Leaving the fort behind, he continued on his way. A few moments later, he sensed an energy building within the center of the city, and a beam of light shot up to strike the heavens. He frowned, and then sensed an immense pressure emanating from the impact point of the beam. A rift in space opened in the sky, and a massive figure leaped out of it. It seemed to be some sort of earth elemental, easily a few hundred feet tall. It exuded the aura of an E Ranker. However, it was clearly restrained by the restrictions on the power that could be brought to bear against the universe by invaders, as it was created out of the fused power of thousands of mages, rather than being its own entity.
It landed with a thud in the center of the city, a wave of displaced dirt expanding outwards. With his enhanced senses, Sam could see every speck. He started to race forwards, and he saw a figure wreathed in red light rising out of the streets to join him.
The Overlord streaked forwards, and a comet-like tail of energy extended out behind him. He gave Sam a languid wave, and then crashed into the elemental, his fist cracking the rock it was made of.
The creature bent backwards, but was mostly unmoved. It opened its mouth and laughed, the noise sounding like an avalanche. Sam teleported fortwards, but then paused, watching as the Overlord summoned a giant spectral hammer of red energy above the elemental’s head. The man’s face gleamed with pleasure as he brought the weapon down, blasting the elemental into the ground. The creature raised one arm, but it hardly mattered. All of its stats were clearly invested in strength and durability, and it was far too slow to match anything the Overlord could throw at it.
The monster rose from the shattered earth and rubble, and roared, the noise invoking some sort of advanced conceptual effect. All around it, everything slowed down, including the Overlord. Although his Dao was powerful, it was not yet a Seed, and he was unable to properly resist.
Instead, he bellowed in rage, and withdrew, his wings flapping far slower than before. The elemental reached out, and grabbed him out of the air, before slamming him down into the ground, the motion sending a shockwave across the city. Then there was a flare of red light, and the Overlord emerged, bloodied, but unbroken. The elemental’s hand had been turned to splinters of rock, and it stared at it for a moment, confused.
“Take this, you bastard!” The Overlord roared, mustering a ball of scarlet energy between his hands.
Sam idly wondered if the man only possessed attacks of a single color scheme. Did it get boring after a while?
The sphere of light rocketed forwards, and impacted the elemental’s torso, blasting off chunks of rock and sending the creature tumbling backwards. Thousands of fighters on the ground barraged the Overlord with spells and projectiles, but Sam quickly took them out of the equation with a projectile of his own. He was interested to see if the Overlord could defeat this creature by himself.
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The man followed through on his attack by flying in low, aiming for the tottering elemental’s legs. His fists glowed with power, and a spectral lance formed over each, extending outwards for a dozen feet. He impacted the monster a moment later, the lances of energy digging in deep. Then they detonated, blasting apart the elemental’s leg.
The elemental tumbled backwards, and Sam raised one eyebrow. It seemed that either Gaea had been above and beyond anything that this monster could bring to bear, or the Overlord had grown even stronger since then. From watching the fight, he was sure that he could kill the creature in a single hit with his Primal skill, but that was hardly indicative of its actual power. Most F Rankers would never have a chance of matching it.
He teleported to a rooftop and sat down, watching the battle progress. Rather than interfere, he simply tried to gauge the Overlord’s power. He knew that if he meddled in the battle, the other man would not be too happy with him, given his Dao.
The elemental drew stone from the ground beneath it, attempting to repair its leg. However, the Overlord refused to let it. He sent a pulse of energy down at the ground, fracturing the rock as it began to rise. Then he flew in, and punched the monster full force, cracking its stony head. The monster simply shrugged off the attack, and punched back, using some sort of elemental energy to empower its attack. Gravity decreased dramatically for its arm, and it shot forwards like a cannonball, straight into the Overlord’s body. Sam winced, and then frowned, noting that the man hadn’t moved backwards. A shield of red light had formed around him, stopping the attack in its tracks.
The shield almost instantly began to dim, but Sam noticed that every second, it flared back to life, as the Overlord used his display of martial power in order to reinforce his Dao energy reserves. Between his hands, he diverted the remains of the energy to creating a blade of energy, which he quickly grasped. It was a plain weapon, with only the vague shape of a sword visible, but it exuded an aura of danger.
As his energy drained into the sword, he raised it above his head, as if preparing his might for one final strike. Such imagery resonated with his Dao, and as the blade came down, the shield dissipated, sending the energy into the blade. It shone like a red sun, and descended, straight into the path of the monster’s fist.
There was a flash of light that briefly occluded Sam’s vision. When it left his eyes, leaving a faint afterimage, he saw the golem standing stock still, its fist a few inches away from the Overlord’s chest. Then a tremor ran through its body, and it fell in two halves, split cleanly apart by the skill. Sam’s eyebrows raised unwillingly. He had to admit, that was impressive indeed. He could sense the admiration empowering the other man, but he begrudgingly accepted it. The Overlord deserved it.
With the golem dead, it was time for Sam to join the fray once more. He flitted forwards, appearing beside the Overlord a moment later.
“Good job,” he said. “That was honestly quite impressive work.”
“Never can say what you really feel, eh? Sure, that would empower me more, but is that a bad thing?”
“You and I have a long way to go before we can see eye to eye,” Sam replied. “Remember that.”
“I will.”
Then the two men turned towards the city below, and grinned. There were still untold numbers of enemies there.