Chapter 421: The Power of Oni-faced Dragon
Chapter 421: The Power of Oni-faced Dragon
"Your arrogance is astounding!" the half-human, half-bear Oni exclaimed.
Despite this, he wasn\'t the first one to attack Adam.
It was always the dogs that didn\'t bark that had the strongest bite, and this applied to humans as well.
The first one to attack Adam was the monk. He quickly glided his finger over his string of Buddhist beads, and a curse mark instantly appeared on Adam\'s body. However, before the curse mark had a chance to take effect, Adam had already invoked and fused with Mummy.
In this form, he possessed immense technomantic resistance, and the curse mark completely vanished, having been absorbed by Mummy\'s bandages.
Right as Adam completed his transformation, the wolf-like Oni had already appeared behind him before slashing his claws across the back of Adam\'s neck. However, his attack was only able to raise a trail of sparks against Adam\'s bandages.
In terms of pure defensive prowess, Mummy was superior to Sludge, so an attack of this level posed no threat to him at all.
"It looks like you\'re not just all talk!"
The half-human, half-bear Oni also entered the fray upon seeing this. He took a deep breath, swelling to around seven to eight meters in height, then swung a huge paw directly toward Adam\'s head.
It was an attack that carried tremendous power, and Adam was swatted back a few steps, smashing straight through one of the water pipelines before managing to steady himself.
Just as I thought, the eight Onis are all on a similar level.
Having already withstood attacks from three of the four Onis present, Adam had developed an idea of their overall power.
The giant bear before him was roughly on par with a level five anomaly, and the other two Onis were also on a similar level, as had been the case for Oni no Hanzou and Oni no Miko.
Of course, given how experienced they were in practical combat as hitmen, anomalies of the same level would\'ve been no match for them.
However, no amount of experience or technical proficiency could overcome an insurmountable gulf in power.
"I think I may have overestimated all of you. You may all be top-tier hitmen, but ultimately, you\'re still hitmen. You\'re like rats crawling through sewage pipes, never able to see the light of day. If you were truly that powerful, then you wouldn\'t have gotten into this filthy line of work in the first place.
“Instead, you would\'ve become Lamp Keepers for the Guild of Immortality, and that would\'ve granted you more wealth, acclaim, immortality, and a more powerful backer, isn\'t that right?"
Adam\'s voice was full of mockery as he spoke, and he was completely looking down on the four Onis.
Never had they been insulted like this before.
During their missions, their victims were always completely at their mercy, cowering in fear and begging for their lives. No one dared to insult them like this.
Most importantly, Adam was speaking the truth. Insults were just words, but the truth was what truly hurt.
"How dare you!"
The samurai that had refrained from entering the battle this entire time finally made a move. It was clear that he was the most powerful one of the four Onis present, and with a slash of his sword, he was finally able to slice through some of Adam\'s bandages.
He\'s a little closer in power to Lamp Keepers than the others, but it\'s not gonna help him.
While the samurai was in his follow-through following his slash, Adam released his bandages to ensnare the samurai while lifting his crimson carving knife before plunging it viciously at his opponent.
The samurai raised his blade to parry the attack, but more and more bandages were binding around him.
The other Onis wanted to help him, but Adam invoked Sludge to stop them in their tracks.
"I don\'t want to waste time on small fry like you, so do me a favor and die!"
Adam plunged his carving knife into the samurai\'s body, and blood began to gush forth before being absorbed by the hilt of the knife, along with the samurai\'s life force.
However, before Adam could put an end to his opponent\'s life, Oni-faced Dragon finally made a move.
Adam didn\'t even see what Oni-faced Dragon did. All he felt was a blur flash before his eyes, and all of the bandages around the samurai were severed, while Mummy\'s carving knife had also been snapped.
Oni-faced Dragon had already lost two powerful subordinates, so he naturally wasn\'t willing to let Adam kill any more of the Onis.
These elite hitmen were vital to the operation of his hitman organization. After all, how many missions could he possibly take on himself?
"Very impressive. You\'re a bit more powerful than what the information provided to me by the southern congress suggests. You\'re certainly far more powerful than when I saw you last time, and it\'s incredible that you\'re able to take on all four of them at once and still gain the upper hand."
Oni-faced Dragon was very liberal with his praise toward Adam, but he was still speaking in the condescending tone that an adult would use with a child.
Adam knew that even up to this point, Oni-faced Dragon still didn\'t see him as a threat, and that was exactly what he needed.
.
"There aren\'t many missions these days that require my personal intervention, so you should feel honored!"
As Oni-faced Dragon was speaking, he sprang directly toward Adam, moving so quickly that Adam could barely see him.
Before he knew it, a deep gash that reached all the way down to his bones had appeared on his body.
His speed is close to Hebi no Miko\'s, but his power is far lacking in comparison.
Adam was assessing Oni-faced Dragon\'s power while inspecting his own wound.
He certainly didn\'t dare to underestimate an opponent of this caliber, and that was why he was holding back his trump card even at this point.
He couldn\'t? find any information on Oni-faced Dragon on the internet, but in his opinion, Oni-faced Dragon had to have been roughly on the same level as May.
By his estimates, they were on the same level, but Oni-faced Dragon most likely wasn\'t as strong as May.
Up to this point, Adam had only seen around six or seven beings on the same level as May. They were Oni-faced Dragon, May herself, Renee, Sadou, Wax Figure, the angel of death, Raven, and Succubus Beth, the last of whom he hadn\'t yet met.
Even though they were on the same level, there was still a significant gap in combat prowess between them.
If Adam had to rank them in order, he felt like the most powerful ones out of this group were Renee and Sadou, followed by May. After that, the angel of death, Succubus Beth, and Raven were probably about equal. Then came Wax Figure, which made Oni-faced Dragon the weakest of the bunch.
This was a judgment that Adam had made based on the attitude that he had displayed toward Sadou the last time the two had encountered one another.
However, this hierarchy was by no means guaranteed to be objectively correct, and sometimes, power wasn\'t the only decisive factor in battles.
For example, the angel of death was inferior to May in terms of absolute power, but its abilities allowed it to dominate May in battle.
Another example would be Beth. Her effect on men could potentially allow her to defeat Sadou, but it would\'ve been very difficult for her to beat May.
Hence, this was a rather complicated matter, and there was no way to predict the outcomes of certain battles unless they actually took place.
Having absorbed the anomalic power of the angel of death, Adam had reached this level as well, and there was only one way to find out whether he could defeat Oni-faced Dragon in battle.
Oni-faced Dragon continued to flash through the air, and Adam was unable to track his opponent, but the wounds on his body were constantly increasing in number.
Oni-faced Dragon was toying with him like a cat playing with a mouse, and all Adam could do was passively defend.
"Is this the extent of your powers? I used to think you had to be a decent threat, given how much trouble you\'ve caused the southern congress, but it seems like your deeds fail to back up your words."
"Is that right?"
Adam raised his head, and after taking so many consecutive blows, he was finally able to catch a glimpse of his opponent. He immediately invoked Distortion, which instantly appeared behind Oni-faced Dragon thanks to its Shadow Strike ability, and it simultaneously unleashed its Physical Shackles and Spiritual Shackles abilities to immobilize him on the spot.