Sensing the sudden change in Sam’s potency, the Voidrot Champion crossed its swords and teleported a mile away, thinking that Sam’s strike would be an inconvenience, but ultimately not a threat. Then Sam loosed his power, letting the metaphysical chains he had placed on his Dao loose.
A tidal wave of rampaging energy thundered across the valley between the two fighters, setting the world on fire, or so it seemed. The mountains below melted away, rivers of slag coursing down the sides of the snow covered peaks. Then again, there was hardly any snow left.
Sam sent the full weight of his Dao down upon his enemy, breaking through the spatial lock that had been placed on his own teleportation, and imposing one of his own. Now that he really was letting loose, he realized that his foe’s Dao was slightly weaker than his own. It contained only a tiny fragment of the true weight of the Voidrot’s conceptual might, and as such Sam’s fused Dao Seed was superior.
The monster let out a cry of rage, shifting its body so as to cover the most flesh possible with its swords. Then it was swept away, and the mountain below with it. Unlike before, there was no Voidrot coursing out of the Astral Pit for the monster to regenerate from, which actually made it weaker in some regards than its lesser brethren. Only the regeneration abilities of the Voidrot Guardians had posed an issue for Sam. Had they been nonexistent, he would have already finished with Vallenar.
A nova of greying amethyst light expanded in the center of Sam’s unleashed skill, driving back a small portion of it. Most of it was deflected towards the horizon, burning through vast patches of Vallenar’s surface. Dozens of square miles of ground vanished into molten oblivion. Sam winced slightly, watching as a small portion of the planet he had worked to save was ruined.
As the smoke receded, he was greeted by the sight of the Voidrot Champion holding pieces of melted metal, its swords having taken the brunt of the attack. Its flesh was scorched, and one arm was severely damaged.
Sam laughed. “Not so tough without your Voidrot to prop you up, are you?”
“Silence, scum! Do not insult my god!”
“So it's your god now? I thought it was an ancestor? How did you reach E Rank with this level of stupidity?” Sam paused. “Right, you didn’t. You were made.”
Before his enemy could respond, Sam flashed forwards, teleporting above the Champion. With a muttered curse, the monster threw its ruined swords aside, and charged up another beam of corruption. Sam slammed his hammer down into the center of the attack, contesting it with his Dao energy. He was transfixed in the air, and then with a thunderous bang, he broke through, his hammer crushing the creature into the ground.
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Brackish sap exploded from the creature’s woody flesh, the ground beneath it rapidly darkening and rotting away. Rather than stay localized to the sap’s landing spots, it began to spread at an exponential rate.
The newborn Locus Tree started to glow with the green light of Life, and a wave of energy pulsed out, trying to push back the spread of rot. The taint receded, and the Voidrot Champion rose, its blood seeping back into its body. With a tensing of its four arms, it punched, each fist coated in enough corruption to lay waste to an entire country’s worth of farmland. The exponential growth of the Voidrot was by far its most dangerous aspect.
Sam shifted through the air, reality unzipping before him as he used Spacetime Razor. He soon learned the true target of his foe’s strike, as the monster thrust its fists into the ground. A dome of energy sprang up, spreading despite the dominance of the Locus Tree over the area, and slowly but surely, the air itself rotted, becoming thicker and clotting into clumps that drifted like ash on the air.
Then the monster raised its hands in supplication to the sky, and a bolt of lightning shot down from the heavens, enveloping it in a nimbus of swirling electricity. Even the lightning was tainted by the filth of its creator, like a long strip of pallid flesh falling from the sky. The wounds of the Champion rapidly healed over, and its form swelled with the bulk of an oak tree. Shards of corrupted metals oozed up from the earth below, reforming its swords.
Sam raised an eyebrow and then the other as the monster blitzed him, the air burning before its charge. It hadn’t even teleported, yet moved like a blur to Sam’s demigod-like perception. He only responded on pure instinct, his hammer interposing itself between the Voidrot Champion and himself. He was sent flying, his body rippling as his chest plate dented. A quick investment of Dao energy repaired it, but a good chunk of his health had vanished.
His foe laughed and slammed its swords together, turning them into a rapidly expanding cloud of razor sharp dust. Flickers of static electricity crossed between them, galvanizing the conceptual energy into action. A wave of rot coursed across the nearby ground faster than Sam could believe, sending a ripple of mushy sludge across the surface of the world.
Sam gritted his teeth, and let loose, the heavenly beams of light from Dao Juggernaut transfixing his form. Between one moment and the next, he was before his previously speedy opponent, his hammer already buried in its chest. Wood exploded in a shower of splinters, and he caved in its upper body, sending the creature shooting miles into the sky. A barrage of his Dao energy projectiles tracked the arc of the Champion, searing its already devastated flesh. As pain coursed through Sam’s body, he teleported, his hammer raised.