Chapter 22

“Interesting,” Torg glanced over Ska’dur’s equipment and remarked, “it seems you’ve long prepared to face me. What’s your current fire resistance? 70%? 80%?”

“Around that,” Ska’dur replied as he activated his innate gift, turning an ability from the Mithril Golem and Redflare Elemental into his own, boosting his fire and magic resistance even further.

Compared to Ska’dur, who entered his strongest state, Torg was completely and utterly unbuffed. He didn’t have a War Array trinket giving him benefits from his Solar Flare Legion, consumed no elixirs, and had a low quality celestial grade equipment set on.

While Torg did have a top quality set of celestial equipment and two pieces of transcendent equipment, they remained in his inventory, simply so they didn’t lose durability. No one in the Grandsky Realm could repair transcendent grade equipment, and repairing top quality celestial grade ones was very expensive and time-consuming.

Just like Ska’dur felt confident in himself, so too did Torg. Facing a level 724, he felt no need to use his best equipment. It was arrogance, plain and true. And it was what gave Ska’dur a fighting chance.

Steadying his resolve, Ska’dur hunched over, taking the stance of a beast, when Torg said, “Let’s begin.”

And then, he vanished.

Silently and without warning, a fist appeared before Ska’dur, followed by the rest of Torg’s body. The fist slammed into Ska’dur’s chest and went through without resistance, though it was clear Torg hit an afterimage when Ska’dur reappeared to Torg’s right, his leg snaking out like a whip, homing in on Torg’s skull.

Wearing a smile, Torg raised his other hand and was about to latch onto Ska’dur’s ankle when Ska’dur abruptly pulled back, dropped low, and kicked at the side of Torg’s knee. Not panicking in the slightest, Torg raised his leg to parry.

BOOM!

An explosive air vacuum formed around them from the clash of their limbs. At the same time, the force behind Torg’s initial punch was so vast it traveled onto the Skynet in the distance, visible ripples spreading across its surface.

Shock.

Awe!

Even though it took a while to describe, Torg and Ska’dur’s movements were so fast that merely a fraction of a second had passed, with the spectators only able to see moving blurs.

And yet, Torg and Ska’dur’s initial exchange was just the start.

After a brief pause, their figures vanished, and with the sky as their arena, they clashed repeatedly, each point of contact creating an air vacuum that deafened the ears. Using no skills, they relied entirely upon their physical bodies to compete, every move great enough to shatter mountains.

BOOM!

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BOOM!

BOOM!

As the minutes passed, Ska’dur felt euphoric. The thrill of battle made his heart race with excitement, and his attacks became fiercer as he let a primal desire for violence overcome him.

Opposite him, Torg was the same. A manic light in his eyes revealed that, like Ska’dur, he was enjoying their clash. However, he was beginning to grow disappointed. The power Ska’dur unleashed wasn’t enough to threaten Torg’s life.

And so, the next time their fists met, Torg roared, “Is this all you have? You can’t beat me like this. Hit me harder! Harder! HARDER!”

Provoked by Torg, Ska’dur entered a deeper resonance with his innate gift, transforming him. His canines grew longer, his nails sharper, and his muscles more robust.

When Ska’dur’s body doubled in size, he jabbed two fingers at Torg’s eyes. Unworried, Torg’s hand latched onto Ska’dur’s wrist with extreme precision and stopped it, but the threat remained as the nails on Ska’dur’s fingers extended, nearing Torg’s pupils in a flash.

Caught off guard, Torg bent backward, avoiding the blow and putting himself in an awkward position. With bestial instincts driving Ska’dur’s actions, he used the hand Torg grabbed as a fulcrum to spin around and, in one smooth motion, drove his knee into Torg’s temple.

BANG!

The successful strike raddled Torg’s brain and left him dazed, with his hand releasing its hold on Ska’dur’s leg. Now freed, and with Torg momentarily stunned, his vision white, Ska’dur’s massive palm gripped Torg’s face and threw him directly toward the ground.

WOOSH!

Torg shot down like a missile, hitting the peak of a small mountain and piercing it down to its base. The mountain collapsed as dust, fragments of rock, and broken trees flew everywhere.

Ska’dur’s pupils, now appearing as slits, ignored the veil of dust and locked onto Torg hidden below. Leaning forward, Ska’dur kicked the air as if it were solid ground and disappeared. With physical speed so fast it bordered on teleportation, Ska’dur appeared above Torg’s collapsed body and delivered a roundhouse kick to his chest.

“Gah!” Torg grunted and coughed up a mouthful of blood as his limbs rose above him. Under Ska’dur’s intricate control, the force of his kick spread evenly throughout Torg’s body, barely any extending outward. Even so, cracks spread for hundreds of feet through the ground just from the residual energy that escaped.

In two moves, Ska’dur had flattened a small mountain like it was nothing. That was the level of power he attained with all his external buffs on top of his foundation. It was an unprecedented strength that showed a glimpse of the means those reaching the peak of power had in the Grandsky Realm.

And yet, as Ska’dur towered over Torg, a foot on the latter’s chest, Torg locked eyes with Ska’dur and, with blood on his lips, laughed, “Is that it? Is that all the strength you can muster when you get serious?”

Ska’dur’s expression was stern as he looked down at Torg, the man who took two full-powered attacks that could bring the life of a level 800 mythic monster from 100% to 0% and merely spat out some blood.

A mere flesh wound!

Noticing this, Ska’dur growled, his voice rumbling. “I’m just warming up.”

“Haha, good! You better not be boasting,” Torg wiped away the blood trickling down his chin and was visibly excited. “I think highly of you, so let me give you a word of advice. For what happens next, don’t lose focus for even a second, or you’ll lose your life… because I have been, and always will be… a mage.”

When Torg finished speaking, Ska’dur’s instincts warned him of imminent danger, and he jumped away just in time to avoid the white flames that erupted from Torg’s body. Utterly pristine and beautiful, the white flames instantly melted the rock around Torg into liquid lava that submerged his body.

Now over a hundred feet away, Ska’dur grunted when a wave of scalding hot air washed over him, making him feel stifled and uncomfortable like he was in a sauna unsuitable for human life. Retreating into the sky, he watched, amazed, as everything within several hundred feet of where Torg landed melted into lava.

Ska’dur carefully recalled Yara’s explanation about the Elemental Dimension and realized that the vast destruction Torg created was not from a mythic grade skill or something higher. It was simply from the release of the fire element he was born with, the base usage of his innate gift. An innate gift that had reached the peak of the Grandsky Realm!