For a minute, it seemed as though the skies wrapped themselves around them to unfurl a dysphoric simulacrum of the entire surrounding as they were locked in a minute intense exchange.
The wind rustled with impacts that broke the sound barrier as each one of them's fists delved into the other.
For the monk he was very durable, his body was doing a good work of damage absorption. Li Mingwu. Well, he was durable too, at the very least he isn't breaking down no matter how many times the monk drove his palm into his stomach, chest, and arms.
It was endless.
The monk's hands soon became a blur these times and like a mirage as they continually battered Li Mingwu– the last strike. The last strike made the air gather around to run for breath, they seized and became very hot. And as the monk drove the palm forward, it seemed to tear into the fabric of space. But it's okay, it wasn't that tough. It just broke through the sound barrier again, creating an air coat around the monk's hand as he reached Li Mingwu and buried it into his chest.
Li Mingwu couldn't afford a long flight this time around, thanks to his durability he had held on well for one minute with nothing to support him. With a heavy strike like that? He scrambled away into the air and was etched into the walls of an afar cliff not less than 0.9km away from them.
The cliff shook, its vibration caused a resonance in the forest beneath it and gave the birdie monsters a little scare, they all flew away as normal birds would.
Most of the birds were adorned with a blue feather and unmistakably as Li Mingwu noticed for a brief moment when one flew past him, they had three legs.
'I must be seeing things now that I'm old eh?'
He removed himself from the cliff. A perfect blueprint of his frame was indented on the wall of the cliff.
For a strong man like Li Mingwu, levitating was not a big deal. Of course, it is bound to become a hassle when he is dealing with a monster such as this and still wants to manage a part of his space manipulating to keep himself afloat.
He frowned at the monk who was also floating but 0.9km away.
Li Mingwu squinted his eyes, right now he was acknowledging the fact that this is going to be very hard to deal with.
Perhaps something should be made clear. When Li Mingwu deems something hard, the first and foremost meaning of that scenario is that he would have to fight outside his comfort zone.
He had an arsenal of space skills and honestly, no one had ever really made him use them all. There was this monster in the past that came close to succeeding but it died before Li Mingwu could even use his peak.
This was why right now, Li Mingwu was smiling. If he can reach his peak, perhaps he will enjoy fighting a little bit more. Maybe he would be able to see his weakness and finally be susceptible to growth.
His mind wriggled with excitement as he thought of that one possibility. He was not a battle-crazed person no he wasn't. But he was obsessed with his growth and this skirmish that was about to unfold between him and the monk, to Li Mingwu it was looking quite promising.
As if sensing a signal of approval, the monk streaked at Li Mingwu. He was super fast for someone that was levitating just a minute ago and there was barely any traces left of his movement, just the aftermath of flustered winds that scattered around.
"Jhana."
The monk's voice rang again like a trembling thunder as entered Li Mingwu's close vision, he carved arcs from upward and downward simultaneously with both hands– immediately, at that same time, Li Mingwu backed away, standing feet on the ground on the wall of the cliff, straight up defying gravity with little to no effort.
He had sensed the danger in the monk's strike. It wasn't even up to a second as his feet attached to the wall of the cliff, the air between the two of them trembled as if a bomb exploded from the subspace and was causing the visible space to tremble in the shock of the explosion.
It was a bizarre attack, nothing that Li Mingwu was used to. So there was no way for him to know that backing away from it wasn't going to save him.
Because it was a ranged attack in the first place.
Without any aforementioned. The wall of the cliff was disfigured, bringing the entire cliff to its knees. Before Li Mingwu could get what was happening he was caught up in a dire survey flight, trying to avoid heavy rocks from falling on his head.
Everything happened so fast that even though he was on high alert. He had no time to react. Reaction was a far-fetched word. He didn't even see it coming.
The monster was dangerous.
Li Mingwu's mind affirmed to him once again as he found his way up amidst the rainfall of rocks.
The once-standing mighty cliff was nothing but smoke and debris. However, to the bright side, there was a better view of the gate environment now as if the cliff was standing as a light block before.
Li Mingwu darted at the monk the moment he saw a chance. But that too was to no avail.
"Anikka..."
He was barely shouting but his voice was rumbling, as if the gods were speaking. He jammed his hands together as he spoke and before Li Mingwu coins reach half the distance that split the two of them–
It was like the world suddenly zeroed out on him, everything turned and for the next moment, he blacked out. Only to wake up and he was on the ground, with a mighty crack in the middle of the forest.
Trees were completely disintegrated. Even grasses were gone, the ground itself had folded inside out, forming a webbed crack with Li Mingwu laying in the middle of it, and the monk afloat right atop him. Hands joined together, praying to God knows whom.
What had just happened? One second he was flying towards the monster, the next second he was on the ground. What were this monster's powers?
Having no chill, the monk lifted one hand to the skies.
"Kalpa"
For the first time since he began to throw strikes, visibility was welcomed. A brownish energy-like liquid flames surged from his hands into the middle of the sky creating a detracting blackhole that began to draw everything in.
It started with winds and leaves, but soon got heavy and began to remove trees from the ground. The seemingly peaceful forest before now had become a spinning disaster of tornadoes and hurricanes and earthquakes that split the floor as if the ground itself would be sacked in.
Yet with all this tremor, Li Mingwu was left wondering why he was not being pulled up, he couldn't feel any force of attraction on himself at all.
Perhaps, this attack was not working because of his spatial manipulation.
Li Mingwu as always was too quick to think highly of himself for he did not know that all this swirling was gathering to launch a nuclear-type attack on him.
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