The black dust storm finally cleared, leaving only Charles and Nassim behind.
Nassim grinned. "As expected. If that last move hadn't fazed you, then I'd have seriously misjudged you."
Charles tilted his head. "I'm more curious why soone like you would team up with a worm like that."
There was no doubt—Nassim's aura was violent and brutal, shrouded in the wails and curses of the dead. But his evil was entirely different from the Puppet King's. Their philosophies couldn't be more opposite, and yet sohow they were working together.
Nassim replied, "Because I was bored! Without him, how else would I find an opponent like you?"
As he spoke, Nassim lunged forward, thrusting a jab straight at Charles.
"Boxing, huh?"
Charles recognized the martial art style instantly and responded with a straight punch of his own.
The jab was the most direct and fastest move in all striking styles, but once supernatural powers ca into play, the dynamics changed completely.
Nassim understood that well—so naturally, he wasn't using just an ordinary jab. His fist was cloaked in powerful death magic as it roared toward Charles.
"Terminal Smash!" Nassim's signature finisher. Brutal, simple, and therefore nearly flawless.
Charles's punch burned with scorching flas as it collided with Nassim's.
He imdiately felt the imnse force and a strange energy trying to suck the moisture from his body.
But Nassim's punch didn't break through Charles's flas. On the contrary, it was crushed outright by Charles's overwhelming power.
No exaggeration—crushed. Nassim's fist shattered completely, his entire arm disintegrating into sand-like particles.
Charles's punch swung through empty air, while the sand reassembled itself into a fist and struck him in the chest.
He stumbled back, glancing at his smoking chest with a furrowed brow.
Sothing was wrong with the supernatural powers in this world. While most Blazers' raw combat strength wasn't exaggerated, their abilities were insane.
Yakushi Kiriko could turn her body—and even her clothes—into vapor. That wasn't just manipulating water.
And now Nassim was the sa. His ability was "desiccation," not so Logia-style sand fruit. So how the hell was he turning his own body into particles and reforming it?
Nassim's body was fundantally wrong. Charles instantly realized it—it wasn't just mutated, its essence had changed.
Nassim laughed wildly. "Don't disappoint ! I've been looking forward to this for so long!"
Charles patted his chest. "Then rest assured—I'll make this entertaining for you."
Nassim's pupils shrank. He hadn't even registered Charles moving before he was already in front of him.
Charles's blazing gauntlet, armored in dragon-scale plates, filled his vision before smashing straight into his face.
The flas scorched Nassim's skin, and the sheer force rattled his skull. Blood stread from his nose and eyes as he flew backward, crashing through several shipping containers and warping their steel fras.
After confirming Nassim's abnormal physiology, Charles wanted to test just how far it went. That punch had been full force.
Against most opponents, it would've been fatal. But as expected, Nassim staggered back to his feet, more twisted than ever.
"Haha… yes! That's the feeling! That brush with death—that's what it ans to be alive!"
"As you wish."
Charles didn't waste another word. He appeared above Nassim and brought down a devastating axe kick.
Nassim raised an arm to block, which broke instantly. His entire body was slamd into the asphalt, shattering it with spiderweb-like cracks.
Boom!
A pillar of black magic erupted into the sky. The seaside port around them began to transform into sand. Nassim shot into the air, his body wrapped in black energy, and launched a blazing fast punch at Charles.
Each impact exploded in shockwaves. Charles matched him, blocking every blow with sheer force.
The scale-like plating of his gauntlets turned crimson as Charles countered with a hamring blow—one Nassim dodged at the last mont.
The punch crashed into the harbor, shattering part of the dock. Seawater surged high into the air before flooding back in.
Panting, Nassim grinned. "That was close! If I hadn't dodged that, I'd probably be dead right now, huh?"
Charles raised an eyebrow. "So you noticed? Sharp instincts."
Nassim muttered, "Of course. I crawled out of a blown-up woman's stomach on the battlefield. I've lived every mont with death breathing down my neck.
Thanks to that, I developed a sixth sense for that sll… that scent from people who want to kill —gunpowder, maybe… let's just call it killing intent.
I bet you have it too. But your vague instincts can't compare to my perception. I can read your thoughts—before your brain even tells your body what to do."
"Oh?"
Charles's eyes glead. "You can read killing intent? Then go ahead—try reading mine."
He didn't get what Nassim was so proud of. Charles had faced opponents who could genuinely foresee the future. This half-baked ability was nothing.
He could think of multiple ways to counter it. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs No(ᴠ)ᴇlFire.nᴇt
He could strike faster than Nassim could read him. Or he could suppress his killing intent entirely—controlling one's will in combat was basic training at Shindoryuu Temple.
But for now, Charles chose the simplest, most brutal thod.
Killing intent could reveal tactics—but only when the strength gap wasn't overwhelming. When it was?
It beca aningless.
Nassim began to tremble.
He hadn't been bluffing—his senses were real, honed from countless life-or-death battles.
But that sa sharpness now backfired. Charles's killing intent washed over him like a tsunami—vast, frigid, and terrifying.
It wasn't just overwhelming—it erased everything. Nassim couldn't read anything from it. His so-called future-reading ability was completely shut down.
"Ha… hahahahaha!!"
Rather than fear, Nassim laughed—hysterically.
"Yes! This! Only this kind of constant risk of death makes feel alive!"
Then he did sothing even Charles found incomprehensible.
Nassim dug his fingers into his own scorched face and ripped it off.
Charles didn't get a clear look—his body was enveloped in swirling black magic.
From within ca a beast's roar, twisted and animalistic.
Black energy exploded upward, but amidst it, golden light began to shine. The imnse magical pressure made even Charles pause.
When the magic finally dissipated, what stood before Charles no longer resembled a human.
Nassim's head looked like a charred corpse, blackened into a skull, with two buffalo-like horns protruding from his scalp.
His eyes had lted—but inside the empty sockets, flas burned like hellfire.
His body had swelled to more than twice its size, muscles bulging like stone. Gigantic bat-like wings spread from his back, and a barbed, arrowhead tail lashed the air.
He looked exactly like a demon from myth.
And Charles understood—Nassim had undergone a Transcendent Awakening.
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Reborn in Arica's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 677)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 1059)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1418)
Surgical Fruit in the Arican Comics Universe (Chapter 1422)
Arican Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1452)
Arican TV Writer (Chapter 1504)
I Am Hades, The Supre GOD of the Underworld!(Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 703)
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