"Hmm, that's interesting."
The Balrog's power was truly overwhelming. Even with the deep-rooted Supreme Skill she’d cultivated for ninety-nine years, Jill Young couldn’t withstand the impact of that punch—she was sent flying backwards, completely involuntarily. She patted her elbow, scattering a puff of blue smoke. The spot on her sleeve where she’d blocked the punch had been scorched by the intense heat; if not for the eggshell shield, it would have caught fire instantly.
True to its name, the Balrog was like a living chunk of molten volcanic rock. Ordinary folks wouldn’t last a second near it—the constant, searing heat would roast them alive.
"Mortal, you cannot oppose me. Be reduced to ashes in the flames of hell!" Swish—the Balrog snapped out its flaming whip, lashing it toward her. This whip, much like the Great Winged Demon's armor, wasn’t forged by mortal hands; it was a weapon the Balrog was born with, part of its very being. Ever since it hatched from its demonic egg, the flaming whip had been with it, growing stronger as it did.
With such innate talent—and centuries of training—the Balrog’s mastery of the whip was bone-deep. Even if the Ringwraith was just possessing a corpse, that instinctive whip technique could still recreate a hint of its former glory.
"I dodge!" Jill Young twisted her waist—crack! The flaming whip struck empty air, shattering the atmosphere with a thunderous boom.
The Balrog swung its arm, sending the whip sweeping sideways.
"Dodged again!" Jill Young instantly bent backwards—the flaming whip grazed past her nose, its hellish energy enough to drive any regular person mad on contact. Even Jill Young couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose, then—"Achoo!"
The Balrog was furious now, its wrist twisting as it unleashed a barrage of rapid strikes. The flaming whip lashed out like a crazed serpent, trailing phantom images through the air. This was the Balrog’s special combat technique—countless whip shadows exploding out like a thousand-handed goddess in a dance, or the unfurling feathers of a peacock, all converging from every direction toward Jill Young.
The rock surface, veined with dark red lines, instantly burst apart. At speeds too fast for ordinary eyes to follow, deep trenches split here, explosions blasted holes there—the ground was collapsing everywhere. The whip’s crackling became chaotic, because even the air itself was torn apart by the overwhelming demonic energy, turning the battlefield into utter chaos.
"Still dodging!" Jill Young kept weaving and ducking, her feet tapping out a triple-speed riverdance. The wild whip shadows and her nimble footwork looked like a master card dealer shuffling at lightning speed—overlapping, dazzling, and chaotic. For three whole seconds, the Balrog’s whip never managed to land a hit.
When that battle technique failed, the Balrog switched gears in a flash. Squeak—the demon flicked its wrist, the flaming whip recoiling like a tightly wound spring. The demonic energy crackled, rapidly building up power.
In the next instant, its arm trembled and the whip shot out like a viper striking prey. Zzzzt—the air was pierced, sounding like paper being torn. The whip, now a divine spear, stabbed forward at Jill Young’s brow with lightning speed.
"Oh crap!" Her forehead tingled, every hair standing on end—this strike could punch through a reinforced steel door, and it was already right in her face. In the nick of time, Jill Young twisted her waist, shook her shoulders, and spun her hips, whirling sideways like a flying top and barely dodging.
Crack—the tip of the whip punched straight through the rock behind her, burying itself deep in the cave wall. Jill Young, still airborne, patted her forehead, feeling the lingering heat: "Phew! That was way too close—just a hair away from getting an emergency bang trim!"
"Still mouthing off? The real moves are coming!" Just as Jill Young was about to land, the Balrog let out a sly, cruel chuckle and suddenly flipped its wrist. One end of the whip was stuck in the stone wall; the other spun with its forearm, like swinging a jump rope. The flaming whip started spinning fast.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—the red-hot flaming whip spun into a spindle-shaped blur, cocooning Jill Young inside. The cocoon was surging with demonic energy, firepower cranked to max. When the whip hit the ground, it didn’t scatter rocks—it splashed drops of molten lava! The Balrog was actually whipping the stone into flowing magma. At this rate, it was practically a Star Wars lightsaber!
Faced with this, Jill Young burst out in dialect: "Nei niang!"
Her figure spun and darted, Jill Young maneuvering desperately within the fiery, spinning whip’s narrow confines. But compared to this Ascendant-level battle speed, her ninety-nine years of cultivation just weren’t enough. Lacking power meant her Lightness Skill fell short—she could barely dodge a few strikes before running out of options.
Meanwhile, the Balrog roared at the sky, spewing out a yard-long jet of flame as its demonic energy surged. Like a raging bull, it pawed the ground, then smashed through the earth and charged straight at the woman trapped by its whip.
