Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 269: Cat and Mouse

Boom!

Hundreds of flame bats condensed into a massive fireball and slammed into the building's window. The explosion sent chunks of reinforced concrete flying in every direction.

But Li Wei was already one step ahead. He tumbled into the fifteenth floor like a rolling gourd, ducked through a doorway, and vanished into a room.

An instant later, with a roar of fire, hundreds of flame bats swarmed onto the fifteenth floor and reformed into a human shape. The Flame Duke then shot forward like a cannonball, punching through three walls in a single charge — missing Li Wei by a hair.

But it was no good. Li Wei seemed to predict every move in advance. The very instant the Flame Duke came barreling at him like a runaway truck, he vaulted over a window ledge and dropped.

And as he fell, he even turned to give the Flame Duke a playful look.

In truth, he'd switched to the Tracker title — using it to lock onto the Flame Duke's life cores.

The Flame Duke's aura shifted. He dissolved into flame bats again and gave chase, visibly irritated.

But too bad.

Because in the next second, Li Wei had already slipped through a thirteenth-floor window, moving through the building like it was his own home — not a trace of hesitation — darting into another room.He wove through the corridors like a man navigating a maze.

The Flame Duke didn't bother transforming back to human form this time, trying to use the bat swarm for a faster pursuit. But flame bats couldn't smash through concrete walls — inside this building, that form was worse than useless. Better to just be a tank and punch through walls.

Either way, Li Wei found himself with time to spare for a few extra looks.

Powerful. Genuinely terrifying.

But precisely because the Flame Duke's aura was so intense — like a living bonfire — Li Wei could sense every fluctuation with perfect clarity. Bat form incoming? Human form incoming? It was obvious at a glance.

The complex terrain of the building helped too.

Within seconds, Li Wei had found his rhythm.

His agility was on full display. The entire building became his training ground — up and down, back and forth. His raw speed was inferior, but he could predict. That made all the difference.

The moment he sensed the Flame Duke about to dissolve into hundreds of bats, he stopped jumping and started weaving through rooms — because bats couldn't break through concrete. The moment he sensed the Duke about to resume human form, he jumped again.

Back and forth, over a dozen times. Each time, he switched to the Tracker title and scanned — and successfully locked onto three of the Flame Duke's life cores.

He suspected there was a fourth, buried deep, beyond his reach for now.

So it went — Li Wei and the Flame Duke played cat and mouse through the building for a full minute. Neither could do anything to the other.

Unless the Flame Duke tore the entire building down, he simply couldn't catch Li Wei. But Li Wei didn't dare step outside either — without this terrain, three seconds of exposure would be a death sentence. The Flame Duke would swat him like an insect.

Then, suddenly — the Flame Duke stopped.

He stood still. His flame-red hair drifted in the air. His blood-red eyes turned toward the base of the building.

Because Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi had arrived. Behind them: Thomas, Leon, Zhao Xuanxuan, Zhang Jinjun, He Yuying, and Julian — eight people in total.

Their appearance clearly provoked the Flame Duke. He felt threatened, and he was angry — his emotions were plain to read.

The culprit Li Wei was less than twenty meters above him. That distance meant nothing in normal circumstances. But the past minute — dozens of failed attempts — had proven that in this terrain, unless Li Wei ran completely out of stamina, he was uncatchable.

The man moved like a slippery eel.

Though that point was becoming moot.

"Are you here on the Frost Duke's orders to kill me? I knew this day would come. I know I'm losing control. But the Radiation Storm is approaching — what happens to the natural persons in the underground base? You haven't arranged any transport. You haven't made any provisions. You won't even talk to me?"

The Flame Duke spoke. His entire body glowed like a red-hot lobster — yet his words were entirely reasonable.

"It's not too late to talk now. But we're not from the Frost Duke. We have our own camp. You probably know who we are. We're sincere — we're willing to take in the natural persons and protect them. We even have ways to slow the rate of your deterioration."

Li Wei called down from above. He still wanted to try negotiating.

"Ha. So it's you lot — a bunch of outsider Ability Users who don't know their place. Then I'm afraid not. If the Frost Duke had sent people to take over my natural person survivors, that would be one thing. But you? You're not qualified. This Radiation Storm will be severe — I can feel it. You'll all die. Or you'll all become Radiation Zombies."

"Better to die by my hand. I'll hand the natural persons over to the Frost Duke myself."

The words had barely left his mouth when the Flame Duke launched himself into the air. Roaring flames erupted around him, forming a pair of blazing wings at his back — slowing his descent into a controlled glide. He swept down toward Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi like a falling comet.

Through Li Wei's senses, it looked like a massive fireball crashing to earth.

This was absolutely not a Five-Star Ability User. He had to be Six-Star. Or — no. Five-Star Plus. That had to be it.

In that instant, Li Wei only had time to see Liang Yuzhi let out a shout, raise her tower shield, and charge straight at the Duke. A strange radiance flared around her body as she took the full force of that terrifying blow head-on.

