Chapter 654: Overpowering (1/2)
Adrenaline and fear coursed through Zac’s body as he saw the spatial tear in front of Adcarkas widen. It wasn’t because of the ability itself, but rather what he saw through the rip in space. It was his sister surrounded by multiple monitors. The tear was somehow completely bypassing the golden alloy to allow the Dominator to strike straight at Kenzie.
In fact, the reason that Adcarkas seemed to be struggling so hard to open the tear might actually not be due to the Anointed’s efforts, but rather the isolating properties of the alloy itself. It was also possible the alloy lost its isolating properties the moment Kenzie started fiddling with it. There was no time or point to start analyzing the situation though, and Zac unhesitantly unleashed [Hatchetman’s Rage], and the surge of power perfectly blended with his true fury as he shot forward.
“Hmph,” Adcarkas snorted as he glanced in Zac’s direction.
The Dominator punched out toward him and the swing generated a small sphere that almost looked like a black hole. Zac didn't recognize the skill or what threat it posed, but he didn’t care. A fractal blade had already appeared on [Verun’s Bite], and two clouds were released in quick succession. The spatial ball greedily swallowed the energies Zac released with [Rapturous Divide] for a second before it detonated, decimating everything in its path with a wave of spatial tears aimed straight at Zac.
Zac grit his teeth and pushed straight into the storm, and bleeding gashes appeared all over his body as he forced his way through the chaos. Thankfully the path was suddenly clear as the divide between heaven and hell was formed in the chaos, creating a path for Zac to pass through. Adcarkas stood on the other side, clearly surprised that Zac had managed to cut through his manmade spatial storm so quickly.
The Dominator’s arm had already reached into the tear. Kenzie desperately tried to keep him at bay, but her elemental attacks were completely unable to deter him, which was no surprise. No matter how skilled her control of her Dao was, it couldn’t compete with pure power. A terrifying pressure suddenly burst out from Zac as the halo of [Conformation of Supremacy] reappeared behind his back. He roared in rage as he swung his axe in a wide horizontal arc, and space itself buckled inward as the weight of the Eternal Shield was added to the swing.
Adcarkas moved his free palm as a swirling vortex appeared to block, but just as the two forces clashed a third one appeared as a huge wooden hand appeared out of nowhere. Zac still hadn’t figured out exactly how Void’s Disciple was avoiding attacks by his spatial shifting, but he couldn’t hold back right now. Besides, with one of the Dominator's hands inside a spatial tear and the other one blocking [Conformation of Supremacy], this was the best opportunity to try to end things since the beginning of the fight.
“Ogras!” Zac roared as well, and a storm of Dao-infused spears rose from the ground, almost completely swallowing the Zhix.
Another beam of pure darkness hit the Zhix from behind, and Zac added the final ingredient of his plan; he flooded the area with a Dao Field empowered by [Spiritual Void]. There was no way that Adcarkas’ spatial shift was infallible. Dao restrained Dao, and if Ogras could wound Adcarkas, then this maxed-out Dao Field would hopefully be able to interfere with his ability to avoid getting hit.
The hand slammed down toward the ground with earthshattering force. Adcarkas’ reaction time was shocking though, and his body grew just like during the end toward the last battle. Zac inwardly swore in disappointment upon realizing his skills seemed to have been passed along as well. He had hoped that some things would get lost when swapping body, but he had already used three of his old skills so it didn’t look hopeful.
The Zhix instantly ripped out his arm from the spatial tear, dragging a huge chunk of ice with him. It was Kenzie’s attempt to lock his arm in place, but it had unfortunately failed. Still, the hand had appeared just a meter above the Dominator’s head, and it was immediately barreling down on him. A black hand slammed upward as Adcarkas roared, forcing [Nature's Punishment] to stop in its tracks.
A tremendous shockwave from the clash pushed Zac away, and it was powerful enough to break a few of the closest pillars clean off. Zac glanced up at the Dimensional Seed with fear, but he breathed in relief when he saw that the shield still held even after losing some of its Dao Source.
More surprisingly it looked like Adcarkas got absolutely infuriated upon seeing the spears break off and fall onto the ground.
“You fool!” he roared as his aura exploded even further.
The Zhix had already dispelled the force of [Conformation of Supremacy] so he pushed his second hand up as well to deal with the hand of [Nature’s Punishment], an absolute storm of pure spatial chaos erupted the next moment, and Zac instantly realized he wouldn’t be able to withstand the force for long even when infusing the attack with Fragment of the Bodhi.
But the fire of fury in his chest had still not abated after seeing the Zhix targeting his sister, and he instantly pushed through spatial tears around Adcarkas, ignoring the second set of cuts that sprouted across his body. He emerged through the turbulence like an angry bull and he instantly resummoned [Conformation of Supremacy] while dispelling [Nature’s Punishment] half a second before it would break by itself.
Adcarkas tried to move his hands down again to block, but Zac's attack summoned by the Void and empowered by a towering fury was too quick, and his strike slammed straight into Adcarkas’ chest. It first looked like the Dominator tried to phase out of reality to avoid the strike, but the area was suffused with too many high-grade concepts.
Instead, he could only hastily activate a skill to block, but Zac’s momentum was far beyond what he could impede. [Verun’s Bite] crashed straight through a wall of condensed space, and cracking sounds echoed out as Adcarkas was flung over a hundred meters away. It worked! Zac wanted to roar in triumph at finally harming this monster, but he didn’t even get a chance to celebrate before the situation turned for the worse.
It first looked like Adcarkas would slam into yet another of the pillar, hopefully getting hurt even further from the impact. But a space gate suddenly appeared right in his trajectory, swallowing the Dominator whole. A sudden scream of danger made Zac hurriedly turn around, but he was too slow.
Another gate had appeared right behind him, and a red-eyed Void’s Disciple had already launched a strike. A world-ending punch hit Zac right back, and the impact caused the air itself to crack. Zac felt like his organs had been crushed and he spat out a mouthful of blood as he was flung away. He didn’t have the means of Void’s Disciple, but he did manage to stop his flight with the help of his chains just before slamming into one of the five squads.
The Anointed quickly backed away while maintaining the array, and Zac could only push away the pain while shooting forward again. There was not much else the Anointed could do to help except than staying out of the way. The original plan had been for them to stall one of the Dominators for long enough to Zac and Ogras to kill the other, at which point Zac would deal with the second one as well.
Now they could only do what they could to support Zac from a distance since there was no point in them throwing away their lives.
The initial attempt at finishing off the Dominator had failed, but Zac refused to give up. At least they had managed to wound him, and Zac didn’t believe that the spatial energies seeping out from the Dimensional Seed could help him heal as well. They should be able to whittle him down in this manner.
But Zac soon found himself under a relentless storm of strikes as Void’s Disciple visage had turned into a mask of fury. Strikes with enough force to shatter mountains were launched in a relentless flurry, and they still incorporated the esoteric and unpredictable methods of space.
Zac kept [Conformation of Supremacy] constantly active as he tried to give as good as he got, but his body was already a bloody mess after pushing through two spatial storms. Ogras tried to help as best as he could, but another galaxy had appeared, trapping Zac in a death cage where he gradually lost the initiative.