Chapter 579: Title at the end of Chapter
The giant guardian Ragnarok struck with a heavy, downward swing of its massive axe.
Boooooooooooooom!
The collision of the weapons shook the entire chamber.
When the armored giant brought its massive, double bladed battle axe down in a casual, vertical chop, Ragnarok99 had met it with his heavy greatsword. But there was no heroic struggle of equals. The moment the steel met, the sound of the impact was like a thunderclap, vibrating through the stone floor and straight into the bones of everyone present.
Ragnarok99’s greatsword was violently forced downward. The sheer physical kinetic energy of the giant’s strike drove him to his knees with a sickening crunch. The stone beneath his heavy iron boots shattered into a web of deep cracks, pulverizing into fine grey dust.
"You... heavy... bastard..."
Ragnarok99 gritted his teeth, his face turning a dark, dangerous shade of purple as he struggled to hold the massive axe blade just inches from his nose. Blood began to leak from his nostrils, and a thick, dark crimson stream trickled from the corners of his mouth.
The iron behemoth didn’t show any effort. It held the massive axe with a single, massive hand, simply leaning its physical weight onto the handle. The overlapping plates of its dark iron armor creaked softly, but its posture was perfectly steady. It was like a mountain pressing down on a blade of grass.
Seeing that one of the promising otherworlders was about to be squashed like an insect, Ares forced his heavy, trembling legs to move.
He pushed himself from the rubble where he had been smashed into earlier and retrieved yet another golden spear from his inventory.
Even though he couldn’t use mana here effectively, he was able to access his inventory, and for someone who headed one of the biggest guilds in the Valerian Kingdom, he had more than one spear!
The leader of Olympus was a proud man, a top tier Guild leader who had never known the humiliation of being unable to lift his own weapon. His chest heaved as he fought against the suffocating gravity.
He didn’t have his skills. He didn’t have his active magic. But he had decades of experience and a golden spear that had pierced the hearts of countless bosses.
Using his raw weapon arts, Ares lunged forward. His feet dragged heavily across the cracked stone, but he channeled every ounce of his remaining strength into a precise, high speed thrust. The golden spear tip whistled weakly through the air, aimed directly at the exposed joint in the giant’s iron neck plate, right below the helm.
The colossal guardian’s crimson eyes flared behind its heavy visor.
As Ares’ spear tip came within inches of its neck, the monster simply swung its massive double bladed axe.
BANG!
This time Ares didn’t only lose his golden spear, the axe struck his shoulder just inches from his neck, which would have ended him once and for all.
This time around, his health bar plummeted instantly, entering a flashing, critical red zone of less than five percent.
Jack Arefield, who had seen this scene play out, clutched his own golden spear, but his arms were shaking so violently he couldn’t even raise the weapon into a defensive stance.
A very strange sight for the prideful vice leader.
The sheer, crushing despair of seeing the guild master smashed like a fly broke something inside him.
"It’s... it’s a monster..." Jack whispered, his golden eyes wide with terror. "We can’t fight this. Without our magic... we’re just normal humans. We’re going to die here."
On the left, Liang watched Ares collapse. His breath was shallow, his heart pounding against his ribs like a trapped bird.
’If we don’t fight now, we will be drained until we are nothing but dry, mummified corpses,’ Liang thought.
The realization of the betrayal burned in his chest, mixing with his pride to ignite a desperate, manic fire. If the Emperor and the Martial Palace elders had sent him here as high grade fuel to feed the seal, then he would burn his own fuel to ash before letting the spike have it.
"Disciples of the Martial Palace!" Liang roared, his voice cracking with emotion as he forced himself to stand upright. "Do not cower! Burn your essence blood! We die as cultivators of Tianlan, not as food for a nail!"
With a savage cry, Liang bit his own tongue, spitting out a mouthful of bright crimson essence blood.
Flicker.
A faint, violent surge of blue qi erupted from his body. By burning his own life force, a forbidden, desperate technique that would permanently damage his future cultivation, he managed to temporarily bypass the spike’s siphoning field for a few precious seconds.
His longsword began to hum with a weak, unstable blue light.
"Azure Dragon’s Ascent!" Liang screamed, his eyes bloodshot.
He lunged forward. His speed, enhanced by his burning life essence, was blinding. He bypassed the kneeling Ares and appeared directly in front of the armored giant’s chest. His sword flashed three times in a fraction of a second, aiming for the joints in the iron armor.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The blade struck true. But there was no satisfying crunch of metal. Liang’s sword only left three shallow, white scratches on the dark iron surface.
The colossal guardian slowly turned its crimson eyes down toward Liang.
It was like a human looking at a persistent mosquito.
Before Liang could pull his sword back, the iron behemoth raised its left boot and kicked him squarely in the chest.
BANG!
The kick was simple, devoid of any martial arts technique, but the sheer physical mass behind it was absolute. Liang’s breastplate shattered into a hundred iron fragments. The force of the blow dislocated both of his shoulders and shattered his collarbones. He was sent sliding across the blood spattered stone floor, leaving a long, red trail of blood behind him.
He collapsed near Evelyn, his body twitching in agony. The blue qi around him vanished, and his dantian let out a silent, final pop as it ruptured completely. His cultivation, the result of decades of agonizing daily effort, was gone. He was nothing but a crippled, ordinary mortal now.
"Brother Liang!" Evelyn cried, rushing to his side. She tried to channel a basic healing art, but her fingers only sparked with weak, grey static before fizzling. She clutched his broken body, tears streaming down her face.
"Brother Liang is down... Ares is dying..." a Martial Palace disciple wailed, his mind completely snapping under the pressure. "We are finished."
...
Title: The Day Liang Lost Everything
