Chapter 1617 - 1617. Upper hand
Great Builder"s existence suited the fake cores perfectly. His body accepted that new power and didn"t stop it from transforming his figure.
"Let"s take care of your item first," Great Builder said in a deep voice that spread for entire regions.
The expert bent his knees before shooting in the distance. He destroyed countless bees and puppets during his violent charge, and the power generated by his jump gave birth to storms of dust, debris, and wind.
Great Builder"s ma.s.sive figure appeared above the mountain. His fist was already descending on the item, but Radiant Eyes suddenly materialized under him and raised her hand to stop the attack.
The clash between the two attacks generated a soundwave that made the entire surface of the nearby regions shatter. Even the magical plants that protected Noah and the others shook and threatened to crumble under that pressure.
Part of the army of puppets flew toward the magical plants. Two workshops moved and began to fuse those living beings. The defenses around Noah and the others improved while gaining metallic properties that could stop the aftereffects of the battle.
The new magical plants worked perfectly, so Noah"s group could focus on the battle again. Their expression froze when they saw that Radiant Eyes didn"t even budge when Great Builder"s ma.s.sive fist slammed on her.
"Did you think you could match my physical strength by increasing your size?" Radiant Eyes asked as a hideous smile appeared on her face. "This is only a trick, a technique at best. Instead, my physical prowess comes from my species."
Great Builder didn"t give up. He raised his second arm and tried to punch Radiant Eyes from her side. Yet, she moved her hand to intercept the blow again.
"You must have misunderstood," Great Builder explained without retracting his hands. "This isn"t a technique. This is an inscription that adds a fourth center of power to my body."
"Calling it differently won"t help you here," Radiant Eyes continued. "You have decided to challenge my physical prowess. This mistake will cost your life."
Radiant Eyes stabbed some of her legs and fingers inside Great Builder"s flesh. She felt as if she was cutting through b.u.t.ter. The expert barely had any defense worthy of concern.
Radiant Eyes easily tore away large patches of Great Builder"s skin, but the latter didn"t stop smiling. He was only pretending with her to see if she had other trump cards.
"Is that it?" Great Builder asked. "Don"t you have anything else?"
"This is enough to defeat you," Radiant Eyes continued.
"You have seen me with a fourth center of power that mainly focuses on size." Great Builder explained. "I wonder how you"ll feel after I add a fifth."
Radiant Eyes" expression froze at those words, but she couldn"t stop what was about to happen. A second rank 9 fake core appeared above Great Builder and fused with his body before triggering another transformation.
Great Builder"s body didn"t grow at that time. Instead, his skin began to glow and radiate a white light that corroded everything it illuminated.
Radiant Eyes tried to resist that radiance, but her body began to melt under its influence. She soon had to let Great Builder"s hands go and give him the chance to deliver his strike.
The ma.s.sive fists slammed on the mountain and opened a series of cracks on its surface. Great Builder raised his arms again to launch a second attack, but Radiant Eyes kicked his chest and flung him away.
Great Builder fell in the army and killed countless specimens again. He also destroyed many of his troops, but he didn"t even consider them as a loss.
Radiant Eyes reappeared above Great Builder and stabbed her legs on his head. A scarlet radiance began to flow into his body, but the white aura soon became too unbearable and forced his opponent to retreat.
Great Builder didn"t give up on his initial plan. He leapt toward the mountain again and prepared himself to destroy the item during that dive.
Radiant Eyes appeared in his trajectory and kicked his cheek. The attack led him off-tracks and made him miss the mountain.
"So much for five centers of power," Radiant Eyes commented. "This fight would be fair if you added a few more of them."
"I might do just that," Great Builder replied after straightening his position.
Two more rank 9 fake cores appeared around his figure and fused with his body. His consciousness expanded beyond its normal limits, and a strange aura started to seep out of his skin.
Radiant Eyes didn"t know how to react to that. She couldn"t understand how stronger Great Builder became after each new center of power. She only knew that he gained additional abilities through them.
Great Builder jumped toward the mountain again, and Radiant Eyes tried to intercept him. However, the strange aura and the heavy consciousness managed to suppress her power for a few seconds, enough for the expert to continue his flight.
The two ma.s.sive fists slammed on the mountain. Its structure had already suffered some damage, so those attacks managed to shatter its entire upper part.
Radiant Eyes tried to attack Great Builder, but his aura was enough to fend her off for a few seconds.
Great Builder could continue to attack the mountain undisturbed, and Radiant Eyes had to watch how her strongest inscribed item transformed into nothing more than dust.
"No army now," Great Builder announced while turning toward Radiant Eyes. "You"ll also have to find a new place where to continue your transformation. Also, Heaven and Earth will be on you too from now on."
"Do you think that I"ll let what you did slide?" Radiant Eyes replied in an angry tone.
"I think that you have no choice," Great Builder said while showing another rank 9 fake core.
Radiant Eyes" expression froze again. She had seen the five rank 9 resources with her own eyes, but she didn"t believe Great Builder to have so many of them.
A ma.s.sive hammer grew from the ground and ended up in Great Builder"s grasp. The expert raised the weapon and waved it in the middle of the army. Countless magical beasts and puppets died, but that destruction didn"t manage to satisfy him.
Killing those specimens did nothing to his situation. They were an annoying army, but they couldn"t even try to touch him in that form.
Radiant Eyes limited herself to kick her enemy every once in a while. Her plan was to wait for that empowerment to go away, but it seemed that Great Builder had perfected the procedure in ways that his opponent couldn"t understand.
The battle raged and left Noah"s group to marvel about that spectacle. They couldn"t see much about the two experts since their blinding auras made them impossible to inspect by rank 8 experts.
Still, they could understand that Great Builder had the upper hand in the battle. Radiant Eyes never managed to inflict more than a kick, but she kept losing her ground since Great Builder was relentless.
His hammer hit Radiant Eyes multiple times, but her resilience was too high. It didn"t matter how many times she endured that weapon. She never backed down, and Great Builder"s movements eventually started to slow down.