Chapter 380: The Hati-Tou Hound's Desperate Retreat
Every thunderous blast from the shotgun tore bloody, mangled craters into the Hati-Tou Hound's reinforced hide. The sheer kinetic force caused the beast's massive frame to shudder violently, forcing continuous, agonizing roars from its throat. While the buckshot couldn't deliver an immediate killing blow, Zhongli wielded the firearm with the precision of a surgical scalpel. He systematically dismantled the creature's combat prowess, bleeding its stamina dry while firmly anchoring its frenzied aggression entirely onto himself.
Hu Tao, meanwhile, embraced the role of a deadly, roaming assassin. She outright ignored the prospect of clashing head-on with the terrifyingly powerful Ethereal. Instead, she practically danced across the battlefield, nimbly circling to the creature's flanks and blind spots. The blazing Staff of Homa in her grip struck like a viper's tongue, constantly probing the beast's defenses with rapid, searing thrusts.
Her objective was crystal clear: she needed the perfect opening to deliver a fatal strike to the Spine King Worm—the parasitic core heavily guarded within the very center of the Hati-Tou Hound's spinal column.
With another swift, fluid lunge, the crimson spear tip grazed the thick tendon of the Hound's hind leg. She didn't commit to a deep penetration, leaving behind only a moderately shallow scorch mark on the flesh.
Yet, a bizarre phenomenon followed in the wake of her strike. Where the spear tip had kissed the hide, alongside the physically charred tissue, a wisp of eerie, spectral blue flame clung to the wound like a festering sore. It emitted absolutely no heat, yet it carried a biting chill that seemed to sting the very soul, burning away in eerie silence.
This was no ordinary combustion.
It wasn't searing the physical flesh; the struck area showed no signs of deepening carbonization. Even so, the monstrous hound unleashed a howl far more piercing than when it had absorbed the brunt of Zhongli's shotgun blasts—a shriek laced with a bone-deep, existential agony.
The spectral blue fire seemed to possess a malicious life of its own. It crept along the edges of the laceration, incinerating something far more fundamental than muscle and bone: the chaotic spiritual core inherent to distorted entities like the Ethereals.
"Roar—!!!"
The excruciating, soul-rending torment instantly snapped the Hati-Tou Hound's attention away from the man in the suit. Its bloodshot, scarlet eyes violently locked onto the side-rear, zeroing in on the petite figure who kept stinging it with those insidious flames. The beast's murderous intent flared, thick and suffocating.
Completely ignoring the metallic clack of Zhongli reloading his weapon, the Ethereal kicked its heavily muscled hind legs against the shattered concrete. A foul, rotting wind trailed in its wake as its massive bulk lunged directly toward Hu Tao, intent on tearing her apart.
But Zhongli was not about to relinquish control of the battlefield.
The very millisecond the Hati-Tou Hound shifted its center of gravity for the pounce, the consultant casually brought his leather shoe down against the earth.
Hum—!
Right in the beast's direct lunging path, the ground ruptured. A sharp, rugged Stone Stele, shimmering with a pale, authoritative golden luster, erupted from the subterranean depths without a shred of warning. It acted as a perfectly calculated battering ram, slamming brutally into the creature's exposed chest mid-leap.
Though not summoned with his absolute peak divine power, the sudden obstruction and sheer blunt-force trauma caused the Hound to stumble wildly. Its lunging trajectory was completely deformed and violently interrupted. The massive body was forcefully repelled backward, once again exposing its vulnerable front to the smoking muzzle of Zhongli's freshly loaded shotgun.
Bang!
Another deafening, close-range blast found its mark, the spread of hot lead shredding into the softer, unprotected flesh beneath the beast's throat, exposed by its sudden loss of balance.
The Hati-Tou Hound thrashed and roared in agony, completely helpless against the relentless rhythm.
Zhongli operated with terrifying efficiency, using the absolute minimum amount of energy required to keep the monster firmly pinned in a frontal confrontation. He dictated the pace, denying the creature any opportunity to unleash its full fury upon the one person capable of inflicting true, essential damage to its core.
Driven into a corner, the Ethereal was forced to divide its attention, channeling its boiling rage and tactical desperation into its three highly flexible, lethal scorpion tails.
One tail whipped toward Hu Tao's footing like a serrated steel lash, aiming to sweep her legs. The second thrust forward with blinding speed from a dangerously tricky blind spot, attempting to skewer her mid-evasion. The third reared high into the air, its venomous stinger gleaming with a sickening, toxic purple light, waiting for the perfect microsecond to spray corrosive acid or fire armor-piercing energy spikes.
