Chapter 2269 - Hammered from All Sides
"It's definitely the power of order! Even though it's weak and not worth mentioning, it can't be mistaken for anything else! I'm no fool!" Shuntian Bohan said. His heptastar cosmic physique had great resistance to orders, which made it so that he still had the advantage even though he was being suppressed by the strands of order from three of Tianming's beasts.
Meanwhile, Tianming felt a mountainous weight on him that made it hard for him to breathe. Shuntian Bohan seemed able to take the orders well, despite how weird that was.
"While it still feels horrible, it's much better than when I faced off against Lin Jianxing two years ago. I couldn't move a smidge back then, but now I can at least resist!" Those results encouraged Tianming even more. He could finally fight back against astral gods! Even when it was the orders of his lifebound beasts that did most of the heavy lifting, his astralforce had still grown enough to be able to protect his albi from the enemy's order.
When he moved his body, countless ghastly snaps echoed out. It felt like all of his joints and bones were locked up. That was a symptom of being restricted by order. It was like Tianming was subsumed within Shuntian Bohan's divine domain. Thankfully, Ying Huo and the rest formed a little bubble of their own within that domain.
"Not bad. You're able to move while restricted by my order without a heptastar cosmic body by relying on your fake order. Most stellaminors would only be able to kneel and beg for their lives." Shuntian Bohan had to reevaluate Tianming's capabilities.
"You flatter me," Tianming said.
"Kneel my ass! Sissy, punch me if you dare! You piece of trash, your attacks don't even work well as a backscratcher!" Ying Huo snapped, perched on top of Tianming.
"Heh." Shuntian Bohan no longer bothered saying anything after the initial surprise when he had felt their orders. Once more, the heavy power of his order bore down on them. The weight of countless mountains was stacked atop Tianming, who felt a sustained pressure from all sides in all his organs. While Shuntian Bohan looked soft, he was actually a demonic fighter of pure, brute force!
He drew his weapon. Unsurprisingly, it was a cosmic artifact that would easily be worth more than fifty thousand merit points in the Lin Clan. It was a gigantic hammer with a hilt of about two meters long. Unlike normal round hammerheads, it was rectangular and contained a black cosmic impulse. The dark sheen within made the gigantic hammer look like an agglomeration of a hundred thousand mountains. Its name was Cardinal Weight, and its cosmic impulse was called the Falling Mass Impulse. Tianming had learned all that from Yin Chen's incredible information gathering abilities, piecing together everything it heard.
Shuntian Bohan and his five tiny shuntian ants charged toward Tianming in a rage. While the ants were tiny, their abilities were still powerful—all of them used Shuntian Subterra. As the battlefield that surrounded them was mostly rock and dirt, the ants could freely control it, being earth-aspect beasts. They had a huge advantage here. All kinds of spiked rocks formed as a result of their power, manifesting to the point that the ants themselves were no longer visible. Rocks burst apart and shot toward Tianming!
"I'm coming!" The cat on his shoulder jumped to the ground and unleashed countless lightning bolts that proceeded to explode. Flames from Ying Huo's abilities blended together with the lightning, spreading out with Tianming at the center. It didn't take long before the flames and lightning bolts sent the rocks formed by Shuntian Subterra flying, completely changing the appearance of the landscape around him.
Even so, Tianming still felt a strong threat. "Over there!" The next instant almost stopped his heart. Before he knew it, a shuntian ant had appeared in front of him, shooting toward his chest like an arrow. It could very well directly pierce through him with how hard its body was!
"I love eating ants!" Ying Huo quickly reacted and used its wings as a sword to execute Blazebane, Cosmic Blade. The ant shot it a glance, applying a powerful order as heavy as the earth beneath them on Ying Huo, who countered with its burning infernal order. While its order was weaker, its sharp wings were, quite literally, an edge!
The bird and ant clashed with full force right in front of Tianming. Ying Huo shrieked as it was sent ramming into Tianming with such force that his body felt like it was about to fall apart. However, the shuntian ant was also completely alight with flame and smashed to the ground, covered in cuts and having lost two legs thanks to Ying Huo's Blazebane attack, which was enhanced by its own order and Ji Ji's. Thanks to Ji Ji, the mouthy bird was barely able to hold its own against a single ant.
The ant that fell to the ground immediately got back up and charged at Tianming again like a freakish monster. And before he had even managed to catch a breather, the other ants did the same. Even then, the biggest threat he had to deal with was Shuntian Bohan, who came attacking from above.
He looked up and saw the freakishly powerful, yet feminine Shuntian Bohan waving a huge warhammer with his dainty arms, his waist-long hair fluttering around. Then came the suppression of order. As a beastmaster, his order was incredibly powerful, as was his cosmoforce. Tianming once more experienced the power of an astral god.
"This is too much!" He quickly reacted, using his nine Prime Cosmic Rings to help Ying Huo and Meow Meow block the attacks from the ants. Two of them were so insanely powerful that they managed to break the rings that tried constricting them! Right after that, Shuntian Bohan's attack was about to land. There seemed to be no evading, only forcefully defending against it!
"Goooo!" Tianming mustered all the astralforce he had and used both of his cosmic impulses. Fire and lightning covered his twin swords, sparking explosive chain reactions. He had to counter with a faster move, so he used Grandvoid Compendium, Delayed Capture! It was a strike that looked simple, but allowed him to instantly attack his enemy. He wanted to thrust his sword through the huge hammer to take out his enemy in one hit, but alas, Shuntian Bohan was very agile. The weight of his order had also caused Tianming's strike to lose speed.