Olivia clenched her fists, her body instinctively assuming the most rigorous combat stance.
The Tunzuo before her now felt utterly alien.
Olivia had never seen such an expression or sensation from her before.
If the impression Tunzuo had given Olivia upon their first meeting was one of distance and rejection, then now there was an added touch of madness, making Olivia extremely tense.
In Olivia’s eyes, the current Tunzuo was a complete lunatic.
Unpredictable personality, unpredictable behavior patterns, unpredictable goals—
Everything Tunzuo was displaying put Olivia’s body on absolute alert.
“What the hell is going on?!”
In response to Olivia’s question, Tunzuo turned a deaf ear.
She raised her arms high, her movements resembling the celebration of a grand play’s opening.
The black floor-length dress on Tunzuo dissolved into layers of black mist, sloughing to the ground with a sizzling sound, corroding deep pits into the dueling arena floor.
Yet Tunzuo’s pale skin was not exposed.
Silk-like shadow mana wrapped around her, shaping an ornate tailcoat adorned with silver chain motifs.
A strange, high-pitched resonance and a low, shadowy rumble emanated from Tunzuo’s body simultaneously, as if two souls were vying for control of the same shell.
“So, pervert dragon, do you like the gift I prepared for you?”
Tunzuo’s voice echoed through the arena, carrying a bone-chilling delight.
“What a perfect venue. What an opportune moment. Come, pour my blood down your throat! Let your blood soak my lapels! Isn’t that what you want most?”
“Calm down, Little Ghost. I don’t like this gift. What’s wrong with you? We can talk about anything; there’s no need for this!”
Olivia suppressed the shock in her heart and asked Tunzuo in a low, serious voice.
She could tell Tunzuo wasn’t joking.
Olivia was searching for the cause that had driven Tunzuo to this state.
Was it Naiya?
Olivia stared at the pale mask on Tunzuo’s face, her expression grave.
She didn’t know what had happened, but the little ghost’s transformation was mostly due to that damned pale mask.
If she could tear Naiya off, maybe the little ghost would return to normal.
But before Olivia could speak, Tunzuo refused in a harsh tone.
“Shut up, pervert dragon. The gift I prepared for you—you have no reason to refuse. Just accept it with peace of mind!”
With that, Tunzuo lowered her left arm, clenched her right fist toward the sky, and shouted loudly:
“Come! Let the play begin! Let the lights shine upon our stage!”
The sky responded to Tunzuo’s call.
A giant scarlet eye opened in the heavens, casting the entire arena in blood light, replacing the moon’s original position.
The light shed by the malevolent eye was like thick plasma.
Its pupil coldly watched everything happening on the arena floor.
Tunzuo raised her silver sword, the tip pointing directly at Olivia.
“Make your move, pervert dragon!”
Facing Tunzuo’s declaration of war, Olivia shook her head repeatedly, a flicker of struggle in her eyes.
“No, don’t do this, Little Ghost…”
Olivia’s resistance was met with Tunzuo’s cold laugh, a laugh filled with endless mockery.
“Not moving? Fine. Then I’ll go first!”
Before Tunzuo’s words faded, the surrounding shadows began to writhe wildly, like boiling asphalt.
Countless shadow vipers shot out from the darkness like lightning, hissing as they tore through the air straight for Olivia’s throat.
Olivia’s eyes sharpened.
Just as she tried to dodge, a layer of purple light inexplicably enveloped her.
An immense gravitational force pressed down on Olivia, immobilizing her.
The stone tiles beneath her feet cracked layer by layer, spiderweb fissures spreading outward.
But just as the vipers’ fangs were about to touch Olivia’s skin, golden dragon flames blazed up from her body.
The violent dragon flames incinerated the incoming shadow vipers, turning them into wisps of black ash dissipating in the air.
Then Olivia suddenly exerted force, her leg muscles tensing as she leaped into the air.
A deep crater appeared on the ground from the impact.
Olivia used sheer brute strength to break free from Tunzuo’s gravitational field.
Before Olivia could reposition herself midair, walls made of transparent cubes slammed into her, giving her no chance to catch her breath.
Left with no choice, Olivia dodged back and forth by stomping on the air while launching a counterattack.
Her dragon might erupted.
Fists wreathed in dragon flames shattered the oncoming walls one by one, the crisp sound of breaking glass echoing across the arena.
Just as Olivia was parrying, a figure suddenly teleported behind her.
Yuge!
In Olivia’s horrified gaze, the ghost fire in Yuge’s eye sockets flickered.
He brought down a hand blade, and a massive purple light blade materialized out of thin air.
