Although it was clear that two of the three women were mere illusions, the two phantoms were so perfectly real that it was impossible to spot any flaw unless one paid close attention. But in the heat of battle, there was no time for such careful observation.
The three massive hammers were coming at him fast, leaving Xumu with only two options: either he could use the "Unyielding like a Mountain" defense to absorb the strikes, or he could take the chance—one in three—that he could land a full-on attack on one of the women.
"Dammit! Which one is real?"
The three hammers were almost upon him. In the end, Xumu couldn't bring himself to take the desperate risk. The "Unyielding like a Mountain" defense could just barely withstand a few of the women's terrifyingly powerful blows, but if he guessed wrong and attacked the wrong one, even his enhanced body wouldn't survive a blow from a hammer that could rival a "Zero Eruption."
Boom!
Two of the hammers passed through his head and feet like phantoms, while the real hammer, with the force of a sweeping army, slammed into Xumu's abdomen. His entire body was jolted violently, and he was sent flying like a car crashing into him at full speed. He crashed through several trees, some as thick as a bowl, before finally coming to a stop. Broken branches and leaves nearly covered his entire body.
"Hey? This guy is tough! It's been a while since I had this much fun!" The woman seemed to get more excited, twirling her hammer in the air before charging at Xumu again, with her two phantoms following closely behind.
"Fengfeng, that's enough! Don't kill him!" The man, seeing the woman getting a bit too wild, quickly called out from behind her.
"Shut up! I know what I'm doing!" The woman casually shot back, but her hands didn't slacken in the slightest.
Dammit! Is this how I'm going to be worn down by her?
After the brief exchange, Xumu could already feel that the woman chasing him was indeed a fragment user of the Doomsday variety, but her enhancement was somewhat singular. Aside from a long-handled war hammer, which was likely a manifestation of a yellow fragment, she also had an illusion technique that created two phantoms, and a typical red fragment-enhanced body.
What was most obvious, however, was that despite the woman's quick reactions, she seemed to have no enhancements in her neural reflex speed. Under high-speed attacks, she was noticeably unable to keep up with Xumu's pace. She was only relying on the reach of her war hammer and her terrifying strength to keep him under pressure.
But this simple enhancement, when linked together, created a synergistic effect that was greater than the sum of its parts. Even with twelve Doomsday fragments enhancing him, Xumu still felt a sense of frustration, as he couldn't find a way to break through her defenses.
Dammit! Without those damn illusions, this woman wouldn't be such a problem! And there's that man lurking in the distance, watching carefully. The constant threat to his life made it hard for him to focus on the woman!
Wait! Why is it only this woman fighting me? My strength is about the same as hers. Doesn't the man worry I might pull out some hidden trick and counterattack?
Could it be...
A sudden realization hit Xumu. He seemed to have figured out the key to it. Though he wasn't fully sure yet, he knew that in battle, hesitation was a luxury no one could afford.
"Come on! I want to see how long your strange defense can hold up against my Earthsplit Hammer!"
The three figures merged and scattered again, resuming their pincer attack strategy. The woman seemed to have completely figured out that Xumu couldn't discern her true form. She swung her hammer with more and more ease, putting full strength into her blow, ready to deliver the final, decisive strike.
"Do you think I can't tell which one is the real you?" Xumu suddenly spoke, surprising the woman, and causing her attack to slow just a bit. This was his chance!
He swiftly slid out from the narrow gap on the side of the woman's attack path, his USP pistol drawn, and fired several shots directly at her.
"Useless! You think you can just figure out my true form this easily?" Two bullets passed through the illusions and flew out, but the real woman only shifted half a meter to the side, dodging the shots effortlessly. She was about to pursue Xumu again when she suddenly heard the man behind her shout urgently, "Fengfeng, be careful!"
"What?"
The woman, sensing something was off, turned instinctively toward the man, only to see him tumbling to the ground in a very awkward manner. A faint gunshot wound was visible on the tree next to him.
Shit! The woman realized immediately that their little trick had been exposed. She tried to retreat, but it was too late. Xumu, already closing in on her, was less than two meters away. A blue light flared, like a meteor falling from the sky, rapidly expanding before her eyes!
Zero Eruption!
The sound of a heavy metallic crash rang in everyone's ears. The woman only managed to barely block the blow with her hammer, but the sheer force of the attack sent her flying, her body twisting in the air before crashing into a large tree. She coughed up blood as the hammer flew out of her hands.
"Fengfeng!"
The man, seeing the woman injured, immediately rushed toward her, disregarding everything else. Xumu, not wanting any further surprises, quickly moved in, placing the sharp fingers of his "Demon's Hand" on the woman's throat, his left hand aiming the USP pistol at the approaching man.
"Don't move!"
The man immediately froze, raising his hands in surrender, shouting, "Friend, please... don't misunderstand! We really mean no harm!"
"No harm? If I hadn't figured out your illusion ability, I'd probably be lying on the ground right now!" Xumu sneered coldly.
Xumu had felt something was off earlier. Why was it that even though the woman had no absolute advantage over him, the man still hadn't intervened? At first, he thought the man was waiting for an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow, but soon realized the man's focus was entirely on the woman, not on Xumu himself.
Thinking back to the strange dizziness he'd felt when the battle began, he made a bold guess: The man, despite seemingly watching from a distance, had likely been involved in the battle from the start. His involvement was almost certainly through the two illusions of the woman!
Based on this guess, Xumu had fired blindly at the real woman while also testing the man with a shot. Sure enough, as the man fell to the ground to dodge the bullet, the two women's illusions began to distort and disintegrate.
Once he figured out their ace in the hole, the battle was no longer a threat. Without the illusions to protect her, the woman had no way of resisting Xumu's final "Zero Eruption." With the woman out of the way, the man had no combat skills and was left helpless against Xumu.
"Please don't hurt him... It was my idea. I just wanted to test whether you're a martial arts expert or another Doomsday fragment user like us... but... he's right. We really mean no harm."
Perhaps because the hammer had absorbed most of the impact from the "Zero Eruption," and thanks to her enhanced physical body, the woman wasn't as severely injured as expected. After stabilizing her internal injuries, she was able to speak again.
Her tone was sincere, and the fact that she hadn't shown any murderous intent during the fight made Xumu hesitate. But he didn't lower his guard. After a moment of thought, he asked, "Why are you so sure I'm a Doomsday fragment user? Don't tell me it's just curiosity or because you're lonely and seeking others like you. I won't buy such a foolish reason. If you don't have a reasonable explanation, don't even think about leaving here alive!"
"Calm down! I'll explain!" The man, still concerned for the woman's safety, calmed Xumu down before wiping a cold sweat from his brow. "The thing is, we just wanted to know if you're a Doomsday fragment user so we could recruit you and earn an introduction fee... My girlfriend and I are both law-abiding citizens. We've never even killed a chicken in our lives. We'd never do anything like robbing or killing."