Comeback

It had only a been a few moments when Gu Guangzhi had hidden himself within a hardened swamp pyramid. He was temporarily protected from the moon bats but Ironman, the metal path gu master, did not want to allow Gu Guangzhi to recover. So he jumped high and smashed the swamp structure to crush his opponent within. However, when the dust cleared Gu Guangzhi wasn't in the rubble. Ironman was confused by this. Batman, the enslavement path gu master, suspected that Gu Guangzhi had turned invisible with help of some gu insects so he used his moon bats to echo locate Gu Guangzhi but he was nowhere to be found.

Gu Guangzhi, at this moment, was underneath the battlefield. He used Bamboo swamp Gu to soften the ground beneath him and sunk into the ground. Any other gu master would've suffocated to death underneath the ground but Gu Guangzhi had Mucus skin Gu. With its help, he could absorb oxygen directly from the soil. Using Tremor sense Gu, he could navigate underneath the ground. Thus he located Ironman and sneaked up slowly beneath him. He made sure to use Earth concealment Gu so that he was not found out. Ironman, who couldn't locate his opponent anymore, let down his guard assuming that his opponent had fled. However, that proved to be fatal for him.

Gu Guangzhi got hold of Ironman's legs and pulled him down, using Bamboo swamp Gu to its full extent. The ground became so loose that Ironman sank into the ground faster than ever. When Batman saw this, he sent over dozens of his most powerful moon bats to tear open the ground but Gu Guangzhi had already hardened the surface using Turn Rock Gu. He cursed in anger but the moon bats weren't proficient in digging. He could only hope that Ironman could survive on his own.

Ironman, on the other hand, tried to get to the surface again as soon as he realized his predicament but his weight was acting against him. Gu Guangzhi dragged him deeper and deeper. He tried to mobilize his gu insects to shake off Gu Guangzhi but as Gu Guangzhi was in his Ground bear form, he had the advantage underneath the ground. The metal path gu master struggled with all he had but without the appropriate gu insects, he slowly lost his consciousness and died due to lack of oxygen.

As Gu Guangzhi couldn't feel tremors given off by Ironman's struggles, he realized that his opponent had died. He went to Ironman's body and checked for gu insects but Ironman had killed all his gu insects before he died. Gu Guangzhi then looked if any prize tokens were on his body. But Gu Guangzhi could only be disappointed. He made his way to the surface again. As Batman saw him rise form the ground, he asked angrily, "You! Where is my partner?"

'Don't worry! I'll send you to the same place.', Gu Guangzhi wanted to say this but he was currently in the Ground bear transformation so only roars came out of his mouth. Batman was annoyed by this and sent his moon bats to attack. However, the attacks from these bats were not something he couldn't take. He smashed the moon bats while taking damage from their cuts. From time to time, he sipped short quantities of medicinal wine for Bamboo stalk Gu. This made sure that he didn't lose control over his body due to alcohol.

Batman, on the other hand, was getting restless. He didn't know Gu Guangzhi had additional primeval essence reserves in form of Fish Bubble Gu. Moreover Gu Guangzhi was only using a Rank 2 killer move so his primeval essence expenditure was much lower. He thought to himself, 'Damn it! How much more primeval essence does he have! It is as if my attacks are useless against him. If this goes on, he will smash all my moon bats to bits. I need to put an end to this now.' He soon sent a new wave of moon bats to attack Gu Guangzhi.

As Gu Guangzhi was tearing the moon bats apart and made his way towards Batman, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine. The new batch of moon bats looked just like the ones before but Gu Guangzhi could see a glint of confidence in Batman's face. Perhaps, it was due to his cautious nature but he decided to take a step back instead of facing these new moon bats head on. As he carefully avoided one moon bat's attack, he swiped his arms in full force to destroy that moon bat. That moon bat was smashed to death just like countless moon bats before but Gu Guangzhi's expressions changed.

'Damn! Why are these moon bats so strong? It felt as if I just punched that metal path gu master from before.', thought Gu Guangzhi. Suddenly his eyes lit up. Batman was a demonic path gu master with no relation to Ironman so why would he join hands with a demonic path gu master like Ironman who was being chased by Tie clan? Well, the answer was now obvious to his eyes. Batman was raising some of his moon bats using the blood of Ironman! These moon bats looked similar to ordinary moon bats but were stronger and deadlier.

Gu Guangzhi took a few steps back and reverted his form back to human form. He then took out his Rank 2 Dagger tail Gu. He couldn't use the dagger tail to its fullest if he was still in Ground bear form. So he reverted to human form and started to fight with the iron bats from a distance. Batman, who saw this chuckled to himself, 'You've abandoned the toughness of the Ground bear form to regain the flexibility of the human form. However, do you think, you can withstand the attacks of my iron bats? How many can you kill without getting hit? Five? Ten? I have fifty iron bats under my control! Let's see how you'll deal with this swarm.'

As expected, the rate of killing the iron bats decreased a lot. Gu Guangzhi was moving like an acrobat to dodge all the attacks from the iron bats. Occasionally he could kill one or two iron bats with his dagger tail but there were simply too many and Gu Guangzhi had to spend most of his time dodging the attacks. Batman was enjoying the show as his iron bats were encircling his opponent deeper and deeper. He shouted from atop the huge moon bat, "Hahaha. Die you scum! You deserve this for killing Ironman!" Unbeknownst to him, a ghost claw appeared above his head and crushed his brains instantly. The upper half of his face was gone but the lower half of his face was still laughing.

The moon bats, as if they had been freed, stopped attacking and flew in random directions. Gu Guangzhi breathed a sigh of relief as he thought to himself, 'Well. Things went smoothly as expected. My Ghost claw Gu was strong due to my hundred man soul but if he had previously used any strength path gu worms on himself, things might've turned out differently.'