The force of the collision sent both fighters, man and beast, flying back with some sort of injury. Don coughed up a mouthful of blood while the beast screamed in pain and rage as its competitor broke its claw and turned it into a bloody mess.
Don's fist wasn't in any better condition as his red blood blended in with his skill. This was his strongest skill that allowed him to 'rule' over Floren! Yet it was stopped by this lizard mutt! His face became a bit pale from the blood loss but he gritted his teeth and popped his arm back in its socket before charging again, albeit much slower.
The Basilisk scrambled to its feet before hiss-growling again and charging as well. Its yellow eyes glowed again and fired another beam at its enemy and Don properly dodged it this time.
While the two 3rd Rings clashed, the reason for their fighting coughed up a mouthful of blood after being pressured into the tree again. The shockwaves of the fight injured his organs as he fought to stay awake.
However, his mind wasn't on the fight like it should be.
'That bitch! I knew it!' After Don mentioned a "bitch" who would love his misery, he immediately thought of Marie.
All the other women he might have problems with like Sarah weren't so awful as to send an assassin after him! Only Marie would do something like that. After his short chat with Alan about his concerns about her, he only suspected her more.
It was the most obvious answer unless some god's apostle found out about him and wanted him dead. His paranoia was quite high after going on little sleep for the past few days and he only began seeing red.
Why was she so dead set on getting rid of him? Was he even worth it? She had so much to lose by killing him and ending up caught. She was smart enough to at least wait until he was in the forest surrounded by danger where "accidents" happened but the killer she sent was as dumb as the beasts that roamed the area.
He clearly was just a muscle head and had forgotten about his target that was already on death's door. Don only had to sneeze in his direction and he would lose his life. Instead, the bald idiot was laughing maniacally as he fought with the Basilisk.
He fought similar to how Alex did in his test with Alan which was a very suicidal way of fighting by giving up on defense. Don only focused on dealing damage to his enemy and nothing else. As the Basilisk grew bloodier either from its own wounds or from Don's blood getting on it, it only served to make the Skullcrusher more excited.
Alex went through many emotions. Would he die? All his friends were waiting for him and he could only imagine their devastation if they found out he died. Get revenge? He wanted it so desperately but would Alan or Sharla stand in his way?
They were just starting to get along but would his hatred for their friend ruin it all? Would the workers and patrons she tricked with nasty rumors stand against him as well? There were dozens of adventurers who had about the same strength as Geren and Kate so it would definitely be a problem, not to mention Marie was also a 3rd Ring he had no knowledge over.
His hate spiked to unhealthy levels as his face turned red and his aura expanded furiously. What did he do to her? How was he even a problem? Why? Why? Why! WHY!
He couldn't think of any good reason for her to want him dead but put that woman on his kill list anyways. If she wanted him dead, he felt it was only natural to show her the same 'respect.'
Gritting his teeth to the point of them cracking, he ignored all the pain in his body and forced himself off the ground. Leaning against the tree on his left shoulder, he glared with immeasurable fury at the two that made them both shiver in fear.
The two simple-minded creatures glared in hatred at the 1st Ring. How dare he stand up to them! Even worse, it was humiliating to be frightened to such an extent by someone 2 Rings below them! They would become the laughing stock of their respective worlds if found out!
Like they made a silent agreement, they both launched their bodies as fast as they could at Alex, unleashing powerful skills that could turn him into minced meat without even touching him. Alex could already feel the massive pressure on his body as the two attacked him with unbridled fury.
They could not let Alex live anymore!
However, Alex was scarily calm, even when his skin began to tear into a bloody mess from the wind and aura of his enemies. He looked around as he felt his surroundings move in slow motion. He wasn't sure what was going on but he felt like this was a dream.
His weakened body and mind made it impossible separate fake from reality. He couldn't feel the skin on his flesh peel away but seeing it slowly come off him like he was peeling a sunburn made it seem like he was only watching a movie.
He looked to his enemies who both had anger and hatred written on their bloody faces. They looked just as miserable as him, yet still had such vitality. Alex felt jealous. His heart was weak and his body, weaker.
Just how big was the gap between a 1st Ring and a 3rd? Even if he had stats above both even if they combined their stats and he was still above them, he could never use even half of his true strength effectively. It all came full circle to evolution.
The Gods may recognize his strength, but his mortal body made it impossible for him to even use a fraction of his potential. As long as he stayed stuck in this 1st Ring body, he could never hope to fight on equal ground with such powerhouses.
The surrounding trees and animals had already been crushed to a pulp by the explosions produced from the impact of the two 3rd Rings. The large messy battlefield left a huge clearing in the middle of the forest revealing the two bright moons in the sky.
Alex was no longer paying attention to his surroundings anymore, even as his body slowly crumbled away.
The words of a foreign language echoed in the depths of his soul. It made his entire existence tremble as the unknown and deeply profound voice continued speaking to him.
Alex didn't respond as he couldn't respond. Whatever was conversing with him prevented him from even breathing! It was almost as if time had completely stopped at this moment and Alex could only wait for the death that strangled him tighter.
Alex could only feel a fraction of this being's power, yet it was so potent that just their voice was killing him.
For Alex and everything around him did truly stop. It was as if the pause button on their fight took effect and this unknown entity was trying to analyze the situation. Behind Alex right where the indented tree was, an endless black swirl appeared until it reached over 8 feet in diameter.
It loomed over Alex as a pitch-black figure stepped out. Only the outline of their body could be seen and their body structure wasn't entirely male or female. It wasn't important since neither Alex nor his enemies could see this figure even when it was right in front of their eyes.
