Chapter 225: Extreme Resilience, Burning the Shell

(This chapter was originally intended to be quite lengthy, but I could not finish writing it before midnight, so I have split it into two parts; it is already eight thousand words, and I will be posting extra chapters both today and tomorrow.)

There was no intention to pause, and Wang Yu had no idea how long the effects of the Past-Armor-Shattering Potion would last. Once the Frenzied Blood Dual-Form was activated, the consumption rate of the potion began to skyrocket; he had to seize the moment and extend this window of catching his opponent off guard.

Crouching and sprinting, Wang Yu channeled his battle aura into his fist and charged toward the high-ranking formal knight who had been struck by his elbow. Every ounce of his strength was mobilized, aimed squarely at the knight’s face, delivering a punch that tore through the air with a sonic boom.

It was blindingly fast, devoid of any flashy techniques; he simply used the physical prowess provided by the potion to push his speed to a level that made evasion impossible.

As his gauntlet brushed the tip of the knight's nose, Wang Yu felt the feedback of physical contact, but in the next instant, his opponent’s figure vanished.

The high-ranking formal knight had triggered his inner-concealment, his form dissolving into shadow. He glided low across the ground, sliding beneath Wang Yu, and by the time he materialized again, he was already behind him, a pitch-black dagger slashing out toward Wang Yu’s flank.

"Boom!"

A gale erupted abruptly from the ground, forcibly lifting the knight—who had been sliding with his back to the earth—and thwarting his strike against Wang Yu.

Wang Yu had prepared for the possibility of missing this impossibly agile high-ranking formal knight the moment he realized the existence of the inner-concealment technique.

Within the second or two of their clash, several fireballs trailing brilliant tails of flame had been shaped in the sky above, raining down upon the scene.

The formal knight once again dissolved into shadow, dodging the earth-shaking stomp Wang Yu delivered as he spun around.

"Boom!"

The sheer force of Wang Yu’s violent stomp cracked the ground into a massive crater, the paving stones shattering into a spray of debris.

The blood-construct behind him suddenly extended a multitude of sanguine tentacles, snatching the flying shards of earth and stone and hurling them toward the fireballs hovering just above Wang Yu’s head.

The quick and precise throws, driven by the Blood-Fury Knight’s secret arts, saw each fireball struck simultaneously by several stone fragments, scattering them into a sky full of sparks.

When the remnants finally landed on Wang Yu, they merely singed the "scales" proliferating on his skin, turning them slightly black under the intense heat.

The battle between the three paused momentarily; the knight retreated to the mage’s side, while Wang Yu assumed a ready stance, staring them down in a tense standoff.

The mage’s hands shimmered with radiance as one buffing spell after another was cast upon the high-ranking formal knight: Breeze’s Blessing, Granite Shell, Scorching Might...

Wang Yu’s expression remained cold and stern, though he sighed inwardly. There was no helping it; this was what happened when a mage and a warrior fought in tandem, and he had no way to stop it. A high-ranking formal knight bolstered by over a dozen buffs was not going to be easy to handle.

"Boom!"

A hand hidden behind Wang Yu’s back suddenly lunged out, gripping the Furnace’s Wrath, its barrel already glowing red-hot.

He had timed it to catch the mage mid-cast, using the magical fluctuations to mask his own, allowing the Furnace’s Wrath to complete its charging sequence.

He pulled the trigger, and a searing beam of light tore through the air, aimed directly at the knight shielding the mage. At the same time, Wang Yu followed the shot, leaping off the street wall and charging toward the pair from above.

The knight’s form blurred, turning into shadow to easily evade the shot. Once he vanished, a wall of dark, polished stone instantly rose, blocking the path of the charged blast.

Obsidian Barrier—it looked like the mage’s earth magic, but it was actually spatial sorcery, pulling a pre-prepared, anti-magical obsidian wall from a spatial rift. The hidden wizard had finally made his move.

Fire and lightning bloomed simultaneously as the charged shot struck the Obsidian Barrier, the immense power shattering the not-so-thick stone wall to pieces.

However, the anti-magical properties of the obsidian prevented the splash damage of the shot from harming the mage, who was standing almost flush against the barrier. The mage had no intention of dodging; his astonishing combat awareness drove him to seize this perfect counter-attack opportunity.

Lightning crackled in his grasp: Third-tier spell, Giant Thunder Spear.

