If not for the protection of the King of the Abyss Battle Armor, the tiger-man's very first punch would have drawn blood from Yu Xian.
The tiger-man's opening blitz was remarkably powerful. Yu Xian had emerged unscathed only because Muse had reinforced the King of the Abyss Battle Armor to an absurd degree of hardness. As for why the clash hadn't wreaked catastrophic destruction upon the Primordial Water, that was entirely thanks to the surrounding black substance dispersing the shockwaves across all the dark matter coating the warship.
Otherwise, the mere shockwave from that collision of fists between Yu Xian and the tiger-man would have wrecked massive amounts of machinery within the vessel. A few more exchanges like that, and the hull might very well have snapped clean in half.
"Let me," Niman spoke up at that moment.
In truth, Yu Xian possessed many abilities, but Niman had seen from the recent clash that he couldn't anticipate the tiger-man's attacks. As a result, he couldn't bring his abilities to bear in time.
Simply put, many of his powers had never been drilled to the point of instinctive command, flowing as naturally as fingers following thought, while his Super Brain lacked the time to analyze the tiger-man's moves. That was why he had been suppressed.
Otherwise, against Yu Xian's sheer, bewildering array of abilities, the tiger-man wouldn't hold any advantage at all.
The King of the Abyss Battle Armor shifted forms. Niman looked toward the tiger-man with a slight smile, crooking her finger to beckon it forward.
Evidently, the tiger-man had no intention of obliging her casually.
It accelerated instantly, alternating between sudden bursts and pauses, weaving left and right as it charged ahead to throw a punch straight at Niman.
Faced with this strike, Niman's response was simple: a mushroom sprouted beneath her feet, instantly thrusting her upward so that the tiger-man's fist slammed directly into the fungal stalk.
The mushroom grew at astonishing speed, and Niman was just as fast.
Having already anticipated the beast's movements, she somersaulted down from the mushroom's cap the moment its fist struck, planting a kick right into the back of the tiger-man's head.
Boom!
The tiger-man smashed right through the mushroom ahead and collapsed heavily to the ground. Yet it didn't lie flat; instead, it propped itself up with both hands and whipped its legs backward toward Niman.
This scorpion-tail kick was equally futile. Niman had no intention of pressing her advantage. Instead, she backed away while leisurely conjuring more mushrooms, the entire process so effortless it hardly differed from taking a stroll.
"Never let an opponent dictate the rhythm—you have to draw them into your own," she told the others as she produced more mushrooms.
The tiger-man flipped up from the ground and leaped into the air. Spinning like a wheel midair, it kicked off a black 'stalactite' hanging from the ceiling and shot toward Niman.
"That's a feint," Niman said to Yu Xian and the others as she stepped to the left.
Sure enough, just as the tiger-man closed in on where Niman had been standing, its tail swept against the floor. Much like the ape monster earlier, it used its tail to redirect itself, instantly ricocheting back and forth across the corridor countless times before lunging straight for the back of Niman's head.
Yet Niman had already deduced its landing point. With a turn and a casual step to the left, she easily evaded the tiger-man's punch. At the same time, another mushroom shot up, its cap driving right into the tiger-man's abdomen.
Boom!
Like a massive fist, the mushroom thrust the tiger-man straight into the ceiling, slamming it violently against the surface.
"How did you know that move was a feint?" Yu Xian asked curiously.
He hadn't seen through it at all, yet Niman had made the judgment the moment the creature launched its attack.
"The mushrooms. I blocked off many of its attack angles with mushrooms, and it noticed them on the ground, so it wouldn't attack head-on. Remember the mushroom that blocked its punch earlier? That meant it would try to mislead me and strike from an opening I deliberately left behind. And that was precisely the outcome I wanted," Niman explained with a faint smile.
Nora said earnestly, "I get it now. That's what Niman meant by bringing the enemy into your rhythm rather than falling into theirs."
"Exactly. Though this approach only works when the gap in strength isn't huge. Besides, if you run into an opponent far more experienced than yourself, it's very hard to draw them into your rhythm. In that case, you have to win through surprise," Niman nodded.
In any battle, there was no such thing as a guaranteed victory.
Niman was merely sharing some of her experience with the group. Furthermore, while the tiger-man was formidable, its abilities were exceedingly straightforward. It couldn't even breach the King of the Abyss Battle Armor's defense, making it perfect for a demonstration.
"Roar!"
At that moment, the tiger-man pinned against the ceiling let out a roar.
Bracing against the mushroom, its body spun violently as its tiger claws gouged massive rents into the fungal cap. Breaking free from the torn flesh, it clamped onto a nearby black 'stalactite' and glared down at Niman.
"Niman, let me take over. I want to try again," Yu Xian spoke up.
Smiling slightly, Niman immediately swapped places with Yu Xian, and the King of the Abyss Battle Armor resized back to Yu Xian's proportions.
"Come on, let's continue," Yu Xian said earnestly, looking up at the tiger-man.
Truth be told, his fighting style had never had much rhythm to speak of; most of the time, he relied on overwhelming abilities or raw stats. Finesse was something he rarely needed to draw upon.
The tiger-man coiled its tail around the 'stalactite' it clung to, then kicked off the ceiling with sudden force. The black 'stalactite' snapped on the spot, and in that split second, the creature whipped its tail, hurling the 'stalactite' like an artillery shell straight toward Yu Xian.
Yu Xian hadn't actually predicted the tiger-man's plan, but he had ideas of his own.
In truth, Niman had been mistaken about one detail: it wasn't that he couldn't command his abilities like an extension of his own limbs, but rather that he hadn't realized the interior of the Primordial Water was already considered part of the Abyss.
His smoothest, most practiced ability was the spatial bubble, but spatial bubbles functioned poorly within the Abyss, proving extraordinarily difficult to manifest.
To put it into perspective, using a spatial bubble in a normal world was like blowing up a balloon on land, whereas using it in the Abyss was more akin to trying to blow up a balloon deep underwater.
That was the real reason he hadn't been able to bring his abilities into play in time.
Of course, the initial ambush had genuinely caught him off guard, and he truly hadn't reacted quickly enough then.
The main issue was that no human could keep their brain running at peak overdrive indefinitely. Outside of combat, Yu Xian's reaction speed wasn't anything absurd; only after entering a combat state did it surge, and the extent of that surge depended on his focus.
For instance, right now, he had completely adapted to the tiger-man's speed, and his own reaction time had caught up.
Coating his fist in True Crimson Power and bolstering it with immense strength, he shattered the black stalactite with a single punch. A golden rope then appeared in his hand. As he whipped the golden rope, countless Heavenly Golden Feathers shot toward the tiger-man like flying daggers.
If spatial bubbles didn't work well here, he would simply use other abilities. He had plenty to spare.
Chapter 295