A frenzy had overtaken Jack and Travelus both. They no longer thought, no longer calculated. They moved purely on instinct. One had developed it through a long life of strifeāthe other, by a short few years of continuously risking his life. They were veterans going completely all-out. The colosseum had never been livelier.
Jack molded spacetime like soft dough. He pierced through it, accelerated his attacks, and slowed his opponentās. Life coursed through his limbs, maintaining his rapidly waning energy, while death was infused into the opponent with every punch. Every understanding Jack possessed operated at full throttle, his body cracking out punches with every iota of strength it possessed.
Travelus did not shrink away either. The depth of his Dao was less than Jackās, but he backed it up with a vastly superior cultivation. Moreover, he possessed some tricks of his own. Though heād now deteriorated to the late B-Grade realm, heād once approached the A-Grade. His spacetime hindered Jackās, using raw power to make it harder to manipulate. His Supremacy seeped through with every spear strike, trying to cut down the confidence in Jackās heart.
This was the final, desperate battle on both sides.
Jack was not getting an advantage. His cultivation was just too low, and he also had to keep restraining the phantoms in the sky. The seconds passed one at a time. Eva Solvig should be almost here, and Jack was already a lamp without oil. If she arrived, he was as good as dead.
A tiny corner of Travelusās mind remained rational. He didnāt have to wināhe just had to not lose. As long as his energy expenditure matched the opponentās, he was good.
He saw Jack grow desperate. A massive amount of energy gathered into his fist, condensing to a terrifying degree. He thrust it out before Travelus could retreat. āSupernova!ā
The old man gritted his teeth. This was the critical moment. āSpear of Divinity!ā
A blinding white spear shot forth, carrying the resolve of a god. Two unstoppable forces clashed. The world was washed away. Tremendous shockwaves spread through the universe, shattering the spatial barriers that served as the walls of this arena. Even the frozen phantoms in the sky were shaken.
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The void shattered around Jack and Lonihor, trapping them in a spaceless vacuum. The vision of the arena around them was slowly dispersing, the cries of the spectators growing distant.
Jackās hand had shattered into bone fragments. As for the spear of Travelus, its tip had broken off. The two cultivators had been evenly matched in this collisionāthe difference was that Jackās electricity had worn off, his energy running completely dry. Even the Life Drop transformation had reverted.
Travelus could sense it clearlyāJack had finally run out.
As for the old man himself, though he was almost the same, heād held back a trace amount of energy. Heād wanted to be ready for all eventualitiesābut, as it turned out, heād been too careful. This battle was his victory. Pride entered his eyes. The two fighters were still close to each other, barely a few feet apart, but one of them was completely spent, and it wasnāt Travelus.
He wasnāt even sure if Jack remained conscious.
āYou fought well,ā he forced out through a bloodied mouth. āTo match me from a Grade lowerā¦ You are too talented. Too much of a threat. Goodbye, Jack Rust. Let me have the honor of killing the worldās greatest talent.ā
Travelus did not have too much strength left, but it was certainly enough to finish this off. He shook his spear, sending off the broken tip, and stabbed it straight into Jackās chest, aiming for his heart. He was already relieved that this was over.
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The spear penetrated Jackās skin. It split his flesh, heading ever deeper, then slammed into his ribcageā¦and stopped. It couldnāt break the bones.
Travelusās eyes widened. āWhat!?ā
He was a late B-Grade. No matter how efficiently Jack Rust infused his Dao into his body, no matter how advanced his understandings, all of that was moot now. He only possessed the frail body of a C-Grade. Travelus should have been able to pierce him effortlessly.
Then, whyā¦
Mid-fighting, it was hard to differentiate between the intensity of oneās mortal body and the durability provided by infusing oneās body with Dao. Travelus had heard that Jack was physically gifted but didnāt know how much. Coupled with Jack never making it obvious throughout the fight, heād greatly underestimated Jackās physical body.
Even now, he struggled to comprehend this. He thought that Jackās Dao by itself was enough to make him a prodigy, but such a degree of body tempering was just insane!
Was Iā¦deceived?
The old man raised his gaze. He met Jackās eyesāand he saw that deep inside them, beneath the exhaustion and injury, beneath the impending doom, existed an inextinguishable flame. Those werenāt the eyes of a dead manāthey burst with resolve, more alive than ever.
Travelus had never experienced such horror. He could not explain it. He panicked. His arm drew back, pulling away the spear to instinctively defend himself, but realized he could not. Another hand had wrapped around his wrist at some pointāa grip which squeezed his bones. It was like being grabbed by a planet. No matter how Travelus struggled, he could not escape. The hand holding him was completely immovable. He paled.
Jack showed a bloody smile. āGot you,ā he whispered. One of his hands was holding onto the wrist of Travelusāeven with his Life Drop transformation undone, that still left him with one hand free. It clenched into a fist. There was nothing special about it; no Dao, no external energy at all. It was a pure physical fist. Yet, the moment it clenched, Travelus felt his instinct go haywire. Intense fear took him over. He suddenly felt like a mortal grabbed by a bearāonly now did he realize that Jack didnāt need any sort of Dao to maul him. He could do it with his bare hands.
How can he be human? Travelus thought in frozen terror. They lied to me! This isā¦ This is a titan!
Jack swung his punch. There was no Dao behind it, but there was no Dao defending Travelus either. Heād spent the last of his energy in that spear strike. This was a pure physical collisionāone he was destined to lose.
Travelusās Angel battle form was still present. His body was covered in plate armor, but that did not include his face. Jackās fist slipped right in. It carried the power to obliterate mountain rangesāthe face of a late B-Grade, especially an elderly one, was like soft mush.
Jackās hand met flesh, then bone, but did not halt. A skull splintered. Jackās fist dove into the helmet to the wrist, until it met metal. Only then did he stop his swing. He felt the old manās body tense up, then grow limp. He slowly withdrew his fist. The plate armor dispersed, leaving only a broken body hanging in the void, and the twelve divine phantoms dissipated like they were never there.
Jack tilted his head back and drew a deep, trembling breath. He was utterly exhausted; not passing out was a struggle.
Level up! You have reached Level 343.
Level up! You have reached Level 344.
ā¦
Level up! You have reached Level 360. Further levels locked until the development of your next Dao Fruit.
Congratulations! Titan Taunt II ā Titan Taunt III
Jack was happy about the skill. More importantly, however, he didnāt even know how many levels heād gotten. āAll into Physicalā¦ā he managed to whisper. The familiar rush of power did not flood him like it used toāit was more like a faint trickle entering his cracked body. Yet, it was enough. He quickly gathered himself and used the trace energy heād regained to fly through the void, barely achieving two teleportations before he ran out.
Thankfully, the Trampling Ram had already been flying his way. They met him halfway, already charging up a warp. Brock teleported outside the ship, grabbed Jack, then teleported back inside. The energy around the ship kept building up. The universe was deathly silent.
A white-haired woman suddenly crossed the void before them. She was disheveled and urgentāher hands flashed as they shot out a white beam of purity. āNo!ā she shouted.
A golden shield appeared, slowing down her attack just enough. The Ram tore through space and disappeared, teleporting light years away. Eva remained alone in the void, accompanied only by the nearby, headless, floating corpse which used to belong to Travelus Lonihor. Fear and rage alternated on her face.
Finally, she raised her head and screamed.