Chapter 34: Physical combat

A cataclysmic shockwave tore through the pocket dimension. The impact instantly shattered Ethan’s wooden barrier, sending him flying backward through the air until he violently crashed into the earth.

Simultaneously, the violent collision completely dispersed Rose’s black fog and entirely nullified her apocalyptic finger attack.

While Rose still retained a fair amount of mana, Ethan was in rough shape. Fine, jagged fractures began spreading across his skin, making him look less like a living human and more like a cracking porcelain doll. His body simply couldn’t fully withstand the violent backlash of that immense power yet.

Right on cue, the System chimed coldly in his mind:

[Host, it is strongly advised to consume a Strength Pill and an Age-Advancement Pill immediately. This will temporarily stabilize your physical form to a 20-year-old adult vessel and exponentially boost your combat threshold.]

Despite the agony, Ethan slowly shook his head. Staring down at the stone-like cracks forming across his arms, a chilling, triumphant smile touched his lips.

The Stone-Fishes Body worked on a brutal principle: the more physical trauma, bone fractures, and lethal stress it endured in battle, the faster it accelerated its evolution toward the legendary Stone Dragon Physique.

By pushing his body to the absolute brink, Ethan was actively welcoming the pain to force a rapid physical leap.

Though every nerve ending screamed in agony—making it feel as though his limbs were being crushed in a hydraulic press and completely detached from his sensory perception—he embraced the torment.

Across the clearing, Rose narrowed her blood-red eyes. She bit her tongue and let the blood drip onto the ground. Waving her hand, she rapidly summoned a legion of skeletal, undead soldiers composed entirely of pure dark energy.

However, due to the purifying nature of the domain’s forest environment, the undead began to wither and weaken visibly by the second.

"Ethan... or whatever monster you actually are,"

Rose hissed, her voice dripping with venom as she advanced toward him. "Prepare to die. I’m not holding back an ounce of mercy anymore."

Ethan slowly pushed himself up from the shattered ground, wiping a streak of dark blood from his lip. He rolled his shoulders, a fierce, manic light dancing in his blue eyes as he clenched both fists into a tight combat stance.

"Looks like it’s time for some old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat," Ethan murmured, his smile widening into something truly terrifying.

Just then, the black-hooded figure stepped up right beside Ethan and slowly pulled back its hood.

Cascading down her shoulders were striking, dark blue hair that caught the dim light, framing a face whose cold, piercing black eyes were locked firmly onto the approaching wave of undead soldiers.

As the hood fell away, revealing her identity, Rose’s face twisted in sheer disbelief, her voice sharp with venom.

"Selena, so this was your entire plan, you bitch? How dare you orchestrate a surprise attack against me?!"

Spurred by Rose’s furious command, the horde of skeletal undead shrieked and accelerated their charge, flooding forward even faster toward them.

Seeing the horde close in, Ethan let out a calm smile.

He cracked his knuckles and said, "Technically, I’m not a professional warrior, but I do know a thing or two about hand-to-hand combat. Let’s see who can smash through more skeletons first, shall we?"

Selena gave a sharp nod in agreement. Gripping the hilt of her silver sword tightly, she began channeling dense mana through the blade. Simultaneously, crackling surges of vibrant blue mana wrapped tightly around Ethan’s hands.

In truth, he had never undergone any physical training in his past life here, but back when he lived on Earth, he had practiced push-ups, boxing, and kickboxing.

Even though those memories of Earth were growing quite hazy now, perhaps they would still come in handy.

A thrill of excitement rushed through him as he smiled at the thought. This is going to be so much fun. My old memories are starting to return.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Ethan surged forward toward the undead army, moving right alongside Selena.

The two of them crashed straight into the frontline, and within moments, the undead army was completely ripped to shreds, turning into flying dust and shattered bones.

Suddenly, two glowing blue magic formations materialized over Ethan’s hands, drastically amplifying his punching power and physical strength.

Drawing upon the hazy muscle memory of his past life’s boxing and kickboxing training from Earth, he settled into a precise, calculated fighting stance. Right beside him, Selena swung her silver sword through the air, sending sparks of dark and silver mana flying.

As the massive horde of over a hundred undead soldiers charged frantically toward them, the two of them didn’t hesitate for a second and plunged straight into the fray. Ethan masterfully controlled the battlefield—never allowing himself to get completely surrounded, instead using footwork to funnel the attackers so only a few could reach him at a time, making the rest stumble over each other.

When the first skeletal soldier lunged forward, Ethan leaped slightly and delivered a devastating punch straight to its chest, his blue-mana-enhanced fist packing immense destructive force. Crash! With that single, powerful blow, the skeleton’s ribs shattered into dust, scattering across the air.

Following up instantly with a fluid side-kick reminiscent of his kickboxing days, he sent a second soldier flying backward. Every single strike he landed was sharp, efficient, and packed with enough kinetic and mana-infused force to carve a path through the mob.

Right alongside him, Selena moved like a whirling tempest of shadow and steel, slicing the heads off dozens of skeletons with clean, surgical sweeps of her silver blade.

Their seamless coordination and Ethan’s terrifying, augmented punching power turned what should have been an overwhelming mob into a brutal massacre, reducing the entire army of a hundred undead soldiers to a scattering of shattered bones and flying dust in mere moments.

Even more cracks had spread across Ethan’s entire body, yet he was still smiling.

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