Red-hot demonic energy engulfed tal spears with long tails burst out of the ground, shooting forward at hypersonic speeds, fast enough that very few existences currently on the planet would even notice them.
Their target, however, was none other than the 'Beast King', Kolvar, one of Aidos' Transcendents who had been at that level for several centuries.
His pupils darted around rapidly, locking onto each spear as his large body moved with lightning-fast speed, jumping over the first, twisting his upper body to avoid the second, swinging his left hand to parry the third, punching down the fourth with his right, ducking under the fifth, before kicking off the ground and shooting toward the source of the attacks with his fist pulled back.
A giant tallic barrier erged from the ground, blocking his right fist as it shot forward with sonic booms trailing behind, cracks radiating out in all directions from the point of impact.
Taking a deep breath, the lion beastman activated his Pseudo-Authority over the law of Force, energy bubbling into his arm and toward the tal barrier, slamming into it with an impact that shattered it into pieces.
Frowning, Kriemler raised his hand, asserting dominance over all the tal shards, then clenched his fist, sending them shooting toward Kolvar from every direction as projectiles.
Kolvar stomped his foot, infusing law energy into the earth, causing rock fragnts to erupt from the ground and collide with every single tal fragnt aid at him.
The Beast King dashed through the onslaught, a spherical barrier crafted from the energy of the laws of Force and Fortification surrounding him as he shot toward Kriemler, forcing the Greater Demon to conjure a giant tallic sword, swinging it down with full strength.
The beastman vanished just before the sword reached him, appearing beside Kriemler and throwing a right straight, but the demon quickly liquefied the tal in the sword he'd already swung, letting it flow through the air like water before resolidifying beside his face to form a shield that blocked Kolvar's punch.
The force of his punch cracked the barrier, and pulling back his arm, Kolvar unleashed seven lightning-fast punches in succession, shattering the tallic shield into pieces.
However, the ti the shield bought Kriemler was enough for the demon to gather his energy and summon dozens of red-hot tallic spears that erupted from the ground, forcing Kolvar to leap backwards to avoid them.
The spears shot into the air and curved toward Kolvar's new position, and noticing this, Kolvar clenched his left fist and punched downward, applying a force from above to redirect the spears toward the ground.
They crashed downwards, splitting the earth, and at the sa mont, the weapons of fallen combatants from across the battlefield floated into the air, each one igniting with a demonic light as they shot toward Kolvar.
Despite this, the Beast King didn't spare them a glance, trusting his force barrier as he took a stance and stepped forward, the ground shrinking until he appeared right in front of Kriemler with his fist pulled back.
'This…spatial laws?! Just how many laws did this beastman comprehend!?'
Kriemler frowned, throwing out a fist to et Kolvar's, the silvery tallic sheen of law energy coating his as their fists collided with a thunderous crack.
'His strength increased?!'
The realisation instantly dawned on Kriemler as he felt his arm pushed back by Kolvar's, his brows creasing as he extended his other hand and conjured a sword to slash at Kolvar's neck, only to have the beastman deflect the blade with his bare hands infused with a small amount of law energy.
'He deflected my strike with only that much energy infusion?! His durability increased, too! How many Pseudo-Authorities does he have??'
Kriemler, who had only been a Transcendent for a few decades, naturally didn't have as many Pseudo-Authorities as Kolvar did.
Having reached Level 900 over 300 years ago, Kolvar had spent ti comprehending nurous laws, both those he had an affinity for, like Force, Earth, Wind, and more recently, Fire, as well as those he had a horrible affinity for, such as Space.
During this period, he had achieved 100% comprehension of the Basic Rank Laws of Force and Earth, while attaining Pseudo-Authorities in Wind and Fortification, and was close to obtaining one in the law of Fire as well.
He was also using these Pseudo-Authorities in combat, combining them with his Unique Skill, which he hadn't activated when he delivered that first punch.
It was a skill whose na didn't sound particularly Unique, but it truly deserved to be classified in the Unique Grade.
Bare Hands.
It had multiple effects, but all of them could be sumd up in a single line.
'The user's Attack Power and Defence increase the longer they fight without a weapon.'
It was an accumulation-type skill that continuously absorbed ambient energy to strengthen its user whenever a specific condition was t.
Even more, the buff stacked, and it had an Overclocking Mode, allowing Kolvar to temporarily exceed the Stack Limit, though this ca at the cost of severe strain on his body and a 50% reduction in the Stack Limit for several days, weeks, or even months afterwards.
Those details aside, Kolvar had activated this skill, and the longer he and Kriemler fought, the stronger he beca. He also had several support skills boosting his Strength Stat, one enhancing his Agility with spatial laws to grant short bursts of speed, and two increasing his Physical Damage.
One really didn't want to catch those hands.