Just then, Jill Young suddenly whipped out a chain—the Alloy Chainlock. With a clatter, the Alloy Chainlock twisted and tangled with the flaming whip like two serpents locked in mortal combat. But where the chain met the whip, it began to heat up and glow red. Three heartbeats later—crack! The special alloy chain snapped apart, shattering into fragments.
But even that brief moment was enough for her to improvise.
She tucked her knees and curled into a ball, spinning midair to build momentum. Then, at the last second, she stretched out and kicked both feet squarely at the charging Balrog. Boom! A hurricane-force wind roared down the tunnel. Using the rebound, Jill Young shot off like a missile, rocketing toward the distant depths of the cave.
(This chapter isn’t over yet ^.^ Click next page to keep reading!)
Meanwhile, the Balrog staggered backwards under the force of her kick, taking two clumsy steps before dropping to one knee with a crash. Crackles rang out as its horns split and fissures appeared on its skull.
But after a couple of breaths, the cracks on its horns and skull began to mend, quickly restoring themselves. This defeat only made it angrier—it smashed the ground with its fist, rose with a roar, and bellowed at the sky: "You can’t escape! The farther you go, the more energy I have—the closer I get to true immortality! You’ll never outlast me. You’re dead meat!"
The roar thundered through the cave, but deep inside, Jill Young’s face showed no panic.
"Oh, you’re still chasing me? Good, that’s what I want—just don’t stop!" She sped along, tapping her sword fingers to her forehead and sending a thought: "Big Log, things are going pretty smoothly here. How’s it going on your end?"
A reply came instantly: [Remote support is back online, but at most for two minutes—after that, it’s all on you.]
"Doesn’t matter if you’re online or not. What, you think I’ll get lost without you? I’m not just here for the free lunch! Watch me finish this in under a minute!" Jill Young snapped back.
[That’d be great, because things are really getting tricky over here.]
At the foot of Mount Doom, Jack Young sent that message while channeling power through his feet, using a special Lightness Skill he hadn’t touched in ages: Frequency Burst.
His inner strength now was worlds apart from his old twenty or thirty years of cultivation—he was at the innate king’s peak, with a much faster recovery rate. Normally, he wouldn’t need the energy-saving Lightness Skill, but now he had no choice. Because—boom! He’d barely burst forward when a black-red energy bomb exploded right where he’d just stood, more powerful than a tank shell.
—Yep, it was all because of the infinite-energy maniac chasing him down. The Great Winged Demon’s output was off the charts, its mana recharge speed just as crazy. Even with king-level recovery, Jack Young couldn’t keep up. He had to use the energy-saving combat techniques just to stay in the game under this barrage, maintaining his rhythm.
"This fight is impossible, literally impossible!" Jasper Xiao, running alongside Jack Young, even whipped out his knockoff Captain America shield, glancing skyward and grumbling nonstop: "That thing’s so OP! We busted its wings, and it just healed itself in no time. How are we supposed to play like this?—Heads up!"
The Great Winged Demon swooped in like a bomber jet, unleashing wave after wave of attacks. Its moves weren’t single strikes anymore, but massive barrages. Skills that should’ve taken ages to charge, it just spammed everywhere. Left hand firing energy bombs, right hand swinging sword slashes—the Great Winged Demon was pounding the earth nonstop, and the whole fight was starting to look like Dragon Ball Z.
Jasper Xiao ducked behind his shield, scrambling away: "Hey, is it just me, or is that thing getting stronger? It wasn’t this tough a minute ago!"
"Of course! The closer we get to the mouth of Mount Doom, the closer it gets to the hell energy core—the easier it is for it to recharge, and the stronger it gets." Jack Young darted through a cloud of dust, keeping a close eye on the enemy and sending a message to Jasper Xiao: "Thirty more seconds forward, then we stop—don’t get any closer to the volcano’s mouth."
"No problem!—But why, though?"
"Because this is the perfect spot. From here, we’re a real threat to Sauron, and the Great Winged Demon can’t just ignore us and go slaughter the army. But get too close to the volcano and it’ll become way too tough to handle. We have to keep it tangled up at this distance."
Boom—suddenly, a bolt of lightning split the sky above Mount Doom. For some reason, the thick volcanic clouds at the crater swirled oddly. Jack Young immediately looked up, surprised but not shocked. The Great Winged Demon seemed to sense it too, pausing its attacks and looking puzzled.
"Nice, even faster than I expected!" Jack Young raised a finger, utterly confident: "One minute—we need to keep the Great Winged Demon busy for one minute. No matter what, don’t let it go help the Balrog."
"Got it!" Jasper Xiao gripped his warhammer, his fighting spirit surging: "I’ve been running nonstop, but now it’s time to show what we can really do!"