Derik and his team, now standing in front of Lin Sanjiu, acted totally different from 30 minutes ago.
"Where is that boy? Derik asked while he smirked, showing the upper left row of his teeth. His voice was as gentle and amiable as before, but there was a hint of insanity on his ugly face. Lin Sanjiu didn't know why she didn't notice that before. There was something about the color of his eyes that made people uneasy. It was as if an artist had accidentally left a splotch of ink on his canvas. The color was uneven, too dark in some spots and too light in others, making it uncomfortable for someone to look at him for too long.
Rena and Lin Sanjiu did not reply but responded by going into their fighting stances.
"Hehe," Zhu Mingchun chuckled. His slow-witted expression was long gone from his face. He narrowed his eyes while cruelty dripped from his words as he said, "Brother Derik, they probably hid him nearby. Let me look for that brat?"
Hannie Huang, standing beside him, gave him a sidelong glance. Her red lips curled as if she were sneering at him or showing disdain.
Derik didn't even turn to look at him. Using a tone as if discussing a prey, Derik seemed to ignore the presence of the two enemies in front of him, "Okay. But, you have to bring him back alive. As for the other conditions, you should already know."
Rena turned pale with fury. She had to hold on to the sides of her dress to keep her hands from trembling. Zhu Mingchun accepted Derik's condition and raced in the direction opposite where Lin Sanjiu and Rena were facing. Rena, who had been eyeing him, immediately sprung into action. She followed in the same direction and leaped up. Then, she attacked Zhu Mingchun with her [No depiction of body parts below the neck].
"You left your back exposed!" Hannie laughed sharply while her boots clicked noisily against the ground. Her nails, painted with red polish, flashed as she swooshed in and reached for Rena's back with her hand.
However, there was someone by her side. Obviously, Lin Sanjiu wouldn't let her get her way. Lin Sanjiu turned her body and threw her arm toward Hannie in a sweeping direction. Her chest muscles moved, showing her white bones.
Unexpectedly, Hannie did not back away even after seeing that Lin Sanjiu was targeting her throat. Instead, she stretched open her fingers and continued trying to reach for Rena's back. Before Lin Sanjiu could process her confusion, she heard a sound of moving air from behind her. She pulled her arm back and lowered her head. A shadow of a ball-like object flew past the back of her head. A chain-like shadow shook, and Derik pulled the ball-like object back to him. That was Derik's weapon, a meteor hammer. The metal chain was as thick as a person's thigh, and a heavy metal ball was attached.
Apparently, Rena had also sensed the danger behind her. She had no choice but to abandon chasing after Zhu Mingchun and jump aside to avoid Hannie's attack. This all happened in a blink of an eye. Then, Zhu Mingchun tripped and fell heavily to the ground.
The first exchange between the two groups ended in a tie.
Zhu Mingchun, who had fallen, seemed only to care about catching Reno. He rolled aside and leaped up again, showing no sign of fighting back. Before Rena could catch up with him, she had already lost the opportunity. Hannie and Derik chased after her and Lin Sanjiu like haunting spirits. With that, Rena and Lin Sanjiu could only watch helplessly as Zhu Mingchun disappeared into the building behind them.
Lin Sanjiu exchanged a glance with Rena, who was beside her. They decided not to be bothered by Zhu Mingchun and instead focused on their opponents.
"Oh, aren't you going to chase him?" Derik flashed his one-sided smile again and said gently, "Both of you are pretty confident about that boy's hiding spot."
Lin Sanjiu eyed Derik coldly. She didn't have the mood to hear his bullshit. She flew into the air with a single thought and swooped down, targeting him. Her Higher Consciousness form had no weight, so her movements were so fast that no one could react. For Derik, this was his first time fighting with such an opponent. He thought he had already prepared himself fully for this fight, but everything happened in a blur. Before he could even defend himself, Lin Sanjiu had already appeared before him.
