1422 Against Rank 8s

A dangerous storm swept dozens and dozens of light years, destroying everything in their path. Like a layer of onion being peeled off, the very fabric of reality came under pressure.

For a moment, it seemed like the space-time field itself might break down. But a few seconds later, it still held strong.

As strong as the celestial rankers were, they were far from touching the the pillars that make up reality.

Miss Calamity, Duke Kriad and Corinthian continued their brawl, getting violent with each strike. Everything in their path be damned, the trio fought with increasing intensity, literally to death.

But they still noticed an area being blocked out of their perception. That area was also where Varian and Serenthia's subordinates were fighting.

"By the time we kill you, he'll join you." Corinthian made a line with his index finger.

A blazing red spear—his natal treasure—spun violently, forming a vortex that began to suck away vitality from its surroundings.

Wisps of life essence started to get pulled out of Miss Calamity's clone, entering the vortex. Even though it's not very prominent, the lady's skin started to dim while her movements grew a bit awkward.

Corinthian didn't stop there and launched a few more spears. Nine more vortices formed, pulling away the vitality of the ferocious clone.

While this happened, the scene in the opaque barrier was the opposite.

A beam of green life essence reached Varian, aiming to drill into his body.

Almost at the same time, a man holding a heavy hammer made jumped at Varian.

If the green beam succeeds entering his body, then Varian would lose a considerable amount of vitality and if the foreign force manages to corrupt any of his body part, then that part would fight against him, like a traitor within the castle gates.

But if that heavy hammer—made of a metal infamous for suppressing vitality—hits him, he'd have hard time regenerating, which would push him into a downward spiral he might not recover from.

Captain Jovian and the four others in the squad swiftly prepared their own attacks, ready to strike almost immediately, giving the enemy no time to adjust.

'I really didn't want to fight you. But you made the bed, so sleep on it. Which one will it be? A heavily corrupted body part you have to sever yourself or an injured body you can't easily regenerate from?'

Ignoring the fist impression on his face, Captain Jovian tensed his muscles as the critical moment approached. The four soldiers who were with him also leaned forward, ready to take off.

They'd practiced these scenariors many, many times in their training.

Depending on the move Varian decided to avoid, they'd respond with a countermove to inflict the most damage.

If he let himself get corrupted, Captain Jovian and another warrior—Life Spirits—would follow up and use their powers to corrupt Varian's life essence. An injured man would naturally have more openings and would suffer under such attack.

But if Varian avoided the corruption and got injured, the two Paragon Body warriors would attack. Since he couldn't regenerate as fast as he could, they'd tear his limbs off by attacking at full strength and incapacitate him. From there on, it'd an easy job.

The squad, while new, wasn't amateur. Even the least inexperienced one of the group had more than three centuries of fighting experience.

People in this squad saw all types of fighters and could basically anticipate their enemy's next moves while countering them with relative ease.

…But what's why everyone in the squad was dumbfounded when Varian took both the attacks head on.

Boom!

Kaaa!

Whatever damage he was going to suffer from one attack could be minimized if he took enough care to put up the defense and adjust his position.

But this bastard!

"Kughhh!"

The space around the <Life Spirit> who was shooting the green beam at Varian collapsed without warning.

As if they had been waiting for that chance all along, the powers of Order and Chaos acted within the collapsed space.

Not just those two, even the power of life was subtly used.

The matter present inside the collapsed space—the man's body, his armor, scattered particles—all lit up with a blinding light.

And then it all exploded into the purest form of energy, powered by aura, going far beyond a nuclear explosion.

Boom! Boom! Boom! 

Life Spirits had a nasty reputation as cockroaches. Because they were masters at controlling life essence and had abundance of it, they wouldn't die so easily.

Even if you 'kill' them in a literal sense—cut off their head, burn their body to ashes, crush their heart—they'd come back to life.

It's just that the number of times they could return was, like most things in the cosmos, finite.

And each ressurrection consumed life essence.

The powerful attack created by order-chaos 'killed' the warrior right away. But usually, once dead, a Life Spirit would ressurect somewhere else.

It's a professional habit to scatter bits of their life essences in far distances so that when they die, they could ressurect away from danger.

That's what should've happened.

…But Varian enclosed the space and messed up the flow of time.

So, the Life Spirit ended up ressurecting in the same enclosed space.

To his bad luck, the explosion continued.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"Arghh!"

The screams of the man reached the four members who were confident of victory, causing them to frown.

This happened in a single second.

At the same time, the green beam drilled into Varian's arm which quickly began to wriggle and shake, as if it was about to explode.

The warrior with the hammer showed no hesitation and swung down his weapon.

Varian didn't take it on with pure strength like he usually would. One, his <Paragon Body> wasn't the strongest at the moment. Two, his right arm was being corrupted and affected his strength

Instead, he used a power that had nothing to do with physical strength.

Varian raised his hand and his palm faced the hammer warrior.

Boom!