My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 100 Xia Ping Zhou VS Oda Takikage (First update requesting monthly tickets)

The windows of the abandoned building were sealed with densely packed paper sheets, and only a trace of light shone through the paper, casting a mottled light and shadow on the floor.

Ayase Origami stood quietly by the window, staring at Xia Pingzhou's silhouette.

The moment Oda Takikage disappeared into the shadows, the competition officially began.

Ji Minghuan couldn't see where Oda Takikage had gone, but he gave an order to one of the artillery statues, asking it to load the cannon and prepare for firing. His dynamic vision and reaction naturally couldn't keep up with the speed of a ninja, but he understood how a good ninja's mindset worked:

Take the enemy's head cleanly and neatly.

So at this moment, Ji Minghuan's order to the artillery cart statue was:
"Cannon truck, fire at me."

With a loud "bang", a black cannonball shot out from the barrel of the black iron cannon carriage and headed straight for Ji Minghuan's body!

In mid-air, the shell exploded and turned into a pillar of fire that eroded forward.

At this moment, Oda Takikage's figure rose from the shadow behind Ji Minghuan.

The firelight from the side illuminated his cheek for a moment. Oda Takikage was slightly startled, and out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of the Flame Pillar rushing towards him.

The high temperature caused the air to deform slightly, like a mirage.

A thought flashed through Oda Takikage's mind: Isn't this kid afraid of death? He actually fired at himself?
But he didn't think about avoiding the artillery fire at the first moment. As a ninja, he had to ensure that he killed the enemy 100%!

He decisively swung his sword and aimed at Ji Minghuan's neck, but soon Oda Takikage discovered that his sword was blocked by a black and white barrier. The blade trembled and hummed in mid-air, but it could not move forward even a little bit.

"Can't cut it?" Oda Takikage raised his thick eyebrows slightly and increased the force on the blade.

Ji Minghuan was clearly right in front of him, but he was helpless.

At this time, the artillery fire had already swept over like an overwhelming force. Oda Takikage was quick-eyed and quick-handed, and changed to holding the sword with the backhand.

The blade was coated in a pitch-black shadow, dancing in mid-air in a black pattern. The shadow pattern collided head-on with the artillery fire, sending Oda Takikage's body flying back several meters. His feet carved a dark groove in the abandoned building's floor.

Oda Takikage quickly stood up from the ground, shook his sword in the air, and wiped out the flame on the blade. He raised his eyes and found that Xia Pingzhou was still standing there motionless - it was the black and white barrier again that protected him and saved him from the erosion of artillery fire!

"No wonder he dared to let the artillery vehicle fire at him..."

Oda Takikage murmured softly, and saw with the corner of his eye that the black and white barrier came from the scepter of the king's stone statue - the scepter emitted a thin and long river of light, which continued to spread towards Xia Pingzhou's body.

"The king, it is the king who is protecting him."

Oda Takikage's eyes flashed, and he immediately came to a conclusion.

So he changed his attack, and his figure instantly disappeared into the shadow under his feet, and the next second he emerged from the shadow behind the king.

At that moment, another loud "bang" was heard beside his ear, followed by a familiar wave of heat. Ji Minghuan perfectly predicted Oda Takikage's thoughts. He controlled another artillery vehicle and fired at the king's stone statue in advance!

Amidst the deafening sound, the firelight once again illuminated Oda Takikage's ninja attire.

The moment he stood up from the shadows beneath his feet, Oda Takikage noticed something was wrong again:

"Why would he fire at the king? Isn't the king protecting him? Or is he planning to abandon the king and try to take me down with this attack? Or... is the king, like Xia Pingzhou, also protected by a barrier?"

His thoughts were all over the place for a moment, but Oda Takikage had suffered a loss once, so he didn't intend to take it head-on this time.

So he did not swing his sword at the back of the king's neck, but chopped the ground hard, and his body flew backwards, instantly avoiding the artillery fire from the side.

But soon, Oda Takikage found that all his speculations were overturned.

He looked up at the stone statue of the king. At the moment when the artillery fire was about to destroy the king, a strange creature appeared under the king's feet: it was a demon made entirely of shadow.