The next second, she and her shield were launched into the air together — two balls of fire. The Refined Steel Tower Shield had half-melted. Liang Yuzhi herself was flung dozens of meters away.

But almost simultaneously, Li Yue appeared — blue greatsword in hand, ghostlike in her speed — and drove a diagonal slash upward from the Duke's abdomen, splitting him clean in two.

But in that same moment, with a thunderous boom, the two halves of the Flame Duke's body dissolved into hundreds of fire bats and shot skyward.

Li Yue's strike had hit nothing. The Flame Duke's life cores could move — they weren't fixed in place. That alone made him far more dangerous than any Level 5 Magic Zombie they'd faced before.

But at that very moment — a bowstring snapped. A Three-Star Sniper Armor-Piercing Arrow came streaking down from the fourteenth floor, carrying tremendous force. The aim was a little off, though.

The Flame Duke didn't even register it as a threat.

But that was exactly the point.

Li Wei had set out two days early. He'd spent those days in nerve-wracking reconnaissance. He'd just spent a full minute playing cat and mouse in this building, running circles. All of it had been for this one moment.

The life cores. He had to lock onto the life cores.

Without that, even fighters of Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi's caliber couldn't do anything to the Flame Duke. The man could fly — that alone was a complete mismatch.

But then Adai burst out, and in the next instant became a streak of light — latching onto the Sniper Armor-Piercing Arrow like a terminal guidance system.

In a flash, the arrow was micro-corrected four times.

And in the space between lightning strikes, it locked onto one unremarkable bat among hundreds — and detonated it.

Boom!

The explosion shook the entire city. Flames scattered. Wind howled. The shockwave was the equivalent of a Force 12 gale.

Because Li Wei had just blown out one of the Flame Duke's life cores.

The hundreds of flame bats all vanished. With a crash, the Flame Duke's human form dropped to the ground — like a mass of living fire hitting the earth. Flames several meters high blazed across a radius of more than ten meters. The temperature exceeded one thousand degrees Celsius.

At the center of that inferno, the Flame Duke's body was changing.

But —

"Thomas!"

Li Yue's shout rang out. Before the sound had even faded, Thomas had already activated the City Builder title, raised the Refined Steel Tower Shield, and charged straight into the blaze like a small locomotive.

One hit — and he sent the Flame Duke's body flying out of the thousand-degree flames.

The next instant, Li Yue's figure blurred — crossing dozens of meters in a single motion — and her blue twin greatswords carved a devastating cross-shaped arc, splitting the Flame Duke's body into four pieces.

This time, the second life core was destroyed.

With a rushing sound, the Flame Duke's quartered body dissolved once more into over two hundred flame bats and shot skyward, vanishing into another building — reforming into human shape before Li Wei had any chance to snipe.

"You are all asking to die."

With those words, the Flame Duke's mouth opened — wider and wider — and emitted a strange, inaudible but deeply nauseating infrasonic pulse.

Then a rumbling filled the air from all directions. Hidden doors in the surrounding buildings were swinging open. Ability Users were pouring out in swarms.

How were there so many?

Wait — where was the Flame Duke?

Something's wrong.

A bad feeling flashed through Li Wei's mind. He sprinted down the stairs. Li Yue and the others converged at the base of the building — they were surrounded. Two or three hundred Ability Users. How had the Flame Duke assembled this many?

"Xiao Yue, we need to break out. The situation is getting out of hand!"

Li Wei's voice was low and urgent. Something felt deeply wrong — a sharp, pressing sense of danger at his back.

"Brother, there's no time. Auntie Liang is badly hurt..."

Li Yue's voice caught — but deep in her eyes burned nothing but excitement and exhilaration, like a woman who'd been born for war.

And Li Wei understood immediately. Not every battle came with favorable odds, perfect terrain, and ideal timing. Too many easy victories was its own kind of danger. Sometimes you had to cut your way out through blood.

The stronger the enemy, the more savage we become.

"Fine. Take Auntie Liang to the third floor. I'll hold here with the others."

Li Wei weighed it quickly and decided to trust Li Yue this once. He put away the Three-Star War Bow and drew the Bloodthirsty War Spear instead, taking up position at the building's entrance. The permanent defensive structures built into this spot — especially a concrete barrier wall that served as a screen — were a significant advantage. Two or three hundred Ability Users couldn't force their way through quickly.

In practice, more of them were climbing in through the third-floor windows — which was exactly why Li Wei had sent Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi up there.

The fight at the entrance had already begun.

Thomas anchored the line as before. He'd taken the full force of charging into a thousand-degree inferno to knock the Flame Duke clear — but the damage to him had been minimal. He stood at the center, deflecting fireballs, ice spears, and bone spikes one after another.

Leon held the left flank with his greatsword. Zhao Xuanxuan held the right with her hammer. Zhang Jinjun backed Leon, and Julian the Three-Star Butcher backed Zhao Xuanxuan as reserve.

He Yuying, the Four-Star Mountaineer, had been sent upstairs by Li Yue — the pressure on the third floor was actually greater.