In an instant, a wild and sinister energy surges from his body. Dense dark patterns, arcane and ominous, crawl across every inch of him. A look of grim resolve settles on Lin Mo's face, along with something like peace.
Round two. Let's break it open.
He roars and charges. The specter unleashes a rapid barrage of strikes. Lin Mo leaps clear. Then he launches off the ground and drives a savage kick right into the specter's face.
The specter goes flying. Black light wraps around Lin Mo's fists. He closes in, fists raining down on the specter's face like a storm, sending it reeling.
Lin Mo bites down hard, fighting back the wave of weakness tearing through him. Hold on. Just a little more. Almost there. Just a little more.
And his consciousness starts to slip. His fists slow on their own. His whole body trembles. He gasps for air. His mind goes heavy and dark.
The specter steps in without hesitation and drives a brutal punch across Lin Mo's face. He's sent flying and crashes hard into the ground.
Helplessness washes over him completely. His body gives out entirely, consumed by his own power's backlash. He coughs up another mouthful of blood.
Even with the pill, I still couldn't win. I'm absolutely pathetic.
A dry laugh escapes him. He's made his peace with dying.
Then, steady footsteps drawing closer.
Lin Mo turns toward the sound. Jang Yu walks in, big bag in hand, eyeing the specter with obvious annoyance. "Your territory is at the building entrance. What are you doing all the way out here?"
Lin Mo forgets his pain entirely. Who is this? A Night Watch member? The voice is way too young. The way he talks isn't right either. An awakened, even less likely. No normal person would ever be here.
Jang Yu gently props up Lin Mo's battered body. "Rest for now. I'll handle the rest."
Lin Mo stares at the boy in front of him, mind spinning. Every shadow realm entry point is locked down by the Night Watch. No one should be able to get in freely. Unless. Is this kid some kind of mysterious powerhouse who actually lives in the shadow realm?
The next second, as if answering his question, the specter throws a vicious punch and sends Jang Yu flying. Jang Yu's body spins through the air and crashes hard onto the ground.
Lin Mo freezes at the sight. Wow, he's pathetic, he thinks.
Before he can finish the thought, the specter's scythe comes slashing down at him, too fast for his weakened body to dodge.
Then, out of nowhere, a hand tears through the air. It lands square across the specter's face with a sharp crack. The specter's HP bar drops to twenty-four percent.
Old enemies always burn with hate at the sight of each other. And now, blindsided by a slap from Jang Yu, the specter is absolutely furious.
Jang Yu thinks back to everything the specter put him through. His blood boils. He reaches into his bag, pulls out a bottle, points it straight at the specter, and lets his mouth run. "Hey, ugly. Your fight's with me."
The specter lets out a furious roar. It raises the scythe and swings hard. Jang Yu twists to the side just in time. The bottle in his hand shatters at the middle. A salty liquid splashes across the floor.
Jang Yu tightens his grip on the broken bottle and drives it straight into the specter.
The specter reels in pain, then lifts that blood red scythe again, a wisp of ghostly energy curling off the blade. It swings down with the force of something tearing through reality itself.
But Jang Yu is already behind it. He drives the broken bottle hard into the specter's side. The specter feels like its kidney just got knocked clean out.
The specter thrashes wildly in rage. Jang Yu sidesteps each swing, almost casual about it. After their earlier exchanges, Jang Yu has a good read on the specter's patterns. And now, with the specter badly wounded, slower, weaker, the advantage is firmly his.
He presses the attack, targeting every bleeding wound on the specter's body, picking at them relentlessly.
The specter lets out an agonized howl. It scrambles backward and, for the first time, eyes Jang Yu with something close to fear.
Watching from the side, Lin Mo completely forgets about his own injuries. I honestly don't know whether to call him impressive or a disaster, he thinks. Zero technique, and yet somehow he keeps winning.
"You scratched my backside a few days ago," Jang Yu calls out. "So today I'm going for your ribs."
He charges in again, but the next instant his eyes go wide. The specter fights dirty. Its tail whips around and slams straight into Jang Yu's chest. Jang Yu's whole body is launched into the air and smashes against the wall. His face twitches. He forces himself up through the pain.