With a flash of electricity, the moment the charged shot broke the obsidian wall that had obscured his path to Wang Yu, the mage hurled the massive thunder spear, aiming straight at Wang Yu, who was clinging to the wall and charging toward him.

"Hoo..."

Taking a deep breath, Wang Yu channeled his battle aura into his hands in rhythm with his respiration, coating even his Void-Blade gauntlets in a layer of aura. Predicting the trajectory of the thunder spear based on the mage’s throwing motion, Wang Yu blocked the path of the incoming bolt with his right hand.

The blood-construct behind him lashed out with its sanguine limbs, pulling against the wall to provide a burst of momentum that sent Wang Yu’s speed skyrocketing. He seemed determined to take down the formal mage, refusing to dodge or weave, crashing headlong toward him and the thunder spear.

"Clang!"

The thunder spear struck Wang Yu’s right hand, colliding with his battle aura. The powerful current instantly pierced the defense he had created with his rather clumsy aura, and arcs of electricity danced across his entire body.

His skin charred, black smoke rising directly from his flesh, and the current surging into his body caused his internal organs to spasm. Yet, the man simply ate the Giant Thunder Spear head-on, his momentum never faltering.

The Past-Armor-Shattering Potion and his body’s self-healing capabilities were frantically neutralizing the effects of the current. After inflicting "severe" trauma, the powerful electric shock was drowned out by the surging blood, losing the tug-of-war against his constantly regenerating flesh.

The arcs of electricity on his skin vanished in a flash. As he fell from the air, crashing toward the mage, the char on Wang Yu’s skin began to fade, new skin pushing away the old, destroyed by the current, and growing in its place.

The mage was slightly taken aback; he hadn't expected Wang Yu to take the attack spell head-on without suffering critical damage. The split-second gap created by the act of throwing the spear allowed the high-speed Wang Yu to close the distance.

Communicating with the Weaver’s Grimoire through his mental power, scorching fire elements surged behind Wang Yu. With an explosion—Third-tier spell, Purgatory Fire Cannon—the powerful thrust turned Wang Yu’s form into a blur, charging straight at the mage.

As his feet touched the ground, he clapped his hands together, the fire elements gathered in his palms erupting from the center of his hands, aimed directly at the mage in front of him.

The scorching flames, accompanied by immense impact, shot out in the form of a thick beam toward the mage, who was now within arm’s reach. This powerful fire blast was enough to destroy the relatively fragile body of a mage.

"Void!"

A translucent magical barrier generated as a pendant on the mage’s chest burst, blocking the Purgatory Fire Cannon. The barrier shattered, but it bought the mage time to react.

His staff flashed with light, spatial fluctuations occurred, and the ground beneath Wang Yu’s feet began to vibrate.

The mage’s figure vanished in a flicker, while a first-tier spell he had just cast beneath Wang Yu’s feet caused the earth to writhe; a hand of soil and stone, though not particularly sturdy, grabbed Wang Yu’s ankle.

"Snap!"

Wang Yu lifted his foot; given his current immense physical prowess, the earthen hand was fragile and shattered instantly. But the purpose of the spell was merely to stall him, and it had succeeded.

Shadows flickered; it was the high-ranking formal knight again. Seizing the opportunity, he triggered his inner-concealment to pull his form to Wang Yu’s side, swinging his black dagger at Wang Yu’s neck.

The opponent’s shadow-like persistence was within Wang Yu’s expectations. The high-ranking formal knight, bolstered by buff spells, was absurdly fast; if not for the omnidirectional vision of his Ripple, Wang Yu would have barely been able to react.

The blood-construct’s arm behind him morphed violently, turning into a sharp blood-sword under the influence of Material Molding, stabbing out. At the same time, Wang Yu stomped the ground with all his might, executing an Iron Mountain Bash, using his shoulder as a battering ram to slam into his opponent.

The blade bit into Wang Yu’s neck, slicing deep, grinding against bone; his trachea and a portion of his cervical vertebrae were severed in a single strike.

A smile appeared on the formal knight’s face. With his spine damaged like this, Wang Yu...

"Bang!"

The side-impact, fueled by his entire body’s strength, slammed into the high-ranking formal knight without reservation. The immense force was more than even the buffed knight could withstand; his feet left the ground as he was sent flying by Wang Yu’s collision.

The blade thrust by the blood-construct behind him arrived simultaneously, piercing the knight’s chest just as he lost control of his body from the force of Wang Yu’s impact.