The shadow demon rose up at an extremely fast speed, then raised its claws to grab the left and right shoulders of the king's statue, and pulled the king's body into the "shadow lake" under its feet.

Then the blazing flames passed over Shadow Lake without touching a single hair on the king's head.

"Shadow Demon?" Oda Takikage frowned and recognized the appearance of the demon.

At this moment, the shadow demon was smiling sinisterly in the shadows, revealing a blood-red smile:
"Jiejiejie——"

It seemed like he was mocking Oda Takikage.

Despite being pulled into the shadows beneath the demon's feet, the king's scepter still emitted a black and white halo, enveloping Xia Pingzhou's body. Thus, in those few brief seconds, Oda Takikage was unable to attack either the king or Ji Minghuan.

There was only one thing he could do: stay put - and when the shadow demon disappeared, the king would naturally rise from the shadows.

In this way, he could naturally cut off the king's head.

"Did No. 12's Sky Exorcist contract the 'Shadow Demon' and use it to protect the king?" Oda Takikage thought to himself, "What a brilliant idea! A mere first-rank exorcist can actually achieve this."

At this moment, with the sound of rumbling footsteps, three Black Iron Soldiers rushed over like buffaloes.

They held shields in their left hands and swords in their right hands, and placed their shields across their front to form a steel wall.

Oda Takikage ignored this and lightly touched the ground to jump up. His two-meter-tall figure was as light as a flying bird at this moment, flying over the shield wall formed by the soldiers.

The Black Iron soldiers swung their swords upwards, trying to intercept him in mid-air, but Oda Takikage simply stepped lightly on the cross-section of the sword with the side of his foot to avoid the tip of the sword.

He immediately landed behind the three Black Iron soldiers. With a sharp movement, the shadow sword drew a black arc, severing the back of each soldier's neck. The headless soldiers slowly knelt on the ground, releasing their shields and swords.

Then, the shadow demon had exceeded its maximum existence time, so it could no longer laugh: "Haha, haha..." With a stiff voice, it slowly let go of the king statue it was hugging tightly.

The king emerged from the shadow lake beneath his feet and stood motionless, like a puppet holding a scepter high.

Oda Takikage slowly walked towards the stone statue of the king. With a swing of his sword, the statue's head flew out. Then, the king and the three black iron statues transformed into chess pieces and returned to the black and white circle surrounding Xia Pingzhou.

Oda Takikage slowly turned around and glanced at Ji Minghuan.

Ji Minghuan had stood still from the moment the battle began until now, not even moving a step. Even stranger was the fact that the stone statue of the queen had remained with Ji Minghuan throughout the entire battle, never leaving his side. Was there something fishy going on?

"The King is gone. Now there are no pieces to protect him. Will No. 12 surrender?"

Oda Takikage thought to himself.

But no matter what, he only knew that his target was Ji Minghuan: since he had lost the king's protection, the stone statue of the queen could not be faster than him.

In one step, his sword is faster than anyone else's!
So at this moment, Oda Takikage repeated his old trick and once again hid in the shadows beneath his feet. In the blink of an eye, he had already risen from the shadows behind Ji Minghuan, and raised his long sword covered in a layer of shadow, slashing towards Ji Minghuan's back.

However, at this time, the hand of the queen statue was on Ji Minghuan's right arm.

The reaction speed of the Queen's stone statue is indeed slower than that of Oda Takikage, so it cannot swing its dagger the moment Oda Takikage appears to block Oda Takikage's long sword for Ji Minghuan.

But in addition to physical combat, the Queen's statue has another trick up its sleeve, which is the chess power that is unique to her - "nihilism".

"Nullification."

At this moment, Ji Minghuan said silently in his heart, and then the giant statue of the queen and Ji Minghuan's body entered the state of nothingness at the same time, turning into an untouchable transparent object.

It only took 0.5 seconds for Oda Takikage's long sword to pierce Ji Minghuan's back.

But at this moment, the blade missed.

Oda Takikage was slightly shocked. Originally, in his plan, as long as he could get to the Queen's statue first and slash the sword at Ji Minghuan, this boring match would be over - Miss Ayase would wrap the bodies of both of them with paper to prevent them from hurting each other, and then unilaterally declare his victory.

