, humanoid cursed spirit noticed this, and the light in its eye sockets shifted. It abandoned Haibara Yu, whom it had been chasing, and locked onto Hikari Hiraki's position with its pale golden eyes. Then, a shockwave thicker than before shot out from its eyes.

Seeing that he had no time to dodge, Hiroshi Hiroshi instinctively held the huge hammerhead horizontally in front of him. The moment the hammerhead collided with the shockwave, it emitted a piercing buzzing sound. The cursed energy impact layer on the hammerhead and the laser wave formed a brief stalemate.

The hammerhead trembled slightly under the impact of the laser, but it was not pierced for the time being. However, one of the cursed spirits that had been forced back by the hammerhead took advantage of this stalemate to surge forward again, pounced on Hiromi Asahikawa's blind spot, and its sharp teeth and claws were almost touching his skin!

In that instant, a slender black shadow flew in from the side, precisely piercing the head of the cursed spirit, sending it flying and embedding it in the railing on the riverbank.

That's a cursed artifact from the Seven Seas Builders!

Nanami Kento stood a dozen meters away, maintaining the posture of throwing a short sword. He tore off his tie and wrapped it around his right fist, covering the surface of his fist and tie with magical power, forming a temporary attack layer.

He punched the head of a four-legged cursed spirit that was charging at him head-on, and smashed the spirit's head open like a watermelon!

He had just been knocked back by the lightning and landed in the midst of the cursed spirits, but as soon as he landed, he immediately activated a simple domain. The circular area blocked all the cursed spirits that tried to get past him and block Haibara and Higurashi. Every time a cursed spirit rushed into that area, he would kill it with a precise strike.

Although he has temporarily put aside his weapons to help the Sun Chariot, his simplified domain and enhanced physical skills are still enough to deal with the remaining cursed spirits in this area!

The bald, humanoid cursed spirit's gaze remained fixed on the hammer of the sun chariot, and its laser output showed no signs of weakening.

At the same moment, Yuya Haibara made a judgment: this was an excellent opportunity!

His short sword was covered with a dense layer of magical energy. The magical energy burst forth over a very short distance, propelling his body forward. His figure passed through the gap between the two magical spirits that were trying to intercept him and rushed to the front of the bald humanoid magical spirit!

He leaped up, and his short knife precisely sliced ​​into the bald-headed cursed spirit's neck!

"laugh!"

The head detached from the neck and flew into the air!

Those eyes were still shining. The laser did not stop immediately after leaving the body. Instead, it swept indiscriminately in all directions as the head rotated. The bodies of the cursed spirits that had not yet dispersed in the swept area were disintegrated the moment they came into contact with the light!

Hiromi Hirashino's hammer lost pressure the instant the laser source shifted, and he used the previous force to throw the gigantic judge's hammer forward!

The massive hammerhead tumbled twice in the air before striking the headless body of the bald, humanoid cursed spirit with pinpoint accuracy, slamming its entire form against the riverbank railing. The impact shattered it along with the concrete wall into countless dark purple fragments!

However, Hiromi's magical power was almost depleted after that throw. He knelt on one knee, and his face, which was already somewhat pale due to his recent awakening, was now completely bloodless.

There were still a few cursed spirits around him, and the moment he lost his protective cursed power, those spirits gathered around him again like sharks that had smelled blood!

Two cursed spirits pounced on him from the right. They weren't moving very fast, but he didn't have the strength to dodge them much!

Hiromi Higurashi instinctively leaned back in an attempt to dodge, but he could feel that his reaction speed was much slower than before!

This made him regret that he had been too impulsive and shouldn't have fought so recklessly, which resulted in him not even having the magical power to recreate the magical artifact!

Suddenly, a pale golden beam of light swept past from the side, precisely severing the bodies of the two cursed spirits!

Their momentum as they lunged at Hiromi came to an abrupt halt in mid-air, their upper and lower bodies separating as they crashed to the ground, scattering fragments and limbs everywhere.

Immediately afterwards, the beam of light continued to sweep in the direction where Nanami Kento was located. Wherever it passed, the cursed spirits that had originally surrounded Nanami were cut and decomposed one by one by the beam of light!

As if slashed by an invisible, high-temperature blade, most of the cursed spirits exploded the moment they came into contact with the beam of light, and the remaining few lost parts of their limbs, lying crookedly on the ground convulsing.

Looking in the direction of the attack, the car saw Haibara Yu standing on the other side of the riverbank, holding a head whose eyes were still glowing.

It was the severed head of that bald, humanoid cursed spirit!

The residual curse power in its eye sockets had not completely dissipated. The two pale golden beams of light swept across the group of cursed spirits as its head was moved, unintentionally clearing out a large area.

Haibara Yu adjusted the angle of his head as if he were holding a spraying water shower, and fired two more volleys, covering the scattered remnants of the cursed spirits.

When the light in the head's eye sockets finally went out completely and it turned into an ordinary gray-white sphere, there were very few cursed spirits left on this side of the riverbank!

The remaining four or five cursed spirits were smaller and moved slowly, like scattered soldiers who had lost their commander, wandering aimlessly in place.

Nanami Kento attacked from the side, taking them down one by one with his punches!