Chapter 435 - 434: Lord Rank (part 2)

Chapter 435: Chapter 434: Lord Rank (part 2)

Alix lowered his fist. A dull ache spread through his arm.

He glanced at his hand. The skin over his knuckles had split slightly.

A thin line of blood slowly dripped onto the broken floor.

He stared at it for a moment...

Then laughed.

"Haha..."

"So that’s how it feels."

"It’s been a very long time since someone made me bleed."

His eyes shone with excitement rather than concern.

Although he was only a peak Tier 6...

His body is already comparable to that of tier 7 expert.

Combined with the experience of someone who had once stood at Tier 10...

His understanding of combat far surpassed that of the Lord before him.

The Lord suddenly vanished.

Not through a movement technique.

Its physical speed alone had reached an unbelievable level.

It appeared beside Alix in less than an instant.

Another punch.

Simple.

Direct.

Yet the surrounding Law of Strength condensed around its fist, causing space itself to distort.

Alix didn’t retreat.

His eyes calmly followed the trajectory.

At the last possible moment, he shifted half a step sideways.

The fist grazed past his shoulder.

BOOM!!

The punch continued forward, striking empty space.

The pressure generated by that single missed attack blasted a massive hole through the chamber wall thousands of meters away.

An entire section of the underground hall collapsed.

Without wasting the opening, Alix counterattacked.

His fist surged forward like a bolt of lightning, aiming directly for the Lord’s ribs.

The demon crossed its forearm to block.

BOOM!

The collision echoed throughout the underground chamber.

The Lord narrowed its eyes.

Even without using its senses, it could instinctively tell...

Those gauntlets were dangerous.

A genuine Tier 7 Artifact.

Alix rotated his wrists before making a fist.

The surrounding air exploded from the pressure alone.

"That’s better."

"I’d rather match your strength properly."

His smile widened.

"It wouldn’t be much of a fight otherwise."

The Lord answered with silence.

It simply took another step forward.

Boom!

The Law of Strength intensified once again.

The floor beneath its feet sank several meters.

The surrounding air condensed until it resembled invisible steel.

Every movement it made distorted the space around its body.

Alix calmly exhaled.

He had thousands of Tier 6 techniques stored within his memories.

Each one had been refined countless times over.

Many had already surpassed their original limits after fusing with his understanding of Tier 7 principles.

Against an opponent manipulating Laws...

Holding back ordinary techniques would accomplish nothing.

A faint emerald glow gathered beneath his feet.

The surrounding wind suddenly became unnaturally quiet.

Then, everything erupted.

[Tier 6 Skill—Heavenly Gale Step.]

Boom!

Alix vanished.

The place where he had stood exploded as compressed wind detonated outward.

His speed instantly increased several times over, leaving behind dozens of afterimages that raced across the battlefield from different directions.

The Lord calmly watched every illusion.

Then...

It threw a single punch.

BOOM!

The compressed force behind the strike obliterated every afterimage within thousands of meters.

The pressure alone tore apart the violent winds filling the chamber.

Unfortunately, the real Alix wasn’t among them.

He had already appeared above the Lord.

A blazing sphere of crimson fire condensed within his right palm.

The surrounding temperature skyrocketed.

The obsidian floor below began melting into liquid.

[Tier 6 Skill—Solar Annihilation Palm.]

The sphere compressed further and further until it became no larger than a fist.

Yet the energy contained within it caused the surrounding space to shimmer violently.

Alix struck downward.

The Lord answered with another punch.

Its fist carried no techniques.

Only the Law of Strength.

BOOOOM!!

Fire erupted in every direction.

A sea of crimson flames engulfed the battlefield.

The ceiling of the enormous chamber split apart as molten rock rained from above.

The Lord remained standing within the inferno.

Its fist had dispersed nearly all of the attack through overwhelming physical force.

Even so, tiny scorch marks had appeared across its crimson armor.

The Lord lowered its gaze toward the blackened marks.

Its expression remained unchanged.

Alix, however, noticed them immediately.

"It works."

The damage wasn’t significant.

But it proved something important.

His attacks could bypass the Lord’s physical dominance.

Without hesitation, mana flowed through his body once more.

This time...

The chamber suddenly became freezing cold.

The blazing flames vanished almost instantly.

Countless snowflakes began falling within the underground palace.

The temperature plummeted so rapidly that molten stone froze solid in seconds.

Long streams of icy blue light gathered around Alix’s gauntlets.

[Tier 6 Skill—Frozen Heaven Spear.]

The surrounding frost condensed into a gigantic spear nearly three hundred meters long.

Intricate frost runes covered its surface.

The sheer density of mana contained within it caused nearby space to emit sharp cracking sounds.

With a swing of his arm, the colossal spear shot forward.

Its speed was so great that it appeared as nothing more than a streak of blue light.

The Lord stomped forward.

Boom!

The Law of Strength condensed before its fist.

Rather than dodging...

It chose to destroy the attack head-on.

Its fist collided with the spear.

CRACK!

The enormous ice spear fractured.

Then exploded.

Countless razor-sharp shards swept through the chamber like a devastating storm, slicing deep grooves into the obsidian pillars surrounding the battlefield.

Before the frozen mist could clear...

Golden lightning suddenly erupted from within it.

Crack!

Crack!

Crack!

Thousands of arcs intertwined around Alix’s body, transforming him into a figure wreathed in divine thunder.

[Tier 6 Skill—Heaven’s Judgment Lance.]

The lightning gathered into a dazzling spear of pure electricity.

Unlike ordinary lightning. Every strand had been compressed to its absolute limit.

The violent energy caused the surrounding air to continuously explode.

Alix thrust the lightning spear forward.

It pierced across the battlefield like divine judgment itself.

The Lord extended one hand.

Its fingers closed around the spear.

For a brief instant, the lightning struggled violently.

Then, the Law of Strength crushed it.

The brilliant spear shattered into millions of sparks that scattered throughout the chamber.

Yet before the final sparks disappeared... Alix was already in front of the Lord.

His movements flowed seamlessly from one technique into another.

There was no pause.

No wasted motion.

His vast combat experience allowed him to chain techniques together with perfect precision.

A deep rumbling echoed beneath the battlefield.

The earth answered his call.

Countless stone dragons burst from beneath the shattered floor, each one several hundred meters long.

Their scales were forged from compressed earth essence, making them harder than refined spirit metal.

[Tier 6 Skill—Mountain Dragon Ascension.]

The dragons roared as they coiled around the Lord from every direction, seeking to bind its limbs before crushing it beneath overwhelming force.

The Lord merely flexed its muscles.

BOOOOOOM!!

Every stone dragon exploded into dust.

The force of the shockwave blasted Alix backward.

He flipped several times in midair before landing lightly upon a broken pillar.

Dust slowly settled around him.

His silver gauntlets gleamed beneath the flickering black flames.

He looked toward the Lord. Its breathing remained steady. Its aura had barely weakened.

Likewise, Alix’s expression showed no frustration.

Instead...

The smile on his face grew even wider.

"Excellent."

He flexed his fingers inside the Tier 7 gauntlets.

"I’ve only tested a handful out of the thousands of techniques I know."