Stable space was torn apart, split in two, separated into different dimensions—
Spatial Rend!
Olivia couldn’t dodge in time.
She crossed her arms to forcibly block the incoming light blade.
The whole witch crashed heavily to the ground like a kite with a broken string, kicking up a cloud of smoke.
“——!”
Almost the instant Olivia hit the ground, a high-pitched dragon roar rang out.
The surging aura blew away the smoke on the field.
Olivia stood proudly, golden blood droplets dripping from her arm.
Her long golden hair was disheveled behind her.
Her originally pristine white suit was slashed with several gaps, but the expression on her face seemed unharmed.
However, anger was rising in her brilliant golden vertical pupils.
Olivia looked at Tunzuo, a hint of coldness seeping into her reluctant eyes.
“Little Ghost, I hope we can talk this out properly. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Unfortunately, Olivia’s plea was not accepted by Tunzuo.
“Oh? Not satisfied with the script I arranged for you? Too bad. You don’t have the right to choose!”
Tunzuo sneered, her voice cold and cruel from beneath the pale mask.
She raised her right hand and clenched it in the air toward Olivia.
Olivia’s pupils suddenly dilated.
Seawater gushed from both her mouth and nose.
“Cough! Gulp…”
Olivia’s lungs filled with seawater.
An intense suffocation instantly began assaulting her sanity.
[Sixth Circle Spell: Abyssal Breath]
While Olivia struggled in agony from suffocation, Tunzuo strolled leisurely across the arena.
She twirled gracefully, faced Olivia, and taunted:
“Hey, pervert dragon, remember the first time we met? What was that comment you made about me? How did that word go? Oh, right—coward.”
Tunzuo paused, as if savoring Olivia’s pained expression, her mocking tone taking on clear malice.
“Now, to reenact that scene, shouldn’t I return the favor? What word shall I use? Oh, I know—defective. How about that? Fits you perfectly, doesn’t it? Defective?”
The word defective made Olivia’s pupils contract sharply.
Her face turned extremely ugly.
Tunzuo had ruthlessly exposed the most hidden scar in her heart.
At that, Olivia hesitated no longer.
She suddenly raised her hand, fingers curled like claws, and drove them heavily into her own chest!
Puh-wah!
Blood gushed.
Olivia forced the seawater filling her lungs out of her body along with the blood.
Then Olivia stood up with a terrifying hole in her chest, her face ice-cold as she walked step by step toward Tunzuo.
Olivia reversed her grip.
The majestic Golden Dragon Lance appeared in her hand, its tip radiating a killing cold light.
Olivia took a deep breath.
The tyrannical nature of a dragon was fully revealed in her eyes.
She said coldly to Tunzuo:
“It seems I need to discipline you properly, Little Ghost. You’ve been a little too mischievous lately!”
The moment Olivia finished speaking, a huge golden dragon phantom materialized behind her, roaring and dyeing the entire arena gold.
The terrifying might made the whole arena tremble.
Facing an enraged Olivia, Tunzuo tilted her head slightly, a mad gleam flashing in her eyes beneath the mask.
“Heh, you know the rules. If you can, just try it!”
Shadow mana coiled around Tunzuo’s silver sword.
The blade lengthened and widened, transforming into a jet-black tachi.
Ghostly green soul fire burned fiercely behind Tunzuo, outlining a massive, hideous Hannya demon phantom.
The night wind howled, scattering the silence of the standoff in the arena.
Gold and black clashed.
The Golden Dragon Lance and the jet-black tachi began a fierce duel.
Clang!
Clang!!
Clang!!! Clang!!!
Spear tip and blade edge collided repeatedly, sparks flying.
Gold and black forces tangled in a frenzied slaughter.
The resulting shockwave lifted the arena floor layer by layer, sending stone chips and dust into the air, which were then crushed into powder by the turbulent mana vortex.
Olivia gripped the dragon lance with both hands.
The dragon phantom coiled around the shaft raised its head and roared to the sky.
Dragon scales burst open one by one, turning into countless golden specks that adhered to the spear tip.
The muscles in her arms tensed.
Her brilliant golden vertical pupils burned with tyrannical battle lust.
“What are you thinking?!”
Olivia roared, forcing the dragon lance downward.
Where the spear tip met the tachi, golden dragon flames erupted like magma, trying to devour the jet-black blade.
But to Olivia’s furious question, Tunzuo only replied with a cold sneer.
Tunzuo held the sword with one hand, the other behind her back, her posture as elegant as if she weren’t fighting but dancing with death and shadows.
On the blade, ghostly green soul fire leaped madly.
