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Chapter 295: Disaster
🕑 Added 2023-10-26 17:36:01 +0000 UTCAt a lower elevation, Sapasun noticed the other battles heating up. “Whoops. Guess I delayed too much,” he said. Suddenly, he accelerated further. His movements became blurs. He teleported behind Dordok, then to his left, then to his right. He became a tornado that the cyclops was completely unable to keep up with.
The Sage pointed a finger in his general direction, but it did nothing. “What!?” he exclaimed.
Sapasun suddenly flashed above Dordok and smashed a palm onto his head. The cyclops did not managed to defend. His neck bent down, barely able to handle the strain, and his entire body went flying so quickly he crashed into the ground far below.
Immediately, Sapasun teleported before the Sage. The Sage also tried to teleport to escape, but the canine predicted that and caught up using his superior speed. His hand wrapped around the Sage’s throat, immobilizing him.
“I was just playing around before,” Sapasun said with a slight frown. “I can sense that your Dao is far deeper than mine, but you are just too underleveled. I have over double your stats. What were you thinking? How was someone as capable as you allowed to do such stupid shit?”
Despite being firmly grabbed by the neck, the Sage managed to chuckle. “Because,” he croaked out, “I am a sage. I always know what I’m doing.”
Sapasun looked on with confusion for a moment, then shrugged. “Well, whatever. The real question is…” His lips were drawn into a feral grin. “What should I break first?”
One of the battles was over. Dordok and the Sage…had lost!
To the side, Shol’s golden form was still clashing heavily against Li Qian. The swordsman dodged everything like a fly, but Shol was not playing around, either. Each of his six arms detonated golden suns. His mouth and eyes unleashed beams of destruction. The very air was scorched where his attacks passed, being slowly refilled by its surroundings with a whoosh.
Li Qian flew under a beam and over an exploding sun. He teleported to the left, then right behind Shol, but another sun exploded in his face and pushed him back. He released a wild cut from a hundred feet away, but a single golden palm broke the wind blade.
“You know you cannot fight me,” Shol declared calmly, still shooting out suns, beams, and all sorts of extreme destruction. Li Qian was forced to dodge everything like a fly, completely unable to approach. “You are weak. Always have been. There is only one reason why you have been able to beat me before, and it may no longer be the case. Use it, Li Qian. Use the strike I fear. Let me tear it down and overcome my demons.”
Li Qian gritted his teeth, desperately dodging a cascade of attacks. Though he had also utilized a battle form, the truth was, Shol’s was simply stronger. He had been able to match it once upon a time, but not anymore. Whatever Shol had been doing in this planet had sharpened him just enough to overwhelm Li Qian.
Unless he used his trump card.
“Very well!” he roared, flying away and opening a wide distance between them. He lifted his sword over his head slowly, as if it weighed a ton. “You may be strong, Shol, but your powers of comprehension are lacking. No one could become our faction’s Head Disciple without mastering our ultimate skill.”
Shol’s eyes narrowed in concentration. A golden sun blossomed in each of his six palms, ready to be unleashed. “Then bring it out,” he replied, “and let me break that ultimate skill of yours. Let me show you that hard work tramples talent.”
“As you wish.” Li Qian’s eyes were dark. He brought down his sword—and no longer was its light cyan, but pure white. The swing was much slower than his previous ones. It seemed weak, too. But it was straight. Far too straight, and far too true. It reached deep into the Dao and pulled out secrets that did not belong to the D-Grade.
“Supernova Slash!” he roared.
The very tip of his sword shone with white light so blinding it momentarily overwhelmed the real sun in the sky. In the next moment, space before him ruptured as a tremendous explosion occurred. He was unaffected; the shockwave was directed entirely towards Shol, a blinding white menace that instantly immolated the ground far below. The strength of the actual beam was unfathomable.
Facing it, Shol had no time to dodge, but nor did he intend to. All six of his arms tossed out a miniature sun. His mouth opened to release a beam of its own, golden in color. His body remained stationary. All seven of his attacks converged into the beam, colliding with an explosion so titanic it created a wide, mushroom-shaped cloud of fire that engulfed both Shol and Li Qian.
The entire sky stood still for a moment as if in awe of the powers used. Even Jack looked over, protecting his eyes with his Dao. Then, the fire slowly dispersed. The burned air was restored, and the sky stopped moaning.
