"Hiss—"
The flowing water on the blade was partially evaporated by the fireball's intense heat, producing a sharp hissing sound; the fireball itself split in two and quickly dissipated.
After clearing away all the fireballs in front of him, Akimi drove his Nichirin Blade into Cescale's body and continued dashing forward.
As he advanced, the blade carved a long, narrow gash across Cescale's body.
When the next wave of fireballs appeared ahead of him, he swiftly twisted his body to the side and leaped up.
In midair, he swung his sword twice in quick succession, shattering the last two fireballs, then landed with a slicing strike that added yet another wound to Cescale.
Without pausing for even a breath, Akimi once again charged straight toward Cescale's head.
Along the way, fireballs kept coming at him, but by now Akimi had grown adept at dealing with them.
He reached Cescale's neck with little effort.
Over the nearly forty-meter advance, not only had he shattered countless fireballs, but he had also carved dozens of wounds large and small into Cescale's back, slicing away nearly a quarter of its first HP bar.
Compared to Cescale's broad back, its neck looked far more slender, only about five to six meters wide, and its scales were densely packed and tightly interlocked.
If the scales on Cescale's other parts were like rough, angular fish scales, then the ones on its neck were more like the fine, smooth scales of a snake.
Although the scales looked smaller and thinner, their defensive power had instead increased.
Now, whenever Akimi's Nichirin Blade bit into them, he could clearly feel resistance that hadn't been there before, and the damage he inflicted had visibly diminished.
This in itself wasn't the worst part—what was more troublesome was that Cescale's attack frequency had increased further.
Now, a single mistake would leave Akimi suppressed under its relentless barrage, leaving him almost no time to catch his breath.
Akimi couldn't help but think how amazing it would be if his Water Breathing forms included "Dead Calm"—the ability to nullify all attacks within the range of his technique.
Against Cescale's bullet-hell-like barrage, it would be an absolute trump card.
Unfortunately, all he could do was imagine.
Just as he twisted aside to dodge one fireball and raised his blade to block another, he immediately sensed something was wrong—the feeling wasn't right.
Looking closely, the fireball his Nichirin Blade had met was clearly different from the others, even in appearance.
Inside this fireball, seven or eight dark-red glowing orbs spun and swirled continuously.
If one were to classify them by quality, the other fireballs were just ordinary rank, while this one was undoubtedly rare rank—a leap from white quality to blue quality.
Sure enough, the moment the Nichirin Blade split the fireball in two, it gave off a muffled bang before exploding, releasing nearly ten smaller fireballs that shot outward.
Two of them slammed into Akimi's shoulder armor and chest plate.
Within just a few seconds, the armor melted away and then vanished completely due to its durability dropping too low.
His abdomen and legs were also struck by the fireballs.
Just those two blasts alone shaved away a third of his HP, and the impact nearly knocked him clean off Cescale's body.
By the time Akimi managed to steady himself again, the next wave of fireballs was already closing in fast.
This time, Akimi didn't dare to block them head-on.
Who knew what other strange variations these fireballs might have?
"Water Breathing, Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow!"
With the sword technique's boost, the fireballs at most grazed past him harmlessly, unable to inflict any damage.
Now only a few meters separated Akimi from Cescale's head.
He could clearly make out the "fine" patterns etched into the pair of massive horns.
From his current vantage point looking downward, he could even see flames seeping out from both corners of Cescale's mouth.
This made the surrounding temperature rise even further as he drew closer to its head.
Aside from the discomfort, it also inflicted a negative status effect—Scorch-Stun, causing a thirty-second stun every five minutes.
In other words, to maintain dodging or attack rhythm continuously, one would normally have to use a detox crystal every five minutes to clear the stun.
For other players, this was unavoidable—but for Akimi, it was nothing to fear.
Total Concentration Breathing: Constant allowed him to resist stun entirely.
This undoubtedly spared him from what would have been a very troublesome problem.
And now, he had a strong feeling—Cescale's weak point was in its head.
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