Next, he felt a sudden massive blow to his chin. The force of the blow was so strong that it felt like his chin had been pounded into his skull. He was struck so hard that for a moment, he only felt a numbness and nothing else. Derik only felt the full age when the force flung him sideways in the air. He realized that he had bitten half his tongue and broke about five teeth. Pain radiated through his nasal cavity and mouth as he started bleeding. For a second, even his vision was blurred.
Lin Sanjiu did not even pause for a second, lunging at him. Scanning with her Higher Consciousness, she saw that Rena and Hannie were busy fighting. Lin Sanjiu did not have to worry about Rena for the time being. It was more important for her to finish off the little person in front of her.
The strength of her first punch was comparable to a collision with an oncoming train. If a normal person had been hit by that, he might even be decapitated. However, Derik only sustained some injuries. When Lin Sanjiu rushed toward him again, he dodged nimbly and attacked her with his meteor hammer.
Frankly speaking, his attack was swift and powerful. The weight of the metal ball itself was already quite impressive. Whipping it around using the chain created an even stronger centrifugal force. From the wooshing sound it made, it was almost as if the wind it generated could push someone to the ground. Lin Sanjiu jumped into the air and just stayed afloat. Though the chain of the meteor hammer was about five to six meters, it simply crashed heavily to the ground. When it hit the ground, it stirred up much dirt and dust.
Even though he had spotted Lin Sanjiu and the siblings flying in the air while he was on the rooftop, he had always assumed they were using some flying device. It didn't even cross Derik's mind once that this strange being that seemed to be made of flesh and muscles could fly at will, moving deftly like a duoluozhong.
After training her Higher Consciousness for a long time, Lin Sanjiu finally realized the benefits of being in a Higher Consciousness form in battle. Calling it a cheat wasn't even an exaggeration. Her Higher Consciousness felt faint, ephemeral when she was just a brain. She was like a column of smoke that Rena could not even touch. However, after her training, her Higher Consciousness was so dense that it appeared solid and tangible. Not only did her strength increase tenfold, but she also retained her previous spirit-like attributes. For example, when Derik suddenly threw an egg-like object he had crushed in his hand, Lin Sanjiu instantly felt a weight on her shoulders. It was as if she was crushed by a thousand mountains. If the item was used on another posthuman, that person could only use their physical strength to resist the downward pressure exerted by the item if they didn't want to get squished to bits, and that was while fighting off Derik's sneak attacks. However, Lin Sanjiu did not have such a worry.
She relaxed briefly, and that invisible weight squished her into a flat sheet. Yet, before Derik could smile, she had already squeezed herself out from under that invisible "mountain range." The function of that item, which created that invisible weight, was to flatten a person. Since Lin Sanjiu had successfully been flattened, the item lost its effect. Once Lin Sanjiu exited from under it, she regained her original form unharmed.
[Weight of Mt. Taishan] was an extremely pricey Special Item from the Twelve Worlds Centrum. Just like that, Derik wasted that item, and his face twitched from that loss. Then, he suddenly looked in another direction.
When Lin Sanjiu wondered why he had not used his active ability, she saw the LP suddenly running away. He even left his weapon on the ground while he ran into the bank building as if he had been frightened out of his wits.
"That's some bad acting," Lin Sanjiu grumbled. After getting Mrs. Manas to help her monitor her scanned surroundings, Lin Sanjiu quickly chased after the man. "Obviously, that jerk has a plan up his sleeves."
However, no matter what, she wasn't afraid. In fact, Lin Sanjiu was eager to see Derik's desperate face after he exhausted all his tricks.
Lin Sanjiu pushed open the main door of the building with her body and rushed into the lobby. When she reached it, the lights in the entire bank building suddenly switched off with a click. Darkness enveloped her surroundings. The effectiveness of her Higher Consciousness scanning was also affected. It took a few seconds before she could gradually see the outlines of her surroundings from the scanned image in her mind.
There was total silence around her. Nothing moved even after some time. However, Lin Sanjiu clearly sensed that Derik had already activated his ability.