997 Duel 1 (2/2)

Looking above his head, the Spirit Mothership seemed to vibrate slightly before silently and slowly accelerating, moving towards the transparent and shapeless entrance floating in the distance. Within a few seconds, the entire ship had disappeared without a trace.

”How many years will it be until its next appearance?” Garen exclaimed. What was the intention of these people in the Spirit Mothership, going all around displaying their generosity.

Suddenly, his soul seed in his brain shook violently, emitting a pale ring of light, completely covering his brain. From the outside of his brain, it felt like there was a thorn like object attempting to forcefully penetrate his mind.

”Who's there!”

Garen, in a frenzy, shifted his attention towards the direction his soul seed's judgment was pointing him to.

Even before he finished his sentence, he swiftly whipped his body around, dodging away from his original position.

In the exact moment he dodged away, a shapeless thorn violently pierced through the air beside him, disappearing into thin air. It was barely even visible for an instant.

As the thorn pierced through the air, it left behind a mist of frosty cold air, causing even Garen's body to become slightly numb from the cold.

”Heh, you're not half bad!” Joey's voice sounded from afar. The hovering silhouettes of him and Yiling on their flying platforms appeared.

Garen had finally landed on the ground of the pine forest. He was looking up at the two hovering in the sky.

”It's you guys?”

”Hand us the goods, the gene modification liquid essence,” Joey arrogantly said whilst looking down on Garen.

”Do you think that's even possible?” Garen laughed coldly.

”You can try not handing it to us,” Joey also started laughing coldly. ”This world is based on the survival of the fittest, since you now gained an asset that you cannot protect, how dare you even have the thought of keeping it to yourself? I don't know if your brain is not working today or if you were just born a moron.”

”Alright, stop this useless nonsense, hand us the goods and we'll spare your life,” Yiling frowned as she muttered.

Garen frowned, he felt that something was off.

He started to go on full alert, preparing to defend in all directions. His surroundings seemed to give him an uncomfortable feeling.

”Since you didn't heed our warning, I'll take it as you have a death wish,” Joey spat into the air. The two slowly descended from the sky on their flying platform.

Crack…

He cracked the joints in his knuckles, causing a crisp sound. He stretched his neck briefly and with that short action, his entire body seemed to have expanded.

On his side, Yiling lightly slapped Joey's back with her palm, seemingly extracting a long and thin needle-like object from his back.

”One minute.”

Joey slyly smiled as he raised one finger.

Boom!

With a thunder-like roar, a white cloud exploded at joey's original position. It was due to his extreme speeds, causing a small sonic boom in the air.

Garen's pupils rapidly contracted, he raised both his arms to his chest, crossed. At the same time, he moved his body to his right, using the Eighth-Grade Scarlet Snow Technique on his entire body, causing a mist of cold air mixed with cold radiation to spread around him in a twenty meter radius.

However, he was too late because in that instant, a huge crashing force hit his crossed arms.

Bang!!!

One punch!

Joey appeared right before Garen, maintaining his pose as his fist was reached out.

Garen was flung back by this powerful punch, the muscles and bones of his arms showing a clear and visible punch dent.

With a loud crash, Garen's back landed on top of a huge pine tree. On impact, huge pieces of tree bark were ripped apart, flying all over the place, revealing the whitish inner bark of the stem.

”Once more!”

Joey laughed wickedly, once again disappearing from his location.

Bam bam bam bam!!!

What seemed to be an endless flurry of formless punches continuously striked at Garen from different directions. The punches connecting with Garen's arms which he put up as a guard one after the other.

The enormous strength was also accompanied with a fearsome cold air that was left after each punch. Even with Garen's strong vitality, his recovery speed could not keep up with the attacks.

At the next instant, Joey suddenly reappeared right behind of Garen, his entire back arched up with his palms together in front of his body. A shapeless energy field started to accumulate in front of him, exceeding level four within an instant, reaching the maximum point of level five, almost reaching the resonance stage.

”Absorption Dragon!”

His eyes suddenly flashed green. Roaring softly like an actual dragon, his palms pierced towards Garen's back.

The huge twisted energy field followed Joey as he lunged forwards, becoming more and more concentrated, affecting everything in the surrounding areas.

Grass shreds, dirt, fallen tree bark, and even shreds of Yiling's clothes from a distance away started being blown about in the air.

”It's the end,” Yiling shook her head. Once Joey uses this move, it would almost guarantee him the victory. She was originally worried that this fellow would have some ace up his sleeves, but who would've thought that he would not even have been able to put up a fight.