The Hannya phantom opened its huge maw behind Tunzuo and let out a piercing shriek.
“Too slow, pervert dragon!”
Tunzuo twisted her wrist.
The blade slid along the dragon lance’s shaft like a viper.
Where the blade passed, space was sliced into fine black cracks.
Olivia’s pupils shrank.
She quickly withdrew her lance and leaped back.
But the sharp blade still left a bloody wound on her left arm.
Golden blood splattered, but before it could fall, the burning dragon flames evaporated it into blood mist.
“What are you dodging?”
Tunzuo pressed forward.
Sword shadows filled the sky.
Each slash released a soul-tearing chill.
“Didn’t you just say you were going to discipline me?”
Olivia gritted her teeth.
The dragon lance swept horizontally.
The lance wind, like a dragon whirlwind, shredded the sword shadows.
Olivia used the momentum to soar into the air, assuming a commanding height, the spear tip aimed directly at Tunzuo’s crown.
“Falling Star!”
Olivia shouted.
On the spear tip, golden light condensed into a brilliant star, hurtling down with boundless might.
Tunzuo looked up.
She didn’t dodge or evade.
She held the tachi horizontally above her head.
Her whole body, like a drawn bow, was fully poised.
On the tachi, green light surged wildly, transforming into a giant blade beam dozens of meters long, meeting the falling star.
Boom!
The two forces collided in the sky.
Dazzling light illuminated the entire arena like daylight.
Surging air waves spread outward like a tsunami, sending spectator seats flying and covering the walls with dense cracks.
Yuge, standing in the spectator stands, had ghost fire flickering faintly in his eye sockets.
He watched Tunzuo battling Olivia on the arena floor.
Yuge knew Tunzuo was about to break.
Originally, to stabilize Tunzuo’s condition, Yuge and Naiya had burned half of Tunzuo’s mana reserves.
Not to mention that now Tunzuo had released many of the rank restrictions on Yuge and Naiya.
At this moment, Yuge and Naiya were like two full-power water pumps, frantically draining the remaining half of Tunzuo’s mana.
The only reason Tunzuo could even hold her own against Olivia was because of Naiya’s authority and Tunzuo’s ruthless self-exploitation.
“Young Master, why must it come to this…”
Yuge murmured softly, unsure what to do.
Meanwhile, on the arena floor, the battle grew fiercer.
Olivia swung the Golden Dragon Lance.
Her spear thrusts were like a dragon, forcing Tunzuo back step by step.
She clenched her fist, gathering strength, and threw a punch at Tunzuo with nearly all her might.
Facing Olivia’s incoming fist, Tunzuo didn’t dodge or raise her blade to block.
Instead, she also clenched her fist, gathering power.
Dense black mist coiled around Tunzuo’s fist, meeting Olivia’s punch head-on.
At the same time, countless shadow tentacles shot out from the darkness, wrapping tightly around Olivia, trying to drag her down and limit her strength.
But Olivia ignored the shadow tentacles binding her.
Her eyes were fixed only on the hateful pale mask on Tunzuo’s face.
Olivia stubbornly swung her fist at Tunzuo.
Even if the tentacles cut into her flesh and broke her bones, she didn’t care.
“Break. For me!”
Finally, dragon flame and black mist clashed.
Boom!
A thunderous roar, like a thunderclap striking flat ground.
Tunzuo was no match for Olivia in raw strength to begin with, especially in her current state—
A spent arrow.
After a brief stalemate, the violent dragon flame completely overwhelmed the black mist.
Olivia’s fist, carrying the force of ten thousand tons, landed squarely on Tunzuo’s chest.
With the immense impact, Tunzuo flew backward like a cannonball, crashing into the arena wall and leaving mottled cracks.
Tunzuo’s body slid down like a broken rag doll.
But before she could react, Olivia appeared in front of her like a teleport.
One hand grabbed Tunzuo’s throat, pinning her against the wall.
Olivia used her other hand to forcibly rip Naiya off Tunzuo’s face.
Revealing the tear-streaked, red-eyed face beneath the mask.
Olivia gasped for breath and asked Tunzuo:
“Ha… ha…”
“So, have you calmed down now?”
Looking at the shadow tentacles still coiled around Olivia, and the complex emotions of anger, confusion, and sympathy in Olivia’s eyes, Tunzuo curled her lips into a bitter smile and spoke weakly.
“Pervert dragon… as expected, you’re not afraid of tentacles.”
chapter order seems wrong? is there a missing chapter?
Chapter order seems wrong. Tutu went from being at Olivia’s room to suddenly be at the dueling arena.