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Chapter 225: Striking Back
🕑 Added 2023-06-16 17:39:01 +0000 UTCClass Upgrade available. Please choose your new Class:
Fist of Tyranny (Elite)
Power is the foundation of everything. Use your strength to step on the weakness of others, and develop a fighting style meant to annihilate large groups of weaker opponents.
“Punch until they no longer dare to stand.”
This first class seemed like an evolution of his current one, Fiend of the Iron Fist. However, while the Fiend class suited Jack’s strengths, this one took things way too far. He could see how his path could be interpreted that way, but that was not it. He didn’t want to lead by fear. The point of his fist wasn’t to dominate others, but to liberate himself.
Primal Fist (King)
A Primal Fist channels the spirits and ghosts of the world to enhance themselves. They dominate natural wonders, as well as the hearts of people, becoming forces of nature themselves.
“To live. To prey. That is to be.”
That sounded cool. It sounded like Nauja, actually. Since she had a bow, maybe she would one day become a Primal Hunter?
Not to mention it was a King one. Jack had never seen a class of this tier before, but it was certainly far better than the Elite ones he was used to. Plus, its direction wasn’t so far away from his current path.
In any case, this class intrigued Jack. He went on to read the final one.
Cosmic Fist (King)
Punches like meteors, a body like a celestial object, and a supernova as your war cry. Cosmic Fist is a warrior who uses their body to emulate the wonders of space, harnessing powers that belong to the cosmic scale.
“Punch through the final frontier.”
That was…way too suitable. Jack had to admit he was intrigued. Not only was this Class a King one, like the Primal Fist, but space had always fascinated him. Even more so after traveling through it for a bit.
All three Classes sounded great. All could lead him to incredible adventures, to the peak of the world. However, the winner was clear in his heart. He knew which path he wanted to follow—one of his skills was already on it, actually.
He made his choice. It wasn’t like he had much time, anyway.
Congratulations! You are now a Cosmic Fist (King).
Congratulations! Indomitable Body III upgraded into Neutron Star Body II.
Neutron Star Body II: Neutron Stars are made from the densest material in the universe. Your body inherits some of its properties, achieving extraordinary resilience and durability, increased weight and strength, as well as resistance to all elemental attacks.
You also retain the heavy regenerative properties of this skill’s previous version.
Congratulations! Ghost Step II upgraded into Space Walk I.
Space Walk I: Space is a constraint you have learned to escape. By spending a large amount of energy, take a step through the fabric of space to reappear anywhere within a mile radius.
Both those skills sounded seriously cool. Jack could barely contain his excitement. Even as the sphere of life energy around him was running on its last fumes, he felt so filled with power and potential that no lightning or fire could harm him.
He spent the final fractions of a second to inspect his status screen, feeling his chest swell with pride at how far he’d come. He also invested all free points from his one level-up to Physical.
Name: Jack Rust
Species: Human, Earth-387
Faction: Bare Fist Brotherhood (D)
Grade: D
Class: Cosmic Fist (King)
Level: 125
Strength: 635
Dexterity: 585
Constitution: 605
Mental: 120
Will: 190
Dao Skills: Meteor Punch III, Iron Fist Style II, Neutron Star Body II, Brutalizing Aura II, Space Walk I
Daos: Dao Tree of the Fist, Dao Root of Indomitable Will (fused), Dao Root of Life (fused), Dao Root of Power (fused), Dao Root of Weakness (fused)
Titles: Planetary Frontrunner (10), Planetary Torchbearer (1), Ninth Ring Conqueror, Planetary Overlord (1)
There were so many things to take in.
Thanks to the newest title, Planetary Overlord (1), all his stats now had an efficacy of a hundred and ninety percent. Moreover, the fifty points he got in all primary stats—so a hundred and fifty total—were the equivalent of thirty levels in the E-Grade. And he had another ten points from the one level-up he did, from Level 124 to 125.
Unfortunately, there was no time to glower over his status screen. He eyed the storm of fire and lightning outside, then clenched his fists.
Someone was trying to kill him. They had thrown at him a tribulation he couldn’t possibly survive…but they hadn’t predicted that he would break through in the process. Whoever it was, whatever this tribulation meant, Jack would punch it all in the face.
The life barrier dropped. Fire and lightning filled his world. This time, Jack didn’t just wait for punishment to fall on him. He had recovered his Dao—he could fight back.
He roared and punched. All colors and sounds were sucked into his fist. Even the tribulation itself lost its vibrancy. His new, reinforced Dao seeped into his fist and, for a moment, made it the most brilliant object in the world.
A purple meteor exploded in the darkness. The air cracked. The fire and lightning were pushed back. Strong winds erupted, striking the ring ceiling a mile above and the ground under Jack’s feet. They even parted the molten dirt that surrounded Jack, letting his bare feet touch the torched ground for a little.