The blood forming the blade hardened and extended, struggling to erupt within the knight’s solid muscles, barely hooking onto a bone in his ribcage.

The blood-construct yanked its arm back, pulling the blood-sword—and the high-ranking formal knight, who had no leverage in mid-air—back toward him.

The agonizing pain from the full-body impact and the tearing sensation of the blade hooked into his ribcage left the high-ranking formal knight in indescribable shock. What on earth was this mid-ranking formal knight, Wang Yu? His spine was shattered, for heaven's sake!

His eyes narrowed. He didn't care what Wang Yu was; since Wang Yu was trying to pull him closer, he would teach this guy another lesson.

He extended his arm, grabbing the blood-rope connecting Wang Yu’s blood-construct to himself. Ignoring the pain throughout his body, the high-ranking formal knight pulled with all his might, closing the distance between himself and Wang Yu even faster.

His other hand gripped the black dagger, his eyes focused intently on the unprotected part of Wang Yu’s arm, which was pulled back and coiled to strike. He would seize the chance to cripple one of this guy’s hands!

"Bang!"

The fully charged fist exploded through the air as Wang Yu swung with all his might toward the high-ranking formal knight’s face. At this moment, the knight’s form had left the ground, and inner-concealment could not be triggered.

However, the punch, which would have been difficult for the high-ranking formal knight to see or dodge, became avoidable—and even exploitable—with the help of the buff spells covering his body.

Twisting his waist, the knight’s powerful core strength allowed him to change his posture in mid-air. Compared to Wang Yu, his decades of combat experience gave him the upper hand.

His body dropped slightly in height, causing Wang Yu’s punch to graze his scalp and miss. As he continued to close in on Wang Yu, the high-ranking formal knight swept out with his sharp black dagger.

Flesh tore. A massive gash appeared on Wang Yu’s arm, the part not protected by the gauntlet, and the tendons within were severed instantly.

"Good, crippled one of his hands!"

He felt a surge of certainty. Having successfully crippled one of Wang Yu’s hands, it would be easy to finish off this strange mid-ranking formal knight.

The blade in his hand continued along its trajectory, slicing through the blood-rope that was dragging him toward Wang Yu, freeing himself from the restraint.

"Careful!"

The mage’s telepathic warning made the knight realize something was wrong. Wang Yu’s arm, despite having its tendons severed, showed no sign of sluggishness; the limb, bearing a gaping wound that bled not a drop, accelerated and lunged toward him.

"Just like the spinal rupture before—what is this guy? Does injury mean nothing to him?"

The unexpected sight caused the knight to react a beat too late, and his charging form was seized by the gaps in his armor.

Having caught the official knight, Wang Yu immediately launched an assault. Pinning his opponent, who struggled to dodge, he smashed a powerful fist into the man’s chest.

"Damn it, let go!"

With a burst of battle aura, the high-ranking knight exerted his full strength, slamming his elbow into the hand Wang Yu had clamped onto his armor.

"Crack!"

Wang Yu’s arm bone snapped instantly, but the knight used the impact to break free, narrowly dodging the follow-up punch that hissed past his shoulder.

"Something's wrong!"

The knight’s pupils contracted as his peripheral vision caught a red-glowing object above his shoulder: the Furnace Fury alchemical revolver.

While the knight’s attention had been fixed on Wang Yu, the blood-construct behind him had tossed the device onto his back.

"Bang! Boom!"

Wang Yu’s full-force punch, having missed the knight, slammed directly into the Furnace Fury. The sheer power shattered the alchemical weapon, which had been of little use until now.

The internal energy core was destroyed, and a massive explosion erupted against the knight, blasting both him and Wang Yu away.

The mage’s expression turned grave. The power of the blast was staggering; had it landed squarely, the high-ranking knight would be in mortal danger.

"Cough, cough... this guy... is he insane? At that distance, he should be dead too."

Shadows flickered as the knight appeared beside the mage, though the blood he coughed up told the mage his condition was dire.

"Ugh, healing spell, quickly."

As the mage heard the pained plea, he saw a massive wound on the knight’s back, tearing flesh from shoulder to mid-spine. The charred bone beneath was exposed, and blood oozed from scorched vessels, dripping onto the ground.

Had he not stomped his feet into the earth at the last second, he might have been killed by an explosion equivalent to five charged shots of the Furnace Fury.

"That guy must be finished too. My healing spells can only suppress injuries at your level. Grab him and let's go; you need advanced treatment."

