Boulder stepped out from the collapsing mountain.
“Why are you running?” His voice exploded through the seabed, making the surrounding coral fragments tremble. “Keep running. I’ve chased you for so long; it’s rare for me to have such a good time.”
He raised his right hand, fingers splayed.
An aqua-blue energy ball condensed in his palm, its interior swirling with dense runic patterns.
The diameter of the energy ball rapidly expanded from the size of a fist to the size of a washbasin, and then from a washbasin to a millstone.
“Run faster. Don't let this prince get bored so quickly.”
He hurled the energy ball at Ethan.
As the energy ball flew through the seawater, it continuously absorbed the surrounding water-element energy particles, its volume growing larger and larger.
It expanded from the size of a millstone to a carriage, and then from a carriage to a house.
The runic patterns on its surface grew brighter and brighter, ionizing the surrounding water and emitting a buzzing, vibrating sound.
The seagrass beneath Ethan’s feet propelled him upward.
The energy ball brushed past the soles of his feet and crashed into the undersea plain behind him.
Boom!
A fireball over three hundred meters in diameter rose from the point of impact.
Inside the fireball was an aqua-blue energy core, surrounded by an emerald-green shockwave ring.
The shockwave swept out in all directions, uprooting all the seagrass on the seabed plain, churning up the sand, and cracking the bedrock.
The entire seabed trembled.
Ethan was caught by the shockwave, his body tumbling several times in the water before he managed to stabilize himself.
He raised a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, yet he didn't seem nervous.
A First-Tier Wizard was separated from a Second-Tier existence like Boulder by a massive chasm.
However, he had an ace up his sleeve.
The stacks of Cloud's Great Fury were still accumulating, and every second, his total attributes were steadily rising.
But right now, the stacks weren't enough—far from it.
He had to keep stalling, keep taking hits, and keep letting the other think he was playing a game of cat and mouse.
Taking down a Second-Tier as a First-Tier was not something that could be settled in a short amount of time.
Even if he was using cheats, it still had to be realistic.
The seagrass beneath Ethan’s feet grew frantically once more.
Tens of thousands of seagrass vines shot out from the seabed, their surfaces flowing with emerald-green light, weaving a giant net that covered several miles of the deep sea.
The giant net descended toward Boulder.
Boulder looked up at the sky-obscuring net, a flash of disdain in his vertical pupils.
“Weak!”
He clenched both fists, and the aqua-blue energy on his knuckles suddenly erupted.
He charged straight at the giant net, throwing both fists forward simultaneously.
Boom!
A hole a hundred meters in diameter was punched through the center of the giant net.
Shattered seagrass fibers curled outward from the edges of the hole, the emerald-green light at the rift rapidly dimming.
Boulder burst through the hole and lunged straight for Ethan.
Ethan had already begun setting up the next line of defense.
Time passed minute by minute.
Boulder grew more and more excited as the fight went on.
The young horns on both sides of his forehead glowed so brightly they seemed ready to burn, and the rage in his vertical pupils had completely transformed into excitement and madness.
“Ethan Leo! Weren't you quite the schemer back at Horn Mountain? Didn't you trick this prince? Why have you withered now?”
As he roared the last word, his right fist slammed into the Thorn Blood Armor on Ethan’s chest.
The blood armor began to shatter from the point of impact.
Cracks spread to the shoulders, the abdomen, and the back.
The entire set of armor disintegrated in less than half a breath, sending shattered wooden fibers flying outward.
Ethan was sent flying backward by the punch.
His body tumbled through the seawater for several thousand meters, smashing through an undersea mountain and a coral forest before finally stopping when he crashed into the retaining wall at the edge of the plaza.
A human-shaped crater exploded into the wall.
Ethan slid down from the crater and knelt on one knee.
A large amount of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, spreading through the seawater and dyeing the surroundings a dark red.
His arms hung at his sides, the skin on them covered in dark green lines that were slowly spreading.
He kept his head down, his breathing heavy.
His chest heaved more and more violently.
Boulder walked over from a distance.
His pace was not fast, but every step left a deep footprint in the seabed sand.
His vertical pupils stared at the kneeling Ethan, his mouth splitting into a grin that reached his ears.
“Two hours. I wondered how long you could hold out.”
He walked up to Ethan and looked down at the battered wizard.
“To be honest, I’m actually a bit reluctant to kill you now.” Boulder crouched down, his vertical pupils drawing close to Ethan’s bowed head. “You are the first First-Tier Wizard to last this long under my hands. Why don't you reconsider? Although I’ve lost my status, I still have some resources at hand.”
Ethan did not answer.
He kept his head down, a trace of blood hanging from his lip.
Boulder waited for a few seconds, but no response came.
He stood up, his right fist once again wrapped in aqua-blue energy.
“Then it’s over.”
His right fist smashed down toward the top of Ethan’s head.
At the very instant his knuckles were about to touch Ethan’s head, a wood thorn the thickness of a finger shot out from Ethan’s right hand.
The wood thorn was dark green, its surface flowing with a piercing emerald-green light.
The brightness of the light far surpassed any previous attack, dyeing several thousand meters of the surrounding seawater emerald-green.
The wood thorn tore through the seawater, the resulting sonic boom making the sandy seabed tremble.
It shot toward Boulder’s right shoulder.
A flash of disdain crossed Boulder’s vertical pupils.
He didn't even pull back his right fist; he simply lowered his stance slightly, preparing to take the wood thorn head-on with the scale armor on his shoulder.
The base defense of his scale armor exceeded eighty thousand degrees.
Combined with the three defensive Wizardry Tools he wore—a shield, armor plates, and inner armor—the triple-stacking effect brought his total defense to over one hundred and fifty thousand degrees.
A mere wood thorn couldn't even penetrate the surface aqua-blue light membrane, let alone pierce his scale armor.
The past two hours of combat had fully proven this point.
This wizard’s attacks posed no threat to him at all.
Then, in the next instant.
The wood thorn touched the shoulder scale armor.
Boulder’s vertical pupils suddenly contracted.
The wood thorn pierced the aqua-blue light membrane.
The wood thorn penetrated the scale armor.
The wood thorn buried itself into the flesh of his right shoulder.
The three defensive Wizardry Tools and the triple-stacked shields were rendered useless in that single moment.
The sensation of the wood thorn entering his flesh was extremely clear.
It was a wooden spike only as thick as a finger, its tip glinting with a dark green, toxic light.
The moment the thorn pierced his shoulder muscle, a searing, sharp pain spread from the wound to his four limbs and hundred bones.
Boulder looked down at the wood thorn in his shoulder. Incredulity surged in his vertical pupils.
It had been two hours.
Every attack from this wizard had been like a mere tickle.
The counterattacks of the Thorn Blood Armor couldn't pierce his scales, the Seed Bombs couldn't shatter his shields, and the Vine Entanglement couldn't even restrict his movements.
He had grown accustomed to this one-sided crushing, accustomed to watching this wizard flee in pathetic disarray under his attacks.
But now, a wood thorn was stuck in his shoulder.
How did this wood thorn get through his shields?
How did it pierce his scale armor?
Even a full-strength blow from a fellow Second-Tier lifeform shouldn't have been able to penetrate his triple-stacked defenses so easily.
Unless... this wizard’s previous attacks hadn't used his full strength at all.
He had been hiding his edge.
He had been hiding his edge from the very beginning.
A thought exploded in Boulder’s consciousness.
I’ve been played.
Rate on N.U.
