Chapter 340: Phoenix
The tremor not only affected the world. Lancelot felt it in his very guts, more debilitating than any single punch could ever be, but for reasons he understood.
Lancelot had the help of his lineage and his unique element. His Qi could easily summon his core’s traits due to that series of innate advantages and training.
However, higher cultivation stages could provide that feature, too. Dominic probably didn’t even have to try for his core’s nature to leak through the energy he unleashed.
While Lancelot’s feat remained more commendable due to his level, even coming close to being unmatched among rooting experts, Dominic easily exerted more power, almost halting all his functions, while his figure flew far past where the bed of leaves had once been.
Lancelot was powerless to move or speak. He could only watch the ground grow distant as his open mouth leaked blood, creating a trail of scarlet drops in the air.
But Lancelot was already recovering. His lineage made him nothing if not resilient, but time had a different meaning when his opponent was a branching expert.
Lancelot felt it more than saw it. The air under him seemed to part to facilitate the rise of another figure, as if the fabric of the world itself made way out of fear of shattering.
Before Lancelot could recover his bearings or his momentum could dissipate, Dominic appeared in front of him, his slightly burned hand already on his neck, squeezing it while gravity refused to bring them down.
"Do you think the world is like the lofty life your Sect gave you?" Dominic snorted, his voice carrying a weight that made Lancelot’s insides churn.
Lancelot didn’t care about the suffocating pressure on his neck or his churning insides. His fire came from within, and he had finally recovered enough to summon it.
A loud screech resounded as flames came out of Lancelot’s back, covering his arms and part of his head, condensing to give birth to a beaked creature.
The creature wasn’t lifelike. It couldn’t be since everything about it was fire. However, it was definitely distinct, separate from Lancelot, its proud head staring at Dominic.
It was as if a second rooting expert had joined the scene, but Dominic couldn’t be impressed. The number of his opponents might have doubled, but they remained ants, unworthy of the label of enemies.
Despite being in the air, without anything that could work as a foothold, Dominic pulled Lancelot aside and thrust his left hand forward, cutting through the flames to grab the beaked creature’s neck.
"Junior, rejoice," Dominic declared. "This Senior will teach you what so-called geniuses truly amount to."
Flames were all around Dominic’s left hand, but nothing burned. His Qi had become extremely solid, unmovable, too heavy for that weak heat to faze it.
Then, gravity returned, and twice at that. The ground applied its pull, and Dominic’s solid energy did the same. The weight that had already leaked into his voice joined his Qi, creating a double attraction that sent the trio down.
There was no real landing. What unfolded was closer to a meteor crashing down on the world. A vast crater opened, and obliterating shockwaves spread everywhere, lifting soil, still-buried roots, and whatever else Lancelot’s flames had failed to burn.
Once the dust settled, that once patch of flourishing forest had transformed into a circular, empty wasteland where nothing else could exist. Even the trees at its edge had tilted, partially uprooted, fallen, or snapped in half.
A single, simple attack from a branching expert had caused such widespread destruction. Yet, Dominic’s anger only intensified since both figures in his grasp were still responsive.
The beaked creature had lost most of its flames. Only its proud head and one of its wings had remained, the latter mangled, both left with short flames.
As for Lancelot, the lower half of his face was more blood than clean skin. Even his nose had started leaking it. His complexion had paled, but his red hair still waved.
The feverish smile even returned as flames seemed to light up inside Lancelot’s pupils. His whole body grew hotter, like a furnace that added a dim light to his skin.
Steam even came out as Lancelot’s complexion quickly improved. His presence regained power as the internal damage he had suffered healed.
"How privileged," Dominic snorted. "You even have a recovery-oriented martial art, but you still haven’t learned your place."
The mocking vein in Dominic’s tone didn’t escape Lancelot’s ears, but there was little he could do about what it implied. Dominic suddenly let go of his neck, only to tap his forehead with two fingers, sending a debilitating tremor throughout his very awareness.
The steam immediately stopped rising. Lancelot’s skin lost its dim glow as his whole body convulsed and his eyes rolled back. His brain was in disarray, misfiring inputs that turned him into an unresponsive and blind warm body.
But the mangled, fiery bird didn’t need Lancelot’s input to work.
Dominic had barely finished tapping Lancelot’s forehead when the beaked creature exploded into tongues of flame that fired at the branching expert.
Those bullets never had the chance to hit Dominic. He merely snorted, and the weight that his voice released acted as a wall that snuffed them out.
However, that had been a diversion. Some flames hadn’t flown straight at Dominic, getting away from him, rising into the air, and condensing again.
Somehow, the creature could still access Lancelot’s Qi, as if they shared his cultivation. New flames rose from its mangled body, recreating the missing parts and expanding on them.
The creature’s wings grew vaster and vaster. Its body completely took shape, gaining a feathered, fiery tail. Its neck stretched until new flames rose from its head, as if they were horns, revealing itself for what it truly was.
That was no mere bird. It was a proud phoenix that announced its arrival in the world by spewing a torrent of fire to the ground.
The whole process barely took a second, but that was already an eternity for a branching expert. Dominic was ready to deflect that descending fiery pillar with a wave of his hand when a dangerous aura touched his perception and snapped his head down.
Lancelot was still there, except his whole figure was on fire, and that wasn’t a mere defensive layer. His very body was burning, acting as the fuel for a spell an expert at his level shouldn’t have possessed.
And for the first time since the beginning of the battle, Dominic actually lost an exchange, both due to the surprise effect and due to the spell’s power. After all, what Lancelot had unleashed was a rank 3 martial art.