The white-hot liquid would close again soon, but that was fine. Jack was no longer going to sit back and watch. He would demand the reins. He would fight back.
He would break the heavens.
His feet pressed hard against the ground, and he shot off. The molten liquid closed under him, but it didn’t matter. Not only did he not plan to fall back down, but he was also an immortal—he could fly now, as simply as willing it.
Fire and lightning surrounded him in all directions. Jack was trapped in hell, but he used to be a fiend—he knew his way around. Even as the world closed around him, he punched out again. A meteor shattered the world. It felt like the entire Trial Planet had just rumbled.
The fire and lightning were pushed back yet again, but he was higher up this time, and they were stronger. They recovered quickly, surrounding him and seeking to smother him like constrictor snakes. Flames rubbed against his skin. Lightning struck his orifices. Jack was swallowed by disaster, but feeling the pain, he only laughed.
“Is that all?” he shouted to the sky, unafraid of opening his mouth. His new Dao gave him control over his surroundings—a control that this tribulation, originally meant for E-Grade mortals, couldn’t break. Even if he opened his mouth, the fire couldn’t come in. All it could do was strike at his Neutron Star Body, which was now harder than steel. Even this celestial fire could only sizzle his arm hairs, and the lightning ricocheted back to where it came from.
Jack laughed again. “Fuck off!” he shouted. The Dao erupted from his body, commanding the space like it was his. Every foreign Dao was pushed away or subdued. The fire went out, the lightning coiled around itself, and Jack reigned over his surroundings like a god—like an immortal.
Watching from below, Brock’s eyes were filled with stars, while Old Man Spirit was dumbfounded. “A Dao Domain already!?” he cried out.
However, their surprise didn’t end there. Jack had had enough. He was now so powerful it filled his body and mind, wrestled the world under his control. He shot up, directly towards the clouds, which were preparing for another strike. A column of fire fell on him, hot enough to melt iron.
Jack laughed again. He took a step in mid-air, and suddenly, he could see reality fold in on itself, becoming a wrinkled piece of paper on which he could walk. He traversed from one fold to the next and stepped in. When he reappeared, he was now a thousand feet higher than where he used to stand. The column of fire was below him, burning nothing but his afterimage.
Jack’s mind reeled with an excitement that not even his exhaustion could overshadow. He had teleported! He had crossed space from the outside!
Suddenly, he found himself right before the clouds. They stretched over him like a reverse sea, a dark surface that huffed and puffed with power, arcing down in the distance as they followed the curvature of the ring ceiling.
These clouds, and whoever sent them, were trying to kill Jack. He would fight back. He readied a punch, filling it with all his newfound power. Space shuddered. It felt like he was holding onto a nuclear bomb. The strength in his hand was so rich it nearly burned him—this would be the most powerful strike he had ever unleashed, and by far.
He couldn’t help but grin in exhilaration.
The clouds must have sensed his intentions. They groaned in protest as they gathered all of their power. The clouds in the distance shriveled up and died as the one directly above Jack pulsed and grew, charging up one lightning bolt with the power to level a mountain.
Jack felt his hair rise and his heartbeat quicken. This power was so large that he was instinctively terrified, but he wrestled that feeling down. He was strong now. He could fight this.
“I don’t care if you are a God!” he shouted, sending his voice to echo all over the Final Ring. The more he spoke, the more it rose in volume, until the entire ring was vibrating to his tune. “I don’t care if you are a tribulation! I don’t care if you are the Dao, or the System, or the Immortals, or the Hand of God. You tried to step on my face and kill me. That is unforgivable. So pack your things…and FUCK OFF!”
He punched out. The world darkened. A true meteor appeared around his fist, dominating the world and casting it in shadow. Its purple tail was the only color to be found.
The cloud roared in protest like he had defiled it with his words. It shot out the lightning bolt. It was as thick as a house and as fast as light itself. But Jack’s fist was already on the way.
They collided.
The world exploded. The point of impact detonated. Space cracked and ripped. The unleashed power dissolved the clouds, pushing them into the ceiling and the space crack from which they came. The sun mushrooms were destroyed. The entire planet shook as if an earthquake had happened. A shockwave ravaged the floor of the Final Ring.
Brock covered his eyes and hid behind Old Man Spirit, who watched the sky with wide, shocked eyes.
When everything calmed down, Brock hesitantly raised his eyes to the sky. There were no clouds to be seen. No fire, no lightning. Cracks spread across the ceiling, and a single sun mushroom was illuminating a man standing in mid-air, laughing as he held up a fist.
Brock’s eyes were filled with emotion.
“Fuck you, world!” Jack shouted with release. “You cannot hold me down! I am Jack Rust, and I. Am. BACK!”
Comments
Samuel Strode
F-U World…I am back!!! Love it
