Chapter 3091: Limits of the Mundane |
Staggering back and reeling from pain, Sunny raised his odachi, deflecting the follow-up strike of the titanic greatsword — this one a vicious thrust aimed at the slit of his visor.
‘Oh, right... that's not the first time I've been hit by a mountain...’
In Antarctica, Goliath had given him a good kick. Sunny almost died that time — actually, he only survived because of the Undying Chain. This time, all the damage he received was a dent on his armor. That was progress, at least.
Actually, he was not much smaller than Goliath now. His Rank was superior, as well, so if one of them were to be destroyed by a kick from the other, it wouldn't be Sunny who ended up lying on the ground as a pile of shattered stone.
Sadly, the Jade Titan was far more powerful than Goliath, and far more harrowing as well. The Jade Titan was a Nightmare Creature, but before succumbing to Corruption, he had been a warrior on the frontlines of the Doom War. Sunny, meanwhile, was a seasoned veteran of the Age of the Nightmare Spell — both were supremely skilled and experienced, so their battle was like a clash between the champions of two epochs.
They were going to see which one was more skilled, which one was more lethal... and which one was luckier, as well.
There was a deafening, ear-piercing screech when their swords collided, the gigantic odachi pushing the titanic greatsword aside. The tip of the greatsword scraped across the side of Sunny's helmet, missing the visor — in the next moment, he growled and pushed forward, slamming the pommel of his odachi into the Jade Titan's faceplate. The force unleashed by the impact was harrowing enough to shatter the gates of a fortress, producing a devastating shockwave — however, the faceplate wasn't even bent. Before the shockwave could spread, Sunny already chained his next attack, delivering a lethal horizontal slash aimed at the adversary's neck.
The endless expanse of his immense blade raised a hurricane as it cut the winds apart, moving with such speed that its black surface began to glow, heated by air friction.
Come to think of it...
So, now, even though this incarnation of Sunny only encompassed one-seventh of his soul, he sent half of the power the flames granted him into the black odachi. Instantly, the orange glow of the great blade swelled with blinding radiance, turning flawlessly white.
The darkness was pushed further back. Sunny aimed to behead the Jade Titan, but the detestable colossus raised a hand and blocked the blow with his impregnable vambrace. And yet, the incandescent blade cut the stonelike metal, biting deep into the creature's wrist.
Sunny smiled darkly and moved, avoiding the counterattack...
Or at least he tried to.
The Jade Titan ignored the waterfall of ruby dust escaping from the breach in his armor and turned his hand, catching the blade of the giant odachi in an iron grasp.
Sunny's smile faltered.
'Crap...'
In the next moment, the gigantic stalagmite quaked.
The two of them — a colossus wreathed in a billowing mantle of elemental darkness and a giant illuminated by the radiance of pure white light — clashed in a whirlwind of steel and destruction, sending deep cracks running through the mass of ancient stone. The fury of their battle was like a world-ending cataclysm, swiftly descending into utter mayhem. This was a battle between two titanic beings that were only one step away from becoming deities — a clash so ferocious and terrifying that no mortal could survive witnessing it, let alone being caught in its devastating storm.
And yet, there was no chaos or frenzied abandon in the way the two towering giants fought. Despite the utter mayhem unleashed by the dire forces of their clash, both moved with flawless precision and dreadful purpose, full of uncompromising killing intent. Their power was astounding, and their martial skill was sublime — put together, power and skill made for an unholy union.
The entire island-sized stalagmite shuddered and groaned, great slabs of stone sliding from its crumbling slopes and falling into the swirling white mist below.
The battle raged at a harrowing, frenetic pace. Creatures of this size were not meant to move with such awful speed, and yet they did, defying the universal laws of existence. Sunny pushed against the constricting limitations of the world with his Will, weaving it into his movements, while at the same time using the [Feather of Truth] trait of the Jade Mantle to precisely manipulate his weight.
The Jade Titan... he was not sure what means the harrowing creature used to break through the limits of the mundane, but the result was even more devastating. The Jade Titan was stronger than this lonely incarnation of his, and far more ancient. By all accounts, the detestable colossus should have swiftly gained the upper hand in their battle, but Sunny was stubbornly holding his ground, lashing out with vicious blows every time the titanic greatsword left a mark on his armor.
He could do so because of his skill and tenacity, because of his daemonic lineage and Divine Aspect... and because the Jade Titan had taken the brunt of Neph's fiery explosion earlier, as well.
The extensive damage dealt to his armor by the obliterating shockwave had already been mended, but the repaired swaths of the stonelike metal were still weaker than the rest of the fearsome carapace of black jade — and since Sunny remembered where the cracks had been located, he could aim his blows at the invisible seams.
Ruby dust was spilling on the fractured floor of the ancient amphitheater like a flood. At the same time, torrents of shadows were being consumed by the encroaching darkness — Sunny's titanic form did not escape the dreadful battle unscathed, either. With both giants suffering grievous harm and swiftly mending their broken bodies, the battle was deadlocked, with neither side managing to deliver a deadly blow.
And as the two of them fought, the battles on the edges of the magnificent city continued to rage, as well.
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