Chapter 128: Don’t Let Him Escape! Overwhelming Ryujin!

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Riven did not give Ryujin even a single second to calculate what had just happened. He appeared directly in front of the spectral yakuza in less than a millisecond. Sharp icicle spears erupted from every direction at once and pierced straight through the ghostly form.

Ryujin laughed at first, fully convinced that Riven could not truly harm him. He was wrong. The ice was pure magic, further imbued with Riven’s dense ki and a potent magical poison. The corruption began spreading rapidly through his spectral body.

Even so, he swiftly purged most of the darkness as he narrowly evaded a follow-up attack from Riven’s shadow, barely escaping a wide and deadly slashing cleave.

"His shadow is moving independently but can also attack me at any moment with complete ease!" Ryujin thought rapidly while trying to analyze the fight. "Now that— AH!"

He had no time to finish the thought. Riven and his Shadow flanked him from left and right at the same instant. Their swords danced through another Dual Abyssal Assault. Poisonous smoke fused with icy shards and hardened into dozens of sharp poisonous ice swords that rushed at him from every possible angle, each one blazing with netherworld fire.

"How many skills does he even have?!" Ryujin shouted in open disbelief. He unleashed a wave of spiritual pressure that destroyed most of the projectiles before swinging his naginata forward at full power, drawing upon the spiritual energy of the three remaining guardians. "As long as they are still here, I am invincible! You cannot even defeat my spirit avatar, fool!!!"

The world around Ryujin warped into a spiraling tornado of crimson winds and swirling petals. A giant shadow dragon surged forth from the center of the storm.

"Dancing Red Lotus Naginata Art – Shadow Dragon!"

"ROOOOAAARRRR!"

The massive shadow dragon roared with earth-shaking force, reached Riven in an instant, and pierced straight through his chest and soul. It tore through his armor with terrifying ease and sent him crashing hard into the distant walls.

BOOOMMM!!!

A massive explosion followed the impact, leaving what appeared to be Riven’s body completely torn to shreds across the floor.

Ryujin laughed with pure malice at the sight.

"Hah! Easy! What was that?! What was I even so worried about?!"

But then he noticed something strange.

"...Hm?"

The scattered pieces of flesh were pitch black and covered in dozens of blinking red eyes.

"When did...!"

The pieces of living flesh suddenly unified into a single giant hand that crushed his entire spectral body into the floor in less than a split second.

At the same moment Ryujin saw a giant sword pierce straight through his chest, tearing through one of his crystallized cores in a mere heartbeat.

CRASH!

"GAH?!"

As he groaned in deep pain, he felt his very soul trembling. Purple and blue flames began consuming the interior of his spiritual body from within.

"W-What the...! Where did you...?!"

Riven had abused Veil of Invisibility once again, stacking it carefully with other skills to deliver a deadly critical attack that dealt far more damage than it should have.

What shocked Ryujin even more was the realization that at some point Riven had simply disappeared and forced his Shadow to take on his exact form.

It seemed the Shadow was able to perfectly mimic him and fool the old Japanese yakuza because the battlefield was still filled with thick poisonous smoke and flying ice shards that numbed both vision and senses.

That brief window had allowed Riven to strike the moment his shadow surprised and pinned the enemy down.

"Hah...! You’re one son of a bitch, Riven Claymore!!!"

Ryujin roared in fury. He still had two cores remaining. Riven had been unable to destroy the other two before the spectral body flared with renewed power, purged the remaining magic poison, and tore free from the giant shadow hand. A powerful upward punch struck Riven’s chin from below and sent him flying hard into the ceiling.

CRASH!

As the impact echoed, a giant dragon emerged out of nowhere and opened its jaws toward Riven. At the same time the Gashadokuro attacked from below and grabbed both of his legs while the Inugami roared and bit down hard on one of his arms, trying to tear it completely apart.

"KEEP HIM RIGHT THERE!"

While Riven wrestled against the dragon’s crushing jaws with the raw strength of his powerful arms and the other two Yokai attacked his limbs, Ryujin leaped higher into the air and rushed straight toward him, aiming for a killing blow to the chest.

His earlier Shadow Dragon had failed to pierce the flesh properly, but this time he intended to finish everything right here and now.

"DIE! YOU BLACK SHEEP OF THE CLAYMORE FAMILY! YES! I KNOW YOUR FUCKING BACKSTORY. I RESEARCHED IT!"

He thrust his naginata forward with all his remaining strength, only for Riven to smile coldly.

FLASH!

FLASH!

FLASH!

FLASH!

Four ninjas appeared in front of Ryujin in a single split second.

One of them summoned a giant Flood Frog King that immediately drowned him under a torrent of spiritual water, weakening his blazing flames.

The second punched his entire body with blazing physical strength and threw dozens of explosive tags directly into his face.

The third wrapped his spectral form tightly in living shadow threads, binding him completely in place.

And the fourth unleashed a relentless onslaught of precise cutting attacks.

"Abyssal... Assault!"

It was Kagehisa, perfectly imitating the "technique" Riven had used against him multiple times, thanks to his genius-level learning ability.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

"G-Gaaaaahhhaaaa?!"

The spectral avatar of Ryujin screamed in pure agony as his body was cut into pieces. He quickly forced the fragments back together, the remaining two crystallized cores holding him intact through sheer will.

"How dare you, you damn bastard...! Who do you think you are!"

He grew two extra pairs of skeletal arms and began conjuring a powerful ninjutsu even as he fell, moving all six hands at the same time with desperate speed.

"Demonic Jutsu – Catastrophe!!!"

Suddenly a chaotic combination of every element was unleashed at once. Fire, ice, wind, thunder, earth, and more surged together into a deadly tornado that tore through the entire castle around them in a gigantic, earth-shaking explosion.

BOOOMMM!!!

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