Its silver body began to undergo large-scale "pixelated" disintegration, like the mosaic effect when a digital image distorts.
The energy vortex-like head emitted one last, unwilling shriek.
Then, the whole body turned into specks of light dust and dissipated in the canyon.
"First one... resolved."
Ron slowly exhaled, but there was no trace of relaxation on his face.
Because as the hound dispersed, a faint tremor emanated from the silver pocket watch on his chest.
The pure time energy released at the death of the Time Hound was greedily absorbed by the pocket watch.
The warm current brought by the energy influx surged within him, offering him a bit of comfort.
But this comfort was quickly shattered by a new threat.
The other six fractures at the edge of the consciousness space were rapidly expanding.
The angry and sharp shrieks outside were like the piercing noise metal makes when twisting at high temperatures.
The sound was layered, clearly coming from more than one source.
The fractures at the edge of the consciousness space began to expand violently, but this time the situation was entirely different.
The remaining hounds had obviously learned a painful lesson from their companion’s death.
They were no longer acting alone, but instead began to exhibit a terrifying collective intelligence.
......
The second Time Hound slowly extended its head from the fracture on the east side.
This hound’s form was even more bizarre, its body continually flowing like liquid mercury, its surface reflecting distorted light.
It did not rashly enter the canyon labyrinth set by Ron, but cautiously observed from the fracture’s edge.
Almost simultaneously, the third hound appeared at the fracture on the west side.
This one’s body was semi-transparent, as if it might vanish into the void at any moment.
The two hounds maintained a peculiar synchronization, their every move mirroring each other symmetrically.
"Coordinated attack... troublesome."
Ron clenched his teeth, beads of cold sweat appearing on his forehead.
Dealing with a single Time Hound was already extremely challenging; the threat posed by two coordinating together was exponentially greater.
What was more deadly was that these two hounds began to exhibit a terrifying attack capability he had never even heard of.
The mercury hound on the east side began to gather energy, its pierced mouthpiece aimed directly at Ron’s current position.
The semi-transparent hound on the west side peculiarly "anchored" at a certain point in time.
Its attack target was not the present but Ron 0.5 seconds into the future!
The fearfulness of this attack method lay in the fact that, no matter how Ron dodged, one attack would hit precisely.
If he dodged left, the current attack would miss, but the attack 0.5 seconds later would accurately hit his new position.
If he dodged right, he still couldn’t escape such a timed attack.
Even "time jumping" couldn’t fully evade it, as the semi-transparent hound’s attack itself was taking place in the time dimension.
"This attack mode is somewhat unsolvable..."
Ron’s mind began to race at high speed, pushing "Hermit’s Knowledge" to the limit.
In the face of life and death, his thinking ability was pushed to unprecedented heights.
Dozens of response plans quickly generated, analyzed, and denied in his mind...
"Since I can’t evade... then let them attack the wrong target!"
A crazy yet ingenious plan formed instantly.
Ron began to activate the recording function of "Thousand Transformations," but this time it wasn’t to record someone else’s abilities, rather to record his own recent trajectory.
Light surged from his body, beginning to construct a projection at the predetermined location.
A "Ron from 0.5 seconds ago" slowly appeared, perfectly replicating his every previous move and expression.
This projection not only appeared realistic, but even its spiritual fluctuations were identical.
But a single projection wasn’t enough.
He activated the stand-in puppet, which had been hidden in the storage space all along.
The purple-black humanoid puppet materialized instantly, presenting an appearance identical to Ron himself.
Now, in the consciousness space, there were three "Rons":
A projection from the past, the current actual self, and one stand-in puppet serving as a visual decoy.
......
The two Time Hounds launched their attack simultaneously, a tearing-like shriek echoing through the space.
The mercury hound’s piercer struck like lightning at the "current Ron" projection.
The spiral barbs on the surface of the mouthpiece rotated at high speed, raising waves in the space.
The semi-transparent hound’s attack was even more peculiar; its piercer seemed to transcend the bounds of time, appearing directly in front of the stand-in puppet.
Both attacks hit their targets almost simultaneously.
The piercer accurately pierced the projection and puppet’s bodies, beginning to greedily siphon "spiritual energy."
But in the next second, the hounds felt confused and angry.
The mercury hound absorbed nothing but illusory light energy, with no nutritional value at all.
The semi-transparent hound absorbed abyss crystal energy from within the puppet, the rich aura of chaos leaving it feeling intensely unwell.
Just as the two hounds fell into momentary confusion due to their straw-like mouthpieces failing to obtain the expected "food,"
The real Ron had used "time jump" to move to a new location.
"Now’s the time!"
Without a shred of hesitation, he launched a counterattack.
"Super Magic Techniques·Squeeze!"
Ron forcefully extracted nearly all his spiritual power, as though squeezing every drop of moisture from a sponge.
This method of extreme depletion was incredibly dangerous, but in a life-and-death situation, he couldn’t afford to worry about the consequences.
His surging spiritual power gushed forth like a flood breach, forming two intertwined energy spirals in his hands.
——Spiritual Shock Burst·Grid
This was a high-difficulty technique he had never tried before, releasing a grid-like spiritual shock burst simultaneously at two targets.
The first shock burst network enveloped the mercury hound, bombarding its consciousness core from various angles;
The second shock burst network encircled the semi-transparent hound, specifically interfering with its time anchoring capability.
Both hounds emitted painful shrieks simultaneously, their bodies beginning to tremble violently.
Even better, the grid effect of the spiritual shock burst triggered an unforeseen chain reaction.
The mercury hound’s piercer sharply turned, stabbing into the semi-transparent hound’s side belly.
Unwilling to be outdone, the semi-transparent hound’s mouthpiece retaliated like a venomous snake.
Both hounds, now in chaos, began to fight viciously in the canyon.
Sharp piercers danced through the air, raising specks of silver light.
"Succeeded... temporarily safe..."
Ron leaned against the canyon wall, breathing heavily.
The aftermath of extreme spiritual power depletion began to manifest:
Flashing spots appeared at the edges of his vision, while his temples throbbed with pain resembling an electric drill.
But he knew he couldn’t relax his vigilance; he needed to take advantage of the hounds’ mutual entanglement to eliminate them completely.
"Sound Wave Vibration·Erosion State!"
Ancient ravings echoed through the canyon, warped syllables cutting invisibly through the battling hounds.
The power of high-dimensional contamination caused widespread decay in their bodies, with silver liquid and semi-transparent energy splattering widely.
In their last desperate struggle, the two hounds simultaneously disintegrated into countless points of light, greedily absorbed by the pocket watch on Ron’s chest.
But Ron barely had time to feel comforted by the energy replenishment when a fatal sense of crisis suddenly struck from behind.
A piercer shot towards him like lightning at an angle so tricky it was almost impossible to defend against.