At the very instant that thought arose, the wood thorn in Boulder’s shoulder suddenly expanded.
It grew from the thickness of a finger to the thickness of an arm, then from an arm to a torso. The speed of the expansion exceeded the limits of vision; in less than a hundredth of a second, the finger-thin wood thorn transformed into a giant wood pillar over two meters in diameter.
The pillar shattered his scale armor, tore through his shields, and crushed the muscle and bone of his shoulder. Boulder’s entire right arm was forcibly ripped from his shoulder by the expanding wood, and deep blue blood surged from the jagged wound.
Then, the wooden pillar exploded.
Boom!
The light of the explosion dyed the entire sea emerald-green. The shockwave radiated outward from Boulder’s shoulder, sending his body flying like a kite with its string cut.
Boulder tumbled through the seawater for several thousand meters. The scale armor on his shoulder was completely shattered, revealing the deep blue skin and torn muscle beneath. Deep blue blood gushed from the wound, trailing a long blue wake through the water.
He smashed through the retaining wall at the edge of the plaza, tore through the coral forest behind it, and finally slammed into the mountainside of an undersea peak. A crater over fifty meters in diameter exploded into the mountain's surface, sending debris flying outward.
Ethan slowly rose from his kneeling position. He raised a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth.
The dark green lines on his face slowly receded under the glow of the emerald-green light, and his skin returned to its normal color. The wounds on his arms healed at a visible rate, and the shattered Thorn Blood Armor surged out from beneath his skin once more, weaving itself into a complete set of armor.
He raised his right hand, and World Eater appeared in his palm. The surrounding seawater began to boil. Element Affinity, unsealed.
The real battle had begun.
Boulder crawled out from the rubble, his right arm shattered and gone, and the cracks in his scale armor spread from his shoulder to his waist. Deep blue blood seeped from the depths of those cracks, forming fine threads in the seawater before being swept away by the currents.
The young horns on both sides of his forehead were still glowing, but the light was no longer steady, flickering like two wicks about to burn out. He didn't understand. How could he be in such a pathetic state?
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Ethan gave him no chance to speak. After all, this was a life-and-death struggle. Talk? Like hell he would!
Hundreds of seagrass vines shot out from the sand beneath Boulder’s feet, lashing out at him.
Roar!
A ring of aqua-blue light exploded around Boulder. Wherever the light passed, the majority of the incoming seagrass was shattered. However, before the shattered fibers could even drift away, new seagrass had already replaced them, three times as many as before.
Boulder pulled a fist-sized deep blue crystal sphere from his storage Wizardry Tool and crushed it with force. The sphere exploded, and a circular ice wall expanded outward with him at the center.
The ice wall spread with extreme speed, freezing the surrounding several hundred meters of sea in the blink of an eye. The dancing seagrass vines were frozen within the ice, the emerald-green light on their surfaces flickering before quickly going dark.
Ethan stood outside the ice wall and casually pointed a finger. A crack immediately appeared in the seemingly indestructible ice wall. The crack spread toward the main body of the wall, growing wider and denser as it went.
Countless seagrass roots as fine as hair sprouted from within the cracks, burrowing into the ice and growing frantically inside the frozen layer.
The madness in Boulder’s eyes grew more intense. In an instant, his body began to swell. His scales stood up one by one, and his muscles writhed violently beneath his skin.
His spine extended outward, and his tailbone pierced through his skin, swinging out into a thick tail behind him. The membrane at the end of the tail expanded rapidly, transforming into a massive vertical caudal fin.
His limbs curved and lengthened, his knuckles bulged, and his nails fell off to reveal curved claws beneath. Thick, tough webbing grew from the base of the claws, connecting the toes into broad, paddle-like surfaces.
His neck extended forward, and several gill slits opened on both sides, pulsing slightly with each heavy breath and filtering out fine bubbles. His jawbone cracked as his entire face protruded, his snout becoming wider and thicker. His mouth split wider and wider, revealing rows of interlocking, conical teeth.
The young horns on both sides of his forehead suddenly surged, growing from the length of a finger to half a meter. The horns were no longer spiral but branched out like deep-sea coral, their surfaces covered in a layer of uneven, dark keratin.
At the same time, a serrated dorsal fin burst through the skin of his neck, extending along his spine all the way to the base of his caudal fin. Amidst the aqua-blue light, a Sea Dragon appeared beneath the seagrass.
He was over eight hundred meters long. Deep blue scales covered his entire body, each one the size of a tabletop and glinting with a dark gold luster at the edges.
Three dragon claws stepped onto the sandy seabed, each claw the size of a carriage, with broad webbing between the toes and tips buried deep in the sand. The dragon's tail swung slowly behind him, each shift of the caudal fin churning up an undersea current.
The dragon's head reared high, his vertical pupils a pale gold, burning with something bordering on madness.
“Ethan Leo!” Boulder’s voice exploded from his dragon throat, making the surrounding seawater churn violently. “Die!”
The dragon's mouth opened, and an aqua-blue energy torrent surged toward Ethan.
The torrent was over fifty meters in diameter, displacing the seawater in its path to form a vacuum tunnel. Surrounding coral fragments were caught in the aftershock and ground into powder in mid-air.
Ethan stood on the seabed, watching the oncoming energy torrent. He raised his right hand, World Eater held firmly in his palm. The seagrass beneath his feet suddenly grew like crazy.
Hundreds of seagrass vines surged from the seabed, each as thick as a palace pillar. The seagrass no longer glowed with emerald-green light; instead, it took on a dark green color that looked almost metallic.
They wove together into a thick grass wall, standing before Ethan as a shield. The energy torrent slammed into the grass wall.
Boom!
A shockwave exploded from the point of impact, uprooting the entire sandy seabed for several thousand meters around. Coral fragments, rubble, and sand were swept into the air, forming a massive mushroom cloud in the deep sea.
The entire seabed trembled the moment the grass wall collided with the torrent. The shockwave tore up the sand for miles, and seagrass fragments mixed with energy fragments as they sprayed in all directions.
Boulder’s dragon tail swept out once more. His eight-hundred-meter-long body twisted in the water, the caudal fin tearing through the sea and creating a current that sent all the coral fragments within thousands of meters swirling into the heights.
The seagrass beneath Ethan’s feet pushed him to the side. The dragon tail brushed past him and slammed into the sandy seabed.
Boom!
A rift over a thousand meters long exploded into the sand. The sand at the edge of the rift was shaken into powder by the shockwave, churning into the seawater and turning the entire area murky.
Boulder’s first strike missed, and his dragon head snapped around. His vertical pupils locked onto Ethan’s position, and his dragon mouth opened once more.
An aqua-blue energy torrent erupted from deep within his throat. This torrent was even thicker than before, displacing the seawater to create another vacuum tunnel as it roared forward.
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