Kriemler felt the pressure mounting as he noticed Kolvar's growing power, especially since he couldn't use his own full strength with half his body trapped inside a spatial channel. He had to constantly coat that part of his body with demonic energy to protect it from being crushed by the slowly shrinking channel reacting to the reduced size of the rift.
Despite the increasing pressure from the odds stacked against him, Kriemler's eyes still glead with defiance.
'That Hero may have done sothing with divinity to strip of my blessing, but I can tell…His Majesty is watching!
Even if impaired, I…cannot allow myself to lose!!'
Demonic energy burst from his body in an imnse shockwave, law energy erupting from the Pseudo-Origin Core in his soul as he bellowed,
"Rip him to shreds! tallica!!!"
The law energy solidified into massive tallic serpents, each sporting a set of sharp jaws that made Kolvar feel threatened just by looking at them.
The four serpents screeched as they shot through the air, snapping their jaws down on the space Kolvar occupied re split seconds before he moved to evade.
Kolvar leapt upward to avoid one serpent lunging for his legs, his body bending backward mid-air as another passed close to his chest, its tallic teeth shearing through several strands of his bushy hair.
He pushed off a drifting slab of stone, flipping over another serpent's snapping jaws as it tore a canyon into the desert floor, the impact blasting open fissures that ripped across the Wild Lands, all the way to the World Isolation Barrier.
The barrier cracked like strained glass under the assault, forcing Evan to flood more magic power into it to repair it and prevent it from collapsing.
Noticing this, Kolvar clicked his tongue and muttered,
"This can't continue."
The man landed on the edge of the newly ford canyon, activating a skill and leaping forward, weaving through the lunging serpents as he closed the distance, dashing through a brief opening and reaching Kriemler.
Kriemler responded by summoning a massive tallic blade, its edge glowing with demonic energy as he swung it down to et Kolvar's rising fist.
Sparks erupted as fist and blade collided, an electromagnetic pulse bursting from the blade and knocking Kolvar's body backwards across the shattered landscape.
The demon liquefied the blade instantly, tal streaming back to his palms and condensing into two dense orbs. He hurled them with a shout, the orbs screaming through the air with black sparks surrounding them, each splitting into dozens of smaller tallic spheres that curved across the sky and attacked from every angle.
Kolvar activated his Fortification Pseudo-Authority, Force law energy rising with it as he strengthened the spherical barrier around himself to defend, but amid the storm of projectiles, a concentrated demonic energy beam shot through the air and slamd into its surface, cracking it.
A second beam struck the exact sa point, piercing through and leaving a hole large enough for a third to shoot inside and detonate, shattering the barrier from within.
Kolvar protected himself from the blast with a skin-tight layer of magic power, but a massive humanoid tallic construct charged through the smoke and grabbed him with its clamp-like arms.
A bright flash erupted as radiant energy waves coursed through its limbs, the electromagnetic currents penetrating Kolvar's energy layer and thick skin while the tal construct tried to crush him.
Grinding out a pained breath, Kolvar shouted, "Flare Circle!"
A six-ringed magic circle appeared beneath his feet, and a towering column of fire shot upward, engulfing both him and the construct.
The heat was so intense that the desert floor crystallised into glass, but the construct endured without lting, glowing only a faint red from the heat.
Kolvar quickly channelled magic power into his arm guard, triggering a burst of icy law energy that froze the glowing tal solid.
With a roar, he activated his Force Pseudo-Authority, spreading his arms wide to break the clamps apart, then spun mid-air to throw a punch that shattered the frozen construct in a single strike.
The tallic serpents lunged again imdiately, so he created a platform mid-air and leapt off it, avoiding the jaws snapping shut on the space he'd occupied monts before.
Kolvar quickly condensed energy around both fists and pulled them back, roaring as he threw them forward, each punch launching shockwaves that slamd the remaining three serpents to the ground with imnse force.
He landed on the uneven ground, roaring again to refresh the effects of his Lion's Roar buff, then dashed toward Kriemler, who slamd his palms together and conjured several six-ringed magic circles.
By the ti Kolvar reached him, Kriemler had completed the chants he started when he sent the humanoid construct to grab Kolvar, his magic power bursting outward as he activated his spells, unleashing a torrent of projectiles.
Massive lightning bolts crackled outward, arcs of dark electricity tearing through the air, while thick, jagged shards of solidified tal shot out in curved paths, spinning and drilling through the sky.
Columns of fire erupted in fan-like patterns, their heat radiating outward, and pure demonic energy projectiles streaked toward Kolvar from all directions.
Kolvar leapt into the air, pulling both fists back and channelling the powers of his Force, Wind, and Earth Pseudo-Authorities, the law energies swirling around his glowing fists.
"Ten Step Beast Core!"
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