Li Qian stood hunched in mid-air. Only tatters remained of his cyan armor. The exposed parts of his skin were completely charred. He looked to be at the ends of his strength.
However, another shape fell from the sky, tumbling powerlessly towards the ground below. Shol’s golden form had been broken. His entire body was burned beyond recognition, and he had lost consciousness. Only his extremely solid body as a peak D-Grade Physical cultivator kept him within an inch of his life.
Shol…had also lost!
Jack’s eyes widened. “No,” he muttered. “No!”
These all take time to describe, but actually, all three of the battles took place concurrently. The Sage and Dordok were defeated at around the same time as Shol. In the exact same time, Maximus was still gathering motes of light around him, preparing to unleashed what he called “his supremacy.”
Time slowed down for Jack. He saw the defeat of his friends in the distance. They were still alive, but very soon, they wouldn’t be. Even if he could match Maximus, more immortals would arrive any second now, and Sapasun was still in fighting condition.
They had lost.
But he would not go down without a fight.
Scorched earth, he thought, his gaze darkening. Fuck you all.
There were only two things to do: try to save his friends, and take down as many enemies as he possibly could.
Before Maximus even finished whatever he was up, Jack ignored him and teleported away. He appeared beside Sapasun, who clearly did not expect this. “Wha—” was all he managed to say before a fist crashed into his chest, sending him flying. He had already launched himself backward to weaken the strike, but the attack had come so unannounced he’d taken it hard; he spat out blood and screamed in pain.
“What the hell?” he asked in a breaking voice.
At the same time he attacked, Jack had grabbed the canine’s wrist and clamped down on it, forcing him to release the Sage. For a second, the Sage was free. “Take the others and run,” Jack ordered quickly. “I’ll hold them off.”
“You can’t!”
“I have to. Either we all die, or only I do.” He smiled. “Take care of Earth for me, Sage. Please.”
The Sage looked him in the eye for what felt like hours but must have been only an instant. “I will,” he promised, then instantly teleported away, presumably to collect the others and make a run for it. Jack didn’t have time to check anymore.
He charged. He unleashed a Meteor Punch at Sapasun, forcing him to bend reality to dodge, then pretended to attack again but actually teleported next to Li Qian. The swordsman had been expecting this; he raised his sword to defend, but in his injured state, it was far from enough. He was sent flying away like a missile, spitting out a long line of blood.
“STOP!” Maximus roared, appearing before Jack. Golden motes of light still flickered around him. His transformation was not complete; he’d been forced to interrupt it in order to come and save the others from a rampaging Jack. “What are you doing?” he roared. “Where is your honor?”
“In the survival of my friends,” Jack replied, laughing freely. The Fist inside him felt livelier than ever. He then teleported away, appearing between his previous location and the approaching army of immortals, who had almost arrived. “All three of you should work together to stop me,” he shouted in Maximus’s direction, “or I will decimate every deacon on your planet!”
Maximus grew so angry he wanted to spit out blood. “You!” was all he managed to say before rushing over. Sapasun and Li Qian teleported as well, but there was no way they could make it in time. Jack was closer. He would reach the immortals and begin butchering before they could stop him.
Jack teleported thrice in quick succession. Suddenly, he was in the midst of the approaching first wave of immortals, all deacons. All of them had seen his battle and were already scattering. “It is too late to run,” Jack muttered. “You will all die here. If I am to fall, I’m taking you with me.”
He reached inside himself and prepared to activate his Life Drop in a last, suicide attack.
Then, suddenly, he froze. The world froze. Everything froze. Every mote of Dao he could sense stood still as if afraid to even move. Even the faraway form of the Sage, still carrying the unconscious bodies of Shol and Dordok, also froze.
“That is enough,” said a voice brimming with barely restrained anger. The Warden appeared directly in front of Jack in all his majesty, nullifying any and all attempts of a suicide attack. Jack was a bucket of water before an ocean. Facing such disparity in strength, even if he used the Life Drop, anything he tried would be laughable.
In the face of death, he relaxed. “You would send a C-Grade to achieve what all your Kingdom’s D-Grades could not?” he asked. “Where is your honor?”
The Warden snorted. “Hmph! You have already abandoned honor in your despair. Why should our Kingdom not treat you like the dog you are?”
Comments
I have a feeling the black hole church is going to make an appearance to save jack after the enormous potential he shows on hell and the life drop.
Colin Fortin-Ballay
You know what would be cool, the dao of gravity
