One-Eyed Monster

Just as Igor was using the rebellion factor to defeat the entire Star Circus, Kadi and Clown Quinn were locked in a fierce battle.

Clown Quinn had never imagined that this blue guy could fight this well, launching attack after attack at him!

He’d always wanted to carefully figure this blue guy out. But this blue guy just wouldn’t give him any chance; he kept attacking and attacking, leaving Quinn almost no time to talk.

He could only express his intentions in bits and pieces, and this choppy way of talking watered down what he’d originally wanted to say!

Because his memory wasn’t that good, he’d always remember one thing and forget another. Every time he saw something special on this blue hobbyist’s body, he wanted to ask what that power was, but before he could get the words out, this blue guy changed up his attack pattern again.

Clown Quinn wasn’t afraid of this blue guy. After crossing hands a few times, he more or less had some understanding of him. This guy was a bit reckless, and when he fought, he was vicious, almost never leaving the enemy any openings.

This was a ruthless character, and his Circus needed exactly this kind of sharp operator. This guy was born a Soldier and an excellent assassin to boot—basically this blue guy was valuable from head to toe.

If he could bring this body back and match it with a Spirit Core, that would be a perfect killing machine!

Clown Quinn couldn’t help spacing out at the thought, even forgetting how he was supposed to subdue this blue guy.

He was too busy fantasizing about the future to really care about what was happening right in front of him.

That was because he had the strength to do so. No matter how unnaturally fast Kadi’s Butterfly Blades were, he could easily block them. You could say Kadi still hadn’t figured out what this guy’s attack style actually was, but that didn’t matter to Kadi. Whatever appeared in front of him, as long as it meant fighting, he’d throw himself at it without hesitation.

Kadi had always liked direct confrontation; he disdained those little tricks from behind.

Just like Quinn thought, this guy was born a Soldier; he only knew how to speak with his fists and weapons.

The Butterfly Blades whooshed through the air, eager to be the first to hack off some part of the enemy for their master. But the other side seemed to be made of iron walls and copper coins; the more ferociously they chopped, the more they were answered by a ping-ping-pong-pong of hard impacts.

Kadi unfolded his Devil’s Steps, trying to catch him off guard, but the opponent seemed to have countless eyes—no matter which angle he swung from, the other side blocked without the slightest hesitation.

Kadi was panting hard; the high-frequency attacks had burned through a lot of his stamina, yet the opponent was completely uninjured. Instead, he himself had been hit once or twice by those light wave attacks; the wounds weren’t serious, but the pain was very real.

In this brief pause in the fighting, Clown Quinn finally seized his chance: ”Why cling so stubbornly to attacking? Isn’t there anything we can’t sit down and talk about?”

Kadi thought, Talk your damn head off! and charged in again with his blades.

”You’re just making things worse for yourself, wasting energy like this!” Clown Quinn said kindly.

At the same time, Clown Quinn’s thick arms suddenly burst open, and with a tearing sound, countless thin, slender arms stretched out from his own.

Kadi froze; he’d never seen this kind of attack before—a single arm suddenly splitting into countless arms!

”A Clown’s job is to show weird things in the most exaggerated way. Take what’s in front of you—this Thousand Hands, for example!”

This was Clown Quinn’s first formal attack on Kadi; everything before had been improvised defense, not his real offensive.

Countless hands grabbed toward Kadi, like snakes flicking out their poisonous tongues!

Kadi deployed his Devil’s Steps to avoid those hands, but there were just too many of them; before he knew it, his foot had been caught.

With his foot seized, Kadi’s center of gravity went off; losing his balance, he pitched headfirst to the ground.

Seizing this opening, Quinn’s countless hands wrapped around him. His arms were grabbed, his waist was hugged—his whole body was immobilized.

”Well? Can you break free from my Thousand Hands?” One of Quinn’s arms still hadn’t moved; he’d subdued Kadi with just a single arm.

Kadi said nothing, focusing all his attention on thinking of a way out. The Butterfly Blades were no longer in his hands; he had to come up with something new.

”I think you’re a pretty good piece of raw material. Come back to the Circus with me. I can give you a makeover; becoming our number two combat power won’t be any problem at all.” Quinn started preaching earnestly; he, too, wanted to recruit Kadi.

Kadi still didn’t speak. He tried using brute force to break free, but the hands didn’t budge at all. Clearly his strength wasn’t enough to shatter the Thousand Hands’ restraints.

”I told you before, don’t make pointless struggles. Things that just waste time aren’t worth doing.”

Kadi didn’t listen to a word Quinn was saying. In his eyes there was only his own shortcomings, never someone else’s advantages or his own disadvantages. As far as he was concerned, if he couldn’t beat this Quinn, it just meant his strength hadn’t reached that level yet.

But Kadi refused to believe he couldn’t break Quinn’s restraints!

If he let the enemy’s very first attack subdue him, then that was all he amounted to. But if he surrendered and laid down his arms now, then he simply wasn’t fit to stand in this world. Dying was acceptable; admitting defeat was not!

Kadi was just that kind of stubborn guy. He would only admit defeat to people he admired, never to people he looked down on.

This Clown Quinn was someone he would never, ever yield to.

Forgetting himself like that was something he would never, ever approve of!

”I’m offering you a chance at rebirth!” Quinn continued to Bewitch him. In his view, anyone would be drawn to something like power.

That line happened to reach Kadi’s ears. He chuckled: ”Rebirth? You call this rebirth?”

”Any problem with that? I’ll have you standing up again, at the very top of this world!”

”If you have to forget who you are, you still call that rebirth? What a joke. I don’t need that kind of ’rebirth’!” Kadi shut his eyes, drawing in the surrounding Spirit Power; he was going to break this restraint.

The Thousand Hands, in the end, also relied on external Energy. Now Kadi was going to use external power to break this shackle.

He absorbed the Energy from the outside world, his whole body glowing with blue light, a light that seemed to contain a mighty force.

”A shabby rebirth like that—you can keep it for yourself. I don’t need it!” Kadi roared, his momentum soaring; his voice echoed again and again in the surroundings!