Yet, the cost of this desperate multitasking was severe.
The sheer pressure of surviving Zhongli's frontal assault was already pushing the beast to its limits; splitting its focus to coordinate the scorpion tails against Hu Tao fractured its defensive posture. Its evasion grew sluggish.
The thunderous roar of Zhongli's shotgun echoed with increasing frequency. Searing pellets, hitting with the force of sledgehammers, relentlessly pounded against the Ethereal's scarred, bleeding hide, compounding its horrific injuries.
On Hu Tao's end, the sudden three-pronged siege from the scorpion tails sharply escalated the danger, yet her safety remained impeccably guaranteed.
Whenever a barbed tail threatened to connect, or whenever her nimble footwork suffered a momentary delay, crystalline, amber-glowing Geo Crystallize shields materialized out of thin air. They formed perfectly angled barriers right in front of her or along her flanks.
These elemental constructs weren't designed to be impenetrable fortresses capable of absorbing a full-force lash, but they didn't need to be. They were precisely calibrated to deflect the trajectory of the incoming strikes, negating the lethal kinetic impact and buying Hu Tao the precious fractions of a second she needed to adjust her footing and counterattack.
It was a masterclass in careful, split-second protection, executed flawlessly by Zhongli even while he maintained his own intense, high-octane firefight.
"Thanks, consultant!" Hu Tao chirped brightly. She still had the breath to spare after executing a crisp backflip to evade a caustic venom spray. With a casual flick of her wrist, she used the shaft of the Staff of Homa to parry a flanking tail whip, smoothly leaving another cluster of that agonizing, spectral blue fire burning upon the creature's segmented armor.
This suffocating combat loop drove the Hati-Tou Hound to the brink of madness.
It simply could not shatter the man's watertight defense or weather his precise, ruthless counter-fire from the front. Simultaneously, it couldn't pin down the slippery, infuriating girl dancing along its flanks, whose every strike bypassed its armor to directly incinerate its soul.
It was trapped in a constantly tightening, inescapable millstone of death, its vitality and monstrous strength being systematically ground into dust with every passing second.
The brutal engagement had raged on for roughly five minutes.
in the world of high-intensity, life-or-death combat, five minutes was an eternity.
The Ethereal's movements had degraded significantly. Thick, corrupted blood flowed freely from its myriad wounds, refusing to clot. The agonizing, soul-scorching torment of the blue flames was relentless, and the initial, blinding ferocity of its three scorpion tails had withered into sluggish desperation.
Deep within the frenzied, blood-red glow of its eyes, a primal, unmistakable terror finally surfaced. The beast feared death.
It knew it couldn't sustain this meat grinder of a battle! It had to escape, or its existence would be permanently erased in this ruined plaza.
"Roar—!"
The Hound unleashed a desperate, all-or-nothing bellow. The three scorpion tails abandoned their pursuit of Hu Tao's physical body. Instead, the venomous stingers simultaneously flared with blinding, crackling purple lightning.
Crackle—!!!
Three thick, jagged chains of electricity erupted from the stingers. Rather than aiming directly at the elusive girl, the lightning wove together, detonating in a massive, chaotic web of plasma that blanketed the ground and sealed off her potential evasion routes.
The violently leaping arcs and the resulting shockwave of electromagnetic interference successfully forced Hu Tao to retreat, clearing a momentary safe zone for the beast.
In that same breath, the Hati-Tou Hound violently wrenched its massive head backward. Its giant maw unhinged, and deep within its throat, a highly compressed, dangerously unstable sphere of purple-black energy rapidly coalesced. But the beast didn't aim this devastating payload at Zhongli's chest. Instead, it targeted the metallic flooring directly beneath the consultant's leather shoes.
Boom!!!
The concentrated energy beam slammed into the metal plating with apocalyptic force. It wasn't meant to inflict lethal damage; it was a tactical strike designed to maximize environmental destruction.
The violent detonation shattered the floorboards, kicking up a blinding storm of pulverized concrete, choking dust, and jagged metal shrapnel. A dense, impenetrable cloud of smoke instantly swallowed Zhongli's position, enveloping half of the Hati-Tou Hound's massive body and completely obscuring all lines of sight.
This was the exact smokescreen the creature needed! Under the heavy cover of the debris cloud, the colossal beast rapidly pivoted. Swallowing the agony of its burning wounds, it gathered every last ounce of its remaining strength, preparing to bolt blindly toward the safety of the dark, yawning passage on the far side of the plaza.
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