Jianyu was stumped.
Not in a hundred years would he have guessed that his opponent would suddenly become so much stronger, strong enough to defeat an Extolite so easily. And he had absolutely no idea how he had done that at all.
The change he saw in his enemy was vastly different than anything he had ever seen in his life.
He had judged him to be akin to Death earlier, but at this point he had no idea what he could even be. He was no beast and he was no human. And there wasn’t another word Jianyu knew to label him.
The current Alex to him was a complete unknown.
The moment Alex moved, he moved too. His whip snapped instantly, reaching for Alex at a terrifyingly quick speed. He made sure to have it be just out of reach, so that Alex couldn’t grab it again.
Alex swung his sword, sending out multiple sword slashes as distraction, but the man didn’t let any distract him. He moved with every step, staying away from Alex so that he was never caught.
Explosions filled the courtyard, houses crumbling all around them. The basic stray attacks from the two were enough to reduce most walls to rubble. The fights got so much worse that people had to begin moving out of the place.
Only the ones that wanted to see Alex’s death stayed behind, aiding the Extolite through their battle array.
Alex fought more and more frantically, the weird rhythm of his heart getting him more and more attuned to the battle. And still, he could never reach Jianyu. He managed to slip out of his grasp just moments before he got close enough.
Alex tried to think why that was, but the strain on his mind made it hard to think. Logical thought seemed to evade him at the moment, only bloody instincts taking hold of everything else.
As the battle between him and the Extolite went on, Alex finally realized what was wrong. He had somehow managed to completely ignore the many people that were on the sidelines.
The ones forming the battle array.
Before this, the battle array had been affecting two separate Extolites. But with the other one dead, the array was fully focused on a single Extolite, and thus he was managing to evade Alex completely.
The moment Alex’s head turned toward those group of people, Jianyu realized what was happening as well.
“Tianrun, if you’re still alive, you have to protect them.”
As Alex dashed toward the ground, Jianyu struck with his whip, but Alex easily evaded the attack, arriving before the many people. He raised his sword to attack, but something flew toward him like a meteor from the side.
Alex turned around just in time to see an old man with a spear strike him on the side of his chest.
Alex was blasted away, but not far enough. He spun through the air, landing close by. He swung his sword backward without looking and stopped the whip attack.
Then, he looked toward the old man who stood holding a spear, his chest bloody and caved in, blood flowing out of his mouth. This was the first Extolite Alex had defeated.
He only now realized that the old man hadn’t actually died.
Still, he was already on death’s door.
A grin formed on Alex’s face.
“Let me help you open your eyes and see the light on the other end of the tunnel.”
He stepped forward with an explosive force, his body propelling through the air as he arrived before the old man. The old man too fought back, but he was far too weak.
As Alex appeared next to him, he poured Qi into the sword and used the sword attack ingrained into the sword.
God Rending Death Blade
A thick black streak of light spilling out of the sword, right in front of the old man. Even as the old man’s spear stabbed, it was pushed back and destroyed by the sword slash, which continued until it hit the old man, cutting him in half.
The remainder of the attack disappeared when it reached outside of his sphere of influence.
Blood spilled out of the cut of the old man, the blood aura from it flowing back into Alex to help continue his transformation.
Alex turned toward the people in the array and rushed toward them to attack them, but Jianyu struck him with a whip right at that moment, throwing him away.
Alex landed some distance away, surprised that he had been struck. His focus had improved upon taking up the transformation, but in doing so, he was beginning to focus on a single thing instead of different things.
‘This damn thing…’ Alex thought. Perhaps because it was only half-done, it affected him more than he thought it would. The changes actually changed him.
But, he couldn’t get rid of it right now. Not when he was so close to victory. Without it, there was no chance for him to win, so he had to keep it for the time being.
Jianyu stared at Alex in fear. Just a few moments ago, he had split his head apart with a single whip strike, and now almost nothing happened to him at all.
‘Just how strong did he get?’ he wondered. He stood before the group of people, the ones that were helpless without him. Because their array was the thing that was making him far stronger than he actually was, he was helpless without them as well.
He had to protect them, and as a result, he had to stay behind.
Alex slowly stepped forward, each step taking him closer and closer toward the group. Each step also placed him in range of the whip.
His slow approach almost seemed to dare Jianyu into attacking him.
Jianyu kept a hold on himself for as long as he could, but as Alex approached, he knew he couldn’t hold on much longer.
So, with a flick of his wrist, he attacked.
And Alex charged at the same time.