To avoid getting trapped in the swamp again, Yu Yachen took to the sky—or rather, the trees.
"Bzzzt—"
A figure gradually materialized on the dark screen. Yu Yachen half-knelt on a thick branch, having locked onto the enemy's position.
Killer Queen grabbed a handful of snow from the pine needles. Just as she thought, unless the enemy launched an indiscriminate attack, he couldn't lock onto her position while his vision was obscured.
The enemy was also hiding in a tree, just behind and to her side!
Yu Yachen had Killer Queen throw the handful of snow. The clump separated in mid-air, turning into several controlled bombs that flew toward a high point on the pine tree behind her.
"Click."
Killer Queen pressed the switch.
"BOOM—!"
The scattered snow-bombs exploded, erupting in a blinding light. The force of the blast snapped the tree trunk, and the man hidden in the shadows of the canopy was caught off guard, blown from the branches, and sent plummeting to the ground.
"Koff—Ah!"
Pierre slammed heavily onto the snow. Fortunately, the ground beneath him softened in time, absorbing most of the impact. But the explosion had still scorched half his body, and his shoulder and right eye had been pierced by flying wood shrapnel.
Blood dripped onto the snow, a glaring red, but Yu Yachen frowned.
For a normal person, that bomb would have been fatal. The most troublesome problem had occurred: the physical durability of Terra's people was too high. She would need at least one more bomb to inflict a fatal wound.
"Tch."
The smoke from her explosion was beginning to dissipate. Even though it was the middle of the night, the surrounding visibility was much clearer than before.
The man, wincing in pain, clutched his right eye, which had been blinded by the shrapnel, and roared:
"Oooohhhh—You bastard!"
He looked in the direction the bomb had come from and finally spotted Yu Yachen, half-kneeling on the branch.
"[Warne Marsh]! Get her down from there!"
The moment he spoke, Yu Yachen suddenly stepped on empty air. The branch beneath her feet instantly turned into a soft liquid. As she fell, Yu Yachen summoned Killer Queen to catch her and kick off the ground, saving her from the fall.
But at the same time, the ground where she landed collapsed again. It was that familiar feeling. Yu Yachen's feet sank into the snow, which had turned back into a swamp.
"I was going to save this move for the Reunion Movement! But you! You bitch! You have thoroughly [Insulted] me! This time, I'll soften the ground and every object in a twenty-meter radius around you!"
"Let's see how you dodge my attacks now!"
He raised a finger, pointing at her arrogantly.
"[Sticky Fingers]!"
Yu Yachen didn't want to waste words. Summoning Sticky Fingers, she repeated her earlier maneuver, whipping its right arm, attached to a zipper, forward.
But just as her fist was about to hit Pierre, a thin wall of snow shot up in front of him.
"BAM!"
Sticky Fingers's fist landed on it, creating a deep dent in the snow wall, but the soft material was not so easily broken.
"I won't give you another chance! I'm going to kill you!"
His hoarse voice echoed. Yu Yachen narrowed her eyes. Her expression unchanging, she retracted Sticky Fingers's arm. There were two enemies. If this guy went berserk, he would actually be difficult to deal with.
Right, two enemies...
Yu Yachen's calm expression wavered slightly. Where was the other one?
The Ursus woman is a close-range power type. She shouldn't be far away.
Just as she was thinking, a flurry of fists suddenly rushed at her head! There was no one there, but Yu Yachen's lightning-fast reflexes still brought Killer Queen up to block.
"BAM!"
Something invisible hit her. And it wasn't over. A violent torrent of attacks rained down.
Invisibility?
From the force of the attacks, it had to be the Ursus woman.
"BAM! BAM! BAM!"
Killer Queen continuously parried the unseen attacks, but the opponent was fast. Unable to dodge in time, Killer Queen took a punch to the abdomen, and an attack grazed Yu Yachen's own cheek.
"Slash—"
A bloody line appeared on her pale cheek. Yu Yachen froze. The place she was injured began to... deform. A few pieces of fragile paper grew from the wound.
Not only that, the Ursus man coordinated with the attack. The swampy snow flew into the air, turning into countless sharp spikes aimed right at her!
"Spltch!"
Yu Yachen's shoulder was pierced. The clothing at the wound immediately began to dissolve.
She grit her teeth. Fortunately, the enemy's speed and power were no match for Killer Queen. After a brief exchange, she found her opening and punched the empty air in front of her.
"BAM!"
Space seemed to distort for a second. Countless paper fragments flew into the air, and the Ursus woman was sent flying by Killer Queen, landing hard on the swampy snow.
But she didn't sink as Yu Yachen had. The other enemy had intentionally released his control over that section of snow, sparing her from the non-Newtonian fluid.
"Koff... so fast... such power and speed..."
The Ursus woman slowly got up, muttering to herself.
So, she sticks her Stand's paper to herself to become invisible or disguise herself. But Killer Queen's power is just too strong; even her Stand can't withstand it.
But it doesn't matter, Eirymes thought. There are two of us.
"..."
Even after taking another direct hit from Killer Queen, the woman looked basically unharmed.
Yu Yachen's face was blank.
She had a good idea of what the enemy's Stand ability was.
She had once seen an experiment where stacks of paper, candy, and glass were put under a hydraulic press. The paper, under pressure, would gradually crack and then explode with immense energy.
Materials like paper and coils have poor ductility. When pressure is applied, the gaps between them are compressed, and energy is stored inside. The paper acts more and more like a single, solid object.
This woman's Stand... or perhaps the Stand itself... was an aggregate of countless stacked pieces of paper. When the paper is compressed, it stores elastic potential energy. The Stand temporarily stores the energy from an attack within its structure through the elastic deformation of its many fibers.
When the attack stops, the paper returns to its original shape, releasing the energy slowly, avoiding harm to the user—similar to how a cardboard box bounces back after being hit.
"Pierre, can we attack together?"
"Barely... Just controlling the swamp to keep you from getting caught already takes most of my energy..." The Ursus man wiped the blood from his mouth.
"..."
One of them was basically immortal, and the other had large-scale crowd control and ranged attacks. Since the snow beneath her feet had been turned into a Stand, Yu Yachen couldn't use her snowball-bomb trick.
And the Ursus man, realizing how dangerous she was, had begun to slowly back away. Her chances of winning were looking slim.
However, she still had an ace up her sleeve: the [Star Platinum: The World] trial card the system had given her.
But [Star Platinum] was what Yu Yachen was saving to deal with Diavolo's [King Crimson]. It seemed a waste to use it on these two.
Just as Yu Yachen was hesitating, a voice suddenly shouted.
"Miss Yu, run!"
"?!"
-------
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