Chapter Ninety-Two: A Perilous Moment

“What are you standing there for?”

With a helpless shove, Yue Longze pushed the stunned Sars straight toward the magnetic monster Antlar ahead of them.

“W-Wait, senior! I’m not ready yet!”

Sars stumbled forward, stammering in protest.

“Your enemy won’t wait for you to be ready!”

As soon as the words left him, Yue Longze tapped the ground with his right foot and leaped lightly away to the rear.

Unexpectedly, he did not intend to watch Sars fight from behind. Instead, he calmly began practicing the swordsmanship taught to him by Jinguji Raiou once more.

Yue Longze wanted Sars to feel utterly abandoned, to make sure he did not think he was still being watched from the side, ready to save him at the moment of peril.

Besides, time waits for no one. He truly ought to make good use of every moment to sharpen his swordsmanship and strengthen himself.

“Senior!”

Sars cried out, but Yue Longze paid him no mind at all. Left with no choice, Sars had to grit his teeth and face the magnetic monster whose strength far surpassed his own.

“Ha!”

...

Sars charged forward with great reluctance.

Meanwhile, Yue Longze seemed not to hear a thing from the outside world, devoting himself wholly to his sword practice.

The heart-rending cries that Sars let out were completely ignored by Yue Longze, who continued to brandish the Galaxy Sword, rehearsing Raiou’s techniques and steadily increasing his own power.

Sars had already begun to be driven and battered by the magnetic monster Antlar. His Spacium Beam was useless against the creature, leaving him with no means to counterattack.

From afar came one thunderous crash after another, the sound of Sars being knocked down and striking the ground.

Before long, the surface of the small planet was shrouded in the dust raised by Sars’s repeated falls.

“Senior! Come save me!”

Sars shouted again and again. Antlar pinned him tightly beneath its body, while the two gleaming, deep-iced pincers at its mouth closed in on him bit by bit.

Hearing Sars’s cries for help, Yue Longze finally stopped swinging his sword. He turned his head and fixed Sars with those sharp, pale eyes, his gaze flickering as though pondering something.

...

“Was I being too hasty?”

Yue Longze suddenly thought of this. After all, Sars had been born an Ultraman, whereas he himself was a transmigrator. Their understanding of Ultraman might well differ.

The Ultraman he had once seen on the screen may have been nothing more than the idealized Ultraman of human imagination.

“Forget it.”

Yue Longze shook his head, then hurled the Galaxy Sword. It shot forth like a streak of light, instantly piercing Antlar’s hard body with irresistible force.

...

“Phew... you finally made your move, senior!”

Sars wiped away the sweat that did not exist on his forehead and said, gasping for breath.

Yue Longze patted the silver-and-red shoulder of Sars. “No matter what, I hope you understand this: the source of an Ultraman warrior’s power is courage—the courage to press onward without fear.”

Sars gave an “oh” and nodded earnestly. “I’ll do my best to overcome my weaknesses!”

“Mm.”

Yue Longze also turned and nodded before continuing, “I hope you will treasure your Ultraman power and make good use of it. It is a power that many ordinary humans long to possess.”

The two rested on the planet a while longer before setting out once again for the Land of Light.

....

In this war-torn universe, rampaging monsters and murderous mass-produced Dark Lopses lurked everywhere. There were more of them than the warriors the Land of Light could send into battle, making the Ultraman warriors of the Land of Light fight under tremendous strain.

On the return journey of Yue Longze and the young warrior Sars, they encountered wave after wave of rampaging monsters. As for the mass-produced Dark Lopses, the two of them had yet to meet even one.

Even a mass-produced Dark Lopse was more troublesome to deal with than many monsters!

At first, Yue Longze stood alone against all the monsters. But as more and more monsters infected by dark energy went berserk and appeared, even Sars, however weak his combat power, had no choice but to join the fierce battle.

In the vast and mysterious expanse of space, Yue Longze fought without pause, destructive light waves filling the heavens. Faced with these crazed monsters charging at him from all sides, Yue Longze was driven completely into a blood-red fury; at least several dozen monsters had already fallen by his hand.

But the monsters only grew more numerous with the passing time.

Sars also had to summon his courage and fight desperately, for there were simply too many monsters. Though their quality was nothing impressive, once their numbers piled up, they became truly terrifying.

Whoosh!

Dark Zeperion Beam!

Spacium Beam!

Yue Longze rarely used beam techniques, since they consumed too much energy, but in moments of crisis he had no choice but to unleash them.

....

“Sars!”

Yue Longze shouted, for Sars had drifted farther and farther away from him. Without Yue Longze’s cover, Sars would be in even greater danger. Several times it had been Yue Longze who saved him at the critical moment, leaving Sars deeply grateful.

“Senior!”

At that moment, Sars was surrounded by several monsters. Among them was the space monster Bemular, posing a tremendous threat to him.

Yue Longze himself was also surrounded by a great many monsters. For instance, the hollow mechanical monster Gobnew from the worldview of the world of Tiga was now swinging its cold, iron-hard fists again and again as it crashed toward Yue Longze.

“Go to hell, all of you!”

Yue Longze roared, and drew and struck in a flash. A silver sword light swept past, instantly sending severed limbs, broken legs, and snapped horns flying from the monsters around him; the weaker bit-part monsters were killed outright.

But there were too many monsters. A gap opened behind Yue Longze, and an unknown monster with enormous wings abruptly raised its shimmering, light-wreathed claw and brought it down hard upon Yue Longze’s unguarded back.

Yue Longze sensed the danger arriving, but even so, there was no helping it now.

All around him monsters pressed in; even above him and below him, they lurked with predatory intent.

He had nowhere to escape.

The claw, bearing tremendous force, struck Yue Longze’s back with unavoidable violence. Yue Longze felt a sweetness rise in his throat, and a mouthful of blood almost burst forth.

Of course, in his transformed state, he could not truly spit out blood. Still, that sudden blow had undoubtedly left him with internal injuries.

He forcefully steadied himself, keeping his body balanced.

Once more Yue Longze rapidly gathered his energy. The Dark Zeperion Beam fired, and his legs drew together straight as his body began to spin at high speed.

This was a technique he had imitated from the evil giant crafted by Danjo at the time. Against such an encirclement, this spinning sweep-and-fire move was exactly what was needed, and it proved highly effective.

Whoosh, whoosh!

The monsters surrounding Yue Longze were sent flying like kites with their strings cut. Yue Longze seized the opening and violently broke free of the encirclement, flying toward Sars’s position.

But the monsters were far too numerous. Just as he escaped one ring of encirclement, he plunged into another.

The situation was dire.