Chapter 85: One Shot

"Who is this guy?"

Lena Adric, clutching her shoulder, returned to Angela's side. Her face was ashen, bloodless, clearly at the point of utter exhaustion. Yet at this moment, Lena stared unblinkingly at the two locked in fierce combat, refusing to divert her attention even slightly.

"This man is so strong! But I feel his cultivation might not even be at level seven?"

"Level four!"

Angela knew that her close friend and head maid, unlike herself, did not carry a variety of multifunctional artifacts. In her severely wounded state, being able to sense the masked man's approximate level was already remarkable.

"I feel I might know him, but I'm not sure."

"He must be from a distinguished family. Could he be a classmate from our Stellar Vein Noble Academy?"

Lena fell into deep thought, also beginning to speculate about the masked man's identity. But she soon shook her head slightly, realizing this was not the time for such thoughts: "I feel completely unable to intervene. Haven't the people from the Church of the New Light and the FBI arrived yet? What about the nearby security companies and the city police? Shouldn't they be making a move by now?"

"They have, but they've all been held up—"

Angela curled her lip in disdain: "The nearest outlaws I sense are four kilometers away. It seems this city doesn't welcome us. Someone wants us dead here."

She had already loaded the 'Twin Asura' in her hand with bullet mana stones, waiting for the right moment. But as Lena had said, the fight between these two had reached such close quarters that it was hard for others to distinguish them. All she could do now was focus on regulating her breath and recovering, ready to adapt at any moment.

It was evident that the masked man was still at a disadvantage. As time passed, this trend became more pronounced. Mainly because he seemed to have exhausted his mid-grade bullets, leaving only ordinary gunpowder rounds and some low-grade mana bullets.

Although these, enhanced by the masked man's fire magic, still possessed formidable lethality, his opponent clearly showed less caution. His sword strikes became swifter, more cunning, and he noticeably reduced his defensive and evasive movements.

Especially when the masked man was reloading, his opponent's assault became a storm of fury, overwhelming to the eye.

Under the continuous clashes, the Ice Princess's icy fists began to show cracks.

"He might not hold out much longer—"

Lena Adric frowned: "It's a pity we're not Mana Knights or Mana Priests."

If they were of those mana professions, they could provide ample support to this man.

In truth, her young mistress did carry some artifacts that could provide magical amplification, but they had already used most of them.

"I still have one Blood Godstone left."

Angela focused her gaze, a hint of helplessness on her face: "But my current psychic power can't lock onto him at all."

A glimmer of light flashed in Lena's eyes. She had personally experienced the power of the Blood Godstone just now.

It was a legendary mana crystal stained with the blood of a demigod. A piece no larger than a fingernail had temporarily elevated her mana profession level to 11, crossing the threshold of an outlaw.

The only drawback of this item was that it accelerated the user's mana depletion, causing her to exhaust all her mana in less than ten minutes. However, at this moment, it was exactly what they needed.

After all, the Church and FBI personnel had already arrived nearby. If they could stall for just two more minutes—no, perhaps only a minute and a half—they could turn danger into safety.

But the problem Angela mentioned left her at a loss. If they couldn't lock onto the masked man, the Blood Godstone was useless.

Forcing its use now was not impossible, but if the Blood Godstone were used on that outlaw, the situation would only become more hopeless.

"Let me do it!"

After a brief hesitation, Lena stepped forward with her sword, ready to sacrifice herself and forcibly intervene in the battle.

Even if she could delay the Mana Shadow for just a moment, it would be enough to buy Angela time to use the Blood Godstone.

But in that instant, the battle situation changed. With a muffled gunshot, the Mana Shadow's figure was torn apart by a mana bullet. Yet it was merely a smoke illusion; the outlaw's form had already teleported behind Li Mochen, delivering a precise and vicious backstab.

Just as the two girls' expressions changed drastically, Li Mochen's right hand had somehow discarded the alloy warhammer 3541 in his hand and reached into the sword bag behind him.

With an incredible side spin, a gleaming arc of cold light suddenly flashed. It not only precisely avoided the fatal thrust from behind but also slashed open the mask on the Mana Shadow's face. The latter let out a muffled groan and hastily retreated, but in his unprepared state, a deep, bone-cutting gash was carved across his face. Especially his right eye, clearly split in two, with part of the tissue protruding. Then the flame force attached to the sword exploded deep within the wound, spewing out a torrent of red flames, causing the outlaw to let out another fierce roar and stagger backward.

Angela was momentarily stunned, then without hesitation, she crushed the blood-red crystal in her hand, enveloping Li Mochen's entire body in a blood-red spiritual light.

The latter seemed somewhat surprised, casting a cold, displeased glance at the two girls: "Unnecessary. Boring."

He ceased his pursuit, standing still once more. But with his left hand holding the alloy roar 3221, he raised it and fired a shot.

The Mana Shadow, still recovering from his injury, instinctively moved to dodge. In that brief instant, he accelerated to nearly Mach 1.

But the bullet Li Mochen fired, enchanted with some unknown magic, burst a bloody hole in the outlaw's forehead the moment it left the barrel! Even at near-sonic speed, the latter had no room to evade or counter, and was shot dead instantly.

Then the masked man, showing no lingering attachment, simply beckoned with one hand, summoning the fallen mana pistol alloy warhammer 3541 back into his grasp. Then his figure soared into the air, leaping onto a nearby high wall.

Angela gasped, frozen in shock like her companion, thinking: Was the gap truly this vast when the masked man's power surged several levels? Just one shot?

Only when the masked man was about to leave did she snap out of it. She initially wanted to call out and ask who he was, but after a thought crossed her mind, she swallowed the words back down.