Six-Eyed Flying Fish

"Keep it up!" "As long as you don't give up, no one can stop you!" "Fight on! Your conviction is your greatest weapon! Go, go, go, go, gooooo!" The closer Luo Wei and his companions drew to the forest, the denser the sounds of combat grew. At the same time, the voice previously masked by the clashes became increasingly distinct—it was Yu Xian shouting at the top of his lungs. The members of the Hero Party exchanged bewildered looks and pressed forward. A moment later, they spotted a robot wielding a frying pan lightsaber, locked in fierce combat with a humanoid monster clad in heavy armor. Their blades clashed relentlessly, laying waste to the surrounding grass and trees wherever they struck. Meanwhile, Yu Xian stood behind the robot, waving a pair of cheering pom-poms in his hands as he cheered the machine on without pause. "Isn't that the Cheering Robot Lord Newton mentioned?" Carmen asked, completely baffled. With combat power this absurd, what part of it was supposed to be a cheering robot? "Precisely!" Yu Xian replied. "As the ancients said: 'He who cheers others on shall constantly be cheered on by others!' "The Cheering Robot embodies this principle perfectly. It can cheer us on to boost our morale, and in turn, we can cheer it on to boost its morale. "And the higher its morale, the greater its combat power!" Yu Xian shook the pom-poms vigorously as he explained this to the group. Although he was wearing a massive bull head that concealed his facial expressions, the Hero Party felt an inexplicable instinct: this bull was spouting absolute nonsense with a completely straight face. "Come on! Let's cheer for the Cheering Robot together to give it even more power!" Yu Xian could not have cared less what they thought. In the next breath, he whipped out several pairs of cheering pom-poms, shoved them directly into the hands of Luo Wei and the others, and urged them to join in. Caught between reluctance and peer pressure, the group was swept along by Yu Xian into shouting encouragement for the Cheering Robot. "Louder! Keep it up!" "Keep... keep it up..." "Don't hesitate, don't doubt! Come on, shout with me!" Urged on by Yu Xian's booming voice, Luo Wei and the others had no choice but to chant along. Sure enough, as everyone cheered together, the lightsaber in the robot's hands expanded from the thickness of a staff to that of a carrying pole! "How is this possible?! Gaining power from such childish nonsense?!" The armored monster—who had possessed almost no presence up to this point despite being the robot's opponent—roared in sheer disbelief at the sight. In the next instant, it seemed to enter an empowered state. Its body began to swell, dense cracks spread across its armor, and three pairs of eyes lit up beneath its helmet. "That's..." Luo Wei's pupils constricted sharply. The other members of the Hero Party grew equally grim, for they all recognized this armored monster. Beneath the Calamity Demonic Dragon served the Four Heavenly Kings, and beneath them were the Twelve Demon Generals. The armored monster before them was none other than one of those Twelve Demon Generals: Six-Eyed Flying Fish! Shattering its armor, Six-Eyed Flying Fish revealed its true appearance. He had come specifically to ambush the Hero Party, which was why he had concealed his true form beneath heavy armor. He had intended to deliver a crushing blow once they let their guard down, only to run into Yu Xian instead. "If that's how it is, then I'll defeat you fair and square!" Six-Eyed Flying Fish's six eyes radiated crimson light, his fanged maw exposed as he let out a furious, guttural growl. His true form resembled a fishman—specifically, one derived from a manta ray. The only difference was his six eyes, which possessed only blood-red whites without pupils. Likely due to unleashing his true form, his strength and speed surged explosively. Brandishing a greatsword, he traded blows back and forth with the Cheering Robot. "Quick, let's cheer on the Cheering Robot together!" Yu Xian barked. Snapping back to their senses, Luo Wei and the others immediately shouted encouragement for the Cheering Robot at the top of their lungs. The robot, which had previously been evenly matched with Six-Eyed Flying Fish, grew faster and stronger with every cheer, battering the demon general into a steady retreat. "So strong!" Luo Wei muttered in shock, watching Six-Eyed Flying Fish get blasted back hundreds of meters by a single slash from the Cheering Robot. "This is the power of our bond, ya hear!" Yu Xian declared. *Boom!* A burst of blue-purple magical energy erupted in the distance, sending a terrifying aura soaring straight into the sky. "Bonds?" "Laughable! Let me show you all what true... despair looks like!" With a low roar from Six-Eyed Flying Fish, his surging magical energy instantly condensed into a colossal magic energy bomb. "Quick, we need to cheer for the Cheering Robot too!" "The more we believe in it, the stronger it gets! It will never betray our trust!" Yu Xian shouted to Luo Wei and the others before swinging his arms with manic fervor, blurring his pom-poms into afterimages. Luo Wei and the rest screamed encouragement at the top of their lungs. In truth, given the sheer momentum of the situation, everyone had been carried away by the atmosphere and couldn't back down even if they wanted to. Though Carmen and Sif felt the whole spectacle was utterly ridiculous, neither dared to object—nor did they dare utter a single discouraging word, terrified that their negativity might cause the robot to lose. Amid the Hero Party's half-skeptical shouts and Yu Xian's wholehearted roar, the Cheering Robot leaped high into the air, bringing its frying pan lightsaber down toward Six-Eyed Flying Fish. "Die!" Seeing that the Cheering Robot was airborne with no room to evade, Six-Eyed Flying Fish hurled the massive magic energy bomb directly at it. "At a moment like this, I must recite a poem!" "The wind rustles cold, the Yi River chills! The brave warrior departs, never to return!" "*Tatakae! Tatakae!*" Twisting his thick waist, Yu Xian bellowed words that Luo Wei and the others couldn't begin to comprehend, cheering on the Cheering Robot with everything he had. Luo Wei and the rest were screaming just as crazily, lacking even the leisure to ponder what on earth Yu Xian was saying. Finally, the Cheering Robot collided with the magic energy bomb in midair. The lightsaber braced firmly against the sphere of blinding purple radiance, locking the two forces in a dead stalemate. "What?!" "Impossible!" Six-Eyed Flying Fish gaped in disbelief. Yet in the next moment, he raised his hand and unleashed his magic once more, rapidly gathering a second magic energy bomb. If one wasn't enough, then two would do it! He refused to believe this freakish robot could withstand that. And once the robot fell, these weaklings of the Hero Party would be entirely at his mercy! "When braves meet on a narrow path, the valiant shall prevail! Charge!" Seeing this, Yu Xian and the others redoubled their cheers. Luo Wei and his companions shouted until their faces and necks were flushed crimson. As if feeling the collective surge of encouragement, the Cheering Robot's back panel suddenly popped open. Twin thrusters ignited in a roar of flame, and its eyes flared with brilliant light. The frying pan lightsaber, already the thickness of a carrying pole, expanded into an even thicker, larger, longer, and harder blade of radiant energy. "Go! Show him our bond!" With everyone shouting in unison, the Cheering Robot cleanly cleaved the magic energy bomb in two and flashed past Six-Eyed Flying Fish before the demon general could even process what had happened. A single vertical slash mark appeared straight down the center of Six-Eyed Flying Fish's body. "This is impossible... too... childish..." With those final muttered words, his body plummeted straight to the earth, leaving only the Cheering Robot hovering in midair like a descending angel.