Sharon on Drugs

Aina watched as Xia Lun charged toward her. The wind pressure from his approaching figure pulled her long hair backward, like a white banner fluttering in the wind.

In response, Aina calmly raised the long staff in her hand.

“Gravity Press.” Her thin lips parted slightly, and a calm, emotionless voice rang out.

Instantly, the space around Xia Lun for nearly a hundred meters visibly distorted.

Gravel hovered in the humming air, grass and trees were crushed into powder by an invisible force, and even the light bent and twisted within the warped field.

“Boom—”

A terrible pressure descended suddenly, halting Xia Lun’s swift advance as if he had slammed into a transparent barrier. It was as if an invisible giant hand had slammed him violently into the ground.

Shockwaves mixed with dust spread outward. Like a fluttering butterfly, Aina gracefully floated backward, once again widening the distance between them.

She knew, of course, that Xia Lun was not so fragile. An ordinary warrior would have been crushed into paste by the Gravity Press, but Xia Lun would break free soon enough.

She was all too familiar with her partner’s physical capabilities.

A flash of sword light erupted, as if space itself were being cleaved. The ground was sliced into neat square blocks like tofu, rising and falling like rippling waves.

A powerful shockwave surged toward her. Aina raised a hand before her, and an invisible barrier blocked Xia Lun, who had somehow appeared directly in front of her.

The barrier she had constructed collided with Xia Lun’s sword tip, issuing a mournful sound like glass about to shatter.

Gripping his holy sword tightly, Xia Lun pushed against the pressure, inching closer to Aina.

“Do you want to kill me?” Looking at Xia Lun before her, Aina’s lips curled into a faint, bitter smile, as if he were a heartless villain who had wronged her and she a pitiful, abandoned soul.

Xia Lun’s pupils contracted sharply. He had never seen Aina look so sorrowful, and his heart tightened as if squeezed.

Then, magic surged before Aina, and she blasted Xia Lun away again, carving a deep trench in the earth.

Aina’s lips then turned up slightly, a hint of satisfaction flickering across her face. The mournful expression just moments ago had merely been an act she had devised—and it seemed quite effective against Xia Lun.

“Aina… how can you say something like that?” Xia Lun steadied himself, a little disheveled. Knowing he had been toyed with, he couldn’t help but complain helplessly.

“We’re enemies now. Any means are fair to defeat an opponent… And besides, I’m the Demon King.” Aina’s face turned icy, devoid of emotion, as she raised her chin slightly at Xia Lun. “Aren’t I the symbol of evil in the eyes of your human race? Brave one, I won’t lose to you.”

As long as I defeat him… once I conquer the humans, I can do whatever I want with him. I’ll turn this brave one completely into my plaything.

A spark of determination glowed in Aina’s eyes.

Suddenly, Xia Lun sensed a violent surge of magical energy beside him.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he instantly retreated several hundred meters.

“Boom, boom, boom—”

Pillars of scorching flame erupted, melting the surrounding ground into liquid lava. The battlefield was transformed into a blazing inferno.

Aina extended her pale, delicate hand and made a grasping motion in the air, letting out a cold snort.

“Hell’s Furnace.”

The air around them instantly boiled, and wild fire elements swept through every corner of this space.

Explosions rang out one after another. Terrifying gusts mixed with flying molten rock destroyed everything nearby, leaving no room to dodge.

It was as if the gates of hell had opened, summoning an endless catastrophe of fire into this world.

“Aina…”

Amid the dance of destruction, a figure tore through the curtain of flames.

Xia Lun’s form slowly emerged in the shimmering, distorted air, his voice tinged with anger. “Aren’t you afraid… you’ll really kill me?”

He was in a sorry state—his clothes were tattered, his upper body scorched black. He simply tore off the nearly ruined garments, revealing his muscular physique. His shorts remained intact by the edges were singed with burn marks.

His hair was also slightly curled from the heat and still smoking. Yet he had crawled out of the sea of flames.

“As long as you still have one breath left, I’ll find a way to save you.” Aina’s eyes shimmered with a cold light, seemingly indifferent to Xia Lun’s safety. “If you end up crippled, that’s even better. Then you’ll never have the strength to resist me again…”

Perhaps Aina didn’t notice that her right hand, which had been trembling as she held her staff, steadied once again the moment she saw Xia Lun emerge unharmed.

“Aina… I’m really angry now,” Xia Lun said in a low voice. “I’m going to teach you a lesson.”

“Oh? And what do you plan to do?” Aina sneered disdainfully. Spreading her crimson bat wings, she soared into the air, pointing her long staff at Xia Lun below. “Do you even have the ability to reach me? You can’t even get close, and yet you dare to boast… Your ultimate fate is to have your strength drained by me and be left at my mercy.”

To her astonishment, Xia Lun pulled out a crystal test tube, uncorked it, and drank its contents in one gulp.

“What did you drink?”

Aina narrowed her eyes, her gaze growing even more contemptuous. “Ah… I know. That thing Ankula prepared for you, right? Hmph. You go chasing after other women the moment you’re away from me. Xia Lun, you really are something…”

That blood bat had been secretly tailing Xia Lun all along; Aina monitored his every move.

Her Hell’s Furnace had also been fueled by her anger.

Had it not been for her knowing well that there was nothing between Xia Lun and Ankula, his fate would have been far worse.

“But to pin your hopes on some mere witch… it seems you’ve run out of tricks, Xia Lun.”

Aina stopped mid-sentence.

Xia Lun’s figure vanished from her perception, as if he had never been there.

Her heart tightened. An intense unease surged within her. She gripped the pitch-black staff tightly, momentarily feeling lost without a target.

Then she sensed him again—right behind her.

Though it felt like Aina had thought for a long time, in reality it had only been an instant.

Impossible?

How had he unleashed such terrifying speed? He was as fast as if he had teleported…

Only then did a delayed wave of air slam into her crimson armor.

Xia Lun, his upper body bare, opened his mouth slightly, his exposed skin glowing faintly like ruby.

He exhaled a puff of hot, steamy white breath near her ear.

“Aina…”