Green light washed over the knight’s horrific wound, but the effect was minimal, merely slowing the bleeding and forming a thin magical shield.

As the dust settled, the mage and knight looked to where Wang Yu had been. He was gone, leaving a gaping hole in the wall where he had been smashed.

"Giggle, giggle!"

The blood-construct crawled out from the gap between Wang Yu and the wall, dragging him free.

To the horror of the mage and knight, Wang Yu stood up as if nothing had happened. Despite wounds that reached the bone, he charged toward them once more.

"What is this guy made of!? He took your lightning strike, I shattered his cervical spine and cut his trachea, severed his right tendons, and then he took a direct explosion—how can he still move!?"

The knight stared in disbelief at Wang Yu, whose face was missing a large chunk of flesh, looking like a charred corpse. As one who also possessed a powerful physique, he found Wang Yu’s tenacity incomprehensible.

"His body is wrong. Sifla, find a way to weaken him, then drag him into your arcane domain!"

In truth, Wang Yu’s body was riddled with holes. His spine was shattered, and most of his internal nerves were destroyed; by all rights, he should be a vegetable.

His trachea was ruptured, making his breathing illogical.

His tendons were severed, meaning he should have been unable to control his arms.

But what drove this body was no longer merely "material."

Ripple energy surged through him, replacing severed nerves to transmit signals and acting as tendons to manipulate his limbs.

Blood filled the fissures of his body, plugging the hole in his trachea and preventing his organs from spilling out of his wounds.

In this extreme state, Wang Yu had forcibly pushed his Ripple energy to a new level.

Whenever vital parts were torn away, this essence—which carried everything Wang Yu was—filled the void.

His tattered frame was forcibly stabilized and driven by blood and Ripple.

Meanwhile, the "Old Armor-Breaker" potion provided a frenzy of healing energy and raw power. His visible rate of recovery made him look less like a human and more like a troll.

"Click!"

The arm bone broken by the knight was pulled back into alignment by the power of his blood, then rapidly fused by the potion’s healing, restoring it to near-functionality.

As he stepped forward, his body continued to mend, his movements transitioning from sluggish to swift, charging toward the pair under their watchful eyes.

"Help me stall him again. His healing is not human. Unless we solve that, we can't control an unkillable thing that threatens us."

The mage stared at the charging Wang Yu, constructing a spell. He had to weaken that regeneration before coordinating with the hidden wizard to finish him off.

"Fine... I can only hold him for a moment. Hurry."

The knight drew his dagger again, his expression grim.

It was hard to imagine a high-ranking knight speaking this way to a mid-ranking one, but given his injuries and Wang Yu’s potion-fueled strength, it was understandable.

Turning into a shadow, the knight rushed Wang Yu, not to attack, but to stall.

"!"

Just as the knight moved to force Wang Yu to change direction, he saw longswords formed of blood fly from the construct behind Wang Yu, soaring past him toward the mage.

"Swish, swish, swish..."

Gritting his teeth, the knight threw several daggers, shattering the blood-swords, but this distraction left him vulnerable.

Battle aura surged to his legs; Wang Yu kicked off the ground, turning into a blur. Before the knight could react, Wang Yu was upon him, dropping low for a sweep!

Agony flared in the knight’s leg. Caught off guard, Wang Yu’s feinted punch turned into a sweep, lifting the knight into the air and throwing him off balance.

"Can't give him a chance. Stall him and we win. Do or die!"

The knight’s willpower was terrifying. Unlike other enemies, these men were willing to fight to the death.

Ignoring the need to block Wang Yu’s follow-up kick to his stomach, the knight desperately grabbed Wang Yu’s waist. He would stop him; he would not let him reach the mage before the spell was complete.

"Bang!" The kick landed squarely in the knight’s abdomen, caving in his medium armor.

Organs shattered, bones broke, and unimaginable pain flooded his body. Blood sprayed from his mouth, yet he clung to Wang Yu’s waist, refusing to let go.

Another punch from Wang Yu smashed into the knight’s skull. A clear sound of bone fracturing echoed—the hardest bone in the human body had barely survived the blow; one more would kill him.

Regrettably, the potion could not help Wang Yu bridge the chasm between an official knight and a grand knight. His power was great, but he could not break that limit, and the knight’s intent was achieved.

Wang Yu could not land the killing blow. The knight, using his final shred of consciousness before the impact knocked him unconscious, activated his internal energy to dodge the second punch.

