Due to the buff from my two Support Halo Skills. Old Man Liam got a renewed strength that could now rival his son.
"Brat. Do you really want us to fight in front of you?"
Though he called me a brat, I brushed that off and answered him. It's not like I care about how someone calls me.
"You can choose not to but it will be hard for me to trust you, old man. You two won't be able to kill each other anyway. Just go all out and show him the benefits of being at our side."
I smirked before covering him with the additional buff from the Orb of Enhancement.
"You're a sly one. Alright, watch me put this unfilial son of mine in his place."
The spikes on the Majestic Mammoth's back once again hovered around him before splitting into numerous pieces.
This time, instead of covering his arms, it attached itself to his back once again to form the bone-like wing.
As soon as he did that, the Transcendent Aura he's giving off rise for a few notches.
Swooosh!
The Majestic Mammoth's wings seemingly came to life as it boosted the Ultimate Metagen upwards.
From where I am, I could see him instantly appearing before the all-black Metagen of Lucas that was still gaining altitude from the punch it received.
Now that I pit the father against his son, I could properly observe both of their abilities.
When I fought old man Liam back then, I'm quite sure that's not all he could do. For a Transcendent, that kind of showing looked weak. He probably held back in the fear that even his strongest method wasn't enough to deal with me. As for Julian, the Vermillion Demon Form was also not his best, I interrupted his 2nd clone forming after all.
All Transcendents have their own tricks and since Transcendents are still uncommon in this world, a fight between two would hardly result in a serious injury. Unless it's a life or death battle which was unlikely to happen considering how they all wanted to grow stronger.
But that would soon change. A fall of Transcendent will become inevitable in the not-so-far future.
A Transcendent's Meta Pathway should at least have 5 specific skills that were brought by the awakening and upgrading of awakened ability starting from Silver-rank to Mythic-rank.
During this encounter, the Emperor already showed two; his Black Smoke Form and the Teleportation while old man Liam only showed one.
He's only using his superhuman ability which he could transfer to his Metagen. There should be more to his awakened ability than just that and I'd like to see that at this moment.
It's true that one should keep all their cards hidden until needed but as someone previously from their side, I needed to check the extent of his strength.
Also, that's still his son. They're still connected in blood. If in the end, this old man chose their blood ties, it will be easy to deal with him knowing what he can do.
I already sparred with the Matriarch once. Unlike Lunaria's awakened ability which concerns the Moon, her awakened ability concerns the Night. Though it's somehow related to the Moon or Darkness, it's different.
There's also The Emperor's ability which is leaning more on that Black Smoke than Darkness but it's still connected.
Every awakened ability has its own variations even if some came from the same root.
A few seconds after the Majestic Mammoth flew up I could see how the all-black Metagen of the Emperor exuded a huge amount of Black Smoke which immediately covered the sky and afterwards, it stabilized before plunging down to meet the incoming opponent.
Clang! Boom!
Their fists met and another resounding boom echoed in the surroundings. The air vibrated due to the force of impact, however, with that one clash, none of the two pulled back and instead they continued for another one.
Boom!
The Black Smoke that was being exuded by the Emperor's Metagen moved behind the old man.
Unfortunately, he's unaware of that. When the Majestic Mammoth gathered enough energy on its feet, its right foot spun like a drill before kicking towards his opponent.
However, before that foot made contact, the figure of the Emperor's Metagen sunk inside the smoke behind him before appearing behind the old man.
Crack! Crack!
As soon as he appeared, a huge amount of that smoke instantly gathered at his arm. With a stab, it aimed to penetrate the Majestic Mammoth's back, however, the Quintuple Layer of Shields moved to the old man's back blocking the Metagen's black arm which resulted in two layers breaking open.
Thanks to that opening, the old man managed to land a counterattack. His wings flapped which hit the all-black Metagen and plunged it downwards with spikes embedded on it
The shards of the black regenium could be seen falling along with him and only when the Black Smoke from above acted traversed the distance and acted as the Metagen's cushion did it stop mid-air.
"How is it, Emperor?"
I asked in a voice loud enough to travel to where he stopped. Lucas already had his Metagen stand up while pulling out the spikes embedded deeply in it. After that, his Energy circulated to repair the damage it received and close those holes, albeit slowly due to how deep it damaged it.