Got careless. Kept going for the same spot. Gave it time to prepare.
No time to dwell on it. The specter is already charging. Jang Yu glances back at the others. His stomach drops. If I take two more hits like that, I'm done. Safe play is to bail out of the shadow realm, recover, come back later. But that means leaving them here to die.
That's not how I do things.
Just then, Lin Mo's weak voice cuts through. "Its right ribs are badly injured. Hit it there."
Jang Yu grins. He feints left, then right, and dashes straight at the specter. The specter clearly knows its own weakness. It twists its body to keep the injured side out of reach.
Jang Yu smirks. He starts juking side to side, over and over. The specter staggers, dizzy and disoriented. Jang Yu seizes the opening, leaps to the specter's right, and drives the broken bottle deep into its side.
A piercing shriek tears through the space. The specter's HP drops to eighteen percent. Still screaming, it turns and drifts backward.
Jang Yu blinks. "Wait. It's actually running."
The specter sweeps past Lin Mo where he lies collapsed on the ground. Lin Mo sees it and his blood runs cold. "Stop it now!" he shouts. "It's going to heal!"
The specter is drifting straight toward the unconscious children. Its blood red ghost eyes are glowing now, and a string of bone-chilling laughter spills from its throat. The specter hovers over the children, its face twisted and monstrous. It opens its rotting mouth, a mouth that hasn't seen a toothbrush in years, and a black miasma begins to gather inside.
Just as that foul mouth is about to reach the child's face, Jang Yu's voice explodes across the room. "Don't you dare."
He has no idea where the strength comes from. He rolls forward, snatches a bottle off the ground, and hurls it with everything he has.
The bottle rockets toward the aberrant. It cuts through the air with a sharp whistling scream. Then, thud. Dead center, right into the specter's ugly face. The bottle explodes on impact. The specter's attention snaps away from the child.
Lin Mo grits his teeth. The black in his eyes deepens. He slams his foot down and launches himself into the air. Then he drives his leg forward. A flying kick straight into the specter's injured side.
The specter screams. Its HP plummets to fifteen percent.
Lin Mo spits up a mouthful of black blood and collapses, completely drained.
The specter, seething with rage, its face a mask of fury, snaps its massive jaws straight at Lin Mo like it wants to swallow him whole. Lin Mo throws his arm up to block. The next second, the specter's rancid breath floods his nostrils.
Then the specter feels a chill at its back. It starts to turn. Too late.
Jang Yu has already grabbed it from behind and bites down hard. The specter's HP bar ticks down another one percent.
They tumble forward together. Jang Yu pins the specter beneath him. The specter's body is caved in at multiple points. A miserable sight. Jang Yu is no pretty picture himself. Face bruised, swollen, covered in grime, but his expression is savage as he rains punch after punch down on the specter.
"You're an aberrant, huh? Go ahead. Keep howling."
Every punch lands. The HP bar hits eleven percent. Jang Yu keeps hammering away at that broken body.
The specter beneath him has gone still. Then, on the specter's chest, a red orb floats up. Jang Yu blinks, but doesn't stop to think. His right fist drives straight through it.
The specter's eyes fly open.
Jang Yu clenches his fist and whispers, "Shadow execute."
In an instant a terrifying aura erupts from his body. It slams into the specter with crushing force. A single thunderous boom. Shock waves blast outward in every direction. Then a flash of red, and the specter detonates. Its grotesque body tears apart.
Jang Yu's chest heaves. His breath comes in ragged gasps.
Then something strange. The rubble around him begins to float. Every broken piece drifts back to where it belongs. The shadow realm, moments ago in ruins, restores itself.
Lin Mo lies half collapsed on the ground, clothes in tatters, black veins crawling across every inch of exposed skin. The two children have long since fainted from shock.
Jang Yu runs his blood-soaked hands through his matted hair. A small smile crosses his face. Finally. Payback for my backside.
The moment the words leave his mouth, his vision swims. Everything blurs. He catches the faint impression of a dark shape moving toward him.
Then nothing.