Boom!
Countless vines shot out from his palm, crawling up the monster's throat. They dug into the inner walls of the esophagus, tunneled through the gaps in the soft palate, and wound around both sides of the base of the tongue.
The vines proliferated wildly inside the monster's massive maw, binding the upper jaw, throttling the lower jaw, and looping over the muscles at the edges of the four-lobed mouth. They extended out from the corners of the mouth, weaving into a dense wooden net around the exterior of the monster's head.
All the vines tightened at the same instant.
The monster's four-lobed maw was forcibly cinched shut.
It let out a muffled roar, its massive body beginning to thrash violently.
Ethan rooted himself in place, vines burrowing from the soles of his feet into the base of the monster's tongue to anchor his body firmly.
Giant Wood Spikes shot from his palms. Stakes as thick as a man's waist drove into the monster's upper jaw, piercing through soft tissue and stabbing deep into its nasal cavity.
Pale green blood erupted from the wounds, drenching Ethan's Wood Armor and making a sizzling sound of corrosion.
More stakes shot from his palms, one after another, driving into the monster's upper jaw, the base of its tongue, and its throat.
The monster rolled frantically in agony, its massive body slamming into the ground and creating crater after crater. Soil and debris sprayed in all directions.
The surrounding trees were swept away by its tail, thick trunks snapping in half and canopies crashing to the ground.
Inside the monster's mouth, Ethan unleashed a continuous barrage of attacks.
Seed Bombs flicked from his fingertips, landing at the junction of the tongue and the soft palate.
Emerald light exploded within the monster's mouth. Wooden shards shot out in every direction, embedding themselves into the tongue, the throat, and deep into the nasal cavity.
The monster let out a deafening roar.
It burst completely out of the ground, exposing its massive form to the sunlight.
Its dark brown skin was covered in slime, shimmering with a greasy luster under the sun. Its body was a good forty to fifty meters long and as thick as a thousand-year-old tree.
It writhed manically, its tail lashing the ground, each strike gouging out fissures over ten meters long.
But it was useless.
Ethan was inside its mouth, and the vines had already locked its four-lobed maw completely shut.
The monster could neither bite down nor spit him out.
Its teeth were entangled in vines, its tongue was pinned by wooden stakes, and its throat was choked with broken shards and vine debris. Ethan maintained his output.
Giant Wood Spike, Seed Bomb, Thousand Leaf Daggers—all attacks poured in one direction.
The wooden stakes drove deeper and deeper, passing through layers of soft tissue.
The muscles deep in the monster's throat spasmed violently, attempting to swallow Ethan along with the stakes.
The vines tightened again, securing Ethan firmly at the base of the tongue to ensure he wouldn't be swallowed.
Another wave of flying leaves shot out, slicing through the soft tissue deep in the throat.
Pale green blood gushed from the wounds, drenching Ethan.
His Wood Armor was already pitted and scarred by corrosion, but he continuously layered on new protection.
Another Seed Bomb detonated, driving wooden shards into even deeper tissues.
The monster's entire body convulsed. Its struggle grew more violent as its fifty-meter body thrashed across the earth, crushing everything within a radius of hundreds of meters.
Trees were uprooted, rocks were ground to powder, and the soil was overturned layer by layer.
Yet its mouth remained shut. It couldn't bite, and it couldn't escape.
Meanwhile, all around this monster, thousands of similarly massive dark brown forms burst from the earth at different locations.
Thousands of monsters surged from the ground, their dark brown bodies spreading out as they swallowed large swaths of the Wizard world's cannon fodder legions.
A thunderous cheer erupted from the Amons' battle lines.
A strongman standing three and a half meters tall raised his battle-axe, a fanatical light shimmering in his amber eyes.
Standing atop the back of a four-legged magical beast, he pointed his axe toward the front of the battlefield and let out a guttural roar.
"The Holy Beasts have arrived! Kill all these outsiders!"
"Kill!"
Battle cries exploded from the Amons' lines, spreading in all directions like rolling thunder.
The Amons warriors, who had been suppressed and pushed back by the Official Wizards, launched a frantic counter-charge.
They charged forward over the corpses of their comrades, their axes, spears, and hunting bows reflecting the cold sunlight.
Priests stood atop the bastions, short staffs pointing forward, as beams of emerald light continuously shot into the Wizard world's ranks.
One monster burst from the ground, its four-lobed maw opening wide to swallow a First-Tier Wizard who was in the middle of casting, along with a dozen slaves around him.
Another monster rammed into a catapult from the side, its dark brown tail slamming into the Wizard world's position and flattening dozens of slaves into meat paste.
War Fortress Command.
On the battlefield map upon the dome, the green sections were pushing back aggressively.
After those giant symbols representing the Amons' Holy Beasts emerged from underground, the Wizard world's front lines were torn open in over a dozen places within mere seconds.
Thousand Eyes stood before the circular console, his gaze sweeping over the battlefield map, his face expressionless.
"Heh, they're finally out."
"Looking at this, they probably believed we hadn't noticed them from the very beginning."
"Those fools actually thought they could wait even longer. Hiding underground for so long, they likely thought they were quite well-hidden."
"Lord Thousand Eyes, shall we proceed to the next step?"
Thousand Eyes shook his head.
"No rush. Let them be happy for a minute. In one minute, execute according to the pre-arranged plan. Lord Jade Shadow has been raising those Energy-Eating Insects for so long; it's time for them to feed."
A few low chuckles echoed in the hall.
"If it weren't for Lord Jade Shadow's specific instructions, I really wouldn't want to do this. It'll lower my rating with the Council to some extent."
The laughter in the hall grew louder.
Time passed second by second.
"One minute is up. Release the Energy-Eating Insects."
At that same moment.
On the battlefield, Ethan finally blasted a hole through the Holy Beast's skull and crawled out from the bone fragments, his body covered in pale green slime.
【Life Energy +447,761. Current Life Energy: 794,206.】
He collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air.
Slime slid off the surface of his Wood Armor, pooling into a small puddle at his feet.
The massive dark brown body behind him crashed down, its four-lobed maw hanging open limply, its dark green teeth still twitching slightly.
"Damn, I almost suffocated. Unlock passive."
【Consume 524,288 Life Energy to unlock the 20th passive?】
"Confirm."
【Energy deducted: 524,288 points. Current energy: 269,918 points.】
【Generating passive...】
【Generation complete. Obtained passive: Potential Burst.】
【Potential Burst: Upon taking any damage, all attributes increase by 1%–5000% for 10 seconds.】
Ethan's pupils constricted slightly.
All attributes.
What did "all attributes" mean?
Vitality, defense, attack power, speed, reaction time—everything that could be called an "attribute" would be multiplied.
Up to fifty times.
Combined with the low-health damage boost of Blood Fury, the damage threshold of Immortal Resilience, and the per-second health regeneration of Goddess of Life's Favor.
This combination of passives was no longer a simple matter of one plus one plus one.
Thinking of this, Ethan punched himself directly in the chest.
【Potential Burst activated. All attributes increased by 2,333% for 10 seconds.】
Rate on N.U.
