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ArabicArknights: I'm Pretty Strong With Minecraft — Chapter 35
Chapter 35: Rematch
“A divine artifact…” Ivan murmured, his grip tightening around the hilt of the Blade of the God of War.
Across the shattered street, Talulah—or rather, the Deathless Black Snake controlling her—wasn’t even looking at him. Her gaze was locked onto the empty space where the blocky avatar had just stood. There was a deep, barely concealed dread in her posture.
‘Those eyes…’the ancient entity thought, lingering suspicion gnawing at its psyche.’Completely different from that eerie white-eyed guy from before…’
The primal fear it had felt radiating from the depths of its being left it deeply unsettled.
To test if that suffocating aura had truly vanished, the Black Snake raised a hand. Arts flared to life, condensing into a highly compressed, scorching fireball that tore fiercely through the air toward Ivan.
But just as the roaring flames threatened to engulf him, Steve, who by all rights should have departed, briefly solidified his form once more.
He didn’t even fully materialize. With a casual motion, he drew a diamond sword from the void and slashed at the incoming inferno.
Splat! The raging fireball was cleanly cleaved in two, split down the middle like a ripe fruit, the flames silently dissipating harmlessly on either side of Ivan.
“What?!” The Black Snake gasped, genuinely shaken.
Just who was this Ivan, and why were the entities backing him so overwhelmingly powerful?
Steve’s pixelated gaze swept over Ivan one final time. Brief, resonant words imprinted themselves directly into Ivan’s mind.
‘You still have much to learn. Merely possessing power is not enough to truly save this burdened land.’
As the deep words settled, the blocky figure completely vanished into the ether.
“Thank you…” Ivan whispered, engraving the admonition into his memory.
He slowly turned his head, his gaze locking onto Talulah. The Draco had visibly relaxed a fraction following Steve’s complete departure.
“Yo, my ‘cheat’ just arrived,” Ivan taunted, a confident smirk playing on his lips. “You can still run now, you know.”
“Hmph, playing cheap tricks!” Talulah sneered, forcibly suppressing the unease twisting in her chest. “He’s gone. Why would I fear the likes of you?”
The dark, shadowy tentacles of her Arts erupted from behind her back, thrashing wildly in the air.
Ivan didn’t waste another breath. His legs coiled and pushed off with explosive force, the sheer kinetic impact instantly shattering the pavement beneath his boots.
He launched himself high into the air, gripping the Blade of the God of War with both hands, and brought the massive weapon crashing down toward Talulah like a falling meteor.
‘What kind of monstrous strength is this?!’ the Black Snake cursed inwardly. It hastily raised Talulah’s ceremonial longsword, commanding the dark tentacles to intertwine into a dense, defensive barricade.
The moment the heavy greatsword collided with the Draco’s blade, an unimaginably immense shockwave was unleashed.
The ground beneath Talulah’s boots simply couldn’t withstand the crushing pressure. It collapsed with a deafening roar, caving into a massive crater over ten meters wide.
A terrifying ring of displaced air violently blasted outward, sending the surrounding Reunion Movement soldiers who hadn’t managed to retreat flying into the debris.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Ivan’s offensive was a relentless, percussive rhythm of violence. Whenever Talulah attempted a desperate counterattack, Ivan would instantly summon an indestructible block of obsidian with his left hand, effortlessly absorbing the lethal strikes.
Meanwhile, his right hand wielded the Blade of the God of War, delivering an unending, punishing series of heavy blows.
Offense and defense in one, perfectly flawless. He battered Talulah back step by bloody step, leaving the ancient entity absolutely no room to breathe, let alone retaliate.
Just as the Black Snake was frantically calculating a countermeasure, a violent explosion suddenly rocked the distant slums, lighting up the sky.
A cold, victorious smirk crept onto Talulah’s face. Taking advantage of the momentary lull in the deafening clash, she locked eyes with Ivan.
“It seems you’ve lost this time, Ivan. Your attention was far too focused on me.”
Ivan’s heart plummeted. ‘Not good! It’s a feint! Misha and Ch’en’s side!’
“We retreat!” Talulah didn’t hesitate for a second. She barked the order to the surviving Reunion soldiers and immediately turned to flee into the shadows.
“Trying to leave?! It’s not going to be that easy!” Ivan roared.
With a flick of his wrist, he pulled an Ender Pearl from his inventory and hurled it with pinpoint accuracy directly into Talulah’s path.
A burst of purple particle effects flashed through the air, and Ivan’s figure instantly teleported, materializing right in front of the fleeing Draco.
The Blade of the God of War swept out in a brutal horizontal arc.
Caught completely off guard, Talulah could only desperately raise her sword to block the strike.
Clang—!!!
Although the blade didn’t leave her grip, the terrifying kinetic force behind the blow couldn’t be negated. She was struck as if by a runaway battering ram.
Her body flew backward uncontrollably, crashing heavily into a pile of distant concrete ruins. She violently spat out a large mouthful of blood, clearly severely injured by the impact.
By the time the dust settled on the smoke-filled battlefield, Talulah’s figure had already vanished into the maze of the shattered streets.
Ivan stood alone in the crater, his knuckles turning white from how tightly he was gripping his sword.
He glared in the direction she had disappeared, a bitter curse slipping from his lips. “Lungmen profanity! What kind of method is it going to take to finally pull that damned ‘Black Snake’ out of her body?!”
Every single time they clashed, it was only Talulah’s physical body that suffered the severe injuries, while the true culprit always managed to slither away using her as a meat shield.
‘Does it have to be like this every time?’he thought, frustration boiling over.’Watching it control this body, fighting me, and then running away?’A sudden, absurd thought crossed his mind.’It’s not like I can just throw a Potion of Weakness at her and force-feed her a Golden Apple, right?’
The idea was so outlandish in this grim reality that Ivan couldn’t help but shake his head.
“Forget it,” Ivan sighed, forcefully suppressing the anxiety gnawing at his chest and discarding the impractical conjectures.
With a swift motion, he unequipped the Blade of the God of War, sending it back into his inventory.
Now was not the time to dwell on the Deathless Black Snake.
The distant explosion and Talulah’s parting words echoed in his mind like a blaring alarm bell.
‘W… when did that crazy Sarkaz get over there?’
Officer Ch’en, Misha… something terrible must have happened to them.
Ivan abruptly turned on his heel. Pushing his speed to the absolute limit, he dashed through the ruined streets, sprinting desperately toward the direction Ch’en had retreated.
[Rhodes’s Note: In Minecraft, throwing a Splash Potion of Weakness at a Zombie Villager and then feeding it a Golden Apple will cure it, turning it back into a normal Villager. Ivan is joking about using this mechanic to “cure” Talulah of the Black Snake’s possession.]