But he was wrong.

Totally wrong.

The blade of the long sword...didn't touch Ji Minghuan's body at all. Instead, Oda Takikage leaned forward slightly. His pupils shrank slightly, and he found that his figure actually overlapped with Xia Pingzhou's.
It feels like... Xia Pingzhou has turned into air!
At the same time, the stone statue of the queen had already swung out the dagger at the moment when Ji Minghuan's body became nothingness.

The angle at which she swung the dagger was in accordance with Ji Minghuan's instructions, and she perfectly predicted Oda Takikage's movements - because Oda Takikage was confident that he could end the match with one sword, so when the sword missed, his body would unstoppably lean forward.

So at this moment, the dagger was precisely placed in front of Oda Takikage's neck.

"Stop. It's over." Not far away, the girl in ochre-red kimono who was staring at the two of them spoke.

I actually... lost?
Oda Takikage was stunned for a long, long time, then lowered his eyes to look at the dagger pressed against his neck. If it were just an inch closer, his neck would be severed by the dagger. But Ji Minghuan controlled the distance very well, not even a line of blood was cut on his neck.

Oda Takikage glanced sideways, and saw a cold blue flame burning in the eye sockets of the Queen's stone statue. If the monarch hadn't stopped her, she would have struck down the person who had tried to harm the monarch.

While his attention was still focused on the menacing statue of the Queen, Xia Pingzhou's indifferent voice came from the side:

"Number 4, you can't hide your body in the shadows when you're attacking, right?"

After a pause, Xia Pingzhou continued to speculate, "So if I wanted to catch you, I had to take advantage of the moment you attacked me. And it turned out that I succeeded."

Oda Takikage was stunned for a moment when he heard this, then he smiled silently. He had never expected that Xia Pingzhou had observed him so carefully after just one battle.

Meeting his gaze, Ji Minghuan continued, "I feel like you're letting me win. I don't believe you only have this much strength."

After saying this, he ordered the Queen's stone statue to retract the dagger from Oda Takikage's neck, and together with the two artillery carts, it transformed into chess shadows and returned to the black and white circular road.

Then he put away the SkyDrive, and the bird's-eye view and the ring road disappeared together. The abandoned building seemed to be much wider for a moment.

Ayase Origami came over and said, "Takikage does have a lot of moves he hasn't used yet. Maybe he thinks that teasing a kitten... only requires a few basic moves."

"It is true that I was careless." Oda Takikage nodded slightly, "But misjudging the opponent's strength is also an important factor in failure. Mr. Xia Pingzhou's strength is indeed beyond my imagination..." When he called Ji Minghuan, he changed his name instead of the brigade number.

He sincerely admired, "Your Sky Drive ability is very special. It gives you a huge advantage in one-on-one combat. I'm afraid it would be difficult for an enemy to break through your numerous defenses on their own."

After a pause, Oda Takikage sheathed his sword and said calmly:

"I lost."

Ji Minghuan thought for a moment and suggested, "How about we play again later, after my pieces have recovered. Don't let me down, let me see your other moves."

"That's not necessary." Ayase Origami said, "If Takikage gets serious, this building will collapse."

"Really?"

As Ji Minghuan spoke, he met Ayase Origami's gaze, seemingly unwilling to believe that a ninja who specialized in surprise attacks and speed could possess the kind of power that Ayase Origami described.

"Really." Ayase Origami said, "Kitten, you're rebelling...you don't believe your master's words."

Ji Minghuan ignored her and turned to look at Oda Takikage, "In fact, if I didn't know what your ability is, I might not be able to defeat you in an encounter... A ninja who can suddenly appear in someone's shadow is hard for anyone to guard against."

"No, losing is losing. There's no need to find excuses for me." Oda Takikage shook his head. His eyes and tone suddenly became warm, as if he had become a different person. "Let's go back and prepare."

"what to prepare?"

"Three members of the group will arrive in Tokyo tonight. We will wait for them in the cafe."

"Where is the captain?" Ji Minghuan only cared about this.

"The captain hasn't arrived yet." Oda Takikage replied.

(End of this chapter)