Chapter 149: One Punch

The sight of Cassian drove Roderic Sorn into a frenzy.

"Cassian! You devil! At last! I’ll cut you into pieces!"

A Black Banner Lord calling him a devil. That was a new one.

Cassian bought a fresh Communication Seal Scroll through the Exchange and tore it open without hurrying.

"Do I know you? You sound as though I stole your wife."

Liora would need several Teleports to reach this place. He had time.

The question struck Roderic exactly where it hurt.

"Attack!" he screamed. "Kill him! Kill him!"

Hundreds of flying troops had surrounded Cassian. Among them were a squad of Wyverns and several Spiritbound Lords fused with bird spirits, each giving off a formidable pressure.

Two months had passed since the Realm opened. The Spiritbound Lords were far stronger now than they had been at the beginning.

"Slow!"

"Starbind!"

"Mind Shock!"

"Life Drain!"

"Geomagnetic Pull!"

Weakening spells, control effects, and mental attacks poured toward Cassian. Some of the mental skills could not miss. Dodging would do nothing against them.

A guaranteed hit, however, did not guarantee an effect. That still depended on the attributes of both sides.

Cassian gave his body a slight shake. Dozens of effects broke apart against his overwhelming Physique.

"So that’s all you have."

Cassian sounded disappointed.

"Still, gathering dozens of Lords, more than a dozen Spiritbound, and over a hundred Epic troops in ten hours isn’t easy. I shouldn’t ask too much of you."

At a thought, he rose several hundred meters into the air.

Cloudstride was one of the great A-grade flying arts. There was even a tale of a Beastkin Warbound Lord named Orren in the Fifth Realm who had devised a somersaulting form of cloud flight and could cross fifty-four thousand kilometers in an instant.

Cassian was far from that. But with his present Spirit driving the art, even Aurelia could not have caught him.

The Lords below stared as he slipped out of the encirclement so quickly that he seemed to have teleported.

"How can he move that fast?"

"How are we supposed to fight him?"

The Dimensional Lock had disappeared as soon as it finished pulling Cassian through. Some of them were already thinking about escape.

Roderic’s eyes were bloodshot.

"Chase him! Kill him! Don’t be afraid! He must have used a precious flying item!"

Hundreds of troops climbed after Cassian, trying to surround him again.

To him, they looked terribly clumsy.

"You should feel honored," he said. "This is the first time I’ve used my full strength since leveling up."

The enemies below were tiny dark shapes. Cassian drew a deep breath and straightened his back.

"Origin. Divine. Fist."

He forced out each word with all the conviction he could put behind it.

That conviction had power. The name expressed the essence of the art; speaking it clearly and forcefully helped give that power shape, much like a mage’s incantation.

For this fist art, a proper invocation could make the strike more than thirty percent stronger than leaving the name unspoken.

Cassian held nothing back.

He gathered his Aether. His voice rolled for a kilometer around him, and the Aether in the air churned toward his body.

In one second, a golden fist a hundred meters across formed before him.

It looked solid. Every line and crease stood out clearly.

Even with his strength, its weight was enormous. Cassian drove his fist down with effort.

The fastest Spiritbound Lord reached it first.

Gold filled his vision. Terror spread across his birdlike face as he forced his Aether into a suit of black armor.

It lasted less than a tenth of a second.

The Lord burst into foul blood mist, crushed as easily as a mosquito.

The fist drove on.

Spiritbound Lords with strength comparable to Legendary troops. Epic Wyverns. Epic and Rare soldiers.

All of them disintegrated beneath it.

A larger insect was still an insect to the hand that crushed it.

Golden light washed over the horrified faces on the ground.

"What kind of skill covers that much ground and still hits so hard?"

"Impossible! He can’t be this strong!"

"I’ve seen a Level-50 Legendary monster fight. It was nothing like this!"

"He’s a monster!"

"I told you I didn’t want to come!"

"Report his strength to the Commander!"

"We can’t! Communications are sealed again!"

That broke what remained of their composure.

"He’s this strong and he still sealed the area? Does he have no pride at all?"

"It’s coming down! Run!"

There was no time.

Roderic’s frenzy had vanished. Only fear and regret remained.

Two women. That was all. He could have found other women anywhere.

Why had he provoked Cassian?

It was his last thought.

The earth shook.

The power of Cassian’s Legendary fist art far surpassed the Hydra’s Elemental Surge.

The cost was enormous too. The strike had drained almost all his Aether and left his face pale.

Cassian drank two bottles of Life Water in succession. Only then did he recover.

When the dust cleared, the result pleased him immensely.

A fist-shaped crater several hundred meters across had been pressed into the ground. Its deepest point reached ten meters down, as though a vast mold had stamped the earth.

Blood, flesh, and broken bones were mixed into the soil.

"Good. Just the right area."

He could control how widely Origin Divine Fist spread. He could even make a fist ten kilometers across if he wanted to.

At that size, though, the dispersed power would be little more than a light show. It might not even kill an ordinary militiaman at his Level.

Cassian admired his work for another moment. Then he frowned.

"Someone survived?"

He flashed down and hovered over the center of the crater.

A Spiritbound Lord was embedded in the earth, coughing violently.

Cassian recognized him at once. Conrad Westcott, the bear who had used Dimensional Lock.

The bear spirit had made him exceptionally tough. With so many targets on the ground, Cassian had spread his strike over a wider area. Between the two, Westcott had kept one last breath.

His eyes were empty. Broken words spilled from his mouth.

"Cassian... Black Banner’s destined enemy... our people... wiped out in an instant..."

Cassian understood him well enough.

"An instant? Don’t exaggerate. Wiping out Black Banner would be a serious undertaking. It would take years." He frowned. "And thanks to you, I can’t even say I killed everyone with one punch."

He sent out a casual arc of Pivot Star Swordlight.

Westcott’s head burst apart.

Then Cassian turned his attention to the rewards.