"I admit I underestimated the old Man. He's not this strong before. That strange zone around you can make others stronger."
"That's too obvious, isn't it? You're right. I can make anyone stronger. I don't really need to fight you, I can stand here and watch you get ganged up by others enhanced by me. Surely, you didn't miss that battle a few days ago. Julian getting pushed back by Lexie and Lunaria."
"That defeat really put off my plans I prepared from the last 10 years..."
"I'm sure you're not regretting it."
I smirked before pointing upwards, the old man had already decided to attack again. This time, the wings behind him detached itself and covered both his arms and legs, transforming his Metagen to another form.
Upon seeing that, the Emperor lost his chance to reply.
When his Metagen once again exuded the Black Smoke along with gathering the surrounding energy around him.
The smoke expanded further before coating him with it becoming another layer of armor. Afterwards, more smoke emerged from his Metagen arms which turned into a domain-like skill.
When it reached me, a notification about his skill came up.
[The Black Emperor Julian activated his Black Smoke Field.]
[By staying inside, you will suffer a 30% Movement Speed Debuff, 10% Attack and Defense Debuff and suffer from the attacks of Black Smoke Minions that will be generated by the field.]
Upon reading that, figures started to squirm inside his Black Smoke Field before forming into Black Smoke Minions.
I observed those creatures made from smoke. They purely consisted of the black smoke generated by his ability. Since it's from his ability, it's just a transformed Meta Energy.
Upon seeing those minions, I waved my hand to the incoming group and they were dispersed almost instantly. They're too weak to even be considered a threat for me. My Energy Control can overwhelm these creatures made from energy making them weaker than how they are supposed to be.
However, the same couldn't be said to that Old Man. He's the one fighting the Emperor, it's only natural that most of Lucas' focus will be on him.
In the following minutes I observed carefully to analyze everything they're showing before me.
For the Emperor, I successfully gathered information about 5 skills of his. However, I couldn't be sure if those were all of his skills which stemmed from his awakened ability or just a feature added to his Metagen.
Nonetheless, he couldn't afford to be carefree against the powered-up Old Man. Despite the debuff from his Black Smoke Field and the continuous attacks of his minions, the old man could still keep up with him.
As for the Old Man, apart from transferring his strength to his Metagen, he also has a clone-like skill. However, it could only deliver one attack before instantly dissipating into thin air. He mainly used that skill to prevent himself from being sneak-attacked whenever the Emperor will use his teleport skill.
Also, he has something similar to my Energy Amplification which burned through his energy in exchange for enhancement of his speed and strength.
In that kind of intense exchange of skills. Their battle continued for around 10 minutes before the Emperor himself started to back away and put himself into a retreating distance.
It's just 10 minutes, however, both of their Metagens had already been cracked and damaged to the point that the original energy output lowered than the original.
Still, even with that kind of damage, the Pilots inside are more or less fine. They might have suffered from impacts of their attacks but none was directly felt by them.
More than a shield, being inside a giant robot like that is the greatest armor of this world. However, the Metagen could also become their own coffin. Just like how I targeted the Enthroned Prince's cockpit. If the power of that slash was more than what I delivered, he'll be like a helpless chicken that has been grabbed on the head before killing it.
Well, it's not like it's easy to target the cockpit. It's the most protected part of the Metagen.
"I'll be thinking about what you said to me, 4th hero. However. My ambition still stands. I want this world to myself."
The Emperor's voice rang out after he reached a certain distance. Unlike earlier, he's really about to retreat now.
If he considered the damage his Metagen has suffered from the Majestic Mammoth, it would be beyond repair had they continued their battle.
I still have no confidence in killing him right now. It will just put us into a drawn-out fight that will surely result in one of us retreating. I'm not really fit in that kind of combat.
I will wait for a decisive strike that will end him in one strike.
His coming here isn't fruitless anyway, I've managed to gather information about how he thinks and how he fights.
For now, there's a more pressing issue waiting for us.
For example, taking over the two regenium mines that they're controlling.
"Old Man, what kind of food did you feed him when he was a kid?"
I asked the old man Liam as it slowly floated down next to me. The all-black Metagen was now a small dot from our eyes.
"Don't ask me. I left him to his mother."
Ah. That makes sense.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l