The figure bent down behind Alex so that their face was next to his. Over his injured shoulder, they turned and the outline of their eyes turned into crescents and their "lips" curved into a smile.
The figure had never even moved its mouth as they talked, still directly speaking to Alex's soul yet the appearance of such a divine aura entering the mortal plane could not be mistaken as its presence was felt all over the world.
Weaker people died, billions were injured and several million all paled and fell to the ground they walked on in forgiveness to this unknown being.
The being slowly walked back into the black hole that inhabited the tree that closed around it as it stepped back through. The black hole shrunk until it left as if it was never there. The people who seemed to die and get injured suddenly came back to life like it was all an illusion.
Those who went to the ground in instinctual fear stood up and continued on. It was as if time reversed and there was no figure, no voice, no mortal genocide.
The figure echoed into the boy's mind as time resumed in their fight.
'I will be watching.' Alex thought the only memory he had of the last few minutes. He couldn't remember any of the conversations with the mysterious being but something had changed for him.
Something clicked, some sort of... spark... ignited, lighting up his soul.
He felt that his enemies no longer threatened him as much and even though his body was being torn to shreds every millisecond, it grew back just as fast. His body trembled as his aura increased beyond anything the two 3rd Rings thought was possible.
They hesitated slightly in their attacks and that was a grave mistake.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM!*
Like a metal dragon that swooped down out of nowhere, metal clanged violently against skin and bone as chains spiraled around a figure that broke the speed of sound right in between the two 3rd Rings.
Even with superior strength and health, the two 3rd Rings couldn't withstand the enormous pressure of natural law being broken. The two flew off in opposite directions and broke through everything in their path.
The two couldn't even register what happened before another wave of razor-sharp winds beat against them and created deep lesions in their bodies. They flew for almost a kilometer before crashing hard into the ground.
Don the Skullcrusher felt his skull being crushed as his head was bleeding profusely and his skull had bent in a bit. The irony was not funny for him as he was barely alive, riddled with massive wounds that were quickly draining his body of any blood it had left.
His entire body was numb, and he used that to his advantage to get to his feet and look towards the other 3rd Ring beast that he was once enemies, then temporary allies with.
His body shook violently as the Basilisk was impaled on a broken tree, unmoving. It wasn't even given a chance to learn of its death since it happened too fast for the 3rd Rings to react.
Just what kind of monster could create such an attack? There were no 4th Ring or higher beings in the area. They would definitely feel it if that was the case! With his competitor gone, Don then turned to his target, who was no longer against the tree. He widened his eyes and looked around in fury thinking his prey ran away after something attacked them.
Or maybe the brat was killed already? It did come from his direction so it was a possibility. Don dragged his mangled leg a few steps back into the clearing and he peed himself as he felt death wring his neck.
He couldn't breathe as he looked at the handsome young man in the distance, completely naked and riddled with wounds just as bad as his, maybe worse. Instead of barely living, on the ground with his life flashing before his eyes, the young man was looking at him with a nonchalant gaze.
It was like he wasn't worthy of hate anymore and although Don wanted to scream out at him, he couldn't move! His primal instincts took over his body and refused to let him, the prey, move against Alex, the predator.
Those icy blue eyes bore into his soul and pain erupted from all over his body. He spat out a mouthful of blood as some of his innards finally fell loose.
'How?' Don stared at the man in udder surprise. 'How can he evolve so quickly. How can he be more powerful than me in an instant!' Don's body trembled in fear at the now 2nd Ring monster a short distance away!
Alex's evolution was unprecedented and should not be possible! The laws of this world and the system that governed it prevented such a thing from happening yet this 'virus' in the system was standing right in front of him.
Don began to get out of his fearful stupor and let his blood boil. He had been humiliated beyond comprehension and wanted nothing more than to rid this world of the cancerous nudist.
"YOU FUCKING BASTAAAAARRRRDDDDD!!!!" Don roared as he burned his very soul to power every one of his skills to fire an attack that could threaten a 4th Ring's life!
His face became incredibly pale and thinned blood came out of every orifice in his body while he held back his fist like he was readying a punch.
His giant red fist began to turn into rainbow colors as different powerful skills were activated at once. His fist and arm began to break into pieces as he created an attack his own body couldn't withstand.
Chinese
At the same time, Alex who had finished his charge with newfound strength, felt his fork weapon and short sword in his hands crumble to dust while the Kusarigama that floated in coils around him like a Chinese dragon began to disappear in the same fashion.
After losing his weapons from the overload of power he used with them, he turned to his last remaining enemy after glancing at the impaled Basilisk.
Alex was no longer handsome, however.
He looked more like a zombie, as parts of his flesh were torn from his face and body revealing the muscle and bone underneath. His left cheek and mouth had been stripped down to the bone while his right eye which was turned to stone had already spread around his head and cracked from all the moving around.
His hair had long been burned off from the massive heat generated by all these earth-ending attacks and all the flesh and bones of his body were barely holding together like one touch would end it all.
It was a miracle for him to be alive but the scarier part was how fast his body was repairing itself! Visible to the naked eye, the muscle and tissue around his exposed cheekbone began to build itself and a similar thing happened all over his body. Hair grew back on top of his head and as the stone infected eye of his crumbled away, it was rebuilt just as quickly.
Both Alex and Don had no clue how that was possible but neither had time for it as Don was already accelerating at mach speed, appearing in Alex's face. Don's painful, fearful, hateful smile entered Alex's vision, and for the first time since the start of the fight...
He smiled.