Chapter 384 - 373: Steel and Flesh and Blood
Chapter 384: Chapter 373: Steel and Flesh and Blood
A forty-eight-meter-tall, nine-thousand-four-hundred-ton steel body free-fell from an altitude of thirty thousand meters, hurtling like a meteor toward the center of Glacier Academy’s plaza.
Its gravity control system only activated to decelerate in the final hundred meters, but even so, the impact of its landing blasted the plaza into a massive crater hundreds of meters in diameter.
BOOM!!!
The shockwave kicked up a circular "white wall" along the ground—the product of air, compressed to its limit, expanding in an instant.
Starting from the point of impact, the plaza’s stone tiles buckled outward and shattered at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Fountains exploded. Statues were sent flying. The entire facade of the nearest academic building collapsed inward under the blast wave, crumpling like a ball of paper.
The entire plaza’s foundation spiderwebbed with cracks from the single blow. The fissures extended eight hundred meters out, tearing several low-rise buildings in half.
The thirty-one chained apprentices were thrown dozens of meters by the blast wave, which ironically saved them.
Dust and smoke surged into the air, obscuring half the sky.
As the dust began to settle, a dark red, ancient god of war slowly rose from the massive crater.
Its armor of Earth Vein Tempered Steel gleamed with a cold, dark-red luster under the aurora’s afterglow. Through a fissure in its chest, the searing red light of three Earth Core Furnaces shone forth.
In the center of its forehead, a One-Eyed Crystal Stone over three meters in diameter blazed like an ignited sun. Its searing white light cut through the swirling dust, locking directly onto the Ancient Giant, which had already swelled to a height of over thirty meters.
A colossal, deep voice, as if originating from the depths of the earth’s crust, rumbled across the ruins of the academy, making the very air hum.
"I hear you can take on three at once?"
Herman froze at the words.
’It’s the Second-level Wizard behind the New West. He actually came!’
’But this Golem is something else. For the first time, I’m feeling a different kind of pressure—not from a bloodline, but from steel and fire itself.’
’It’s like facing a living volcano.’
"A Golem?" The corner of Herman’s mouth twitched before splitting into a grin, revealing sharp fangs. "With just one—"
Cyclops didn’t wait for him to finish. Gravity instantly reversed, and its massive body lunged forward with unnatural agility.
Its right fist was already descending!
The moment its super-vibration module-equipped fist cut through the air, it let out a piercing shriek. The high-frequency vibrations compressed the air molecules before it, forming a visible vacuum cone.
Herman instinctively crossed his arms to block.
"BAM!!"
The giant’s body slid back twenty meters on impact. Fine cracks appeared on his tough skin, and his arms went almost numb from the high-frequency vibrations. He could hear the faint sound of his bones cracking.
But three seconds later, the cracks had healed, and the fractured bones had pieced themselves back together.
Herman shook his numb arms, his expression darkening.
"Got some power behind it."
---
「Five hundred meters in the air.」
Gabriel hovered high in the sky, its eight wings fully extended. Golden motes of light drifted down from its feathers. From the T-shaped visor of its Corinthian-style war helm, a milky-white glow calmly and coldly gazed down at its opponent.
The purple-eyed Mind Mage levitated two hundred meters directly below Gabriel, tightly encased in a deep purple Spiritual Power barrier.
His hands were pressed to his temples as he channeled some kind of Spiritual Witchcraft with all his might.
Mental Enslavement!
Memory Alteration!
Soul Extraction!
Ineffective! Ineffective! Still ineffective!
The Whisperer’s expression turned grim.
The dozens of Mind Witchcraft techniques he prided himself on were like clay oxen sinking into the sea—they failed to create even a ripple against the white Golem.
Its "soul" was a complete blank.
’No, that isn’t a soul at all. It’s a complex logical program built from countless Runes, possessing only a veneer of emotion.’
’My attacks are like trying to plow a field of steel—useless, aside from kicking up a few sparks.’
’I’ve met my natural counter. I can’t even use a tenth of my full power!’
"Damned Alchemy Creation!"
The Whisperer cursed, his form instantly drifting back several hundred meters. Direct physical confrontation was his greatest weakness.
But would Gabriel give him the chance to create distance?
The answer was no.
SWOOSH!
The eight wings hovering behind it instantly broke apart, transforming into eight homing blades. They attacked simultaneously from eight completely different, unpredictable angles, their speed breaking the sound barrier. Their bizarre trajectories left eight brilliant golden trails in the air.
[Form One: Eight-winged Judgment]
The Whisperer’s pupils constricted. He sensed a mortal threat.
The space around him twisted, and his entire body became blurry and ethereal, as if he were merging with the air itself.
The eight blades passed through his incorporeal form at almost the same instant, drawing not a single drop of blood.
