Chapter 653: Mad Ambition (2/2)

“Attack!” Zac roared, knowing his window to recuperate was up.

He was still a bit woozy, but there was not much he could do other than fight. It was unfortunately clear that Adcarkas had the home-field advantage as the Dimensional Seed suddenly flashed and thousands of Spatial Tears appeared all through the chamber. As for Adcarkas himself, he activated the skill that created a huge number of stars around him.

Zac immediately shot forward after making sure that his sister was safe. It looked like she could control the golden alloy like she could the Memorysteel, and it swam up around her to form a small dome. Billy and the remaining Anointed quickly grouped up in five small squads as they formed an encirclement led by Rhubat, and their auras rose as the air itself congealed.

Zac hadn’t seen this method used before, and he guessed it was something they had gotten their hands on to deal with Void’s Disciple’s spatial abilities. Of course, whether it would be able to prevent him from escaping was still up for debate. There wasn’t much else the Anointed could do against someone like Adcarkas though, but they could perhaps skew victory in their favor by stabilizing space itself in an arena.

And Zac saw that their plan wasn’t completely without merit as not a single one of the endless spatial tears had opened up within a hundred-meter radius.

The alloy floor gave off creaks of pain as Zac pushed [Loamwalker] to the limits, as he moved between the stars like a ghost. A few of them exploded just as he passed, but reaching peak mastery in the skill had improved the speed even further, allowing Zac to push through the minefield with only minor wounds.

He was suddenly in melee range of the target, and [Verun’s Bite] keened in the air as Zac tried to strike the Dominator with a series of probing attacks. The Dominator’s confidence was a bit disconcerting, and Zac felt something was up. After all, he had barely escaped with his life last time, even getting himself cut in two. Yet now he felt confident enough to start monologing like a TV villain, something was definitely up.

Something like possession should also cause all kinds of trouble, like lacking compatibility between soul and body. Perhaps even rejection like a transplant. Yet he was leisurely talking like he had everything under control. It might be bluster, but Zac didn’t want to burn his aces from the get-go before getting a better understanding of the situation.

The only one who had managed to harm Adcarkas until now was Ogras, and Zac figured it was thanks to the demon’s shadow-related Dao Fragment. That might be the key to killing him, so each of Zac's swings was imbued with the Fragment of the Coffin, giving them a hint of putrefaction and extra force. His Fragment of the Axe was even stronger, but Zac wanted to hold off on it a while longer since Adcarkas still shouldn't know he had evolved it, and that might create an opening sooner or later.

The Anointed weren’t actually attacking, only focusing on restraining the space around him, which no doubt was a herculean task considering the Dimensional Seed radiated immense energies right above their heads. Their life force was rapidly being expended to just weaken Adcarkas’ advantage.

Ogras wasn’t as limited considering his versatile combat style, and shadow spears kept appearing to strike at the Zhix as well. Even the stars cast weak shadows, allowing the demon to turn the Dominator’s skill against him. It was the same with Kenzie who had over a hundred Drones fly around to hopefully distract the target. Laser beams suddenly shot toward the Zhix without warning from unexpected angles as drones appeared from behind spatial tears or the pillars.

However, the shadow spears didn’t manage to cause any real harm to the Dominator, and there was something odd happening with the laser strikes. Zac knew all-too-well Jeeve’s calculation capabilities, and he knew that it shouldn't keep making mistakes. But it was like his sister kept getting unlucky as the slowly moving stars somehow managed to block the shots over and over without seemingly speeding up at all. The stars formed some sort of elusive pattern that protected the Zhix when it looked like there were a lot of openings.

Adcarkas didn’t seem to be in a hurry to end the fight, and he happily started to exchange strikes with Zac, just like how the two fought back on Earth. The situation was extremely odd though as Zac felt himself under tremendous pressure. Zac was fighting tooth and nail, his swings almost creating a blur as he tried to make the Zhix slip up by keeping up a massive pressure. If he could somehow cause Adcarkas to lose his concentration Zac might be able to hit him with a surprise slam from [Nature’s Punishment].

But Zac felt a growing sense of inability as he exchanged strike after strike. No matter what he tried or how much he pushed himself there was always a palm waiting. If anything it felt like Adcarkas moved slower compared to their last fight, yet he was even more impervious.

Zac soon understood what was going on; everything Adcarkas did was imbued with the Dao of Space. The suns moved following some hidden rules that created an absolute defense, and his own movements created a great effect with minimal effort thanks to his high command of the Dao.

It was an eye-opening experience to see someone fight so in tune with his path, and Zac would be in awe of Adcarkas if the man wasn’t trying to extract his soul. This was exactly the state Zac needed to reach for himself. He had created his path based on his trinity of Daos, but he still didn’t have much to show for it. Adcarkas had gone much further on this path and was already infusing it with every single movement he took.

Zac didn’t understand the concepts that were the basis of Adcarkas’ altered combat style, but the battle was still a huge revelation to him. It felt like a flood of inspiration washed over him as he fought, and Zac finally understood what his next step should be in improving how he fought. Unfortunately, Zac quickly realized that just as he was gaining a lot from the battle, so was Adcarkas.

The Dominator was actually using him as a whetstone to consolidate his gains.

It might be possible that he was getting used to his new body as well, but in either case it wasn’t a good feeling to be disregarded to the point he was just considered a training tool rather than a deadly foe. It almost felt like Adcarkas believed he could end the battle at any moment if he wished to.

And just as Zac feared, things suddenly changed. Zac had attacked the Dominator’s head with two of his chains, trying to force him to use his arms to block. And just as the Zhix lifted his hand to intercept Zac’s axe flashed forward with enough speed to almost break space. Zac wanted to cut off one of the dominator’s hands, but he would be content if he just managed to wound it.

Zac’s eyes widened in surprise when the axe actually passed right through the wrist, but surprise turned to confusion when only a shallow wound appeared. His mind screamed of danger the next moment as the Zhix launched a lightning-quick counter-strike aimed straight at his head, forcing Zac to hurriedly block with two chains of [Love’s Bond].

Fist and metal clashed with huge force, but the chains suddenly slipped straight through his arm the moment Zac tried to ensnare him.

“He’s shifting his body in and out of space,” Kenzie’s voice echoed out from a drone. ”Just like the werewolves turning into light, but instead using the Dao of Space.”

“Oh?” Void’s Disciple said as he looked at the golden alloy bubble with interest as he effortlessly kept blocking Zac’s strikes. “So you’re the sister, the genius? I am guessing you are the reason you all managed to interrupt my cultivation so quickly. Well, I did promise Kirath revenge for her brother. You could say this would be poetic justice.”

Space started to crack the next moment as a rift opened up. It looked like the array the Anointed maintained was resisting its emergence, but Adcarkas was simply too powerful if he put his mind to it. A flame of fury ignited in Zac’s heart when he realized what the Zhix was doing, and his aura veritably exploded as any thought of probing was thrown out of the window.

Adcarkas was crazy if he thought he could hurt Kenzie right in front of him.