Stone Free's threads bound everyone together.
Using this momentum, several people simultaneously flew out of the cabin door.
Then, Jolyne used Stone Free's ability to weave a parachute.
The speed of their descent slowed.
Finally, they landed smoothly in the swamp.
"We should be safe for now. Let's head to the shore, but remember to move slowly, or the swamp will swallow you."
Kai Ishida said, then took off his jacket, spread it on the swamp, and then lay on the clothes, slowly pulling out his legs, and then slowly moving towards the shore.
The others also followed his movements, slowly freeing themselves from the swamp's grip.
"Damn it! Although the Guard's uniform isn't worth much, my shoes are a brand name I specifically asked someone to buy!"
"Rikiel, right? I'll remember you!"
The muddy swamp made every step they took incredibly difficult.
Soaked in mud, even the most expensive shoes were now worthless.
In fact, Kai Ishida could still feel the mud seeping through the gaps and into his shoes.
Making every step feel like he was treading on slime.
But just as everyone was still twenty-five meters from the shore, a man's voice suddenly came from the shore.
"Go ahead and swim towards the shore, but let me warn you first..."
The man dressed in a cow costume curved his lips into a meaningful smile, then said, "The closer you get to me, the more accurate my flying rods will be in attacking you!"
Hearing this, Jolyne Cujoh and Ermes all stopped in place.
Only Kai Ishida continued to approach the shore.
"Is that so? I'm already impatient to rush in front of you and smash you with one punch to avenge my shoes, you bastard!"
As his voice fell, Kai Ishida's moving speed increased.
At this moment, the distance between him and Rikiel was only twenty-two meters.
"Oh? If I remember correctly, your Star Platinum's range is only about two meters, isn't it? Even if you can stop time, in this muddy swamp, you absolutely cannot cross this twenty-meter distance!"
Rikiel was not flustered at all; in fact, he even moved half a meter forward voluntarily.
And after Kai Ishida moved another two meters, seeing Rikiel's actions, he also laughed, "You fool, you've already entered my range!"
"What nonsense are you talking about? Father Pucci told me Star Platinum's range without any error..."
However, before he could finish his sentence, a silver-glistening marble shot towards his glabella at extreme speed.
"What?!" Rikiel instinctively took a step back.
"It's a steel marble!" Ermes's eyes lit up.
To compensate for one's range deficiency with a marble, the person who invented this move is definitely a genius!
However, in the next second, just as she was about to imitate it with her Stand ´´Kiss´´, an unexpected event occurred!
The steel marble, which was shooting towards Rikiel, veered off its original trajectory just before it was about to hit.
Grazing his earlobe, it hit the rearview mirror of the motorcycle behind him.
"Crack--"
Glass shards splattered out, cutting several gashes on Rikiel's calf.
"Damn it!"
"You even had this marble trick up your sleeve? You almost succeeded!" Rikiel's expression was somewhat ferocious, and he simultaneously retreated several steps, "Twenty meters, right? I already know your attack range. You won't be able to get within twenty meters of me again!"
"Sky High!"
Countless flying rods obeyed his command, flying at extreme speed towards Kai Ishida's direction.
"Die! I'll use the flying rods to steal the body temperature from your brainstem!"
"As the control center of life, once the brainstem's body temperature is stolen and a lesion occurs, even if your Stand is Star Platinum, you won't be able to survive!"
"And don't think about stopping time to smash the flying rods that enter your range. The number of flying rods I can control can completely cover the gap after your time stop ends!"
"Now you have no chance of survival!"
Rikiel was confident of victory.
Under his control, countless flying rods had flown to within two meters of Kai Ishida.
However, at this moment, Kai Ishida seemed to have resigned himself to fate. Star Platinum stood behind Kai Ishida with full concentration, but showed no intention of stopping time.
"Kai Ishida!"
"Brother Kai Ishida!"
"Kai Ishida!!"
Jolyne Cujoh, Emporio, and Ermes all shouted when they saw this scene.
But with their eyesight, they couldn't even see the high-speed flying rods, let alone stop them.
However, just as the flying rods were less than one meter from Kai Ishida, a finger suddenly emerged from the swamp near the shore, aiming at Rikiel!
And this was the moment Kai Ishida had been waiting for!
"Time, stop flowing!"
The time stop ability activated instantly.
Then, Star Platinum's eyes sharpened, instantly locking onto the flying rods suspended in mid-air.
A fist powerful enough to shatter diamonds swung out fiercely.
"ora ora ora ora ora ora ora--"
"ora ora ora ora ora ora ora--"
In just one second, Kai Ishida struck down all the flying rods that entered his range.
Then Kai Ishida released the time stop.
"Time, resume flowing!"
The time stop ended.
Just as Rikiel had said, the flying rods that had not entered Star Platinum's range immediately filled the void.
At this very moment.
"Bang--"
A gunshot rang out!
A flash of blood instantly appeared from Rikiel's body.
"How... is this possible..."
Rikiel fell to the ground weakly.
In the swamp near the shore, F.F.'s figure also slowly emerged.
"Phew--"
"Nice work, F.F.!"
Kai Ishida breathed a sigh of relief, and the flying rods, having lost control, flew into the sky.
"Hey, the enemy is dealt with. You can come up now, and don't forget my body!" F.F. said.
She had left her original host body, and thus, through the characteristics of plankton, had quickly traversed the swamp.
"Don't worry!" Kai Ishida said with a smile.
At the same time, Star Platinum reached out and scooped F.F.'s body out of the swamp, then directly threw it towards F.F. on the shore.
"Alright!"
F.F. seeing this, directly leaped up, once again transforming into plankton, and re-entered the body.
Then she performed a backflip in the air, finally landing steadily.
"This body is still comfortable to use."
...Stand: Sky High
Ability: Controls flying rods, plunders the enemy's body temperature. Also, because Sky High's ability is ´´Control´´ rather than ´´Creation´´, even if the flying rods are destroyed, it cannot harm Rikiel, the Stand User.
Power: None
Speed: None
Range: B (within line of sight)
Durability: C
Precision: None
Development Potential: None