This was one of his core survival abilities: a short-term "Dream Shift" that granted immunity to most physical attacks.
However, Gabriel’s attack patterns were far from that simple.
The instant the Whisperer’s form solidified, Gabriel seized the fleeting opportunity.
It brought its arms together before its chest, palms facing, as its incantation core spun to full power.
[Form Three: Ranged Cannonade · Angel’s Chant]
A white Magic Beam, over ten meters in diameter and suffused with a purifying, holy aura, instantly erupted forth!
The Whisperer’s face fell. He tried to shift again, only to find the space around him locked by a strange Force Field, becoming as viscous as a quagmire.
It was the "Nullification" and "Imprisonment" Runes on Gabriel’s main wings!
He could only resort to a desperate, short-range spatial warp, narrowly avoiding the blast.
But the edge of the beam still grazed his left arm. The limb was instantly vaporized and annihilated in the white light, not even a drop of blood left behind.
The attack missed its mark.
Gabriel’s T-shaped faceplate slowly turned, reacquiring its target.
「On the ground.」
Griffin had been thrown thirty meters into the ruins by the shockwave from Cyclops’s landing. His mouth was full of blood, and his right ear was ringing incessantly.
He desperately twisted his head and, through the thick dust, saw the massive, dark-red silhouette.
That single eye, that dark red armor, those two anchor piles on its back.
He recognized it.
It was the Golem the boss had shown him before—Cyclops!
The boss was here!
Without hesitation, Griffin scrambled out of the ruins and ran for his life, away from the battlefield.
"Run! Scatter! Don’t look back!"
he roared as he ran.
Behind him, two completely different battles were raging simultaneously.
In the sky, Gabriel and the Whisperer were locked in a bizarre chase against the backdrop of the aurora.
Golden blades and purple waves of spiritual energy flashed in alternation, each collision stirring visible ripples in the fabric of space high above.
On the ground, the battle between Cyclops and the bloodline giant was a true clash of heavyweights.
A collision of pure violence and primal ferocity.
"Hah!"
Herman’s pride, ignited by the earlier taunt, exploded. He roared, not retreating but advancing, his massive fist creating a sonic boom as it tore through the air, aimed squarely at Cyclops’s head.
Cyclops neither dodged nor evaded. It raised its right arm, fingers splayed, its palm glowing with the blinding white light of high-frequency oscillations.
[Super-Vibration] activated.
The massive hand, though moving second, arrived first, catching Herman’s fist in its grip.
POP!
The high-frequency vibrations instantly disintegrated the hard bone armor and muscle of Herman’s fist, which exploded into a bloody mist on the spot.
Yet, Herman’s face showed no trace of pain. Instead, he broke into a savage grin.
The flesh at his severed wrist writhed manically. In less than three seconds, a brand new fist—even larger than before—had grown back.
"It’s useless! My bloodline grants me an undying body!"
He laughed wildly as he swung his other hand, bringing it crashing down again.
Cyclops released its grip, allowing the fist to smash against its shoulder pauldron with a deafening clang of metal.
It took the opportunity to swing its eighteen-meter-long great hammer.
[Earth-Splitting Hammer]
The great hammer swept out with unstoppable force, smashing Herman at the waist and sending him flying. The terrifying kinetic energy sent him crashing through the remains of a distant clock tower.
The blow shattered his spine, vertebra by vertebra.
Yet, a mere five seconds later, accompanied by a sickening crunch of bone, Herman stood up again, his shattered spine already healed.
Not only that, but his aura grew even more savage, and his body began to expand once more amidst a cloud of blood-red steam.
Thirty meters... Forty meters... Fifty meters...
In the blink of an eye, he had transformed into an Ancient Giant nearly eighty meters tall. He was no longer looking up at the forty-eight-meter-tall Cyclops, but down.
Herman loomed over it, the corner of his mouth twisting into a cruel smile.
"No matter how exquisitely you’re built, you’re just a lifeless thing. How can you possibly compare to the mysteries hidden within a bloodline!"
The two giants clashed again.
Herman’s Regeneration Ability was terrifying. Every time his body repaired itself, it was accompanied by a deeper awakening of his bloodline, and his body continued to swell.
A super-vibration punch shattered the giant’s tough skin—repaired in three seconds.
The Earth-Splitting Hammer broke his bones—healed in five seconds.
The Volcano Cannon charred half the giant’s body—ten seconds later, the carbon flaked away to reveal pristine new flesh underneath.
"My turn!"
Herman leaped into the air, his legs wreathed in terrifying, blood-red Magic Power, and came crashing down on Cyclops.
Cyclops crossed its arms in front of it, bracing for the impact.
Still, its massive body was knocked back half a step.
A clear dent appeared on its right arm—one that could not be quickly self-repaired by its Runes.