The mage used the time bought to complete his spell: Fourth-Circle, Corruption Fly Swarm.

"Bzzzzzz!"

A piercing sound of high-speed wing-beating erupted as a swarm of magical, blood-red flies surrounded Wang Yu.

As these flies, reeking of rot and decay, obscured his vision, a spatial rift tore open above Wang Yu’s head. A gray-white ray shot out, striking him and burrowing into his body.

The blood-construct exploded, attempting to disperse the magical flies with a mass of proliferating blood-limbs.

Yet, the moment they touched Wang Yu’s blood, the magical flies transformed, merging into the blood and burrowing through his wounds deep into his shell.

The assault launched by the sudden appearance of the wizard had only just begun; Wang Yu felt a blur before his eyes, followed by an irresistible, dragging force that instantly transported him elsewhere.

Total darkness, permeated by uncanny energies; void power had woven this pocket dimension, severed from the material world—the secret art of the formal wizard known as Sifla: the Cycle of Despair.

"Haa... haa..."

Gasping for air, Wang Yu sensed the turmoil within his own body and the encroaching erosion of this space, as a creeping sense of frailty began to take hold.

He had known that this hidden wizard was the most likely to drive him into a corner.

A swarm of corrupting flies raged within him, ravaging his muscles, bones, and blood, leaving his body to wither and rot.

The magic fed upon the destruction of his flesh, multiplying the swarm’s numbers and amplifying its strength with every passing second.

Under normal circumstances, the immense power granted by his past consumption of the Shattered Helm Potion, combined with the extraordinary vitality of his blood, would have allowed him to eradicate these flies with ease.

Yet, the fourth-tier spell he had been struck with—the Curse of Frailty—was relentlessly sapping his strength, rendering his muscles limp, his bones soft, and suppressing the vigor of his blood.

Even so, had he only been afflicted by that fourth-tier curse, Wang Yu’s monstrous vitality would have eventually allowed him to endure the ordeal, given even a moment’s respite.

But this space, the wizard’s secret art, was the true catalyst that had plunged him into this desperate plight.

Sifla stood in the corner of the void, watching Wang Yu kneel in the center of the expanse, a faint smile playing upon her lips.

This was the nature of a wizard: physically fragile, yet armed with bizarre and treacherous means. When even the combined efforts of high-ranking formal knights and mages had failed to subdue him, she had waited in the shadows, seizing the perfect moment to drive him to his doom.

Her secret art, this space known as the Cycle of Despair, would relentlessly erode any entity dragged into its depths.

The twisting power of the void created countless invisible, microscopic vortices within the enemy, hungrily devouring their battle aura and mana until, exhausted, the space began to consume the flesh itself.

She rarely pulled victims into this realm, for while its offensive capabilities were formidable, it also restricted her own movements.

As a cautious and vulnerable wizard, she loathed environments where she might be cornered with nowhere to flee.

But this time was different; battered and bruised, afflicted by both the Curse of Frailty and the corrupting swarm, this man named Wang Yu could not possibly possess any means to retaliate.

She only needed to watch as he was slowly devoured by the flies and the Cycle of Despair. After all, her orders were to retrieve him; if the body could not be salvaged, the soul would suffice to fulfill the mission.

Wang Yu’s body began to collapse, the triple-layered erosion proving too much even for his preposterous constitution.

His profound control over his own anatomy allowed him to feel the invaders growing within him, feeding on his essence and gaining strength, while he remained powerless to stop them.

The delicate balance he had managed to maintain was shattered; between the growth of the swarm and the intensifying pressure of the space, Wang Yu could no longer hold his ground.

His expression remained unchanged, even as this damned fellow stood on the precipice of death...

Perhaps, to him, death truly held no terror. At the very least, before the end, Wang Yu’s only focus was to calculate a way to break the deadlock; he had no time for useless thoughts.

A flicker of memory crossed his mind, recalling a power he had once dismissed as trivial.

He possessed no ability to target the entities within him, and his own immune system had already surrendered, but if it meant "destroying" everything—himself included—then that was something he could truly achieve!

In the dark expanse, a spark ignited, and Wang Yu was suddenly engulfed in flames.

The Fire of Curses, fueled by his own life force, burned with a searing, relentless heat.

Though it was said to burn one's life force, the truth was that it would consume anything within the body capable of catching fire—and that, naturally, included the very things that had invaded his flesh.

Let the flames purify all!