The caustic blood darts hissed as they struck the flagstones around the central altar, melting the ancient basalt into bubbling green sludge.
High above the floor, perched atop the shadowy capitals of the six stone pillars, six identical projections of Su Rou hovered in the dim light.
Each duplicate held a dark spatial blade, her face twisted in identical sneers of cruel, mocking triumph.
"You cannot hit what you cannot locate, Ye Chen!" all six projections shouted simultaneously, their voices overlapping in a bizarre, echoing chorus that rattled the vaulted ceiling. "My Shadow Cloak of Nine Hells distorts the spatial coordinates of this entire hall! You are swinging your scrap iron at empty air while my darts drain your blood drop by drop!"
Below the pillars, Captain Vane and his two
