Seeing that Black Tiger's ultimate move was actually this powerful, the underlings all showed expressions of shock and began buzzing with chatter.
"As expected of Boss Black Tiger! If that were us, those flying claws would've sliced us into ribbon!"
"Damn right! I've never seen Boss Black Tiger go all out before, but he's every bit as terrifying as the rumors say!"
Falcon and the others stared in shock, though a thread of anxiety twisted through their surprise.
Black Tiger was undeniably strong, yet they had been too terrified of Liu Yang to obey his orders to charge. If Black Tiger won this fight, would he let them off the hook later?
Because of that, they secretly didn't want Black Tiger to win.
Yet they didn't want Liu Yang to win either.
Nobody knew if Liu Yang would turn his blade on them once Black Tiger was out of the picture.
To them, the ideal outcome was mutual destruction.
If both Black Tiger and Liu Yang beat each other to within an inch of their lives, they could step in, deliver the finishing blows, and take over the base for themselves.
Falcon and his inner circle quietly tallied their calculations.
White Fox, however, sneered from the side.
"You idiots don't understand shit. Black Tiger's attack was strong, sure, but it didn't do a damn thing.
If anything, this just proves how terrifying that guy is. He didn't even use an ability-he dodged the whole thing using pure speed!
To this second, we still have no clue what his actual ability even is!
That kid is completely relaxed. He hasn't used his full strength, and you can't even tell how much he's holding back. If you ask me, he hasn't even pushed past fifty percent."
"What?! He hasn't even used fifty percent of his power?" Falcon and the others gasped in disbelief.
If Liu Yang hadn't even crossed the fifty percent mark while dodging Black Tiger's ultimate move, how absurd was his true strength?
White Fox let out a cold chuckle.
"Heh, just watch. Even without using abilities, Black Tiger doesn't stand a chance. Honestly, he has zero odds of winning. The guy isn't even taking him seriously-he's just playing with his food."
Sure enough, before the words had fully left her mouth, Liu Yang flickered and reappeared right in front of Black Tiger, swinging his katana in a clean arc.
"Swoosh!"
Black Tiger's right arm was severed in an instant. A geyser of blood spouted from the stump.
"AAAGHHH!" Black Tiger screamed in agony, his eyes bulging as he roared, "[Bloody Wind and Rain]!!!"
In a flash, the crimson blood spraying from his right arm hardened into dense, bullet-like droplets in mid-air, raining down toward Liu Yang in a lethal blanket.
Liu Yang hadn't expected Black Tiger to pull out a move like this. Did this guy's skills actually scale up the more he bled?
Without hesitation, Liu Yang launched himself backward, clearing over ten meters in a single bound to dodge the crimson volley.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The blood bullets slammed into the ground, gouging craters over ten centimeters deep and riddle-marking the hard terrain like a sieve.
Liu Yang stomped his foot against the concrete and propelled himself forward like an artillery shell, swinging his blade once more. Swoosh!
Black Tiger's left arm was sliced clean off.
More blood erupted like a fountain.
"AAAGH! AAAAAAGH!" Robbed of both arms, Black Tiger shrieked in agony. His face twisted into a mad, snarling mask, baring his bloody teeth as if he wanted to tear Liu Yang apart with his jaws.
Glaring at the blood surging into the air, Black Tiger gritted his teeth and bellowed again:
"[Heavenly Net, Earthly Web]!!!"
"Swoosh!"
The bright red spray formed a massive, sprawling net in mid-air, sweeping down toward Liu Yang.
Yet with Liu Yang's speed sitting at 16.5 times the human baseline, an attack like this looked like it was moving in slow motion. How could it possibly hit him?
He casually side-stepped the bloody net, closed the distance to Black Tiger in a fraction of a second, and delivered another flash of cold steel.
"Swoosh!"
Black Tiger's legs were severed clean through the thighs. He collapsed into the pooling blood with a wet slap.
Without his arms and legs, Black Tiger was completely immobilized.
At the same time, he forcibly clamped down on his blood flow.
He could endure losing the blood from his arms, but now that his legs were gone too, four massive stumps were spraying blood simultaneously. If he didn't stop it, he'd bleed out in less than thirty seconds.
On top of that, Black Tiger realized his blood-based attacks were entirely useless against Liu Yang. Continuing to fight was just suicide.
He manipulated his blood to stem the flow, instantly clotting the four massive wounds.
The frenzied rage vanished from his face, replaced entirely by stark terror and absolute despair.
In this moment, he truly felt the chill of the Reaper's blade against his neck.
Staring up at Liu Yang, he begged with sickening humility:
"I was wrong! Big Brother, I was wrong, please spare me! I don't want Zhang Jingyu anymore, she's yours! Take everything in the base, take whatever you want, just don't kill me!"
Falcon and the rest of the spectators stood frozen, completely dumbfounded.
Black Tiger's ability attacks had been terrifyingly potent. It was no exaggeration to say that none of the ability users present could have survived a single blow from him; they would have been instantly turned into red paste.
Yet Black Tiger, who could effortlessly slaughter every one of them, hadn't even been able to touch Liu Yang.
Was the gap between ability users truly this astronomical?
They never imagined that the tyrant who ruled over them would be reduced to a limbless torso in under ten seconds, thrashing in his own blood and weeping for mercy.
The man standing over him wasn't human-he was a god.
Even if everyone in the base ganged up on him, they probably wouldn't survive three minutes.
Unless one of the women offered herself to pull off a honey trap... maybe that could stall him for two hours.
Seeing his opponent crumble so completely, Liu Yang let out a cold smirk.
"Oh? Begging for mercy already? I thought your ability got stronger the more you bled, so I was doing you a favor by letting out a bit more. Who knew you'd give up so fast?"
"I was wrong, I was wrong! I should've never crossed you, Big Brother! Please spare my life! Seriously, Zhang Jingyu is yours, and I'll never give you trouble again. Just leave me a breathing body!" Black Tiger whimpered desperately.
Liu Yang's brow furrowed, his voice dropping an octave. "You're giving Zhang Jingyu to me? My woman needs you to hand her over? Who the hell do you think you are, huh?"
Terrified by Liu Yang's frigid tone, Black Tiger panicked. "Big Brother, Big Brother, I spoke out of turn! I'm not giving her to you-she was always yours! She's always been your woman, I just misspoke!"
Liu Yang maintained his icy stare. "Oh, so you admit Zhang Jingyu was always my woman. Then why did you dare try to snatch her from me?"
Black Tiger almost burst into tears. "No-I didn't try to snatch her! She was originally my woman, but then you took a liking to her, so she became your woman!"
Liu Yang narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Huh? So you're saying I'm taking your hand-me-downs?"
Black Tiger was on the verge of a total mental breakdown. "Big Brother, that's not what I mean at all! You tell me-whose woman is she? Whoever you say she belongs to, that's who she belongs to!"
Liu Yang sneered. "You dare talk back to me?"
Black Tiger: "..."
Black Tiger felt an agonizing despair wash over him. The more he tried to explain, the deeper he dug his own grave. What the hell was the correct answer supposed to be?!