[[[DEFEATING THE PUPPET MASTER]]]

That puppet must specialize in speed, his eyes then glanced over at her opponent. This one he was facing must be largely focused on defense. He thought.

This was the worst match-up for him. He had no powerful attacks.

The puppet master was not attacking but Crow was not one to wait around. He placed his hand over his stronger ring.

His hand flicked and all the lights overhead were shattered. As soon as the last light went out.

Crow's body shifted. But he did not attack

The large puppet was unphased about the darkened but he knew he was at a disadvantage.

He immediately called the smaller puppet back and had braced himself for an attack but nothing happened.

Cruden was relieved.

Crow then appeared behind Cruden and whispered into Cruden's ears. Cruden stared at the puppets and a mischievous smile appeared on his face.

He immediately got to work. He rushed forward to engage the smaller puppet while secretly encased the floor with his shadow.

The puppet master had seen when crow appeared behind Cruden and he thought these attempts were foolish.

Just like the weakness of a puppet master. An assassin once exposed would lose its advantage.

Now that his location had been compromised he wanted to escape and he knew he had to get rid of these two first. But he did not have a lot of energy to waste.

Plus there was the annoying possibility of a third person.

He was there racking his brain when suddenly he felt the connection to his puppet disappeared.

It was that split second of distraction that crow was waiting for. He immediately appears behind the puppet-like magic.

A powerful kick lashed out.

Swiiiish!

But the puppet was faster and quickly add on another layer of defense. The puppet's wooden frame lightly slowed.

Crow's kick lanes evil on the puppet but he maneuvered skillfully and pulled his foot back. He knew based on the structure of the puppet it would be tough but the impact caused his eyebrows to knit.

Not even a dent.

The puppet attacked in retaliation but Crow was long gone.

Long Mo confused. It kept on scanning its environment but no response could be felt from his puppet and he could not sense the other cultivator.

Crow appeared once more but this time he did not close in but flicked his fingers. Tiny black balls flew out non-stop assaulting the puppet.

Small explosions rang out but nothing too dangerous. As a matter of fact, some of the small balls that hit him didn't even explode, some had turned into smoke and some had bounced off his body. After the smaller puppet disappeared Long Mo was extremely worried but he had faith in his defense. Only a core formation expert could break his defense.

Crow's body kept on shifting and appearing at different angles around the puppet. Long Mo, was getting increasingly annoyed and he did not know what crow was doing so he decided to end this quickly

It was then he realized that when he tried to move. His body was covered by some sticky substance and it was restricting his movements and it was drying extremely fast. In addition, his body was rapidly sinking into the floor.

The situation was dire. Long Mo did not care about his injuries or energy anymore. He wanted to unleash his full power but it was too late.

Cruden had jumped from the space above him. He was just inches away from landing a punch on Long Mo.

Long mo felt a chill crawl up his neck. He stared wide-eyed at the fist heading towards him.

Cruden's fist landed on the puppet's chest. A flash of light followed on impact then the most thunderous bang sounded out. The entire underground shook. The upper part of the puppet's body flung backward, breaking through the wall behind him before landing heavily in the other room.

It had been detached from its lower half.

Crow could not believe his eyes. He looked at the lower half of the puppet and then up at Cruden.

He looked down at crudens fist and realized that it had been obliterated with the attack. Cruden had long noticed his hand but he could not believe how destructive his attack was.

He had just used his Bang skill, by implementing his overlapping bang skill effect and focusing it on one point. Its attack power was terrifying.

Crow appeared beside Cruden and stuffed a bill in his mouth to numb the pain he was feeling then quickly did emergency first aid.

"This is why missions like this can be very dangerous. We will see a proper doctor when we get back. For now, let's finish the mission." Crow said concerningly. he was not good with words so he did not continue to speak.

when he had devised and plan and informed the kid. he did not know the kid would go through such lengths to get the job done.

He looked again at Cruden's hand or better yet the lack thereof but he could tell that the skill Cruden had used just moments ago was the bang skill he thought him. but when did it have such might?

he saw that Cruden was in a daze so after bandaging him up. He made his way over to the puppet master and scanned his body to check for his spoils of war. He found many puppeteer scroll techniques and materials. He was disappointed but he knew they would fetch a good price in the black market.

Seconds after the smaller puppet that had disappeared from Long Mo's senses. slowly appeared out of the ground from Crudens shadow.

based on experiencing it first hand, crow knew that crudens shadow was like an independent space and as such, it was like a vacuum. anything inside it would have no connection to the outside world.

so once the puppet was thrown into the space. The connection would be severed and Crow was right.