The messenger knight ran so hard his helmet was crooked, leaning against the wall and coughing for breath, unable to speak clearly: "Re-report! Lord Riyao followed a civilian out of the city earlier, in the direction... exactly where the explosion came from in the woods!"
Arcadios's brow only twitched upon hearing this, his cold, hard face showing no extra emotion, but his knuckles were already gripped tight on the hilt of the sword at his waist.
Leo and Jade, who were following beside him, instantly flared up with anxiety. Leo's feet shifted restlessly, wishing he could charge out on the spot, his scabbard clattering loudly. Jade's face turned pale as she clutched the corner of her clothes. Their voices trembled in unison: "Arcadios, hurry and lead the team over there! We can't let anything happen to Riyao!"
"Thud thud thud thud...!"
Nibu's two millstone-sized black hands, covered in stiff black bristles, slammed into the pit like a pile driver. Each strike made the ground tremble. Remnants of Punk-colored hair, charred wood chips, and toxic soil debris flew everywhere. The pit he pounded out was deep enough to bury two and a half Nibus. His eyes were bloodshot as he howled, looking as if he wanted to smash Riyao into underground fertilizer.
[Emergency Flash News: The protagonist is dead~ This message costs fifty cents, deleted after sending, not guaranteed to be true]
At the height of his frantic pounding, a brilliant light of mixed gold and green suddenly exploded from the deep pit. Following a dull "thud," Nibu was sent flying by a massive force hitting him square in the face. A tuft of bristles was torn from the back of his neck, and his backside skidded across the charred ground, carving a dozen-meter-long trench. Along the way, he crushed a pile of rags left over from the Punk explosion before finally crashing "clack" into the only remaining half of a withered tree stump, seeing stars and unable to get up for a long time.
Riyao was leisurely standing up from the pit, patting the dust off himself. His clothes, which were already torn to expose his waist, were stained with charred marks, but the densely packed wounds from before had vanished without even leaving a red mark. He even raised a hand to pluck a half-charred leaf from the tip of his hair, looking at the newly risen Nibu with a beaming smile. His tone was so smug it could drive someone to death: "A pity. If this were a few days earlier, I really would have been done for here."
Just as Nibu's fingernails were about to brush against his crown, he didn't even have time to chant an incantation. He raised his hand and stacked magic on himself. Three silver-white magic circles "shua shua shua" wrapped around his body in sequence, and three types of Enchantment Magic were plastered onto him: "Enchantment Magic: Purification, Enchantment Magic: Dispel, Enchantment Magic: Strength."
Just as Riyao was about to be hit, he released his magic. Silver-white magic circles covered his body as he cast several Enchantment Magics on himself: "Enchantment Magic: Purification, Enchantment Magic: Dispel, Enchantment Magic: Strength."
The mysterious toxin that had suppressed the Hundred Battles Technique for so long was instantly cleared away, with several wisps of black smoke dissipating through his pores. The healing ability he had been holding back "buzzed" into full effect, mending his injuries perfectly within seconds. The dozen or so strikes Nibu had just landed effectively became a free massage to loosen his muscles and bones.
He even took the time to stretch his neck and shoulders, making his bones crack. Looking up at the trembling, furious Nibu, he smugly beckoned with his finger: "Why don't you keep going? Those hits just now made my right shoulder feel quite comfortable. Please aim a bit more to the left. Yes, use some strength—haven't you eaten?"
As soon as those words fell, Nibu's already strained sanity snapped completely with a "crack," consumed by rage. His flesh surged wildly along his meridians as he began to mutate again. His bones crackled and shifted as they restructured. His barely remaining human form disintegrated entirely, and in an instant, he swelled to over three meters tall, transforming into a beast even more hideous and violent than a typical mountain gorilla. His stiff, dark brown fur stood up like steel needles, his hunched shoulders and back resembled a small mound, and his protruding jaw featured two-inch-long ivory tusks. His crimson eyes were embedded in deep sockets, and even his breath carried a nauseating stench.
A roar that made eardrums ache rumbled from Nibu's throat. With a kick of his limbs against the charred ground, the massive creature charged straight at Riyao with earth-shaking force. Riyao pulled back the smug grin on his face, his muscles and bones tensing as he also charged forward to meet him.
One large and one small figure were instantly locked in combat. There were no fancy magical exchanges, only the raw impact of fist on flesh. Every strike from the three-meter beast carried the heavy, mountain-shattering force of a landslide, while the petite Riyao relied on agility and speed, always managing to dodge fatal moves at the last second, even daring to collide head-on with the fists. Every dull thud of flesh hitting flesh sent a blast of sharp wind sweeping across the field, swirling charred soil, scraps of fur, and rags into the air, making the already devastated woods even more chaotic.
Seeing this, Riyao didn't retreat; instead, he grinned with a fierce smile. He raised his hand to crack his knuckles, the sound popping like firecrackers. Two magic circles emerged one after another from his palm. The originally separate runic patterns slowly moved toward the center, merging little by little along the lines of the magic veins until they finally solidified into one. A dazzling golden aura spread along the runes, coating even the charred soil at his feet in a faint golden light.
Enchantment Magic: The Weight of Life.
As his low shout fell, his feet planted firmly into the churning, cracked earth. He no longer dodged or maneuvered as before, but met Nibu's heavy strikes head-on with his own fists, landing punch after solid punch on the giant beast. After a rapid succession of over a dozen punches, there appeared to be no outward abnormality, looking no different from the previous head-on clashes.
To a casual observer, it still looked like a balanced head-on confrontation, but a closer look would reveal something was wrong.
Nibu's dark brown bristles, which had been standing stiff with power, first began to turn a sickly gray at the tips of his claws and hair. This grayness seeped toward the roots bit by bit, and in less than half a minute, they faded into a lifeless, deathly white. His vitality was quietly draining away through the wounds inflicted by those punches.
But this was neither a trick to strip away life force, nor was it absorbing the lost vitality.
True damage~
Riyao had always kept the taboos in mind, fearing that improper handling would trigger the Curse of Ankhselam. He simply chose the safest and most direct method: he condensed and solidified his own life force, firmly enchanting it onto the power of every punch. Through the force of the head-on collision, he physically hammered Nibu's own life force out of his body.
Meanwhile, on the way to the woods where the explosion occurred, Arcadios led the team at the front. His ink-black cloak fluttered violently in the wind. Although no extra emotion could be seen on his cold face, the knuckles gripping the sword hilt at his waist had remained white from tension since they set out. Jade and Leo, who had been eager to come along earlier, were naturally not allowed to join.